First VW . . . Now Toyota

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There is a war going on – against the diesel engine. It is being waged, not because the diesel engine is a “threat” to the “climate.” It is being waged because the diesel engine is a threat – to the electric car. The forces pushing the latter use the manufactured “threat” of a “climate crisis” to attack the diesel engine (and also diesel fuel) precisely because it is a threat  . . . to them and their agenda.

It is why VW was attacked with unprecedented viciousness six years ago. It was not because VW “cheated” on government emissions certification tests. In italics to distinguish between those tests and the tailpipe emissions tests most people are familiar with. The “affected” VWs – as they were styled – passed the latter tests with no problem. Hundreds of thousands of them. How unclean could they have been to have been to have been able to pass those tests?

The answer, of course, is that they were – as VW advertised – very “clean.”

No unclean car could “get away” with “cheating” in any meaningful way and not be detected by those tests. It took a very fine-toothed comb  to “catch” VW’s “cheating” – on the certification tests. Which test the engine under a wider range of operating conditions, such as wide-open throttle/under load. VW’s sin – revealed to the public with you-don’t-care-whether-granny-dies hysterics (note the common thread here) was that it had programmed the engine management system of its TDI diesel engines in such a way as to pass those portions of the test – wide-open throttle/load conditions – where the engines’ emissions would otherwise have been momentarily and just slightly higher.

The just-slightly was hysterically presented as “up to 40 times” the permitted amount, which sounds appalling until you find out that “up to 40 times” means just that – up to, but not necessarily 40 times. And only under some operating conditions. Not all the time. And that “40 times” of a fraction isn’t much. Just as humanity’s fractional contribution of C02 to the total 0.04 percent of the Earth’s atmosphere that is C02 is far less than advertised.

It was never about VW’s diesel engines being unclean. It was about them being a threat to the electric car juggernaut that – six years ago – was just forming up. Circa 2016 very few electric cars were available – other than Teslas – and most people didn’t think much about them, chiefly because there were cars such as VW’s lineup of diesel-powered cars. Not just one – and not just expensive.

VW offered diesel engines in cars like the Golf and Jetta and Beetle, all of which cost less than $25,000 so equipped. And – so equipped – these cars had ranges in excess of 600 miles on a tank and exceeded the 50-plus highway-miles-per-gallon they advertised.

Note that VW got no credit for that – which meant VW got no credit for the real-world lower emissions of its very clean diesel engines. If a car burns less fuel, it emits less gas, overall. Probably, less enough to counterbalance whatever fractional increase occurred during momentary full-throttle/high-load driving.

But never mind that.

What had to be minded was the fact that an array of sub-$25k diesel-powered cars that used very little fuel and went very far and lasted very long (diesel engines are inherently longer-lived than gas-burning engines because diesel is both a fuel and a lubricant while gasoline is both a fuel and a solvent, among other reasons) made $50k electric cars that used lots of electricity, didn’t go very far or last very long seem like a very bad choice for average people.

That choice had to be taken away – and so it was.

Americans no longer have the option to buy a $25k diesel-powered car that gets 50-plus miles-per-gallon and that goes 600-plus miles on a tank. Nor will they ever have the option to buy the 80-100 MPG diesel-electric hybrid commuter car that VW had been working on when the “cheating” scandal broke. That one would have made an EeeeeeeVeeeee as functionally and economically and environmentally absurd as a “vaccine” that “helps protect” but doesn’t prevent you from getting or spreading the “virus.

Now Toyota is under attack – for exactly the same reasons.

The world’s largest automaker sells a lot of diesel-powered vehicles, just not here. But in places such as Australia, where there is a lot of ground to cover and often not much in the way of gas stations in between – diesel-powered vehicles are big sellers. These include diesel-powered variants of the RAV4 and LandCruiser (which you can’t buy here) as well as the HiLux pick-up truck.

They stand accused of – here it comes – “cheating” on government emissions certification tests.

On some Toyota models the emissions control system is alleged to perform differently in test conditions compared to on road conditions,” the indictment reads. “This results in cars passing regulatory testing but then emitting unlawfully high levels of nitrogen oxide when on the road.” 

Notice the pattern? Notice what’s left unsaid? Notice what’s implied?

Without explaining – without context – it sounds appalling. You are going to kill granny!

Of course, no grannies have died. No one has died – or even been proved to have suffered any specific harm. As was the case with VW’s diesels. The whole business being a pedantic inquest into how many angles dance on the head of a pin. Not an honest inquiry into whether any harm was done – the standard that ought to be applied with regard justifying enforcement action over any breach of law or regulation. Indeed, the harm caused (or not) standard arguably ought to be the basis of law, period.

The good news is that Toyota appears to understand that apologizing to one’s enemies for sins imagined is not the soundest of policies. Unlike VW, which dropped to the floor like a cur dog and exposed its belly – hoping it wouldn’t be kicked – Toyota is baring its fangs:

Toyota Australia stands by its reporting, monitoring and evaluation standards in relation to the emissions for all its vehicles” and will “rigorously” defend itself against the allegations. 

Good on them, as they say Down Under.

It is noteworthy that Toyota – alone among the big car companies – is the only one to not have embraced the EeeeeeeeVeeeeee tar baby. 

There’s probably no correlation there . . .

. . .

Got a question about cars, Libertarian politics – or anything else? Click on the “ask Eric” link and send ’em in! Or email me at [email protected] if the @!** “ask Eric” button doesn’t work!

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41 COMMENTS

  1. Curious, everytime I mention diesels,, I get the retort “Diesels never took off in commuter cars”

    Had dieselgate hadn’t happened and they didnt buy back the TDI’s for big money and force ya to add emissions crap to them, then in a few years, they’d be way more popular and numerous than they were imo.

    Whaddya think, am I on the right path with my assessment or naw?

    • Hi Zane,

      As I’ve mentioned in a number of articles on this subject, VW had been developing a small commuter car with a diesel-electric powertrain that was expected to average at least 80 MPG. Yes, I think something like that would be mighty popular these days. I remember driving a Benz C-Class diesel to my ex-in-laws’ place in Raleigh, NC from my place near Roanoke, VA – and back. Without having to fill up once along the way.

      • Exactly! If Barry the Limp Wristed Queen didnt sic his hounds at the EPA and everyone else on VW over “Dieselgate”, then there’d be a ton more Diesels around and Ev’s would be more boutique than niche.

        Fortunately there’s the used market, especially for JDM Toyota Diesels. Curious, if one got a modern diesel, lived somewhere without emissions and gutted everything, would Uncle still come down hard on them or would states rights trump fed?

        • Hi Zane,

          “Curious, if one got a modern diesel, lived somewhere without emissions and gutted everything, would Uncle still come down hard on them or would states rights trump fed?”

          I’ve been mulling over this very question and – in my area, at least – it would be feasible to “get away” with it because there are no emissions inspections required and one can evade even registration requirements by using Farm tags and just flying under the radar.

          How much better mileage would a 2015 Golf TDI get if one were to shed it of say 500 pounds of deadweight? How about 2,000 pounds? As by putting that TDI engine into a much older/much lighter vehicle… ?

          I’m done with obeying any rules I can “get away” with ignoring. Join me!

          • “Join you”? I’ve been planning my next moves and will be firmly on your side by the next year or two if things work out

            I sentcha the classic rebuilder sites, and the importers, Im planning hopefully to get some LJ70 or RRC/Defender with a Manual Diesel without the 500lbs of emissions crap, and only add the “modern” features I want (headunit, heated seats, led headlights and ditch/aux lighting), since family does Demo and want something rugged for the jobsites

            Since I’m stuck in Jersey anyway, no one said I cant drive a pre-emissions equipped diesel

  2. Any modern diesel use highly turbo-charged engines which are not known for being low maintenance.

    My buddy loves his diesel Passat but it is spendy to keep going.

    An older non-turbo’ed diesel like the 300D probably costs less to maintain but needs the proverbial appointment to get on the Interstate.

  3. As one who lives in Australia, I can say there are zillions of diesel powered utes here. My son transports motorcycles around Oz and has 3 of them. Great towing capacity, fuel economy and reliability. Not to mention the oodles of torque diesels produce.

  4. The 1980 VW Rabbit diesel pickup truck also called caddy was $6000 new ($20,000) in 2022 dollars. It could get over 50 mpg on the highway, 600 mile range. The mechanical injection diesel engine (no computer) would go 400,000 miles before a rebuild.

    That diesel will run on multiple fuels, some used 50% used engine oil (it is free), filtered first, french frier oil, vegetable oil, etc.,

    With a later azz VW diesel swap you could get more power or with a VW alh diesel a more computerized diesel you get even more power plus economy, with an alh swap 0 to 60 in 6 sec. and over 50 mpg. These trucks also handled like a sports car.

    With a 1.8 20vt VW gas engine swap with stage 2 tune = 240 hp they are very fast, 0 to 60 4.6 sec. they only weigh 2100 lb. Lots of these have engine swaps to make them a performance truck.

    These VW caddy’s were the best all round truck/sports car/performance cars ever made, with a small camper on the back you can live in it.

    These trucks were so good they are a cult collector truck that are going up in value. the biggest cost in a car is depreciation, these go up like an air cooled 911.

    The Ford Maverick is 3600 lb. The Santa Cruz is 4100 lb. The VW caddy is 2100 lb. All the extra weight is because of government regulations.

    Get a used VW caddy do the alh swap then 0 to 60 is the same as the Santa Cruz but with over 50 mpg fuel economy.

    Get a used VW caddy do the 1.8 20vt VW engine swap with stage 2 tune = 240 hp, now 0 to 60 is 4.6 sec. a rocket, plus over 40 mpg highway and you can haul stuff.

    A VW caddy with the engine swap is cheaper then a new Maverick or Santa Cruz.

    An engine swapped 10 sec. 1/4 mile caddy.

    https://car-from-uk.com/sale.php?id=116256

    • Here is a real Golf….. a Mk1 diesel, great fuel economy and quick..

      It ran a 9.51 sec. 1/4 mile, that is quicker then a tesla plaid….lol….a plaid can’t even beat a 4cyl diesel….lol

      a Golf Mk1 diesel weighs 1800 lb and gets 60 mpg highway, it can last 400,000 miles
      Golf Mk1 diesel msrp in 2022 $ = $31,000

      a tesla weighs 4800 lb and gets 20 mpg, teslas last 100,000 miles,
      the battery is dead it is scrap….new battery $22,000…..the diesel Golf still has 300,000 miles life left…lol
      tesla msrp $60,000

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uz186kNjdJU

  5. An EV costs more per mile for fuel then a VW ice diesel, and emitts more pollution more per mile then a VW ice diesel.
    So they ban the diesel and force you to buy an EV = insanity.

    VW diesel 100 mile fuel consumption = 1.36 gallons @ $4.00 gallon = $5.44 = $0.05 per mile
    EV 100 mile fuel consumption = 41.66 kwh @ $0.40 = $16.64 = $0.16 per mile
    The $16.64 isn’t the only cost…….the tesla $22,000 battery is used up, worn out in 100,000 miles.
    ATTENTION: this works out to $22.00 per 100 miles it is costing you for the battery.
    Add the $22.00 to the $16.64 = $38.64 = $0.38 per mile

    The Volkswagen Golf BlueMotion has emissions of 85g CO2 per km. it is even cleaner (less emissions) than a Toyota Prius or an EV….

    A current-model large EV car with a battery produced and charged in an average European Union country emits about 88 grams of CO2 per kilometer,

    A law might come out forcing EV owners to buy a 2014 Volkswagen Golf BlueMotion diesel to help reduce emissions….lol

    Why are they pushing EV’s that get 20.8 mpg when there is a fuel shortage?
    Plus an EV costs 7 X more to run then the ice diesel Golf, in a recession when people are broke that is insane….lol

    Should be still selling these:

    the 2014 Volkswagen Golf BlueMotion diesel, capable of a claimed 88.3 mpg imperial, or 73.5 mpg U.S….. 100 mile fuel consumption = 1.36 gallons

    An Ev is 25% efficient in turning original source of energy, petroleum in this example into mechanical energy to push the car down the road.

    95.1% of all electrical energy comes from so called dirty non green sources, so EV’s aren’t green…lol
    (green source solar and wind supply 4.9%)….

    The next problem is solar panels and wind turbines, the 4.9%, are not green at all, they are very damaging to the environment, they are very expensive, dangerous, huge real estate hogging, unreliable, dirty energy.
    solar panels, lithium batteries and wind turbines are all catching fire, they are very dangerous…

    In comparison power plants use .001% of the amount of real estate that solar and wind use, if the 100% switch to solar and wind is made, there will be no farmland left, you will starve to death..

    Thermal efficiency of power plants using coal, petroleum, natural gas or nuclear fuel and converting it to electricity are around 33% efficiency, natural gas is around 40%. Then there is average 6% loss in transmission, then there is a 5% loss in the charger, another 5% loss in the inverter, the electric motor is 90% efficient so another 10% loss before turning the electricity into mechanical power at the wheels.
    33% – 6% – 5% – 5% – 10% = 25% efficiency for EV’s.
    (under not ideal conditions it might be 12% efficient).

    NOTE: a diesel is 50% efficient….lol…

    What test drivers are actually getting driving EV’s in the real world is they are getting 2.4 miles of range for every kwh used or using 41.66 kwh to go 100 miles. EV trucks are way worse.

    So to end up with 41.66 kwh of electricity which is equivalent to 1.20 gallons of gas to push the EV 100 miles down the road 4.80 gallons of fuel were burnt to generate the electricity in the power station, remember net 25% efficiency.
    100 miles using 4.80 gallons = real 20.8 mpg, EV’s are getting a real 20.8 mpg…lol

    VW diesel 100 mile fuel consumption = 1.36 gallons @ $4.00 gallon = $5.44 = $0.05 per mile
    EV 100 mile fuel consumption = 41.66 kwh @ $0.40 = $16.64 = $0.16 per mile

    The $16.64 isn’t the only cost…….the tesla $22,000 battery is used up, worn out in 100,000 miles.
    ATTENTION: this works out to $22.00 per 100 miles it is costing you for the battery. Add the $22.00 to the $16.64 = $38.64 = $0.38 per mile

    so these EV owners complaining about the battery replacement cost aren’t too bright, that cost is part of the cost per mile to operate an EV they didn’t think of and the manufacturer lied about by not informing them. maybe they should sue for false advertising. It is like a deferred fuel cost.

    This means the EV costs 7 X more to run then the ice diesel Golf

    so this VW diesel gets 3.5 X better fuel economy then the 20.8 mpg EV
    and the EV costs 7 times more to run….so what do they do?….they ban the diesel and force you to buy the EV…..why?

    Emissions CO2 per km. …. the ice Golf is cleaner then an EV

    The Volkswagen Golf BlueMotion has emissions of 85g CO2 per km. it is even cleaner (less emissions) than a Toyota Prius or an EV….

    A current-model large EV car with a battery produced and charged in an average European Union country emits about 88 grams of CO2 per kilometer,

    This means the government should be forcing EV owners to buy the cleaner ice diesel Golf…lol

    The leftist/communist/psychopaths did their inversion again…lol…the EV’s pollute more, damage the environment more then ice cars.

    2014 Volkswagen Golf BlueMotion for sale… $6403.00….buy one…

    https://www.motors.co.uk/volkswagen/golf/trim/bluemotion/year/2014/used-cars/

  6. Between my Dad’s Range Rover HSE Td6 and just my love of offroading, plus your blog, next future car is a restomodded euro with a pre-emissions diesel and a manual (5spd most likely)

    Still gotta get there $$$ wise, but there are places that’ll take them from europe, strip them to the bone and refurbish/galvanize them and build them to spec. I’ll take one of those over anything new any day, especially since I can pick and choose the options rather than it being bundled with crap I’d never chose in the first place.

    If it weren’t for The Limp Wristed Queen (Barry) and his puppet masters Agenda 21, there’d still be diesels around. Thanks to them and Pedo Peter, I’ll stick with old vehicles they can’t track from this point on and can be worked on without having to have studied the engines extensively

  7. We had an automatic 2007 TDI that we turned in…after we bought a manual 2006 TDI to replace it. DH stripped all the useful bits off the 2007 and whodathunkit, they turned up on the 2006. oh well. we trailered the 2007 to the dealer a mere shadow of its former self and collected the check. The 2006 now has 219,000 miles on it and gets about 50 miles to the gallon, 600 or so miles to the tank. It was my idea to find a manual, now DH drives one himself and found one more for me since DS inherited the 2006. While I’m not crazy about the 2014 TDIs needing DEF, they use less than DH’s GMC 3500HD (which gets terrible mileage) and they get 65 miles to the gallon on the highway.
    When I was driving 1000 miles/week with 3 kids and later my mother(she has dementia and cant be left alone so she went everywhere with me) I seriously considered buying an Atlas. It turns out VW made a TDI Atlas in Tennessee but only for shipment to Russia. Its Audi counterpart, the Q7, was out of our price range but oh, three rows and 7 seats was so tempting and still 40mpg. Our 2003 Excursion (another great vehicle with a bad rap) gets 22 mpg but 1000 miles of 22 vs 40 or 50mpg is a huge difference $$$.
    VW made a terrible mistake groveling to the government for ESG favors and I hope Toyota stands its ground on this.

  8. Eric, you have convinced me to get a VW TDI with low miles. You have done an excellent job articulating the scam in play. I wonder, what is your view on the VW Golf or the Jetta? Is one better?

    Also – note on the atmospheric chart – the concentrations of Methane CH4 vs CO2: 0.00018% vs 0.0407% . Methane is .0407/.00018 less, 226 times less.

    But TPTB are using methane as a lever to shut down ranches. What happens if we did nothing about methane? Nothing. All methane is food for life, all methane on earth is eventually combusted into CO2 and H2O one way or another.

    Atmospheric methane is so small it is measured in parts per billion. Human contribution to methane is only 1% of that. Contribution to greenhouse effect (including water vapor) bar chart:

    https://i.imgur.com/c8hfv5F.png

    same presented in a colored pie chart:

    https://zerogeoengineering.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/greenhouse_gases_in_atmosphere.jpg

    as a meme:

    https://i.imgur.com/yY1GRjK.png

    Australia and European farmers are having to decrease beef production based on Methane being a greenhouse gas, but termites produce far more methane than cows:

    “Australia is set to pledge its support to reduce global methane emissions by 30 per cent by 2030.”

    “More than 100 countries have signed up to reduce methane emissions by 2030”

    http://historyinfographics.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/global-warming-hoax-co2-levels-V2.png

    • Thanks, Jack!

      On the VWs: I’d love to have a Jetta Sportwagon with the TDI and the manual transmission. This combo is superb. The mileage of the diesel and the simplicity of the manual. I have driven all of the TDI-powered VWs and enjoyed every minute.

    • If you can find one, the Jetta TDI Cup Edition from 2010. In 2011 they changed the rear suspension to leaf springs and cut some other corners to get the price down. Before that the Jetta was a real sleeper, on par with an Audi A4 for handling but with cheaper interior. Aparently the engineers knew the changes were in play and so went out on a high note.

      • If I needed a little commuter, I’d love to find a mk6 Golf TDI, unless they made those “emissions compliant”.

        If so, mk4 then. Love the Golfs, something about them are classic. TDI cup though would be legit, just needs some modding to be a bit faster and also more economical

      • Hi RK,
        The only VW with leaf spring rear suspension that I’ve ever seen or worked on is the old MK1 Rabbit pickup. I believe what you’re thinking of is the 2011-2015 basic Jetta’s that had a beam style rear axle with a panhard bar on coil springs instead of the multi-link setup. Those basic Jetta’s also had drum rear brakes.

    • Jack-
      Thanks for the charts.
      I suppose it won’t be long before the scammers declare water vapor to be a “pollutant.”
      What then? Obviously, H2 as motor fuel will be forbidden. But, what else?
      Will strenuous exercise be restricted, due to exhalation of too much CO2 & H2O?
      Won’t matter much to “stack and pack” battery cage apartment dwellers, but we “free range humans” might become enemies of the state.

      Meanwhile, Dutch government wants to shut down 30% of food production in the Netherlands.
      AFAIK, 30% less food => 30% fewer humans.
      Q1: How will they choose who gets to starve? Lottery? Political views? Or???
      Q2: Will the Dutch Reich grant selectees the option of a merciful death?
      Q3: If yes, what means of euthanasia will be employed? Giftgas? oder….?
      Inquiring minds want to know…

      • @Adi

        Who will get the food and survive? Very simple, those who have money to pay for the increased prices and those who have a garden and those who have prepped. It is very easy, right now, to go to a Costco/Sam’s Club and buy bulk food, and it is cheap. It is fairly easy to plant a garden and raise chickens. It is easy to get a bicycle and alternative forms of transportation.

        It just takes some determination to not get the death jab. So if you want to survive, you can. Just apply yourself and forget about them. The farther you are from them the better. I know many people who live off the grid, and have no idea what is going on and they don’t care.

        The vast majority of people will not do anything, and the worse it gets the more they will clamor after their savior.

        • Hi, Jack, (don’t say that on an airplane 🙂
          My MO, FWIW, is to secure the perimeter, and ignore the world outside to the maximum extent possible. I live in a medium size city in SoCal, on a standard suburban lot; the perimeter is fenced, and if you breach the perimeter without ripping your nuts off (GFL) and attempt to break into my domicile , the (very loud) alarm will sound, and report to alarm co. & local PD.

          Failing all that, you will get to meet my friend O. F. Mossberg, via one of his creations.
          I *have* had intruders in my house @ 3AM. two nights running. Fortunately for me, it was foolhardy kids, *not* Charlie Manson’s “family,” otherwise I would not be writing this post.

          i wish to emphasize I do *NOT* want to shoot anyone, for two main reasons:
          1. I do not want to have to clean up the mess, including damage to my nice oak paneling.
          2. Believe it or not, even dirtbags have friends, and if you shoot one of their homeboys, they know where you live, and will be seeking revenge. Old saying: fight one bean, fight the whole burrito. I do not wish to fight the burrito.

          >they will clamor after their savior
          Yep. I do not need a savior. Das bin ich.

          > have no idea what is going on and they don’t care.
          Good on them. May they live long and prosper.

    • Addendum: this is the one chart that says it all, increased CO2 concentration has very little effect:

      https://i2.wp.com/www.adividedworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Temp_sensitivity_to_CO2.png

      CO2 can double and have no measurable effect.

      ————————

      And this article shows this same chart, and argues that climate policies are treasonous:

      https://richardsonpost.com/david-archibald/19401/climate-change-act-of-treason/

      Finally, it is important to say the mantra, we are in an ice age, we never left the ice age. And the modern warm period ( a blip in the Holocene temperature taper and new glaciation) ended in 2006:

      https://richardsonpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/image-20.png

      The Climate Crazies are equivalent to the Inquisition, please note that whenever a warm period ends, civilization collapses and Dark Age terror reigns. A warming trend leads to the rise of a civilization, a cooling trend and little ice ages leads to witch burnings, superstition, and state terror.

      holocene temperature and the rise and fall of civilizations

      http://i0.wp.com/armstrongeconomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Empires-Rise-Fall-Armstrong.jpg

  9. Oliver Schmidt, jailed in the US for his alleged role in designing an engine management chip, was released last year:

    ‘Former Volkswagen Group executive Oliver Schmidt, whose 2017 arrest at the Miami airport made global headlines, was released from prison after serving about half his sentence on charges related to the diesel-emissions scandal.

    ‘A ruling, issued by a court in the German city of Lueneburg, allowed Schmidt to be released on parole, his lawyer Alexander Saettele said Wednesday. Schmidt, 52, had been sentenced to seven years by a U.S. court, but had been allowed to return to his home country in November to serve the remainder of his term.

    ‘Schmidt was VW’s liaison with U.S. regulators when he was arrested at the Miami airport in January 2017 on his way back home from a vacation. His apprehension sent shock waves through corporate Germany.’

    https://tinyurl.com/58e8erem

    ‘Shock waves’ indeed: Schmidt’s arrest was hardly the behavior of an ally. Germany should have woken up then, but didn’t. Now the US/NATO axis actually is carrying out Woody Wilson’s delusional post-WW I dream of deindustrializing Germany, by starving it of fuel, food and fertilizer. Nice guys, the yankees.

  10. During the VW vs Fed BS, I was sooooo hoping the VW would go on a marketing campaign to clear their name and expose the BS. As we all know they didn’t and rolled over.
    Now I’m hoping that Toyota doesn’t role over. So far so good.

  11. Good for Toyota! Volkswagen made a huge mistake in not pushing back on the control freaks, fell into the “give them an inch and they’ll take a mile” trap. I hope the people who own/want Toyota diesels (wish I could get one) will support Toyota and tell the regulatory apparat to pound sand.

  12. “On some Toyota models the emissions control system is alleged to perform differently in test conditions compared to on road conditions,”

    Looks to me like the problem is in the test, since it doesn’t duplicate “road conditions”. Much the same as in the case of VW, which got cancelled because the test didn’t work, and VW used it to their advantage.
    “We didn’t catch you, so you must have cheated”.
    So car companies are now required to read the “regulator’s” minds? A hard thing, since they have none.

    • This is a “hard sell” for EVs, and in case you didn’t know, a hard sell occurs when the product is inferior, or the mark up is big.

  13. ‘Toyota – alone among the big car companies – is the only one to not have embraced the EeeeeeeeVeeeeee tar baby.’ — eric

    But naturally, the degenerate Lügenpresse just luuuvvvvvvvs EeeVees. Today’s New York Slimes offers a barely coherent paean to EeeVees in the lede, which turns rather ugly in the deeper paragraphs:

    Ruth Milligan, a resident of Columbus, Ohio, tried taking her daughter, Maggie Daiber, to Michigan State University in August. Ms. Milligan calculated where she would need to charge her Volkswagen ID.4 during the four-hour trip.

    “I did my homework on the charging network,” said Ms. Milligan, “or so I thought.” But she hadn’t considered that the battery would drain faster when the car was weighed down with her daughter’s possessions and her husband Dave, who is 6 feet 4 inches tall.

    Less than two hours into the trip, Ms. Milligan realized that the car was not going to make it to Toledo, where she had planned to charge. Instead, they got off the highway in Findlay. Of the four chargers in town, one was behind a locked gate; another was at a Toyota dealership that would not let a Volkswagen use its charger; a third would charge only Teslas; and the fourth had been installed recently and was not yet working.

    The family wound up spending the night at a hotel and making the rest of the trip in a rented van. Still, Ms. Milligan says she likes the ID.4, which she bought after waiting 10 months for delivery. “In general I’m happy with the car but I’m going to be cautious as I push its bounds,” she said.

    https://archive.ph/jgmYr

    Laffed my ass off at the irrelevant detail of the ‘6 feet 4 inches tall’ husband — a real EeeVee he-man who can defend the family against charging station louts lurking in dark corners.

    • Jim, apparently EVs are only for midgets and clowns (Providing of course that one obeys the clown capacity rating…of 2…otherwise it’s not even suitable for them).

  14. We were taught governments were created to create and enforce rules that allowed us all to peaceably interact with each other.

    They were actually created to allow the few to control the many.

    • Dan,
      I would suggest that governments were created for the sole purpose of protecting our natural rights. Then they started specializing in protecting, and creating, particular people’s unnatural rights, and not so much anyone else’s. Then they determined corporations are people, and they made it to the list of “particular people”.

  15. Build an XR3 and use it for short trips around town or commuting, own another ice car for long trips. with the price of fuel everyone needs one of these. (build them and sell them), business opportunity, build two or three a year, sell them.

    Why spend $40,000 on an electric car that can be shutdown remotely?
    These ones can’t be shut down (except for your power being cut off).

    With some basic skills build your own, don’t be dependent….

    https://ecofriend.com/10-electric-cars-made-at-home-by-eco-individuals.html

    • Thanks for the link. I learned a good deal of something I always suspected. If I were ruler of the US I would wave my hand and simply tell all the EPA bureaurats “You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.” “I understand that the community college teaches welding and other useful things.”

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