Green Car Of The Year

Tell me this isn't typical of America : Green Car Journal have announced their Green Car Of The Year. The Camry hybrid? The Prius? The Tesla Roadster? Think again - it's the 2008 Chevy Tahoe Hybrid which according to Chevy's own adverts, has a combined mpg cycle of 14mpg city / 21mpg highway.

I'll print that again so you can revel in the absurdity of it : 14mpg.

Better still, if you read all the text in the print ads, Chevy claim that the 2008 Tahoe is so efficient that in the city it has the same mpg rating as a Toyota Camry*. If you follow that asterisk to the fine print at the bottom of the page, it says that the Camry does 21mpg city.

In what universe is the Tahoe's 14mpg city rating "the same" as the Camry's 21mpg? Even if you look at the Tahoe's highway rating - 20mpg - it's still lower than the Camry can get around town.

It boggles the mind how Chevy have managed to make a hybrid that only does 14mpg. That just doesn't seem possible, in the same way it doesn't seem possible for Ford to build a 4.6L V8 that has such pitiful horsepower. I mean we've known for years that American manufacturers just don't get it. My Honda Element averages 19mpg and I consider that to be below par for the Japanese, mostly because of the undersized engine and the total lack of aerodynamics. But compared to the Tahoe, my Element is a King amongst Kings.

Now hop across the pond to Europe, where the average family car is cracking out 35mpg and you realise just how badly Chevy don't get it.

Green Car Of The Year my arse.

My skeptical nature now leads me to ask whether a cash sum from Chevy was involved in Green Car Journal's decision.

Pull out behind me

My driving teacher taught me that driving a car is a matter of getting from one place to another as safely as possible without impeding the general flow of traffic on the way. Thus it amazes me how few drivers understand the simple concept of the flow of traffic.

On an empty road, you're approaching a side street. There's a car waiting to turn out. For the traffic to flow smoothly, they should either enter the road behind you where there are no other vehicles, or in front of you if they have enough time to speed up so they don't get in your way. Typically of course, the goon in the side street will pull out in front of you, then casually idle up to 5mph below the speed limit by which time you've already had to brake and slow down. The flow of traffic is destroyed.

The same is true at most junctions, on ramps, off ramps and roundabouts - people lazily going about their day in blissful ignorance of what they're doing to the general progress of everyone else.

Traffic flow - in physics it's called conservation of momentum.