Driving Green is the SmartWay to Go

By: Melinda Toussaint

When buying anything you have to establish your wants, needs, and capabilities first. You wouldn’t buy a pair of jeans before you knew if they fit or glasses before you knew if you were far or near-sighted. Well the same goes for buying a car.

Before you do any research or go on test drives you need to sit down and write out what you want. Depending on your age and your current situation you should be able to decide if you need a car for just you or you need a family car.

From there consider your geographic location and what you would use the car for. If you need a car to drive to work daily in a major city like Chicago or Los Angeles where parking is limited buying a sedan or coupe might be best. But if you need a car to do some traveling, camping, or just driving the open country road with the family, then a SUV might be a better option.

After considering your needs based on you; let’s talk budget. You should sit down to calculate your monthly spending habits on food, entertainment, utility bills, etc. and factor in how much you can afford to spend each month on a car payment. Most dealer websites do have a monthly payment plan to help you figure out what you can afford based on the price of the car (www.toyota.com has an example).

Now that you’ve narrowed down your wants, needs, and capabilities you should do research. If want to go green there are a number of vehicles and websites that can help. Visit www.greencars.com or for an unbiased view on many different models and makes go to www.hybridcars.com.

Hybrid cars that are performing well right now offer a great solution to going green. The Toyota Prius has been the favorite in years past. The Prius provides approximately 45 miles per gallon and room for five adults while remaining a super-ultra-low-emission vehicle, or SULEV, and at $22,000 is an affordable choice. Roland Hwang, senior policy analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council said, “Compared to mid-size cars, drivers get half the pollution and half the gasoline bill.”

Another great option is the Honda Insight, the sporty hybrid, which offers 66 miles per gallon on the highway and costs just over $19,000. It may be smaller and less flashy than the Prius but it delivers 90 percent less emissions than a standard car.

While these two vehicles are affordable and eco-friendly options, buying green isn’t just about the car that produces the least amount of carbon dioxide or uses less gas, it’s important that the making of the car is helpful to the environment as well.

The Chevy Malibu is a great hybrid choice. It costs a little more than the Prius, at about $24,500, but you are paying for the eco-friendly assembly too. The Malibu Hybrid gives you an EPA estimated 24 miles per gallon, driving 15,000 more miles per year which can save 38 gallons of gas. It also offers regenerative breaking that will store that energy for later use. But these things are just the car. The Chevy Malibu Hybrid is assembled at the FairFax Assembly Plant which has received the Environmental Excellance Award from Bridging the Gap (a Kansas City environmental group).

FairFax has kept track of their waste generated since 1988 and has managed to cut down their waste from 89 pounds to 18. They have also saved 1,400,000 gallons of water per year, as well as recycled the following: 427 tons of cardboard, 91 tons of plastic, 76 tons of paper, 437 tons of wood, and 27,770 tons of scrap metal.

So now matter which Hybrid car you choose, remember that you should not only pay for the car’s safety and eco-performance, but also the company’s.

Whether you choose the Toyota Prius, the Honda Insight, or the Chevy Malibu Hybrid, buying an eco-friendly car is kind to the earth as well as your wallet. With as little as $389 monthly payments you can pay for your Hybrid in as little as 6 years. But if your wallet can’t afford a car at the moment there still are some things you can do now with your present vehicle to drive more green.

The best way is to switch to Biodiesel fuel instead of regular. Biodiesel is made from vegetable oil and is a renewable resource. It burns clean, cheap, and safe because it doesn’t emit any harmful toxins into the earth. Biodiesel fuel can be used with regular diesel engines but can hurt your warranty, so think wisely before doing. But at 70 cents per gallon, it might just be worth it.

The green car industry is growing rapidly with new advancements in technology sure to come. Perhaps in the future we will all be driving the electric cars that companies are trying to perfect. Only time with tell, but driving green sure says a lot.

“Driving my electric car could not be more fun… I can go up to 80 miles on one charge, if I lose weight, I could go even farther! In fact, I constantly tell people that if you could drive this car, you wouldn’t want to drive any other car. There [are] no emissions, it’s quiet, and the cost of the electricity [comes out to roughly 30 cents a gallon].”
–Will Ferrell

*For more help picking an eco-friendly car the EPA gives you the SmartWay program. A vehicle must have above average fuel economy, low tailpipe emissions, and low CO2 emissions per mile. To find out if car you picked out has the SmartWay certificate visit www.epa.gov/greenvehicles to learn more.