This article makes the fun argument that it's actually greener to have a cool car that you barely drive, than a frumpy one you drive all over the place. He advocates ditching the Toyota Camry, taking bikes or public transportation for your daily grind, and taking a Sunday drive in a really fun car, like a classic Porsche. The greener argument is actually for NO car, but if you have to get your driving kicks, you could argue it's better to do it just once a week in something groovy.
Classic Porsche Greener than Prius?
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Mary Wisniewski
Mary Wisniewski is the transportation reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times. She has been a reporter in Chicago for 20 years, and a CTA rider for even longer. Call her at (312) 321-2892 or e-mail her.
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It's very true. And it's even worse than that. The British television show demonstrated that when driving hard around a track, a Prius gets worse gas mileage than a BMW M3 (a luxury sport car).
Ultimately what this tells you is that HOW you drive is FAR, FAR more important than WHAT you drive. In fact, if you only drive lightly - say 6,000 miles a year - and your car gets over about 10 miles per gallon it's better to just keep that car until it completely fails than it is to buy a brand new vehicle. In fact, just accellerating more gently and avoiding unnecessary braking will save quite a lot of fuel over the life of any car - no batteries required.
I really enjoy driving BMWs, but I drive them less than 200 miles a year - I just rent one occasionally through ZipCar and the rest of the time I walk or take public transit. Your carbon footprint gets really small when you start walking most places.