Well, it’s coming.
Since most people aren’t buying an EV – for all the obvious reasons – it will be necessary to get rid of the vehicles they’re driving. The ones they want to keep on driving. One way to do this is already being done in the European Union, where new regulations are coming that will make it difficult if not legally impossible to fix them.
“The proposal, originating from the European Commission and yet to be ratified, aims to phase out older, more polluting vehicles in favour of environmentally friendly options,” reads a news story about the fix that’s almost in. “
More environmentally friendly options.
Because we all know that three-ton EVs lugging around 1,000-plus pounds of environmentally toxic materials gathered via Earth rape and child labor are “environmentally friendly.”
And “options”? Isn’t the whole point of this exercise to eliminate them? In favor of one “option”?
Anyhow, vehicles 15 years old and older will be fixed by declaring them “residual” and being not worth fixing – according to the people who want to force you to get rid of such vehicles – when a major repair is needed, such as a new transmission or even a major brake system overhaul. The proposed law would bar such vehicles from being repaired, thereby rendering them unusable even though they might be fixable.
Because, of course, such vehicles usually are worth fixing.
Here’s I’ll use my own vehicle as an example. It is a 22-year-old Nissan pick-up. It may be old, but it still runs very much the same as it did when it was new. The body isn’t rusty; the paint still looks nice. It would be well-worth-it to me to spend $2,000 on a major repair – if that becomes necessary – after which it would be fixed and allow me to continue driving a vehicle that isn’t a battery powered device. One that’s paid-for, so I’m not making payments on it.
It’d be worth spending $10,000 on this truck to replace most of its drivetrain and another $5,000 to get it painted, so it looks like new – to avoid having to make payments on a $50,000 device.
Of course, that’s precisely the reason why the fix is in.
The last two things the people behind this want are people not making monthly payments and not driving around in a device that they have control over. The former is a problem – for them – of their own creation, ironically enough.
“Environmental” regs have made vehicles durable to an extent that would have been almost unimaginable prior to the imposition of these regulations. Engines are built to exceedingly high standards, relative to what was typical in the past; they are “tight” in order not to emit. They benefit from extremely precise fuel delivery – the always optimum air-fuel ratio – which prevents gas (which is a solvent) from diluting the oil and thereby increasing wear on the internals.
Oils are far superior to what they were. Etc.
The net result is engines that aren’t burning any oil – or showing any significant wear – even after 100,000 miles and a decade of use. Clutches regularly last that long, too.
Bodies last even longer.
People have figured this out and it’s part of the reason why the average age of vehicles in regular service as daily drivers is now nearly 13 years old. The other part of it is new vehicle prices have sailed beyond the event horizon of affordability for many, making it not just worth fixing the vehicle they have but a necessity. The cherry on top (so to speak) is that many people simply don’t like and don’t want a new vehicle – device or not – encumbered with such things as “advanced driver assistance technology” and all the rest of it.
They prefer to keep – and fix – what they’ve got.
Obviously, this is a problem for car companies that want to sell you a new car. And lenders who want you to borrow – and pay monthly – for the privilege. It is also a problem for those pushing battery powered devices, which includes the car companies that have bought into this business.
They need you to pay for it.
Hence this business. We’ll fix you – and your little dog, too.
But how will they enforce this business? If parts are still available, then people will still be able to fix their “residual” vehicles, the law be damned. Expect parts to become less available, especially for older vehicles. It may become a crime to stock such parts – and this could be enforced in the same way that it is a crime to sell the banned refrigerant Freon to anyone who isn’t “certified” by the government. Parts have serial numbers. Inspectors could check. The threat of prosecution would be sufficient. It is likely they’ll force-close salvage yards and do to useable spare parts what was done to mechanically sound “clunkers” here not-all-that-long ago (i.e., physically destroy the major operational parts, such as the engine, as by pouring silica in the engine so that it seizes).
It could be a very good idea to stock up on the parts you may need going forward. Including basic but essential service parts such as oil filters, fan belts, water pumps, hoses and so on. The more you have on hand, the more you’ll be able to fix what you’ve got tomorrow.
And keep them from fixing you.
. . .
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This looks like another problem in which the solution is 3D printers. Eric, you keep underestimating that new technology. They’ve already upended the entire gun control debate, now it will upend this debate as well.
Amen, Ayn.
The elite are not the only ones with access to technology.
I just dropped $2000 into my daily driver 93, 40th anniversary special edition ruby red Vette that just hit 180,000 miles.
Lifters, pushrods, distributor, water pump “optispark LT1” the two go together, radiator, heater hoses, MSD coil / wires, ICM, IAC valve, TPS, expansion tank, probably various crap I forgot. The car has been in my family since new, and I love driving it. My point? I don’t just do it for the love I’m also motivated by spite! Spite for the feds, and the OEM’s who will not stop loading these cars with all the useless, over priced “eye in the sky” junk Eric regularly rants about on this blog.
Since I recently moved to the free state of Florida from the people’s Republic of NYS, I’ll soon be ditching the cats for test pipes.
For all the Gaia worshipers save your flaming for someone who cares!
It’s all legal in Florida, and catalytic converters are nothing but a rare earth mineral robbing “like battery powered devices with wheels” govt control freak device that actually worsen exhaust emissions. Read some tech papers on cats and get back to me.
I keep two spares of everything I predict will become unavailable: distributors, ignition coils, ignition control modules, various oddball heater hoses this car requires etc… For as Foghorn Leghorn would say, “for… for just such an emergency.”
Eric you are doing the lords work!
Investors reward Porsche for letting go of the EeeVee tar baby (if it will let go of them):
‘Porsche stock was up 10% on Tuesday, despite the company warning about its profit for the year.
‘The company is prepared to “steer investments back to combustion-engine cars” if the EU delays its timeline for phasing out ICE vehicles. It had previously planned to phase out ICE investments in 2026 and 2027, but Chief Financial Officer Lutz Meschke said “we are flexible to react” if the rules change.’ — ZeroHedge
Translation: stop doing stupid shit with EeeVees, and your stock price …. GOES UP! 🙂
The EV Delusion Crumbles: Major Automakers Are Out!
Maybe most people just don’t appreciate being forced to switch their car because the alphabet people say so?
The fact is that when it comes to their wallet nobody gives a pig’s arse about saving the planet. And THAT, my friends, is where the EV fraud stumbles, trips, and then jarringly smashes its face into a brick wall of reality.
The Germans, specifically, Audi, who are doing a massive U-turn on electric vehicles. DROPPING their earlier goal of producing only electric vehicles by 2026. And they’re not the only ones.
Audi puts big EV push on the back burner…….. an insider in the European automotive industry told us over a year ago — that there is bugger all demand for these stupid things and that many of the European auto manufacturers were going to land up being stuck with unwanted inventory… and some would probably “not make it through.”
Speaking of “others.” Mercedes Benz are also doing the same. They are bailing on EVs and instead are ramping up production of ICEs.
After 16 Years, Apple Abandons Work On Electric Car
One other thing worth mentioning is that Apple sits on a gobsmacking $162 billion in cash. And even with all that cash, they decided to pass on the “EV revolution.”
Toyota have publicly announced they are out of the EV / Hybrid game. Just released a 2.2 liter, 4 cylinder, gasoline truck in Thailand retailing circa $10,000….
from zh comments….
Watched a youtube video yesterday from a guy who bought a Porsche Taycan EV 3 yrs ago for $150,000 and was trying to trade it in for a ICE Porsche 911. No Porsche dealership would take it as part-ex. The best private sale price he was offered was $53,450.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2024-03-12/ev-delusion-crumbles-major-automakers-are-out
Hey, how come there are thousands of geese flying north this time of year?
What’s up with that? Flocks of geese booking it to their home up north.
If there was global warming, Canada geese would stop migrating to Mississippi and Texas, Arizona too.
Must get too hot down south and they need some air-conditioned natural comfort from the cooler air that’s way up north.
And some fresh water from melted snow, helps them survive, the geese know where it is at and where to go. Those geese are high flyers and don’t need any permission when to fly north or south, geese make that decision all by themselves.
Don’t even need passports, geese got it made in the shade.
There is strength in numbers. At least for geese, maybe they do show some optimism.
Geese aren’t booking flights on airlines using Boeing planes.
We know how to fly say the geese, Boeing isn’t even close.
442 USD per share down to 184 USD today is blowing Boeing out of the water.
Good news is better than bad news.
No good news for Boeing today.
Evidently, you have to travel to Mexico to buy an automobile of your choice.
Learn to fly, geese can.
Oops, Boeing whistleblower dead. Suicide… Gunshot to the head.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/boeing-whistleblower-who-warned-of-aircraft-safety-problems-found-dead
Gotta send a message!
Didn’t know the ‘Trotters’ were heading North!
https://youtu.be/vTD2ApSG1ow
Great comment! Thanks for the laugh! 😂
[…] Guest Post by Eric Peters […]
I’ve lives in Europe since 1991. These corrupt mother fuckers havé sucked on thé US tit since 1945.
I am experiencing some of this nonsense in CA today.
I love to drive at the track, and I have a wonderful car for it, a Lotus Elise. It’s a totally analog car, with the only safety system being ABS, which is very useful. For the track, I just pull the fuse. Win/win.
Anyhow, when you run a car really hard on the track at wide open throttle, the ECU runs the engine a little bit rich, to protect itself from detonation. Running rich means that you dump a little bit of unburned fuel into the catalyst, which burns it up, but it also gets hotter from burning fuel. This makes catalysts fail early, I get 2-3 years out of one. It’s normal for a track driven modern car with an emissions control system to do this.
However, in CA, we have the CARB, which only allows approved parts to be used in cars. Once every two years, they inspect my emissions system, and if there are any aftermarket parts, I fail, even though an aftermarket catalyst runs as cleanly as the original. If the original catalyst isn’t available from the OEM, your car will not pass inspection, and you can’t drive it anymore. The used market is running out of used cats, so i don’t know how to proceed from here. I think I will buy an aftermarket catalyst, use that on a day to day basis, and swap in the OEM one for the inspection, but this means I need to tear apart my exhaust system twice for each inspection, once to put in OEM, and once to put back the aftermarket. The hassle factor is high, but I’ll pay to to keep such a wonderful car street legal.
Oh yeah, and now, due to catalyst theft issues (because of the ban on aftermarket cats), there’s a new mandate that any new catalyst from a manufacturer must have your VIN number stamped on the catalyst, so using used ones won’t be possible either. There are lots of used cats available for Elises because in the 49 saner states, people de-cat them for track usage and sell their old catalyst.
Not all 49. CO is also fucked up in that regard. My neighbor is shipping his Fox body to his daughter in IA because he can’t get a cat for the thing. MagnaFlow is backordered forever.
I told him to just take the tickets.
My dad took his diesel Ford up to the Mexican guy who has a small muffler/exhaust shop. Asked if he would remove the cat. Mexican guy wouldn’t answer him yes or no, but told him to pull it in so he can look at it. Cut it off for him. Can’t be too careful now a days. Might be a cat cutting sting operation!
It does indeed sound like a hassle. But, I would do it, just as way of giving California a big, middle finger.
In Nj if you mod your Tier 4 diesel trucks engine/exhaust in any way, they impound the truck and give you two options: Put it back to OEM and prove it or it will be sent to the crusher (their terms).
And they are actively looking fort them via not-stock-looking tailpipes and can pull you over for such. Know 2 people it’s happened too. One let them crush it (stupid), and the other parted out the truck.
My next build would be a killdozer. No one is stealing, let alone destroying my car without consequences.
WA state the odd one out, never had a yearly vehicle inspection, they did a select emissions testing by certain zip codes but shut that down several years ago. Odd considering the government here copies commie CA on most everything.
Perhaps the calm before the storm, as they want only EV sales here in a few years.
Well it’s a free for all here, expired vehicle license tabs not a primary offense so unless they nab you for say, speeding, your expired tabs meh, motor on!
The Harley frozen in time with 2022 tabs.
Now recently seeing limo tint on windshields the side windows been that way for years. Limo level tint a favorite of our new neighbors from south of the border. None of your beeswax Sparkey! Well, as a motorcycle rider I’d like to make eye contact at intersections so maybe get a clue before I get whacked.
You can make any mod you want to an emissions system, Rollin’ Coal is the norm not the exception.
Series one Elise?
I have a Super 7 clone, have not tracked it yet, probably will this year.
Or order it thru Summit Racing in Sparks, NV. Pick it up in person, and pay cash, as Summit is under a “consent” order with CARB to not ship parts not “approved” by CARB to the formerly-Golden State, even for door handles for a 1966 Plymouth Fury, I shit you not.
The OEM’s do not tune ECM’s “engine management computers” to run rich at WOT, to protect the engine from detonation. They retard ignition timing via knock sensors and various other inputs from sensors to prevent detonation. They run them rich at WOT for maximum power, also 02 sensors are not monitored at WOT a set of canned fuel trims are used because 02 sensors cannot “read” the exhaust quickly enough to provide useful info to the ECM / PCM. If you pull and inspect your plugs assuming all else within the engine is in good working condition, rings, valve seats, injectors, fuel pressure regulator, ignition system components etc… Your plugs should be a light tan – brown color, despite running not rich, but on the “rich side” at WOT. A slightly richer air fuel mixture also keeps combustion chamber temps cooler. Because under normal driving conditions, computer controlled vehicles with rare exceptions are set up to run as lean as possible under normal driving conditions to minimize emissions.
Running on the rich side at WOT is not enough to foul plugs, because of the intake air / exhaust velocity that basically “blows the plugs clean.”
Unless your Lotus has an after market tune.
Yeah Death!
Ain’t nobody fixin’ nothin’.
Ain’t nobody savin’ not one thing.
Bibi Strangelove has it all under control. Yeah, right.
Probably jonesin’ for another fix of unbridled dog-eat-dog war to the max. You go, gurl!
Freakin’ ghoul. Get lost, like yesterday.
Doin’ it for the money, aren’t cha? Just another Judas and Judas Goat.
Fixin’ it for ya.
And we’re bound for the border
We’re soldiers of fortune
And we’ll fight for no country but we’ll die for good pay
Under the flag of the greenback dollar
Or the peso down Mexico way – Steve Earle, Mercenary Song
I travel to Mexico frequently and I am amazed at their access to cheap vehicles that don’t have to conform to these stupid mandates. You can get a barebones Suzuki Jimni with Billy Goat offroad performance for dirt cheap and no tracking software or electronic nannies. You can cross the international bridge, drive 10 minutes into Matamoros and purchase a Turbo Diesel LHD Toyota Hilux or International Market Diesel Landcruiser brand new at the Toyota dealer. Virtually everything is still available with a Manual transmission. Many of the Airport shuttles are these awesome barebones Toyota Vans that would be a great cheap alternative to the massively overpriced Sprinters and Transit vans sold here. All of them are Manual Transmission of course.
I was a Ford salesman up until 2019. I was visiting Cancun and I saw a unicorn 2014 F250 6.7 Powerstroke with a Manual Transmission! I had no idea that existed anywhere in the world and I wouldnt of believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own 2 eyes. While it’s no secret that our options are being purposely limited, it doesn’t really sink in until you see firsthand just what awesome vehicles exist that we aren’t allowed to own here.
A couple of weeks ago, someone posted a list here of ten cheap economy cars in the Mexican market, starting at around 200,000 pesos. If I recall correctly, every one of them was equipped standard with a 5-speed manual.
It’s the same story in Peru. You can get a lot of good, inexpensive economy cars that aren’t available here, such as the Chevy Sail, the Hyundai I-10, and various Chinese makes that are clones of old Japanese cars. The vast majority of them are equipped with manual trannies.
Oh, and to help clean the air, you’re allowed to run your cars on natural gas. Many people convert their cars to run on it. You can get NG at any fuel station down there; you just clip on the hose like you would for a LP air tool.
To kill cars, make it illegal to fix or fuel them. To kill guns, choke off the ammo supply. To kill air travel, scare the shit out of the traveling public through sabotage and propaganda. To kill the food supply, make meat the enemy and squeeze small farmers to death. Finally, to kill the prosperity of the West destroy cheap energy through the use of “renewables.”
You know, it’s almost as if they want us immobile, insecure, unhealthy and dependent.
Hi Yeti,
There’s a downside to technology (or maybe an upside) the peasants have also made advances. The elite believe they are the only ones with machinery…they aren’t. The 3D printer/CAD/CAM machines have given us all the ability to get around the mandates that they want to enforce upon us.
Sure, we may have to go underground and slink around a bit, but hell, we do that now. With the advancement in electronics and their components we all have the ability to make ghost guns, ammo, and yes, even manufacture or rebuild auto parts. Short of them turning off the electricity (which would hurt them as much as it would us) they are kinda of SOL.
Smart meters….selectively shut off electricity….was the whole point….more control….non compliant slave?….shut off the power….let them freeze and starve….also the reason to ban all alternate power/fuel….hard to turn off burning wood….make it illegal….
Hi anon,
Smart meters only work where the infrastructure will allow them to (usually urban and suburban areas). A rural area that does not have access to cell towers (which is what smart meters use to communicate) doesn’t comply.
With Starlink there will be 5G cell coverage everywhere eventually…
Oh yes, I have also read where the smart metres can communicate with the smart chips in your appliances. Using too much energy? Sorry, we have to shut down your heater today. You know, for the environment. I had read where in California, they can remotely shut off your air conditioner if you are deemed to be “using too much”. Someone get me off this rollercoaster, I want off!
That isn’t even necessary. Why? Because each electrically powered device deforms the pure, AC sine wave; it distorts it. Each device distorts the sine wave in a different way, so that’s all that’s needed to know what you have turned on at any given time.
My new HVAC went in late last week. Everything is electronic and the AC & two stage gas furnace need their brand thermostat to run. One of the menu selections is “energy program – do you want to connect to your utility company allowing them to adjust during high use times”. Oh Jeebus no! Unchecked that immediately. Of course the factory default is checked “on”. Wifi will be turned off as well since it’s updated it’s software now.
Hats off to Raider Girl/family doing HVAC work, these folks work hard for the $$$.
> I had read where in California, they can remotely shut off your air conditioner if you are deemed to be “using too much”.
Only if you voluntarily give the utility company permission, in return for a rate discount.
Hmm, and at what point will the utility company decide for itself to shut your juice off, even if you did not give the “permission”?
It’s called the “cycling” program. It’s been MANDATORY for residential units since 2014.
“The 3D printer/CAD/CAM machines have given us all the ability to get around the mandates that they want to enforce upon us.”
Wrong. States like NY and CA have made it a felony to possess a gun with a 3D printed receiver. They’re also made it illegal to purchase ammo without permission for the police and without registration of your purchase.
And you can’t print ammo.
We have already seen a precursor to making it illegal to fix old cars. You can’t buy a used catalytic converter in NY and CA. You also can’t buy a generic aftermarket one unless it’s California Air Resource Bord certified in both states (and maybe others).
You also can’t get the car inspected and pass the emissions check without a catalytic converter.
And you can’t print catalytic converters either.
Hi X,
Who has made it a felony? Some government bureaucrat? Are we holding up California and New York as beacons of integrity? Apparently, in New York, it is also a felony to value your real estate higher than the tax assessment supplied by the city/county even when you pay back your loan in full and the bank hired their own appraiser.
Pretty much everything in life is illegal.
When the SHTF are any of us going to be following mandates, laws, and regulations? Highly unlikely, unless one wishes to die. If our car has a catalytic converter or not will be the last thing on our minds.
The state legislatures made it a felony and people do get arrested all the time for making unserialized receivers. In fact there is pending legislation to criminalize even the possession of computer files with the data needed to print receivers but that has not passed yet.
You may not like California and New York and neither do I, but they control sixty million people and they have a combined 84 electoral votes (– electoral votes that Trump cannot possibly win). The gun and auto industries have accepted and adapted to CA and NY regulations. Glock continues to manufacture the Gen 3 pistol solely because Gen 3 is legal in California and Gen 4 and Gen 5 are not.
You are correct that nobody is going to worry about a catalytic converter when the SHTF, but the issue is how do you keep old machinery running before the SHTF.
You gotta do what you gotta do.
Figure out what rules they are policing for, and make sure you appear to be following them.
At some point, a well-placed bribe may become necessary.
Do you want your integrity, or do you want to live another day? Choose wisely.
We aren’t there yet. But that’s the direction this thing is headed.
Thats true 3D printing is only new technology that increases freedom and has the potential to increase it further but big data, cloud computing ,ai ,electric cars, proprietary software etc are all decreasing it. Just like I could make a car for myself using a lathe and few more metalworking machines but what good is it if I will be spotted fined and forbidden to drive by bureaucrats. With great 3d printer I could do that faster and better but the outcome would be the same.
Bureaucrats cover no more of the ground than the soles of their boots.
And they move notoriously slowly.
Agility, mon frere. Speed and agility. Speed and agility and ingenuity.
You are correct to note that this comes at a price…time and materials.
Don’t be there when they show up. Use the process against them. For God’s sake, man…think OUTSIDE of the box!
Bureaucrats are slow and useless but surveillance and big data isnt. a weak junkie can easily kill you with a gun. He cant make a gun himself but tough luck. Bureaucrat cant make software that spies on you and ai that processes it but he can tell chat gpt like something arrest all disidents. And you better expect sea of drones in front of your house or wherever you may be .
A “junkie” typically doesn’t have the wherewithal to make anything; they just acquire one of the millions of unregistered guns, which themselves were once stolen, often from the same “fence” they trading their ill-gotten gain with.
Yeah Yetti,,, incredible that Americans put up with this. Watching,,, one might erroneously think the clowns in Clowngress are Gods to be obeyed regardless of the imbecilic, childish horse hockey they spread. Instead of telling them to FO we try to find ‘work arounds’ that actually give an air of legitimacy to the ‘law makers’. A gift to them as more moronic laws will be needed.
Or better yet for them, they want us all dead.
If this sort of thing comes to fruition and isn’t stopped, one of these days the developed world (well, the previously developed world) will very much resemble the suburban and rural parts of countries like India. Almost no one has a car, but lots of people have motorcycles and scooters and trikes, which they modify to their liking and often pile to the gills with whatever (and whomever) they are transporting. Small gas powered vehicles like the aforementioned are the highest fruit still left on the mostly denuded tree. Eventually, I suppose, they might make a go at destroying that fruit as well, but for the near future it is thus far mostly untouched.
The one thing that gives me hope is human ingenuity. Imagine a big old oak tree that is growing close to a power line. It might be in a most bizarre shape, like a U, a Y or even a right side up crescent moon….due to harsh and regular pruning to keep it from touching said power lines. But the tree doesn’t give up and die, or wither away. No, it will grow around the forbidden area, resulting in some very freaky looking trees. But in the end the tree thrives, and continues to live, despite the fact that it’s top and center has been cut out….
Bottom line: people will find a way to get where they want to go. Government goons will try and stop them, but they cannot stop everyone. Every time a rule or ban is enacted, there will always be someone there ready to find ways to circumvent it.
There are some good uses for those oak trees….
Hi Lee ,
You are right West will be a shithole , indian working conditions but cleaner and more soulless and sterile.
If anything freedom may continue in countries that are lawless war-zones. Not Russia not islamic world not China but Africa and South america may do it. Countries without law and order where no one will know if you have bitcoin or a 3d printer will prosper.
Thanks for the advice Eric. I think they’ll simply raise gas prices though. Nice way of getting rid of useless eaters, too.
By the way, Greta is an actor and is from the family of actors. See more here: http://mileswmathis.com/greta.pdf
Sorry for keeping at posting links to this site, but the facts are important and need to be known, especially since they show that what’s going on is a coordinated strategy aimed at getting rid of cars altogether.
WW3…..
One side…… the middle east and Russia, has a lot of the oil supply, when they cut off the other side in the war, oil could easily hit $200 a barrel or far higher….
poor slaves won’t be able to afford gas…
but….. they might have larger worries….like starving or being shot, unless they go fight the war for the wimp slave owners, like all the other wars…..
The slave owners will try to motivate the slaves to fight for them….one side will use religion…a religion that has turned into a political movement….the other side?….
Read the shocking Tesla FIRES. So genius should write a book called How To Die in a Tesla for Dummies.
https://www.tesla-fire.com/
but those fried alive are only part of the death toll
many tesla owners were drowned alive
This just happened – billionaire virtue signalling idiot gets drowned by a Tesla:
Angela Chao, Sen. Mitch McConnell’s billionaire sister-in-law, spent her last minutes alive frantically calling her friends for help as her Tesla slowly sank in a pond on a remote Texas ranch, according to a report.
Chao, the billionaire former CEO of dry bulk shipping giant Foremost Group, tragically died at the age of 50 on Feb. 10 after accidentally backing her car into the pond while making a three-point turn.
If Ted Kennedy was still alive, he’d be the pitch man for Tesla.
It’s entirely possible with these gadgets, that someone else was controlling the car, not her.
Speaking of cars tattling on you.
https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2024/03/11/your-car-is-tattling-on-you-major-automakers-share-driving-data-with-insurance-giants/
They call it telematics — vehicles with an internet connection. Not for us, mind you. It’s so the vehicle can chat covertly with the manufacturer, the insurance mafia and the cops, while we’re none the wiser.
One data broker claims they can locate any telematics-equipped vehicle in real time, anywhere in the US. We are just insects in their ant farm, viewed through their see-through window.
Since anti-consumer ‘advances’ like telematics NEVER get withdrawn, and the spook agencies are gonna get an invisible backdoor, one’s only protection is to own a vehicle without the tattle feed.
It surprises me that specifics are hard to find. But around 2010-2015 is when the telematics poison crept in to cars like a bad case of gangrene. Amputate … or find a vintage ride that never had that shit.
A question for Eric…What would you consider a good “cut-off” date for buying used, American vs European and Japanese? My best guess is around 2010 maybe a little earlier for European.
Hi David,
Your date – 2010 – is about right. Things began to get bad around that time, beginning with the high-end/luxury brands (they embraced the “technology” first). By 2015, it had become nearly ubiquitous.
A good rule-of-thumb is, if it has a touchscreen, you don’t want it.
And they used to be around $2K to replace, now around $5K.
I wonder if the aftermarket has aftermarket solutions for these?
Lots of people park older cars on the street….an easy target…the city will just be instructed to tow them, scrap them…..
Checkpoints, drunk driver stops….driving an old car?…it will be confiscated.
People created the government to do a few jobs, like fixing the roads …but it turned into an evil, all powerful monster, that controls them totally, the new god, that can destroy you in 5 minutes.
There are a lot of cars for sale. Trainloads are shipped by rail to various destinations.
Automotive websites are filled to the gills with cars for sale.
It’ll take time to holocaust cars to their final resting spot, you can make new steel, recycle the things. A phoenix, out with the old, in with the new.
Junkyards keep piling dead cars, junkyards have been around for a long time.
The Jews are good at destroying everything, honed the skill, put them in charge of fixing it all. Makes sense in clown world.
Supply of used parts…
Most used parts are advertised in Marketplace now…that was a huge trap….the controllers own and run Marketplace, have total control over it, it just takes 10 seconds to ban or delete anyone selling parts for the soon to be banned cars. Ads for people to repair cars are there too…gone in a few seconds.
For exotic or old collector cars you have to order from companies on the internet, 1000’s of miles away….they can be found and outlawed, shut down in minutes too.
Everything is bought through the internet…so now they have just one source to easily shut down….it was a trap.
CBDC and the banks….they will see and control everything you buy…already can…buy a banned part?…frozen account…no food, fuel or anything else for you…you are finished….piss off and die….that is the attitude and the goal….
Here is a video about the banks/government watching people’s purchases……
The House Weaponization of the Federal Government Committee holds a hearing about alleged government collusion with big banks to spy on citizens.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3T8YfCmzHI
The cattle are being herded into smaller pens….to be dealt with…
During the COVID insanity, government also tried to ban alternatives to the “vaccines”, namely Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin. In some states, pharmacies weren’t even allowed to prescribe those drugs else risk having their license taken away by the state. It’s a wonder government didn’t also try to BAN people from getting adequate supplies of Vitamin D, given that people who had the worst problem with the dreaded ‘Rona tended to have a deficiency of Vitamin D, but on the other hand, government did close off outdoor public areas such as parks and beaches where people could get Vitamin D via sunshine.
As for the desire to force people out of gas automobiles and into EVs via banning repairs on vehicles more than 15 years old, I can just see the Biden Thing pushing something similar here, especially after he once again engaged in fear mongering about the “Climate crisis” in his angry, yelling speech last week called “The State of the Union address”.
It has forever been easier to destroy than to build or fix. The Psychopaths In Charge are hell bent on destruction, especially when they can generate income doing it. So do it they will. In my lifetime, they have never done a single constructive thing, except by accident. As in forcing cars to get better.
Hi John,
You may like this story….the globalist/ technocratic elite are intentionally trying to sabotage energy supplies in America and other countries around the world under guise of “Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaving the planet from cliiiiiiiiiiiimate change”…..
https://www.technocracy.news/when-technocrats-intentionally-sabotage-a-nations-energy-supply/
Energy and food. Right now Texas is losing thousands of cattle due to a mysterious fire. Food manufacturing plants burning down… all accidental they assure the dumbshits. Refusal to build more electric generating plants while simultaneously pushing the manufacture of battery devices which will double, triple the load.
Push the ridiculous scam of wind mills that require grid to run the unit. If any extra power is created it is so intermittent and variable it cannot be used. Solar panels that are useless 70% of the time. Tens of thousands square miles of arable lands squandered. Birds and animals killed outright or starved.
Someone let me know who died and made the billionaires that buy up entire legislatures God? And then tell me where the legislatures get their authoritii to tell us what, when, where and how we are supposed to live. I don’t recall any of this in the constitution.
Where is their authoritiii to destroy cars, destroy crops, destroy energy producing plants, force medical procedures, or anything else they seem to be doing these days.
It seems the fluoride put in our water actually works to make us docile little nubs and now they are thinking of increasing the dose! For healthy teeth, dontcha know.
They don’t have the authority. But so long as enough losers go along with it they do have the raw power.
The European militaries must be in need of mechanics & such? If they make it difficult if not legally impossible to fix old cars, seems like a whole gaggle of mechanics, machinist & other tradesmen will be out of a job.
Then, there’s the ripple effect of those job losses.
Thank you for covering this, Eric. I read up on this via a newsletter I get. One way or the other, the powers-that-be are hell bent on forcing people into EV’s, away from ICE vehicles, and ultimately, the outlawing of driving period! If not being “allowed” to fix your old vehicle does not do it, they may simply shut off the gasoline and oil (Petrol). These people are insane, and will stop at nothing to enslave the rest of us.
If these 15 minute cities are so wonderful why the “gentle” bayonet at the back to get you to move into them? Should’t they be able to stand on their own merit?
I have a friend who will soon be retiring. His wife wants to live closer to his sister-in-law, who happens to live in The Villages, FL. So he’s signed a purchase contract and is packing up the house in Denver. I get the feeling he’s not all that thrilled with the idea but happy wife, happy life.
The Villages is a 55+ (ie: retirement community) in Florida. IIRC the largest on planet Earth. It’s about as close to a 15 minute city as you can get, at least in the United States. Most of the city is single family and townhomes, with various common areas peppered throughout. Most everything is accessible by golf cart. There’s very little retail other than small chain stores like CVS, perhaps company stores too. A few restaurants, again under contract of the corporation that owns The Villages. Tiny. Cost per square foot has got to be very high in these retail shops, but my guess is you get some exclusive access to the clientele, so you can charge whatever you want and likely get some amount of business to keep afloat.
As long as you’re OK with your entire life being planned out, it’s probably not bad. At least there’s not going to be a bunch of gang tags everywhere.
But what if you have to have a job? One that’s not retail in one of the stores? Will businesses be setting up office space in these cities? Factories don’t scale down too easily, unless you want to go back to the days of medieval tradesmen, which maybe we’ll get there with automation and robotics, but not anytime soon, and certainly not at the same scale we see today. If we do get to that stage, will we continue to use SAE measurements for parts like fasteners? Why bother if there’s no mass production? Will we end up in a new medieval age, where things like nuts and bolts are hand built, and completely incompatible?
The Villages is also an STD capital of America as far as I understand. :))
https://www.tampabay.com/news/health/2022/08/12/why-is-the-villages-known-as-the-std-capital-of-america/
See? Someone is happy to be there!
‘many people simply don’t like and don’t want a new vehicle’ — eric
Vehicles that are 50, 70, even 100 years old remain repairable and usable. The underlying electromechanical technology — simple linkages, relays, solenoids, fuses — is common to all of them. If you can read a wiring diagram, you can systematically trace down and fix a glitch.
Not so with chipped vehicles. Some of them require dealer-owned diagnostic equipment. A glitch means replacing a chip or a screen. Fifty years down the road — hell, ten years down the road — those limited-run parts are not going to be available.
Americans were shocked — shocked — when Vince Packard informed them in The Waste Makers (1960) about planned obsolescence, in which a “death date” is built into products so that they wear out quickly and need to be replaced. It took fifty years for dim-witted Detroit (think Roger Smith, GM’s idiot CEO in the Eighties) to catch on. But now they’re implementing planned obsolescence with a vengeance.
Contemporary vehicles with their hundreds of chips and telematics spyware are shit products. They are patently unacceptable at any price, including free. Shun them.
Indeed, Jim –
As an example: I am about to send out my Trans-Am’s dash clock to be repaired. The clock is a simple electromechanical device that can be easily unplugged and removed from the main gauge cluster. And it’s easily fixed. Everything in the Trans-Am is like this. Almost nothing in a new vehicle is like this. The electronic parts can be replaced – if they’re available. When they no longer are, they no longer can be.
My car is now almost 50 years old. And everything (other than the clock) still works because everything is mechanical. People sometimes snark at me for being a carb guy. But the Quadrajet that feeds fuel to my car’s engine is almost 50 years old. And can be easily rebuilt – by me – for less than $100. Try that with direct injection or even port fuel injection. Works great for about 15 years. Then one day, it doesn’t.
And then, that’s it.
Filing the contacts usually work.
Burnishing.
That’s what I meant….. 🙂
General aviation is like that. Airplanes started to become unaffordable in the 1980s and 1990s when the manufacturers got sued for anything and everything, and when technology started to become more expensive. Most of the small aircraft manufacturers went bankrupt or were restructured.
Consequently a LOT of the GA aircraft you see flying around are from the “golden age” of GA from the 1940s through the 1960s. It is not uncommon at all for people to be flying around in 70-80 year old airplanes like Piper Cubs and Aeronca Champs because everything on them is mechanical and can be fixed.
They are of course rebuilt multiple times to keep them flying, but the cost of keeping them airworthy is constantly increasing, and for many there is a point where it is no longer worth it. Imagine how much it would cost to restore a ’49 Ford to showroom condition — and then using it as your daily driver. With an airplane you cannot spare any expense because unlike and antique car, if the engine or frame fails it will kill you.
Consequently there are 200,000 fewer licensed pilots then there were in the 1970s, when the nation’s population was 130 million less.
The new cars got more and more dangerous….
An old carbureted ice engine only required 3 to 5 psi fuel pressure to run, and didn’t need to maintain pressure in the system when shut down…..
The newer cars…
Indirect fuel injection requires about 40 psi and has to maintain pressure in the system when not being used….CIS injection required 80 psi and has to maintain pressure in the system when not being used.
The new direct injection systems require 2000 psi to function and has to maintain pressure in the system when not being used.
The EV’s
A whole new level of danger, never before imagined….a 1000 lb lithium fire bomb battery under the car…..
Agenda 2030 slave reduction agenda?
Go back to carburetors…….for simplicity, low cost, very long life and safety….
Preach it, Anon!
I love the mechanical simplicity of carbs. There’s a directness and approachability that’s absent from EFI. To this day, I remember, as a kid, looking down the four barrel atop my parent’s Oldsmobile’s engine and working the throttle linkage and seeing how it worked. Impossible, with EFI (forget DI). Later, I took a QJet apart and understood how it worked, because (again) I could see how it worked.
That endeared them to me. I feel nothing for EFI. How could I? A plastic injector and some wires/connections. It works – or it doesn’t. Whenit doesn’t, throw it away and replace it with a new one. A carb can be rebuilt multiple times and last decades.
There is also the joys of carb tuning; playing with jets, metering rods, accelerator pumps, power valves, adjusting linkages… it’s a real art form. Tuning efi by reading a few graphs and typing on a laptop is about as nerdy and boring as can be. No disrespect those guys are smart but it’s not at all like manipulating physical parts, turning screws, and using a timing light and vacuum gauge to dial in a carb motor.
Get a few carb rebuilt kits and sets of throttle bushings for that Q-Jet NOW, Eric. Once the psychopaths in DC steal THIS upcoming election, and put a round in the back of OM’s thick skull, as the ability to block certain items you’re trying to buy online (RockAuto et al) will likely prevent you from buying an “emissions-related” parts for your Fire-Chicken. Or the Common-lack-of-wealth of VA, under control of the noodniks outta NOVA, will probably just refuse to allow that ’76 ‘bird to be registered for street-legal use.
My hit n miss engines are very much the same. Even an overeducated dumbass like me can machine some of the non-cast parts (e.g. trip arm or flyball weight). That said, on my old Sierra, with now shy of 400K on it, I can replace parts but not build from scratch.
I love watching and listening to those hit n miss engines running.