We’re fortunate enough to be comfortable in these trying times, so – and I’m rationalizing - we should be thinking about stimulating the economy in whatever way we can; getting a new car at the same time seems like as good a plan as any. Buying a new car is a large purchase so it’s reasonable to think one may teeter on the decision. But, I think I’m more conflicted than most would be. Obviously purchasing something that fits our lifestyle and future plans is important, but I also want to raise the national average miles per gallon (if only fractionally) with whatever vehicle we purchase. Only a handful of automobiles that would fit our needs would do that. One of those is the Ford Escape Hybrid.
Over the weekend, Katie and I test drove a used 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid. Besides being a most terrible bright blue color, the test drive went just fine. We’ve been talking about possibly getting a new car since this country’s dire economic state makes for good deals . . . except on Ford Escape Hybrid of course. The problem is that these damn Escapes are harder to find than Sasquatch. Why won’t Ford build more!? We averaged over 28 mpg on our jaunt through Granite City, Illinois, home of the demonstrating steel mill worker, and happened to drive by an affordable housing project I recently worked on that’s under construction; it’s looking great!
As you may know from reading this blog before, we live in a loft in downtown St. Louis. I walk to work and my wife takes our one and only car, Samosa, to work. The problem is, when you’ve decided you want something, you generally don’t listen to any counter arguments. But, yesterday I broke out our scooter, Tofu, for the first time in 2009 to get to a board meeting. The ride was a bit chilly, but relatively short. Being able to travel independently made me question the need to another car, which would make the third motorized vehicle for a family of two humans (four if you include our two four-legged creatures).
Is that being “green”? Am I being too hard on myself for wanting the ability to move around quickly and conveniently? Clearly hypocrisy would play some part if we bought a new car, but would it involved enough that the decision would categorize abandoning my beliefs? Okay, so I’m being a little dramatic.
Buying a car doesn’t mean that it would automatically get used an extraordinary amount. This is great from a fuel-burning standpoint but probably not the wisest economic decision. Additionally, I would have no need for the car sharing program downtown. Using this program has been relatively convenient but also emotionally rewarding. Subscribing to the one car per person norm would only be the status quo, no worse. And owning a hybrid would make being in that classification slightly more bearable, but that’s no way to fight the good fight. Ahhhh.
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