Changing Cars

Photo from Flickr

When I was a kid, to see a parade over the heads of the grown-ups who were blocking my view, I wanted to stand on a parked car. My father wouldn’t let me. He explained that for many people, their car is the most expensive possession they have. I should respect their car. I shouldn’t risk damaging it by standing on it.

Texans can develop a close relationship with our vehicles. I guess it’s natural in a place where people need to drive so much. That’s a factor too, showing respect for a person’s modern version of a beloved horse.

Most of my family tends to drive a car for many years before moving on to a newer model. I drove my Nissan pickup truck for 20 years before moving to the UK. Whenever mechanics worked on it, they couldn’t believe it was that old. Under the hood, it didn’t look old. Behind the wheel, the only hint was slight looseness in the steering. They also repeatedly came into their waiting rooms to sheepishly tell me that their estimate for such work as a tune-up was too low. They hadn’t realized my four cylinder truck had eight spark plugs. Nissan only made that engine for a year and a half. It gave me better towing capacity while keeping fuel efficiency higher than for a bigger engine.

Some consultants believe they need to drive a flashy late-model vehicle to advertise how successful they are. I don’t. Many of my clients have been factories. Manufacturers don’t upgrade capital equipment until they absolutely must. In 2006 one of the nylon spinning machines for which I provided IT support had been in use since the 1940s and was still going strong. When those clients looked at my old truck that behaved like a much younger one, they saw me living their values.

NASA has similar values. NASA wrings every last bit of use out of its equipment. One of the computers I programmed was old enough, even its manufacturer no longer had its service manuals. It was capable of simulating an onboard computer in Spacelab and that’s what I did with it. By making full use of tried and true technology, NASA reserves as much budget as it can for aspects of its missions where it really does need to push the leading edge of invention.

Due to all of this together, it’s uncommon for me to change cars.

I missed my usual posting schedule yesterday because I’m changing cars. I went to where the chosen used car happens to be, test drove it, looked under the hood and made a decision. Next week I’ll pick it up after it has regular service. The manufacturer says that should include changing the cabin air filter. When I asked the shop to put in a HEPA filter there, they admitted they intended to skip that. If they don’t do it, I’ll order one and put it in myself. For about £20 to £25 (instead of the usual £10), it provides allergy relief and one more little bit of protection for passengers.

Changing cars is upsetting. My diesel Skoda Fabia estate car (station wagon) is the most reliable vehicle I’ve ever had, even more solid than the Nissan pickup. A neighbor backed into it a few weeks ago while it was parked and dented a fender, but that’s cosmetic. It’s in great running condition. It hardly ever needs anything other than fuel, routine maintenance and an occasional new tire. It drives well. It’s comfortable for long trips. I love that car. I have never before let go of a car when it’s performing well and nothing like moving to another country is forcing my hand.

But my wife can’t drive the Skoda. For some reason her foot slips off the clutch pedal.

It has a diesel engine. Government has targeted diesels to get them off the road, especially if they are old enough not to have a particulate filter. It needs fossil fuel to go anywhere.

So far it is generally allowed into Ultra Low Emission Zones as long as I pay the (increasingly noticeable) daily fee. I wouldn’t be surprised if old diesel personal cars like mine are banned from ULEZ in the foreseeable future.

Sale of new petrol (gasoline) and diesel cars is due to be banned in the UK as of 2030. Sale of new hybrid cars is due to be banned as of 2035. As we get closer to and then pass those dates, I anticipate upward pressure on the prices of used cars due to demand. We had dreadful upward pressure on prices a year ago due to demand as people roared out into economic recovery, to the extent that the UK recovered. (Most of our usual comparison countries have left us in the dust in that regard.) The cost of living crisis has softened the used car market enough to bring it back to more or less reasonable levels. How long will prices stay this way?

My reasoning is that now is about as good a time to change cars as we will see for a while.

A hybrid can run our local errands on electricity from our solar power system. That fits with the general trend of our projects to improve our household’s environmental footprint. At the same time it gives us a buffer against the UK’s shallow oil and gas reserves. Fuel supplies could completely dry up and we would still be able to go about our routines with little constraint. It also has an automatic transmission, so my wife and I can both drive it. No more problems with a foot slipping off a clutch pedal.

Surely I’m not the only person making decisions like this one. I’ve noticed more and more hybrid cars on the road, and a few electric vehicles despite our pitifully thin charging infrastructure.

So far I’ve talked about the upside. The car I’m getting gives me some anxieties.

Unfortunately, there is no space in a hybrid for a spare tire. That makes me uneasy, especially after such a rash of flat tires. In this newer car, the solution to a flat is to pump some gunk into it to temporarily slow the leak enough to limp to a place that can patch or replace the tire.

The extensive electronics in the car I’m getting also make me uneasy. I’ve never before gotten a car with so many electronics that I wouldn’t be able to do most of the basic maintenance myself in a pinch. I am very glad my wife’s car is more… I’d like to say normal, because for us a simple car is normal, even though nearly everyone else has moved on.

Despite those anxieties, on the whole it seems like it’s time. Changing cars is a big deal for most people, including me. But it seems to be time. I stepped through the reasoning here in case you’re thinking about changing cars too.

But damn, I hate to say goodbye to my beloved horse—I mean Skoda.