Australia's top 10 gas guzzlers

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Australia's top 10 gas guzzlers

We all know that a Toyota Prius - officially Australia's greenest car - is more fuel efficient than a large ute or a big muscle car, and that frugal diesels are more fuel efficient than their conventional petrol-engined counterparts.

But what cars do you need to drive if you want to be less fuel efficient? If you have money to burn and couldn't care less about the environment, then read on.

The following ten cars are the ones most likely to annoy your green neighbours. The figures come from the government's Green Vehicle Guide and include all cars officially sold in Australia in 2008.

The first figure listed in brackets is the combined fuel economy (litres per 100km), the second is CO2 emissions (grams per km)

10) Land Rover Range Rover Sport Supercharged (15.9, 374)
You'd expect there to be an SUV or two on this list. So coming it at number 10 is this British-built luxury-offroader. And, if you scroll down, it's joined on the list by its bigger brother...

9) Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT-8 (16.1, 380)
At the end of the day, what do you expect? If you're going to put the 6.1-litre SRT-8 Hemi from the Dodge Challenger into a large SUV, it's not going to be a recipe for champion fuel economy, is it?

8) Land Rover Range Rover Vogue Supercharged (16, 359)
We've avoided listing separate variants of any particular model on this list. But the Range Rover is actually a completely separate car from the Range Rover Sport, built on a different platform. But it's still thirsty

7) Maybach 57S (16.4, 390)
Super-luxury costs serious wonga. In the case of the Maybach, we're talking up to $1,150,000. And it costs a lot to the environment too. Which probably explains why Maybach wasn't able to sell a single car in Australia during 2007. And 2007 was a record-breaking year for new car sales in Australia!

6) Nissan Y61 Patrol (16.4, 393)
If you're rich, live in the outback and have a large family, you might want a seven-seater SUV. And Nissan will be only to happy to sell you one. It's big. It's thirsty. And it's being replaced for the 2010 model year, so if you want to be a top 10 polluter, get in quick.

5) Mercedes-Benz M Class ML63 AMG (16.5, 392)
Can you see a pattern emerging here? SUV? Check! Whopping great engine? Check! Drop a 6.2-litre block into Mercedes' luxury SUV and you've got a way of great way of guzzling a lot of fuel in a short amount of time.

4) Bentley Continental [all models] (16.6, 396)
The most successful Bentley of all time has seen worldwide sales of the brand increase by several thousand percent. The handsome coupe combines Volkswagen's engineering know-how with British craftsmanship. It's great, but it's thirsty.

3) Holden Special Vehicles VE W427 (17.2, 405)
There aren't any utes on our list (at 14.7L/100km, the Maloo came close), but at least there's one homegrown icon that holds its own against the international gas-guzzlers. Ladies and Gentleman, the HSV VE W427.

2) Bentley Azure/Arnage/Brooklands (19.5, 465)
If you want proper, old-fashioned, coachbuilt emissions, those emissions don't come any more old-fashioned and coachbuilt than the traditional Bentleys. Based on designs pre-dating the Volkswagen era, they represent a truly British way of using fuel in the least frugal manner possible.

1) Lamborghini Murcielago LP 640 Roadster (21.3, 495)
Lamborghini's Murcielago is a hefty, thirsty beast of a car. They say the devil has all the best tunes. It would seem he has all the best cars as well. If you want to pollute, don't get a ute, get a Lamborghini.

Don't forget, these are the government's official figures. They miss out one or two important cars (Ferrari is not listed, for some unknown reason). If you're sad/surprised not to see Koenigsegg in the list, it's because the CC CCX slips just below our list, with combined fuel economy of 15.8L/100km.