Do Something Good

It won't hurt a bit. While it's always a good idea to buy the least environmentally damaging vehicle, the specter of long term higher gasoline prices gives you an additional incentive to buy a fuel efficient automobile.

Here are the top ten as compiled by the EPA for city driving.

                            City/Hwy  

Honda Insight               60/66 mpg  

Toyota Prius                60/51 mpg  

Honda Civic Hybrid          48/47 mpg  

VW New Beetle TDI           38/46 mpg  

Volkswagen Golf TDI         38/46 mpg  

Volkswagen Jetta TDI        38/46 mpg  

Volkswagen Jetta Wagon TDI  36/47 mpg  

Toyota ECHO                 35/43 mpg  

Toyota Corolla              32/40 mpg  

Scion xA                    32/38 mpg

No, they are not exciting.

I can't be the only one to notice a total lack of U.S. branded autos on this list. Disturbing, no?

An easy Corporate Average Fuel Economy(CAFE) primer.

The commonly cited reasons against raising CAFE standards would be humorous - if they weren't so scary - and are such an obvious ploy by U.S. automakers to attempt to maintain the status quo regarding average fuel economy. Here are the condensed arguements:

Critics maintain that, increasing CAFE standards would actually have a reverse effect in terms of the environment. They argue that once people begin paying less and less for gasoline as their vehicles get more efficient, they are more likely to spend more time driving. Opponents cite fears of the safety implications of downsizing vehicles, claiming that raising CAFE would lead to more unnecessary on-road deaths per year.

This is pure bs. There are no rules of physics that equate smaller vehicles with higher rates of death. In fact, cars are much smaller today than they were in the '50s, '60s, '70s..And death rates are down substantially.

On the other hand, those high-domes at the National Academy of Sciences(NAS) think higher CAFE standards are a good idea, but what do those scientists know? *sarcasm*

The best counter arguement is that if we continue to burn hydrocarbons at an ever-increasing rate, it now seems likely we'll hasten the demise of civilzation - yes, civilzation. Habitable planets are hard to find.

Full pbs disclosure: My finely tuned '92 Toyota Tercel gets no less than a combined 37MPG.

If you're in the market for an new automobile, keep the environment in mind. It's amongst the most important decisions you'll ever make.

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Beheading is bad. Can we please stop this heinous act?