Strange choice of eco-car?
 

I've recently retired, well, actually not quite, 6 working days to go. The company car was a Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, I could do the 20 mile journey there on a full charge, recharge at work and then another EV only drive home. Now what car to get now I'm handing that back?

I am concerned about this wonderful planet so my choice will seem very contradictory. A 1981 Series 3 gas guzzling Land Rover. Why?

1. I can service and tune it myself.
2. It's been restored to original condition, it has a galvanised chassis, rustproof alumininium body panels and will probably outlive me.

But,
1. It has the aerodynamics of a brick.
2. It'll be in 2 wheel drive most of the time and I'm not fitting freewheeling hubs, so it'll be expending energy rotating the front axle and drive train.
3. The 2.25 litre petrol engine was only ever claimed by the manufacturer to be able to achieve 19mpg. I'll do my best to keep it in tune and at max. efficiency.

2nd but,
1. It is generally accepted that the carbon footprint of manufacturing a car is roughly equivalent to the CO2 emitted during it's driving lifetime.
2. The CO2 emitted during manufacture is higher with all-electric/hybrids and then there are also additional toxicity concerns regarding lithium battery production.

That being the case, driving a car that, before restoration, would have been destined for the scrapyard, it has already impacted the environment with the manufacturing CO2 and henceforth I need only worry about the impact I make driving it during it's extended lifetime.

I will post on here the mpg I achieve (and any other event that would adversly impact planet Earth.) and compare that to what the same impact would have been if I'd opted for a new car.

And at the end of it's life or mine, it will be sold on or broken up for spares, which, because spares of this model are so sought after it will remove the environmental impact of those components being re-manufactured.

I'm convinced my choice will be better for the planet overall and will search on here for anyone that has done the same or other useful tips. Comments welcome.

Welcome to Ecomodder.

Is the restoration work already done? Would you consider an engine swap, TDI or EV conversion?

I've always owned used cars, currently 1971, 1979 and 1990.

If extra axle is availble then assisting electric motor can attached on it.

Yeah my nissan leaf has the same amount of steel, lead, as a normal car bit appears to contain way more copper something to the tune of 4 times, also way more lithium, cobalt and appears to contain more aluminum than a normal car.

I know it might not be the greatest benchmark for efficiency, but just look at those folks who buy a Chelsea tractor for self-indulgence, yet could never go as far off-roading than your classic Land Rover can go. Not to mention if you ever need some reproduction of a replacement part out of catalog, or eventually get a reconditioned one, most likely it will also have a lower CO² footprint than the so many sensors fitted to a modern SUV (or even compact cars).

That's only true of a relatively eco car, for a gas guzzler the fuel CO2 will far outweigh production CO2.

Being reparable is very important. However, although there are a few things I can't seem to do on my newer cars because of lack of experience or tools, it seems the most important thing is how available are parts, and if they are of a decent quality.

It doesn't do much good to have an engine that's super easy to rebuild if you can't get pistons, for an example.

Other than that, for the most part brakes are still brakes, engines are still engines, and transmissions are still transmissions. You might have to take off the intake manifolds to change the sparkplugs, but sparkplugs are still sparkplugs.

There are aeromods that can help fix that. Or just drive substantially slower.

How often do you "need" 4WD? Front axle delete? Front axle converted to hybrid drive?

On older cars I do everything that's supposed to make the engine explode only to get better fuel efficiency. More ignition timing advance, leaner mixes (at part load, full load I keep at around 12:1 and don't let it ping). I've even modded the heads to get a higher compression ratio. Just don't let it ping and don't drive it like it's stolen and you'd be amazed at how much better fuel efficiency you can get with a little tuning. Of course there's always the chance of blowing your engine.

I don't accept that, unless lifetime is like 3 to 5 years. Maybe up to 10 in an eco car. Or a 30, 40, 50 year lifetime if you drive like 3,000 miles per year or something.

True, those are valid concerns. But there are non-hybrids that do get great fuel mileage.

How much do you drive tho?

Who? Me? Or the OP?

I was doing over 30,000/year before COVID-19.

The OP.