Ten Green Classics

Cars

1: The Honda Insight Mk1

Back when it was released in 1999 the first mass market electric hybrid it was otherworldly and strange. And  the cooler for it. A decade on it is retro progressive and quaint. Dig the clamp-busting rear wheels, too.

2: Land Rover Defender

The vast majority of all of these proper Landies are still on the road. Easy to maintain and fix with an adjustable spanner and a hammer. If something falls off, just bolt it back on. Utilitarian and future proof.

3 My Grandad’s Granada MK1

Not only are the words ‘Granada’ and ‘Grandad’ (almost) an anagram of one another, but my Grandad’s Gas Guzzling Granada outlived the old boy by a decade and officially ran for nearly 300,000 miles. Had he been that way inclined, he surely could have had it in the record books. And it was green.

4 Audi A1 Etron

Obviously taking design cues from the game changing Fiat 500, Audi’s electro-hybrid city car looks as sweet and fun as the Italian Shetland stallion but comes with a leccy motor too.

5 Puch Magnum

The farty little moped with the butch moniker is popular amid the emerging craze of caffing up 50 cc buzzers. Eternally cheap to run, determined to live on in our backyards and as fun as candy floss to thrash. Respect.

6 Caterham 7

Taking the micro manufacturing ethos to its most accessible conclusion, the lightweight flexible flyer treads ever so lightly whilst giving maximum automotive pleasure. If this is your only car, your footprint is going to be tiny.

7 Hindustani Ambassador

Ubiquitous on the subcontinent and manufactured constantly there since 1958, the ‘Amby’ is an object lesson in life cycle extension.

8 Bristol Fighter

Taking small volume manufacturing to its most inaccessible conclusion, Mr Bristol will only sell you a car if he likes you. Bespoke motoring in extremis, this. Still made in England and reeking of leather and walnut. This may be the future.

9 Cinelli Gazzetta, 2010

There’s no contradiction in drivers digging bikes. Dedicated road cyclists are after all intimates of the texture and camber of tarmac. Keep one in the back of your motor and there’ll be no need to sit in a traffic jam those last couple of miles to work ever again.

10 Honda CRZ

Whether a brand new car calling itself green is a contradiction or not, we love the look of Honda’s forthcoming ‘sporty’ hybrid.

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4 Responses to “Ten Green Classics”

  1. ecoangel

    Fiat 500 already has a “lecy” version and had the company took common rail diesel further than most manufacturers. You middes out the best of VW/Audi in there Audi A2 (Ally bodies are much lighter and use less energy to recycle – hence recycling coke cans) and the 1.2 TDI fitted to mine gives me 85 to 103 MPG in summer and 78mpg in winter on winter tyres the past 8 years., 81g/km CO2. Same set up for Lupo 3L. Thats with 4 adults and luggage unlike Honda Insight mk1.

    Modern cars are too fat and heavy. The future should be more like the Loremo http://www.loremo.com/

  2. Is that 85-103 mpg a tank average, or over a certain distance, or instantaneous?
    Its all and well touting high figures but its important to know the details.

  3. ecoangel

    yes average – 20 litres a tank gives 320 miles minimum range. Read about it in Audi Driver from last year.

    Or search for Audi A2 1.2 TDI on the web – first 4seater 5 door car to get average of 2.88lts/100km

    Even on autobahn at average 90 mph she will do over 60mpg. Same 0.25Cd as Insight Mk1 but two more on board.

  4. Hasn’t Bristol cars gone bankrupt a few years ago?
    Still Id rather be driving my 14r old proper car than a battery powered eco-box!