Buying
a
car
Why do
people buy posh cars ? One common
explanation is they want to impress others. Cars are blatant status
symbols. The bigger, the posher, the dearer, the better.
And of course
the other
explanation is that big high-class cars are believed (rightly or
wrongly) to be helpful (to men) wanting to attract sexual partners.*
Car
manufacturers are not idiots. They know
perfectly well that power and chrome and polish and gadgets are far
more important to most buyers than the life-span of the vehicle, its
environmental impact** or its safety features.
At the other
end of the scale, cars are simply a
means of getting from one place to another. In this case, the cheaper
and smaller the better.
Some people
genuinely need a bigger car to transport
a family or heavy loads. If you look at cars on the road, however, you
will find that most cars carry only one person most of the time even
though they weigh two or three tonnes each.
Farmers and people living in highland areas where there may be snow and
ice in winter are well-advised to buy a four-wheel drive car. Most
four-wheelers, however, never leave the tarmac or carry sheep.
It's worth
checking whether there's a car-sharing
club in your area; this may be
a better solution than buying a car.
(You could even consider setting up a club yourself.)
Of course there
are a few social misfits who refuse
to buy a car at all and rely on bicycles, motor cycles and public
transport.
There are two
ways of buying a car :
1. Look at the whizzy adverts and
then go to the showroom and ask the
salesperson for his/her advice. And
the best of luck to you !
2. Buy car magazines and spend a
month or two making detailed
comparisons. Take three or four test drives. Check the financial
incentives and guarantees.
Then stop and ask
yourself whether you *really* need a new
car.
If you think
that other
people
should stop buying new cars, why is it that the number of cars
manufactured in Britain is actually going up - fast ? The figures for
September 2010 show that 126,548 cars were built, bringing the total
since January to 937,891. This is 35% up on last year.
* 'Must Have: The Hidden Instincts
Behind Everything We Buy' by Geoffrey Miller Vintage Books
**
'Two Billion Cars' by Daniel Sperling and
Deborah Gordon Oxford University
Press