The Weight Adjusted Vehicle Equivalency scale
As a car guy I take great pleasure in just about everything cars. I like to follow new models and trends, new technologies too. I’ve owned a lot of cars and for me car buying means comparing and digesting several different figures in the vehicle specs. Weight, horsepower, torque, MPGs, towing capacity. Yes, I do some towing with my passenger car, but more on that later.
In recent years, we’ve seen much attention given over to green trends and car buyers are basing their decisions more and more on the little numbers on the window sticker for MPGs. As evidenced by a recent run of ads by Chevy, it’s a safe bet that all too often, we’re summing up the whole picture with the highway MPG figure… Once that’s in the 30’s surely we’re as green as the Jones’ and no one is going to fault us for driving the SUV – even if the city MPGs are the teens.
Oh – whoops did I draw attention to that? City MPGs in the teens…? Sounds heavy right? And heavy it is, because weight matters when it comes to MPGs and your overall impact on the environment. There’s nothing green about excessive weight and you really should know how much your car weighs. Because if your car is heavy, chances are the manufacturer has installed a monster engine to hide it’s girth – and that is why the city mileage is so low.
To offer another point of view on vehicle comparisons, we’re introducing the ‘WAVE’, or Weight Adjusted Vehicle Equivalency scale. The WAVE scale makes a simple calculation of the vehicles weight and torque specs to establish a measure of a vehicles potential impact on the environment. Each vehicle in the scale is indexed against the worst performer in terms of MPGs as listed by the EPA. Currently that vehicle is a Mercedes SUV – the SL 65 AMG which then scores a perfect 100.
Here are a few examples of common vehicles as measured on the WAVE scale:
Ford Expedition 93.83
Chevy Suburban 81.24
Chevy Corvette 59.28
Ford Mustang 59.33
Toyota Highlander 45.24
Dodge Grand Caravan 43.54
Ford Taurus 44.41
Honda Accord 38.43
Toyota Camry 36.82
VW Golf 22.59
Honda Fit 11.53
Lotus Elise 11.14
Chevy Aveo 11.29
So what does the WAVE scale tell us about these cars? Well, if you need 7 passenger seating, the Suburban stacks up poorly against the Caravan. If you still like the Suburban for style reasons, you’d be much better off with a Corvette or the Elise, in fact you could be driving 6 or 7 Elises everywhere you go and make less of an impact.
If you only need seating for 5 and you are considering a minivan – think about just how similar the minivan’s score is to something like the Highlander. You’ll make much less of an impact with an Accord or a Golf and you’ll have more fun every time you get behind the wheel. Too, notice how the Taurus scores close to the Highlander – the Taurus is notoriously heavy in this generation.
And what if you wanted to start your shopping with this scale? I’d take a close look at the VW Rabbit. It’s a performance machine and a thrill to drive. It seats 5, and has a towing capacity of 2300 lbs. I tow a pop-up camper with mine but you could also pull a small boat with it or a utility trailer.
What’s that you say; you need the Suburban? Maybe you do and maybe you don’t. Let’s look at that in another article. For now just imagine yourself driving something you enjoy for reasons other than it being the biggest thing you could afford.
