Are we really saving oil and fuel costs—not to mention the planet—by building lighter cars that meet ever-more-strict government standards for gas mileage? Perhaps, but sometimes we wonder.
As vehicles get lighter, it seems that more-and-more plastic appears on them—plastic that is made from oil. Many of these plastic parts routinely break and must be substituted with new ones—which are manufactured using even more fossil fuel.
Metal parts have also gotten much thinner, which means more costly mechanical and body repairs. You can no longer turn brake rotors two or three times, for example, before replacing them. And relatively minor dents in thin metal body parts cannot be easily bumped out like they were in days of old. Instead—according to one of our local repair shops—entire fenders and quarter panels must be replaced at higher costs.
And what about those electric and hybrid vehicles? More likely than not, fossil fuels are used to generate the electricity needed to charge batteries, which then must be treated as hazardous waste for disposal purposes.
Maybe these are good things, but we do have our doubts.
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