Be patient with me for minute here and I am going to explain how Subaru’s Travis Pastrana winning the 2008 X-Games Rally Race helps Subaru be a legit environmentally friendly auto manufacturer without having a single alternative energy car in the marketplace.

A bit ago I wrote about Travis Pastrana’s film, 199 Lives in Subaru’s Love Letter to Travis Pastrana and directly on the heels of his victory this week, I went to hear Tim Mahoney, VP of Subaru America’s marketing division at a Motor Press Guild event. Mahoney’s talk gave me a lot to think about and the one thing that really struck me was that Subaru is actually more green for three reasons (and these are my reasons, not Mahoney’s):

1. Subaru’s manufacturing plant in Indiana is 20 years environmentally conscious and is an industry example of how factories can co-exist with nature and communities. Among its accomplishments is that the plant recycles 99.3% of excess/leftover steel, plastic, wood, paper, glass, and other materials. The remaining 0.7% is shipped to the city of Indianapolis and incinerated to help generate steam and includes a wildlife habitat on site.
2. Something ridiculous like 90% of Subarus sold in the last 15 years are still on the road. It is completely normal for a Subaru to last 300,000 miles or more. And, Subaru owners are loyal: they will drive them until they can’t go anymore and then get a new one meaning that over a lifetime, owners will own a minimum number of cars. That means that these are not disposable cars that increase nasty manufacturing waste.
3. Travis Pastrana may use a lot of fuel in his races but by endoring such a highly energetic young personality, Subaru has made a wise choice because Pastrana fans tend to be the young, outdoorsy, athletic and loyal customers that will make great converts to the Subaru way of life: manufacture clean and manufacture less.

Mahoney also mentioned that Subaru Japan will be working closely with Daihatsu in Japan on alternative energy cars but frankly, I find it refreshing to see that they are not jumping on the band wagon of throwing a hybrid or diesel engine in every model without knowing the full implications of a quick sale vs. unproven and questionable technologies.

Here is an example of 2 great used Subarus with a lot of life and pep left in them.

Originally published here