26 Years Online
••• The International Writers Magazine - Enough Car Update 2025

The Enough Car - Twenty Years on • Charlie Dickinson 200,000 miles later ...

I wrote about why I bought my Enough Car some twenty years ago @ this URL.
Decades later, after 200,000 miles turned over on the odometer, I'll report that the 2005 ECHO HB, individually imported from Canada, is everything I wanted. Going minimalist on common auto comforts has brought me a greater comfort in dependable transportation. 

To recap, I bought the ECHO HB as a reincarnation of the original Enough Car, the legendary Volkswagen "Beetle." Stick-shift tranny (finest anti-theft device available says my mechanic), no power windows, no power steering, no A/C, no screens, no GPS or like linkage to the satellites. The 21st century version of the pancake-four VW is now a FWD, four-banger SOHC engine with variable valve timing.

And like the VW demonstrably stingy with gas, averaging 54 mpg on a Portland to Roseburg, Oregon run.

As I wrote here a few years back, at some point in my Enough Car's life, I contemplated replacing it. And perhaps addressing the popular belief one might slow down global warning going electric, I had to evaluate the hype. I concluded buying a Tesla, despite the puffery, does little for global warming compared to keeping my Enough Car going. Why? The math.

The mining needed for the critical materials that go into the 1,700-pound battery of one Tesla Model Y--fully 40% of its weight and close to my ECHO's total weight--is staggering. Manufacturing that one Tesla car and its battery creates a carbon footprint that's larger than a comparably sized new gas-powered car for six years! Face it, if everyone got a Tesla like NOW!, global warming would not slow, but speed up.

So I'm thinking, with 200,000 miles on one of the finest drive-trains Toyota ever made, why not stick by my winner? If I have good cylinder compression, reasonable oil consumption, and little maintenance other than oil changes for now, why switch horses? I can just do an engine rebuild when the time comes. And that can be 50K or 100K miles away.

As a Cuban-American friend said--and at one time, he was no stranger to the keeping of old cars going in a economy where "make-do" was the watchword--replacing piston rings is usually enough. And add replacement of the mainshaft bearings, which are part of piston removal anyway. And voila! the Enough Car's engine is good for another 100K or more.

So my long-term report for the 2005 ECHO HB is highly favorable. And at 200,000+ miles, swapping out for an EV doesn't move the dial on my understanding of our planetary responsibility.
Image credit: © C. Dickinson 2025

Read Charlie Dickinson's story collection The Cat at Light's End,
as an ebook in these downloadable formats:
.mobi (Kindle)
.epub (most other readers)
.pdf (for PCs)

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