After many hours of research, guilt, uncertainty, pressure, and realizing when two people work full time that we can afford one car, we took the dirty plunge. I work in the sticks, Cara works in the sticks (plus Hamilton one to two days a week). It takes me about 60 minutes one way, Cara about 75 on transit. I now need wheels for field work and getting to some remote locations, Cara wants to feel safe on the busiest highway in the world (better reason).
And I do feel OK about the car itself (used 2009 Ford Escape off a one-year lease), realizing it’s nothing more than a depreciating transport device. I like to express myself, but I worry about expressing myself through an automobile. Just a bit too scary, I don’t know why. It’s what we’ve all been bred to do, clothes and shoes and furniture and music and food and gear are no different. So who knows things like this.
As for our Mother Earth, the jury is out. It’s not a fully robust argument, but a used anything is potentially much better environmentally than new, especially a new Prius. From Wired Magazine:
“Making a Prius consumes 113 million BTUs, according to sustainability engineer Pablo Paster. A single gallon of gas contains about 113,000 Btus, so Toyota’s green wonder guzzles the equivalent of 1,000 gallons before it clocks its first mile. A used car, on the other hand, starts with a significant advantage: The first owner has already paid off its carbon debt”.Meaning do some full cost accounting on your car (production, distribution, disposal) and realize that used cars can cut down on two (and potentially all) of these things. Production would account for 10-15% of total emissions so we’re already good there. Yes I’m enabling the car market but at least I’m not mining new materials. The Escape’s mileage is on par with most mid-size cars, so I feel we’re in a good ballpark all things considered with operating impacts. Le sigh. Down the rabbit holes we go.
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