As I’ve said every year, where are the flying cars? Oh wait, they would be horribly unsafe. Well, hover cars that run on garbage would be a step in the right direction anyway.

To answer some questions I’ve received:

1) Yes I’m still alive, the site is still going, and I plan to continue paying for the web hosting.

2) This year is going to be busy for me, and I don’t anticipate too many updates. Last year was a pretty solid year – new theme, new graphics, a few new greenbooks.

3) It’s been a depressing year for Volvo Inc. As you’ve probably heard, everything is being sold to the Chinese including Ford’s sale of Volvo to Zhejiang Geely Holding Group. We went through this in the 1980s when half of the golf courses in California were sold to the Japanese, so we’ll get through it, but odds are things will get worse for Volvo. The Ford buyout was bad enough!

In our car-centric economy, life is pretty difficult without a car, so I’ll probably always own one. At this point, however, it looks like once the 240s wear out or gas prices go up significantly, my next car may not be a Volvo.

A big part of living earth-friendly is the REUSE part of the “Reduce – Reuse – Recycle” pyramid. I’ve been fixing up my 240s with junkyard parts, and keeping them running long past the life expectancy of most cars, but that won’t be affordable once parts sources start to dry up. Volvo is no longer on the cutting edge of safety either (thanks to Ford slashing the Research and Development budget), so I might as well buy a car from a company that still produces spares and continues to fund R&D.

I would have said Saab for my next car but oh yeah, they are gone too. I’m not a huge fan of the German makes. So what else? Maybe Toyota or Honda? Only time will tell. One thing is for sure, there are not too many car companies left to be proud of.