What's the Most Polluting Car?

"That's kind of like trying to lose weight by eating a ho-ho instead of a ding-dong."

LMAO!

I see that the German cars are big polluters. Somebody on this site said how advanced the Germans were on the fight against global warming. The poster must have been Herr Goebbels.

I have always hated SUVs, and trucks as well, just because a person in a car can't see around them, and when they're behind you, that extra height put their headlights--which always seem to be unusually bright--right into your review mirror and into one's eyes. They take up parking spaces, so that it's impossible for even a small car to park in between two big trucks or SUVs, or combination of SUV and truck. I've always especially despised those F-250s...I think those are the ones, but there's probably another car that makes a similar type truck--you know, those trucks that look like just another truck, in the back sides, by the wheels, has been cut and just welded onto the side of this already enormous vehicle?
And what is the purpose of
that, asides from completely
blocking any view around the
truck, even a mile back?!!
But I've never held it against those that truly
needed such a vehicle, because
of where they lived, or because they had 6 children (although I tend to frown on that, too--unless you're adopting them. I'm sorry, but there are already too many people in the world...If we were responsible, we would stick to a max of 3 children).
But I've always despised
the little yuppies and burgeosie masses that bought
these extremely irritating
machines because they thought
they were "cool," you know--
the soccor mom/cubicle guy
thing to do. And even as sad as it is that we ignored the 30 year warning we got when
oil production peaked in the
1970s, and a handful of elites
decided to get obscenely rich
off of what they knew would eventually lead to a very short supply of oil, high prices, and eventually the end of oil... with no
real alternatives available,(because oil companies had
always supressed auto-makers from making cars that were too
energy efficient, as well as
buying up and then surpressing
devices and such that might
lead to greater fuel efficiency, or, worse yet, an alternative to oil! (besides
other fossil fuels, which were already here (but oil accounts for over 30,000 different products in the world, as well as running our entire food production industry)
and no infrastructure to support alternative energies
and now no time (or money) to change to alternative energies (and if you think there is, it's because you don't know how big a role oil plays in our world, how difficult it is to find a replacement that yeilds the same kind of power gained to power used (one gallon of gas offsets 250 hours of manual labor), and aren't taking into account the time it would take to completely remake our infrastructure around these new energies, even if they were powerful enough...It will take massive energy to convert..so, even as sad as it is that, due to oil, civilazation is going to end as we know it, a whole lot of mankind and other species are also going to die or go instinct due to the same thing...and to think their were people who understood this reality perfectly, yet chose temporary pleasure over the health and life of millions of species, including our own. Even though all that's true, I get a little pleasure
when I see one of those yuppies driving down the road, by himself,in a huge SUV that's sucking him dry!

Yo, Alan, my man, you seem to be missing the point(s):
1. We can AFFORD to be sucked dry; if you can't. don't whine abou those wqho worked so they can.
2. Freedeom means people spend their assets as THEY see fit, NOT (thank God) as the legions of people like you who are more than willing to inpose your values on everyone else. You spend YOUR money as you see fit, and let me make the same decisions with mine-not enough that the gov't already takes away way more than $100k/yr from me for their BS agenda? Howabout if I TELL YOU how to spend your money and time and how to educate your child and what to do and not do with your wife's body. Happy then?

Sounds like SUV drivers are rapidly becoming the replacement for everyone's favorite whipping post -- "smokers" who are spurned, ridiculed and banned. What's next, obesity? Gawd.....what are ya gonna do if you come across a fat, smoking, SUV driver? How will all the "well-meaning" folks legislate that crap?

the reason that the german vehicles are topping the list is that they have diesel engines. while they get outstanding fuel mileage, they rank high on polluting lists because their exhaust has high particulate ppm counts. even though they are not contributing to high fuel usage or greenhouse gas emissions (the tdi toureg gets something like 20+ mpg) , the EPA regulations are set up to discourage foreign diesel vehicles from getting good scores on emissions to get them banned (the audi a2 which gets 90 mpg was banned for its emissions). so, being a polluter has to do with biased emission standards, not environmental impact. i drive a jetta tdi and get 50 mpg using a mix of regular and biodiesel but yet am considered a top polluter because of epa standards.

As far as your SUV being worth "3 Prius", well, since Toyota has 9 of the top 10 cars in reliability, I beg to differ with you. All the top mileage champions in the world are Toyotas. I don't know about your 300,000 mile figure, but I would doubt that my Prius wears out after only 100,000 miles since the dealer warranty lasts that long and Toyota's are notorius for going WAAAAY longer than that.

And as for the Prius battery - you keep talking about all the waste batteries. Toyota is still waiting to recycle its first Prius battery - and they have been on the road since 1999. How long do they last? No one knows since one has NOT FAILED so far! And Toyota has a recycling program for them that recovers all of the heavy metals. So go ahead - spout all your nonsense about how Prius are not environmentally friendly. You are either just jealous cuz you don't have one, or stupid because you keep repeating all this garbage about them that just isn't true.

And for O Susannah - you are the kind of person who SHOULD have a big SUV of some sort and it sounds like you made a good choice. Unfortunately, 95% of them that are on the road should not be since they are 'status' vehicles and never get off the fine pavement, and mostly drive around with only one person in them. PFFFT!

Alan, Can you provide one case of an oil company buying and suppressing a fuel saving device? This is a silly urban legend.

My take is this: Yes, we have the technology to build all sorts of vehicles that send toxins, carbon and other pollutants into the air.

We have the ability and freedom to purchase the gas fueled vehicle of our choice and drive it to make our lives easier.....

But do we have the right to start up an engine each day of the week and drive ourselves anywhere we wish to go, knowing full well that by doing so we dump damaging pollutants into our shared atmosphere? How can we justify that to our kids and neighbors? How can I justify to myself that it is okay to send toxic pollutants into our atmosphere while at the same time being aware of the health and environmental consequences of doing so?

Do not tease or otherwise antagonize the drivers.

They are seriously jonesing and eat bicycles and pedestrians for lunch...

Socially responsible?

LOL! What exactly does socially responsible mean?

Giving my money to groups who claim to care about the environment?

Listen, when I saw animals being airlifted out of mosquito infested flood water, while people sat on the roof of their homes in 90 degree heat with babies (our future by the way) in tow, begging to be rescued. All bets were off! You donate money, I'll take care of the people -- perhaps if they had a big SUV, they could have piled some folks in and drove away.

Gotta love people spewing stupidity.

I have 152,000 miles on my 2001 Prius. Original batteries. Runs like a top. Have replaced tires and brakes and nothing else. Very much like my 1998 Sienna. 206,000 miles with only a water pump replaced four years ago. Keep buying those "American" cars and leave the Toyotas for me...

blackfrancis, what is your BMI? We can all do something by controlling that arm and hand that is shoveling the food in the mouth to make Americans the most obese and pig like people on the planet. We Chinese know how to keep our figure and we are socially responsible by having only one child. We are also thin, and white guys dig us.

Not every SUV on the road is being used as a "Status Symbol". I own a Yukon SL. It gets crummy MPG's in the City. But, I try to take routes that avoid as many Traffic Lights as possible.

When driving on local highways, I drive 55 MPH, which according to the onboard computer increases my MPG by approximately 20% - 30%.

I purchased my SUV for carpooling and personal convenience. When travelling long distances my wife takes her turn driving while I lay down to alleviate some my back pain.

The heated seats and the electric seat positioning also helps with my back pain. I could not find heated seats in a smaller vehicle.

When going out on weekends, I often carry 5 to 7 other people with me. And, my wife and I often carry our 5 grandchildren to movies and special events.

I would much rather carry my family around in a safe vehicle which is meant for carrying this many people, than squeezing everyone into a smaller vehicle or using two vehicles which would use more gasoline.

I am retired, so I do not travel daily. Sometimes, I only drive my vehicle on the weedends. And, then I travel less than 50 miles round trip.

Please don't judge everyone who drives an SUV. Not every SUV on the road is being used as a status symbol.

D. Groover

I am surprised that there are flex fuel vehicles on here. How is it that corn produces more pollutants than regular gas?

lu hit it on the head but u forgot alcohol. it kills more people than smoking does.

Jimmy Carter was such a fool!!! He wanted to decrease the demand for foreign dirty oil by alternative enegy,conservation and tax breaks. How dumb.Maybe we could accomplish some of these thing by taxing some of the dirtier cars ndgiving tax breaks to paople who take some of them off the road. $1000 dollars would be an incentive to get rid of a 1994 8 cyl Lincoln. It would be paid for equally by the manufacturers of he original car and the anufacturer of the replacement car. A $50 dollar sur charge on speeding tickets would help.We might can beat the polution thing with incentives.

STOP POLLUTEING THE EARTH IT HARMS U TOO

Instead of being a Meat Dictator, why not capture the methane emitted by cows and use it? It's natural gas, literally. The technology exists, as old as the Bates converter in the original Whole Earth Catalog 40 years ago. Regulate the production, but let the market be -- better for everyone.

I own three trucks. My 80 Chevy 3/4 ton pickup ran 285K miles till I retired it to the back yard. I will rebuild it one of these days. It only got 11 to 12 miles per gallon due to it's weight, low gearing, and the ladder rack that cut the mileage. Did I mention the 350 ci engine and 4 barrel quadrajet carb. Man with a full load in the bed and pulling a trailer with the air on and going uphill that truck would pull all day long. But it made money for me year after year for over 20 years. Probably 99% of the miles I drove were without a passenger. It always passed the smog check. I expected to get 500K miles out of it but the change up from leaded gas to unleaded added to the deteriation of the valve seats. It didn't have a catalytic converter or a computer brain and I never once worried about causing the downfall of the world.
My next truck was a nice little 2002 GMC Sonoma. A beautiful thing with a little 4 banger 2.2 liter and a 5 speed tranny. I just loved the gas mileage. It became my main money maker but it is gutless and has a squirrley front end. But it does go a long way on a little gas. About 25 mpg. And I've learned to pack a big load in a small truck, so it works like 90% of the time. But I still needed more truck sometimes.
My last truck is a 2006 Chevy 1 ton with a 8x10 foot wooden stake bed. This
truck is twice the truck that the 80 is. The bed is like twice the size. It has a big 6.8 liter V8 gas engine and a big automatic trans. I got tired of pumping that clutch for the last 40 years of driving. This cost twice what the little one cost but can easily do 4x the work. Mileage is about 12 mpg maybe.
So what's it all about Alfie? I like to talk about trucks and they certainly make money for me and any "green" replacement is years away. Like when I'm kicking it in my rocking chair there might be a truck that would please the enviro-nazis and the average working guy could afford. Remember trucks and the internal combustion engine have been around only about 100 years and many very smart people have been working hard trying to improve them. Change is about as fast or slow as justice when you're waiting.
And I've been looking at the big Chevy and GMC Tahoes and Sierras so I'll have something to drive my grandkids to the movies in. So good lucks folks, I'm not changing too fast either.

MELBOURNE:" Scientists have discovered that going veggie could be bad for your brain-with those on a meat-free diet six times more likely to suffer brain shrinkage.

Vegans and vegetarians are the most likely to be deficient because the best sources of the vitamin are meat, particularly liver, milk and fish. Vitamin B12 deficiency can also cause anaemia and inflammation of the nervous system. Yeast extracts are one of the few vegetarian foods which provide good levels of the vitamin.

The link was discovered by Oxford University scientists who used memory tests, physical checks and brain scans to examine 107 people between the ages of 61 and 87.

When the volunteers were retested five years later the medics found those with the lowest levels of vitamin B12 were also the most likely to have brain shrinkage. It confirms earlier research showing a link between brain atrophy and low levels of B12.

Brain scans of more than 1,800 people found that people who downed 14 drinks or more a week had 1.6% more brain shrinkage than teetotallers. Women in their seventies were the most at risk.

Beer does less damage than wine according to a study in Alcohol and Alcoholism.

Researchers found that the hippocampus-the part of the brain that stores memories - was 10% smaller in beer drinkers than those who stuck to wine.

And being overweight or obese is linked to brain loss, Swedish researchers discovered. Scans of around 300 women found that those with brain shrink had an average body mass index of 27 And for every one point increase in their BMI the loss rose by 13 to 16%."

Cowboy Bob says: "Eat more beef and drink more beer. "