Hummer vs. Hybrid

[MidasKnight]

Hummer vs Hybrid

PORTLAND, Ore. - An Oregon researcher is at the center of a dispute between SUV lovers and haters, especially since one of the claims is that a Hummer beats a hybrid when it comes to 'going green.'

"I don't like the Hummer people using that as an example to justify the fact that they bought a Hummer," he said. "Just as it's not for Prius owners to necessarily believe that they're saving the entire globe, the environment for the entire world, that's not true either."

Should be a good topic for discussion .....

 

[KLin]

I wonder how much it costs to operate a 747 boeing per mile from dust to dust?

 

[OS]

this is old, and largely debunked, the study uses a bunch of arbitrary mileage for vehicle life, like 300K miles for the hummer, and 100K miles for the prius. Obviously if you depreciate a dollar amount over a fake interval, the results will be slanted in certain ways.

 

[spaceghost21]

Yeah I think the original study was done in 2005... pretty much completely false.

http://www.autobloggreen.com/2006/10/05/oh-so-a-hummer-is-not-greener-a-prius/

 

[morkman100]

Read the comments section from your link. They go into detail why this is BS.

 

[morkman100]

I love how the author of the study just makes up numbers...

"He also determined the number of miles each vehicle is expected to go in its lifetime. For the Prius, he calculated just 109,000 miles. "The technology changes so quickly, that early versions wind up becoming obsolete very soon," Spinella said."

Uh oh... my Prius is 10 years old. The technology is obsolete. Time to drop it off at the junk yard.

 

[nakedfrog]

From Canada, the nickel is sent for processing to China, which has dismal environmental regulations, then on to Japan for manufacturing, where energy costs are some of the highest in the world.

Something strikes me as a tad bit inefficient about that process.

 

[TheSlamma]

Wonder what a non-hybrid Civic scores on this guys test.

Sounds like he is justifying him buying his wife a star destroyer sized SUV to drive.

 

[0roo0roo]

""Have they peer reviewed every single step of it?" Spinella asked. "No, because again we don't want to release everything we have for competitive reasons. And number two, it gets in the way of doing what we intend to do, which is to make a public document available.""

gotta love a study that won't reveal its methodology or raw data/sources

shady marketing firm...who paid these clowns?

 

[RallyMaster]

smug alert k

 

[poncherelli2]

This guy's magic formula for ranking vehicles is total lifetime cost (USD) of the car divided by (arbitrary) total lifetime miles?

He then neglects to explain in any quantitative way what the lifetime cost is comprised of. I'm not sure where to begin finding flaws in this reasoning (though his "perceived" lifetime might be a good place to start)

Why is cost even important? If manufacturing is done Japan where energy costs are high, wouldn't that encourage them to be more efficient than if the work were performed in a place like Russia where energy costs are lower. Also, the whole cost per mile argument is highly tied to fuel costs which cannot be predicted over the life of the vehicle. If fuel is cheap the hummer's magic $/mile will decrease more than the hybrid's $/mile- does this somehow make it more environmentally friendly even though consumption hasn't changed?

Wouldn't if be more helpful if this study just looked at total energy used to manufacture and used by the vehicle over its useful life. WTF does it matter how much energy is used by workers commuting to their factory in Japan, that would happen anyway, it has no relevance to study. Do the Hummer workers all ride bikes or something work?

 

[PlatinumGold]

i think focusing on the hummer vs the hybrid takes away from his point. his comparison of the scion vs the prius seem pretty good to me.

 

[Strk]

Originally posted by: PlatinumGold

i think focusing on the hummer vs the hybrid takes away from his point. his comparison of the scion vs the prius seem pretty good to me.

While I would definitely recommend the Scion (well, I wouldn't because the xB is ass ugly, but a Fit, Versa or Yaris) over a hybrid for someone looking for an economical car, the numbers he is using are still junk.

 

[ElFenix]

oh no not this crap again