On Wed, Dec 9, 2009 at 8:56 AM, Rowan Tipton wrote:

> i wonder about the environmental costs of owning three cars as opposed
> to one that gets bad gas milage.  i have read that by the time a car
> is built it has created around a quarter of the pollution it will
> create in it's lifetime.  since i have no idea where i read that it
> may be totally incorrect.>

The environmental cost of manufacturing is amortized over the life of
the vehicle.  What that means is that if I drive a vehicle 300K miles, I
distribute the environmental cost of manufacturing, which become small
on a per mile basis.  If I buy one and crash it after 1000 miles, the
costs are large.  Three vehicles vs. one vehicle becomes moot in that
context, since it is the total vehicle mileage that matters.  If, over
my life, I drive a million miles total, whether I do that in one or in
three vehicles is irrelevant.  Now, if I trash each vehicle after only
100K miles and replace it, then I am irresponsible.  But my having three
tells nothing about whether I am responsible.  It is my driving habits
that matter.  I can extend the life of those three vehicles and
ammortize the environmental cost just as I do the dollar cost.  Some of
the vehicles I've owned have attained 300K miles before being moved on
-- usually to another driver.  My daughter in Spokane now drives the
Corolla that I bought new in 1993.  It has 190K miles.  The Honda that I
bought new in 1997 and that my wife drives daily to work has 193K miles.
Both have long lives ahead of them.  I fully expect the Prius to have a
comparably long life -- it may be the last new car I ever buy.  The
vanagon -- I'm doing what you guys recommend -- keeping it on the road,
but I'm reserving it for special uses that the others don't serve, which
should extend its life even more.

David McNeely