Shocking News Just In: US Car Makers as Brain Dead as Ever
The Union of Concerned Scientists (think: knit, deeply furrowed brows, pocket protectors, MIT) has just released their Automaker Rankings 2004: Environmental Performance report and guess which companies continue to suck the most? That's right! How did you know it was the US's Big Three? Psychic, huh? GM in fact, still the biggest (though slipping fast) has managed to get consistently worse since 1998. Way to leverage new technology, guys! These folks aren't just asleep at the AE, fuel economy, emissions wheel, they're asleep in the engine, in the wheels, in the exhaust system ... probably even asleep in the glove compartment.
Here's the UCS' surprisingly simple way of stating what's been going on:
Clear differences exist among the automakers when it comes to environmental
performance. Since our first automaker ranking report, for model year 1998
(MY98), a trend has emerged for the market leaders and laggards: Honda has
consistently remained at the top, representing the cleanest of the Big Six
automakers, while GM has consistently fallen in our rankings, from fourth place
in our first ranking to last place in 2003, the latest model year for which data
were publicly available. The difference between Honda and GM is most apparent in smog-forming pollution; Honda’s vehicles produce less than half the pollution of
the fleet average, while GM’s produce nearly a third more than the
average. AEman stresses the need to be realistic. GM wouldn't and couldn't do what it does unless it were rewarded for its behavior by many, many customers. Kind of like the exploding Pinto's, you know? Gonna lose some money in law suits but they'll make it up on volume, especially when the cars only cost about $79.95 to make. It's plain embarrassing, isn't it? Well, if you can't teach this old dog new tricks, it's probably time to get a new dog. Here Rover, Fido, Spot.
posted by Andy Bochman at 9:47 PM
 
|
