100Mmi, a lesson on rust and dust
August 26, 2010mike 1 Comment »100Mmi, a lesson on rust and dust… say what? 100 thousand (M) miles.
100,000 miles is a big milestone, psychologically six figures is often seen as a good thing (read salary). 100,000 miles on a car is often met with mixed reviews. On one had your car is getting worn, on the other hand you have received a lot of use out of it.
Rust and dust, not typically things positively associated with anything. They are both very damaging to mechanical things (especially pocket watches) and they are both ugly and dirty.
That’s fantastic, you beat up your car and now its old. Well yes, I did, thank you. I have about 110k miles on my 2003 Ford Escape. Its a fantastic feeling. I purchased the vehicle used (crossed 33,333 on the test drive) and I have gotten a lot of miles out of it. It is about as Rust as they come. No, other than on some of the under body components (we salt our streets in the winter here in Buffalo) there isn’t any rust on the thing. I mean Rust as in the Rust Movement. The car is old, and efficient. No its not that fuel efficient, the engine has a lot of gunk in it these days, its efficient because its built, its here and I keep using it. No energy is wasted to design, build and transport it. The only energy it uses is when its carting me around town as we get closer to mile 111,111.
My old Escape is greener than any Prius hybrid, its even greener than its Escape Hybrid counterpart. And its a V6 4×4! (hey we have snow here, and I sport my sport ute). How is that possible? Dust to Dust, that’s how. A study was done and a great commentary written about how the Hummer (H1 I believe) is more efficient than the Toyota Prius. Say what? Yes that is correct. When you look at the cost of development, production, shipping, disposal, across the mileage of each of the vehicles, they’re not even close. By Toyota’s own number the Prius will only get 100,000 miles (I don’t think the battery warranty will cover even close to that) a Hummer, 300,000, and that’s probably an understatement. Plus the Hummer was designed decades ago out of basic common parts, its built here in the States and its going to last, even when its rusts.
The article written above is from 2006. It is dicussing Bill Ford’s move away from hybrids and into fuel efficient conventional cars. Maybe the author was a soothsayer. Flash forward to 2010 and Ford is healthy, making great products (while the other two of the Big Three are gimping) and Toyota, especially the Prius is having real concerns (because of all those “unconventional” components the article talks about). Ford also now has the Fiesta on the market getting 40 mpg on just a regular old economy car. Talk about a smart move.
Regardless of whether or not you think that is an extreme example (its not, what’s the life of a Lithium Ion battery? How much energy does it take to make, and dispose of?) it brings up a great point. Remember the points of the “Recycle” logo? Recycle, Reduce, Reuse. I propose a Rust Movement logo. Reduce Reuse Rust.
Remember man that we are dust and to dust we shall return.
August 27th, 2010 at 10:02 am
[...] 100Mmi, a lesson on rust and dust [...]