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| reply to pauldenton
Re: Dollar to be dropped as the oil currency by 2018 After GM revoked the leases on EV-1's from willing owners so they could crush the vehicles, I would not lease a PHEV nor buy one with a leased battery. Leases only save money if the drivers travel excessively, such as 20,000 miles / years. Leasing makes no financial sense to those of us who drive about 2,000 miles per year.
Bicycle theft is common in America. I have had two stolen during my life. Apartment dwellers must park their bicycles in their rooms to prevent theft. Even motorcycles are easy targets when parked and chained in a community garage. | | |
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| said by Spice300:Leasing makes no financial sense to those of us who drive about 2,000 miles per year. hmm - new(ish) car "ownership" of (almost*) any kind is unlikely to make financial sense to anyone doing 2k miles/year - the depreciation due to increasing age of the car will give rise to an enormous cost per mile even before you put anything in the tank, register/insure it etc. - much cheaper to rent a car on the odd occasions* you need one, (or run an old vehicle that has little remaining value to lose)
{it is also likely to make zero sense in energy use terms, since the energy consumed in making the new car (let alone anything with a battery in) for you to drive 2k miles/year in will never be recouped in reduced gas useage over an old car of similar size: even a Smartfortwo (2 seats and negligible luggage space, and the most fuel efficient non-hybrid available in the US at 36mpg "combined" (33 city, 41 highway)) consumes the energy equivalent to 500 gallons of gas in it's manufacture - a more realistically sized vehicle significantly more ..... so even if the 2k/year was all "highway" then even compared with an 10mpg "highway" clunker you'd "save" just over 151 gallons per year, i.e you only get ahead in year 4....
but compare it with say a ten year old honda civic (29 mpg highway, and 4 doors and a trunk etc....)
»www.fueleconomy.gov/FEG/noframes/14872.shtml
and you only "save" 20 gallons per year i.e you don't cover the manufacturing energy until 25 years down the line (if your smart is still driveable....) older cars are even more alarming since a 1989 civic (smaller than the 1999 but still much roomier than the smart) got 50mpg highway..... 
»www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/noframes/5263.shtml
*the only exceptions i can think of is buying/owning the kind of scarce and desirable cars that increase in value rather than fall, perhaps due to long waiting lists that would-be owners will pay a premium to jump.... but that's a high risk strategy since one generally has to commit to the purchase some time in advance and may find that one's expectations of a healthy premium on a "nearly new" car are not fulfilled....
**or if that's say 250 days at 8 miles per day on average, cycle.... or even walk.
said by Spice300:Bicycle theft is common in America. I have had two stolen during my life. Apartment dwellers must park their bicycles in their rooms to prevent theft. Even motorcycles are easy targets when parked and chained in a community garage. here too, sadly..... in fact afaik the UK has far more bike thefts per head than the US - circa 440k bike thefts are reported here per year, in about 60m pop
»news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/6596559.stm
vs about 231k in the FBI's UCR for the same year
»www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2007/data/table_07.html
of course some of that may be down to much higher bike ownership/use, increased liklihood of it being covered by their household insurance leading to increased reporting rates etc.... | |
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