Cars
Jeep and Hummer versus Mazda and smart. That kind of comparison sounds complicated, complex, convoluted even. Get this - we're not talking about the rumoured (in history) of the smart formore, nor are we discussing Jeep's baby Compass.
Nope. Not in the least. The purpose of the post is to see how great the contrast is between a Jeep Grand Cherokee, a Hummer H3, Mazda's 3 and the smart fortwo. Granted, we will
talk about the Grand Cherokee diesel, the smart fortwo diesel, and the gasoline-powered editions of both the Mazda and Hummer.
Environmentalists would lead you to believe that SUV's are bringing down the planet. (They happen to be ignoring the airplanes they use to fly around the country so that they can tell you about the bad SUV's, but that's another story.) Meanwhile, there is no dearth of justifiers for sport-utes on the planet. Farmers, boat-towers, horse owners and many others will tell you that all the smart's and Prius' and hi-po Lexus limo hybrids will never save the world from its fever.
Isn't there some room in between the extremists? What about applying some bare-bones mathematics in order to answer the questions that arise. There are a number of issues that come to my mind; long after viewing the Energuide statistics or the EuroUnion CO2 figures. Here's a few of them:
Put another way, it would take about three smarts to use as much fuel as the Hummer. You could almost afford to fuel two Mazda3's for the cost of fueling your Hummer. Beyond that, diesel fuel is about 11 cents cheaper than regular gasoline in my city. The 600 km round trip I recently took to Prince Edward Island would have cost $64.89 CDN in the Grand Cherokee CRD. The Hummer H3 would have cost $92.20. Oh, my Mastercard would have been charged with a total of $25.96 in the smart fortwo. Ouch.
But there's more to it than that. If you think of peoplelitres/100km and filled the smart with two people, you're sipping at just 2.1PL/100km. The Hummer would fare much better if considered as a passenger-filled sport utility - per passenger the Hummer would use just 2.72 litres each. The Jeep would be the smart's equivalent and the Mazda would be even better, at just 1.46 litres each.
Does this mean the Sierra Group and the Green Party should love Hummers ? Maybe no. But full Hummer H3's are actually an
efficient means of traveling. There's no denying that five people in a Hummer arrive at any destination in a more efficient manner than one person in his smart fortwo.
However, a Hummer which has never met its owners wife and kids is an awfully ineffective means of transportation.
Skew the debate to the smart's side, and things get ugly. Take five smart fortwo owners who love carpooling. They drive their buddies to work every day. The five Mazda 3 owners across the street can't stand the thought of someone else drinking coffee in their zoom-zoom machine, hence they travel alone. The roundtrip commute is 30 kilometres. All the smart's combined use just 6.3 litres to make the journey. The five Mazda's suck up 10.95 litres. The smart, remember, was being used as a carpooling machine, and therefore each person uses just .63 litres per day. Each single-passenger Mazda uses 2.19 litres each day.
This has little to do with real life, but it does show how quickly efficiency/economy/effectiveness can be altered by extra passengers. It also proves the depth of difference thousands of tiny cars can make when purchased instead of a regular small car.
That's enlightening. Now go check my math.
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- Custom Built Hummer H1 Is One Freaky Creation
My eyes, oh my poor eyes... Can't remember for sure if we have seen any custom made vehicle worse than this heavily modified Hummer H1 that's up for grabs on eBay, but it certainly makes the top list. And wait until you see the interior with the...
- Handmade Hummer H1 Replica Built With Ford Parts Including F150 Frame!
So what do you do when you're in the bizarre position of being a Ford nut that wants a Hummer but doesn't have enough money to buy one? Well, while most people would just forget about it, FullSizeBronco (FSB) forum member Francois (aka H150) decided...
- Smart Fortwo To Be Sold In Brazil From 2009
Having already made its way to the North American continent, the Smart brand is now heading south and in particular to Brazil. The announcement was made today at the Sao Paulo Auto Show where the Fortwo celebrated its domestic debut. Smart will tap in...
- The Good 12 V3.0 Gone Bad - Smart Fortwo
In buying in to the concept of Daimler's smart fortwo, a consumer recognizes the impact of efficiency across the board; not just in terms of fuel efficiency. Initial cost outlay is low. Maintenance costs are much lower than on the diesel-powered...
Cars
ODD LOGIC - Hummer, Jeep, Mazda, smart
Jeep and Hummer versus Mazda and smart. That kind of comparison sounds complicated, complex, convoluted even. Get this - we're not talking about the rumoured (in history) of the smart formore, nor are we discussing Jeep's baby Compass.
Nope. Not in the least. The purpose of the post is to see how great the contrast is between a Jeep Grand Cherokee, a Hummer H3, Mazda's 3 and the smart fortwo. Granted, we will
talk about the Grand Cherokee diesel, the smart fortwo diesel, and the gasoline-powered editions of both the Mazda and Hummer.Environmentalists would lead you to believe that SUV's are bringing down the planet. (They happen to be ignoring the airplanes they use to fly around the country so that they can tell you about the bad SUV's, but that's another story.) Meanwhile, there is no dearth of justifiers for sport-utes on the planet. Farmers, boat-towers, horse owners and many others will tell you that all the smart's and Prius' and hi-po Lexus limo hybrids will never save the world from its fever.
Isn't there some room in between the extremists? What about applying some bare-bones mathematics in order to answer the questions that arise. There are a number of issues that come to my mind; long after viewing the Energuide statistics or the EuroUnion CO2 figures. Here's a few of them:
- People mpg, or people litres/100km in the case of this post
- Combined effect on humanity. Ya can't blame one Hummer owner for creating the poor air quality my part of the world will suffer through today
- Quantifiable life-long usage facts
Put another way, it would take about three smarts to use as much fuel as the Hummer. You could almost afford to fuel two Mazda3's for the cost of fueling your Hummer. Beyond that, diesel fuel is about 11 cents cheaper than regular gasoline in my city. The 600 km round trip I recently took to Prince Edward Island would have cost $64.89 CDN in the Grand Cherokee CRD. The Hummer H3 would have cost $92.20. Oh, my Mastercard would have been charged with a total of $25.96 in the smart fortwo. Ouch.
But there's more to it than that. If you think of peoplelitres/100km and filled the smart with two people, you're sipping at just 2.1PL/100km. The Hummer would fare much better if considered as a passenger-filled sport utility - per passenger the Hummer would use just 2.72 litres each. The Jeep would be the smart's equivalent and the Mazda would be even better, at just 1.46 litres each.
Does this mean the Sierra Group and the Green Party should love Hummers ? Maybe no. But full Hummer H3's are actually an
efficient means of traveling. There's no denying that five people in a Hummer arrive at any destination in a more efficient manner than one person in his smart fortwo.However, a Hummer which has never met its owners wife and kids is an awfully ineffective means of transportation.
Skew the debate to the smart's side, and things get ugly. Take five smart fortwo owners who love carpooling. They drive their buddies to work every day. The five Mazda 3 owners across the street can't stand the thought of someone else drinking coffee in their zoom-zoom machine, hence they travel alone. The roundtrip commute is 30 kilometres. All the smart's combined use just 6.3 litres to make the journey. The five Mazda's suck up 10.95 litres. The smart, remember, was being used as a carpooling machine, and therefore each person uses just .63 litres per day. Each single-passenger Mazda uses 2.19 litres each day.
This has little to do with real life, but it does show how quickly efficiency/economy/effectiveness can be altered by extra passengers. It also proves the depth of difference thousands of tiny cars can make when purchased instead of a regular small car.
That's enlightening. Now go check my math.
- 2010 Smart Fortwo: 21 Percent More Power, Same Fuel Consumption For Diesel Model
Smart has introduced the 2010 model year Fortwo that benefits from a revised diesel engine as well as from minor optimizations for the petrol units. The re-engineered 3-cylinder diesel now has an output of 54HP or 21 percent more power than before and...
- Custom Built Hummer H1 Is One Freaky Creation
My eyes, oh my poor eyes... Can't remember for sure if we have seen any custom made vehicle worse than this heavily modified Hummer H1 that's up for grabs on eBay, but it certainly makes the top list. And wait until you see the interior with the...
- Handmade Hummer H1 Replica Built With Ford Parts Including F150 Frame!
So what do you do when you're in the bizarre position of being a Ford nut that wants a Hummer but doesn't have enough money to buy one? Well, while most people would just forget about it, FullSizeBronco (FSB) forum member Francois (aka H150) decided...
- Smart Fortwo To Be Sold In Brazil From 2009
Having already made its way to the North American continent, the Smart brand is now heading south and in particular to Brazil. The announcement was made today at the Sao Paulo Auto Show where the Fortwo celebrated its domestic debut. Smart will tap in...
- The Good 12 V3.0 Gone Bad - Smart Fortwo
In buying in to the concept of Daimler's smart fortwo, a consumer recognizes the impact of efficiency across the board; not just in terms of fuel efficiency. Initial cost outlay is low. Maintenance costs are much lower than on the diesel-powered...