Everyone is trading their gas guzzlers for smaller more compact cars... what happens to the old car?

Question

do we just sell it to someone else to go off polluting the world? Who cares right, we made the switch and went with a high efficiency vehicle. Really, aren't we just making more waste when we trade in our not so earth friendly cars in for more earth friendly cars? Is there a way to "upgrade" our vehicles' engines so that they can also use electricity and be more fuel efficient? Wouldn't it be less wasteful to change out some old parts than a whole car? I'm a being irrational in my thinking?

Answer 1

Yes, selling your car does help the environment, but not directly.

Yes, you can convert a wasteful gasoline automobile to electric or hybrid, but it's not cheap.

I think it would be cheaper to change out just the odd parts ("powertrain" is what it's called) but it's hard to convince owners of those vehicles to do it.

Your intution is right.  Once a new car is sold, it will be driven, by somebody, until it's no longer worth fixing.  In fact, once the automaker decides to build the vehicle, that vehicle's pollution becomes inevitable.  

However, when you sell your car, that car gets sold to someone else.  Who sells their old car to someone else, who buys it because his old guzzler just isn't worth fixing anymore.  So your car keeps polluting, but by adding it to the used-car market, you stop an older car from polluting.

You can also convert a polluting car to electric or hybrid. Thousands of people have done this, and it works.  But it's not cheap.  

Part of what makes it expensive is the design.  Your intuition is right, it's a lot easier to convert a whole bunch of cars than just one, because you only have to design it once.  A few utility companies have done that, taken a whole fleet of their worn-out gasoline cars and converted them to electric.  That's what happened here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1989-Chev...

But there's a snag with that.  If the engine/powertrain is worn out, there's a fair chance the suspension, interior and body/paint are also worn out.  If you have to fix all that other stuff too, then it becomes more expensive than buying a new car.   And a conversion still takes a lot of expensive craftsman labor, it can't be done with the efficiency of an assembly line.  

Now you say you don't have any money, that's not quite true.  You own a large 2003 automobile... they don't give those out for free, so clearly you DO have buying power.  Don't underestimate yourself.

So why don't things change faster?  Probably because when "real money" like the cost of a car is involved, people are scared, and feel a strong need to "play it safe".  So the entire system is set up to support "playing it safe", which is why you can buy a gasoline car for $0 down, but you have to fork out $10,000 cash on a decent electric vehicle conversion.  Who's gonna do that?  The system is rigged against it.

Answer 2

Here's a few ideas there working on . http://www.first-molecule.com  I agree with you there has got to be a better way then junking them all . I just have a little over 30,000 on mine its not ready for the bone yard yet and I'm not ready for more payments

Answer 3

Yes, we sell it off.

You stop to short in your reasoning.  It replaces an even worse gas guzzler/polluter.

The height of Technology of 1999 is better than the height of technology in 1989.  The over all fleet of cars does improve as older, worse cars are taken out of service.

Not in the new car market, but in the used car market.

Answer 4

No one is really doing this.  Some people buy new cars.  Then other people buy those people's old cars and so on and so forth until a car is either:

1)  Useless except to be scrapped

2)  Wrecked

When scrapped, any valuable parts will be used to replace broken parts on other cars.

Any valuable materials (i.e. steel) will be recycled.

The rest is waste, just like the trash you throw out.

But your thought is correct, it would be far more environmentally correct to continue driving an older car than to require all the energy to be used to build a brand new one, even if it is "greener."

Answer 5

This is a good point

It takes plenty of energy to manufacture a vehicle. This energy produces plenty of pollution.

If the vehicle is not driven (gas guzzler or not) it does not produce pollution.

There is a lot of large cars on the used market at the moment and because nobody wants them the prices are tumbling. It is fair to expect that many of these will find there way to the scrap yards before they reach the end of their useful life. Yes this is creating more waste.

There is also a perception that driving cleaner vehicles is "saving the planet" even though they still produce pollution. This can result in more unnecessary driving.

There are many things you can do with your old car to make it pollute less. Many of these will even save you money.

Reduce usage,

Plan you trips, Pay bills/shop on-line, Car pool, drive conservitively, remove excess weight from the car. Ensure that it is tuned properly. and tyres are properly inflated.

Reduce usage.

Many people try walking and riding  bicycles. Some enjoy it so much that take them up as recreational activities. This won't be practical all the time but it is surprising how often this can be done.

Riding an electric or (petrol) bicycle,scooter or motor bike will generaly pollute less than a car also.

Conversions

An L.P.G. conversion will reduce pollution (about 20%). The down side is it costs a few thousand and swallows storage space.

A smaller motor.

Again this will cost a few thousand. The smaller motor will will run more efficiently at cruising speed. Generally the vehicle will accelerate slower and the fuel savings will only be quite small.

An electric conversion.

This is possible but quite expensive. It will affect you vehicles performance and how far it can be driven. The power needed to charge batteries produces pollution also. Depending on the grid that you are connected and the type of conversion the net pollution could be almost the same.

Answer 6

They are sold to some one else.  And I am not trading in my gas guzzler for a smaller car.  In fact, when I do trade in my car, I plan to buy an even more powerful one.

Answer 7

Yes you're not quite thinking about it correctly.  If you sell your old car and buy a more environmentally friendly new one

1) Someone will buy your old car if it still works.  Yes your old car will still be on the road, but this person would have bought a similar old car anyway.  Thus his emissions are unchanged but yours are lower.

2) Eventually your car will end up at the junkyard or recycled or whatever.  In the meantime you've lowered your emissions.

3) The guy who bought your car will also have had to junk/sell his car, so he's probably making an upgrade too.  As everyone upgrades, total emissions decrease.

Make sense?

If you want a cheaper way of going green in terms of transportation, there's lots of options.  Public transportation, bicycling, electric bicycles, and electric scooters, for example.  You can keep your older car, but use a bike for short trips to the store.  This will save you money on fuel while also making your lifestyle more 'green'.

Answer 8

It really isn't cost effective to make older & usually much heavier cars more efficient. Currently they get passed down to people who can't afford new vehicles.  It will take some time to get the majority of the population into more earth friendly cars.

What I find alarming is that many people are still buying new gas guzzling vehicles.   I wonder how they will like that 4 door, 4 wheel drive, hemi powered 12 mpg truck when gas hits $5.00 per gallon.

Answer 9

Upgrading an older, large car to use a smaller gas engines or replace the old one with an electric motor would not work well.  Smaller gas engines would have to work very hard to move that big car, and would use almost as much fuel, and the upgrade would be so expensive that nobody would do it any way.  An electric motor that would move the big cars would need huge batteries - so much that the car might weigh even more than it does now, and would lose a couple of passenger spaces.

Old cars that get traded in and resold ARE being recycled, though.  If a car is still useful, someone will buy it and drive it.  They're not using something made of new materials, they're taking an existing object and using it more.  It's the same as taking a glass bottle, cleaning it, and refilling it.

Cars that no longer can be driven are still recycled.  Usable parts can be removed, rebuilt, and resold to keep other cars on the road.  When they can't be re-used, the whole car can be melted down and the metal recycled into new cars, bikes, lampposts, surgical tools, sewer pipes, eye glasses, or anything else made out of metal.

Answer 10

Takes coal fired generators to power that electric car there Darlin'. Many states make cars 25 years old or older exempt from pollution regs. I have two 60's cars that I drive regular because they are paid for and I actually like them better than the newer stuff. How's that make you feel? Want to outlaw my older cars? What if I can't afford anything else? Truth is it's not cars making all the pollution as many greenies think. It's actually industrial pollution. Look at it this way...if industry was so clean then why are they buying up old cars and getting "pollution credits" from the government? So they don't have to spend bigger money to upgrade their pollution controls. Duh!

Answer 11

You are exactly right.

You have just exposed one of the big flaws of hybrid cars.

If someone buys a hybrid car but sells the old car to another person, now you have two cars causing pollution instead of one.

What you need to do if you are really serious about reducing carbon dioxide emissions is give the old car to a junkyard or pay the junkyard to take it  and make certiain that the old car is crushed for scrap and not sold as a workable car.

Do not give the old car to one of these places that gives you a charitable deduction for the old car. They will just sell it to someone else who wants a cheap car.

Answer 12

It's a slow process in the right direction.  Too expensive to change old cars.  In our area they have smog checks for old cars too.