2nd May 2006, 09:00

True, but you have to admit a car that gets upwards of 60 mpg is a heck of a lot better for mother earth than an SUV that gets 10 mpg.

At the VERY least if everyone drove cars with Insight-like mileage we wouldn't be relying on terrorist-sponsored oil.

30th May 2006, 00:04

We as consumers have less of an impact on the environment with our gas burning cars than people think. Just think of Buses (3 MPG), delivery vans (10 MPG), Semi trucks (5-6 MPG), Jets (Who knows?), Plastic manufacturing, etc. etc. I'm starting to think that the 90K I've put on my 50 MPG Civic has no effect on saving the environment. A semi burns more gas in a month than my car does in 3 years. We should destroy all trucking companies!! JK.

17th Aug 2006, 15:25

While it's true that we should get off our dependence on foreign oil, there is one problem with these new "environmentally friendly vehicles". They're SOO UGLY!!! When I see that Honda Insight, it makes me want to barf! Whoever came up with that body design needs to be slapped about fifty times! If they want Americans to buy these hybrids, they need to make them look like regular cars people want to drive (Although they are on the right track with the hybrid Ford Escape, Toyota Camry and Highlander.) It's like the Prius, besides the Pinto, it is about the ugliest car ever! We need more flexible fuel vehicles such as the late model Chevy Suburban and Avalanche that can run off ethanol. Hopefully in the next few years more hybrid vehicles will come out that are regular, mainstream cars, and I'm still not convinced that they won't have future reliability problems with the batteries. But until then, I'll just stick with my gas-powered SUV.

13th Feb 2007, 19:09

While it's true a truck gets 10 MPG, the fact is there are 1000 cars for every truck on the road - that's an easy computation. The entire transport industry of the world (buses, trucks, diesel trains, planes, ships and so on) are responsible for 5% of the polluting emissions in the entire world. Manufacture, energy and other industries are responsible for another few % of the global gas emissions. Hard to accept, but OUR cars are responsible for most of the damaging gas emissions in the entire world.

14th Feb 2007, 09:38

And don't forget that SUVs and similar vehicles pollute FOUR times as much as a regular car and MUCH more than that when you start talking about hybrids.

Someday Americans will care about the environment.

26th Jul 2008, 16:42

I know it's an old post, but I have to take issue with the guy who wants to destroy all trucking companies. Semis only getting 5-6 mpg? Only in America.. a driver here in the UK who could only achieve that would get sacked in no time. These days they need at least 9-10.

However, that's pretty much irrelevant. The point is, if you want to continue to live your life as you are now, buying cheap imported goods, food/cars/manufactured products that aren't produced on your doorstep, then you, along with the rest of us, are creating the demand for trucks to be there in the first place. Do you think anybody would drive a 60+ foot long truck that only gets 5-6 mpg for fun? Don't worry, when the oil runs out, trucks along with every other vehicle will be off the road... but the trucks will be the last to park up.

27th Feb 2017, 23:03

So buy used! Purchasing any used car, instead of having materials for a new hybrid dug out of the earth, is better for the environment.

This was especially true for the Insight (and Prius, IIRC), which was assembled in Japan and shipped to US. People complain about truck fuel usage; how about freighters?