Drive Longer or Buy Greener?

You might have looked at my auto autobiography and thought, “What gives? This chic is writing about alternative cars, and she doesn’t even own one?” Au contrair. Our Dodge Caravan (*cough* SPORT version) has a FlexFuel option. You can use it with E85 … though whether or not that’s really of benefit I’ve yet to decide.

When we were buying our cars a few years ago, I really wanted to get a Prius. That’s what I intended. That’s what I had in mind … but every time I saw the price tag, I bolted. Not everyone can afford the car of their dreams. Not everyone can afford the car their environmentally-conscious mind would like them too.

I grew up in a home where new cars were purchased, in full, in cash, every two years and trade-in values were wonderful. I live in a world where cars are purchased every few years, used or very used, and kept until they die on you. I justify that by saying we’re keeping a car from the graveyard for a few more years, or that we’re not encouraging the production of more by increasing demand for new products.

But in reality, which is better for the environment? Driving an older car past its prime, or buying a new (or newer) car built to do less damage to begin with?

Pablo Påster over at TriplePundit’s AskPablo column goes through the math, and comes to this conclusion:

“Here is my advice, David: Continuing to drive an older car with poor fuel economy is less environmentally friendly than getting a new car that gets drastically better fuel economy. You can take my factors above and calculate the exact energy use for your old vehicle and a new vehicle to see the comparison. Keep in mind that these results are for the energy used, not the carbon dioxide emissions, but the two are highly correlated since most of our energy comes from fossil fuels.”

Guess it’s time to trade in the Buick and Dodge Caravan (SPORT version!).