Rust drives me nuts. Replacing a part is fine, replacing a part because it rusted out and fell off, frustrating. Why don’t we make cars that last for 30 years as a standard feature? This may be an unexpected question perhaps, and it’s a bit strange of me to ask given that one of my mediums are temporary biodegradable balloons, but for the expense why don’t we make cars last longer? How much more would we have to spend to make them last 20 years instead of 10?

I have a nagging feeling with cars that many are quite literally throw away items. In the USA the average life expectancy of a car is only 8 years and around 240 000 km. Canadian tend to keep their cars a little longer (up to 15 years depending on who is asked). It is still a big expensive for such a relatively short period of time. Yes, they are a miracle of technology, but 8 years? That’s it?  

With that in mind, the Car of Whimsy project is somewhat crazy project as it starts with a 10-year-old car with the thought “this is only the beginning.” Now to work on it knowing “average car life spans” is a bit daunting. This project has to be financially practical too.

Today, Whimsy heads into an auto body shop to remove all the minor rust that has built up over the first 10 years. Rust will always be a constant battle, that’s just how it goes as a car ages.

This car’s condition will be monitored carefully. Fortunately it is fairly easy to track the cost of vehicle now (there’s loads of helpful apps). One of the goals, as this car grows with us, is to keep its cost well below the cost of a new car. Given that depreciation happened before the purchase, that’s one much smaller line item.

I have always operated on a cost/km as the way to handle any vehicle. Insurance, gas, depreciation, maintenance all add up, but they can be controlled. They also don’t take into account one of the functions of this vehicle: a new line item to the tracking chart “laughs per km.”