Saturday, April 12, 2008

Priorities


Chuck Asay Slate

Today at Slate Magazine the cartoon series of the day is about oil.
Go and flip through them and there are all of these political cartoon about oil --
Like this one. Two people are lying in a hospital bed, bandaged head to toe and the caption reads, "but it was fuel efficient." The Headline in the paper on the table says, "Congress Wants Car Makers... More Fuel Efficient..."

As it happens, I have been thinking about this all week. I drive a big car. I drive a Volvo XC. Big, heavy, and with a big tank.

Right now it costs about $65 to fill up every week -- and I don't drive very much. I feel bad about the gas mileage.

So for my fun this morning I've been fishing around on Kelly's Blue Book and Crash Photo sites.

I honestly think gas prices may double in the time I thought this car would last. The article on Kelly's Blue Book about the Toyota Prius says, "long term costs associated with the car are unknown."

I bought it for safety -- furthermore, it's my second Volvo, I've been in a series of accidents, and I really think that the car has protected my children and I from a fair amount of damage. Once I got hit from behind -- hard -- by a minivan. I was 7 months pregnant with an toddler in the back and we were fine.

Volvo 240 Accident
link
the way the crumple zone works is that the car folds up around the passengers, protecting them in a metal cage.


Not all cars act like that.

I've been thinking about trading it in...

I think I'll wait.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Jennifer,
You'll be happy to know that I'm using the photo of your Volvo to illustrate the effect of "crumple zones" on cars to my freshman engineering class this week.