In the first half of this piece we looked at the overall, most fuel-efficient vehicles, which had both two and four seaters, gasoline-electric hybrids and turbo diesels. Since most people look at classes of vehicles when making their purchase decision (SUV, sports car, family sedan etc.) I’ve decided to split up our study a little bit.
Rather than study each of the seven classes listed in the EPA’s fuel economy guide I broke it up in to small cars, mid and large size cars and then SUVs and light trucks*.
SMALL CARS
LARGE CARS
SUVs and Light Trucks
The one constant that runs through all of these tables is that the monthly financing costs are a much greater portion of the total than the fuel costs (71 – 90%)**. Now don’t get me wrong. I am not advocating that you go out and buy a used Hummer simply because you can get it cheaper than a Prius. The point I am trying to make is that if you have a fixed budget for energy efficiency/decreasing your carbon footprint then you will have a much greater impact by using the money to improve the energy consumption in your home or office first and then buying that new ultra-efficient car.
There are many reasons to want to decrease our use of fossil fuels including, but not limited to: decreasing smog, asthma, and other bronchial conditions caused and/or aggravated by the chemicals and particulates in automobile exhaust, decreasing our national trade imbalance, improving national security and avoiding the rising price of liquid fuels due to increased demand and decreasing supply.
This is a copy from my last article, but here are my suggestions for how to spend your carbon footprint budget.
My first choice: Home Performance! Putting the money in to your home will not only lower your carbon footprint, it will put even more money in your pocket. There are so many projects that will give returns greater than 10% (which is the assumed APR above) and so are better financial investments than paying off the loan faster. Things like low-flow showerheads and CFLs can provide returns of 500% or more and so should be in your first wave of upgrades. For a more complete list of projects and their paybacks look at some of these articles and try our cost-saving calculators.
Option Two: Use the extra money to install a renewable energy system at your house. With the over-production of solar wafers in the past few years, the price of a PV system has come down dramatically and with the 30% tax credit (credit, not deduction), the systems’ will provide an even quicker payback.
I hope this little exercise has helped you and provided a little bit of entertainment as well. If there are specific vehicles or home energy products that you'd like us to explore, drop us a note in the comments section below.
* Heavy trucks, weighing more than 8500 pounds GVWR are exempt from fuel economy standards because they are more often used for commercial purposes than private use. In 2007 the most recent revision to the CAFÉ standards changed the exemption level for passenger vans and SUVs from 8500 to 10,000 pounds GVWR.
**This percentage is based on the national average for annual per capita automobile miles traveled, which is right around 12,000 miles and $3.00 per gallon fuel. If you were to drive significantly more, or the price of fuel when up, the fuel economy of the vehicle would play a greater role in determining monthly expenses, but that is not factored in here.
