2010 TDI Golf one of five finalists for 2010 green car of the year

Trooper81

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Ontario Canada
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2000 New Beetle, 2011 Touareg TDI
"The Green Car of the Year award is given out by the Green Car Journal, which narrows the field of green cars down to five and then turns over the decision to pick a winner to "jurors such as Jay Leno, Jean-Michel Cousteau, Carroll Shelby, Matt Petersen of Global Green USA and the Sierra Club's Carl Pop." The winner will be announced in LA on December 3"

Vote for the Golf TDI by clicking the link :)

http://green.autoblog.com/2009/10/07/2010-green-car-of-the-year-finalists-three-hybrids-two-diesel/
 

yakko TDI

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Here
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MKV Jetta TDI
So is this based on actually being green or just what comes out of the tailpipe? Until battery technology advances far beyond what it it today I don't see how any hybrid full of batteries can be considered green.
 

DickSilver

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Kentucky
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I vote the Golf TDI now, but I'm not buying another car until there is a new wave of technology in the showrooms. Hydrogen? EV/batteries? Who knows just now...
 

rampage

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Rustville, MI
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1998 Jetta
If the sierra club is voting I'll make sure to put the winner on the 'not to buy' list. Can't think of a group who has done more to destroy 'real world' efforts towards environmental conservation... Well, maybe the EPA.
 

frugality

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Sep 19, 2003
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Spring Lake, Michigan
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none, 2016 GTI
I already have a green Golf. I want the next one to be a different color. :D

Seriously, though. This enviro-fanaticism is getting ridiculous.
 

mtbr297

Vendor
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Nov 3, 2002
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Ft. Worth, TX., USA
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2015 Golf TDI, Seat Leon FR PD 150 6 speed.
How can they have the golf and A3? Both have the exact same engine. Oh well it doubles the chances of a tdi winning.
 

Art Vandelay

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KC
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2009 JSW
mtbr297 said:
How can they have the golf and A3? Both have the exact same engine. Oh well it doubles the chances of a tdi winning.
Actually, it probably cuts the chances in half, since it will dilute TDI votes across two cars.
 

Olbrenner

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Jul 26, 2004
Location
North Florida
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New Beetle, 2000, Gelp
Curious

rampage said:
If the sierra club is voting I'll make sure to put the winner on the 'not to buy' list. Can't think of a group who has done more to destroy 'real world' efforts towards environmental conservation... Well, maybe the EPA.
What would be the basis for this thought, specifics?
 

LRTDI

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Red Sox Nation
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RIP 16 GSW... Just the LR diesel now
They have diluted the TDI vote bu having two near identical vehicles. Chosen a Mercury that nobody buys rather than the Ford Fusion.

Seems to me this is rigged in favor of the Pious..Prius.
 

TornadoRed

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Olbrenner said:
What would be the basis for this thought, specifics?
The Sierra Club gives environmentalism a bad name -- it's just another branch of the CPUSA.
 

itchytweed

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May 24, 2009
Location
Milwaukee, WI
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2010 Jetta TDI Sportwagen
My vote for the best "green" form of transportation: your feet ;)

But wait, the EPA wants to say that CO2 is a pollutant and walking increases CO2 production, so walking is polluting. :p
 

TDIFred

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Joined
Oct 29, 2004
Location
Hamilton, Ontario
TDI
Jetta Sportwagen, 2009, Graphite
Trooper81 said:
"The Green Car of the Year award is given out by the Green Car Journal, which narrows the field of green cars down to five and then turns over the decision to pick a winner to "jurors such as Jay Leno, Jean-Michel Cousteau, Carroll Shelby, Matt Petersen of Global Green USA and the Sierra Club's Carl Pop." The winner will be announced in LA on December 3"

Vote for the Golf TDI by clicking the link :)

http://green.autoblog.com/2009/10/07/2010-green-car-of-the-year-finalists-three-hybrids-two-diesel/
so far that tactic seems to be working!
 

vtyankee

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Sep 24, 2007
Location
Southern Vermont
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2006.5 Jetta Package 1 Campanella White
rampage said:
If the sierra club is voting I'll make sure to put the winner on the 'not to buy' list. Can't think of a group who has done more to destroy 'real world' efforts towards environmental conservation... Well, maybe the EPA.
They picked the Jetta TDi last year. :rolleyes:
 

Golfwagon

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Sep 29, 2009
Location
Ontario
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Golf Wagon
Green Car

Lets see how green the hybrids are when the old batteries start decaying. I think old lithium batteries piling up in a recycle yard may pose some environmental problems.
 

frugality

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Spring Lake, Michigan
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none, 2016 GTI
Golfwagon said:
Lets see how green the hybrids are when the old batteries start decaying. I think old lithium batteries piling up in a recycle yard may pose some environmental problems.
Recycling. Have you heard of it? You can already recycle any laptop or cell phone Li-ion battery at any Batteries Plus for free. And I was just in Best Buy today; in their doorway is a bin for recycling of cell phones and batteries.

There's money to be made in recycling, because you're recovering rare materials that would have to be mined somewhere.

Hybrid bashing is not necessary. They're good options.
 

rotarykid

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Joined
Apr 27, 2003
Location
Piedmont of N.C. & the plains of Colorado
TDI
1997 Passat TDI White,99.5 Blue Jetta TDI
2010 Green Car of the Year
Audi A3 TDI...............308 (15.6%)
Honda Insight..............89 (4.5%)
Mercury Milan Hybrid...313 (15.8%)
Toyota Prius..............472 (23.9%)
VW Golf TDI...............740 (37.5%)
other..........................56 ( 2.8%)

Looks like the Golf TDI-CR is in the lead with the A3 TDI-CR in a close 4th-3rd-2nd battle on the web voting .
 
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LRTDI said:
They have diluted the TDI vote bu having two near identical vehicles. Chosen a Mercury that nobody buys rather than the Ford Fusion.

Seems to me this is rigged in favor of the Pious..Prius.
The Jetta TDI got 2009 Green car of the year.. which means it BEAT the Prius last year.

frugality said:
Recycling. Have you heard of it? You can already recycle any laptop or cell phone Li-ion battery at any Batteries Plus for free. And I was just in Best Buy today; in their doorway is a bin for recycling of cell phones and batteries.

There's money to be made in recycling, because you're recovering rare materials that would have to be mined somewhere.

Hybrid bashing is not necessary. They're good options.
The batteries that are in hybrids/electric cars are basically SOLID waste (and the quantity/size of them), not exactly like your cell phone batteries. Tons of places have had the cell phone/battery bins for years, but it is not until fairily recently that I have seen them being stuffed full of phones/batteries
 
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740GLE

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NH
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2015 Passat SEL, 2017 Alltrack SE; BB 2010 Sedan Man; 2012 Passat,
there is also energy to go into that recycling process, I am sure way less than to manufacture new batteries, but another added cost as well.

but people could also say the added cost/materials of manufacturing the diesel engines and emissions could be used against the TDI.
 

GTIDan

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So. California
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frugality said:
Recycling. Have you heard of it? You can already recycle any laptop or cell phone Li-ion battery at any Batteries Plus for free. And I was just in Best Buy today; in their doorway is a bin for recycling of cell phones and batteries.

There's money to be made in recycling, because you're recovering rare materials that would have to be mined somewhere.

Hybrid bashing is not necessary. They're good options.
Sorry, there not.
Consider this before you speak:
To get the raw materials to build the battery it must first be mined. Way up in northeast Canada. It's than trucked to the port where it's put on a cargo ship which diesels it's way to Europe. There it is partially refined and trucked back to the port and put on another ship and sent to China. In China the product is further refined into some sort of gel and put back on a ship where it goes on to Japan and made into the finished battery. So how much of a carbon footprint do we have here? I've heard it takes an average of six to eight years of driving a Prius just to get back to even on the carbon footprint left by the mining of the raw materials. One must look at the 'total' picture when considering a Hybrid.

Hybrids, when taken at a whole, are not that green at all. OK, the batteries can be recycled........at what cost? They could make them better by using a diesel engine rather then gas. That would help. I understand that is being done in Europe right now.

Diesel TDIs may not be to long term answer to the 'green' movement but for the foreseeable future it makes a great case. It won't be until the next break through in battery development that electric cars make any real sense to the average Joe.
 

That Guy

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Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
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2001 MKiv Golf TDI
I'd have to agree with GTIDan.

The best solution that I can see is possibly one of the following:

- Much better batteries + a huge improvement in how the electricity is made (ie better solar panels, or cold fusion or something....a fair amount of power is lost between the power stations and the user)
- Diesel from algae or fungus...renewable and requires no big changes on the engine side of things. They just need to figure out how to mass produce the stuff.

PS: Did anyone notice the 2010 VW Golf commercials...claiming the Golf to be the new car of the year. Anyone know if that's related to this?...I'm not sure they were talking about a green aspect.
 

rotarykid

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You're not going to find much hybrid support here , we here know how useless they really are . Hybrids are too expensive and accomplish nothing that a small displacement gas or diesel engine coupled to a manual trans doesn't accomplish at as little as 1/5th the cost .


Give me , give the US a 70+ mpgUS Polo BluemotionTDI now !!! If we had these cars here this car would show what a farse all hybrids really are ................................Our stupid ignorant over stringent light duty diesel emissions don't give us clean air :rolleyes: . Not a lot of clean air to be gotten from over regulating none existent not sold in the US for most of the last 25 years light duty diesels .

Our stupid current overzealous light duty emissions regs only block the US from having the most fuel efficient cars ever built !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

frugality

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Hybrids are still great choices compared to most everything else that's out there. If there were no TDI's, I'd be fine driving a Prius. I'd much rather drive one of them than a Cobalt or Taurus or whatever else.

It's unfortunate that we have so many myopic ignoramuses here.
 

NFSTDI

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Sunny California :)
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'98 Jetta
Prius, ever sat in one? Ever drove one a long distance? Try sitting in the backseat for a few hours. I'm a small guy and I find it to be less than comfy.

I would not waste my time with nor money with Hybrid technology. It's a marketing ploy, not an answer to any of the worlds problems.

Heavy Metals + Corrosive Liquids = Environmental Nightmare

Batteries = Problems

Batteries must be created by means already discussed here and else where. They must be maintained until the degrade beyond usefulness. They must be replaced with new ones again created through environmentally damaging methods. The old ones must be disposed of or recycled in some way, not an easy nor a clean task. This alone is an environmental nightmare.

In the end all Hybrids burn gasoline. That is an unavoidable fact of life. Fuel economy and less pollution is a marketing ploy to sell cars not save the planet. The fact is cars destroy the planet in many ways. Diesel, hybrid, gasoline, doesn't matter. They all burn petroleum based fuel. They all require petroleum based lubricants. They all contain plastics. They are painted with acrylic paints. None of these materials can be created nor used without measurable damage to the environment. It's a simple fact of life.

Fuel economy is the biggest joke of all. The other day I drove past a billboard stating the Prius is the most fuel efficient car in America. Most of the members of this forum know about the road test done with a Prius and BMW 335d. The BMW ran farther on the same amount of fuel. EPA numbers are moderately better for the Prius than they are for various other fuel efficient vehicles. However, real world driving tells a different story. Try loading a Prius up with cargo and five adults. Now try that in a Jetta TDI, a TDI wagon, or a BMW 335d and see how far you get on a gallon of fuel. Never mind the comfort factor.

I've sat in the back seat of my 1998 Jetta. If you offer me the front seat of a Prius or the backseat of a Jetta I'll get in the Jetta every time.

As for protecting the environment, my car does more to preserve our planets eco system than any three Hybrids. My car was built in Mexico so it's never been on a ship. Sure the parts came from all over the world but they were shipped with thousands of tons of other items and resources necessary for modern life. My car was purchased locally by a woman who cared for it well enough but not excessively. She drove more miles than most and moved to another car after seven years and nearly two hundred thousand miles. I restored it using parts from a totaled car and some new items. I've driven seventy thousand miles on two sets of tires and about 50% B99 and 50% D2. I have been burning B99 made from recycled seed stock for over ten thousand miles. I challenge anyone to show me how I can do any better on a motor vehicle.

The fact is all cars pollute. All cars damage the environment. All cars are bad for the planet. It's a simple fact of life. Anyone who thinks that buying a hybrid is going to make some noticeable difference in the amount of damage people do to the planet is fooling themselves. I certainly don't believe I'm making anything more than a nominal difference in the footprint I leave behind. I do feel good about the fact that my money is not flowing in to big oil and foreign soil. That is why I bought my car in the first place. I love my car because it's fun to drive, not because I'm doing anything to save the planet.

As for recycling batteries, computers, or any other hazardous waste, get real people. It's a feel good idea that is far from reality.
 

mareprops

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Chicago
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Jetta 2003
frugality said:
Hybrids are still great choices compared to most everything else that's out there. If there were no TDI's, I'd be fine driving a Prius. I'd much rather drive one of them than a Cobalt or Taurus or whatever else.

It's unfortunate that we have so many myopic ignoramuses here.
Sorry but your wrong again. GTIDan was right. The process to make that batteries for hybrids is equal to driving a land rover discovery v8.:rolleyes: I have family in canada where they mine for batteries and they say its filthy. Why don't they just put small weak 1.2l engines in cars like before with no batteries system. Man cars in the late 80's got 40-50 mpg easy. Oh well.
 

frugality

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mareprops said:
Sorry but your wrong again. GTIDan was right.
That's your opinion, and you're entitled to it.
mareprops said:
The process to make that batteries for hybrids is equal to driving a land rover discovery v8.:rolleyes:
Unsubstantiated speculation.
mareprops said:
I have family in canada where they mine for batteries and they say its filthy.
Fine. But there is a ton of filthy pollution from the refining of the extra fuel that regular cars burn twice as much of compared to a Prius, plus all the extra exhaust.
 
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