2012 Honda Civic IMA System
Hello,
It is April 13, Friday and I have been home for 2 weeks after a five week trip to all corners of America. From Boston to San Diego and then Seattle to Miami and back to Massachusetts.
This month I bought a 2000 Insight, Sliver 5 speed from the original owner. Robert and his wife and two kids dropped off the car. My friend, Matt, made the deal while I was on the road. This car and Robert’s choice to buy it 12 years ago made me reflect on the past twelve years of hybrids and our culture. His new car is a used Prius.
When did the memo go out that a Pick-up truck with extra doors would be a great family car? I missed that one. This Insight has 175,000 miles on it. It runs but the IMA light is on and the repair estimate from the dealership was high. This car averaged 60 mpg so it consumed 2,917 gallons of gas. Lets round it up to 3,000 gallons. At $4 per gallon (today’s rate) the fuel was $12,000.00 or a bit more than half the price of the car. If your 4 door truck was parked during the week and the Insight was used for the commute of 15,000 per year as this car did, and your truck was a V8 4×4 with a towing package (most are) and you managed 15 mpg (I am being nice here) total gallons consumed were 11,666 so lets round it off at 11,500. $4 a gallon is 46,000 dollars, really! The Insight costs $22K plus the gas at $12K is $34k. That leaves you with 12K and a free car! Maybe rent a truck when you need it?
Each gallon of gasoline burned in a car produces 19 pounds of CO2. CO2 is a greenhouse gas so the Insight added 55,423 pounds and the truck added 221,652 pounds of Co2. These numbers tell us a story about choices made a decade ago. It matters what you do today a decade later when it comes to the cars and trucks we drive.
Chose wisely, don’t be a fool, especially on April fools day.
Thanks for visiting the ACDC site,
Craig Van Batenburg
