How about a green colored Lamborghini, does that count?
Like a couple others have said, Iād own my dream car('67 GT500) over a Prius any day. Lord knows Obama will probably take Englandās model and start charging us congestion charges based on the size of our vehicleās engines.
Right! There is more to life than gas mileage! Thereās also ski vacations, fishing, golf, motorcycle riding, sailboat racing, eating out, live music, etc., and a car that doesnāt burn through your money like a second wife lets you do more of that.
This is why my dream car would get really good gas mileage, would need no maintainance and would last forever.
My vote is for āDream Car.ā My motorcycles use less fuel than the greenest of cars, so my next car will be something I can use to tow my motorcycles to the shop and pull a small camper trailer. However, it will be a compromise between āGreenā and āDream;ā probably an old police cruiser. As hard as I try, I just canāt see myself driving a truck on a routine basis.
Definitely Dream Car. Some green cars arenāt green in aspects such as batteries (mining metals and later disposal). And with dream cars, getting to the destination is half the fun (or more).
All right then, Iāll have a Formula One racer to wring out on my personal race track. Something to do on those IFR days when the P-51 Mustang is grounded.
Some green cars arenāt green in aspects such as ā¦
I don't understand the logic there? It would seem that you are excluding cars because they are green, but not green enough so you reject it for a car that is less green????
Given the goal of āGreen carsā is to help protect the environment (cleaner air to breath, cleaner water to drink, less drain on our natural resources, ā¦), then Iāll go Green over Dream where they are mutually exclusive.
Bill Cosby is a very rich man. He was interviewed once and asked what he would like most. Since he owns a large number of things (cars, sailboat, etc) that require maintenance, he said: āMost of all I would like Maintenanceā. What he meant was not ever having to worry about whether something will work or when it needed maintenance.
At our income levels that would mean trying to own cars that were foolproof and low maintenance and had a long life. In the 70s, a friend of mine got tired of repairs and bought a Checker Marathon, the non-taxi version of that workhorse. He drove it for many years, since taxis do 100,000+ miles per year and he only did 15,000, he had it for over 20 years.
He told me it was so reliable as to be almost boring. That was his dream car!
I see your point. To clarify, my dream cars arenāt based on a level of greenness, but on a level of enjoyment (not that these items are mutually exclusive). I guess I was thinking in my earlier post of a few people who stare down their noses at the rest of us and think we should be legislated into driving what they are driving (I saw some of them interviewed on TV). They feel all warm and fuzzy because they think their āgreenā car has little to no effect on the environment.
In reality, their green cars DO have an impact, but these Orwellian people on TV seemed oblivious to this. Mining metals for the batteries has an environmental impact and I imagine that later disposal of them will as well. And the āmanmade global warmingā theory has some serious scientific arguments against it (okay, Iām opening a can of worms).
I have driven Priuses and Camry Hybrids on a few occasions and, while theyāre interesting, theyāre not my dream cars. If someone else wants one, thatās their choice and I support their right to choose. Iām glad I also still have a right to choose.
If the right electric or some other powered car comes along in the future I will be open to looking into it, but nothing right now is interesting enough or fits my needs.
Mining metals for the batteries has an environmental impact and I imagine that later disposal of them will as well.
These batteries are almost never disposed of in their complete form. They are harvested for materials that can be recycled and the hazardous materials are separated and properly disposed of. This recycling diminishes the need for mining. You donāt throw your normal car batteries away with the weekly garbage pick-up, do you? I hope you recycle them. These Lithium Ion batteries are similarly recycled.
As to your global warming comment, I happily admit that back in the 1980s and 1990s, there was a lot of disagreement in the scientific community, but that has changed. There is now a consensus in the scientific community, with a few scientists who donāt agree with the consensus. I get the feeling you will never accept this consensus as compelling, so I wonāt try to convince you. Instead, I will regard you the same way I regard people who refuse to accept Darwinās theory of evolution.
The real problem is that, for many people, their stance on the āglobal warmingā issue has become a belief (on both sides of the issue). Very few people are open minded enough to reconsider the validity of their beliefs. The other thing about beliefs is that they donāt require compelling evidence. When something is a theory, an opinion, or a supposition, it can evolve as people learn more about the issue. Beliefs are much more rigid.
I agree with you that for many people the āglobal warmingā issue has become a belief on both sides of the issue, and that many (on either side) arenāt willing to look into some facts themselves with an open mind.
You donāt throw your normal car batteries away with the weekly garbage pick-up, do you? I hope you recycle them.
No, what I (and most others) do is:
Turn in the dead battery at the auto pats store when I buy a new one
The auto parts store, woring on a thin margin, unloads them to the lowest bidder on the job
The ālow bidā guy ships them to Port-au-Prince or Bangalore, where the leadās smelted without pollution controls, by a worker, without respiratory equipment, who makes $15/day 'till he dies. What canāt be smelted is then dumped somewhere inconspicuous.
Maybe a little bit too pessimistic, but probably more realistic than ābatteries are lawfully recycled by workers with full protection as per OSHA, without harmful emissions from smelting.ā A similar thing has been happening with supposedly ārecycledā electronics.