Buying a new car – The State of the Motor Industry

I have just bought a new car.

A nine-year-old Peugeot 106 Sport. Small, fuel efficient, and covered in small dents and scratches which is perfect for driving on the Cote D’Azur. Hopefully, I will get at least two years out of it because for 3500  Euros, I have a working car with new tires, new shocks, new brakes, new timing belt and new exhaust system. Some of this was done by the previous owner, and some by me.

So – why didn’t I buy a new, new car and what is wrong with the financially distressed Motor industry?

Simple – new cars are too expensive. Despite the fact that the governments, oil lobbyists and motor industry hot-shots manage to disguise the true cost of a new car with incentives, tax breaks and by using cheap labor in third world countries etc – new cars are just too expensive for a typical buyer. Even if the government is prepared to lend us the money, which it is.

Why on earth would I want to put myself in hock for five years just to buy a piece of tin that is environmentally destructive and destined to be thrown on a scrap heap in a few years time for the sake of “growth.” Despite what a lot of people seem to think, it is not going to make my penis any larger.

Not only are new cars too expensive in monetary terms, they are too expensive in terms of environmental damage. I tried very hard to work out the environmental cost of building a new car compared to the green “savings,” obtainable by running an older car and could find very little solid information. Either way. I sure as hell don’t trust any information I am given by the carmakers and they pussy foot around this question with the fervor of a politician accused of abusing the expenses system.

Despite the lack of information about this – it is common sense that using a car that has already been built has got to be more environmentally friendly than building a new one that gets 20% better gas mileage.

The other question I raised as I was looking at this is the environmental cost of scrapping a used car. It is not as though they recycle the things, (maybe the steel) so what damage does it cause to throw them on the scrap heap?

I know when I am being conned, and the desperation with which the governments are scrambling around to keep the car industry in its present form is nothing less than laughable. When my government tells me I need a new car I know the last thing I should be doing is buying a new car. I couldn’t care less if the motor industry collapses. Perhaps we will start looking at a decent public transport system instead.