Attached to my...... car????

[lynda66]

I haven't had a car for 10 years, i guess i'm lucky in that i only live 5 mins walk from town, and son carries my shopping home, if i get too much shopping i get a taxi, and i make use of the internet for buying most things, except the weekly shop cos i like to have a root round ....... occasionally i miss not having one, as long journeys can be a pain, but my neighbour has just insured his car for any driver, so if i'm desperate he'll let me use his, and he also has use of a works van to pick up big stuff

[pjh75]

Someone I used to work with recently got rid of his car and joined a car club... him and his Mrs have a 1 year old which I would have thought makes a car "on tap" essential, but apparently not so. He is able to cycle to work and they both cycle for recreation with the baby on the back and I guess they get a car from the club when they really need it.

[Gary66]

Okay, this is probably gonna be a boo-hiss comment, but.... here goes.... I have two cars and (at present) I live by myself... (cups hand to ear as boos and hisses come flooding in). Not only that, but one of them is a Landrover! Now before my throat is full of people jumping down it, this is another hobby if mine and it's also my intention to someday soon, have the Landy converted to run on veggie oil. Couple that with the fact that it's nearly 24 years old and still fully sustainable ie there isn't a part on it that can't be replaced and in many cases with re-engineered parts - it is therefore not putting the strain on the planet that new car manufacturing does - plus I fully intend to keep this vehicle for another 24 years. All in all, that should take my carbon footprint (as far as motoring is concerned) way down!

A recent survey by a company called CNN (not the news one) produced a list of the most environmentally cars based on an ashes-to-ashes principle - that is from inception to disposal and the car at the very top was.... the Jeep Wrangler!! For the same reasons I listed above - these cars, due to their modular construction can be kept on the road indefinitely whereas you average mundano only lasts about 10-15 years tops! Good old built-in obsolescence! The hybrids like the Prius came WAY down the list - no.75 in fact, because of the methods required to dispose of the batteries after a very short lifespan. Whodda thunk it?!

My other car is a Fiat Punto. They look odd sitting in the drive together. Little and Large. And just like that comedy duo, one is a helluva lot more fun than the other! No prizes for guessing which one.....

[Starchild]

have the Landy converted to run on veggie oil.

Waste veg oil I hope as straight veg oil is environmentally and ethically unsound.

[Gary66]

Waste veg oil I hope as straight veg oil is environmentally and ethically unsound.

I'm hoping to get the stuff from a local Fish and Chip shop although I'll have to drain all the little bittys out of it, so yeah, it will be waste oil - plus I'll have the BEST smelling exhaust ever!

[chilli gal]

I'd love to do without the car - but we would be marooned here. Public transport stops around 5.00 pm, and is fairly sparse in the daytime. We do get one train on a Sunday - but it is too late to get anywhere

Taxis don't like working early early or very late. Rural transport is such a mess that you need to have a car. Local services such as the JobCentre and Banks have been closed down with threats to the Post Office as well.

I love living here - but a car has got to be part of the package unless things improve a lot.

[shirlthegirl43]

I'd love to do without the car - but we would be marooned here. Public transport stops around 5.00 pm, and is fairly sparse in the daytime. We do get one train on a Sunday - but it is too late to get anywhere

Taxis don't like working early early or very late. Rural transport is such a mess that you need to have a car. Local services such as the JobCentre and Banks have been closed down with threats to the Post Office as well.

I love living here - but a car has got to be part of the package unless things improve a lot.

Ditto. I couldn't get anywhere I need to go without the car. It is a one-hour wait for a bus that might be going somewhere near the place you want but when I worked there was no way I would have got the kids to school and childminder and me to work without the car. I also echo others with older or performance cars. My car is 23 this year and its carbon footprint must have levelled out years ago. It does 42 miles per gallon and has low emissions - I will be really cross if the Government brings in this stupid idea of raising road tax for older cars as Flossie is more efficient than many new cars, the larger engine doesn't need to work so hard to propel the car. If there is one thing I can't abide it is being overtaken by some new blobmobile that stinks of rotten eggs and sulphur coz it is being hammered to death to pass me up a hill.

[Two_Sheds]

My car is 23 this year and its carbon footprint must have levelled out years ago.

Well, but no. It still runs on fossil fuel, which is unsustainable. I know you need your car in the country, and it might well be 'better' than other cars, but carbon friendly it ain't
My beef is with my neighbours who drive to the local shops ... 10 mins walk away. And my fellow allotmenteers who drive up to site, drive home at lunch, drive back again for the afternoon shift ... and they all live within a mile too. No tools to carry, no disabilities, it's just sheer laziness.

[JennieAtkinson]

Well living in the most car dependent county in the UK - there being a complete lack of public transport - I have to have a car. But I really am thinking about how I'm using it and planning my use of it on a daily basis. Some days it does sit in the drive and I feel quite smug. Other days I use it more than I should and I feel quite disapointed with myself.

But I've just bought myself a Brompton folding bicycle ............ mainly for use on the boat when we are sailing south (shops are just miles from any harbours), but its absolutely great (folds easily and such a small size) and I can keep it in the back of the car, so although I have to drive into work, I can use it for meetings and at lunch time for shopping. I know there is a "footprint" price for the production of the bike, but over a long period of time, this should balance out - yes? Who knows, I might just get back into cycling to work (20 mile round trip), but age and arthritis get in the way a bit.

PS can you get carbon footprint tokens for your efforts when you were younger?

[Starchild]

I'm hoping to get the stuff from a local Fish and Chip shop although I'll have to drain all the little bittys out of it, so yeah, it will be waste oil - plus I'll have the BEST smelling exhaust ever!

You can't just put waste veg oil straight in as it would still be contaminated even if strained. You need to add methanol and sodium hydroxide and have some chemistry knowledge and equipment. Pour it straight in and you'll bugger your engine.

[shirlthegirl43]

You can't just put waste veg oil straight in as it would still be contaminated even if strained. You need to add methanol and sodium hydroxide and have some chemistry knowledge and equipment. Pour it straight in and you'll bugger your engine.

My car runs happily on 50/50 veg oil and diesel (not the Golf). No other treatment. Check on the type of injection system you have. As far as I am aware, this would be the same if I used waste oil (which I have tried to source but no go round here)

[Starchild]

My car runs happily on 50/50 veg oil and diesel (not the Golf). No other treatment. Check on the type of injection system you have. As far as I am aware, this would be the same if I used waste oil (which I have tried to source but no go round here)

Waste veg oil needs treating because of the contaminats from food, plus there will be water in the oil which will not be removed when just skimmed or filtered.

Even running it 50/50 with straight veg oil leaves deposits in the engine due to the heavier molecular structure of the veg oil. This can damage the engine to the point of it being irrepairable.

I know a chap at a garage who deals with this problem, he says even a bosch (the recommended injection system) system won't prevent it. He runs his recovery truck on converted waste veg oil. He wouldn't put unconverted WVO in any engine.
When using WVO or SVO goes wrong, it gets expensive.

[shirlthegirl43]

Fair enough, the car was so cheap though it isn't a problem if it dies - it has done high mileage and is now performing the role of cheap runabout for lugging compost and rubbish around and about. We have been told by others who run the same model that it will run on 95% oil with no problems other than needing replacement fuel filters more often and needing some unleaded to aid starting in very cold weather.

Apologies for hijacking your thread a bit there Shortie

[Shortie]

Hey, no worries. I'm finding it pretty interesting. Been thinking of LPG myself, but seeing as I can ony just squeeze the buggy in the back it's not practical until bub grows older

[Sue]

It's trying to do without a car when you live somewhere that is off public transport routes etc that must be a big part of the problem. That and the dire state of public transport which is a scandal. The cost too is offputting as are the delays and so on. I can see faced with that that doing away with a car seems a real problem. Public transport has to be vastly improved to tempt car people back. Just one example from our town, a new bus service doing a round journey the length of the town every ten minutes is a vast improvement, reliable and best of all, you can get a ticket for 80p use it all day and get on and off where you want. The alternative can be £1.80 to £3.60!

Not being able to drive (double vision - can't always be sure which line in the road is real and which one is not...) I've always had to tailor where I live with public transport availability so that being carless isn't really a problem. Would be lovely to live in the country but I know I'd be stranded so chose a country town instead, small enough to be enjoyable to live in and big enough to have the shops within ten minutes walk.

I was lucky enough to get my allotment before the "big boom" so was able to choose the one on the bus route and yes, it's a problem sometimes carting stuff backwards and forwards but have my trusty wheel basket and rucksack.

Sue