Buy New vs Keep Old. Which is better for the environment?

Is it better to drive an old well-maintained car rather than buy a new car, just because it is faster?

Environmentally speaking, it is better to keep the old one instead of getting a new car just for the sake of speed. There are a lot of environmentally significant costs of manufacturing a new car and putting your old one in the junk metal heap. According to the analysis made by Toyota in 2004, a typical gasoline-powered car emits 28% of its carbon dioxide during its manufacturing process and and during its transportation to the dealer. The remaining 72% carbon-dioxide is emitted after it is purchased and used. Dismantling and

Regardless, whether you decide to sell the car or disposing of it before buying a new one, there will always be a huge amount of environmental impact by both. Selling the car means the carbon dioxide emissions from the old car will continue by the new user and you, by buying a new car has already contributed to increasing the percentage of carbon dioxide existing in the atmosphere. Dismantling and disposing of the metal scraps of your car also contributes to putting the environment to danger.

Of course, then one would turn to the hybrid and electric cars that are so-called environment friendly. This is only half true. The manufacturing process of these hybrid cars actually have a much larger environmental impact compared to non-hybrids. Despite their advertised lower emissions and better gas mileage. The batteries that store energy for the drive train are no friend to the environment—and having two engines under one hood increases manufacturing emissions. And all-electric vehicles are only emission-free if the outlet providing the juice is connected to a renewable energy source, not a coal-burning power plant, as is more likely.

I am not saying hybrid and electric cars are not at all an option. The mass-market gasoline-electric hybrids made by Toyota, Honda and others make use of an electric engine right under the hood next to the gas engine. That electric motor creates fuel economy by kicking into use during idling, backing up, slow traffic, and to maintain speed after the gas engine has been employed for acceleration. The car doesn’t need to be plugged in because the on-board electric battery is constantly being charged by the gas engine and by the motion of the wheels and the brakes.

Proponents claim that such “gas-optional” cars—if you don’t take long trips you can rely entirely on the electric motor—can be twice as fuel efficient as hybrids, which already get double the gas mileage of traditional vehicles. Additionally, they say, powering up plug-in hybrids with wall sockets results in far less pollution (from the power plants providing the electricity) than an equivalent gasoline-powered car spews out its tailpipe. Meanwhile, plug-in hybrids recharged from rooftop solar power systems might approach being the world’s first mass-market “zero emission” vehicles, requiring no power from the grid at all.

If you simply must change your vehicle, be it for fuel efficiency or any other reason, one option is to simply buy a used car that gets better gas mileage than your existing one. There’s much to be said, from many environmental vantage points, about postponing replacement purchases—of anything, not just cars—to keep what’s already made out of the waste stream and to delay the additional environmental costs of making something new.

And if you don't mind your pocket light, why not invest in one of those hybrid/ electric cars?
:D