Green Driving
Arguably driving in itself is not a green activity, especially when you don't have an economical or an environmentally-friendly car. And let's be frank, how many of us greenies actually have a green mobile let alone the world's public at large?
Let's take me, for example, the main man behind Everything'sGoneGreen. I, for my sins, own a Subaru. No, not an Impreza with a big-bore exhaust and a body kit covered in stickers but an old Subaru Legacy which is certainly just as capable. It's fast and "quick off the line", it's a turbo, it's got permanent four wheel drive (yes, it's technically a 4x4) and it sticks to the road like sh*t to blanket. Those are boy-racer credentials in anyone's book.
But I love mountain-biking and walking and, when I get the chance, I will go to inaccessible places in my car with bikes in the boot. It's an estate/station wagon so it can carry 5 people comfortably with all their luggage. It gets regularly serviced and is well-maintained; it just had a puncture repaired and has two new tyres and the oil is topped up. I even brought the vehicle from a farmer who lived in Glastonbury and you can't get more green than that.
That's not bad for a 14 year old car with 134,000 miles on the clock. And yes, that's me justifying my ownership of such a "beast" and still hypocritically running a website showing people how to go green. Am I bad for admitting all this?
Ideally I'd love a Tesla Roadster, but that's not entirely practical with a wife and kid. A Toyota Prius would be nice but they're still ugly and I'm sure Toyota can do better than that. Even a Smart four-four would be cool with that 3-cylinder diesel engine but they're still a little on the small side.
And more, much than this... I really do not have the money to fork out on a new green car.
So, what to do, Mr Subaru-driving, green-preaching hypocrite?
Well, I walk and ride my bike locally whenever I can and, check this, when I struggle normally to get 280 miles out of a tank of petrol... I drove like a granny on my way to and from a wedding at the weekend. I broke the 300 mile barrier on the way there and drove the whole distance back, over 350 miles, on a tank of petrol. That's a whopping 75 miles more on a tank than I've ever done before and a fuel efficiency increase of around 25%. I got the same mileage out of a 2.0 turbo, 4x4 Subaru as my friend gets out of his 1.4 Citroen.
So tread lightly on that gas pedal; you'll save fuel and save money and drive a little greener too :)