Dear Visitor,
let’s try to put the parameters right from the start with this blog.
The whole automotive reality has at the present some huge question marks hanging up front. The Big Three in Detroit (Ford, GM & Chrysler) does still exist only thanks to massive subsidising from George W and I would not make a bet on their existence in another three years. My dear Mother of all Mothers, AB Volvo, that is owned by Ford Motor Company, is whirling around like a leaf in the autumn wind (lost half of its December sales on its most important market) and might be bought by any one that is willing to fork up any kind of cash; Chinese investors, Indian moguls, Swedish government, daring high risk investors, me ! (if it goes very cheap!). The sour reality that it will be closed down, finito!, also exists even though that is more likely to happen to the other Swedish jewel, SAAB (owned by GM).
I have had thoughts around the automotive industry long before the present upheaval. Way back in the 80′ies I went to some lectures by a supposed medium. Amongst other things he talked about our cars as “your holy cows”. These words made an impression on me then and they have stayed with me since then probably because I have been into cars (Volvo!) since young age and have made my living from the automotive industry most of my life.
Another questionmark sailed up about a year ago when I did read facts about how much carbon dioxide is produced by burning off a liter of petrol. I was very suprised by the quantity of CO2 produced, it grossly exceeded my ideas. I did not clearly understand that CO2 is built by taking two parts of oxygene from the air (wich there is plenty of) and one part of carbon from the petrol and, in this way, the weight of the produced exhaust is way over what I expected. It was a little bit of a shock, I must say, and it gave me a bit of a bad conciense especially when I think back of how I have treatened fuel (and still do…). Petrol is such a bliss really, it is so very powerful. When you fill it into a chainsaw, for example, you can use a very small amount and get immense power for chopping trees for hours. Half a liter will cut down and chop up half the forest. With this perspective in mind, putting 60 litres in my Volvo for just travelling around a bit is not so impressive. Even less impressive is going into town on the motorway and seeing all these thousands of cars whizzing about, mostly with just the driver in them, and each of them with their own 60-litre gas tank to burn off.
All this thinking has made me come to the conclusion that, for public transport in urban areas, the traditional automobile is going to be (and already often is) inefficient and outdated. There are much better ways of transporting people, especially in densely populated areas. I am thinking of public transport, of course, on rail and with bus but also of the good old bicycle. It does not matter what we will do, in my opinion the future will force us to turn this way unless anarchy or Armageddon comes before. Already I can get a feeling of anarchy within when I get stuck in the rush hour clog ups. I have myself also already turned to the train at times, mainly due to that it is more comfortable. Long distance driving can be hard work and on the train I can rest!
But for God’s sake, let us not forget our automobiles (especially not Volvo). They have given us a 100-year long lesson of power, wealth, speed, creativity and business that we maybe never would have achieved otherwise. Let’s collect, repair, race, rally, invent, explore, improve and use them for the good of humanity. With an artistic and humanitarian approach to the automobiles they still have masses to offer us.
But with the present, traditional, old fashioned, expenso-consumption, one-man-transportation view they will lead us into the grave! Long live the Automotive Artist!
OK, now I have set up my parameters and cleared a bit of bad conscience. Now, let’s get back into our drivers seats, garages, workshops, spare parts shelves and continue to dig our dear automobiles.