Carjacked: The Culture of the Automobile and Its Effect on Our Lives: The Culture of the Automobile and Its Effect on Our Lives

Carjacked is an in-depth look at our obsession with cars. While the automobile’s contribution to global warming and the effects of volatile gas prices is widely known, the problems we face every day because of our cars are much more widespread and yet much less known -- from the surprising $14,000 that the average family pays each year for the vehicles it owns, to the increase in rates of obesity and asthma to which cars contribute, to the 40,000 deaths and 2.5 million crash injuries each and every year.Carjacked details the complex impact of the automobile on modern society and shows us how to develop a healthier, cheaper, and greener relationship with cars. http://www.carjacked.org/

Carjacked   is an in-depth look at our obsession with cars. While the automobile’s contribution to global warming and the effects of volatile gas prices is widely known, the problems we face every day because of our cars are much more widespread and yet much less known — from the surprising $14,000 that the average family pays each year for the vehicles it owns, to the increase in rates of obesity and asthma to which cars contribute, to the 40,000 deaths and 2.5 million crash injuries each and every year.

Carjacked details the complex impact of the automobile on modern society and shows us how to develop a healthier, cheaper, and greener relationship with cars.

                                                            http://www.carjacked.org/

Library Journal

Lutz (anthropology & international studies, Brown Univ.) and her sister Fernandez, from a corporate background, combine their skills at "field work" (albeit consisting of interviews with an undefined sampling of 100-plus drivers) and statistical analysis to produce a hard look at the various prices we pay in our American devotion to the automobile. The book does not have one continuous story line to lighten its load of information, but the chapter subheadings and illustrative anecdotes keep readers in tune with the authors' particular drive and primed for the concluding chapter, "A Call to Action," listing ways that we can become part of the solution. Strongly recommended for all willing to consider that we need to "step away from the car."—MH

For most of the twentieth century, America's love affair with the car went unchallenged. Gas prices were kept low, ever more roads and highways built and maintained, and this year's model always looked a little better than last year's. Then, in fairly short order, gas jumped to $4 a gallon, the housing bubble imploded and the current economic crisis was upon us. Suddenly, car owners had reason to question what is on average, their biggest household expense. Carjacked gets into the meat of America's obsession with cars and explodes myth after myth along the way. While the automobile's contribution to global warming and the effects of volatile gas prices are is widely known, the problems Americans face every day because of their cars are much more widespread and yet much less known - from the surprising $14,000 per year that the average car costs to own to the uptick of incidences of obesity and asthma that car ownership seemingly causes to the more than 6 million car accidents a year at a cost of $230 billion. Carjacked sheds new light on the complex impact of the automobile on American society and shows us how to develop a new and healthier relationship with cars, a relationship that is both cheaper and greener Carjacked is an in-depth look at our obsession with cars. While the automobile's contribution to global warming and the effects of volatile gas prices is widely known, the problems we face every day because of our cars are much more widespread and yet much less known -- from the surprising $14,000 that the average family pays each year for the vehicles it owns, to the increase in rates of obesity and asthma to which cars contribute, to the 40,000 deaths and 2.5 million crash injuries each and every year. Carjacked details the complex impact of the automobile on modern society and shows us how to develop a healthier, cheaper, and greener relationship with cars. Introduction Dream car : myth-making, American values, and the automobile The pitch : how they sell The pitch : how we buy The catch : what we really pay The catch : the rich get richer What drives us Getting carsick Full metal jacket : the body count Conclusion: A call to action. Carjacked sheds new light on the complex impact of the automobile on American society and shows us how to develop a new and healthier relationship with cars, one that is both cheaper and greener.