My (soon-to-be) New Ride

I ordered my next new car a couple weeks ago. It has a build date in January and I should receive it sometime in early February, I am told. My first car was a 1988 Ford Mustang. My second car was a 1990 Volkswagon Fox. My third car was a 1992 Geo Storm. My fourth car is a 2001 Nissan XTerra. My next car will be a 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid.

So why am I buying a hybrid? Well, there's a couple reasons here.

• First of all, it seriously depresses me when I go to the gas station and pay more than $50 per tank. And that one tank gets me about 250 miles, as the XTerra currently gets around 15-16MPG. That's a lot of money for driving miles. As I drive alot, it really adds up and too much of my paycheck goes to oil companies.
• That brings me to reason two, I do not want to support the oil companies right now. I am appalled at the position ExxonMobile has taken when it comes to renewable energy. I am appalled at the Cheney Energy Task Force fiasco and the hold these companies have over the current administration. I don't want to give any more money to these corporations than I have to. So the jump from ~15MPG to ~50MPG will make going to the pump alot more palatable for me.
• Third, I'm distressed about the lack of concern in the United States about global warming. If you have a basic understanding of chemistry and physics and you look at the available data, you would believe that humans are causing global warming via increased carbon production. The business of "we don't know if we're doing this" is crap - when "leaders" that are not scientists don't listen to the scientists that do know what they're talking about, I fast lose respect for said leaders. So I'm very happy to report that my new car will be a AT-PZEV vehicle, which is the tightest emissions standard in the world and results in almost zero evaporative emissions.
  
• Fourth, I'm tired of driving an SUV. Trucks and SUVs are fine when you need them. I do not need my truck for day-to-day driving. That's not what it's designed for. It is what the new car will be designed for. I also fully believe that driving my SUV around all the time makes me a more aggressive driver, which I really dislike.

So that's it. Sorry for the preachy statements but I'm getting more and more concerned about the current energy policy of the United States. I'm happy and proud to do a small part in reducing the amount of carbon we produce and the amount of oil we have to find and refine. I'm happy that soon I'll be driving a much more sustainable vehicle. I'm also happy that I'll have a voice-activated GPS-linked navigation system in the new car. :)