GM’s Buick division – which re-sells four mildly restyled Chevy crossovers – will soon sell only electric crossovers, all of them named Electra.
Buick dealers who don’t want to “invest” several hundred thousand dollars each in the “infrastructure” needed to “fast” charge – and otherwise deal with – electric Electras are being offered buy-outs by GM, similar to the ones offered recalcitrant Cadillac dealers who likewise didn’t want to “invest” in GM’s all-electric future.
“Not everyone necessarily wants to make [the electric] journey, depending on where they’re located or the level of expenditure that the transition will demand,” Buick Global Vice President Duncan Aldred said the other day. “So if they want to exit the Buick franchise, then we will give them monetary assistance to do so.”
The question is, why would anyone want to “make this journey”?
Especially as regards Buick, which is GM’s Mercury – if anyone remembers that brand, which re-sold mildly re-styled Fords. It no longer sells anything, having been cancelled by Ford back in 2011. Similarly, Plymouth – which used to sell slightly re-styled, re-badged Dodges.
These in-between brands made sense thirty-plus years ago when GM, Ford and Chrysler were the “Big Three” and together owned two-thirds-plus of the American new car market. They existed as part of the strategy pioneered by Alfred Sloan back in the 1920s to shepherd the buyer from the entry-level Chevy to a more prestigious Pontiac or Oldsmobile on his way to almost Cadillac in the form of a Buick – from which he might eventually aspire to a Cadillac, at last. Ford and Chrysler emulated the strategy. A Plymouth was a lesser Dodge, while a Dodge was an almost-Chrysler.
Mercury was “nicer” than merely Ford – and so on.
It stopped making sense thirty-plus years ago, by which time the “Big Three” had been much reduced in size, market-share-wise. As a metric of this, all of GM today – that is, Chevy, Buick, GMC and Cadillac combined – accounts for less market share than Chevrolet once accounted for, all by itself, circa 1970.
Part of the reason for this winnowing had to do with the influence of government, which rendered it untenable for these lesser divisions to maintain their own independent engineering divisions – and the brand-specific engines you used to get when you bought a Buick rather than a Chevy (or a Pontiac) let alone a Cadillac. It cost too much to “certify” a Buick-designed 455 V8, for instance – relative to what it cost to fit Buicks (and Pontiacs and even Cadillacs) with the same “corporate” engines, most of them designed by Chevy engineering.
“Buicks” became shells. Skates, in modern EeeeeeeVeeeeee parlance. A different body over a common underlying architecture. This reduces costs. It also arguably eliminates the point.
That point has already been reached, arguably. As of 2022, Buick’s share of the American car market is a near-irrelevant 1.2 percent. Pontiac and Oldsmobile were cashed out when their share of the market was still several times that.
There are only twelve stand-alone Buick dealerships left in the entire country. The remainder (some 1,900 of them) sell mostly GMCs, which are rebadged Chevy pick-ups and SUVs. And – just added – the electric Hum Job, the one brand-unique model in the lineup. Which GMC-Buick dealers will never sell many of because there are only so many people who can ante-up the $106,700 base price of this rig.
But GM sells a lot of Buicks in Chyna.
More than 80 percent of all Buicks are bought there, in fact. GM never sold any Pontiacs – or Oldsmobiles – in the Land of Mao. So why do Buicks sell in Chyna? It probably has something to do with so many Buicks – such as the Envision, for example – being made in Chyna. They are “domestics” over there. A few of them sent over here.
It is likely even fewer will be sold here, once they are all “Electras.” The first of these is expected to arrive next year (2023) as a 2024 model and will probably sticker for around $50,000 to start.
If that proves to be accurate, it is probable Buick’s share of the U.S. market will slip below 1 percent, for it is mostly if not chiefly the 1 percent that can afford a 30-plus percent uptick in the price of a new car. Which is what we are talking about, Willis, when we’re talkin’ bout electric cars.
Then there is this business of them all being essentially the same car – the same skate.
This is the electric tar baby being embraced by the car industry, generally. As for example Dodge, which is giving up on selling different cars like the V8-powered Charger and Challenger in favor of electrified cars that are by dint of that not much different than so many other cars.
So why bother?
Or rather, why buy?
GM had trouble selling Oldsmobiles and Pontiacs when those brands no longer offered much that was different, except the badge and the price. It is having trouble right now selling Buicks that aren’t much different from Chevies, excepting badge and price.
Now the idea seems to be trying to sell Buicks that all have the same name – and are the same, except for their shape and price.
One skate-fits-all.
It is a bleak futurity to ponder. Especially if you can remember when Buick made cars like the Electra – “not electrified.” And the Riviera and Regal, which Buick sold orders of magnitude more of than all of the rebadged Chevys made-in-Chyna that “Buick” manages to sell here, today.
But that was back when Buicks weren’t just skates. And they were made right here, in what was once America.
. . .
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Cars are utility devices, nothing more…
The real reason why Buick continues to exist is because Mao had one as his limo. The CCP leadership all got in line and bought their own. When GM sent the 1980s era machine tools to China they put the Buick labels on and it probably outsold everything in the United States.
What I don’t understand is why will they bother with branding at all? Just call it the GM roller skate and be done with it. Get rid of the rest of the dealers too, since selling direct is working out so well for Tesla. That is the eventual goal, to become Tesla, isn’t it?
Out of high school I worked a year at the Buick dealers rental car company. We had two 73 boat tail Rivieras as rentals, what a joy driving that floating puff comfort beast between rental offices. And several Electras, these cars spoiled me on seat comfort. Those truly were the days of cars made for American size adults riding in quiet comfort. Quiet = the lost art of body on frame. Hoods the size of aircraft carrier flight decks, oh my!
Man…. My first car in high sxholl was a 1973 Electra 225.
As if I needed any more proof the greeny globohomo’s were actual Satanists.
To take a 4000+ lbs of Detroit steel 455 cu-in luxury sled and brand some eveeee abortion in that picture as being even it’s distant cousin is bordering on blasphemy.
GM can go officially publicly kill itself now. That is all.
If your lithium fire bomb battery EV doesn’t catch fire maybe the solar panels or wind turbines that contribute 4.9% of the dirty energy electricity to all EV’s will….lol
Amazon temporarily shuts down solar rooftops at all US facilities due to fires
https://thepostmillennial.com/amazon-temporarily-took-all-rooftop-solar-energy-systems-offline-in-2021-due-to-fires
With all these EV fires, these lithium fire bomb batteries are looking very dangerous.
Someone joked that they look like the work of the devil….lol
EV fire almost 100 EV’s go up in smoke…..lol
Scenes From Hell As Massive Fire In Delhi EV Parking Space Guts Nearly 100 Vehicles
What happens when 2200 Ev’s (a new complex in planning stage will have 2200 parking spaces)….imagine 2200 lithium fire bomb EV’s parked), are parked in underground parking at an apartment block or office tower and they catch fire? You can’t take propane into underground parking, but you can take a fire bomb lithium battery car underground.
https://www.drivespark.com/off-beat/delhi-electric-vehicle-parking-fire-destroys-nearly-100-vehicles-036152.html
Dependable safe power plants are being shut down and replaced by expensive, dangerous, unreliable, wind turbines, the grid is already over loaded, soon there won’t be electricity to charge your EV.
These wind turbines are dangerous and damaging to the environment, they catch fire just like the lithium fire bomb batteries in EV’s
Assuming an average wind turbine costs $1 million per megawatt of generating capacity, offshore wind turbines ranging from 3 to 10 MW can cost up to $10 million, which would need to be paid up-front if out of warranty. Additionally, once a fire starts, the project must be shut down and taken off grid for a period of time as a safety precaution, resulting in lost revenue.
Turbine fires can have costs beyond the wind farm. A fire can spread down the tower to land surrounding the project if not carefully managed. This can potentially result in wildfires, causing extensive damage to the wider area and ultimately leading to significant reputational damage not only for the individual site but for the industry as a whole.
Based on research conducted by CWIF, since 2000 there have been 385 documented wind turbine fires. A number of these fires where not only a total loss of the turbine but had devastating consequences. In June 2012, the View Fire, which burned 367 acres in Riverside County, California, was caused by a wind turbine fire.
Nearby residences were evacuated, and over 100 firefighters fought the wildfire to get it contained. A little over a year later, a tragedy that the wind industry had not yet experienced occurred. In October 2013, two young mechanics became trapped on top of a burning wind turbine and died as a result at the Piet de Wit Wind Farm. Because of the height of turbines, a specialized team of firefighters was called to battle the fire and recover the victims.
More recently, in the US, two wildfires were sparked from wind turbine fires
Watch the wind turbines catch fire.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nemy4TD4I3A
David Buick must be spinning in his grave.
Sliding ever closer to the uniformity of the lowest common denominator, inspired by state regulation. Excellence is forbidden, if the masses can afford it. Like eating mashed potatoes with no gravy or butter. Just a big pile of uninspiring nearly taste free mush.
Here’s a fantasy that will never come true.
Multimultibillionaire says “Fuck the EPA and the DOT. We’re gonna build cars that people really want, and sell them at a price they can afford. Even at a loss. I’m going to hire an army of lawyers to constantly battle any state actions against us. It’s the right thing to do.”
If any billionaire thouhgt like that they would have never become a billionaire in the first place. All billionaires got there by directly or indirectly sucking the government off. I always find it funny when commies call billionaires ‘capitalists’ and we need the government regulate them or make them ‘pay their fair share’. No idiots, that’s what THEY want. More government more power.
Exactly Mark. That’s why I called it a fantasy that will never come true.
I don’t think it’s a fantasy. normal, old-school vehicles are being made now. Check out the Roxor, simple, relatively inexpensive, but not DOT approved. I truly believe that you will one day see these and similar units driving down the road.
They are basically being sold as side-x-sides. And in many places in the usa, they are allowed on public roads now. Each rural state has their own restrictions. The one I’m familiar with allows ATV/UTV/dirtbikes, etc.. with a inexpensive plate up to 45mph roads.
As cars become un-affordable and registration for ICE vehicles climb exponentially (polluter tax), people are going to ‘jury nolification’ transport, and I highly doubt there is a cop in these little towns will care if these non-DOT vehicles are driving on roads over 45mph. The cop will probably be doing it too.
Chris,
Fortunately I live in a rural county where the county government is kept too poor to be aggressive. The Sheriff has a “call us if you need us” attitude. They don’t do traffic patrols. The county seat has one, check that, ONE police car, that I have never seen pull anyone over. I imagine I could get away with driving ANYTHING on public roads in my county. As long as I didn’t hit anything. Government, if we insist we have one, as it should be.
Here in Michigan, I successfully registered a military M-151 Jeep as an “assembled vehicle” without any difficulty. Supposedly, these vehicles were considered too unstable for road use, were supposed to be cut up before disposition (mine was not) but the State of Michigan gave me no hassle about registration. My insurance company (AAA) requested to see the vehicle and had no problem insuring it as well.
Will all electric Buicks have fake ventiports or will I need to source them from Pep Boys?
Of course they’ll have port holes. Otherwise you wouldn’t be able to tell it from the Chevrolet.
The following comment, written in response to yet another panicky climate article in the Washington Post this morning, sums up the unhinged anti-human hate of the true believers:
“People consume. The more people, the more consumption and the waste it creates. Think of us as ducks in a pond where we defecate and eat. At a certain point the population is too great to sustain healthy life for ducks in the pond. This is the point we are entering.”
Climate-change cultists believe that humans never make anything better. We only take, take, take from Holy Mother Earth. We are selfish, useless eater-shitters.
Roland,
At what point in time did the human species become NOT a part of nature, as in part of “mother earth”? Beavers build dams. Are they also enemies of Gaia?
At the same time, the corporate/government/bank cartel encourages, and indeed rewards us for being obsessive consumers. Our “economy” depends on us being wasteful and avoiding frugality, and heavily engaging in debt. An intentional effort to confuse us while we are bled dry. Causing the very same thing that the comment you quote derides. For example, farming was no threat to the environment, until it became corporatized, industrialized, and “regulated”.
The environmentalist movement was quite successful in infantilizing the general public by making outlandish claims, giving animals rights, among other things
I call it the “disneyfication” of animals, raising animals up to the status of humans, imbuing human qualities on them-Walt Disney and his animal cartoons, Bambi, among others, is responsible for turning adult humans into animal-worshipping crazies-the roots of rabid environmentalism also has its start with disney cartoons.
The “disneyfication” of animals has done more to damage the concept of man having dominion over other living things and has contributed greatly to our present crop of anti-hunters and pro-animal activists.
If civilization collapses, you can bet that this “disneyfication” of animals along with gun control (actually people control) will go away, people will be too busy looking for their next meal.
PETA=people eating tasty animals.
It is interesting to note that these same “animal lovers” have no problem with human babies being ripped out of their mothers’ wombs. In fact, bald eagles and other species have MORE protections than pre-born and now post-born humans. Go figure…
“Disneyfication”: that is a great point.
Hi Roland,
The proper response to those people, and I’ve used it a few times, is “then why don’t you do your part and kill yourself?”
Author unknown but a good read:
Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the much older lady that she should bring her own grocery bags, because plastic bags are not good for the environment,.
The woman apologized to the young girl and explained, “We didn’t have this ‘green thing’ back in my earlier days.”
The young clerk responded, “That’s our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations.”
The older lady said that she was right our generation didn’t have the “green thing” in its day. The older lady went on to explain: Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled.
But we didn’t have the “green thing” back in our day. Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags that we reused for numerous things. Most memorable besides household garbage bags was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our school books. This was to ensure that public property (the books provided for our use by the school) was not defaced by our scribblings. Then we were able to personalize our books on the brown paper bags.
But, too bad we didn’t do the “green thing” back then. We walked up stairs because we didn’t have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right. We didn’t have the “green thing” in our day.
Back then we washed the baby’s diapers because we didn’t have the throw away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts. Wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days.
Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right; we didn’t have the “green thing” back in our day.
Back then we had one TV, or radio, in the house — not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana.
In the kitchen we blended and stirred by hand because we didn’t have electric machines to do everything for us.
When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.
Back then, we didn’t fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power.
We exercised by working so we didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she’s right; we didn’t have the “green thing” back then.
We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blade in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn’t have the “green thing” back then.
Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service in the family’s $45,000 SUV or van, which cost what a whole house did before the “green thing.”
We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest burger joint.
But isn’t it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn’t have the “green thing” back then?
Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smart ass young person. We don’t like being old in the first place, so it doesn’t take much to piss us off… Especially from a tattooed, multiple pierced smartass who can’t make change without the cash register telling them how much.
Excellent anarchyst! That describes my childhood experience to a T. I was the lawnmower back then, being the oldest boy; amazes me today that everyone has a “lawn service” to cut their grass. I know most of them have kids, I guess little Johny is too busy with his sailfawn. 😆
Hey Ya Mike!
Yeah, if the greenie-weenies truly believed the BS (Well…sadly, it’s not just them- but it seems the majority have now become brainwashed by the cliiiiiimate change kool-aid), then why don’t they at least give up driving; living and working in air-conditioned buildings; electricity; flying/taking vacations thousands of miles away; cooking; THE FREAKING SPACE PROGRAM!, etc. etc.?
Oh NOOooooo! They want everyone and everything to die, so that the earth will forever be a safe habitat for rocks, but of course they their conveniences, just so long as they can convince themselves that the way they do it is “green” and “sustainable”- even though what they do is in reality no less “harmful” or even more “harmful” than the tried and true established ways which had developed via the free market. Hmmm…therein lies their problem- they just don’t like the free market- but if they can have the same things via communism, then it is “green and good”…..
Sick bastards!
Hi Nunzio
The WEF’s vision consists of distorting this environmentally friendly vision and turning it into a global political tool
Psychopathic Politicians: Role Models of a Slave Society
One does not need to be a professional psychologist or psychiatrist to recognise the symptoms of the hardened political psychopath. They are visible every time one checks ‘the news’ on mainstream media. After a short time one recognises that ‘what they say’ – and ‘what they do’ are very often precisely opposite from each other, and that the double-speak involved is intensely characteristic of the reversal of reality practised by satanists.
That’s why, when you turn on your TV to watch ‘the news’ what you are seeing is ‘the psychopathic spin of the day’. The fact that you don’t react by turning-off the set means you are still unable to discern truth from lie. Or, in rare cases, that you are watching in order to study the behaviour patterns of professional liars.
Within the political deception which surrounds WEF’s Great Reset/Green Deal, we find a starkly obvious case of theft. To be precise, theft of the early ecological movement’s long-term holistic agenda for the bio diverse trusteeship of the land.
The WEF’s vision consists of distorting this environmentally friendly vision and turning it into a global political tool for enforcing Klaus Schwab’s fascistic brave new world of synthetic foods, robot-mechanised farming, ‘rewilded’ gated private forests and 5G powered ‘smart cities’ for disenfranchised country dwellers and redundant farmers.
By twisting the true ecological approach to land management into a thoroughly distorted and fake look-alike, the word ‘Green’ has been 100% hijacked by the New World Order/Great Reset cabal. Tried and tested Real Green approaches have been usurped, in favour of macro scale industrial and digital mechanisation programmes for achieving the hallowed goal of ‘zero carbon’. If there ever could be such a thing as zero carbon– none of us would be able to breathe.
The Origins of the World Economic Forum Go Back to the Third Reich nazis.
schwab runs the wef his family was connected to the nazis in germany.
The first environmentalist was Hitler. He also promoted being vegan even though he ate meat.
gates and the other nwo/ccp/wef/.0001% witches want you to eat fake meat and insects, no more meat for you. they will eat steak.
The holocaust itself was carried out under a green cover because Nazi racism was largely rooted in the Social Darwinism of German Romanticism that laid the ecological foundations for what today is otherwise known as environmentalism.
the anti-Christian bias of the environmental movement in America now
parallels the anti-Semitic bias in Germany during the 1800’s. “Nazi Oaks” describes why the holocaust is best understood as a modernized form of human sacrifice carried out under biological/ecological camouflage that is rooted in the sacrificial oak imagery of ancient paganism.
Unbeknownst to many, the highway to modern environmentalism passed through Nazi Germany. By 1935, the Third Reich was the greenest regime on the planet.
It was also a sinister eco-imperial plan designed to Germanize the landscape by removing populations of people who were unsuited to their environment, and by turning it into a beautiful natural park for the future health of the German race.
removing populations of people who were unsuited to their environment: today that is you, they call you an invasive species, you will be exterminated
Hitler himself was not only a devout eugenicist (whose racial purification policies emerged through the funding of the Rockefeller, Carnegie Foundations as well as British establishment), but was also a devout Malthusian saying:
“The day will certainly come when the whole of mankind will be forced to check the augmentation of the human species, because there will be no further possibility of adjusting the productivity of the soil to the perpetual increase in the population.”
now gates is saying the same thing, depopulation is good.
After the war, eugenics-promoting organizations and think tanks changed their names while continuing their work, morphing into new forms by the 1960s such as the
NOTE :environmental movement, transhumanist movement, including the pharmaceutical/healthcare sector. now we have the wef pushing this with the great reset.
these satanists have decided that the useless eaters on the bottom are an invasive species, the plan? end goal 7 billion cull.
the billionaires at the top see themselves as a different species than the useless eaters, so they don’t need to be culled.
Climate change is purely political and religious, based on fake science. Climate change, the new GAIA cult religion, a big favorite of the communist, reset, one world government, satanic cult freaks,
This cull is a modernized form of human sacrifice carried out under biological/ecological camouflage that is rooted in the sacrificial oak imagery of ancient paganism.
https://davidicke.com/2022/06/07/psychopathic-politicians-role-models-of-a-slave-society/?fbclid=IwAR3mgjYnBtmOcBEKM58D7Yt8nkityzNiYW50DKJlv_wcElGPTIk0HTNA4Z4
Hi Nunzio,
“…the tried and true established ways which had developed via the free market.”
I always wonder how much of the stuff that we have nowadays would be here if not for government interference, including the knock-on influence of corporate interests that would not exist without said government interference.
Space program? Probably not, since aside from pretty pictures and warm fuzzy feelings, I can’t think of any way this state-aggrandizing boondoggle has benefitted us.
But Roundup? I like it. My Dad used to walk over hundreds of acres of corn with a hoe, grubbing out the Johnson Grass that otherwise would have taken over the whole place. Now I run around with a UTV and spot-spray it. Does anyone remember what soybean fields used to look like? Weedy as hell. Now they are pristine, and the no-till techniques that Roundup-ready seeds have made feasible save tons of topsoil that would be washing down into the creek with every hard shower.
The old way is not always the better way. Bringing soda bottles back to the store was a pain in the ass, and it took a lot of energy and labor to wash, sanitize, and refill them. Is the quest for convenience always an evil corporate scheme or a sign of laziness? I don’t think so. When we save the time, labor and materials that used to be required for Task A, it frees them up for other tasks that have the potential to make our lives better.
Killing a few weeds in your driveway with roundup is one thing. The method of farming GMO cops designed to be “roundup ready” is quite another. Drenching crops in poison to keep them weed free and, as in the case of wheat, to artificially “force” a stress response flowering. Mmmmm… mmm…mmm… tasty. Science! Reminds me of a famous scientist guy who says roundup is “safe” but then declines to drink a glass of it.
Funk,
Not to mention that Roundup is hard on bees. This Spring I had a huge bloom in my orchard, but no swarm of bees on it I used to be able to hear from 50 yards away, and consequently, no fruit set. I’m sure because of nearby saturation of Roundup ready crops with it. Ain’t GMO wonderful?
From its inception, environmentalism has always had a communist streak running through it.
It turns out that many claims that environmentalists make have no basis in fact and are not based on good, honest, scientific investigation. This is why environmental scientists have to hide their data, as it does not fit their agenda. A good example of this is the so-called global warming crap, now renamed climate change. For one, the climate is always changing. The East Anglia emails in which data was purposely falsified by climate scientists comes to mind. Not only that, the climate scientists purposely installed temperature monitoring sensors in cities, contrary to manufacturers recommendations and good scientific practices, in asphalt-covered parking lots, and other heat sink areas in order to prove their (faulty) hypothesis. This is scientific dishonesty at its worst.
It turns out that the solar system is in a cooling cycle due to decreased solar activity. There are two long-term solar cycles that reinforce themselves when in phase and cancel themselves out when out-of-phase. Look up the Maunder minimum. There are no SUVs on Mars or other planets, yet they are also experiencing the same solar variability.
Environmentalism has been the method used to impose communist principles on western society, especially in the USA.
Environmentalists are not content with promoting clean water, air and land, but are hell-bent on controlling human behavior, and yes, promoting extermination plans for much of humanity as these anointed types consider mankind to be a pestilence (except for themselves) to be reduced in population by any means necessary.
Environmentalists HATE the God-given concept of private property and have imposed government-backed and enforced land use controls on private property owners without compensation, clearly an unconstitutional taking of private property. If environmentalists want to control land use, let them purchase it themselves, not by government force. Today the only method of negating government-imposed land use restrictions is shoot, shovel, and shut up.
If environmentalists had their way, the earth’s human population would be reduced by approximately 90%, with the remainder to (be forced) to live in cities, in soviet-style high rise apartments, utilizing bicycles, buses and trains for transportation. The use of automobiles and access to pristine wilderness (rural) areas would be off-limits to us mere mortals, and would only be available for these anointed environmentalists.
The endangered species act is another abuse of environmentalism. Species are always changing, to adapt to their environments-survival if the fittest. In fact, the hoopla over the spotted owl (that placed much northwest timber land off-limits to logging) turned out to be nothing but scientific misconduct and arrogance. There are virtually identical species in other parts of the northwest.
More scientific malpractice occurred when government biologists attempted to plant lynx fur in certain areas to provide an excuse for making those areas off-limits for logging or development. Fortunately, these scientists were caught, however, no punishment was imposed.
In order to promote the false religion of “global warming” aka “climate change”, NASA “scientists” purposely installed temperature sensors in city parking lots and roads contrary to good scientific principles and practices in order to “skew” the “global warming” results.
In a nutshell, today’s environmentalism IS communism like watermelon-green on the outside and red (communist) on the inside.
It is interesting to note that communist and third-world countries have the WORST environmental conditions on the planet. Instead of the USA and other developed countries spending billions to get rid of that last half-percent of pollution, it would behoove the communist countries to improve their conditions first. Here is a question for you environmentalists: Why is there a push for restrictive environmental regulations, but only on the developed first-world countries, and not the gross polluters such as India and China?
Biolgists see humans as no different than yeast or rats. They fail to comprehend that we are able to something yeast is not: Think.
Hmm… That’s basically true.
If you think back to whatever you consider “the good old days”, it’s mostly because there were less people.
So, if I go to any random dealer & test drive any random car, it’ll likely have a bare minimum of dino-juice for a 5 or 10-minute test drive. Suppose EV dealers do the same? What if the EV I want to drive is on the stupid charger? I’m very impatient and unwilling to wait even for a “fast” charge. What if they interrupt the fast charge to satisfy my impatience? Is the battery damaged or degraded?
In the go-go-juice example, the sales weasel simply has to get a 1-gallon jug & in a few minutes I’m off to my 5-minute test drive.
Hi Mike,
Who needs a test drive? Just “build” your EeeeeeeeVeee online! And then have it delivered.
The “choice” rapidly approaching being one of a crossover, SUV, or pickup truck. Matters not who made it or what it’s called. All the same. In which case there is no need for a test drive. Simply order one, as you would a bottle of over priced water.
That brings up another interesting prospect: All of those EVs sitting on the dealer (New and used) lots…..they’re slowly losing their charge while they sit, and will need to be recharged even if never driven- and even more so in cold areas. “Won’t somebody think of the
childrenwasted energy!!!!”The future of cars is bleak. Expensive shells on an expensive battery.
The future of heavy duty pickups is more ridiculous than it is now. Just wait to see the prices of these in a few years when people have had their taste of electric pickups and SUV’s. They will be scrambling for an ICE pickup. The HD versions will be the only remaining ICE vehicles left, unless Toyota’s hybrid angle is somehow able to stay legal.
I just can’t see the fedgov sitting by watching Toyota completely take over the car market as the last ICE company standing.
I’ve got a sneaking suspicion that none of the companies embracing this EV nonsense will come out of it unscathed. Perhaps there will be a 21st century analogue of the JC Whitney catalog selling fake grilles and other cheap goodies in an attempt to make these things have some semblance of a personality, but I don’t see much else selling without government force.
I went out yesterday to brave the holiday weekend hordes and pick up some groceries (in my decidedly non-PC Model A), and noticed of all the traffic, only one EV was present. This being the remarkably hideous Rivian “truck” (offspring of a Honda Ridgeline mated with an air fryer). What did I see the most of? Full-size pickups/SUV’s, Chargers, Mustangs (Including a particularly sweet SVT Fox body) and Wranglers.
As I left the parking lot, flathead zoomies cackling, I noticed the stare of the Rivian driver, likely thinking the old jingle “I could have had a V8”. I believe that the buying public will soon bristle at the EV diktat and Buick (if they still exist) will be wishing for a Wildcat to unleash.
Hi El Gaupo!
You have a Model A! Color me jealous… I love those things and have driven a couple. Wish I had one, too.
Mine is a hodgepodge of 3 different A’s, with a bunch of 32-40 parts and a Corvair steering box.
I firmly believe that in many ways the Model A was a pinnacle in automotive design – it could be literally anything, all on one platform. You could damn near rebuild one on the side of the road with minimal tools, and with basic maintenance they’d last a lifetime. This is the kind of car that the world needs, far more than a $100k glorified golf cart.
There’s a 29 Fordor sitting at a ranch near here that I’ve been trying to get my hands on for years.
Hi El,
Most groovy! My buddy Tim is working on a resto of an A truck; he’s building a custom bed for the thing. It’s as you say – and then some. More viable than a T for everyday use. And the flathead V8 sounds great!
Yes, the Model A was a simple, basic car. Why can’t we buy a new Model A today, for those of us who want a simple, basic, dependable car we can fix ourselves, without all the unnecessary bells and whistles? Or even the old, air-cooled VW Beetle? In a truly free market, we could.
It’s not too late to get one. Prices are all over the place on Hemmings, and in general, I stay away from it; too many “fast-buck flippers”. It’d set you back more than a decent old VW Beetle or Plymouth Valiant, but man, you’d not only have a piece of automotive history, but something you can fix with baling wire and a pair of Vise-Grips. Parts, both NOS and reproduction, are still readily available and fairly inexpensive.
In that 1959 Pat Frank nuclear holocaust novel I cite at times, “Alas Babylon”, the several households that band together for survival, the “River Road” families, jointly use the Model A owned by the black sharecroppers that live next door to the protagonist, Randy Bragg. It’s the most fuel-efficient of all the vehicles they have, and most of the others are gutted for items needed elsewhere. For examples, Randy’s prized Pontiac Bonneville (presumably a ’58, ’59, or ’60, owing to the time the novel was first published) is stripped of its fuel and brake lines to furnish tubing for an improvised still. I’m guessing there were plenty of six-volt cars still around, as the batteries from decommissioned vehicles are rotated about as the Model A is driven (mostly house calls from the doctor friend of Randy) about.
El Guapo,
Few of the companies embracing this EV nonsense will come out of it INTACT. They are in the process of writing their suicide note, and the pen held above, prepared to sign it. Probably expecting another FedGov bail out. Too bad that same FedGov is all out of ability to “bail out” anything, except by radically increasing inflation, at which point no one will be able to afford any car/crossover/suv/pickup truck.
John
The Feds have something mucho better in mind…. a bail in….
This push into EV’s is the end of Toyota?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DElbVEZOljI