[atomicradish]

I believe it was SVOboy who recently posted an article which stated that Honda was the only major car manufacturer currently seeing gains in automobile sales. So strictly speaking to 2008 car models for sale, is Honda really that green in comparison to other car manufacturers?

Honda:

Fit: Subcompact - 28/34/31
Civic: Compact - 26/34/29
Accord: Full Size - 22/31/25
Civic Hybrid: Compact Hybrid - 40/45/42

GM:

Aveo: Subcompact - 24/31/27
Cobalt XFE: 25/36/29
Malibu: Midsize: Automatic Only - 22/30/25
Impala: Full Size: Automatic Only - 18/29/22 (E85 capable also)
Malibu Hybrid: Midsize Hybrid - 24/32/27
Pontiac G5 XFE: Subcompact - 25/35/29
Vibe: Station Wagon/Hatchback - 25/33/29

Ford:

Focus: Compact - 24/35/28
Fusion/Taurus - Both are poor in FE

Toyota:

Yaris: Subcompact - 29/36/32
Corolla: Compact - 28/37/31
Prius: Midsize Hybrid - 48/45/46
Camry Hybrid: Midsize - 33/34/34
Camry: Midsize - 21/31/25
Avalon: Full Size - 19/28/22


What I get from this list is that Toyota is far and away the greenest manufacturer right now. Toyota offers more hybrids in their lineup than any other car company, and they have 4 cars which average over 30 EPA MPG. Some of these cars are well over that mark.

Honda is second in line in terms of fuel efficiency, though they eclipse GM only because of the Civic Hybrid. The Civic has poor fuel economy by Civic standards, and is essentially tied with the Cobalt XFE. Aveo returned poor FE for a subcompact, and was even beaten out by the larger Cobalt, which leads me to wonder why there isn't an XFE version of the Aveo. Honda's Fit returns middle of the road subcompact FE.

GM's Impala and Malibu were available with only automatic transmissions, and are contrasted with the Accord, which was available with a manual, making this a slightly unfair comparison. That said, Honda won out slightly with the Accord (though you can take it with a grain of salt). Impala was available with e85, which Accord was not. But then again there was also a CNG variant of the Civic, so no net difference there.

The Civic Hybrid is the only car that really sets these two apart.

So this all leads me to the question of why people see Honda as such a green company. Could it be their past history for making highly fuel efficient cars? They seem to have a really bright future with the FCX Clarity potentially going into production down the road, but right now they're not nearly as superior to GM in terms of efficiency as people claim and Toyota kicks them all in the ass.

Just musing here. If it came down to it, I would probably buy a Honda for reliability.... though, every Chevy in our family has been 100% reliable as well.