Our Shitfire is imported.

I thought you were going to replace the Shitfire with something more capable of handling 4 x 8 sheets of drywall? Or did I imagine that?

The Shitfire can handle drywall. Roof rack.

Replacement is still on the cards, though. It's now a question of 'er indoors prioritising the rather long list of projects she has in mind. She can have an extension on the back of the house, one on the front, a bathroom in the basement, a trip to New Orleans over Easter, a new car......

But not all of them FFS!!!

The Beetle can handle drywall. Convertible.

A cop pulled alongside when I had some 16' deck boards sticking up out of it, that made me slightly nervous but all he said was "stick a sail on that and you can tack home".

You can get anything in a convertible.

You can get quite a lot in a Shitfire. The trick is to go to Home Depot very early and come home via the back streets. Particularly if you have most of a 20' ladder sticking out the back.

Thanks for that, out of interest where did you get this information from, it's something I've been looking for for a while?



Agree, just makes the vehicle overly complex, also adds a whole lot of weight, one of the main things you are trying to get rid of in a fuel efficient vehicle.

Some of the BMW diesels are due to be heading this way shrtly apparently which can only be a good thing. We used to have a Pug 306TDi Sport in the UK and on one memorable long run through the highlands got an impressive 70mpg. The thing never got less than 55 mpg.

I still have issues with the big 3 not bringing over their European vehicles (except Opel now) if the Japs can do it why not? Ford Europe is the best performing part of the company, so Ford US make a crappy new Focus totally unlike the European one. When will they wake up and see that European stuff sells here?

Institute for Lifecycle Environmental Assessment , that particular study was done by Carnegie Mellon University
Well, traditionally it hasnt, thats the problem (Cady Cattera for example), but we will see how the Euro Saturns do. They didnt make my short list because there was no low % finance available (yet), and the list price seemed quite steep once you got into options.

Honda, with the exception of the old Si have not brought straight euro models over either, and engine options are largely different. I suspect its just us expats who really care.

Interesting stuff, so although 8 times more energy is used propelling the vehicle than in manufacture, manufacture actually releases twice as many toxins into the environment than the vehicles own emmisions over its entire lifetime (whatever that my be, 8-10 years?)

So if we're assuming C02 is a toxin the the latter half of the statement holds true. Correct?

I think it says more about how low the emmisions from a modern vehicle are now, rather than how dirty the manufacturing process is. Plus that study is getting on for 10 years old and in that time things like Hex Chrome and certain toxic flame retardants have been virtually eradicated under RoHS legislation.

"Toxins are released in manufacturing" does not equal "toxins are released into the environment" in any case. Its a controlled (or largely controlled) situation.

As with power generation, its much easier to control things at a large central location and scrub and purify etc than it is to do at tens of thousands of smaller locations.

In that context I dont think CO2 is a toxin anyway? CO might be, but Im not sure about CO2. I think they were probably driving at Lead in batteries, Rubber in tires, Used engine oil etc?
Also as the footnote points out, the amount of toxins is largely irrelevent relative to the nature of the toxin. A small amount of the wrong stuff in the wrong place can have a much greater impact than a large amount of a less toxic material in a less devastating environment.
Besides, if we dont all do something about global warming emmisions very soon then we can make the world as toxic as we like because as a species we wont have a long term future anyway.

Yep, I agree with you entirely that modern car emmissions are very low, so much so that I wonder why most of the venom from environmentalists is directed at car drivers, in the grand scheme of things it's a fairly small amount of pollution. Also it would seem that in this regard the governments are in league with environmentalists, presumably because money talks and the large companies that are making most of the emmissions have more clout than the average motorist. You only have to take a trip around heavy manufacturing areas in SW Ontario to see where the pollution is coming from. Likewise China, banning cars for a day made no difference whatsoever.

Of course there is the train of thought that airbourne pollution other than greenhouse gasses could be beneficial in keeping the atmosphere cooler, also that a warmer climate could lengthen the growing seasons in countries like ours.

I think there'd have to be some very very drastic changes in the climate to eradicate man entirely from the face of the planet, we're pretty adaptable. What no-one seems to be talking about is the massive increase in population with Africa and Asia leading the charge, I feel this is more of a threat to food and water supply than climate change in the long term.

OK, back to the shop to continue building this V8 monster!

Because they choose to pollute when they could just as easily not do so? A
V12 or a 3 cylinder gets you there just as quickly in the clogged roads we have here.

On the same subject this is fairly interesting:
http://eureferendum2.blogspot.com/20...-to-death.html

In all seriousness China and India through massive development will be the biggest threat to the environment by far and theres no stopping them.

There doesn't even appear to be any political will at all on this subject. Lots of USA bashing but no effort to help stop them making the same mistakes we have.

How's the Scimitar?

How do you know? Per capita, they're still way behind Canada. Basing it on the total output of the country is meaningless - that way Monaco would be the most environmentally-friendly place on Earth, despite all the luxury yachts and monstrous cars.