Save the environment... YEAH RIGHT!!! It's all about padding their pockets.

Okay, so today I browsing the web and I happened across an article about the top 10 most fuel efficient cars. One stood out to me, and it was the smart Fortwo. I'm sure you guys have seen these little 'cute' cars putting around the roads. Anywho, I have always been slightly disgusted with the thought of a car that tiny ONLY getting 36mpg. I mean doesn't a Toyota Corolla get those numbers? So in this article I discover that there is a diesel version that isn't available in the US (Blame your fucking Government), and it gets 70mpg! Now these are numbers worth talking about. Much better than the 'Jesus Prius' and the grunt of diesel power to boot.

All this talk about mpg got me thinking, of all these crazies that want to 'save the planet' and whatnot. Yet in these circles of green, there isn't much love for diesels. Diesel engines are about 40% efficient, as opposed to gasoline which is about 25 to 30% efficient. Just looking at that it stands to reason that diesels would be the clear winner. But wait, diesels pollute more right?

Well okay, you got me there. They do pollute more the numbers are 19.4 CO2 per gal for gasoline and 22.4 CO2 per gal of diesel. So thats about a 14% increase in CO2 emissions.

My goal now is to show you that even with the increase in emissions you can STILL save the planet, even more so by switching to diesel. So we take this Smart Fortwo that gets ONLY 36mpg and drive it 12,000 miles a year right? That's the generally accepted yearly mileage for a vehicle. Using the numbers above, during this year you would burn 333 gallons of gasoline using the numbers above, this would mean that you would produce 6,460 lbs of CO2 (333 x 19.4 = 6460.2).

Dang! Thats a LOT of CO2 in the atmosphere right? Okay now, take that same smart and equip it with the diesel version that gets 70mpg. During that same 12,000 mile year you would burn 171 gallons of diesel fuel and you would produce 3,796.2 lbs of CO2 (171 x 22.2 = 3,796). Which is a 41% decrease from the amount that you would have burned with the gasoline equipped smart.

Now I know you guys may be saying now that I'm cheating by using a small efficient car and you would never buy a car that is as small as a suppository. So I did the same calculations on another car that is available in the US that is a little more mainstream. The the Volkswagen Jetta heres a regular everyday sedan the gasoline version gets 26 average mpg, lets put it to the same test. Again 12,000 miles a year, 461 gallons burned, 8,943.4 lbs of CO2 produced (461 x 19.4 = 8,943). As for the diesel version that gets 36 average mpg (a little lower than I would expect, but according to reviews real world is actually more). But, we will roll with 36mpg. Same 12,000 miles, 333 gallons burned and 7,392.6 lbs of CO2 produced (333 x 22.2 = 7,392.6). That gives us savings of 1550.8 lbs of CO2 or 17% decrease in emissions.

So, after reading this, you tell me if you think the gov't is really looking out for saving the planet. Because they say that diesels pollute more, and will put more greenhouse gases and such in to the atmosphere. I say that those assholes are just padding their pockets and stringing the 'green party' along.

If you really want to save the environment (not to mention save some money in fuel costs)... buy a diesel.

Sources:
http://www.epa.gov/OMS/climate/420f05001.htm (Carbon calculations)

http://www.vw.com/jetta/completespecs/en/us/ (Jetta mpg)

http://www.smart.com/-snm-0135207752-1239438359-0000011079-0000000000-1248548120-enm-is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/WFS/mpc-uk-content-Site/en_UK/-/GBP/Smart_NG_ViewStatic-PageComponent?NavigationID=urn%3Auuid%3Ae0a1fb03-d93b-5af7-80ab-7c81f0ff63f2 (Smart mpg and info)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engine_efficiency (Basic efficiency numbers)