Massholes in hybrids

Five Boston Globe reporters compete in 'Mileage-athon'

Posted by Sara Barz at 3:32 PM on 27 Jun 2008

Read more about: green living | cars | hybrids | brilliance | video

Highest mpg wins:

(Thank you, Ann!)

For story: Massholes in hybrids
8 Comments | Post a Comment

Gooseberry: He used to ride that ....aveo?

http://www.dailypress.com/business/dp-biz_carvalues_0627j ...

Hybrids may be tops when it comes to saving gas, but they're far from the best choice for budget-conscious car buyers, a new study says.
The four-door hatchback Chevy Aveo from General Motors Corp. leads the ranking of the best new car values based on "total ownership cost" as calculated by Edmunds.com, the Santa Monica, Calif.-based automotive data firm. Based on $5-a-gallon gas, the highest-ranked hybrid was the Honda Civic at No. 10. The Toyota Prius hybrid -- No. 1 in the government's fuel economy rankings -- came in 26th.

Sad...very sad...making working class people pony up for costly Pruises...

by jabailo at 11:32 PM on 27 Jun 2008

What a heart stopping finish!

I've been to the Indy 500 a few times and it has nothing on this exciting piece of race footage! :/

In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

by biodiversivist at 3:42 PM on 28 Jun 2008

class warfare!

That brief stop at the Hummer dealership is worth the price of admission. That guy with the hand was NOT a paid actor: he is frantically fearful for his livelihood.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 9:54 AM on 29 Jun 2008

I beat their mileage every day

How pathetic. You're posting a car commercial on an environmental site. Although CARcinogens are not named for steel wheelchairs, they should be. And, how many years does it take to pay down the carbon footprint of creating a Prius? Five to ten, depending on circumstances.

We either end the era of the car, or it ends the era of humanity.

by human power at 11:26 PM on 29 Jun 2008

I still hate my car.

Perhaps if I could afford a Prius, I'd hate it slightly less, but I still hate my car. I hate it quietly; no shouting or kicking. It's a passive loathing.

Why do I hate my car?

I hate it because it ties me down. It makes me work to pay for it and maintain it. It forces me to deal with the mindless drones at the DMV and get raked over the coals once a year by the govt. for the priviledge of owning it.
I hate it because I'm not a mechanical person and any repair more complicated than a tire or oil change must be done by someone else that I have to trust not to rip me off.
I hate it because it is another box for me to spend my free time in and while the CD player is pretty cool, it's not that cool.

So I'm with hp on this one. I have started to think that the personal automobile might be a technology that we can do without. It's a fun toy, but we can be smarter. Since I've started hating my car and using my bike, there's a lot less of me to haul around, but my car still gets the same mpg. Maybe it hates me too?

by BlackBear at 3:21 AM on 30 Jun 2008

The car needs to be replaced

By another SIMILAR form of transportation that does not rely on a burned fuel.

That we haven't figured out how to do that yet doesn't mean it can't be done. Electric cars, for example, deriving power from a nuclear power station, would be one solution. I am sure there are others.

There is, of course, another agenda at work here. A big part of the environmental movement wants an end to modernization. It wants humans to return to being hunter-gatherers. You see it a lot, right here on these very pages. If cars could be produced with no carbon footprint and could run on an inexhaustible and cheap source of clean energy, large numbers of the environmental movement would still oppose them.

Victory in Pattani

by MAD MAC at 4:11 AM on 30 Jun 2008
[ Parent ]

A car too far...

I think that's too big a leap for me to make, Mad Mac. There are a few posters on these pages that do have a utopian view of hunting and gathering, but I take issue with a blanket statement like that.

Having said that, I do wish to see an end to modernity;at least as long as we move into post-modernity. I think that we need to be more clever and more adult about our technologies as we move forward from here.

A sustainable ICE substitute would be a fabulous invention and I would like to have 3, please! Ditto for fibers, foods, and energy!

As we move forward as a society, we will have to make choices similar to ones we made as a child. Action figures were great toys, but I set them aside when I outgrew them. It would be amazing if I could keep every toy I ever owned, but sadly this is not possible. I think the same has to be said for the ICE automobile and some other technologies.

by BlackBear at 8:45 AM on 30 Jun 2008

Good posts, BlackBear

In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

by biodiversivist at 9:50 PM on 30 Jun 2008

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