Bath Prius
As Elgarites already know, green cars are a particular hobby-horse of mine. So imagine my consternation as I read that the Mayor of Bath's Prius has been replaced by an Audi A8 (against, I might add, the wishes of the mayor). Now, I don't know what all this BS is about the mayor having to bring kudos to events, and that kudos comes only from the size and price of one's car rather than its environmental credentials, but I think this is a huge step back. I was really proud of Bath last year for taking the very public step of replacing the typical big saloon with the Prius. And I certainly don't accept the chauffeur's argument that the Prius looked silly compared with other mayors' cars; he seems much happier with the big Audi, but it would be crass of me to begin speculating along the usual lines about small men and big cars...
This ties in of course to the charge of 'environmental tokenism' levelled in last weekend's Telegraph against the Lexus RX400h. As discussed elsewhere I think there may be a grain of truth in this; but might a luxury hybrid of this kind be the solution to the 'kudos versus responsibility' debate? In fairness to the A8, I don't have the figures to hand but it may well be that a diesel A8 is as 'green' as the 400h. Besides which I suppose an SUV* doesn't exude mayoral kudos either. Perhaps the GS450h will be a suitable compromise when it arrives next year.
Let's not forget as well the fact that making a new car is quite probably worse for the environment than continuing to use an older car; another reason why replacing the Prius with anything was a bad idea.
As a tie-in with earlier posts, note that the state Bentley runs on LPG, reducing emissions...
*I use the term SUV after some consideration, for vehicles such as the RX, the X5, the M-Class, and - arguably - the Range Rover. Cars that don't even make a pretence at being 'off-roaders', that are simply large, ostentatious and intimidating versions of normal road cars often but not exclusively bought by self-important women and so-called 'celebrities'. These are in my view distinct from more genuine 'off-roaders' such as the Shogun, Patrol, and Land Cruiser which are marginally more likely to be found actually outside the city, towing horse boxes etc. The Discovery appears in its third incarnation to have steered a regrettable path towards the conspicuous-consumption gangsta-mobile sector already reached by the Range Rover, so I'd only class Series 1 and 2 Discoveries as off-roaders. One is led to wonder what the deuce Land Rover are playing at; aside from the distressing change in its demographic, reading the CO2 figures for the modern Land Rovers fairly brings tears to the eyes in an age where at least some other manufacturers actually do seem to be making an effort...
In conclusion, if I ever need to buy a car I'm still going to start off by looking for a Honda Insight...
This ties in of course to the charge of 'environmental tokenism' levelled in last weekend's Telegraph against the Lexus RX400h. As discussed elsewhere I think there may be a grain of truth in this; but might a luxury hybrid of this kind be the solution to the 'kudos versus responsibility' debate? In fairness to the A8, I don't have the figures to hand but it may well be that a diesel A8 is as 'green' as the 400h. Besides which I suppose an SUV* doesn't exude mayoral kudos either. Perhaps the GS450h will be a suitable compromise when it arrives next year.
Let's not forget as well the fact that making a new car is quite probably worse for the environment than continuing to use an older car; another reason why replacing the Prius with anything was a bad idea.
As a tie-in with earlier posts, note that the state Bentley runs on LPG, reducing emissions...
*I use the term SUV after some consideration, for vehicles such as the RX, the X5, the M-Class, and - arguably - the Range Rover. Cars that don't even make a pretence at being 'off-roaders', that are simply large, ostentatious and intimidating versions of normal road cars often but not exclusively bought by self-important women and so-called 'celebrities'. These are in my view distinct from more genuine 'off-roaders' such as the Shogun, Patrol, and Land Cruiser which are marginally more likely to be found actually outside the city, towing horse boxes etc. The Discovery appears in its third incarnation to have steered a regrettable path towards the conspicuous-consumption gangsta-mobile sector already reached by the Range Rover, so I'd only class Series 1 and 2 Discoveries as off-roaders. One is led to wonder what the deuce Land Rover are playing at; aside from the distressing change in its demographic, reading the CO2 figures for the modern Land Rovers fairly brings tears to the eyes in an age where at least some other manufacturers actually do seem to be making an effort...
In conclusion, if I ever need to buy a car I'm still going to start off by looking for a Honda Insight...
posted by Z31 at 3:12 am
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