Isabella Frenning: What kind of car should I get?

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Published Friday, April 25, 2008 at 12:30
by Isabella_Frenning

(1227 views and 0 comments)

Like most other consumer goods these days, people consider their cars an expression of their personal taste and identity. In the late 90’s a Danish sociologist even named his book about population segmentation ‘If your neighbour was a car’, using different brands of cars as representatives of different life style choices.

Admittedly, growing up in Copenhagen it never really seemed relevant to bother about getting a driver’s license, so if I was in the market for a new ride, I’d probably be more likely to ask ‘What kind of bike should I get?’ instead. But many for many families the discussion about what car to get seems a quite important one. Since the frightening report of the IPCC we have all been much more concerned about climate changes, wanting to do our bit to help the globe. And reducing our CO2-emissions by choosing environment-friendly means of transportation seems like a reasonable place to start. As a consequence, the question about what car to get is not only about price and design, but also one of technology.

If I were to invest in a fuel-efficient car today, I’d have absolutely no clue where to turn or what to chose. Should I go for a hydrogen-fuelled one, an ethanol-driven one, an electricity-hybrid, or yet a fourth or fifth hybrid technology? I’d be completely clueless!

Contemporary energy-infrastructure doesn’t seem to supply us with the answers either. If I was to buy an energy-efficient car, I’d sure like to know, that I’d be able to fill it on my way through the country – or on my way through Europe. I’d like to argue that people should just stick to their bikes and public transportation, but I know that anyone living outside the large cities would just laugh in my face for a comment like that. People really depend on their cars, and if we want them to choose environmental-friendly ones for the future, I guess the least we could do would be to tell them which ones to invest in.

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Isabella Frenning: What kind of car should I get?

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