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Life Talk!

Will you buy a car when it is not so totally necessary?

07:52 AM Aug 31 2007 | Reply

sherryleio

sherryleio

China

Nowadays almost everyone has got a mobile phone. Now many ppl in my city have got a car, and more and more of ppl start to think about buying it, even a car is not so necessary to some of us.  Like me and my colleagues, only 15 mins distance from home to office by bicycle, and not so many chances for outside going, as work has spent us lots of time…but cars, just like big houses, it is something like to become a symbol of social status, so we buy it like a diamond, a nice watch…I do not know, it is something that is happening around me. 

Everday I go to work or go home, I see the cars crowding in the road, and my motor bicycle is faster than them, and I am thinking, is a car really so necessary for all of us? with the public transportaion being not so poor.  China has a big huge population, if every family got a car like we have got a mobile phone, how terrible the situation would be!!! the pollution!!!! the traffic jam!!!

So will you buy a car when it is not so totally necessary? 

08:44 AM Aug 31 2007 | Reply

wendy wang

wendy wang

China

surely not, i think cycling is a kind of good physical exercise.

09:58 AM Aug 31 2007 | Reply

Olechka

Ukraine

As for me, I wouldn't buy a car just for 'fashion'..I would rather spend this money on something more useful..or go somewhere to have a rest. Moreover I am afraid of roads and if one day I buy a car,I will hire a private driver or let my husband drive it. :) Local transport is very advanced in our city so..I have no neccesity to buy a car. :)

01:42 PM Aug 31 2007 | Reply

worldmikel

worldmikel

United States

I agree. I ride my bicycle everywhere. In my area it is unusual to see people on bicycles. In my town of about 70,000 people, I see only about 5 people that ride bicycles with regularity and for transportation. China should learn a lesson from the US and get off this car habit. The air is already bad in the major cities and the autos don't have emission controls like in the US. More cars there is simply a health problem waiting to happen. Expanding the mass transit and reverting to bikes is a great thing. If Oil prices continue to rise, many people will have cars they can't afford to drive.

05:47 PM Aug 31 2007 | Reply

Nu Pogodi

Nu Pogodi

United States

20 or 30 years ago I would have said yes.

Some people are car enthusiasts but I was never one of them.

 

09:31 PM Sep 01 2007 | Reply

sherryleio

sherryleio

China

Thanks for your input to this topic.

Yes, I am saying we should not buy a car when it is not totally necessary, I do admit, for many people, the cars have become a part of their life, I am not accusing that. In China, ppl are not living in the suburbs, as Americans do, the workplaces often are not so far, so subways, buses, even the bicycles are not a problem for me and most of my coworkers…the terrible things are, the people start to buy cars only if we can afford, it is not a MUST, just because we have enough money to get it, so we get it…that's the thing that is starting to concern me.

The money to own a car is not a very big amount, but it is not small either, for most of Chinese ppl. So I guess we need to reconsider, why not put the mnoney to other things we can do, it is a pure vanity, for the persons who do not really need a car…but the ad on newspaper, on television, these media are advocating the opposite things…SAD!

Many European countries are now trying to convince their citizens to ride bicycles, China, this big bicycle country is now becoming a seriously POLLUTED country, I can only smell the trees and grasses at the parks at morning times. My house is just locating the foot of a hill, but the roaring of cars are around here…

 

04:02 AM Sep 07 2007 | Reply

worldmikel

worldmikel

United States

Coincidence: Last night on Canadian TV, there was a documentary about cars that revolved around China. Especially, Geely and Chery, though talked about GM, Ford, Toyota and Honda. It showed how absolutely crazy the car situation is in China. Traffic Jams galore! One of the facts was about the world's like top polluted cities and 22 of them are in China. 

It is amazing that a nice Geely sells for 35,000 RMB (less than $5,000US)!! 

One woman in Beijing stood out as a critic of all these cars and she had a similar sounding name: Sherry Liu is how it sounded. She is a consultant for the Olympics and is certain that cars are harming and will harm China long into the future. In that segment they showed a satellite photo of Beijing with this brown/gray cloud obscuring the view of the city from space.

I don't know where else this documentary can be seen, but I'll keep an eye out on YouTube for a copy of it:

http://www.cbc.ca/doczone/drivingdreams.html 

 

05:02 AM Sep 07 2007 | Reply

zivon263

zivon263

China

  some serious problem about society,i think

02:58 AM Sep 10 2007 | Reply

taoconco1

Viet Nam

i see many people buy a new car. they want to admit their richest

my country is used motobike, 

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