Chapter 22 ★20 drive a simple car

When Gibbs and I thought about simplifying our lives in the auto department, I realized I was a half-talker. Just a few years ago, in response to the car boom, I bought a high-horsepower sedan.Generally speaking, this car can be said to be a reliable car, and for me, it is also a car that provides my driving pleasure.To say it's a no-hassle car would be an exaggeration, though.In the maintenance of the vehicle, I will spend a lot of energy and money.When I park, I have to be very careful about my surroundings; moreover, in terms of fuel consumption, this car can only run ten kilometers per liter in the urban area, which is really not comparable to those cars that can run twenty kilometers per liter today. Compare.

Gibbs, however, had a car that was ten years old.He grew up in New York and never owned a car until he moved to the suburbs. He used subways and buses.Then, he bought an old car and just used it to get to and from the station.Unlike me, he will not be tied to the car at all. For him, the car is sometimes just a convenient tool for him to get from one place to another. Plus, Gibbs' car costs half as much in insurance, taxes, and registration as mine.He can park the car anywhere without worrying about the car being hit or stolen. (He was the first to admit that no one else would.) My car has been in the garage almost twice as often as his.Even the smallest part would cost three times as much as the same treatment on his car, and it would take twice as long to repair.

Recently, after experimenting with community buses, Gibbs found that this mode of transportation met his needs, and, like a friend of ours who lives in San Francisco (Law 96), he insisted on ditching it entirely. car.In doing so, in addition to reducing his transportation costs by two-thirds, it can also save him from the fatigue of driving, which he does not like. Undoubtedly the easiest thing to do right now would be to replace my car with Gibbs', but I don't want to admit that fact, and I'm not ready yet.However, I do hope that one day, the technology will be advanced enough to make a reliable electric car, and by then, I will switch cars.