Serious about Conservation?

Times are tough, yet here are the environmentalists touting their horns. When it comes to motoring, you’ve probably seen the flyers about organizations that will offer you cash to donate your old car under some environmental cause. The problem I see is that, depending on the car, you often get very little money back and two, the vehicle is sent straight to the crusher, with a minimal amount of parts being stripped for reuse. Make no mistake; these kinds of operations are very, very bad. They do nothing to improve the environment and instead rob people the means of cheap, affordable transportation and increase the risk of car and parts theft as well as making things more difficult for enthusiasts like you and I. The more old Fords are crushed, the fewer parts and cars are available for us, which drives up prices.

In my area there is one of these organizations called Car Heaven, which claims that “all old cars go to a good place.” Well let’s just say that if I was an old car (bear with me on this), one that had served my masters well over the years, I couldn’t think of a worse fate. It’s like a multiple derby winning horse being sent to the glue factory just because it’s no longer the fastest thing around. I’ve seen perfectly serviceable cars sent to the grave, simply because somebody thought they were ‘old.’ What a waste! These car scrappage programs are utterly misguided and the irony is that they promote waste rather than recycling, as more cars crushed means more energy expended compacting them into metal cubes, not to mention increased clean up costs and disposal fees. Because they also don’t take into account the fact that a lot of people, especially those on income assistance and the elderly, who often rely on old cars for transportation, they are an utter waste of time. Many of these people simply don’t have the budget to buy or maintain a newer vehicle. Giving them less of a choice when it comes to purchase a car may well mean the difference between mobility and hardship. I have grown to love old cars (particularly) Fords, because for a long time, I was on a real budget and was unable to obtain credit, but needed transportation. Most of the old cars I purchased, once the problems were fixed (usually because of neglect), gave me many years of service at a fraction of the cost of owning a late-model vehicle. I still chuckle when I go to my friend’s tire shop in town or to the parts store. A brake job on something like a ’78 Fairmont costs around $60 and an alternator perhaps $25. A girl I know recently had to replace the alternator on her late-model Infiniti – try $600. Especially that we are now in what appears to be a recession, it’s time to think more carefully about what and where we spend our money and if you want to make your motoring costs go as far as possible, start checking the classifieds - even for 1960s and 1970s cars, you might be surprised just how much you can save. Not only are many of these cars cheap to fix, you can do the work yourself. You’ll have not only saved a ton of money but have developed immense pride and satisfaction that you’ve done the work yourself, plus if you have kids, getting them into old cars is a great, productive use of time and can ultimately be very rewarding. You’ve also revived something instead of throwing it away – last time I looked that was called conservation. Also, with cars of this vintage you’re never likely to lose any money – the age of most of these vehicles means that at the very least, the value has bottomed out and if anything, is actually increasing. So next time somebody suggests that you should scrap your old car and instead by a modern tin box with a payment plan and savage depreciation, you should perhaps give them a lesson in both conservation and economics, as chances are they won’t have a clue about either.