Four Reasons Why Buying Used Cars Is the Way to Go Green

Cars have received a lot of pushback because they are bad for the environment. There are some eco-friendlier cars, but they aren’t always easy to buy. In fact, when the pandemic had everyone locked inside their houses last year, a popular headline was how air pollution went down. The media linked the decrease to the corresponding reduction of personal cars on the roads.

When talking about green automobiles, hybrids have been the star of the show. Everyone and their uncle has waxed eloquent about how much better hybrids are than gasoline cars, how much less fuel they use, and more. But what if we told you there’s an even better option than buying a new hybrid? Surprisingly, it’s simply buying a used car! Let’s find out why buying used is greener than new green technology. 

Some Older Models Have Better Fuel Efficiency

New cars may have better energy ratings and fewer carbon emissions. However, this is not always true. There are great cars from the 90s that have equal or better fuel efficiency than many modern cars. If you’re looking to buy a car in this market, you know how important fuel efficiency is. The price of gas is climbing steadily, and soon we won’t have any of the raw material left even to fight over.

Additionally, fossil fuels are non-renewable resources. Whether you buy an old or a used car, the rate at which you use these unsustainable fuel sources depends only on your car’s fuel efficiency. Thus, if you’re on a budget, you’re doing the environment a favor by buying used. Your options also open up when you buy used, and instead of a small new car, your budget might be able to accommodate a larger used one.

While there are eco-friendly ways to scrap cars, it is better to drive them into the ground. This will reduce your environmental impact all the way around.

You Aren’t Fueling Excessive and Unsustainable Factory Practices 

Factories are unsustainable. This has been established as a fact for many decades. Mass production causes immeasurable harm to the environment because it needs to exploit resources to sustain it. The newest hybrid cars are only green when they are on the road. Their carbon footprint, however, is enormous from the second they start to get made in factories. Factories can release dirty water, leach chemicals into the surroundings, and even poison groundwater reserves.

Instead of supporting this unsustainable practice, buy well-maintained used cars with excellent fuel efficiency. For one, you will get a reliable vehicle that gets you from point A to point B without a problem. Remember to speak to whoever you are purchasing from to get an idea about maintenance and insurance costs, so you don’t go over your budget. While making this eco-friendly purchase, do remember this is also a financial investment, so spend wisely. 

Hybrid Car Batteries Are Bad For the Environment

One thing that isn’t spoken about when talking about hybrid cars is their lead-acid batteries. As you know, all vehicles need batteries to run. However, this can lead to a massive environmental crisis. One of the leading culprits for this is nickel that is used in the battery, specifically the ecological damage that comes with mining and smelting it. Nickel can contaminate water, soil, and air, so it can be deadly if not handled with the highest level of precautions.

NASA has even used one factory where this happens to test rovers because the surrounding landscape was declared a dead zone. Additionally, these batteries need to be properly recycled. While the replying process is efficient, not replying does a high level of damage to the local communities if they are discarded in landfills. There are hardly any programs in place that ensure these batteries are recycled. So unless your area has special programs, your battery might end up infecting the land. 

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

One essential tenet of an environmentally conscious lifestyle is embracing the philosophy to reduce usage, reuse products, and recycle what you can. Buying a brand new car off the factory shelf doesn’t fit this philosophy. Instead, why not buy used cars on Gettacar from the comfort of your own home? Buying used cars online is highly energy-efficient, as you aren’t even using public transport to go to a used car lot for your purchase.

Living in an eco-friendly manner depends on being conscious of the choices you make. Choosing to buy a used car, refusing to use palm oil, planting more trees, and donating to charities are all conscious decisions we have to take. After all, the future is ours to shape with our actions. We need to make clean choices if we want a green future. Instead of simply saying that we want a sustainable world, we have to make the hard choices to enforce the world we want.