My fiance Rachael and I just had a downer this week. My car, a 1996 Buick Regal Gran Sport*, died this past Monday. It had been doing so well for the last five months since I returned from my seven month excursion abroad, not a problem at all. Tragically, as I was driving from my home to pick up Rachael and go to visit our good friends, the Wilsterman's, the car's engine exploded. Now it wasn't a big boom, it was more like a crack, pop, and fizzle. This was not the best time for it to explode. And it certainly was not expected.
I had the car towed and walked back to my apartment in the snow. Rachael met me on the walk back and we trudged back to our apartment complex cold and frustrated. What would we do now? We didn't even have a car to take us on our honeymoon to Florida.
Luckily, our families chipped in and they are letting us borrow a car. Also, this spring we are likely to get the help of our family, the money made off my dead car, and our own savings to buy a new vehicle. Awesome, right?
Certainly, now we have some time to ponder what car to buy, but we already have one in mind. A used Hybrid. We have both wanted a hybrid for a while. Both of us wanted one initially because the Regal got only 17MPG in the City, the small-midsize Hybrids get over 30 (some over 40). Now we looked into it and they sound really appealing and a 2003-05 with low miles looks about in our price range.
Its nice to be able to use up less gas and with gas prices likely to rise again in the near future, our bank accounts could definetely benefit from the reduced cost.
Also recently, we found that the car emits less CO2 than other cars. We both have been pondering how we could "Go Green" and this might be our first step, albeit a big first step....
As a Boy Scout, I was trained on how to reduce my impact and Rachael and I are going to try to use this philosophy in our married life. Scouts Honor.
We found Cars.com 's hybrid buying guide to be very useful. Check it out at http://www.cars.com/go/crp/buyingGuides/index.jsp?aff=national
*Gran Sport essentially means a cool two tone and "sport" suspension.
3 comments:
Sean,
I found your blog through Heather's...and thought I would toss out a comment on hybrid cars. I too LOVE the concept, but the complexity of going green makes them a complex issue. The really frustrating thing about hybrids right now is that their manufacturing is anything BUT green--the batteries that make them hybrids are manufactured in one place, shipped to another, and are, let's leave it NASTY and environmentally not nice. I find this insanely frustrating given that they are supposed to be the 'green' option. Given these rather significant issues, it might be better to be willing to drive a small car with good gas mileage. Take the Honda Civic. My brother gets the mileage you are talking about with his standard '01 Civic. Then you can get the great gas mileage, and likely have a lower impact in the processing of the car and then its destruction when it dies in the future. Just some thoughts to add to the mess....
~pam
Pamela, thanks for the enlightening comment. Both Rachael and I are trying to look at the issue from all sides. We have heard a little about the dirty left behind from producing hybrids, but your comment definetely will have us looking into it more. We were wondering too whether in this case the ends justify the means. We may look in to a non-hybrid Civic or another car if that is the case.
How do you feel about offsetting carbon emissions over the life of the car, being more so justifying than the means of making the battery, if the increased gas mileage is considered a null factor ?
yes it is a mess, but sure is interesting to sort through.
Here's a helpful link on yahoo that may help clear up some confusion http://autos.yahoo.com/green_center-article_144/
I understand that Yahoo is not the end all be all authority on this, but this may help give some clarity to which cars are least negatively impacting (overall) for the environment.
Its interesting to note that there are several models that aren't hybrids near the top. We may look in to those too! Thanks, Pam for raising a great question!
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