Contentious (to some) thread.. :)

[wemorgan]

I reckon in the grand scheme of things cars are way down the scale, even the big engined ones. However the (slightly different) issue is the wider picture and reducing global consumption, especially in places like china, all because people want to pay a fiver for a pair of jeans in Tesco.

I agree, but cars are very symbolic too, so their use can set the tone for wider climate change policies.

 

[Howard]

I do approximately 4000 miles a year in my car , so i don't worry too much.

To be honest , if i did big miles in it , i wouldn't be able to afford to run it anyway.

30mpg on the motorway , 15/16 about town . Worth every penny for the smiles it gives me though. It's a big engine , but a fairly light car though , so it isn't doing much more than tick over most of the time.

The blue CLK ( dads ) did 430 miles between MOT's last year

 

[Mcnasty]

I think peoples concerns are more about the cost of car travel now than the environmental impact. Now it costs me approx £9 a day for my return drive to work (56 miles), so even more when running costs are added.
It would now be more economical for me to transfer to our bigger office in Glasgow and get the train, which costs the same for daily travel, and if I had a weekly/monthly ticket then the train would be even cheaper.

But I quite enjoy my daily trek to and from work in my Merc, I just wish I hadn't worked out the fuel cost per day!

 

[renault12ts]

Memo to self...get a V8 now before the oil runs out.

But seriously, the only thing keeping me away from one is the cost. If I won the lottery tomorrow, big V8s would be the only way I'd go.

 

[Setanta]

I have a 6 litre V12 and while not the best on fuel (but the performance!) I only drive it on weekends and not very much even though.

As I also only ever buy used, and a few years old, surely that would be better for the Carbon footprint?

 

[renault12ts]

I have a 6 litre V12 and while not the best on fuel (but the performance!) I only drive it on weekends and not very much even though.

As I also only ever buy used, and a few years old, surely that would be better for the Carbon footprint?

Correct, a far better carbon footprint than buying a new super eco mini.

 

[wemorgan]

Google Answers: Energy required to manufacture typical vehicle

It says in the above link that the lifecycle CO2 output due to manufacture is about 11%.

 

[Palfrem]

Our household has no children to impose a drain on diminishing planetary resources in the future, so in terms of my personal environmental impact, I'm happy to drive a V8.

 

[Setanta]

Correct, a far better carbon footprint than buying a new super eco mini.

And considerably more powerful too

 

[oldcro]

I don't give it a minutes thought.

The stone age didn't end because we ran out of stones - the technology will soon be here and we'll all be driving electric cars.

Meanwhile, lets get that oil used - it would be wasteful if we didn't, given that in our lifetime it will be completely redundant.

But how will we manage without all the other basic things we take for granted that are made from oil?

The stone age never ended, that's a myth.

 

[gaz_l]

do those folks driving petrol guzzling V8s, V12s etc feel in the slightest bit guilty?

I don't think I have to justify my choice of car to anyone. Especially a bearded duffel-coat wearing vegetarian sporting bicycle clips, to pick a stereotype at random...

Cheers,

Gaz

 

[jaymanek]

Bearing in mind the rapid running down of fossil fuels on the planet and the obvious need to conserve as much of it as possible (mostly to allow time for the new technologies to bed in and work properly) do those folks driving petrol guzzling V8s, V12s etc feel in the slightest bit guilty? After all, on the roads we mostly drive on fuel sipping engines are surely good enough?

OK! I'll stand back ready for the assault from C63 owners!

No.

There is more than enough to last many centuries, even without accounting for unknown reserves.
Its all utter nonsense..

Ill keep driving my V8's as long as I can.

 

[finisterre]

No but I don't do a lot of miles.
I worked out my carbon footprint a couple of years ago.
It was 4800Kg. About half the UK average.
Not a lot but I have gone insulation crazy at home.
And I coppice some local woods for the wood-burner.

1800Kg was a holiday in Spain.
4000 miles at 30mpg was less.

I still go on holiday but avoid long haul flights.
I do kind of disapprove of people having a 6.3 litre cars but I can see their point.

 

[finisterre]

Actually, I suppose that having children is probably the most polluting thing you can do.

 

[Deleted member 37751]

The stoned age never ended, man

Was that the 1960's?

 

[Charles Morgan]

I don't feel guilty driving a relatively heavy fuel consuming car, but I do feel impecunious. That I suspect is going to be the more powerful motivator.

There is a garage opposite the Bristol Garage in Olympia. It is normally absurdly expensive, today the price for unleaded was 154 pence per litre. Someone was filling up his Porsche 993 there - conspicuous consumption or stupidity?

 

[312 Sprinter]

I don't feel particularly guilty about it, but it does seem rather ridiculous that the car industry as a whole is creating cars that are "cleaner", but also increasingly inefficient in pure fuel consumption terms. Part of that of course is that cars are growing ever larger and heavier, but there seems to be a marked lack of joined up thinking going on.

At one point my mum owned a Smart and I had a rather tatty Morris Minor kicking around. The Moggy with elderly engine and worn SU carb would consistently get fuel consumption a full 20mpg better than the Smart could manage on a good day.

 

[finisterre]

25p a litre extra X 50 litres = £12.50

is not exactly conspicuous consumption.

 

[flango]

No.

There is more than enough to last many centuries, even without accounting for unknown reserves.
Its all utter nonsense..

Ill keep driving my V8's as long as I can.

Spot on Oil reserves enough to last over 400 years, not accounting for new fields and re entering old fields with new drilling techniques.

Coal enough for at least 2500 years and you can make petrol and diesel from Coal as they do in South Africa.

Gas enough to last over 5000 years and you can make petrol and diesel from that as Shell do with there GTL process

Fossil fuels are here to stay so the greenies better get used to it, shame our government doesn't have the balls to promote it like the Aussies do

Hydrogen, electric cars, cars running on water what a load of tosh

 

[Charles Morgan]

Perhaps not in Buxton. In Kensington, that would be regarded as an absurd waste of money.