Today launched the ten days of traffic snarls and mass human migration to Geneva otherwise known as the International Motor Show. 2011 marks the 81st exhibition. The Geneva Motor Show is one of the important major international auto shows and is regarded somewhat as a level playing field for the world's automakers, aided by the fact Switzerland lacks a significant auto industry of its own.
Small cars were last year's theme. This year's theme is "Green" as in Ecology. Based on plentiful pre-Show publicity, there will be a plethora of hybrid vehicles to view and, hopefully - from the manufacturers' viewpoints in any event - purchase.
I generally like to go to the Show to see what new technologies, designs and gadgets are being featured. I will not be a purchaser. My trusty nine-year-old little Nissan will, it is hoped, keep on trucking for as long as I need it to. In fact, last week I received a notice from the Vaud traffic control authorities, telling me that my Nissan is due for its triennial inspection this year and further, that said inspecton has been scheduled for later this month. Upon my return from the US, I had planned to run the car to the garage for an oil change, etc., anyway. But now, having received this notice, other than vacuuming inside and running it through the carwash - and yes, there was a specific reminder that the vehicle should be clean, this IS Switzerland, after all - I'll wait to hear what needs to happen to bring it up to code before making my garage appointment. I'll get everything done at the same time.
At the risk of calling down the wrath of the Car Gods, I must say that the three cars we purchased during our 17-year stay in Switzerland have all worked beautifully. Our 1994 VW Golf drove like a charm, right up to the early morning in September 2001 when the chef at the Japanese Mission Ambassador's residence, while swerving to miss a bus coming from the opposite direction, rear-ended it as it was innocently and legally parked along the roadway. The VW was totalled. To add insult to injury, the shock of the crash caused the VW to plow into the car ahead of it - also totalled - and that car in turn to rear-end our second vehicle, a Nissan Sunny. The Sunny was a secondhand purchase I had made in 1997 when my work schedule became so much more demanding and unpredictable that a second vehicle was in order. Fortunately, aside from a small dent or two, the Sunny remained unharmed, largely because no car was parked in front of it, which allowed it room to move forward. Because we bought a new Nissan in early 2002 to replace the VW, I let the Sunny go in 2005, when HWMBO began spending more time in the US than here. We didn't need to be a two-car family then.
The 2002 Nissan has been a stalwart little car for the past several years. But I dream of an even smaller, more energy-efficient Micra. Ironically, my children look to purchase van-like vehicles, which are necessary for hauling small children, their regulation bulky car seats and, especially, all the paraphernalia that little ones these days seem to require. How on earth did I ever raise two small children in Morocco without any of that? One of my more hair-raising memories - when my sons were older and we were back in the US - is of driving from Missoula, MT to Phoenix, AZ with one child in the front passenger seat, taking turns with his brother who was confined to little more than a crawlspace in the back seat because our valiant little Subaru was packed chock-full of our belongings. I'm not even sure whether we had seat belts!
Thankfully, vehicles have changed a lot since those days, as have knowledge and implementation of safety measures. On the whole, travelling by vehicle is much safer now than it used to be, with statistically fewer deaths or serious injuries as a result of innovation, invention and regulation. But, if we are going to be able to keep driving at all, we must get serious about the dwindling fossil-fuel supply and climate change. Otherwise, this world will exact its toll from the generations who follow us here. We are not good stewards if we leave this world in worse shape ecologically than we found it. We now know better. Or we should.
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