"Depresion" wrote in message
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"Oliver Keating" wrote in message
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Maybe the price of second hand cars is rediculously low. After 3 years a car
is worth 1/3 of its value? That is crazy. Is it 1/3 of the car?

No that's just the way the market works, care to guess what fraction a 3 year
old PC is worth of it's original purchase price. I'll give you a clue well
under
a third.

Maybe if there weren't so many Mondeo's piling onto the market people would
be driving around in more Supermini's and City cars which are never used as
company cars.

Smaller cars are becoming more popular as company cars due to the tax changes,
Focuses (or is that Foci?) Civics, Golfs even the new Polo and Mini are
getting
a look in for company cars.

And, btw as for the environment, manufacturers always claim how "clean"
their cars are, but an unbeleivable amount of environmental damage occurs
during the manufacture *and disposal* of a car which seems to be frequently
ignored.

That's why there are tough legislation on the pollutants released during
manufacture and the forth coming regulations on recycling the cars by the
manufacturer.

But it appears in our consumer society where everyone is going nuts with
"buy, buy, buy," it is the fashion to have a new car every couple of years.
Just as with everything else, we buy, we throw away, we buy we throw away.
The cycle will only come to an end when we abruptly run out of resources.

You've not seen my drive then with an average age of around 24 years I hardly
"throw away" cars one of your favoured sayings I notice.

I've just got back from a long lunch and 3 of the 7 cars on the car park were
over 10 years old another 1 was an M reg then there were 3 new cars [1] (Ok 2
new cars including the Mini we were in and a new range rover) not very
scientific but would suggest that old cars aren't thrown away any more than 3
year old company cars are. You may consider your old cars as disposable most
people don't. How old is your C class hatch?

[1] I'm classing under 3 years old as new, makes me wonder what happed to all
the cars between 3 and 9 years old! Maybe a bigger sample next time I could try
a supermarket car park if I can be bothered (though that would require me to jot
down the cars age while walking round maybe a bit suspicious looking).