Chevy Tahoe Hybrid crowned "Green Car of Year"

From the "What are you smoking" department at Reuters:

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - General Motors Corp's (GM.N) sport utility vehicle, the Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid, was named "Green Car of the Year" at the Los Angeles Auto Show on Thursday

The Tahoe Hybrid represents the first model from GM to use a hybrid system the automaker developed jointly with BMW (BMWG.DE), Daimler's (DAIGn.DE) Mercedes-Benz, and Chrysler.

"They've proven that they can make beautiful cars, strong cars, keep the size, keep the safety, and all those kinds of things, and at the same time be more fuel efficient," said California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who toured the show after the presentation of the award.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071115/bs_nm/autos_greencar_dc_1


By the way, EPA estimated MPG of 21 city, 22 highway for 2WD models, and 20 city, 20 highway for 4x4, so unless they're talking about the paint job, this is marketing BS.

The hybrid Tahoe can save 286 gallons/year, whereas a Prius can save about 125 gallons/year versus a comparable Matrix hatchback*.

Which vehicle is going to have more benefit for the environment?

This dual-mode transmission is going to make GM the market leader for vehicles in the heavy to medium sized vehicle market. Toyota and Honda have nothing to compare with it. The Toyota Tundra sales will be hurt now.

The joint venture is going to make transverse transaxles. I want one in a FWD vehicle. My current vehicle will be about played out when they hit the market.

NYSE:GM

*12000 miles/year, city numbers

Talk about low expectations . . .

with a regular 6 cylinder gas motor

who are they kidding???

..or more.

more than I'll ever need.....

a year and a half ago. There was a great thread here on DU, we all came up with something ...... found a composite video with some of the 'creations' funny stuff check this link out ....

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1802404215225692642&hl=en

:spray:


:rofl:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=chevey+tahoe+commercial&search=Search

I remember Chevy left the site (contest) up for oh about a day and a half before they just gave up and shut it down. The DU thread alone ..... that night must of had like 500 responses .... all with our own 'creations' going ...... wish someone could have saved all the videos ..... LMAO that night. Peace.

yeah, I fail to see how improving their mpg from 'horrible' to 'slightly better' is all that green.

Guess they think the American publics attention span is so breif.... they don't even try anymore and just straight out lie. :shrug: Peace.

I was checking out the new Shakira pics....

whatnow?

To fund radical Islamic madrassa schools. :rofl:

That composite is just great ... some bitter, some poignant (the one about
the brother in particular) but all were enjoyable!

Thanks for the link (and for everyone who contributed to the contents).

:toast:

638 responses http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=785853#795889
287 responses http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x785687

Of course Chevy deleted all the Videos when they shut down the contest ...... looks like it took them 3 days or so to give up. Peace.

:toast:

As our fifth strand, we have to wonder why the kings and nobles failed to recognize and solve these seemingly obvious problems undermining their society. Their attention was evidently focused on their short-term concerns of enriching themselves, waging wars, erecting monuments, competing with each other, and extracting enough food from the human peasants to support all those activities. Like most leaders throughout human history, the Maya kings and nobles did not heed long-term problems, insofar as they perceived them.

. . .

Like Easter Island chiefs erecting ever larger statues, eventually crowned by pukao, and like Anasazi elites treating themselves to necklaces of 2000 turquoise beads, Maya kings sought to outdo each other with more and more impressive temples, covered with thicker and thicker plaster, reminiscent in turn of the extravagant conspicuous consumption by modern American CEO's. The passivity of Easter chiefs and Maya kings in the face of the real big threats to their societies completes our list of disquieting parallels.

From Chapt. 5, 'The Maya Collapses', from 'Collapse: How Societies Choose To Fail Or Succeed’ by Jared Diamond

Too bad we are a Nation of Dunces.

As far as I know they simply added a larger alternator/motor as an assist for greater acceleration/performance and so former Hummer drivers could say "But I drive a Hybrid!"

To add some perspective, the Ford version gets 34city/30hwy and THEY COULD DO BETTER!!! A plug-in diesel hybrid would probably get better than 50city/45hwy.

Thats why it does so much better.

They tried hard to find a Green Car of the Year and found this gas guzzler?

Moving up from 14mpg to 21mpg in the city for that size of a vehicle is a good move. My Trans Am would get no more than 20mpg if driven strickly in stop and go traffic, and its more than half the weight/size of the Tahoe. If they do the same thing with the Silverado's, I'd be pretty interested in getting one even though I prefer my Dakota over a full size truck.

Should I say "well, it's a 50% reduction in bullet size, so thank goodness for that"?

20 mpg SUV's are still a death sentence for this planet.

I wish my Dakota would get 21+mpg compared to the 16mpg I'm averaging now. While my car averages around 23mpg.

21-- a 50% increase in mileage.

Now, that might not be enough for some of us, but we're talking about big truck buyers here, and 50% better mileage is pretty good for anyone. If someone is bound and determined to buy a truck, would you rather they bought one with worse mileage? Or just try to talk them out of it and whine about it when you couldn't?

Besides, how much does anyone with a little shitbox get in city mileage? Aside from hybrids, nobody breaks 30, and damn few break 25 in city mileage. None of my little shitboxes did any better than mid 20s in sucky traffic.

Gimme a break.

Like I said in my other post, I wish I was getting that kind of milage in my Dakota. Though its a little bit smaller, and a thousand pounds lighter than a full size truck/SUV it still drinks alot of gas wheather it comes with a v6 or v8 engine. 4cyl engines are no option for me, they're just too weak of a motor.

when comparing hybrids to standard models.

Look at emissions. That's where the big difference is.

you burn a gallon of gasoline and it goes into the atmosphere. Burn more gasoline, you produce more greenhouse gases.

we deserve what we are going to get.

Because the Tahoe would normally burn so much fuel over it's lifetime. The total reduction in fuel consumed over the life of the vehical is far higher for this Hybrid than most others. And is likely the statistic that led to the claims of greenest.

We can save even more fuel by crushing the Tahoe into a small metalic cube and replacing it with a Prius.

4'6" woman using it to commute, sure. 4 Riggers plus a trailer load of gear? Prius is DOA.

I don't see many SUVs with work crews and pulling trailers. But I do see a lot of commuters driving them.

Let's get real; the target market for these monstrosities is suburbanites.

Anybody who feels they need/deserve/want to drive a Tahoe is not going to trade it in for a Prius. You might get them to "Shoehorn" themselves into an explorer.

I have a family of five and we drive a Honda Civic, but that's just me.

I just think it's silly to slap a "Green Car of the Year" fig leaf on an SUV.

You'll see alot of SUV's and trucks packed with people and luggage or construction equipment along with a trailer.

stuck in bumper to bumper traffic, crawling at 5 mph.

But I'm glad to hear the SUVs in the Outerbanks of NC are being put to good use doing construction on a delicate chain of barrier islands.

Its exactly like my brother's here, only mine is a dark metallic blue



I clean pools and spas so its a must, and I use it for other stuff when not working, like hauling my dirtbike around or riding around with friends (passenger space in my car is really cramped)

21 mpg city and 22 mpg highway. Yeah, that's so green. Pay no attention to our trade deficit, the dictators we're propping up because of oil, the sky-rocketing oil prices' effect on the economy, the greenhouse gases, the melting glaciers, etc.

Carrying on a tradition of comfort, performance and utility, the 2008 Tahoe and Yukon boast vastly improved fuel economy over their gasoline-only siblings. Two-wheel drive models, for example, deliver 21 mpg in the city, a 50 percent improvement over their 5.3L non-hybrid siblings and comparable to the much-smaller 2008 2.4L-equipped Toyota Camry sedan, according to www.fueleconomy.gov.

http://www.gm.com/explore/fuel_economy/news/2007/hybrids/tahoe_yukon_texas_092707.jsp

:eyes:

I guarantee you that 90% of the people who buy one absolutely positively do not need a car that big.

We could save so much energy and resources if people just bought what they needed and no more. The obesity epidemic is not just limited to people waistlines, it expresses itself in the size of people's cars, homes, TV sets, and everything else.

...which is very wasteful.

How are we going to reach these people? I think that Richard Cizik of the National Association of Evangelicals has a good message in "creation care".

Disgusting, pathetic, lamentable, deplorable and downright crummy.

I expected the standard "How dare you threaten my car relationship" response.

Hey, I had a surprise conversation yesterday. One that I only have about once every few years. I'm looking for someone to do a botanical survey on a piece of land. I was talking to a biologist about how interesting it is to have all of these restrictions on building a little house on this land, and yet how much damage has already been done. And we talked about the real reason behind the damage. Rarely do I get a chance to talk with someone who isn't threatened by the subject of population. He brought it up. The bottom line is, we aren't going to pull out of this mess. As we screw in our newly found CHF light bulbs, and drool over electric cars, the rest of the world is gearing up. And growing. Our little fraction of improvement is totally wiped out by what else is going on. I'm not saying don't try. But just realize where the problem lies. We aren't going to change our modern lifestyle by as big a fraction as the growth of population. We are going backwards. So prepare yourselves for what is to come. Whatever that means. I think our last chance was around 1970.

Growth in population is undoubtedly a major part -- if not the major part -- of the problem. The Ehrlichs have been warning about this for decades. That said, the per capita consumption of oil in the United States is obscene. On average, we consume twice as much oil per person as do most of our European allies. (Barrel for barrel, the Canadians are almost on a par with us.)

And what of India and China and their mushrooming population growth and unchecked development? Right now, 1,000 Americans consume as much oil as approximately 14,000 Chinese or 32,000 Indians.

But the populations of China and India are far greater than that of the U.S. you might say. Not nearly enough to close the gap in oil consumption. From the standpoint of population, the U.S. is a little less than a quarter the size of China and a little more than a quarter the size of India. So the huge and growing populations of these two countries, although they severely threaten the Earth's overall carrying capacity and the world's dwindling supply of petroleum, can't really excuse the fact that U.S. Americans (followed closely by Canadian Americans) are some of the world's greatest energy hogs.

I tend to throw up my hands and give up. And it's pretty hard not to do when one sees millions of new cars being produced for those two big countries. Regardless of how efficient those vehicles are, the cost of simply manufacturing them is huge. And then there is the rest of their infrastructure. But, that's a separate issue. It's not all over yet. And we could do a lot by simply using our resources in a responsible way. Right now it's more frivolous than ever. I see automobile tag teams between family members. One is running out to do one thing while the other is off to do another. It's really an issue of time. The car is used to implement a high paced life structure. And as such, our entire social structure would benefit in a multiplicity of ways by us being more responsible. For example, right now I'm jumping in my truck to race out and meet a well driller. It's a ten mile trip. And I would gladly ride my bike. But I've got five minutes to get there. And away I go!

Thanks. I like to have a sense that there is a group out there that is aware and thinking about this. We need a leader who can start making programs to enlighten this society. I may be dreaming. But it's either that or disaster, I think.

The more I see shit like this, the more I realize how much trouble we're headed for.

We recently bought a 1985 BMW 524 turbodiesel....converted it over to Bio Diesel and its getting 35-40 miles per gallon and it doesn't require a war to make it go....

It makes me angry to see that marketing BS like this and labeling can work when the Chevy Tahoe Hybrid gets worse mileage on the highway than my regular gas car on its worst mileage in the city.