Let's start by identifying the competitors:
There is: The Mazda 6, the Toyota Camry, the Volkswagen Passat, the Ford Taurus, the Chevrolet Malibu, the Buick Allure, the Hyundai Elantra and Sonata, the Nissan Altima, the Honda Accord, the Toyota Prius, the Chrysler Sebring, the Pontiac G6, the Mitsubishi Galant and finally the Kia Optima.
The results will surprise you.
Amongst the cleanest cars there are:
1st place: The Toyota Prius, with a note of 9/10 or 10/10, depending on the states.
2nd place: Ex aequo: The 4 cylinder Mitsubishi Gallant, the 4 and 6 cylinder Honda Accord, the 4 cylinder Toyota Camry, the 4 cylinder Nissan Altima, all with notes of 8/10 or 10/10 depending on the region
3rd place : The 4 cylinder Hyundai Elantra and its cousin, the 4 cylinder Kia Optima
And now for the surprises:
The awards for most pollutant cars of the category go to:
1st place: With a 4/10, the Volkswagen Passat TDI
2nd place: Ex aequo: the 4 cylinder/manual Mazda 6, the 4 cylinder/manual Hyundai Sonata, the 4 cylinder/manual Kia Optima and the 6 cylinder Nissan Altima; all with a note of 6/10
3rd place: The 6 cylinder Toyota Camry, with a note of 6/10 or 7/10 depending on the region.
There you go. Amazing, isn't it? Would you have guessed that the same car with two different engines could be in the cleanest and the dirtiest car category? Well, it's the truth. And the reason is simple. The newer the version of an engine, the better the chances for it to be cleaner.
By the way, the difference between 4/10 and 10/10 is simple. The car with a note of 4/10 will pollute approximately 6 times more than the one with a note of 10/10. That's a huge difference.
As for the American cars, they rank in the middle. They are not the best, nor the worst. I must admit that I expected the new Pontiac G6 to do better than 8/10 considering how new it is.
If you want to know about these anti-pollution systems when you are at the dealership, here's how you proceed:
1: Look for the sticker called « Catalyst » which is most of the time located under the hood.
2: On that sticker, you will see 2 important informations:
a)The federal standard, that will tell you if the vehicle is classed in the Tier I or Tier II category. If it's Tier I, bad news. This means that it has an older technology, therefore pollutes more. If it is Tier II, you must look for its BIN score. The higher the BIN number, the less efficient the anti-pollution system is. For example, the BIN number of a Toyota Prius is 3. I have seen some up to 9.
If you come across a sticker with a fleet standard, you won't be able to tell the rating of that particular vehicle. Therefore, you will have to look for it online.
b)The Californian standard: Will indicate if it complies with the LEV I or LEV II standard. I suggest you to look for a LEV II vehicle with a ULEV, SULEV or PZEV standard. These are the cleanest cars.
I hope that you enjoyed this chronicle that I dared to call essential. This subject being somewhat more technical, and maybe at first glance, less interesting than usual made it a challenge for me to make it approachable, but it proved to be quite essential for anyone interested in buying a clean vehicle.
There is: The Mazda 6, the Toyota Camry, the Volkswagen Passat, the Ford Taurus, the Chevrolet Malibu, the Buick Allure, the Hyundai Elantra and Sonata, the Nissan Altima, the Honda Accord, the Toyota Prius, the Chrysler Sebring, the Pontiac G6, the Mitsubishi Galant and finally the Kia Optima.
The results will surprise you.
Amongst the cleanest cars there are:
1st place: The Toyota Prius, with a note of 9/10 or 10/10, depending on the states.
2nd place: Ex aequo: The 4 cylinder Mitsubishi Gallant, the 4 and 6 cylinder Honda Accord, the 4 cylinder Toyota Camry, the 4 cylinder Nissan Altima, all with notes of 8/10 or 10/10 depending on the region
3rd place : The 4 cylinder Hyundai Elantra and its cousin, the 4 cylinder Kia Optima
And now for the surprises:
The awards for most pollutant cars of the category go to:
1st place: With a 4/10, the Volkswagen Passat TDI
2nd place: Ex aequo: the 4 cylinder/manual Mazda 6, the 4 cylinder/manual Hyundai Sonata, the 4 cylinder/manual Kia Optima and the 6 cylinder Nissan Altima; all with a note of 6/10
3rd place: The 6 cylinder Toyota Camry, with a note of 6/10 or 7/10 depending on the region.
There you go. Amazing, isn't it? Would you have guessed that the same car with two different engines could be in the cleanest and the dirtiest car category? Well, it's the truth. And the reason is simple. The newer the version of an engine, the better the chances for it to be cleaner.
By the way, the difference between 4/10 and 10/10 is simple. The car with a note of 4/10 will pollute approximately 6 times more than the one with a note of 10/10. That's a huge difference.
As for the American cars, they rank in the middle. They are not the best, nor the worst. I must admit that I expected the new Pontiac G6 to do better than 8/10 considering how new it is.
If you want to know about these anti-pollution systems when you are at the dealership, here's how you proceed:
1: Look for the sticker called « Catalyst » which is most of the time located under the hood.
2: On that sticker, you will see 2 important informations:
a)The federal standard, that will tell you if the vehicle is classed in the Tier I or Tier II category. If it's Tier I, bad news. This means that it has an older technology, therefore pollutes more. If it is Tier II, you must look for its BIN score. The higher the BIN number, the less efficient the anti-pollution system is. For example, the BIN number of a Toyota Prius is 3. I have seen some up to 9.
If you come across a sticker with a fleet standard, you won't be able to tell the rating of that particular vehicle. Therefore, you will have to look for it online.
b)The Californian standard: Will indicate if it complies with the LEV I or LEV II standard. I suggest you to look for a LEV II vehicle with a ULEV, SULEV or PZEV standard. These are the cleanest cars.
I hope that you enjoyed this chronicle that I dared to call essential. This subject being somewhat more technical, and maybe at first glance, less interesting than usual made it a challenge for me to make it approachable, but it proved to be quite essential for anyone interested in buying a clean vehicle.