Green Brain: Most of the time when I travel, I'm only driving short distances with myself and a couple of bags. I only need an economy-sized car. Even if they were comparably priced, why would I want a bigger car that would end up costing me more in gas? And more gas means more carbon emissions.
Man Brain: Allow me to spell it out for you: Bigger is better. Everyone knows that. It's the American way. Extra value meals. McMansions. SUVs. Are you anti-American? And why rent an economy car when you could get a midsize car for just $5 more? That's a much better value. Who cares if you actually need a bigger car or not? You buy laundry detergent when it's two-for-one at the grocery store even though it takes you 6 months to use a box of detergent. So why would you suddenly pass on a bargain here? You can't. You won't!
On a trip to Massachusetts earlier this summer, they offered me a free upgrade to an SUV at the rental counter. Man Brain said, "You never get to drive an SUV! It'll be fun! Plus, you'll have plenty of room to tote around various relatives on trips to the beach and such." Before Green Brain could get a word in edgewise, I'd taken the SUV. Soon enough, I regretted it, having to spent something like $50 to gas it up in less than a week of driving.
So on a trip to New Hampshire this week, I stuck with the economy car. It only had to get me from Manchester to Concord and back, so why did I need anything bigger? When I filled up the tank before returning it, I only had to put in 1.8 gallons of gas.
For those of you traveling out west, check out EV Rental, which offers hybrid rentals at several airports in California and Arizona. A few traditional rental companies like Avis are also slowly starting to add hybrids to their fleet.
The best way to drive change (no pun intended) in this case is with your wallet. If you're renting a car, ask for a hybrid. If they don't offer hybrids, ask why not. Hybrids cut down on the use of foreign oil, promoting America's energy independence. Isn't THAT more American than a gas-guzzling SUV?
2 comments:
I have many friends with the hybrid Prius, but its cost is well over $22,000 and its still relatively low gas mileage deters me from considering it. Guilt free environmentalism, but is it truly the best option?
The Prius is now rated by EPA at 44 miles per gallon. A domestic Ford Focus manual gets 32 mpg, and is cheaper by probably $8,000. If you factor in the carbon used to make and transport the Prius the 5,000 miles from Japan to here, how much carbon does one save over the Focus?
There are many small cars that get +33 mpg, and if you keep your speed down to 60-65 mph, your gas mileage will rise to the upper 30s.
If every driver decided to drive say 10% fewer miles, kept the air pressure up in the tires, and kept speeds down and avoided jack rabbit starts, you could save 25% or so of your annual current gas consumption.
If our country truly wanted to reduce carbon burning, we would lower the highway speed limit back to 60 or 55 mpg.
44 mpg is a 37% increase in fuel economy over 32 mpg. If you assume the average driver goes 12,000 miles a year, the Prius is going to save you about 100 gallons of gas a year. Over a 10-year life of the car, not only is that going to save you about $3,000 in gas money (and it's a big risk to assume gas prices will stay at only $3), but it will keep 20,000 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.
These debates seem like chump chage compared to the quamtum leap that will come when plug-in hybrids hit the open market. Considering my drive to work is less than 20 miles, if I had one, I wouldn't have to gas it up at all except for road trips.
Cargo ships are much less fuel intensive than other modes of transportation. Considering hundreds of other cars share the same ship, shipping the car here represents a fraction of the emissions the car itself will emit in its first year alone on the road.
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