LAC Pollution Musings, was Massachusetts 4KTQ owner question

[Duncan Wood]

> Subject: LAC Pollution Musings, was Massachusetts 4KTQ owner question
> Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2002 18:17:34 -0000
>
>     Well, I hope the learned list will forgive me going a bit LAC and
maybe
> philosophical for a moment, in my defense all I can do is plead for Xmas
> dispensations on raising this one , but I am interested in knowing what
> people think about this one;
>
>     A fellow car enthusiast I was talking to today said that 90% of the
> pollution made by the average car in its entire life was during the
> manufacturing process.
>     Now I've always had in mind the huge amount of resources consumed in
> manufacturing a car, and that awareness, along with the fact that I'm a
> cheapskate and don't mind (sometimes even enjoy) tinkering with cars, is a
> reason why I run older cars such as my brace of 1980's Audi, when I could
> afford a brand new car instead if thats what I wanted. I simply find it
> close to sinful the way that cars are used , abused  and then dumped to
> clutter up the environment when the least thing goes wrong with them, when
> with a bit of care they would last many times longer and cause much less
> pollution over their life-cycle.
>
>     However I had never had a figure (the 90%) put on the amount of
> pollutuion caused by the cars manufacture, but am prepared to beleive it.
>
>     Now add another strand of thought. The private car owner here in the
UK
> and (from what I read on this list and elsewhere) in the US and other
> countries seem to bear the brunt of pollution control, IE catalyst
equipment
> and ever more stringent controls, tests and inspections to make sure that
> our personal transport creates the minimum amount of pollution (once
> manufactured!). On the other hand I think I'm right in saying that
pollution
> control on things like big commercial vehicles, diesel trucks etc  is at a
> minimum, just one example being the common practice of crankcases that
vent
> direct to the atmosphere.

Strange I thought , IE catalyst equipment was mandatory on fleet cars &
trucks had far more frequent MOTs than cars.