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This paper discusses in detail how data categories, data quality and allocation procedures were defined and implemented in the USAMP LCI analysis of a generic automobile. These data-related parameters are important for all LCI analyses but are especially important for the USAMP LCI analysis of a complete automobile. Whereas most LCI analyses have been conducted on relatively simple product systems consisting of a single material made with a single manufacturing process, the USAMP product system consists of a vast, interconnected array of dissimilar materials, products and manufacturing processes coupled with complex use, maintenance and disposition life cycle stages. As a result of this complexity, data is necessarily collected from an equally wide range of potentially incompatible sources.

The United States Automotive Materials Partnership Life Cycle Assessment Special Topics Group (USAMP/LCA) has conducted a Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) using a suitable set of metrics to benchmark the environmental (not cost) performance of a generic vehicle, namely, the 1995 Intrepid/Lumina/Taurus. This benchmark will serve as a basis of comparison for environmental performance estimates of new and future vehicles (e.g. PNGV). The participants were Chrysler Corporation, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, The Aluminum Association, The American Iron and Steel Institute, and the American Plastic Council. The study was strictly a life cycle inventory. The approach was to quantify all suitable material and energy inputs and outputs, including air, water, and solid wastes. The inventory covered the entire life cycle; from raw material extraction from the earth, to material production, parts manufacture, vehicle assembly, use, maintenance, recovery/recycling, and disposal.