AutoblogGreen

I'm not worried about Ferrari's or such as there are so few of them. It's the German piles of shit that concern me...every asshole and their neighbor has one, drives around like they are kings. Truly the epitomizer of penis extensions and egos over the top.

Most people who drive around these things are just as screwed up in the head as SUV drivers...truly a screwed up bunch of insecure, seriously stupid human beings.

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There aren't many Audi S and RS model either. Normally BMW M-fleet, Mercedes AMG and Audi S and RS models have production numbers which are similar to ferraris (Just a few hundred per year). Basically the idea behind a M-model or an RS-Audi is driving a sportscar that looks like a normal car.

F.e. the most economical version of the Ford F150 , the really useless pile of shit that is americas topseller has a mileage of 26 mpg (US).
The new german 2.0 TDI 170hp Audi A4 (Audis topseller) has a miileage of 45 mpg and 137 g CO2 per 100 km. And there are rumors that a 2.0 TFSI hybrid and a very cheap 1.4 TFSI Audi A4 will launch in 2009. That would be two very fuel-efficient cars.
Basically American SUVs and trucks are the biggest part of the problem, because that are massive useless polution machines. German brands could do very well without ugly big SUVs. Who needs a M-class or a Q7 anyway?

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just as the list of worst gas-guzzlers (and we ain't talking just some S model here) is almost completely monopolized by the German car makers, so too this list:
http://www.vcacarfueldata.org.uk/information/how-to-use-the-data-tables.asp#petrol

finds them incredibly absent. indeed the first German diesel in the "cleanest" car list is way down in eighteenth (18th) position. I say incredibly because given the price of a Polo, Golf, A3 or Class A Mercedes compared to their competition, I would have expected them to have taken all the top positions, which seem to be exclusive to the French, Italian and Japanese car makers

The Audi A4 has exactly the same mileage as the C5, but costs a mere 7000 euros more.....Indeed the list above is in absolute figures, if emissions were indeed tallied with the car price in mind the first German car wouldn't even be in 18th position, but somewhere around 37th position....

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The Audi A4 has 30hp more and better build quality and a far better ride and a little bit more electronic Gizmos in the basic version than the C5. I did actually test drive both cars in the last two weeks. The C5 is a really nice car, but I wouldn't buy it without hydro-pneumatics because the normal ride is too soft for adequate driving. The C5 has a very nice design and would look very well on the street. The Audi is sportier and has nicer interiors. The transmission is a little bit better, too. If you have the money the A4 is the better car. If you don't have enough money for the quite expensive Audi the Citroen C5 is a nice substitute.

On the new Fiat:
My neighbor has bought one of that new Fiat 500. Looks quite good for Fiat but isn't very practical. I still like the Peugeot 107 more. Just looks better than the Retro-Fiat.

For the Future:
In four or five years I will buy the Audi A1 PHEV, the Opel Flextreme or the Volvo C3 Recharge and do all trips shorter than 100km in electrical mode.

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and in 15 years time i will be flying backwards and invisibly on my acme broomstick....

i'm just one of those silly people that are paying a lot more attention to these two aforementioned lists
- the list of today's "cleanest" cars
- the list of today's "dirtiest" cars
(in 4 or 5 years time - and in some cases well before then - there will be a Renault EV and the Pininfarina-Bollore EV as well as the Mitsubishi MiEV EV)

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it's not a matter of having or not the extra SEVEN THOUSAND EUROS or not.
It's more a matter of even you had ten times that amount to throw at the seven winds, wouldn't you rather buying holidays for your family for the next 2-3 years, or that dingy you've been meaning to get, or a laptop for every single member of the family, or who whatever...

and that's assuming that it were just a matter of pitting a sensible car like the C5 against the A4 ("the better car" and "sportier" are your opinion but and highly subjective and with all the numbers there are to play with - emissions figures, fuel economy, euroncap scores, etc... i really don't see the need to be subjective...)

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the trend in all of Europe (except Germany) is for smaller and more efficient vehicles. this is especially true for the UK and Spain markets. so rather than ask themselves "do i prefer the C5 to the A4 and spend the other seven thousand on umpteen different things" they are actually dropping both for more compact cars. there is not only the initial price difference of course. in most of Europe today you also have things like a Vehicle Excise Duty and charges like the London Congestion Charge (Stockhom, Milan etc.).....

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The C5's ride without hydro-pneumatics is to soft for my taste. There is a need to be subjective if it is about comfort. And Sportiness can be given by numbers like top speed, acceleration and curve statistics. Top speed is 10 mph higher in the Audi. Acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h is almost 2 seconds shorter. And traction and curve stability are far better. The weight distribution in the A4 is front/rear 52:48. The Citroen just has an unsporty front/rear 61:39 weight distribution. Second thing is that the A4 has far better interior materials. Third thing is that in Aachen the Citroen dealership wants the citroens list prices for their cars. The Audi dealership has prices about 2000 Euro lower than the list price. If you want some decent add-ons for your car(leather,navigation,bluetooth,seat-heating and Xenon) the Audi has better pricing conditions than the Citroen.

P.S.: Seven thousand Euro for three holidays is absolutely impossible.

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talk about tastes is pretty futile. the purpose of the ABG is to talk about green cars, which the A4 clearly isn't.

to be objective with your example would have been as simple as comparing the C5 against a car in the same price bracket, e.g. VW passat

still on the a4, i can't help but find it more than a little curious that despite the 7000 euros price difference, the C5 has a better euroncap safety score of 5 stars and 35 points compared with 4 stars and 30 points for the A4. Granted, the new test results for the A4 still aren't out, but 4 stars for a car with this pricetag and size was already very poor back in 2001.
To remain on the ABG side of things and despite again the 7000euros difference:
http://www.vcacarfueldata.org.uk/search/vehicleDetails.asp?id=15378
http://www.vcacarfueldata.org.uk/search/vehicleDetails.asp?id=20636

the new A4 has twice the particulates as the C5, 0.142g NOx compared with 0.126 for the C5, and 0.162 HC+NOx compared with 0.153 for the C5.

For me the choice is pretty obvious: by choosing the C5 I get the greener car AND win a small fortune of 7000 euros (note the AND)

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