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It would be greener and cheaper for many motorists to keep their car for as long as it is reliable rather than trade it for a new car, according the Environmental Transport Association (ETA).

Manufacturers make great virtue of the environmental credentials of their vehicles, but by the time the average new car leaves the showroom and before its key has been turned in the ignition, its design, manufacture and marketing may have accounted for 6 tonnes of CO2 emissions.

A spokesperson for the ETA said: “Swapping a thirsty and polluting older car for a lighter, more fuel-efficient model can make environmental sense if you are doing a high mileage, but if you do relatively few miles it makes sense to keep your car for as long as it is reliable. The greater your annual mileage, the greater the potential environmental saving from changing to a more fuel-efficient model.”

Extend the life of your car
Changing a car frequently has a financial as well as environmental cost; drivers who buy a car new and then trade it in at three years incur a cost of as much as 50% in depreciation. A good car warranty from a reputable company can make your driving greener by extending the useful life of your car.

The hidden environmental costs of driving
Although progress continues to be made by car manufacturers in terms of the amount of energy and water they use and the amount of their waste that goes to landfill, these factors continue to have a significant impact on the ‘lifetime’ environmental impact of cars.

According to industry figures some 80–90% of a vehicle’s lifetime energy consumption takes place during its ‘in-use’ phase, but this is contradicted by the research, ‘Life-cycle energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions of world cars’, which comes to the conclusion that:

“The tank-to-wheel fuel consumption is only part of the story. Petroleum and fuel transport and production consume energy, as well as car manufacturing and scrapping and the maintenance and infrastructure. The total energy consumption of car use is on average 54.7% higher than the tank-to-wheel energy consumption alone.”

The lifetime driving distance of an average European car is 194 787 km. If the average car emits 160g of CO2 per km, this gives an in-use total of 31 tonnes of CO2. According to the research quoted above, this gives a figure for manufacturing, scrapping, maintenance and infrastructure of approximately 17 tonnes.

The figure of 6 tonnes before the average car leaves the showroom mentioned at the top of the page represents a conservative estimate based on the figures above.

Source - ETA