Buying a New Car

Green Adventures: a series in which we invite you into the adventures from our journey.

A little over six months ago my wife was unfortunately in a car accident. She was fine – thank God – but the car was not. It was totaled and suddenly we found ourselves in the market to buy a car MUCH SOONER than expected, many years sooner.

We quickly had to decide what we wanted and what was important to us. Since it was to be our family car, the one that carried my daughter and any future kids we might have, it had to be large enough to accommodate all of us. We also knew we wanted a car that was dependable and would not break down on us. Of course, safety was another key factor.

Furthermore, we knew we wanted a car that better cared for God’s creation, but didn’t really know how to do that. Seeing as though we thought we had at least 5 years before we were going to be at a decision point, we were completely unprepared.

Let me first point out that we considered the make of the car as an important piece of the puzzle as well. We focused particularly on vehicles that would last a long time, so as to get the maximum duration out of the resources that were put into it. If a car is green in other aspects but does not last long, how green can it really be?

So we started where any reasonable person would: gas mileage. We compared the various vehicles based upon their respective efficiencies. Of course, we would have done this anyways, but it was a good place to start. I built a nice, little spreadsheet where we began comparing this and other things for the various vehicles we considered.

We didn’t stop there, however. We figured out (after a good bit of research) where to find the carbon footprint and other helpful information on our vehicle on fueleconomy.gov. More specifically, we went here where we were able to look up specific info on the vehicles we were checking out. Not only did it include the estimated tonnes of carbon emitted each year but it also included the EPA air pollution score. While many of us may not be able to put into context how much CO2 is emitted or pollution numbers, we can all contrast a series of numbers and tell which car is at least relatively best in each category.

A little more navigating around their site revealed the greenhouse gas emissions for each vehicle as well. The greenhouse gases (or GHGs) are gases that are emitted into the atmosphere when a vehicle burns fuel. These gases are expected to increase the temperature in our atmosphere contributing to climate change. So we again added this to our spreadsheet and began comparing.

In the end we had to balance a variety of factors, including cost, to get the vehicle that was most appropriate for our family at the time. Fortunately, it worked out that we were able to choose a great car – Honda CRV – that also happened to have the best scores in almost every one of those categories (I think it was just 1mpg lower than another vehicle). We were truly blessed to get such a great car through the help of a wonderful neighbor helped us get a great deal. As you can see below, my daughter was quite happy about the decision. She has been bugging us ever since to take it for a test drive.

Also consider:

Green Adventures: Transforming Trash

Q&A: What if I don’t believe in global warming?

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