Tuesday 22nd July 2008

Motor Show: Green Awards

Motor Show closes with What Car? Green Awards

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The British Motor Show finished with the What Car? Green Awards 2008 last night. The greenest sports car award went to the Mini Cooper S, having beaten the Audi TT 2.0 TDI quattro and BMW 335d SE.

What Car? said of the Cooper S: 'It's filled with BMW's Efficient Dynamics technology, which is a range of systems including electric power steering and active aerodynamics that are designed to minimise the amount of fuel the car uses and reduce the gasses it chucks out.'

The A8 was deemed the best luxury car thanks to its all-aluminium body saving weight. The Fiat 500 1.2 Pop managed to hold off competition from the MINI Cooper D and the Vauxhall Corsa CDTi to win the Superminis catagory. The Ford Focus 1.6 TDCI Style was seen as a better choice even than the Econetic Focus and won the Small Family Cars catagory.

The greenest executive car was the BMW 318d ES. The German firm also won the 'Editor's Award' for its Efficient Dynamics programme and Toyota won the technology award for its plug-in hybrid technology.

The overall winner was the Focus 1.6 TDCI Style. What Car? said: 'Above all, the Focus is proof that outstanding efficiency and lower emissions can be achieved without using prohibitively expensive technologies.'

[bencollins]

Cooper D is outstanding allrounder with 75mpg and great overtaking over boost. Deserved IMO.

[Magners P.H]

bencollins said:

Cooper D is outstanding allrounder with 75mpg and great overtaking over boost. Deserved IMO.

But.. but.. the Prius is the greenest of all cars surely?!

Edited by Magners P.H on Tuesday 22 July 20:23

[Dogsey]

How the hell can the Mini Cooper S and the BMW 335d SE be considered sports cars??

[ross_stig]

Dogsey said:

How the hell can the Mini Cooper S and the BMW 335d SE be considered sports cars??

335d is a sports car, it's a small rear wheel drive car, lots and lots of power, it's quick in a line, under braking, cornering etc, and gets epic fuel consumption for the power it can deliver. it may not be a sports sports car like audi r8, 911's etc etc, but this is the green awards here. you gotta admit that 335d is a bloody impresive car, BMW diesel technology is amazing, other manufacturers simply haven't got it as good on the roads yet (note i said on the roads yet....Audi...prove me wrong - though i still think they'll struggle to beat BMW)

[MK4 Slowride]

Dogsey said:

How the hell can the Mini Cooper S and the BMW 335d SE be considered sports cars??

Obviously not driven either.

[Negative Creep]

MK4 Slowride said:

Dogsey said:

How the hell can the Mini Cooper S and the BMW 335d SE be considered sports cars??

Obviously not driven either.

How is it a sports car? It's a hot hatch

[MK4 Slowride]

Negative Creep said:

MK4 Slowride said:

Dogsey said:

How the hell can the Mini Cooper S and the BMW 335d SE be considered sports cars??

Obviously not driven either.

How is it a sports car? It's a hot hatch

I think sports in this case is quoted for performance.

[Negative Creep]

MK4 Slowride said:

Negative Creep said:

MK4 Slowride said:

Dogsey said:

How the hell can the Mini Cooper S and the BMW 335d SE be considered sports cars??

Obviously not driven either.

How is it a sports car? It's a hot hatch

I think sports in this case is quoted for performance.

By that logic a Maybach would be a sports car

[Al 450]

MK4 Slowride said:

Negative Creep said:

MK4 Slowride said:

Dogsey said:

How the hell can the Mini Cooper S and the BMW 335d SE be considered sports cars??

Obviously not driven either.

How is it a sports car? It's a hot hatch

I think sports in this case is quoted for performance.

So what they actually mean is performance car. There is no way that an oil burning rep-mobile can ever be regarded as a sports car. I'm sure it's great to drive and all that but no sports car.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports_car

[Magners P.H]

MK4 Slowride said:

Negative Creep said:

MK4 Slowride said:

Dogsey said:

How the hell can the Mini Cooper S and the BMW 335d SE be considered sports cars??

Obviously not driven either.

How is it a sports car? It's a hot hatch

I think sports in this case is quoted for performance.

Balmoral Green's Turbo R not get nominated then?

[Dogsey]

MK4 Slowride said:

Dogsey said:

How the hell can the Mini Cooper S and the BMW 335d SE be considered sports cars??

Obviously not driven either.

You're right, I've driven neither, but I know what both cars are like in terms of numbers of seats / body style and I'm sorry but neither of them are sports cars!

[collateral]

bencollins said:

Cooper D is outstanding allrounder with 75mpg and great overtaking over boost. Deserved IMO.

According to the article it didn't win

ETA funny they mentioned the steering on the S as it's one of the things people say isn't as good as on the first one

Edited by collateral on Wednesday 23 July 02:28

[bencollins]

collateral said:

bencollins said:

Cooper D is outstanding allrounder with 75mpg and great overtaking over boost. Deserved IMO.

According to the article it didn't win

ETA funny they mentioned the steering on the S as it's one of the things people say isn't as good as on the first one

Edited by collateral on Wednesday 23 July 02:28

AH good point. That´s odd, its either changed or I read it wrongly first time. Hurumph.

[dinkel]

The greenest executive car was the BMW 318d ES.

Sorry? Does that say 'executive car' . . . There's more room in the Focus . . . A 5er is more like an executive car, innit? IMO.

[Plotloss]

What have they done in the new Cooper S to make it so green?

As my one, 03 plate, was utterly utterly hideous on fuel, nearly as bad as the TVR, averaging 24.1mpg during the time I had it.

[loomx]

What havent they done more like, the R56 has direct injection, auto start stop, brake regeneration and more. If you take a quick look around any MINI forum most people average over 30mpg and its not hard to get near 40 on a long run. All while being quite a bit quicker than the old model.

Edited by loomx on Wednesday 23 July 09:41

[DamoLLb]

Al 450 said:

MK4 Slowride said:

Negative Creep said:

MK4 Slowride said:

Dogsey said:

How the hell can the Mini Cooper S and the BMW 335d SE be considered sports cars??

Obviously not driven either.

How is it a sports car? It's a hot hatch

I think sports in this case is quoted for performance.

So what they actually mean is performance car. There is no way that an oil burning rep-mobile can ever be regarded as a sports car. I'm sure it's great to drive and all that but no sports car.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports_car

I'm sure lots of reps drive 335d- oh dear a Wikipedia quote, the source of all that is true

[loomx]

DamoLLb said:

Al 450 said:

MK4 Slowride said:

Negative Creep said:

MK4 Slowride said:

Dogsey said:

How the hell can the Mini Cooper S and the BMW 335d SE be considered sports cars??

Obviously not driven either.

How is it a sports car? It's a hot hatch

I think sports in this case is quoted for performance.

So what they actually mean is performance car. There is no way that an oil burning rep-mobile can ever be regarded as a sports car. I'm sure it's great to drive and all that but no sports car.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports_car

I'm sure lots of reps drive 335d- oh dear a Wikipedia quote, the source of all that is true

I think its fair enough including a 335d in the sports catorgoy, but really it should be an M-sport.

[Fotofrog]

Are What Car? on some sort of back hander from BMW?! There seems to be a lot with them and BMW/Mini vehicles rating really highly when other cars are all diregarded... im pretty sure the TT-D is a more ecomical "Sports" car etcetc

Executive vehicles i class when selling as A6,5series, E Class .. weird that the 318 won this..

o well not gonna moan ..

as a side note the 335d Coupe and Saloon are both outstanding cars and i would say either would suffice for me as a sports car..

[chris7676]

Isn't pollution form diesels significantly more harmfull than petrol engines?