I have a 1991 Caprice Classic.
I bought it in 1996.
In that 17 years I have bought one additional car (six years ago).
Even though I gravitate to cars that get crummy mileage, I cannot help but wonder if I am ahead of the people who are getting great mileage but replace their car every two years on energy consumption.
How much energy does it take to make a car, and if we're talking about being all greenie here, buying a new car that gets better mileage doesn't save any gas since your old car will still be in service with someone else! You made the problem WORSE!
I found a web page claiming it took the equivalent to 715 gallons of gas to build a 2009 Civic.
On average I use 10 gallons a week in my Corvette. So I use 520 gallons a year.
Our Civic owner gets about 50% more miles per gallon. So figure, 7.5 gallons per week or 390 per year. Buying a new Civic every other year adds 357.5 gallons per year for a total of 747.5 per year if they drive as much as I do (and most people drive a lot more).
The Lovely Harvey is a more typical commuter than I am and she puts on 676 gallons a year in her Civic. For her to replace that car every other year like I see so many people do, 1,033.5 gallons! More than double what my gas guzzling Vette uses.
The Caprice uses even less gas since it's not driven near as much. I filled the 23 gallon tank in July and I am only just now getting to needing to fill up again.
I can see that I am not the energy problem here.
I drove my '97 Saturn until 2012, and it has since permanently stopped consuming fuel.
ReplyDeleteI plan to drive my 2012 Mazda (at a rate of ~300 gallons per year) for a good long while. Probably until I can replace it with a practical electric (or hydrogen?) vehicle at a reasonable price. Or it wears out, whichever comes first.