Dirty Secret: Green Cars Automakers Won't Sell You

On a recent run from Boston to Cape Cod, I test drove the 2008 Honda Accord, the latest version of this family favorite. The new Accord boasts an environmental first: a six-cylinder gasoline engine that's cleaner than many hybrid systems.

There's only one catch: You can't actually buy this ultra-green Accord, or the four-cylinder version that also produces near-zero pollution. That is, unless you live in California, New York or six other northeast states that follow California's tougher pollution rules. Only there can you buy this Accord, or the roughly two dozen other models that meet so-called Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle standards, PZEV for short.

Not only can't you buy one, but the government says it's currently illegal for automakers to sell these green cars outside of the special states. Under terms of the Clean Air Act—in the kind of delicious irony only our government can pull off—anyone (dealer, consumer, automaker) involved in an out-of-bounds PZEV sale could be subject to civil fines of up to $27,500. Volvo sent its dealers a memo alerting them to this fact, noting that its greenest S40 and V50 models were only for the special states.

So, just how green is a PZEV machine? Well, if you just cut your lawn with a gas mower, congratulations, you just put out more pollution in one hour than these cars do in 2,000 miles of driving. Grill a single juicy burger, and you've cooked up the same hydrocarbon emissions as a three-hour drive in a Ford Focus PZEV. As the California Air Resources Board has noted, the tailpipe emissions of these cars can be cleaner than the outside air in smoggy cities.

http://autos.msn.com/advice/article.aspx?contentid=4024974

only available in the CARB states that these vehicles require?

Did Detroit lobby to quash the sale of these cars?

It is like that 500 mpg carburetor.
If Detroit had these cars to build today, they would be retooling so fast that your head would spin.

Oh no - the car companies are poor victims of the EVIL government, who, without any consultation of the auto industry at all, impose draconian restrictions on the car companies who can only stand by and watch - without any ability to influence the regulations or the politicians who enact them.

Ohhh boo, hoo, for the auto companies...

WHAT A FUCKING CROCK. FOLLOW THE *M*O*N*E*Y*...

in looking at one and test driving it. I live in WA State and I was shocked that I had to go CA to test drive one. I believe only two or three states sold them when they first came out.

the Prius was introduced to the US in 2001, but Toyota did no advertising for it - and took a hit of 1k on each car (trying to get the cars out - as the means for advertising). Very few dealers had them on the lot - the specific car had to be ordered from Japan and took several months to get. My mother ordered hers, I believe, in 2001 - but it was a 2002 model and arrived in the first months of 2002. In Indiana - certainly not a state likely to have an environmental advantage (per a limited sales only to a couple fo states situation). There were just very, very few Prius's around - and when they arrived they went to the purchaser - so they were very hard to find on a car lot.

I just went out to the garage and confirmed the PZEV sticker on my parent's 2007 Camry hybrid. That car was bought in Wisconsin which is most definitely not California or the Northeast.

I am pretty sure there are lots of newer model Honda Civics with all manner of "green stickers" driving around the place.


Also 32mpg in an Altima is not especially impressive. Maybe NYC just sucks for driving but the author did say it was a hybrid model.

Back to the article.

I suspect that this is an urban legend in the making.

Not sure. If you have the time, could you contact them and ask? (I would, but I'm too busy with health care.)

Im sure the demand for these cars, while high around the country is highest in these areas. Also I'll bet it would not be profitable to ship the PZEV cars to places of the country where the demand would not make up for production and shipping. But don't worry, when those cities and states begin to clean up a little bit the duty of polluting will shift to us less polluted states. Then we'll all have those cars.

:kick:

You want a car whose fuel costs you an hour or two of labor a week and seventy-eighty cents a gallon?

Then get yourself down to your local dealer and buy yourself any diesel powered vehicle. But rather than putting the diesel in at the pump, make your own biodiesel. It is cheap and easy, the waste from making biodiesel is water and glycerin(know any soap makers) and you can whip out forty gallon batches with a hour or two of your own labor. In addition, biodiesel is better for the engine due to better lubricity, thus your engine lasts longer.

If you live in cold climes, you would probably have to have a block warmer or add additives to keep the biodiesel from gelling, but other than that, it is a great fuel.

We've got to recognize that corporate America doesn't have our interests, or the interests of the world and humanity at heart, just the almighty dollar. Therefore it is us, you and me, who have to take the lead, each on our own, until the sheer numbers overwhelm corporate balance sheets.

This should be incentive for us all to push our state lawmakers to make the necessary changes that can only benefit us all (aside from being able to buy these cars)!