Thursday, September 10, 2009

Backwards into the future

Green cars are very fashionable at the moment, and all car manufacturers with a bit of self respect are struggling to deliver cars that employ some sort of technology to keep that Co2 emission down.

Unfortunately some manufacturers seem willing to sacrifice every little bit of fun in order to achieve this. Volvo is one example of this, with their DRIVe models, that are powered by tiny diesel engines barely able to get the cars up to motorway speed, not to mention how long it takes them to get there... Another ugly example are the new Bluemotion models from Volkswagen. A VW Passat with a 105 hp diesel engine? Oh, VW, no!

Not since the mid 80's have I seen cars move this slowly from 0-100 km/h, and I wish I would never have to see it again. The Passat clocks in at an embarrassing 12,5 seconds, and the Volvo V70 at an astonishingly slow 13,5 seconds! I would have been sound asleep after those 13,5 seconds of trying to get the piece of junk moving.

I'm sorry, but there are clearly better ways to keep the Co2 down, even on combustion engines powered by fossile fuel, and preferably while keeping the fun up. BMW have demonstrated this with their "EfficientDynamics", and Saab have proven that downsizing doesn't have to mean boring. Plus, let's not forget there are other fuels out there that are waiting to be used by car manufacturers: E85, biogas, electricity...

Driving environmentally friendly does not have to be ridiculously boring!

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