TheGreenMilesMobile Handles Beltway Better Than $48,720 DoucheMobile

I was driving home on the Beltway recently in my still-spry 1999 Saturn SL2 with 128,000 miles on it, pleasantly surprised TheGreenMilesMobile remains fun to drive after all these fuel-efficient years, when I noticed a low-riding pickup truck lumber past me with brake lights flashing constantly. It was a Ford F-150 Harley-Davidson edition and the heavy highway-hugger and its overmatched driver couldn't even successfully execute a lurching lane change without repeatedly tapping the brakes.

First, let me make clear I'm not bashing Harleys or the Ford F-150 series here. Harleys get fantastic gas mileage. Ford's base F-150 XL model is an excellent made-in-America truck that gets 17 miles per gallon city and 23 mpg highway, not far from some of the best-mileage pickups like the Chevrolet Silverado Hybrid's 20 city/23 highway.

But the two brands have combined into a gas-guzzling, hideously expensive Frankenstein monster. The Harley-Davidson edition starts at a ridiculous $48,720 and gets a putrid 13 miles per gallon city and 18 mpg highway. So not only does the Harley model get 25 percent worse gas mileage than the base XL model, but you could buy two F-150 XLs for the price of one F-150 Harley - with $4,000 leftover for gas money.

And that's before we talk about what it looks like. I'll leave that to Car & Driver:

If the décor is in fact your style, though, your taste might be a little, shall we say, questionable. Example: There is glitter on the center console. To paraphrase everybody’s favorite park-bench prophet, that’s all we have to say about that.

Not just expensive and planet-killing, but ugly too ... but hey, I'm sure people will think you're just as cool as actual Harley riders.

Coming Soon: Best. Cars. Ever.

Like most treehuggers, The Green Miles acts insufferably indifferent when it comes to cars. TheGreenMilesMobile is now in its 12th year of getting great gas mileage & with 124,000 miles on it, the next time it needs a costly repair I'll probably just sell it to scientific experiment.

But recently I needed a car for my drive to Danville to campaign for Rep. Tom Perriello & ended up with a new Ford Focus from the rental agency down the street. Much as I like to maintain my veneer of vehicular insouciance ... it was a flippin' sweet ride. Fun to drive AND incredible gas mileage.

And now it's poised to get even better. Next year, an electric Ford Focus that gets 100 miles to the charge will be available, ideal for DC drivers like me who make almost all of our trips within 25 miles. Ford is also literally stuffing it with greenness:

Ford vehicles continue to become more eco-friendly through the creative use of renewable and recycled materials. For instance, one of the clothing materials used in the next-generation Focus is post-consumer cotton that comes from recycled blue jeans.

"The good news is these jeans didn’t end up in a landfill, nor did we use the water, fertilizer and land to grow virgin cotton," Majeske said. "It’s an alternative that our customers can appreciate, it’s cost effective, and it’s better for our planet. These are the kinds of sustainable solutions we are looking for in all our vehicles."

Here's a look at that recycled blue jean material:

The electric Ford Focus is part of a new wave of cars designed to save you money at the gas pump (or eliminate your need for oil altogether):

• The first editions of the plug-in hybrid electric Chevy Volt are expected to hit DC dealerships this week
• The Nissan Leaf hits the streets this week with the first customers receiving their new cars out on the West Coast
• The electric Ford Focus will be available next year in both DC & Richmond

I'm still planning to stick to a car-free diet once TheGreenMilesMobile has run down the curtain & joined the choir invisible. But if I do find myself needing new wheels, it's awfully nice to know that automakers are listening to our demand for greener cars.

Maybe The Most Annoying Thing About SUV Drivers

OK, so there are plenty of things that are most annoying about SUVs & their drivers.

You could be annoyed that their vehicles use almost twice as much fuel as everyone else's. That drives up gas prices, weakens our economy by sending $1 billion dollars a day to other countries to buy their oil, hurts our national security by boosting the economies of countries like Iran, and pollutes our air and water.

You could be annoyed they've wasted their money on vehicles that are big and bad and a terrible value. Markups on SUVs are massive and profits are huge. You're much better off getting a smaller car that's much more controllable in an emergency situation, much less likely to roll over, and much less likely to maim or kill the driver of the other vehicle.

Lately, I've been most annoyed by another factor. These people dumped a massive chunk of their annual salary on way more vehicle than they'll ever need, providing hundreds of horsepower to putter to the grocery store & to soccer practice. And yet when they're making a right turn into a shopping center, they practically come to a full stop as they gently crawl up the driveway. Come on, Canyonero, you can handle that six-inch mountain:

I have my old '99 Saturn with 121,000 miles on it that gets 35mpg highway, driving it on short trips around town about once a week. It could go at any moment anyway, so might as well squeeze every last drop out of the ol' shocks, right? I don't take any driveway slower than 45 miles an hour.

Another Reason to Ditch the Car

As I detailed over at the Fresh AIRE blog, I'm getting ready to sell my car. It's a long process due to some paperwork issues. New motivation to get rid of it? The fact that isn't been so cold in DC in February, it snowed on Tuesday, and my car still looked like this four days later when I took the picture Saturday morning. A few hacks with my snow brush got it cleared.

Of course, then it snowed again on Sunday. Anyone want a Saturn?