Is Keeping Your Old Car Better for the Environment? by Engineering Explained

[Xist]

YouTube notified me after 2 days!

He said that if your car gets 40+ drive it for as long as you can.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2IKCdnzl5k

[Isaac Zachary]

Originally Posted by Xist

YouTube notified me after 2 days!

He said that if your car gets 40+ drive it for as long as you can.

Great!
Now I have to keep my cars forever!

I think compared to electric he said 7 years.

2028! Here I come!

[freebeard]

I've tried, but nothing lasts forever.



The biggest problem is having too many.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Even if a beater would require some extensive repairs to remain beatworthy, often it's still less energy-intensive to fix than looking out for a replacement. Even using a lower-grade sheetmetal to patch a rusty body becomes reasonable to some extent.

[Xist]

Everybody hates my old cars, but only my Subaru was unreliable. I wish the heater core had not gone out in my Civic, but I wouldn't have blown the heater core if i took proper care of my car.

[Autobahnschleicher]

I've calculated that it would take a Tesla roughly 25-30 years to make up for its production emissions compared to my used MR2 Spyder.
That is ignoring the fact that the Tesla will likely not last 28 years, much less on its first battery.
It is also ignoring the possibility of me converting my car to run on biofuels or doing a hybrid conversion.

So, I'll keep my Spyder, and I'll keep my bicycles.
If I'll end up needing to drive more, I will obviously consider going electric.

[Xist]

Jason claimed that Americans average over 12,000 miles a year.

That seems out-of-date. I am sure that some people are driving as much as ever, but I drove to see eleven clients each week in 2019, but I only see one-client in-person now.

I went from spending as much time driving as actually conducting therapy to a fraction as much now.

[Isaac Zachary]

I thought he said that 12,000 was a actually lower than the average, which gives the "keeping your old car" an advantage. The less you drive them more sense it makes to keep your older car longer. If you're going to drive a million miles a years you'd probably be better off with the newest and most fuel efficient vehicle you could find. (Except an EV probably wouldn't be a good vehicle to try to drive a million miles per year in.)

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Autobahnschleicher

It is also ignoring the possibility of me converting my car to run on biofuels or doing a hybrid conversion.

I am favorable to both biofuels and those synthetic fuels made through carbon sequestration. When it comes specifically to biofuels, the possibility of resorting to nearly any organic waste as a feedstock for at least one biofuel also renders it more reasonable than simply pushing for a ban of the ICE.

[Autobahnschleicher]

Originally Posted by Isaac Zachary

I thought he said that 12,000 was a actually lower than the average, which gives the "keeping your old car" an advantage. The less you drive them more sense it makes to keep your older car longer. If you're going to drive a million miles a years you'd probably be better off with the newest and most fuel efficient vehicle you could find. (Except an EV probably wouldn't be a good vehicle to try to drive a million miles per year in.)

You'd need to be a very busy person to average a million miles/year.
Just for fun I calculated the average (!) speed you'd need to go for that, wich is 114,2 km/h.
Let's say you actualy drive 12h/day on average instead of an impossible 24h/day, you would need to average 228,4 km/h for 12h per day.
Wich would be hard in just about any car short of some Audi with a large diesel engine doing circles in Nardo.
But then again, I'm not sure if the engine would even survive that kind of torture...