3X00-Modified wrote:Rettax3 wrote: Reduce, re-use, recycle does not seem to apply to the automotive world, especially when the government uses our tax-money to fund crap programs like 'Cash for Clunkers' that destroys everything useful on the car.
Um last time I checked vehicle salvage yards crush and recycle almost the whole car and resell the bits as scrap to be re-melted or reused in production elsewhere... Including those Cash for Clunkers program vehicles... Just because YOU can't buy the parts for your older car doesn't mean they are going into a heap, they are getting chopped up and re-used.
Getting chopped-up and no longer usable as the parts they were is what the phrase 'going into a heap' means Jon, unless of course a recipient vehicle is so rough that it would be referred to as a 'heap', then...
When I said 'reduce', I meant reducing the amount of materials/energy wasted or consumed in manufacturing a replacement unit (car). They sure as fun don't put used carpet-fibers into a new car.
When I said 're-use', I meant re-use the complete car that was functional as it was or with some repair, and didn't need to be replaced.
When I said 'recycle', I was specifically complaining about the 'Cash for Clunkers' program that destroyed the engines in the cars by deliberately pouring
chemicals into the engines (that is great for the environment too, I'm sure) that ruined them and kept them from being re-used. NOBODY (not just 'me') got to use those parts.
When I said 'recycle', I
wasn't referring to the fact that the cars are chopped-up and SOME (or even most) of the materials are re-used (a lot of the parts are simply shredded and either burned-off or sent to land-fills).
Sorry I had to explain that to you, I thought it was pretty clear what I was talking about.
Some cars are just junk, and should be scrapped. They are no longer safe, reliable, or economically feasible to repair, and things do wear-out and need to be replaced from time to time, including entire units (cars). I don't have a problem with that kind of scrapping, but from what I've seen (and I live where vehicles are not consumed by rust), most of the cars scrapped are still perfectly serviceable, if people would invest the price of a down-payment on repairs and even 25% of the cost of a monthly payment on basic maintenance. What bugs me is that there is so much pressure to scrap the old vehicles that still have a lot of service-life left to them, and are often better quality than the new stuff been pushed on us. The environmentalists often push it, because of the better numbers from new cars, but ignore the environmental ramifications of new-car manufacturing, and old car disposal. The government pushes it (because of lobbyists, largely), because it helps generate jobs in that industry and gains them tax-money on vehicle sales, but ignores the fact that it is a financial burden for many families to replace their vehicles frequently. Economists and financial analysts often push it because people who buy new vehicles need to work harder just to pay for them, but do not acknowledge the fact that people who are strapped to a new car payment have less 'disposable income' that would be used elsewhere in the economy. Society pushes it because they want to see 'new, bright, shiny' but they ignore the fact that harder working people are under more stress, which causes more health issues, and they have less time and money to devote elsewhere, like with their families or perhaps on recreational activities that actually improve quality of life. Friends and neighbors push it because they want to go buy 'new! bright! shiny!, and if YOU do it, it must be okay to do, so it helps justify giving it to the 'see, want' factor. Okay, so I am dramatizing this a little, and it isn't my whole life (or my whole day) to sit around and think about the Great Conspiracy that is the new-car market,
but it doesn't mean there isn't truth here. That is just my view on it, and it shouldn't be too out-of-perspective on an enthusiast site for a low-priced entry-level 'disposable'* car produced for only ten years that is now +/- twenty years old.
*Just to clarify for someone who might take this wrong, I don't view any car as truly 'disposable', I like having things that last, I dislike change for its' own sake, and quality is an important part of value to me. One of the best things about the Beretta is how cheap and easy it is to work on (and modify
). But these cars, as many others, are basically viewed as disposable -meaning "keep it for ~100k miles and crush it, it isn't anything special".
That view-point just annoys me.