What's the greenest car on the Irish market?

OTK

What's the greenest new car you can buy in Ireland? (Taking into account the energy and emissions as a result of construction and distribution as well as usage)

I am thinking a 1 litre petrol car like a micra. Am I right?

luapenak

how about a 660cc vivio or signet or something. you can get imported k-cars that have 660cc turbo charged engines (e.g. Daihatsu mirra or alto works). so you can ripp along if you want. but if you want to drive green you can also keep the revs low and they need hardly any petrol.
to be honest i wouldnt feel safe in any of the cars that small.

Red Alert

Hybrid drive like the Toyota Prius would probably the best if you're in dublin.

Mellor

To be honest, size of a car doesn't always reflect how safe it is. In 2004 a fiesta was safer in a head on crash that a Land Rover. There was a list created in order of safety in a crash, they counted everything, and its up on probably up on the internet

Capt'n Midnight

It would be far,far greener to buy a second hand car that gets similar mpg.

Buying a new car is possibly the most un-green single thing an average person does.

Mellor

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

It would be far,far greener to buy a second hand car that gets similar mpg.

Buying a new car is possibly the most un-green single thing an average person does.

Except buying or building a house

Kelter

http://www.vcacarfueldata.org.uk/information/how-to-use-the-data-tables.asp#petrol

Capt'n Midnight

Mellor wrote:

Except buying or building a house

A house should last a lifetime even if you trade up/down.

sarahirl

the ford focus flexifuel looks interesting. they're trying to match sweden which 80% of their cars are flexifuel. handy for me as the maxol station in sandymount sells biofuel. also 50% reduction on vrt and cheaper fuel (approx savings of 14c per litre).

i take the point that buying a new car is environmentally unfriendly. the raw materials needed to build the car, market it, ship it, etc, do put pressure on this planet. but realistically people want cars. if they buy a second hand car the emissions could be alot higher (i say could). if the car they are trading in is recycled, then that is another plus. it's doubtful that no matter whatever the emissions are, you will never recoup emissions made during construction, shipping, etc but people need cars and that's the unfortunate truth.

Clare gunner

Belive it or not the Humvee H1.Yup,the king of "gas Guzzlers"[Diesel actually} came out in some test as being the most eco friendly of the whole lot of all of these.
Should add that on "older "cars.You do have the advantage of having them converted alot easier to dual fuel than the modern micro chipped horrors.A lot easier to rig a four barrel carb to run on alcohol,than a fuel injected system.

probe

The Venturi Fetish

0-100 km/h in under 5 sec

Silent. Clean. Top speed 160 km/h

Overnight tank-up good for 250 km of driving using off-peak electricity that costs under €2.

CO2 emissions, if you could use airtricity.ie & co wind energy exclusively for your recharge: 0g/km

(Almost total reliance on wind energy is a practical proposition for electric cars like this, because few people drive 250km per day – in the same way as most people get 3 to 7 days from a mobile phone recharge).

But chances are you can’t (use green energy) – because the ESB mafia unions who control the IRL-electricitygrid monopoly make it their business to ensure that Ireland is one of the CO2 blackest spots in Europe.

http://www.venturi.fr/-venturi-english-home-.html

.probe