What are greener and cheaper alternatives to the Toyota Prius?

I'm writing a story about how deceiving the Toyota Prius is and I can't find any cars that would be a better buy than the Prius. Can anyone think of any? and please have explanations?What are greener and cheaper alternatives to the Toyota Prius?Nearly all cars are greener AND cheaper to drive than the Prius is as can be seen in this Yahoo Autos site: http://autos.yahoo.com/articles/autos_co鈥?/a>What are greener and cheaper alternatives to the Toyota Prius?
Of course, this is a very controversial topic and there is a lot of misinformation out there, as JerryJ points out. This is a story that will need a ton of fact checking... but that is what makes a good investigative writer.



In all seriousness, a bicycle is about as green and cheap as you can get. I commuted by bicycle many years, In California and in Arizona. I was also in a club ride in which one rider was killed and another suffered a broken neck, in separate incidents, when hit by drunk drivers... everything comes at a price.



Motorcycles are cheaper but nowhere near as green in terms of emissions. Larger motorcycles don't get the fuel economy of the Prius or even many small diesel cars.What are greener and cheaper alternatives to the Toyota Prius?greener and cheaper period are diesels. especially like the guy above said the tdi in the VW are great engines that not only expell less emissions than a prius but if you actually own one can get way more mpg. in europe since the fuel there is much more expensive they have tdi's getting 100 mpg easily with new installments into the world like urea injection and low sulfur diesel. diesel is the way of the future not hybrids. if you need any more explanations just ask.
An overall better buy than the Prius would be one of VW's diesels. They tend to be better equipped for a similar cost, they have better interiors, drive better and in general drive like regular cars. Also, their fuel economy in the real world is fairly close. The Prius tends to get better fuel economy, but not necessarily by as much as you'd be lead to believe. The nice thing about the VW TDI's is the fact that they are not mining a heavy metal, shipping it across the planet to process, then sending to another country to make into batteries.What are greener and cheaper alternatives to the Toyota Prius?1. Unfortunately, the information you've found is bogus as has been proven many times.



2. Honda did not come out with the first hybrid. The Toyota Prius came out in model year 1997. Honda did ship their hybrid to the U.S. before Toyota shipped the Prius.



3. The VW diesel's extra 65 cents per gallon over regular pretty much nixes any fuel savings. In addition, the one I had cost 22 cents a mile for dealer maintenance (not including fuel and tires). The Prius I have costs 12 cents per mile for fuel, tires, and dealer maintenance. Also every fill on the VW diesel was a smelly mess and it still stank like diesel. BTW, the engine blew at 80,000 miles.



4. The Prius is a mid-sized car so it's going to cost more than a compact or sub-compact.



5. The Nissan Leaf might be greener depending upon where the electricity is produced. But you couldn't drive it on a vacation trip.





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More info on #1:



1. Some of the nickel for the NiHM batteries comes mainly from the Sudbury, Ontario, Canada mine. There are other nickel mines throughout the world. Toyota isn't saying how much comes from where.



2. The information used by the detractors comes from the 1960s when the mine, like most all mines, were pretty bad environmentally. During the 1980s the mine was cleaned up and it now wins environmental awards from Environment Canada and others. (AFAIK, there weren't many Prius made in the 1960s and 1970s, any you find should be worth a fortune).



3. Only about 1% of the mine's total output is used for NiMH batteries of all kinds. Much of the other 99% is used mainly for tableware and automotive chrome although there are many other uses for nickel, such as coins.



4. All car manufactures ship materials and cars over the world. Toyota is no worse than any other. Note that most of the Toyotas sold in North America are made in North America and with 80% of parts being supplied from North America. The Prius is an exception to this. The Camry hybrid is made in the Kentucky plant.



5. The Prius sold in Japan, Europe, and North America are made in Japan in the Tsutsumi Plant. There is a plant in China but Prius from there are only sold in China and I believe they are different than the ones sold elsewhere.



6. The Prius is made in a zero-landfill factory (so are many other Toyotas).



7. There is a plan to manufacture the Prius in the Mississippi plant that's currently being built. There is no date set when the production might start. (I believe they will start producing Corollas there until the "kinks" are worked out, though that may change).



8. Most of the plastics in the Prius are bio-plastic rather than petroleum based.



9. A good portion of the repair manual consists of instructions on how to recycle the various components. For example, the wiring harness can be removed with a single pull so the copper can be recycled.



10. Toyota, Honda, and VW are creating jobs in America while the so-called American companies are shipping jobs to China and Mexico as fast as they can. I think I'll stick with the car companies that create American jobs.What are greener and cheaper alternatives to the Toyota Prius?
Read all of the following in the voice of an angry nasally white man



All of those studies that show that the Prius does more harm than good are completely bogus. The only retards that push those stories are right wing nut jobs who deny global warming just for the sake of grid-locking the left wing extremists (who are also retarded nutjobs, mind you.)



Yeah, it is more economical and environmentally friendly to buy a Honda from the 80s; but cars do crash, and they do fail, so new cars have to go into the system. Do you want that car to be a Toyota Prius, or a Ford Excursion? And also, does that 80s Honda have 12 airbags? NO! Does it have Anti Lock brakes? NO! Does it have TCS and ESC? NO! Does it offer the same amount of safety as a new car with their steel safety cages and whatnot? ABSOLUTELY NOT! C'mon people, think for a damn second...



But don't take my word for it. By all means, do your research and draw your own conclusions. I'd love to hear a counter argument.
bicycle.



it sounds like you're trying to find/bend the facts to fit the story that you think would be interesting to tell, rather than writing a story based on the actual facts that are out there.



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EDIT: ok, ok. the best greener and cheaper alternative is - a honda or toyota from the 80s. good on gas, built very well, easy to maintain.



if people kept used cars running instead of junking them and buying a new car (and you've found out how making a prius isn't all that green), even one with better gas mileage, then that would be be more environmentally sound all around.What are greener and cheaper alternatives to the Toyota Prius?
a 1996-99 nissan sentra i owned one it got 40 mpg in city and over 45 on highway i never averaged below 39 even in harsh driving i racked up over 270k miles on it and still ran good theyre cheap and get same mpg
a motorcycle or moped ha, I don't no how you would right a story explaining how its deceiving when its not, that's going to suck.
Honda Insight the very first one.
The new Ford Fiesta gets like 50mpg if that helps
A motorcycle or bicycle?
Walk, or ride a bicycle or motorcycle.
Don't think it's cheaper. But the Nissan leaf :)
Where is all this information?



Care to share?



Since you've found so much it should be easy to show us.
Here is something to think about when writing this. First of all the VW TDI engine gets better fuel mileage than a Prius. Plus you wont have to replace the engine after ten years.



When they have to mine the precious metals to make the batteries they have to mine them in one country. They then have to ship those metals to another country to actually make the battery. After they are finished making the batteries they then ship the batteries to Japan to install them in the cars and then once again ship the car around the globe. So how much fuel and energy was actually used to have a car that is "green"? I'll stick with my 18 (us) mpg car that is only 19 years old.



Scientists have actually found that with all the fuel and energy that was wasted just to make the battery for any hybrid/electric car and ship the car to say Los Angeles, CA was more then a classic American car.
smart for two is available with full electric vehicle this year, right now they are lease only but you will be able to buy one next year.