What?

The main reason to buy a large car is often for a single time that you need to carry a lot of cargo. Perhaps during a holiday, or while moving. Although these events are very rare, the large car is definately convenient when they happen.

Ask yourself if that rare comfort is in balance with the larger car that you have to drag around throughout the year. The disadvantages of a large car are actually quite significant:

• Road tax is usually higher for larger cars;
• Heavier cars need more fuel so they will spread more CO₂ and other unpleasant products;
• Large cars are more difficult to park and manouevre with;
• A car that is heavier in comparison to the driver is better equipped to squish a driver in case of an accident.
• A heavier car is more costly in purchase and maintenance.

The car industry made its buyers fall in love with the largest cars they could afford. But never let the macho-ads stop you from thinking twice. How often do you go on holiday, how hard are alternatives to find if you do, and how expensive are they? Be proactive in searching for the disadvantages of a larger car, because they car dealer is not going to tell you. Chances are that you are actually better off with a small car.

Why?

A larger car is more wasteful and expensive in all its facets. The price of purchase and the road tax will be tangible spendings, and the use of fuel has an environmental side as well as a financial side. The logic behind that is rock-solid.

To drag more mass, it is necessary to get more energy from the motor. Twice the amount of mass means you need to get twice the amount of energy. This energy comes from the car's fuel, of which you obviously need more to generate more energy for that heavier car. All the fuel that is sucked into the engine will fume out as CO₂ and other harmful gasses at the other end: twice the amount of fuel leads to twice the amount of CO₂.

But it's worse. Once the mass has been brought into motion it tends to keep moving, at least on the highway. But breaking means transforming all this energy into heat, and when pulling up the engine must once more generate the power to get the extra mass moving. This means that the fuel burnt on the highway is not a good measure of how wasteful a car is, but that the energy to start moving is at least as good an indicator. This is especially true for a large car that usually drives in town traffic.

A heavier car must also be constructed in a safer manner; because the mass relative to the driver is more it kan push longer and harder on a body than a small car could. Modern equipment for safety such as air bags and crumpling zones are a necessity for larger cards. En do take a moment to thing of the impact a larger car has on a smaller one, or on a motorcycle or bicycle -- they too will be squished harder by a larger car; would you be able to live with yourself in the knowledge that your choice of a larger car if it meant someone else's death sentence?

How?

The disadvantages of a large car are not mentioned in commercials. Car manufacturers would rather sell large, expensive cars. They play with concepts like storage room and of course the cowboy-image of a large car. Luckily our thoughts are not purely dictated by commercials.

Did you notice that the commercials always display the large cars on spaceous roads? No manufacturer of large cars shows how easy it handles in everyday town situations, including parking. How often do you actually drive your cars over highways in the Grand Canyon? Do you think it is acceptable to concur one-and-a-half parking lot because you fail to park the car properly? Do you enjoy being cramped while getting in and out of your car on a busy parking lot?

The engine in a larger car is more modern than in an older small one, which may give the impression that the fuel consumption patterns of a larger car is hardly more damaging to the environment. Nonsense: If the same effort is put into more efficient small cars, then these would show even better figures. When you buy a car as a consumer, you are also praising the research that may have gone into the wrong car.

To get an impression of the environmental damage caused by a car, find out what the cost in terms of money would be to compensate the CO₂ added by it. By planting trees you can avoid that your car driving adds to the CO₂-problems. The current price structure of fuel does not incorporate such compensations, but if consumers remain reluctant in that area then it is a safe bet that the government will eventually set it up for its consumers.

To give an impression: compensating a litre of gasoline or diesel costs 4 eurocents, compensation of litre of LPG costs 2 eurocent. Keep in mind that this does not just apply to CO₂; especially diesel is known for loads of other problematic substances, ones that are not always taken into account yet.

Fuel mixtures that are a bit more environmentally friendly sometimes contain some percentage of biodiesel, which does not cause CO₂-problems. This percentage of CO₂ has already been compensated because it was used to grow the plants that delivered the biodiesel. So all you would need to compensate would be the remainder of the mixture that is not biodiesel. If you would run on 100% biodiesel there would be nothing to compensate.

Try to think out of the box -- if your car is to small for a skiing holiday, make a calculation of the cost of traveling by train, and how lovely or horrible that would be. Reading a novel in a spaceous cabin can be much more rewarding than steering your way to to skiing resort -- but it depends on how you experience those things. If dropping the large car in favour of a small one is possible by dropping the ski-wishes, how small could it become and how much would it save you?

Try to think out of the box -- and considering renting a car, possibly even a van, for special occasions like holiday or moving. What are the added expenses, how much could you carry, and does it evade making the car a trade-off solution which is neither ideal for holiday, nor for shopping?

To repeat it once more: consumers determine what the market should do. If you knowingly and willingly choose a smaller car, or a car that runs on pure biodiesel (lots of Seats and Volkswagens, several Skodas and Audis) then you poke the car industry right in the heart, because you are influencing sales statistics. If you consistently look for the fuel with the highest degree of biodiesel then you are enabling a more pleasant branch of fuel-industry. Anything you buy ends up in statistics that direct the manufacturer's next steps. But of course you can also let your behaviour be steered by commercials. The choice is up to you.

Where?

• http://www.anwb.nl/published/anwbcms/content/pagina/auto/autokosten/autokosten-entree.nl.html The ANWB gives insight into the expenses for cars.
• http://www.klimaatneutraal.nl/site/greenseat A site that lets you plant trees to compensate for your CO₂-outlet.
• http://www.treesfortravel.nl/CO2meter.html Calculate your CO₂-outlet (also through flying, energy use, public transport).
• http://www.ideele.nl/b2-groenauto.htm Some insurances (this is a Dutch one) inherently compensate your CO₂-outlet.
• http://www.gbev.org/pdf/Autosalon%202006%20-%20Presentatie%206%20-%20Lode%20Speleers.pdf Information about biodiesel.