GOOD sirs, sheath your Porsche Turbos and Dodge Vipers and Saleen S7s. The Honda Civic GX is the fastest automobile on the freeway today. You don't stand a chance.
Because it burns super-clean compressed natural gas, the Civic GX permits solo drivers to use the high-occupancy-vehicle lane without the drudgery of human companionship. The Civic GX trails a series of baffling abbreviations behind it -- such as Alternative Fuel Vehicle (AFV) and Super Low Emission Vehicle (SULEV). The important thing to know is that, although there used to be a fair number of alt-fuel clean vehicles that qualified for HOV access -- including electric vehicles -- they are all but gone. GM and Ford, the two big players in compressed natural gas fleet vehicles, ended their programs last year.
As far as the market is concerned, the Civic GX has the diamond lane pretty much all to its lonesome.
And that's why it's the fastest. In the ordinary crush of L.A. commuting traffic, the gasping, 100-horsepower Civic GX will leave the brawniest 12-cylinder hypercars steaming in their own impotence.
Access to the HOV lane is highly coveted. Though the state would like to grant access to high-mileage hybrid cars such as the Toyota Prius, the federal government -- which has authority by way of the federal highway purse strings -- says no. Should that change, the Prius, the Honda Civic and Insight hybrids would all be eligible, while lower-mileage hybrids such as the Ford Escape and Lexus 400H would remain mired in traffic.
There are many good and high-minded reasons to own a Civic GX. The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, using a method that accounts for total environmental impact, ranks the GX the greenest vehicle on the market, above even the vaunted Prius. Compressed natural gas -- or CNG -- technology is well understood, safe and reliable. Also, natural gas although still a fossil fuel and messy to extract -- is far cleaner than liquid petroleum, which requires energy-intensive refinement and shipping. Also, unlike Arab oil, natural gas is produced domestically and its supplies are projected to last for decades. At the margins, natural gas is renewable, though the economics of so-called bio-gas are debatable.
So why aren't CNG vehicles such as the GX, and not hybrids and hydrogen, the caped crusaders of the green-car movement? Infrastructure.
