While we're paying attention to the bottom line...

It occurs to me that our stock Vanagons, even in the best condition, are
probably pretty filthy cars from an emissions standpoint (and we won't
mention the fact that some of us spew small amounts of coolant everywhere).

All that being said, the Vanagons are already built, and I'm going to
propose that the environmental damage caused by the actual fabrication of
new cars might cause more environmental damage that continuing to drive
around our old ones. And what about what goes into a hybrid?  The parts for
the electric motor and batteries...  how much of all this is recyclable?

I'm sure all of what I have to say is perfectly debatable--the new cars of
today will be the old cars of tomorrow, of course.  I also can't help but
find it a bit humourous that consumers will spend up to $2000 more for a
diesel model VW so they can save a couple of hundred dollars a year at the
pump.  This with the full knowledge that we're not totally sure what the
negative environmental effects of diesel's particulate matter spewing into
the atmosphere.

My solution... drive less.  Bike and walk more.  The added benefit of that
strategy is that it has preserved the life of my Vanagon  :-)

Donald Baxter
'85 Vanagon GL
Iowa City

----- Original Message -----
From: "Kim Brennan" <kimbrennan@MAC.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Monday, February 16, 2004 12:14 AM
Subject: "green" cars (NVC)

> Okay, so news.google.com referenced an article on "green" vehicles and
> which were the best and which were the worst. According to these folks
> (not google, that was just how I found it) www.greenercars.com, the VW
> Touareg V10 TDI, was the worst "green" car. even though it has better
> fuel economy (17 city, 23 hwy) than a LOT of other vehicles.
>
> So I obviously don't understand what they mean by a "green" car, since
> fuel economy isn't a major contender in the evaluation.
>
> Bah. This just looks like multi-cylinder bashing without paying
> attention to the bottom line.
>
> PS. The Touareg scored a "9", while several Large vans (with lesser
> fuel economy but lesser cylinders) scored a 20 or more. The scoring is
> out of 100.