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Originally Posted by CamelFilters
It's all good 
Right now I just cant seem to put the two pieces together: people who are concerned about emissions and 339HP 0-60 in 5(-6) sec car  |
I have to disagree. The Highlander Hybrid has 270 horsepower V6 and is rated as an SULEV vehicle. This is why I bought it. The standard V6 is around 220 horse power but does not carry the SULEV tag and neither does the 155 horse 4 cyl. If I was only concerned about MPG I would have gotten the 4 cyl which comes very close to the Hybrid for MPG. The fact that I got a more powerful car and was able to reduce emmisions was a big plus in my book.
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Originally Posted by CamelFilters
"Reduced" emssions is also relative, toyota claims it's compared to a V8. I wouldnt claim a V6 with 273HP a significant enough engine to reduce emissions. I have never heard anyone with a 273HP toyota camry/avalon brag about their "reduced emissions", as someone said in the earlier thread, what's the difference between this engine and a regular V6 engine.
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That's because the neither of these cars are classified as SULEV, but the 340 hp Lexus is and it is a big selling point in my opinion. SULEV is not relative it is an absolute rating based on the weight class of the vehicle. In order for a passenger vehicle to be rated as SULEV it has to put out less that 0.010 grams of HC, 1.0 grams of CO, and 0.02 grams of NOx per mile. So the person who owns the Lexus can brag that he is putting less emmissions into the atmospher than the the 273 HP Camry/Avalon owner. And go figure, he also has more HP.
http://www.cars.com/carsapp/national...ons_popup.tmpl
Emmissions is not necessarily tied directly to MPG.
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Originally Posted by CamelFilters
Again, you cant have a four banger in a car this big. So i must say that People will be buying this for other reasons. Personally, if people are very concerned about reducing emissions, the only engine option is a 4 cylinder with a hybrid motor
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This is incorrect. Both hybrid Lexus models and the Highland hybrid have considerable more power than the Prius and yet all these vehicles carry the same SULEV rating. The amount of pollution you put into the air is not just dependent upon your MPG. It has a lot to do with how much of the fuel is burned during combustion. The idea is to burn up all the fuel that is put into the combustion engine. Any fuel that is left unburnt is what contributes the most to your tail pipe emmisions. Therefore, comparing car A to car B simply by MPG is not a fair comparison for emmisions if car B is more effecient at burning all the fuel in the combustion chamber.