"Within five years, technology will obliterate the need for business travel."

This was a recent soothsaying headline from the Fast Company blog saying that “apart from becoming more and more unpleasant, recently business travel is also becoming far less necessary. With videoconferencing technologies improving and fuel prices rising, more businessmen and women seem to be choosing the option to stay put and use new technology to cut down on travel.”

Obliterate? A reduction is more likely. Now, how about applying that thought to the daily grind? Give employees leeway to stay home and work to cut down on long, traffic-choked commutes to cut gas usage and its associated pollution.

For the one or two days at home, use relatively low-tech conference calling to connect with colleagues. Let’s face it, besides sales people and rainmakers meeting prospects face-to-face, I know of so many employees who sit on conference calls a good part of their work week. Why sit through these sometimes mind-numbing meetings at work when they (you) could do it at home?

Tally Ho! (Three)

Pinch me.

When we turned in our leased Honda Odyssey on April 19^th, I thought, holy cow, how in the world are we going to manage living with one car? I envisioned pure domestic chaos juggling work, kids, school, and then the logistical nightmare of summer activities.

Fast forward 90 days and I sit here stunned that it has been an almost angst-free experience (as I knock on wood). This month, however, our trusty Subaru Outback threw us a curve. It goes into the shop this week in need of a new power steering box and rear struts. That’s the price of owning a 10-year-old vehicle.

With that, here’s the three month tote:

New car payments (3) $1,980
Gas $ 300
Rental car $ 0
Repairs ($1,180)

Total to date: $1,100

With two months to go, I’m thinking of extending this exercise to the end of the year.

How Much!?

Ever really add up the cost of car ownership? Here's a take from Editor-at-Large of The Agonist, Sean-Paul Kelley.

"To me a car is like a prison sentence, once all the real costs are figured into the purchase. First there is filling it up. Easily $50 right now, $2,600 a year. Then there is oil for the engine, $5 every couple of weeks, maybe every other month or so. Then there are state taxes, $100-$200 a year, maybe more in other places. Tolls? $1.50 each way once a day equals $60 a month, just for the twenty or so business days when using toll roads. Then there is the upkeep. On an American car I'd assume on average over a year it comes out to maybe $1,000. On foreign cars, especially European luxury models? Much higher. Then there are inspection stickers, or exhaust fees for some states: $200 a year in some places, $30 in others. And don't forget the insurance racket: $1500 a year? Maybe less, maybe more? Finally, we come to the price of the car in the first place. I think it's pretty hard to get into a car for less than, say, $14,000, so maybe a minimum payment of $400 a month for five years, so about $4800 a year? What's that come out to for a year: $10,000 just to drive one car! (Just imagine having two teens in the house?)"

Read the rest of Kelley's post here.

As an American, Would You Buy This Car?

This is the BMW 118d, a five-door rear-wheel-drive car with a 2.0-liter direct-injection turbodiesel four-cylinder engine. It seats five and looks pretty good. The engine makes 141 horsepower and 221 pound-feet of torque. It will prod the car to 60 mph in about 8.8 seconds, returning 59 mpg on the (foreign) highway and spewing only 118 grams of CO2 per kilometer. The best part, the car will go 700 miles between fill-ups.

Question: Looking at specs only and forgetting that it's a BMW, and based on permanent $4+ gas, would you buy this car? Please answer yes or no and why in the comments section. Then send this post to friends and family and ask them to answer.

Car Thieves Love 13-Year-Olds

Cars, that is. Who knew that a 1995 Honda would be “cet obscur objet du désir”. According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau:

...the '95 (Honda) Civic was followed by the '91 Honda Accord, the '89 Toyota Camry and the '97 Ford F-150 as the nation's most stolen cars in 2007. The top four on the list are unchanged from 2006. For the fourth year in a row, the '95 Civic has been in the top 10.

A Civic?! If this was a statistic compiled over the last several months, I could see it… maybe. I certainly would entertain buying a 2008 Civic, but a ’95, uh, not so much.

It turns out that older model Hondas and Toyotas are sought after by the hot wire and Slim Jim set because they’re reliable and plentiful. Lots are still on the road, making them a bigger target because the value of their spare parts.

Me, I go for even younger cars, like my 10-year-old Subaru.