My opinion on cars....
With any luck this will be less controversial than my opinion on babies. However, I somehow doubt that.
In my opinion, too many people drive the wrong cars for the wrong reasons. You can start with the obvious examples and work your way down. A Hummer in the jungle is a tool, but a Hummer on the freeway is being driven by a tool. A Suburban being driven around by a single person or with a single child has many more passengers than it should. SUVs that would break down if they were taken off-roading are an abomination on the face on the planet. I don't mean to say that there aren't reasons to have a large vehicle. People have large families. People have jobs that require them to haul stuff about. Country roads might otherwise be impassable in bad weather without a large vehicle. I can't tell you how many times I've begged, borrowed, or stolen time in a friend's large vehicle when I needed to get things from Home Despot. All of these are legitimate uses for a large vehicle. And if you are going to be doing any of these things it makes sense to own one and use it. But for those who never intend to use a large vehicle for legitimate large vehicle reasons, commuting and hauling your single child about urbanized roads are making poor use of these vehicles and the gas that drives them. And that is the most frequent use of them without question.
Sports cars - well I'll just quote from Crazy People "Porsche. It's a little too small to get laid IN it, but you get laid the minute you get out of it!"
Motorcycles are actually an incredibly fuel-efficient way to get a single person and little luggage from one place to another. And they are fun to ride. Are they dangerous? Yes, both because of other drivers and also because of the people who drive them. I was just in California and watched a pair of motorcycle riders zip through gridlock by riding between the lanes of traffic. Which might be fine until someone sees a way to move up a half an inch and changes lanes unexpectedly. Motorcycles also have their SUV (think American Chopper) and sports car (crotch rockets anyone?) equivalents. But I think a responsible rider on a sane motorcycle is a good thing. Will I ever be that sane rider? Doubtful, I see the appeal.
To put things into perspective I've bought two cars in my life. The first was a Saturn SL2 which got 33 MPG. The second is my Prius which gets 47 MPG. Both are comfortable and reliable. Barring a familial explosion my car will get me and mine where we need to go safely and efficiently. I'm not an incredibly green person. But in a world where the global supply of oil may run out within our lifetime and definitely within our children's lifetimes, doesn't it make sense to do what we can to start conserving it now?
In the mean time I get to watch my car pay off itself faster as gas prices continue to rise.
In my opinion, too many people drive the wrong cars for the wrong reasons. You can start with the obvious examples and work your way down. A Hummer in the jungle is a tool, but a Hummer on the freeway is being driven by a tool. A Suburban being driven around by a single person or with a single child has many more passengers than it should. SUVs that would break down if they were taken off-roading are an abomination on the face on the planet. I don't mean to say that there aren't reasons to have a large vehicle. People have large families. People have jobs that require them to haul stuff about. Country roads might otherwise be impassable in bad weather without a large vehicle. I can't tell you how many times I've begged, borrowed, or stolen time in a friend's large vehicle when I needed to get things from Home Despot. All of these are legitimate uses for a large vehicle. And if you are going to be doing any of these things it makes sense to own one and use it. But for those who never intend to use a large vehicle for legitimate large vehicle reasons, commuting and hauling your single child about urbanized roads are making poor use of these vehicles and the gas that drives them. And that is the most frequent use of them without question.
Sports cars - well I'll just quote from Crazy People "Porsche. It's a little too small to get laid IN it, but you get laid the minute you get out of it!"
Motorcycles are actually an incredibly fuel-efficient way to get a single person and little luggage from one place to another. And they are fun to ride. Are they dangerous? Yes, both because of other drivers and also because of the people who drive them. I was just in California and watched a pair of motorcycle riders zip through gridlock by riding between the lanes of traffic. Which might be fine until someone sees a way to move up a half an inch and changes lanes unexpectedly. Motorcycles also have their SUV (think American Chopper) and sports car (crotch rockets anyone?) equivalents. But I think a responsible rider on a sane motorcycle is a good thing. Will I ever be that sane rider? Doubtful, I see the appeal.
To put things into perspective I've bought two cars in my life. The first was a Saturn SL2 which got 33 MPG. The second is my Prius which gets 47 MPG. Both are comfortable and reliable. Barring a familial explosion my car will get me and mine where we need to go safely and efficiently. I'm not an incredibly green person. But in a world where the global supply of oil may run out within our lifetime and definitely within our children's lifetimes, doesn't it make sense to do what we can to start conserving it now?
In the mean time I get to watch my car pay off itself faster as gas prices continue to rise.
posted by mypetrock at 11:44 AM
1 Comments:
Well, I agree with you . . .
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