This blog printed on 100% recycled electrons.
Doug Wiken at Dakota Today is producing a series of posts on "non-obvious" ways to reduce energy consumption. The counter-intuitive suggestion of the morning (actually last evening, but I just read it): used cars may do more eco-good than Priuses (Prii, anyone? :-) ). Not any old used car -- resurrect my dad's '74 Dodge pickup and take it smokin' down the highway, and you're not doing much good for anybody's lungs (or eardrums). But buying a used car that gets decent mileage makes use of resources that have already been processed. Every Prius (every car) takes a lot of energy to produce -- the equivalent of a thousand gallons of gasoline, reports Doug. Buying a used car involves no new production inputs.
The same principle applies to any durable good: buying used clothes, used appliances, used books is the best form of recycling. You don't even incur the processing costs involved in recycling aluminum cans or plastic or all that other stuff we haul to the recycling center on Saturday.
Of course, Doug misses the best answer for automotive eco-friendliness: buy a used Prius!
We look forward to more unconventional enviromental thinking from Dakota Today. Stay tuned!
Drinking Liberally Update (11/15/2024)
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In Politics: Nationally: The Election is over and the wrong side won. I
have nothing to contribute to the barrels of ink being used by Pundits to
explain a...
3 days ago
How about we bring back horse carts?
ReplyDeleteAlready working on that:
ReplyDelete"High Prices Drive Farmer to Switch to Mules," AP via Yahoo News, 2008.05.21
Back in good old Marshall, MN they had a weekly buy-sell magazine at our local HyVee. Posting an ad was totally free, not like newspaper classifieds. They even started posting the "Trader" online recently.
ReplyDeleteI haven't found one of these in Vermillion/Yankton. Is this a unique concept?
Good old No. 8 thanks you. I bought it used. Another advantage: it was pre-dinged. So no hangups about scratching it up. Another plus: the "service engine soon" light is always on, so I don't have to worry about it coming on at a bad time.
ReplyDeleteFuel economy with a pre-owned vehicle is easy. How about a Buick LeSabre, Buick Regal or Buick Park Avenue from the mid-80's to early 2000's. They are equipped with the indestructible 3800 V6 engine that easily gets 27-30mpg, can last 250,000 miles and the older ones are under $5000. Most cars will get over 30mpg if they keep the rpm at 2000 or less while cruising at 65mph. If our government would regulate rpm's at highway speed, we could save 25% of the fuel we currently use.
ReplyDeleteConsidering my recent car repair bill (close to $500), I'm seriously considering buying another car, especially since I seemed to have spent more on FIXING this car than actually BUYING it!
ReplyDeleteI thought about getting an Impala. My uncle has one and loves the fact he can get 30 mpg with it. But the price is a bit steep, unless you want 150K miles on the engine. I also see there's a lot of Luminas out there with good gas mileage... any thoughts?
How about an Impala that is about three years old? That way most of the depreciation is gone, it will have about 45,000 miles and will be priced under $10,000. Still a great car with drivetrain warranty to 100,000 miles. How much for the old Pump-Jack, Jackrabbit?
ReplyDeleteThe biggest carbon saver on the Prius is the computer feedback on gas mileage. With gas headed to $4, having a continuous gas mileage readout could really do a lot for conserving fuel (and safety), no matter what jalopy your drive
ReplyDeleteCory -- a weekly buy/sell magazine with free ads... sounds like Craigslist! Maybe some blogger needs to set up a local version for the Vermillion/Yankton metroplex. Maybe Flying Tomato Farms would be interested in setting up something like that? Ask Rebecca!
ReplyDeleteAnd maybe the Madville Times should set up the Lake County version?
At $4 a gallon, we are reaching the point where a full tank of gas on one of the old Volvo 240 station wagons will cost more than half of what we paid for the old girl. Odometer is dead, but it must have over 200,000 miles on it, but still gets reasonable fuel mileage.
ReplyDeleteMore auto parts need to be standardized. How many variations of oil filters, fan belts, alternators, waterpumps etc do we actually need? Three, four, five?
A "standards" car should be built by government and consumer organizations with easily updated components, etc.
Incidentally, some of the 1989 or so Chrysler New Yorkers have a gas mileage calculator on them. It is an eye-opener if you have a tendency to stomp on the accelerator. But, alas we are looking for an ABS brake replacement on that and not having much luck.
Just so you know, from my anecdotal experience you can run about 30% ethanol in a GM 3800 engine without popping a check engine code. Mine has about 260,000 miles on it and gets about 27mpg with mixed highway/city driving at that blend.
ReplyDeletecory -- 27 mpg on E-30? Not bad!
ReplyDeleteMy dad's Dodge Ram has a mileage readout. We went downhill north of Watertown once and got 99 mpg! If the DoT could just engineer all our raods to run downhill, we'd be set! ;-)
If the DoT could just engineer all our raods to run downhill, we'd be set! ;-)
ReplyDelete------------------------------
Sounds like an Irish prayer.