Choosing an Environmentally Friendly Car
There is a lot of hype these days over green cars and which car is best for our environment.
When looking into replacing your current vehicle you will taking many things into consideration. Looks, styling, reliability, gas mileage, safety, etc.
It is arrogant to say that we should all be driving one type of car or another. It is easy to say that SUVs and pickups are gas hogs and no one should own them, but the fact is, we don't all live in the city or in the suburbs. Many people still live in the country or in mountainous areas where four wheel drives or vehicles that can haul trailers are a necessity.
Granted if you live in the country and not on a farm or ranch you probably don't need a Ford Expedition or another beast of that size. A Ford Escape, Explorer, Subaru Outback or other smaller sized vehicles might be all you need. The real choice in choosing green is to not pick a vehicle that is larger than you really need. And you can choose new hybrid vehicles that fit the bill.
Remember when choosing "green" vehicles that your main reason is for the environment because at this time they generally cost more than the standard gasoline versions and you probably will not recover the cost difference in gas savings before you sell the car.
Hybrids
Everyone these days has heard of the hybrid cars such as the Toyota Prius. These vehicles run on electricity and gasoline, using electricity at speeds up to 25mph. The cars cost considerably more than gasoline versions of the same vehicle and it is doubtful that you will ever recover the cost in gas savings but these cars are much cleaner vehicles to operate. The real value of these cars is in urban settings as they will generally use the gasoline engine in highway driving.
Diesel
Believe it or not diesel vehicles are generally a greener product than gasoline engines. This is because they are about twenty percent more efficient in fuel savings and they emit almost no carbon monoxide.
Natural Gas
Natural gas vehicles are one of the cleanest options out there. The only problem is that there are very few gas stations that offer natural gas and there are not many vehicles available.
Flexible Fuel Vehicles
These are the cars that use E85 or ethanol. Burning ethanol does not create particulate matter but it does contribute to the ozone increasing smog. Flex fuel cars also get less gas mileage than regular gasoline engines. We do not recommend these vehicles personally because they use corn, a food source as energy. This drives up the cost of all food products related to corn.
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