These days, if people aren’t talking about the economy, they’re talking about saving the environment. And going green in terms of transport is a very cool thing to do in Hollywood. Featured in the magazine this weekend is a story on eco-friendly cars, including the very pricey hybrid Lexus LS 600h luxury sedan. Former Beatle Paul McCartney has one of those — he paid a cool, celeb-worthy $158,000 for it. A more affordable car, the Toyota Prius (starting at $22,000) has an A-list of owners, among them Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz. Miley Cyrus, Shaquille O’Neal and Redman probably spent a little more than the $11,000 list price for their Smart Fortwos.
But hybrids aren’t a star’s only means of environmentally correct travel. The actors who own hydrogen-powered BMW Hydrogen 7s ($118,000) — Hilary Swank, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Ed Norton — are like an Oscar voter’s dream team. Hollywood couple Christopher Guest and Jamie Lee Curtis plunk down $600 a month for their Honda FCX Clarity, which runs on hydrogen and electricity. (That’s Curtis and her Clarity pictured.) And who said the electric car is dead? DiCaprio, Will.I.Am and car collector Jay Leno all own the sleek Tesla Roadster sportscar (only $109,000 for that one). We recognize that not everyone is convinced, in Hollywood or not, that hybrids and other non-gasoline vehicles save the environment. So tell us what you think: Are green cars really green? Vote below.
Photo courtesy of Honda
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I think that these cars are not perfected but at least we are now progressing on this issue and informative blogs like use get people thinking about the issue. Insurance at the moment is speculative on these cars. Found this cool site that detects where you are. I used it to find some
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I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Joannah
http://windscreensite.com
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Alessandra
http://www.craigslisttool.info
We wonder why the US auto market is in bad shape? Journalists like you promoting foreign-built cars. I drive a Ford Escape Hybrid – uses combo gas/battery power and gets avg. 30 mpg. All for less than $25,000. Why didn’t the article cover domestic cars that are affordable for everyone?
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Alessandra
http://www.craigslisttool.info
This article made me turn green – with disgust. The only criteria that seemed to be used was that the cars had to be imports, because it is easy to fiind domestic vehciles that are more “green” at much lower cost. Five minutes on Edmunds.com turned up US made cars that were comparable to the Lexus and Mercedes, cost half as much and got equal or better gas mileage. For example, the Chevrolet Tahoe hybrid gets 20 city, 20 highway for a combined rating better than the Mercedes and costs less, has more room. The GMC Acadia costs 60% less, has the same combined mileage rating…the list could on a long time. The Cadillac STS is rated 17/26/20 compared with the Lexus at 20/22/21, but I suppose because the Cadillac is less than half the cost it was disqualified. If the point of the article was as claimed – to showcase high mileage cars – it was a joke, poorly researched, and very biased. If was another attempt to promote imported cars, it was right on target.
The best of all was a natural gas car that costs more (a lot more) than comparable vehicles, can be refuled for a captital investment of a mere $4000, and then can go a whopping 100 miles. Where – please tell me – where can I get one of these marvelous vehicles. The “green” mdeia coverage is absolutely amazing in its total lack of logic or common sense. Go buy a used Dodge Neon for the price of the refueling set up for the Honda and you can get 35mpg, go 350 miles between fill ups, and buy gas on almost very corner. Makes too much sense to be considered “green and cool”
I don’t think so!–This article is inappropriately named in the first place!
The article itself is an insult to “green”!
We had a mandate 30 t0 40 years ago that we needed to be weaned from fossil fuels in all aspects of our lives. The author of this aticle has only shown how indifferent we, as a country, have been to this mandate!
What a dumb article! Talking about eco-cars, and they cost over $100K. How many people are buying those, and those that even buy them probably have 8 other cars to drive, and probably never drive the eco-car. Do your homework and talk to the normal people, we are the ones that buy your papers.
I find it very irrisponsible of Jeffrey Kessner, in his article “Rd-hot & Green” to list only the two foreign, high-priced cars he did (Lexus & Mercedes-Benz). Mr. Rssner must know by now that america is in a financial crisis and millions of people have lost their jobs. To recommend the two “green” cars he did is a slap in the face to americans. There are many fuel-efficient and quality american-made cars that carry affordable price tags – why weren’t they mentioned? In fact, the most fuel-efficient car will be coming out in a couple of months – the new Ford Fusion Hybrid, at 41 MPG city! Why wasn’t that mentioned?
WHy is it that writers cannot make a simple declarative statement when dealing with “GREEN” topics. Why cannot we have a statement that this electric car gets N miles per KWH — (or uses X KWh per mile)? A column “Earth Talk” in yesterday’s Gannett newspaper claimed power costs for an electric car would be the “equivalent of 75 cent per gallon of gasoline”. Gas automobiles don’t state mileage in terms of electrical usage.
Specifically the assertion was a cost equivalent of 75 cent gasoline at $3.00 at 25 miles per gallon, and electricity at 0.085 cents / KWh. This implies an electric cost of 25% of the cost of gas. This then has to be adjusted for the current price of gasoline which is more like $2.00 per gallon, and the local cost of electric power which in our area is almost twice the assertion (0.16512 KWh on the last bill). Thus the 4x advantage becomes a 0.725 advantage — perhaps not worth the extra sticker price.
When the car salesman starts to obfuscate, it is time to head for the exit.
You missed the Smart for two! Serious journalism should include an adequate job of investigation.
I remember an auto article I read back in the early 1980s, about a guy with a ten-year-old full-size station wagon that got 16 mpg. He went looking for a new car because he wanted better gas mileage. But the new cars, especially those of the size he needed, weren’t rated more than 18 or 19 mpg. So he decided that the practical decision was to keep what he had – the financial burden of a new car wouldn’t be practical unless the new one got at least 25 mpg. (Again, this was the early 1980s.) I feel that today, both consumers and the car manufacturers are again trapped by this problem. Today, older production cars – such as a ten-year-old VW Jetta – can still get 30 mpg highway, so why haven’t manufacturers been able to push mileage close to 50 mpg by now? If I, as a consumer, am going to spend the money for a new car, I want something that can get much better gas mileage than a ten-year-old car (and an added bonus would be having available at a price that today’s money-strapped consumer can afford!). Otherwise, I believe we’re in for a very long haul of consumers replacing their dead cars, with used ones that get comparable gas mileage.
A better list of green cars can be found at http://www.greencar.com.
The greenest car has to be the smart fortwo, which is not only the most fuel efficient gas-only engine among the non-hybrids but whose body parts are almost completely recyclable & whose manufacturing plant is among the most eco-friendly. At a $12,000 base price, it also qualifies as the most economical, purchase price & fuel costs combined.
The ommission of the Smart car is unfortunate. The car gets almost 50 mpg hwy and most owners average in the 36-40 mpg range combined. Another non USA made car, but uses less fuel than any other gas only car, and can be bought starting at around 13k
I’m very disappointed to see that the smart car was not included in the Mar. 15th issue “Red-Hot and Green” It’s only twice the price of the Vespa scooter and way more practical. . . and don’t get me started on the $25,000 Honda Civic GX that requires an additional $4,000 fueling station that must hook into a homes gas line for use. Nothing green about that! Or worse yet, a $59,000 diesel that only gets 23mpg highway! Your author didn’t look very hard for green automobiles! The smart is the highest rated gas-powered (non-hybrid) sold today – how could he miss it?
The manufacturing processes and the raw materials necessary to produce the batteries are, in themselves, massive polluters. This is not to even mention how and where the electricity necessary to re-charge a nation full of electric cars is going to be produced. The necessity of greatly expanding our nation’s electrical generating power and whatever emissions that entails will more than offset any “green” savings. We’ll just be trading one polluter for another, possibly more massive, one.
We own a hybrid-engine, motor & battery combo. We really like the car. But, my son, who works for an insurance co. tells us that there is an issue if the car is in an accident & needs a replacement hybrid battery. The insurance co. depreciates the battery comparable to the age of the car. If repairing the car the owner now must pop for a new battery which can run in the thousands of dollars. The insurance co. is still trying to figure out how to amicably settle these claims. As a side note our car will probably need a new battery at 100,000 miles. Our dealer says “they don’t know how much the battery will cost” it could be $3,000-$6,000. Hardly seems like an econnmical, green car, does it?
no comment here, but a question. where can i get my hand’s on that wee wheelers corgi h2go ?
I’m very disappointed that USA weekend couldn’t find a USA car to highlight in your Red-hot & green article. How about some of the GM, Ford & Chrysler hybrids? Your price tag of $25,190 on the Honda Civic is misleading – one needs to purchase the mini-refueling appliance separately at an additional $4,000! I’ll buy made in the USA any day!
Hey – the U.S. automakers make the most affordable fuel efficient cars. What they are not good at is getting the word out about it. Buy an American car and put some Americans back to work! I can’t believe you ran this article without an American car in it. Shame on you
Biodiesel is not derived from corn. It comes from soybeans. Ethanol is derived from corn (or other sources).
Intresting article. Yes the Vespa would be great for getting around town or around campus. But $6000? Hello Yamaha! Hello Honda! Too bad there isn’t one “Made In USA”. Remember that phrase?
Not all green cars are the same. This should be obvious. An all electric battery vehicle powered by solar/wind is infinitely more ‘green’ than a hybrid or hydrogen powered car.
The Tesla wins this match. Expensive or not.