After at least 4 years of faithful service and minimal repairs, Joanna and I decided that it was time for our 91 Honda Civic, DX 1.5 liter to find a final resting place.  This car has been great.  A simple car with a small engine it has been as gas mizerly as any economically sensitive student could want.  When I first bought the car, it was already in tough shape, but it turns out it was a pretty tough car as I took surprisingly little pains to maintain it and it performed admirably.  But it was in a pretty sorry state when I dropped it off at the wrecker yesterday.  bald tires (one of which had a nail in it), dinged up door that I gave it backing into Dean's Pathfinder out of the Shelley St. townhouse., the hood was still peeling paint, the muffler system was starting to rot away, brakes were squeaking occasionally and the inside was starting to smell a little dank and moist.  In spite of that Matt and I took the Honda out on a surfing trip this past Saturday as a sort of swam song and once again the vehicle did its job, getting us to Bear Beach and back safely.

We were getting rid of the car through the scrapit.ca program, which is a provincially funded program to get more fuel efficient cars on the road.  The rebate that they will give you on a new car is related to the reduction in CO2 that you will create by driving a newer car.  So, for the maximum rebate you need to buy a vehicle that will effectively reduce your CO2 output by 4 tonnes over 3 years.  As a testament, to how mizerly the Honda Civic after much research we determined that for the maximum rebate our only choice was a Toyota Prius (Hybrid, as if there was any other kind!).  It's 2008 and my old very average '91 Honda is still uses less fuel than today's average car, even amongst the new Civic's and other compact cars the fuel savings/CO2 savings are minimal.  I find that a little dissappointing. I believe that car manufacturers now get more power out of the same amount of fuel, but I just can hardly believe that 1991 was the pinnacle of fuel efficiency.

We're a one car family now.  However, in order to get our rebate from the scrapit.ca program we needed to get something new.  And they let you use the rebate for a bike, bus pass, or... electric scooter.  So, we're looking long and hard at the electric scooter.  I've got my eye on the EVT-168, which will do up to 60 km/h  and claims to have a range of around 40km. which should be sufficient for trips to the grocery store and church.  We're hoping to test drive one this weekend!

Dear 91 Honda Civic, DX 1.5 liter,

You are a great car, you almost never let us down. But your time has come, ashes to ashes, back to the ground You were peppy, economical and carried the load. Thank you for carrying us down many a road.

Good bye, Jeff and Joanna