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SL _-- I rE 12 -- PORT PERRY STAR REAL ESTATE -- Tuesday, August 14, 1990 Cost to operate a car over $500 mont It now costs the average Cana- dian more than $500 a month to own and operate an automobile, according to the 3.3. million member, not-for-profit Canadian Automobile Association (CAA), which today released its CAA "Car Costs 1990-1991' brochure. The CAA Car Costs report is based on computations provided. by Runzheimer International, a management consulting firm which provides services to ac- curately measure costs of transportation, taxes, meals, good and services, lodging and housing. "Car Costs 1990-1991'° data reveals it costs average Canadian motorists $6,672 per year or$556 per month to own and operate their automobile. '"Car Costs" is based on a 1990 Ford Tempo GL with a 23 litre 4 cylider engine which is driven 24,000 kilometres per_ year. The four-door sedan is equipped with standard features and optional accessories in- cluding AM-FM stereo, automatic transmission, power steering, power disc brakes, rear window defogger, speed control, tilt steer- ing wheel, engine block heater and heavy-duty battery. While monthly costs average $556, "Car Costs' also reveals that expenses vary from province to province and according to the size of the car. For instance, owner of sub-compact cars in a low-cost province such as Alber- ta or Saskatchewan have the lowest expenses, at $470 per month. On the other hand, owners of full-size (8 cylinder) cars in high-cost provinces such as Quebec or Newfoundland can ex- pect annual expenses of $8,327 or $694 per month. "Car Costs" figures show in- creases in both operating and fix- ed costs as compared to last year's figures. Operating costs (those directly related to the number of kilometres driven) in- creased by six and a half percent. They include fuel and oil at 5.71 cents per kilometre, maintenance at 1.68 cents per kilometre, and AUCTION SALES AUGUST 18 SALE TIME: 10:30 A.M. PETER VAN HOOF, 1620 Vic- toria St. W., Whitby. Furniture, collectables, tools, contractor equipment, 30 x 40 steel building. For more information call 416-263-4252 Garry K. Powell, Auctioneer. SATURDAY, AUGUST 25 SALE TIME: 11:00 A.M. Balsam Lakefront Cottage Real Estate Auction Auction at former Estate of the late BETTY SPITTEL at west side of SOUTH BAY, BALSAM LAKE, 1 mile south LONG POINT. DIRECTIONS: From Toronto take Hwy. 48 to Beaver- ton north on 12 to County Rd. 8, go east to Glenarm turn north on County Rd. 35 to Long Point Rd. (see signs). 150 ft. frontage x 500 ft. deep, cozy 3 bedroom % log waterfront home or cottage with stone fireplace, open concept, fir floors, 3 pc. bath with hot water, propane heating, boathouse 8 dock, storage shed, appliances & drapes included. Selling as Is sub- ject to reasonable reserve bid. Don't miss this excellent lakefront property with mature trees and large private lot. PRO- PERTY MUST BE SOLD. Terms $5,000 at sale, balance 30 days. View early to arrange financing. Call (705) 324-2783 ORVAL McLEAN AUCTIONS, Lindsay. tires at 0.76 cents per kilometre, totalling 8.15 cents per kilometre. Ownership costs change little with the amount driven. These costs include insurance ($100 deductible comprehensive, $250 deductible collision, $500,000 in- clusive third party liabinty) at $786 per year; snow ties, $61 per year; license and registration, $84 per year; depreciation, $2,760 per year and finance expenses, $1,025 per year. Ownership costs totall- ed $4,716, up 14% from last year. The Environment by Michelle Bull A short time ago, my blow dryer stopped working. I took it apart to see what was wrong, and I saw that a bit of molded plastic had slipped and was catching on the fan. I replaced it, with some difficulty. Eventually I got everything into the right place, I hoped, and screwed it back together again. I plugged it in and turned it on. Flash! It had short circuited. Rats. Now I needed a soldering iron, which I didn't have. So I took it to a couple of repair places, and I got the same answer at both places: "Throw it out and buy a new one. It's not worth repairing." This made me do some serious thinking. In the first place, where does a sophisticated technological society like ours get off on producing junk with a useful life of about two months after the warranty expires? If we can put a man on the moon, surely we can make a blow dryer with parts that stay put. The truth is that they don't want to. It's called built-in ob- solescence, which means that it's designed to fall apart, so that we'll all have to buy new ones and the blow dryer companies can make lots of money. And besides frustrating us and wasting our money, they are wasting our valuable resources, both the plastic and metal that go into the products and the energy it takes to manufacture them. Why do we put up with it? A first step would be to write let- ters to the companies and complain about their lousy products. The second question is, why does no one repair broken small appliances? These useful little items have been manufactured with the use of valuable material and energy resources, but the minute they need ten minutes of soldering and reassembling, they become worthless garbage. The reason, of course, is that the repair man wants to.be paid for his time, and if the job takes an hour, the cost of the repair will be more than the cost of the appliance. Naturally, people would rather pay for a new one with a warranty, than pay for repairs that might not last. This is understandable, but it is also a great pity, and it means the waste of resources. What can we do about it? If we had a lot of time, we could learn to fix our own. I may yet go and buy a soldering iron and try to fix that blow dryer again. I can't stand to throw it out, when all it needs is a little solder. Another idea would be for some retired handyman or stay- at-home housewife who really enjoys fixing things to go into part time business fixing small appliances for a small fee. The han- dyperson would be able to indulge in their hobby and make a bit of money, and also contribute to the environmental move- ment. The rest of us could get our appliances fixed at less than the cost of replacing them, and also contribute to the environ- ment movement. Everyone would be happy. Except maybe the manufacturers. If anyone's interested, they can have free advertising in this column. In the meantime, if you can't fix your broken appliances, don't throw them out. Give them to Goodwill. Their staff will fix them and resell them. One of the reasons that our society has got itself into such a mess environmentally is that we have forgotten the old- fashioned value of thrift. Perhaps we have too much money, or perhaps we have gotten used to the fact that nothing is made to last. We have gotten used to the idea of throwing things out when we are finished with them, or bored with them, instead of taking a little time to think of what else they may be useful for. Clothing is an example. Our grandparents had few clothes and wore them till they were worn out, or outgrown, even men- ding them when necessary. If they still had wear in them, they gave them to someone. Otherwise they used them to make pat- chwork quilts, or rag rugs. Buttons were cut off and reused. The unuseable bits became cleaning rags. Nothing was wasted. We, on the other hand, have more clothes than we know what to do with, and when we are bored with them, we tend to throw them into the garbage. And we buy cleaning cloths or paper towels. We may not be into patchwork or rag rugs, but at least we can give unwanted clothing to Goodwill, or the Salvation Army so someone else can use them even if we don't want to. And we can still use them for cleaning rags, instead of cutting down trees for paper towels. We need to get out of the disposeable mindset and start think- ing about the uses of our "ga. yage." If we can't use it, maybe someone else can. If no one we know wants it, we can give it to an organization that sorts and resells it. It really isn't that far to Oshawa to the Goodwill and Salvation Army bins. They will even come and collect our unwanted furniture. Next time we go to throw something out, we should think: can I fix this or reuse it, perhaps for something else? Can so- meone else reuse it? Can it be recycled? And only if we get three no's should be throw it out. And while we're on the subject, next time we go to buy something, we might ask ourselves if we can get it second hand. Not only will we save money, but we'll also be conserving out limited resources, doing our bit to reuse and recycle. Remember, every little bit counts. Higher finance expenses and depreciation costs were the main reasons for this increase. Calculations of operating costs are made for annual driving distances of 16,000, 24,000 and 32,000 kilometres with gasoline priced at the national average of 54.9 cents per litres. The majori- ty of the increase can be at- tributed to higher federal and pro- vincial taxes. The federal excise tax on gasoline, which all Cana- dian motorists pay, has increas- ed one cent per litre since the publication of "Car Costs 1989-1990." .. Operating costs and ownership costs are provided in the brochure on a national basis complete with a ranking of provinces according to high to low cost. The average per kilometre cost is determined by combining operating and ownership costs. For example, a motorist driv- ing 16,000 kilometres per year will enocunter expenses of about $1,304.00 in operating costs (16,000 kms at 8.15 cents) and $4,716.00 in ownership costs, for a total of $6,020.00 or 37.6 cents per kilometre ($6,020 divided by 16,000 kms). Last year, the same driver owning and operating a 4 cylinder 1989 Ford Tempo and travelling the same distance would have in- curred a per kilometre cost of 33.5 cents. According to CAA President Michael McNeil, "Despite rising costs, the automobile continues to provide Canadians with the only viable transportation option allowing for personal freedom and mobility. Motorists are sub- ject to governments' unfairness in taxation policies, particularly as they relate to motive fuels, due to the essential nature of the passenger automobile in Canada and governments' insatiable ap- petite for more revenue." Single copies of 'Car Costs 1990-91" are available from most CAA Travel Centres or by contac- ting CAA Toronto, 2 Carlfon Street, Toronto, Ontario M5B 1K4. The CAA is the federation of every not-for-profit provincial and regional motor club yin Canada. 3 ---- 51111-12077 - 3%" high density sided 21 4459 box of 10 51111-12100 - 5 1/4" high density 2 J9¢ 51111-00234 - 51/4" louble density 1 J box of 10 19 ol 10 Premium Recycled File Folders