Andrew Wetzler's Blog
Those New Subaru Ads
August 7, 2007
Posted by Andrew Wetzler in Moving Beyond Oil , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
Anybody catch the new Subaru ad? You know, the one with the rugged environmentalist standing in front of a Subaru plant and talking about how green it is? You can find Subaru's summary of its green manufacturing process here. Now look, I'm a wildlife guy — in fact, I've spent my entire career at NRDC protecting wild places and wildlife — so I'm all in favor of Subaru designating part of their plant wildlife habitat and doing all the other things they do to manufacture cars in the most sustainable ways possible. But the thing is, Subaru cars actually get pretty mediocre gas mileage. My 2001 Subaru Forester, for instance, gets 19 mpg in the city and 24 mpg on the highway (2007 models are only slightly better). That's not awful, but compare it to the Toyota Highlander hybrid — a much bigger car — which gets 27 mpg in the city. So guys, huzzah for the green manufacturing, but can we have a Subaru hybrid please?
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Comments
Kate — Aug 7 2007 01:36 PM
Not to mention the fact that they reclassified their fleet as "light trucks" which allows them to keep getting poor mileage. I'm hanging on to my 2002 as long as I can; if Subaru doesn't have a hybrid or better mileage by then I'm off to another carmaker who does. And makes cars that can haul canoes & raft gear.
Jon D — Aug 7 2007 05:36 PM
I don't understand how anyone can say that 20 or 30 or even 40 mpg is 'reasonable'. Of course, it depends on how much weight you are hauling, but in Europe, really comfortable and well-performing diesel cars get 50-70+ mpg on the freeway. They are clean, quiet and smooth.
Ronald Mirman — Aug 8 2007 06:32 AM
In a way it is nice to see that Japanese automakers act stupidly also. I always thought that was a specialty of US car makers. They are fighting a required increase of gas mileage, needed to protect our planet (maybe they do not live on the same one).As a result Japanese cars get better mileage and sell more. The US auto industry wins in Congress and so goes bankrupt.Are they and John Dingell nuts? This is commented further on my blog
Science blog
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Political blog
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Luke Smith — Aug 8 2007 03:13 PM
We over at RAN have picked this up as our inaugural "Greenwash of the Week:"
http://understory.ran.org/2007/08/08/greenwash-of-the-week-subarus-deer-park/
Jessica N — Aug 8 2007 07:49 PM
Subaru is falling behind. Their green image and environmentalism can only carry them so far. Those of us that need a 4WD vehicle are beginning to see more options for vehicles with better fuel efficiency, such as the Highlander hybrid. If you love your Subaru, demand more! I email them all the time to ask when their hybrid models will be available...