100 Ways to Reduce Your Impact

Step 83 Rent an environment friendly car

Rent yourself an environmental friendly vehicle. Actually, don't rent one, buy one! Companies are coming out with more and more environment friendly vehicles, that hopefully will make the combustion engine vehicles obsolete.

Comments

[FireStorm005]

Buy a Diesel car, such as VW and Audi TDIs, request that they bring more over.  Turbo Diesels are 30% more effiecient than turbocharged gasoline engines and 50% more efficient that naturally aspirated gasoline engines.  Hybrids get great mileage, but their advantage is lessened outside of cities and traffic.

Even if you don't get a Diesel or Hybrid, get rid of the SUV and get a hatchback.  Unless you tow regularly and need that much power a hatch will fit all the stuff your SUV will and get at least 50% better mileage.  A VW Jetta Sportwagon TDI has 66.9 cubic feet of cargo room and can get 50mpg highway.  A Fit has 57.3 Cubic feet, enough for 2 bikes or a self propelled mower, or your dorm room.  Not only will you get better economy in a hatch or wagon, you'll have more fun driving it.

I wish I had a picture of when I did it, but I fit all the stuff from my dorm room into the back of my 1985 VW Golf diesel.  That's 1 desktop computer, a 1/10th Scale Monster truck, bedding, mattress topper, school books, Printer, clothes, 2 paper boxes of assorted junk, and a bean bag chair.  Driving home I got between 40 and 45 mpg.  Not bad for a 25 year old car with over 200K on the clock.

[fwater]

Another key point here- the indictment of the internal combustion engine as a symbol of freedom, abundance, and accomplishment. Hopefully is in bold letters. The hatred of an American icon gives away your true goal here: to change the way we live into something different, at any cost, and to erase individuality and any level of success. It doesn't matter the end result, just as long as it doesn't resemble the America of today in any way. Where does the electricty come from to charge your $80K electric car? And what about the environmental impact with disposal of the batteries? Accindental spills in car wrecks? But at least you feel good.

[ronmaggi]

It is sad that you need a car to feel like an individual. Speaking of icons, San Francisco loves it's cable cars, though people use the other forms of mass transit more, New York loves its subways. The Big three were found GUILTY of conspiracy for the dismantling of some very good mass transit systems in a lot of cities. The fine of $20 they received as penalty was a joke for the harm they caused. People started driving because there were less mass transit options, not because they wanted to be individuals.

[fwater]

It's sad? Hmm, I never saw it that way. I just figured it was because I value freedom and self-reliance. My cars afford me the freedom to drive a short distance to a Park and Ride, or a carpooling lot, when it makes sense. My cars also afford me the freedom to take a long drive to clear the mind or pass a little time or to take in the sights. Freedom. You liberals despise it right down to your very depths of your being. Please provide even the slightest sliver of anything resembling proof of your claim that the Big Three were found guilty of conspiracy relating to mass transit dismantling. San Francisco- cute public transport. New York- magnitudes less cute, but nonetheless absolutely necessary. One just can't argue for individual ownership of cars with that population density. My point is... please, please, please don't force your idealistic pipe dreams down my throat in the name of saving mother earth. It's communism in disguise, pure and simple.

[teachenved]

Fwater your arguments are totally irrational and out of touch with reality, which seems to be an all too common trait among people of your political outlook. How does having clean air to breath and water to drink affect your freedom? Allowing corporations free reign takes away your freedom to choose. How can you choose to consume healthy products since there is no oversight, no regulation of unhygienic or dangerous practices, or restriction on the use of harmful chemicals in our food. I bet you are the first to complain when the Chinese put lead in your kid's toys.

[fwater]

How can I consume healthy products?  Because, contrary to the beliefs held by communists and haters of capitalism such as yourself, corporations are not evil and they are not out to screw the American public.  They are there to make money, and having a desireable product is the best way to turn profits.  If most corporations produced unhealthy products, nobody would buy them, and the public would turn to the better options offered by the more clever companies.  Freedom to choose does not evaporate with less regulation of business.  No doubt that there needs to be a certain number of restrictions in place to weed out unscrupulous practices, but capitalism will take care of the rest, just as it did when it made this country a great and beautiful place to live.

Government interferance takes away freedom to choose.  Health care?  Your Messiah wants to destroy your freedom to choose to have insurance or not.  Trucks and SUVs?  The Global Warming hoax has driven up the price due to penalties and taxes on the evil light truck, which is a form of freedom erosion. 

Don't tell me what is out of touch with reality when you believe that the world would crumble if it weren't for the government.  Your political outlook is to always peer longingly up into the ruling class for guidance...keeping you safe, raising your children...you want to be controlled and told what is best for you.  You want the goverment to provide for your every need and be told that it is free of charge, when it is in fact paid by my taxes.  From the cradle to the grave, you demand free health care, free daycare, free school, free public transit, free money from welfare, free entertainment, free everything.  Where does free come from?  You think it falls out of the sky, an endless supply of government provided gifts.  It doesn't.  It comes from the hard work of ambitious citizens who have an incentive to become successful and achieve greatness.  The incentive is being destroyed every day be the modern-day communist, as in most members of the Democratic Party.  Why should I work hard?  You steal most of my money.  Why should I get an edecation to get a better job?  Start a business?  Own property?  You'll just keep on stealing from me whenever I try to better myself. 

You hate anybody who has more money than you, so you steal it through taxation and regualtion.  You hate freedom, so you steal one step at a time, like the snuffing out of the internal combustion engine, and do it under disguise of saving the lives of mother eath's children, like inventing global warming due to human activity.  You hate God, so you you smash any public reminder of Him.  Let's face it, you hate America.  Please let me know how I can send a plane ticket to you so you can live in the shining beam of beautiful light found in China.  Free everything, except speech, movement, press, size of family, career path, and religion.  Or, if you please, Sweden, where every single thing is free and nobody ever has a job.  Socialism has truly shown it's wondrous magic there. 

I wasn't the first to complain about Chineese toys, you were...because you think more government regulation would have stopped the problem.  You know what would have worked even better?  Not buying Chineese toys.  Why did we buy so much in the first place?  You're thug party forced unions down the throats of business until the point where they can't afford to pay American employees who feel that they're entitled to $20 an hour to assemble toys.  Plus, government regualtions and crushing taxes force the price of a product so high that the public can't afford to buy it anymore...and in swoop the brilliant and foward-thinking Chineese.  So, it's your fault, actually.  Thanks for making my kids sick, comrade.

[teachenved]

 First of all, I am not a communists, a socialist or a democrat. I don't believe in the government controlling me or giving me handouts. You are missing the point. The USA is not a capitalist society, it;s a corporatocracy. The corporate world regulates itself and runs the government through campaign financing and gets away with polluting the environment and destroying our health. George Bush gave these corporates more power and they destroyed the world's economy in a matter of 8 years. George Bush also initiated the first bail out of corporations (the rich), using tax payer's money.  That's socialism, giving handouts to corporates. For the record, Obama is part of the same system, he supported the bail out of these corporations at the tax payer's expense. You don't see that your freedom is being eroded under republican and under democratic rule. The corporations are the enemy, not some liberal ideology. 

You spoke about restrictions on corporates to control what is produced, well that is the same as regulation. As for China, what I was saying was that they have no regulation and look what kind of products they produce. I am not against the wealthy or against free enterprise but the fact is that the corporations caused the economic collapse and robbed hardworking citizens of their wealth, and then we bailed them out. This is all about the rich exploiting the poor in a dishonest and predatory way. Don't confuse that with good capitalism. If we were a capitalist society those big companies and banks would be allowed to fail because of their bad practices. A bail out to the rich according to you is good capitalism and a bail out to the poor socialism. You're confused and dangerous, you're fighting against rational thought. I bet you would turn in your neighbor to a bad government if you thought he differed from you in any way, you hypocrite. You scream about freedom and rights but wouldn't give another person the freedom to live life the way he chose to, if it differed from your narrow ideology. I believe in religious freedom but not the freedom to practice a religion prescribed by one party.

[FooGlacticon]

Cheap: Mid 90s Metro or Civic hatchback Now: Smart, Prius, Insight, or Jetta TDI Future: Aptera, Volt

[micromuffin]

Check this out: Tesla Roadster
COMPLETLEY electric car.

[belkorin]

But it is prohibitively expensive at this point.