12th Jan 2011, 11:46
"The myth that getting a newer, fuel efficient car will save you money in long run is total BS."
Yes, but it is no myth that driving old cars around burns more fuel and pollutes the air about 10 times as much as the newer more efficient cars do. I guess we all have our priorities though.
12th Jan 2011, 13:03
Speaking Arabic? Doubtful. A lot of us are not destitute. I may go to a very fast cool hybrid, which will be produced. Someone buying a new 80 grand hybrid like the FISKAR, being many here, will not be hindered. What do you work for, and achieve success to be? Intimidated into a car that is terrible to ride in? There are plenty of people that will not allow their driving pleasure to be intimidated by oil. It goes up and down; usually down after the holidays. It amazes me that gas prices are higher near big cities and lower in the areas of lower income. It seems targeted to those that don't shop, or the real estate is higher...
12th Jan 2011, 16:35
So the 30 mpg my new car gets is TEN TIMES what an older car gets?? HARDLY. Both my 1988 Dodge Daytona and my 1990 Dodge Omni got BETTER gas mileage than any of my three much newer cars. No old car I know gets 3 mpg. My 5.0 Mustang wasn't far off at 11 mpg, but that is hardly A TENTH of modern car mileage. Also, when you factor in pollution from electric plants that provide electricity for the new plug-in hybrids the ecology is helped VERY LITTLE. Factoring in the cost difference you'd have to drive a new hybrid or electric car 500,000 miles to break even. I'll stick with more fuel efficient gas engine cars for a very long time yet.
12th Jan 2011, 16:48
I am to keep on driving my Crown Victoria, as I don't want to buy Al Gore another mansion just to satisfy this so called global warming, which is nothing more than a hoax to impose more taxes, and have everyone driving around in electric junkboxes.
13th Jan 2011, 09:10
"12th Jan 2011, 14:16
It is amazing how we can justify anything these days isn't it?"
If you're that upset about me driving an older vehicle, why don't you make a $30,000 contribution to the Environmental Defense Fund?
13th Jan 2011, 11:26
Because I spent my $30K on a car that is good on gas, so I could help the environment every day.
13th Jan 2011, 11:58
How does driving a car help the environment? If somebody really cared about the environment, they would ride a bike, take public transportation, or at least get a scooter. There are not many people in any industrialized country who can find any moral high ground from which to throw stones when it comes to helping the environment. Least of all, by claiming that they bought a new car.
So let's see the numbers: cubic feet or pounds (your choice) of carbon emissions from a 2011 Accord versus a V-6 throttle body fuel injected 1985 Buick. AND the additional pounds of carbon generated by the manufacturing of said Accord, including mining raw materials for new car, factory construction equipment emissions, carbon produced from electrical generation for manufacturing, coal mined for power generation. If anyone thinks that buying a new, fuel efficient car absolves them of all environmental sin, they are looking at only the small tip of the (melting) iceberg.
13th Jan 2011, 14:32
It reminds me of a couple of guys I knew in college close to 20 years ago. Very environmentally and socially conscious, liberal, grew up in Silicon Valley, and their parents were each making around $100k a year. They were always involved in college campaigns to save this or stop that. One time they came up with the idea that they would walk around town and put fliers on cars they deemed to be gas guzzlers, so that they could educate the owners about how their choices were impacting the environment. It was clear that they just had no concept of reality. I could just imagine some poor guy who was just trying to get his old heap to his $5/hr. job, a situation that I myself can identify with, and here come some do-gooders who want to educate him on his life choices. I tried to dissuade them from their campaign, since it's a good way to get punched in the nose by people who have more pressing worries on their mind, like whether they can afford both a 12-pack of Bud AND a pack of smokes. The solutions sure seem easy when all it takes is spending money. Heck, let's have new cars for everyone! Dole 'em out, boys!
13th Jan 2011, 15:36
Whatever happened to "Reuse, Reduce, Recycle"?
All the new cars are completely disposable, designed for rapid obsolescence.
Fuel mileage has barely improved since the early 1980's, and there is no way you are saving the environment by buying a new car and sending old ones to the landfill.
All the emissions from the manufacturing of the plastic, and from the factory making the car, will offset the meager difference in fuel economy and emissions that the newer cars have.
Anyone who thinks they are doing their part for the environment by buying a $30k hybrid or such is sadly misled; buying new stuff and supporting a capitalist consumer economy of outsourcing to the lowest bidder, is by no means a way of helping the environment and your country.
Not to mention, everyone but myself and a few others in North America just love to send all of our money to Japan, Germany, and China. No wonder we are in a recession!
We have completely destroyed our manufacturing base, we can't even make paper cups in the US anymore, everything is made in China.
The auto industry is all we have left, but with a rapid decline of morality, patriotism, virtue, and pride in our country, most selfish people opt for buying an imported car, as they are more interested in prestige and class status than saving jobs in their own country.
Decades of advertising have convinced people that all domestic cars are junk, and that only poor people and old people drive them, which is usually true.
I will keep my domestic, rear wheel drive V-8 till the end of time, I'm proud to drive a car that was built with pride in my own country, and it's much better quality than any of the junk on the road these days.
I do my part for the environment with my job (recycling old bicycles and reselling them), so I don't feel I have to trade in my perfectly working car for a $30k hybrid or 4cyl that gets about the same economy as my V-8 on the highway.
Buy used if you want to help the environment; reduce, reuse, recycle, remember?
13th Jan 2011, 19:43
Okay, you copied my post, but still read it wrong. I meant the pollutants of old 80's cars were about 10 times what they are now... not the mileage! And 11 mpg out of a 5.0 Mustang? I averaged mid 20's with both of mine, and even was in the upper 20's on long trips. You must have had the older carb version.
11th Jan 2011, 20:24
"See, biases can take hold of you even before you look at anything you don't like in general, such as import cars. You don't like imports, so be it."
Obviously the above commenter failed to read the comment he/she is referring to. It CLEARLY STATES "As a FORMER IMPORT OWNER". I'd say that qualifies as "looking at it"!!