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This might seem a bit wierd, but it's been on my mind for ages,and Lucia is fed up with me going on about it so if no-one else is interested I'll know she's right.
When the Govt. brought in the 'scappage scheme' it was said that as well as flogging a load more moronic charachterless tin boxes,the scheme was good for the enviroment as the new motors were much more economic than 10 year old motors.But surely if you keep a motor say 20 years,you use less non-renewable resources than if you change your car every couple of years.New motors may be more efficient,but when you factor in the power used to produce a new motor,melt down the re-usable bits and transport it round the country/world surely it's more enviromently - friendly to hang on to the old volvo,or is this garbage? Anyhow I cant afford anythying else!

Our car is a 17 year old Mazda 323F and it has lower emissions than most NEW cars! I love my car and I am keeping it for as long as it's running!

This rubbish scheme was just to prop the motor industry up and nothing else... it was just whitewashed over to look 'green'

I'm with you Jerry you can't beat the old motors, my favourite car i had for years was a singer gazelle leather interior with walnut dash i loved it to bits, i remember having to underseal it every year

And at least old cars are recognizable, not like all these new things that look like one another.... There is no differences in designs with any of them! Soulless, they all are! Saying that I did buy a new car a few years back, but I was doing a fair bit of millage then, I don't think I would do it again as my millage has been reduced big time and I don't intend to go back to big millage.
What you could do possibly is change the engine, that may help to make it more green? I know my dad has done that on a car or 2 through the years, but can you do this in this country? I suppose it is not cheap to do either anyway.

The scheme makes sense when you look at mileage and emissions. Doing 20,000 miles a year in an old Volvo is much more polluting than doing the same in a new car. Doing very low mileage in an old polluting car is just a p*** in the ocean, but for millions of cars doing high mileage it makes sense. I agree it was brought in to help the motor industry and the economy but I think it is a win win.

One of the lecturers on My masters degree in Environmental Protection drove around in an old VW and his argument was exactly the same as yours oldjerry. Mind you, the other lecturers all drove much newer cars - so I don't know what their rationale was

TheGoodEarth wrote:The scheme makes sense when you look at mileage and emissions. Doing 20,000 miles a year in an old Volvo is much more polluting than doing the same in a new car. Doing very low mileage in an old polluting car is just a p*** in the ocean, but for millions of cars doing high mileage it makes sense. I agree it was brought in to help the motor industry and the economy but I think it is a win win.

Hmmm.. 20,000 miles a year in any motor seems enviromently questionable,and more importantly,a horrible waste of your life!
Thanks for all your responses.
I think maybe for me,it's something to do with : 1) not using a tool when you dont understand how it works and therefore cant fix
(though I dont know where this PC fits in here)

2) not buying in to the consumption thing.

3) Basically, I just rate old Volvos ! ( mines a diesel,they can do in excess of
300,000 miles and no I havent got a flat cap! )


Anyhow thanks again.

StripyPixieSocks wrote:This rubbish scheme was just to prop the motor industry up and nothing else... it was just whitewashed over to look 'green'

The only trouble was it was the Japanese and German car industries that got propped up by the British government scheme.

Oh, and I have a confession. An acquaintance was about to scrap a perfectly good 12 year old Fiat Barchetta (google it, in the UK they are really rare), it had only done 40,000 miles. So I 'rescued' it by paying them what they would have got through the scrappage scheme. Now I have a lovely garage ornament that gets used a few times in the summer and sits in the garage all winter but I love it and it's a great boy magnet. Plus I have three people queuing up to buy it so I should get my money back if I decide to sell.

Zoe

KEEP IT .... we dont do ne cars ,,, older and comfy ... mine is errr 14 and his is 6 and thats new for us ... all of out transport should be run into the ground ... for all the reasons you state

We have 3 vehicles, 2 are 10 years old one is 20, when the scrapage scheme was running I had 6k sat on my drive
But to be frank I think the scrapage scheme was a mistake, admitedly it did help the (foreign) car industry

3 might seem greedy but as er in doors can not drive I only use one at a time I have a ten year old Transit for deliveries, which I bought new and was a complete nightmare from day one and vowed never to buy new again but I have just had it refurbished as it had got a bit tatty and the chap who looks after my vehicles knows his trade No more main dealers for me

When I semi retired nearly 7 years ago I bought a Rover Sterling as a retirement present fortunatly for me Mr Clarkson and Co had slagged of Rovers so much I was able to pick up a 1 owner low mileage 3 year old car for 3.5K once they gave me 1.5K for my old Rover (which I thought was worth £500 if I was lucky) to think the book price for these was nearly 30k new

Our third vehicle is a family heirloom a 20 year old campervan which is a much cherished vehicle, and we try to use it as much as possible although it means our veg plot suffers

I have 2 vehicles, the main family mover and all round work vehicle is a X reg (2000) Mercedes Vito van, that is rusting from the inside out quicker than I can fix it. It gets a hard life, we live down a dirt track, the horse is also down a long dirt track and it gets filled with everything I can get hold of, tons of horse manure, loads of wood and my current fav is gravel (someone dumped a few tons worth in a layby a few miles away) it earns its keep.

my other ride is a fully recycled car. it is a '72/'73 VW beetle, which is a simple car and it does not have a f**king computer in it !!!
basic engine, 4 wheels, no power steering to go wrong, with parts very easy to come by, classic insurance (£100) historic tax £0 it is working out very cheap to run. just what I have always wanted (well, wanted since I was about 8 yr old)



and the arty pic

OK John, you win in the cute car stakes. It's all sparkly. Fab.

Zoe

John Headstrong wrote:I have 2 vehicles, the main family mover and all round work vehicle is a X reg (2000) Mercedes Vito van, that is rusting from the inside out quicker than I can fix it. It gets a hard life, we live down a dirt track, the horse is also down a long dirt track and it gets filled with everything I can get hold of, tons of horse manure, loads of wood and my current fav is gravel (someone dumped a few tons worth in a layby a few miles away) it earns its keep.

my other ride is a fully recycled car. it is a '72/'73 VW beetle, which is a simple car and it does not have a f**king computer in it !!!
basic engine, 4 wheels, no power steering to go wrong, with parts very easy to come by, classic insurance (£100) historic tax £0 it is working out very cheap to run. just what I have always wanted (well, wanted since I was about 8 yr old)



and the arty pic

Oh my!

I absolutely ADORE old VW Beetles and have always wanted one as well! I *really* hate the new version with a passion.

Our car would have qualified by now under the classic car except the government in their wisdom aren't moving the dates forward each year anymore..

....... Ohhhhh and it's sparkly too *cries* it couldn't be any more 'ME'... *Goes green with jealousy*

well I can see why you need the three ... no problem there ... and we do the same wait for clarksen to slag of a motor then buy we did that with my scorpio ultima had it for nine years of lux motering ... great for moving minded kids and junk around ... beforeit dies of the electrics, I moved on to a 12 now 15 year old Mazda Bongo unconverted for camping in, moving kids around and general use ... and it will be a family member for a good while yet ... and no main dealers near anything ... very pretty VW

Love the sparkly beetle.

I'm on my second car ever. I drove my first (a ford fiesta) until it just collapsed. I took it for its MOT (this was the triumph of hope over knowledge) and the man in the garage read out the list of things they would have to do to make it pass (i.e. rebuild it from scratch, practically). He got to the end and looked at me and said 'I think it's time to let that fiesta go'. I was devastated, there were tears, the man in the garage has always looked at me oddly since. It definitely wasn't environmentally friendly, though, because it was too old to take unleaded petrol and I had to buy lead in a bottle and add it when I put petrol in. I used to feel like I was giving it its fix.

RIP Fiesta F696 TCP.