Changing the Car 15 Feb 07
After nearly two years with us, our little green 4×4 is off to pastures new. So, given this opportunity to move to something more eco-friendly, what’s our new car going to be?
Uh… a bigger 4×4.
Ok, it may sound like a step backwards in terms of our intentions to live a greener lifestyle, but, at this point in time, its the right choice for us.
The biggest motivating factor for the move was the lack of space in our previous 4×4. It only had 3 doors and a tiny boot, which wasn’t a problem when there were only the two of us because we’d just fold the back seats down and use it as a small van. However, since Ben’s arrival in November, we’ve been struggling to get his car seat in and out of the back seat, with no rear doors. Then his buggy would take up almost all of the boot space and we’d no room for anything else, like groceries. For such a little guy, he sure needs a lot of stuff.
So we can justify the increase in size, but why not buy an estate car or a “people carrier”? Well, let’s get the awkward point out of the way first, we like 4×4s. Not the newer, flat-sided, blocky “urban” 4×4s, nor 4×4s that think they’re sports cars, but good old-fashioned, rugged 4×4s.
We’ve also been glad to have four wheel drive at times over the last two years, when driving in really bad weather or trying to get up the hill to my parents’ house in winter (spending an hour of one Christmas Day stuck at the bottom of the hill in one of our old cars, was quite enough to make us consider a 4×4).
To ease our consciences, we at least have some positive points:
- Our “new” 4×4 is second hand – Reuse is the most basic form of recycling. Not buying a new car helps reduce demand on natural resources.
- Its a diesel – Our previous 4×4 had a thirsty 2 litre petrol engine. Moving to a diesel offers us greater fuel economy.
- It has manual transmission selection – This means when we don’t need four wheel drive (~90% of the time), we can switch to two wheel drive and further improve our fuel economy.
- Biodiesel is an option – This is something that we’re seriously looking into. So far, all we know for certain is that its much more complicated than we first thought.
- Our low annual mileage – Over the last two years we’ve only driven around 6,000 miles per year. Most sources for average annual mileage figures give a value in the range 10,000 to 12,000, so we’re well below that (though we could do better still)
Over the next few months, we plan to keep you up to date with how we get along with the new 4×4, reducing our annual mileage and (hopefully) switching to biodiesel.
Posted by Nev in Family Life , Going Green , Transport with tags 4x4, biodiesel, car, diesel, petrol, reuse, transport
