<VV> Cash for Clunkers

[Tony Underwood]

At 10:51 PM 5/10/2009, Dave Keillor wrote:
>A similar program in Europe has been an effective stimulus for new car
>sales.  However, a life-cycle analysis would very likely show it's
>"green" impact to be negative.  Continuing to drive your gas-guzzling
>clunker would likely to be more environmentally friendly than the impact
>of building a new car -- especially if the new car had lots of toxic
>batteries.




This has already been demonstrated by bigbranes who pointed out that 
if you drive a hummer you actually might pollute less than if you 
drive a Prius... IF you count the pollution resulting from the 
construction of the vehicle plus the battery thing...

It's the same logic of someone's believing they're being "green" and 
"thrifty" by buying an econobox as a 2nd car that gets 5 mpg more 
than the one they normally drive... when that 2nd car costs them 
$20K.    It reminds me of the guy I once knew who bought a new car 
every 2 years because he "made money" deducting the interest on his 
car payments from his taxes, thus he was a "smart buyer".

I gave up trying to explain...     I just kept driving a Corvair that 
cost me nothing in car payments and still cost less to drive than his 
new Camaro.

This was the same guy who cut up a rock solid '63 Monza 4-door to 
attempt to fix a rusty '63 coupe... and then ruined the body of the 
4-door with a saws-all experimenting to see how well the new saw 
worked by cutting notches out of the rockers and B pillars.

...not sure if he voted or not.


tony..