It used to be that when you bought a car, it was yours.
It’s now theirs – even if you paid for it.
All made possible by the transitioning of cars into battery-powered devices, just like a cell phones. And just the same way.
For instance, the Lyriq, a device sold by Cadillac. You can pay – again – to “unlock” 74 ft.-lbs. more torque from the electric drivetrain you thought you already bought. That torque wasn’t actually added, of course. It was there when you thought-you-bought the device. But Cadillac wants another $1,200 to let you have what you thought-you’d-already bought.
This is the subscription based model of what will no longer be car ownership, going forward.
It was pioneered by Bill Gates and emulated by Elon Musk’s Tesla grift, which was the first device manufacturer to assert ownership over what it had already sold, just as Gates asserted ownership in-perpetuity over the code people thought they’d bought (never mind the dubiety of his own ownership claims).
People who thought-they’d-bought Teslas discovered this when they sold what they thought were their cars, having paid for them – via angry new not-really-owners, who discovered after they’d bought what-they-thought-they-were-buying that some of the features they’d-thought-they’d-bought weren’t working. But it wasn’t because they weren’t working. It was because Tesla had turned off these features – such as the vaunted self-driving feature. If the new owner wanted what he’d assumed the car had – because that’s what the device came with (and that’s how it was advertised) he’d have to pay Tesla to “unlock” the feature.
And not just once.
The idea is to keep you paying – irrespective of the car payments themselves. The car’s features will cost you, ongoing, if you want to be able to use them.
Other car companies saw and drooled. Here is an opportunity to keep a buyer paying for as long as he doesn’t-actually-own-the-car, which turns out to be as long as he remains in possession of it. BMW explored charging people who thought-they’d-bought a car with heated seats. They did. But the heated seats would only work – or continue working – if the “owner” subscribed to them.
Cadillac is doing the same.
The others will, too.
And – just like the “fast” chargers that entail waiting much longer to accomplish what can be accomplished much sooner at the pump – this is being marketed as an improvement. Something to be excited rather than angry about. The tools over at Jalopnik, for instance, make it sound as though people are getting something rather than paying for them. They entirely miss the point that people already paid for them.
Or so they thought.
In fact what they bought is someone else’s – some corporation’s – tool. A device that they can use but that can be remotely altered by the corporation that made it. The $1,200 “upgrade” to the Lyriq device may be something some buyers want to pay for. But didn’t they already pay for it when they bought the device? Cadillac is not sending anything over-the-air except code. To “unlock” what is already there. It is not the same as it was when if you wanted more horsepower out of a car, you went out and bought a free-flowing air intake system or exhaust and physically added these to your car. The one you actually owned once you’d paid for it – along with whatever parts you bought later and added to it. These were yours too once you’d bought them. You did not have to pay a subscription to keep them working, either.
How long before the power windows stop working if you decide not to subscribe to them?
In most new cars, the radio already works that way. If you want to keep the SiriusXM subscription going. And take note of the fact that a number of new EVs are deleting AM radio reception capability – ostensibly on account of electromagnetic interference emanating from the device’s high-voltage battery/motor. FM will probably be next, giving a new meaning to pay-to-play.
There is more than just the greedhead angle here, too.
Consider that anything that can be turned on can also be turned off.
Tesla (again) gave us a sneak-peak but most people didn’t see what they ought to have when the EV device-maker benevolently sent an “update” – for free! – that “unlocked” more range than Tesla owners thought-they’d-bought, so as to enable them to have enough to escape the hurricane that was bearing down on Florida.
This was taken as an act of great benevolence.
But only a fool believes in “free” without a price.
The price is the power to lock what can be unlocked. To lock it down altogether. If Tesla can send an over-the-air update allowing the device it controls that people think they own to travel farther, then Tesla can also send an update to prevent it from traveling at all.
That’s what people bought when they thought they’d paid-for their Teslas. It will be just the same for all the other devices, which are the same as Teslas since they are all essentially the same things in different shapes and colors, just like the smartphones they emulate.
You’ll pay to use – and they’ll allow you to use – so long as you pay.
And provided you obey.
That’s what you’re buying into when you buy one of these devices.
. . .
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Enforcers….
not government….they are a private commercial contractor…and must comply to all road and safety rules….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaQ_DHYP0-A
In a sense, this was pioneered by the government in the form of property tax. You though you bought that acre of land and the house sitting in it, but in order to continue to live there, you have to pay the government thousands of dollars every year, getting nothing in return, at least nothing that you would pay for vomuntsriky due tonits poor quality and poor service (e.g., roads, public schools, and other public “services” foisted upon us like crutches upon. Person whose legs the government broke).
Indeed, SJ –
I just sent the bastards what they say I “owe” – to be allowed to live in the house I thought I paid for. I have no kids in government schools; I do not use nor need nor want any of the “services” I am forced to pay for. Yet they say I “owe.” And I will never stop “owing” them, either.
‘Consider that anything that can be turned on can also be turned off.‘ — eric
Unfortunately, the inventors of mRNA ‘vaccines’ forgot to include an off switch. The mRNA instructions just carry on making more spike proteins, producing everything from turbo cancers to miscarriages.
In December 2020, the first Pfizer and Moderna studies claiming 95% efficacy were released. My reaction then: IF these shots stop transmission, and IF they confer ironclad protection against getting sick with covid, THEN the inventors surely will win a Nobel prize in medicine.
Neither of those contingent IF statements proved to be true; quite the opposite. Yet:
‘The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman on Monday, for their discoveries that led to the development of effective [sic] vaccines against Covid-19.
‘Up to that point, commercial vaccines had carried modified viruses or pieces of them into the body to train the immune system to attack invading microbes. An mRNA vaccine would instead carry instructions — encoded in mRNA — that would allow the body’s cells to pump out their own viral proteins.
‘Then the coronavirus emerged. The strikingly effective [sic] vaccines made by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech use the modification Dr. Karikó and Dr. Weissman discovered.’
https://archive.ph/fTTLn#selection-541.0-545.1
This Nobel award is vicious anti-science, glorifying a toxic delivery method that has sickened millions. It is a politicized declaration of misanthropic bad intent: they are not done attacking us.
Perhaps its only equivalent in chutzpah is the Nobel Peace Prize awarded in 2009 to one Barack Obama, who repaid the favor by bombing Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, Iraq and Syria.
Expect a similar, if not larger, death toll from the Nobel committee’s Mengelian mRNA ‘scientists.’
‘Using official government data for deaths in England and Wales between 2010 and 2022, former BlackRock portfolio manager Ed Dowd and his partners at Phinance Technologies found that excess death rates from cardiovascular diseases were up 13% in 2020, 30% in 2021, and 44% in 2022, which “point to a worrying picture of an even greater acceleration in coming years of deaths & disabilities.”
https://twitter.com/DowdEdward/status/1703844958787297500
Nobel prize for Wanton Slaughter: why do six Swedish ‘scientists’ at the Karolinska Institute think this is okay? How many kids did they kill today?
p.s. Don’t miss the photo of the masked murderers:
https://tinyurl.com/377fswx3
Says it all …
Demons revel in their seemingly endless variety of ways to veil the truth through manipulative words and through physical action. It’s on full display here.
One would think that accepting one of the highest awards possible, one would wish for all the world to look upon your face, full of pride. Not so. Most assuredly, they are rightfully ashamed, and so wish to hide the truth of what they are.
If someone was to rush the stage and rip those veils off their demon faces, I’d be willing to bet that what would be revealed is a twisted, disgusting, gnarled hole where a mouth should be.
More corruption from the leaders….
Romley Stewart of Justinian Deception is back. Pt 1 of his live presentation….on common law
@ 14:00 in video…tells why court documents and bank documents are corrupt…void…unlawful…fraud…
see the book… The chicago manual of style…..
@ 29:00 in video the definition of citizen….
@ 47:00 in video…the massive worldwide debt is owed to you….
https://rumble.com/v2zpfxi-world-exclusive.-romley-stewart-of-justinian-deception-is-back.-pt-1-of-his.html
Another EV fail – If you can not insure it, will a lender lend? Would you buy an EV if it was not insurable?
“John Lewis has stopped offering insurance to electric car drivers amid fears over the cost of repairs.
The department store’s lending business John Lewis Financial Services has put a temporary pause on customers taking out cover or renewing existing policies on battery-power vehicles while its underwriter, Covéa, analyses risks and costs.
Insurers are facing rising costs for vehicle repairs, which are eating into profits. According to the Association of British Insurers (ABI), vehicle repair costs rose 33pc over the first quarter of 2023 compared to 2022, helping to push annual premiums to record highs.
Electric cars can be particularly expensive to repair, costing around a quarter more to fix on average, compared to a petrol or diesel vehicle, according to Thatcham Research, the motor industry’s research centre.
Particular worries surround the batteries, which are commonly mounted on the floor of the vehicle. This placement can make it more likely that it will be damaged even in a minor accident such as mounting a kerb.
According to Copart, an auction platform, around half the low-mileage electric vehicles it has salvaged have suffered minor battery damage.
The battery is also generally the most expensive part of an electric car and can account for as much as 50pc of the vehicle’s value, costing between £14,200 and £29,500.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/bills/insurance/john-lewis-stops-insuring-electric-cars/?WT.mc_id=e_DM212108&WT.tsrc=email&etype=Edi_Cit_New_v2&utmsource=email&utm_medium=Edi_Cit_New_v220231001&utm_campaign=DM212108
Morning, Jack!
I’m not surprised insurance costs for EVs are exploding (as EVs themselves are prone to). But I don’t think this is unanticipated. Rather, I think it is deliberate – part of the plan. The whole idea being to make owning a vehicle impossibly expensive for most people. Electric vehicles are just the means toward that end.
As demonstrated by the fact the only thing EVs are better at than ICVs is rapid acceleration from a dead stop. I’m certainly not willing to pay $20-30k more for that feature.
This will create a market for aftermarket plug-in car computers & operating systems.
So you can stop them from spying on you, and actually use the features you bought, without a “subscription.”
And so you can turn off any “features” you don’t want.
It is a tangent of Social Credit Score, you better behave or else you are really gonna get it! We’re not going to allow to drive, peon!
Tattle-tales out there in the digital ether, your phone, your car, your house, your computer, all are spying on you!
Unplug it all and you are removed from the super-surveillance system which is a necessity to maintain Social Credit Scores.
Your car will let you know when you can drive. The car has a record of your scores. You are more or less tethered to the thing, commanded by The Thing.
Everything is under control!
I didn’t get a harumph out of you – Gov, from the movie Blazing Saddles
Social credit scores…a communist government……
Where did this communist government come from?….what laws does it operate under?
The three Laws; by Justinian deception (CORPORATE-COMMUNISM)
https://odysee.com/@Australians_Free:3/Justinian-Deception-16-12-21—WHAT-IS-COMMUNISM:0
I’m glad that you mention that Bill Gates started this shit (or at least made it famous) and, let’s not forget, with the help of the government. I was a software engineer way back in the day when Microsoft was stealing IBM’s code.
I know this as a matter of fact because I was paid to reverse engineer software, so I took time to reverse engineer (i.e., disassemble and comment) much of the MS-DOS, MBASIC-80, etc., etc., code that was sold by Microsoft during the early days.
It wasn’t just “similar”, it was identical. Keep in mind that a normal person or company could have been and likely would have been sued into oblivion had they done anything similar back then. Just like I was a “hired hand” to reverse engineer, Microsoft, IBM, Digital Equipment, Data General, you name it, they had the same and more.
I helped a guy in New Jersey write code from scratch that was *compatible* with the small-company Alpha Micro’s operating system back in the late 80’s to early 90’s. We made sure that there was not a single line of copied code. He was sued and had to eat all of the development costs and had to discontinue selling the compatible product.
Again, the code from MS-DOS to PC-DOS had lengthy sections of 100% *copied code. I saw it with own eyes. *Something* else was at work to make Microsoft the thing that it became.
And finally, my last gripe about these software subscriptions from major corporations is that it doesn’t benefit the software engineers in any similar way to how it enriches the executives.
Bill Gates became a billionaire by being a software thief and mediocre programmer — that happened to be in bed with the right people. How many Microsoft engineers even made a million from the code they wrote for Microsoft in a single year? I’m betting close to zero.
Brilliant thought crime! Bill is the white collar criminal or something.
You can’t expose the obvious truth, Truth is Lies!
Off to the gulag, go to frozen streams in Siberia for centuries and land a whopper frozen for hundreds of years, still fresh fish to this day.
It’s a taiga out there. Alexandr Solzhenitsyn learned the hard way on how to exist.
Here, it’s going to be the No Car Gulag, just like in Cuba, the surreptitious gulag.
Cuba has to be the original transportation as a service business model.
The Economic Climate Change keeps on trucking.
Thoroughly interesting insight/inside skinny, XM.
Esp, this : “Bill Gates became a billionaire by being a software thief”
“Bill Gates became a billionaire by being a software thief”
“Bill Gates became a billionaire by being a software thief”
“Bill Gates became a billionaire by being a software thief”
I often think of a video I saw from, ‘Off Grid with Doug & Stacy’ where Doug pointed out – ‘the deceiver’s smirk’ – Bill Gates had as he described depopulation methods.
Indeed, Helot!
I think it helps explain Gates’ evil. He hates people because he hates himself – which he does because he knows he’s a fraud and a thief.
Whether EVs continue to be afflicted, thanks to the woke morons and the grifters, up to and INCLUDING the Phony POTUS currently infesting 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC, on the American public, the means to control our automobiles ALREADY exists.
Ever since PCMs were a thing, and once dedicated “sail fawns” were installed in cars (a relatively cheap thing these days to install, and, since it’s an included ‘feature’, a proprietary device that can access most cell networks, is “included”, YOU, the proud, new car “owner”, have ALREAD paid for it! This feature became standard even on the cheapest makes, not only due to its fairly low cost, but the necessity of doing so for fleet sales, including and especially, FedGov.
Still, its current capabilities are limited, so the OTHER way they “get” you is to find reasons to get you back to the “Stealership”, with things like “free” oil change(s). I had mine with my 2020 (con)Fusion, and I used it in Feb of 2020, with, having already taken a few trips to “Yew-Tah” and one to Vegas from NorCal, the ride already had accumulated 6,000 miles on it. The damn thing had the “auto-shut-off” feature, which I consider downright ANNOYING, and soon I found a way in the engine “settings” to disable it. After the “free” oil change, the firmware had been “upgraded”, and the ability to disable auto-shut-off no longer was available. Thanks a fookin-lot, Ford! Thanks fer Nuttin’…
“Thanks a fookin-lot, Ford! Thanks fer Nuttin’…”
I’m prolly never going to forget that fuck-over.
…Like, it’s the new American way. ?
….Same as it ever was, I guess. ?
Bill Gates is NOT the innovator and all-knowing “smartest guy in the room” by any means.
Bill Gates’ success can be attributed to his purchase of an “operating system” from a REAL software developer and “being at the right place, at the right time”–nothing more.
Most people are unaware that Bill Gates’ “daddy” is part of one of Seattle, Washington’s most prestigious law firms.
Most of Bill Gates’ success came from the tight restrictive “licensing agreements” that were formulated by his daddy’s prestigious Seattle Washington law firm, not from technical prowess. For the longest time, it was almost impossible to purchase a copy of DOS or Windows without also purchasing hardware. This was good marketing and helped to spread the use of his operating system among the masses.
You see, Bill Gates WAS born with a “silver spoon” in his mouth and as such, he has NO IDEA of the preciousness of human life. To Gates and those of his type, human life is merely a “commodity” to be created and destroyed according to the will of “elites” such as himself and his ilk.
Bill Gates (and others of his type) are dangerous to humanity as they think that “they have all the answers” and the financial capital to back it up.
There are still many more of us than of people like him . . . there is still time to “nip this thing in the bud”…
Gates mother was buddy buddy with the CEO of IBM, they shared some charity board seats and greased the skids to “give my son a chance”.
The agreements made it impossible to buy hardware without the software as well
Oh, and he ripped of the original developer of DOS which as was a fairly decent OS until MS diddled it up.
Gates a menace.
Oh really?! So THAT is how he didn’t get sued into oblivion for obviously stealing IBM code!!
Mary Gates served on the national advisory board of The United Way with John Akers, CEO of IBM at the time when the PC concept was being developed.
I call him the Gates of Hell. But remember, he will not prevail.
I work in IT for a yuge bloated US corporation. The same brain parasite of everything “as-a-service” is pervasive and disturbing. These huge corporations are moving much of their physical computing infrastructure to the Amazon (AWS) and Microserf (Azure) borg cubes and paying exorbitant monthly fees.
They don’t see the obvious traps. When you don’t own and physically possess your hardware you are now working for those who do. When Amazon murdered the Twatter like chat platform Parler in 2021 for political reasons (AWS hosted all their servers) I figured that would wake people the fuck up…. It did not.
At the beginning of Russia’s SMO there were calls for Elon to remotely disable all the Tesla cars inside Russia. Musk to his credit said he wouldnt do it. He said “wouldn’t” NOT “couldn’t”.
How long before California or some other blue hell hole makes it mandatory to remotely disable the cars at night or “update” them to prevent people from driving some arbitrary distance after the next bioweapon release? In Australia they told people they couldn’t go more than 5 km from their homes but had no way to enforce it. With people driving their automated golf carts no problem. Send the update and the car simply won’t go more than 5km. Problem solved.
Same for charging, the grid a little stressed? A click here, check the box, viola, the car won’t take a charge no matter where it is plugged in.
Think I’m paranoid?
Hi Alex,
You’re not paranoid. You are stating and assessing facts. The cars can be remotely disabled. To assume this power won’t be exercised is naive.
They don’t evrn need the ‘remote disable’ if they can tell the car to simply not charge. Even better if they enabke ‘bidirectional charging’
You plug it in at night to.find out in the morning that the power company drained your battery!
In order to solve a problem, ya have to first, accurately identify the problem.
With the descriptions in Eric’s article of how all these various subscriptions work,… is it accurate to say that all these subscriptions are really just fancy wrapped rationing?
“Almost everything they do revolves around locking down and micromanaging trade and access to resources.
Not just international trade and the import/export of resources, but ALL trade including the average person’s grocery purchases and private barter. If they get their way you won’t even be allowed to grow a garden in your backyard. […]
I have long argued that one of the primary purposes of the covid lockdowns was to acclimate the public to the idea of rationing […] Rationing erases any last vestiges of the free market and turns the buying of necessities into a privilege instead of a right.”…
https://alt-market.us/solutions-are-scary-part-2-economic-rebellion-and-black-markets/
Spot on helot, rationing is definitely coming for us serfs. My utility installed “smart” meters a couple years ago, now they are offering “free” thermostats which will only work if they are connected to wifi. So on a really cold and windy day they can crank down my heat so I don’t use too much of that evil natural gas? No thanks I prefer to stay warm in my old age.
RE: “So on a really cold and windy day they can crank down my heat”
…I wonder what the sthmart people’s reactions will be when that happens to them after they signed up for these rationing meters?
Will they still be cool with “smart” meters?
…I guess we’ll find out.
The car companies may have to get in line behind the government in terms of ownership of “your” car. A lot of states now have electronic titles. Don’t think for one second those bastards aren’t cooking up schemes to refuse to release the title or maybe even take possession of the car if you have unpaid fines, taxes, alimony, child support etc.
Not a vehicle but same concept. Have DISH TV, have had forever and had the same package forever. Includes all the sports channels that I don’t need or want except in the fall for college football. For the last several years DISH has started making a few of the games unavailable at the last minute. This year they were more blunt, just removed those channels altogether. So, I am still paying for those channels, but they’ve been erased. Also, one local news station is no longer available. Not many options here in the ‘woods’, but definitely will look into other options. Plus, am kind of getting tired of ‘college’ football, it’s just semi-pro now anyway.
Don’t know if you’ve seen this article Eric. I just skimmed through it, will go back and read it through later. Thought you would enjoy, if you don’t blow a gasket reading it, lol.
https://www.npr.org/2023/09/10/1187224861/electric-vehicles-evs-cars-chargers-charging-energy-secretary-jennifer-granholm
‘I drive an electric vehicle myself, and I’ve test-driven many more as NPR’s auto reporter.’ — Camila Domonoske
But of course — a stenographer and typist for state-owned media has to adopt the approved lifestyle: no concealed hydrocarbons in the employee parking lot.
Why are we obliged to pay this airhead to lecture us? Pull the plug on NPR … and Jennifer Granholm … and Hahhhhhvid … and … *sigh* Okay, I’ll stop now.
Take back Pelosi’s slander
Take back Gavin’s EeeVee plan
Take back the ups and downs
Of Wokester life in Raisin-land
Take back Vanessa Redgrave
Take back Joe Piscopo
Take back Eddie Murphy
Give ’em all some place to go
— Tom Petty, Jammin’ Me
Hi Jim,
I’m sure Camila has test driven many EVs. By which she means she got in, pushed the “on” button and then drove it a few miles within the orbit of wherever she parks/plugs them in. She doesn’t worry about the cost – because she’s on the government dole. Why does NPR even have a person on staff reviewing vehicles? How is this essential info the public cannot get from other sources? And she doesn’t worry about the time it takes to charge because – like Martin – she rarely drives far enough to burn through a full charge. So – for her – an EV is wunderbar. The perfect car for a person who hates them.
Ownership is the exclusive right to prohibit others from using.
If someone else can prohibit your use of [fill in the blank], then you don’t own it.
So, you may have bought something, but you don’t own it.
‘Consider that anything that can be turned on can also be turned off.’ — eric
Egregious example:
‘A bill introduced in the California legislature that would have required all electric vehicles sold in the state to be equipped with bidirectional charging technology has died in the state assembly.
‘Bidirectional charging allows EV owners to turn their vehicles into virtual power plants, not just soaking up power to propel the car but also able to send it back into their homes during a blackout, in a process known as vehicle-to-home, or V2H. A properly enabled car could also flow electricity back to the utility network during peak hours, through vehicle-to-grid, or V2G.
‘California State Sen. Nancy Skinner introduced SB-233 in January. The measure, which would have gone into effect in 2027, cleared the Senate by a 29-9 margin. The bidirectional mandate was gutted in an assembly committee, however, leaving only a requirement to study the issue further.’
https://tinyurl.com/4wnuzz9n
‘Allows EV owners’ is inverted: this bill ‘allows’ utilities to suck power out of EeeVees, contrary to the interest of the owner.
Since utilities can’t afford to build out the grid to serve an all-EeeVee fleet, they want V2G EeeVees to do the dirty work of peak load smoothing — at the owner’s expense, and even if the owner is left stranded.
SB-833 was a public declaration of bad intent. Ignore it at your peril: she’ll be back.
imagine living in a fire prone area of Commiefornia and keeping your glorified gold cart plugged in all night in case you have to bug out only to find out that the utility sucked all the charge out of it last night. Who needs Maui style roadblock to keep you when they can just immobilize the car leaving it with zero charge.
It will happen sooner or later.
Of course it would hard for e to synpathize with the denizens of Blue Hell who drives a Tesla.
Transportation as a service (TAAS). Don’t call it leasing. Cars are too expensive, the big three lost the export business and the greens vilified cars.
They’re all looking at Uber and Salesforce.com and thinking that model will save the industry. It certainly won’t be building interesting cars, that knowledge is gone from North America. And besides anything cool will be copied by the Chinese in months anyway. Autonomous driving vehicles are going to “save” the automakers, turning the dealers into hubs for ever more generic vehicles. Need a commuter to your cubicle because your boss doesn’t trust you working at home? Here comes a golf car that will get you to the bus stop. Don’t worry about having exact change, your ticket’s been punched electronically. Only $50/day! Far less than the TCO of a car (as calculated by government funded studies). And you get great 5G internet connections, so plenty of time to look at online manga and reminisce with the boys over on EPautos.
But that’s way down the road. For now I’ll bet the target is going to be fleet vehicles. There are boatloads of F150s, Malibus and Ultimas sold to large companies. Most of them have different build requirements, options packages, etc and that’s a pain. Crank out millions of identical vehicles and define options in software. No need for your sub-80 IQ workforce to read a build sheet. No need for keeping lots of different parts in the warehouse.
I just bought a new 2023 Mazda3 sedan (preferred package) two weeks ago. MSRP was $27,350.
Dickered them down to $26,850.
Traded in my 2018 Mazda3 (with 36,000 miles) for $13,000. Probably could have got a couple thousand more selling to CarMax but then I would pay more tax on the new Mazda, pretty much a wash.
Cash price $13,850.
Tax (8%) $1,108. Government/Dealer Fees and Tags: $197.50
$15,155.50 Total
Got another $500 off for being a preferred Mazda customer.
Paid cash $14,655.50 for a new 2023 Mazda3 with 11 miles on it.
Did I pay too much? Of course. But now I have 3 years with some sort of warranty and a car that isn’t rusted (I give it one winter).
Another reason I bought the car was it may be the last “simple” new ICE car available in my lifetime. No subscriptions required to unlock features, except the navigation system, of which I do not use.
The 2023 Mazda3 does not have satellite radio and it still has an AM/FM radio. It does not have a touchscreen center console, you have to use a dial. The car is an “upgrade” from my 2018 Mazda3 as it has:
– heated seats
– sun roof (will never use)
– 18″ tires
– auto climate control
– leatherette seats (fake leather which I prefer)
– 2.5 liter engine
– automatic driver seat/mirrors (actually quite nice)
– blind spot monitor (which I use, no more little round stick on mirrors)
– dickered them down to throw in high wall floor mats for “free”
I test drove for a full weekend a 2024 Mazda3 Hatchback manual transmission before I bought the 2023 Mazda3 sedan (automatic transmission). The 2024 hatchback manual was stickered at $31,200, $5,000 more than the 2023 sedan.
I didn’t buy the 2024 Mazda3 hatchback because of one thing:
No 12 volt outlet.
Yes you read that right. Mazda has eliminated the 12 volt outlet and regular USB ports on their 2024 Mazda3 models.
Why? Who knows? The dealer wasn’t willing to add a 12 volt to the 2024 hatchback so I bought the 2023 sedan for $5,000 less.
I need a 12 volt for my air pump and GPS and phone charging. I wasn’t willing to jerry rig a 12 volt in a $31,000 car.
The 2024 had other issues, such as an irritating Heads Up Display which gave me cross eyes looking at it on my windshield. You couldn’t turn it off and could only lower it. The hatchback was dark inside and a bit cramped.
Mazda still “allows” the paying customer of their 2023/2024 vehicles to turn off irritating “safety” features such as lane keep assist, lane departure warning system, rear cross traffic alert, driver attention alert.
That’s about it. I figure this will be my last new car. I can’t afford an EV which will be required in New York state by 2030. I guess I will have to deal with the rust if I want to keep the car alive until my death. Or maybe I should just move to Arizona and leave the high taxed/crappy weather rust belt behind.
Hi Pug,
As it happens, I have ’24 Mazda3 hatchback in the driveway this week. Turbo carbon iteration. Stay tuned!
I test drove the 2024 Mazda3 hatchback for the weekend because I wanted to buy one of the remaining manuals available that wasn’t really a sports car. The 2024 manual hatchback was ok, but in the end wasn’t worth the $31,000+ price tag. The carbon edition has AWD, red leather seats, wireless phone charge pad and Polymetal Gray Metallic paint. Usually stickers for over $30,000+. Too much for my blood.
I recommend anyone buying a new car today (since they are so expensive) to ask the dealer if you can take it home for a weekend test drive. You sure learn a lot about what you don’t like in a car in 48 hours. I didn’t find the BOSE stereo system to be that great in the hatchback I tested.
Can’t wait to read your review.
Removing the 12 V outlet means you are required to allow the assimilation of your sail phone into the “infotainment” system if you want to charge the device while driving. No third party charging devices for you.
We bought a 2016 Jetta from a relative who accepted that his 12 V outlet had a burned out fuse from almost the moment he bought the car because identifying and replacing the right fuse was difficult. After driving the car down from where we bought it and finding that my Apple device behaved oddly when plugged into the car’s USB port to charge, I took the time to fix the 12 V outlet.
RE: “…because identifying and replacing the right fuse was difficult.”
I imagine you’re being sarcastic there, but I tell ya, finding the fuse block diagram for my ’98 Lincoln Navigator was a real p.i.t.a.
…It’s not like you can just whip out a Haynes manual & there it is on page 15.
Anyway, RE: “my Apple device behaved oddly when plugged into the car’s USB port to charge,”
…That’s some weird shit, right there. I wonder what kind of back door fuckiery is going on with That.
Many new cars no longer have CD players. There go your CD collections. You probably would have to transfer the CD’s to digital USB memory sticks if you want to listen to your favorite music. A hassle but doable.
RE: “There go your CD collections.”
…Ya made me think of how vinly records are the in-thing with a lot of younger people. I wonder how that fits in?
…I imagine, it doesn’t.
…Which, is probably, a good thing.
Pug:
“I didn’t buy the 2024 Mazda3 hatchback because of
one thing: No 12 volt outlet.”
Times do change – for the worse. My 2012 Toyota RAV4
has three (3)12 volt outlets AND a 120V outlet.
Can’t drive without my 12 volt radar detector.
‘In fact what they bought is someone else’s – some corporation’s – tool.’ — eric
They get away with this because of TINA (There Is No Alternative).
Though it might seem the auto market has too many players to function as an oligopoly, the stultifying hand of Big Gov lets them run as a pack — and importantly, excludes new entrants.
Regulatory barriers, and regulatory sameness, make starting a new automotive company nearly impossible. Eeeelon pulled it off — as the first on the EeeVee playing field — with fedgov sponsorship. But the other domestic EeeVee startups are minnows.
Meanwhile, the Big Three — who share the same Dickensian, politicized labor union — are self-immolating by announcing final editions of popular gasoline-fueled vehicles, as they convert their production lines to churn out gov-mandated EeeVees. The similarity to WW II, when auto factories were converted by government order to churn out armaments, is revealing.
As a mature industry (120 years — five generations), co-opted auto makers [“Everything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State.” — Mussolini] are running out of road. Their number will only shrink.
Eeeeelon is not wrong that a 40% wage hike illegally supported by ‘Biden’ on the UAW picket line would bankrupt the Big Three. Extend that hike to battery makers (by illegal executive order, say), and most EeeVees would prohibitively cost $75,000 and up.
State industry, comrades: Joe Stalin did his best to meet production quotas, but it all cracked up. Joe Biden’s centrally planned all-EeeVee US fleet is hitting the wall before it ever gets off the ground. Carpe diem, friends — we won’t have old ‘Joe’ to kick around much longer. 🙁
Just like a fence, this whole “over the air update” is a double edged sword. It boils down to who holds the key to the gate. With new vehicles, it ain’t you.
Soon after On-Star was introduced a woman in St. Pete, FL had her Escalade stolen. She called the cops. The cops called On-Star. On-Star told the cops where the Caddy was. The cops surrounded it in traffic. On-Star shut down the car and it was recovered. The Booboisie cheered. Others of us saw the authoritarian leash.
And so it continues with the boobs at Jalopnik. Are the stupid or evil? Or both?
Hi Mark,
The tools at Jalopnik are both. There was another article by their resident woman writer bemoaning the possibility of people not actually taking a flight being allowed to wander around the gate areas again. You know – the way people routinely used to (so as to await arriving family, friends, etc. or see them off) before airports became gulags.
This seems to be a big part of, ‘The Plan’ a.k.a. ‘The Great [evil] Reset’: “It boils down to who holds the key to the gate. With new vehicles, it ain’t you.”
An older saying, “If it’s free, you’re the product”.
I guess that saying needs updated a bit.
I’ve had to replace several cell phones that worked perfectly fine and filled my needs, because they would no longer connect to the latest and greatest network. Bad enough on $100 cell phones, unacceptable on $50k cars.
My 2016 Cherokee has a 3G modem installed for the U-Connect service. When T Moble shut down Sprint’s 3G network it quit. FCA didn’t even offer a replacement modem. My guess is it is buried under all the airbags and so too expensive to replace.
Not that I would have had it replaced. Sure, having remote start and seeing the miles before the next oil change on a web site was a fun party trick during the free demo period, but not worth the $150/yr fee. And the one time I could have used it (accidently locking the keys inside while camping in Moab), I was way far away from any cell service. An Iriduium satellite modem would have been a far superior choice, but also too expensive for 99% of buyers.