Wired magazine posted Inconvenient Truths: Get Ready to Rethink What It Means to Be Green.

It has a link to Don't Buy That New Prius! Test-Drive a Used Car Instead.

I might be able to accept the missive "Buy used rather than new", but driving an 8 year old Saturn it really makes no sense, economically or environmentally, for me to trade it for an 8-10 year old Tercel or Geo Metro. I'm far better served by upgrading to a gently used Prius (wish me luck on that one, I'll need it) or springing for a new Prius. My used Saturn (only 49K miles) would likely go to someone with a much older beater car getting worse mileage and spewing crud. My Saturn will still do 36+ MPG highway. A new Prius goes into service, and hopefully an old beater goes outta service. There's a "trickle down" economic effect that's good for the environment. New car sales don't happen in a vacuum.

More to the point, the article says don't buy Prius. Blatant anti Prius bias.

A new method of claiming the Hummer is greener than the Prius. And herein lies the root and the problem with the article.

 

It's not exactly apples-for-apples when they compare the used car's carbon footprint to that of the Prius and zero the used car manufacturing value because "the previous owner paid it". True, the car was manufactured previously -- but the up-front carbon foot print should be assinged over the useful life of the car. The first owner may have taken "the hit" but from the planet's point of view the up-font carbon expenditure was to obtain the life of the car -- and I very strongly suspect that the Prius, or any other hybrid, will significantly outlive any older, conventional vehcile.

Further, I suspect that used vehicles do not maintain a linear and constant operational carbon foot print over their useful life. As any vehicle wears it produces more unburned contaminates and by-products. This is particurlarly true for vehicles nearing end-of-life.

Finally, the comparison does not take into account relative operating efficiencies of newer technologies over older ones. For example, they forget to mention that almost all of the nickel in the batteries can be obtained from recycled sources -- and that used batteries are a major source of recycled materials. Newer vehicle designs will contain more recyclable materials and not simply be buried in a landfill somewhere.

 

There will always be people willing to separate a fool from their money. This is just another example. Personally, I kinda grin because it suggests my used Prius is more valuable than others might think.

Bob Wilson