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We all have heard the old story about how driving a new car off the lot will cause the car to loose 2/3rds of its value instantly. Pretty much all people know this, but they still get new cars. If people understood that depreciation will actually cost you more over the life of the car than the gas will, people might behave differently.

Let me tell you a story. I drive a 1990 Honda Accord with over 200,000 miles on it. It cost me $1700 six years ago when I bought it, and I've been driving it ever since. It fuel efficient, is big enough for most of my needs, and as been generally reliable all things considered.

Of course, I've had to put in a few repairs here and there. I've installed a new alternator, replaced brake pads, and swapped out old leaky coolant hoses. On the whole, though, I've probably put only $800 into the car over the years (not including gas, of course).

My insurance is cheap. Since the car is so old, I don’t need comprehensive and collision insurance, which save me a lot on my monthly premiums. On the whole, this car is amazingly cheap. Is it fancy? Heck no, but it does it job while letting me spend my money on more important things.

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A few weeks ago, I was asked to review a collection of e-books that provide full instructions on how to use excess energy from your car engine to split water into oxygen and hydrogen. This combination of hydrogen and oxygen is then fed into the inlet manifold of your engine and would, in some cases, double the fuel mpg of your car. This got me thinking about all this alternative energy thing, and the more I looked at it it seemed to me that there are lots of different technical solutions to all sorts of problems that have never even been considered by the car makers. 

It seems that some had not been able to attract any funding to continue their research or they had been the subject of various sorts of threats.

Some, it seemed, have been offered large sums of money to halt their work or, most sinister of all, they had died in mysterious circumstances. Now, if these claims had been made by just one or two people then it would be simple to dismiss them and ascribe them to vivid imaginations or sour grapes. However, claims like this are popping up all the time. What could be happening here?

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