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, Wed, 10 Nov 2004 12:58:33
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Part of it is lower purchasing costs to the buyer (me), as well as lower operating & maintenance costs (again to me). But on a big-picture view of purchase impact, it also comes down to lower social & environmental costs.
Our 9³SE has been the most problematic car we've ever owned. That doesn't mean it's been unreliable, just expensive, annoying & frustrating. It takes more time, money & energy to maintain, & the parts are more numerous & costly. Technology is a huge benefit in the car's safety, fun factor & "keeper" status. But the toll is high.
Social impact:
If I can purchase a vehicle that accurately meets my needs w/o exceeding them (or at most, only exceeds them by a slight amount), then I have more financial resources left over to devote to other areas. I can improve more lives in those other areas if I can retain & re-distribute those resources. Of course, it's not a solely altruistic endeavor. This re-distribution of finances allows my family to experience a wider cross-section of social interaction. This makes us happier, certainly, but also gives us a better understanding (consciously & subconsciously) of social differences & what makes other people tick. Hopefully, this also opens the minds of the young'uns to notice things about others that they hadn't before. Similarly, if my family spends less time being annoyed, worried or frustrated about maintaining the car (because there's less to go wrong AND the mechanical versions fail less often), then we can devote more energy to more important concerns. That allows us to see problems we might otherwise ignore if we're too distracted to care.
Environmental impact:
The obvious ones come first: better fuel economy, which leads to fewer exhaust emissions & less resource consumption (including smaller and/or longer-lasting emissions components). Perhaps some less obvious ones are things like oil consumption & parts volumes (leading to higher materials use & disposals). Oil's not much, right? I mean, if the new 9³SS engine hold 6L of oil & goes 15k miles, that's only 120L (31.5 gallons) of oil over 300k miles. But if the sump of an NA engine were kept at 4L & run for a comparable 20k miles, the total oil required drops to half that amount. Multiply that 60L savings by tens of thousands of vehicles & it starts to add up. The same thing goes with more frequent replacement of more complex parts. More materials are consumed to manufacture & assemble the parts, & more trash is generated when they're replaced.
But again, I'm not deaf to the siren's song of advertising. I'd love to own any number of over-the-top cars, including the Pike's Peak Viggen! Buying to feed your emotions is necessary; that's why I sold my 25 yr old $1,000 Bug (6 mos after I bought it) & bought a 10 yr old $3,000 C900. I just don't see the need for over-buying based on emotion. I don't haul boats, drag around construction eqpt or go hunting, & I certainly don't need a 300 hp V6 to get to work or buy groceries.
posted by 146.82.1...
, Wed, 10 Nov 2004 09:28:24
, Wed, 10 Nov 2004 15:33:52, Mon, 10 Jan 2005 20:51:13, Thu, 11 Nov 2004 15:16:40, Wed, 10 Nov 2004 16:51:28
, Wed, 10 Nov 2004 11:31:44, Wed, 10 Nov 2004 15:38:31, Wed, 10 Nov 2004 11:49:18, Wed, 10 Nov 2004 12:58:33
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