Car Dealers Eco Enough?

There’s no doubt about it. Climate change has had a major affect on the automotive industry. Car dealers have been fervently pushing their more environmentally friendly vehicles - the so called ‘eco friendly’ cars - that seem to be the way forward for most vehicles in the future. The government has certainly promoted the scrappage scheme as a way of cleaning up our roads and replacing our older, less environmentally friendly vehicles with ones that help to make our conscience feel much better.

Is the reality behind this ‘eco’ drive much different though? Indeed, the push to save the world is a prime concern for many people, and therefore for the governments that desire our vote. But wasn’t the government’s scrappage scheme drive motivated more about kick-starting the flagging car industry in economically desperate times, rather than merely saving the world? To be fair, they have never hidden the fact. But still, the underlying feeling they generated was that by scrapping your old vehicle for a new one, you would be doing not only yourself, but everybody else – including Gaia herself – a huge favour.

As much as I believe that the future of the car industry (indeed, every manufacturing process) should be governed by wider environmental concerns, it seems questionable that building new facilities to make so-called ‘eco’ cars, whilst getting rid of perfectly good older vehicles, is actually going to make any kind of positive impact on the environment.

Indeed, wouldn’t an older car that still remains on the road after many years good service be far more carbon-friendly than constantly building something new? It seems that issues surrounding the environment and climate change have actually been used like propaganda to help fuel interest in the industry. Car dealers everywhere certainly need an industry boost, but there’s still life in older cars yet.