The Silence of the Hack Parrots

By
eric
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93
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Here is a quote from a review written about a vehicle I’m currently test driving – the ’24 Lexus RX, which is a popular mid-sized crossover:

“Prospective buyers concerned about the lack of a V6 engine (like the ones available with previous generation RXs) don’t need worry. The turbocharged 2.4 liter four cylinder engine provides ample grunt around town and shifts from the eight speed automatic are well timed. It’s a thoroughly modern drivetrain.”

This is an example of the soy-suffused apologias written by many car-reviewers today. “Apologia” isn’t even the right term, exactly – in that the reviewer isn’t apologizing for his failure to inform; his taking-as-given the “lack of a V6 engine.” His parrot-like squawk about the RX’s turbo-four-cylinder engine and eight speed automatic as being a “thoroughly modern drivetrain.” As if the 3.5 liter V6 and eight speed automatic it was paired with in the 2022 RX350 – which came with this drivetrain standard – was not, somehow, also “thoroughly modern.”

The V6 was brilliant, in fact. One of the best engines ever designed, by anyone. It is a big part of the reason for the success of Lexus – Toyota’s luxury brand, which made its debut back in 1989 and made its reputation, in part, on the smoothness, durability and value of its V6 engines. These engines are not antiquated or obsolescent or inferior in some way – the implication conveyed by referring to what has replaced them in almost all Lexus (and Toyota) vehicles that used to come standard with them, including the RX, as “modern.”

Well, how so? 

The reviewer does not elaborate. Or explain. So I will:

The 3.5 liter V6 that used to be standard in the RX and a number of other Lexus models – including the ES350 sedan that’s related to the Camry sedan, which also used to offer the same V6 – could no longer be made compliant with “modern” regulations. There is nothing un-modern about its design. It is an all-aluminum, dual overhead cam engine with variable cam timing and port fuel injection. It made 295 horsepower in the ’22 RX350 and had a redline of 6,300 RPM. What is not “modern” about this? 

Nothing, of course. 

The problem is that a V6 has too many cylinders.

This is not a problem for the owner but it is a problem for Lexus (for Toyota) and for every other car maker trying to sell six cylinder engines in the United States, because sixes use more gas than fours and that creates a compliance problem for the car makers. They are looking at federal gas mileage regs that are on track to ascend beyond 40 MPG to close to 50-plus MPG within just a few years from now.

You may think it’s a grand idea for the federal regulatory apparat to decree how many MPGs new vehicles must average – or else. But the result of this can be seen under the hoods of vehicles such as the ’24 RX – as well as the new Toyota Camry, which is also now a four-cylinder-only model. As is the new Toyota Tacoma, which also used to offer the same V6 you can no longer get in the RX, the Camry and various other Toyota models.

And the point of this diminution is that it has nothing to do with the ’24 RX’s turbo-four-cylinder engine being “thoroughly modern,” implying it is in some way superior to the 3.5 liter V6 that used to be standard in the RX and so many other Toyota/Lexus vehicles.

It isn’t. It is just smaller. And that makes it more compliant. 

Four cylinders (all else being equal) having less displacement than six, the engine draws in less air and burns less gas. At least, when it’s not under pressure. And here’s where it gets interesting, because here’s where the squawking press parrot doesn’t explain. At idle – and when not expected to produce much power – a “thoroughly modern” 2.4 liter turbo four will use a little less gas (and deliver higher MPG numbers) than a 3.5 liter V6. The latter delivered 20 city, 27 highway when it was last available in the RX350 back in 2022. Its turbo-four replacement, in the ’24 RX350 (which, interestingly, still carries the name that used to tout the V6 it longer offers) with the “thoroughly modern” turbo 2.4 liter four delivers – wait for it! – 22 city and 28 highway.

It also delivers less power – 275 horsepower now vs. 295 from the V6. 

So, a roughly 2 MPG gain overall – hypothetically, on paper. Because in fact – in the real world – when the owner of the turbo-four RX wants power, the turbo will boost the little four’s output by – wait for it! – causing it to burn more gas. This is what turbochargers do. They force-feed more air into the engine’s cylinders, effectively (albeit temporarily) increasing displacement and, thereby, power.

A car journalist – as opposed to a press parrot – would explain that.

The modest (and hypothetical) mileage gains are effaced in real world driving by the real-world need to boost the little four to make the power a V6 makes sans the boost. At the cost – in the case of the ’24 RX – of 15 horsepower. Not counting the cost of the new turbo-four-only ’24 RX”350″ – which starts at $48,600 vs. $45,920 for the ’22 RX350 – no air-fingers quote marks because it did come with a 3.5 liter V6, as its name implies.

It is interesting in this regard that Lexus elected not to rename the ’24 RX to reflect its “thoroughly modern” drivetrain.

Why? 

If the replacement for the V6 is an improvement, why not tout it? Why not RX240 rather than RX”350″? Why is the top-of-the-line RX500 – which implies a V8 (as per Lexus LS500, which used to come with exactly that) – not styled the “RX240”?   

The hack-parrot is silent.

. . .

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Related posts:
  1. The Exotic V6
  2. Bye-Bye V6 Accord . . .
  3. There Goes Another One
  4. Hamburger for the Price of Steak!
  5. Silence of the Lambs?

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93 COMMENTS

  3. Who benefits from the transition to EVs? CHINA ! ! No wonder Chyna Joe the Sock Puppet and his soy boys love them.

    I own a 2007 Civic Si, engine runs smooth as silk, from idle to redline. Max cruising speed according to the owner’s manual is 130 mph. 78,000 miles , for a Honda not broken in yet.

    Fun car, but I’d rather have my old Chevelle SS with the LS6 454.

    • Isn’t this akin to ethanol cars – they’re a cute novelty that can work in small clusters but can’t be used to run an economy? It’s the ol’ “lose control of the oil supply and lose control of your economy.”

  4. Re: 6 to 4, 8 to 6, etc…
    It actually has a lot to do with the unburnable tiny space between the top or the piston ring to the top of the piston. They have regulated emissions to this minuscule amount of space.
    But it’s a lot of space relative, if you consider 6 pistons at 3.5 litres compared to 4 pistons at 2.4L.
    How silly we have slid down the slippery slope.

  5. I went golfing yesterday. What does this have to do with this thread, you ask. Well, they had electric carts (which I much prefer to gas). The cart had great power and a quiet ride; nice for golfing. It also had a flat screen to show where you were on the course, traps, hazards and how far you were from the green and gave yardages to the pin, front and back.

    It had other features, too.

    If you drove into the parking lot it would limit the speed to 7mph. If you drove too close to a tee box, green, severe slope or other restricted area it would shut down. You had to put it in reverse and back into a permitted area at 1 mph.

    Welcome to EV World.

    • Yup. Very easy to geofence connected EVs (and likely also ICE vehicles). Like “driving” one of those Disneyworld cars that ride along a metal track, which has a speed governor and let’s you veer about 18 inches left or right. Lots of fun you know.

      For 100 years, automobiles have been a great way for the gubmint (and its cronies) to identify, bilk and control us. I expect that trend to continue.

        • Hi ML,

          That story is creepy, and yet ANOTHER reason NOT to get an automobile made within the past 10 years or so. Although, people who have practically any “smart” device, be it a smart tv, a smart meter, a smart appliance, or something else is likely already being spied on.

          • The sad thing, John is that most people don’t care that they are being spied on. None of us can be surprised by what is going on. The Mozilla Foundation report blew this wide open when it was released last September. If an individual buys a new vehicle today you do it at your own risk.

            • Hi RG,

              People may have been propagandized into believing that being spied on was a matter of “National Security” or that the government was only going to “Go after the bad guys”, which as you probably know depends on what the government considers “Bad guys”. The government’s definition of “Bad guys” expanded over the past who knows how many years to include people who expose government wrongdoing (e.g. Edward Snowden & Julian Assange), question government actions, question elections, refused to comply with nonsensical government diktats or be guinea pigs for Big Pharma, support someone OTHER than Joe Biden for President (particularly if it’s Trump or Robert F Kennedy Jr), people who own guns, people who own an automobile that that runs on gasoline and refuse to give it up for an EV, etc.

              As for newer automobiles having technologies with the ability to spy on people in it, you may like this Highwire editorial from a few months ago….

              https://thehighwire.com/editorial/the-government-wants-to-control-everything-and-now-they-are-after-your-cars/

        • Geo fencing and Geo timing….

          All new cars since 2016 probably have this capability built in….it just has to be activated….

          Geo fencing …this can limit where or how far you drive your car….

          Geo timing….this can limit when you can drive your car….like the possible climate lockdown…it is only for 2 weeks….which turns into 2 to 3 years…..

          First they took over the slave’s brain…now they are going to take over the brain in your car, so they can completely control it too……

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_DmgjTfwD4

    • I would stop going to that golf course or maybe just walk it (better for you anyway). Giving my business to somebody that treats me like a child is not an option. Fuk dat. My dignity and self respect are more important than some leisure activity (no offense to golfers).

    • I despise electric golf carts. A lot of nice courses will just shut them to a crawl if you get too close to the green or off the cart path in certain areas, which is pretty smart, I guess. I know Yamaha used to make really nice gas powered carts. My dad’s is just over 30 years old now and runs just fine.

  6. hack parrots won’t report…..

    BMW EV tells driver: “NO FAST CHARGING for two days!”

    ….big brother in your EV…you can’t even charge the piece of junk….lol

    EV owners are ruining their batteries with fast charging, so manufacturers are restricting EV owners from fast charging…..

    So now instead of wasting an hour to recharge you waste 4 hours?….

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhGPb1QOpl4

  7. Eric: A car journalist – as opposed to a press parrot – would explain that.

    When you look at the news in the main stream media perhaps you have noticed that it fails to coincide with what you see with your own eyes? This is because the advertisers can exert influence (Get the jab + sponsored by Pfizer) or .gov contacting the media and making “requests”.

    Sadly we are reaching the same point as the Soviet Union with the old Pravda (Truth)/ Izvestia (News) joke. There was at that point; “No truth in the news and no news in the truth.”

    And that is why the media shills lie; it’s profitable for them at least for a little while longer.

    • Indeed, Landru –

      I managed to avoid being in the position of having to sell out (in order to earn a living) by living below my means. Never bought a new car. Never bout a vehicle that cost me more than about $7,500. Wear cheap clothes. Live in a cheap place. It suits. And if it becomes untenable to continue doing that, then I’ll just get us a comfortable little RV, buy some land far, fa away – and say g’day to them all.

      • I live within my means in part so that coercing me will be less likely to succeed. As that old saying goes “Jab free since 2020″……..

        The song “A country boy can survive” says it all. The people with a lot of money generally hire someone to do the tasks that they consider menial. People who earn a lot less money tend to either learn how to do it themselves or do without.

        I’m learning how to do generator repair in part because the fools in charge will make sure you will need one but will probably ban the sale of new machines as they are burning gasoline or propane.

        • At 69 I’d rather turn many tasks over to someone else however that rarely turns out well. My daughter and I joke that we have some family curse working against us. Certain things are “out of scope” for me like our recent HVAC replacement & that tale of hack work woe I related earlier to RG. So, car & house maintenance is on me mainly to avoid the frustration dealing with incompetent repair people.

          I was lucky to have a grandpa well versed in handyman tasks. He passed when I was only 7 but he had already taught me basic veggie gardening, hand tools and care, simple project layout such as the HO train set table he and I built. He was a tool and pattern guy by trade smart as a whip. Somehow my brother unearthed a paper he published on tooling steel that you’d need a degree these days to understand. What a life – born in 1878 horse and buggy to the dawn of the space age in 1962.

          • Odd, is it not, how the technological advances from 1962 to 2024 have been overwhelmingly digital, rather than physical and tangible? Yet our standard of living — compared to huge jump from 1878 to 1962 — has changed hardly at all.

            One could live, motor about, and recreate just as well in 1962 as now — despite having to physically visit a library to look up info that’s now available in milliseconds on Google … if it isn’t shadow-banned.

            As a politician might rhetorically ask: are you better off now than you were sixty years ago?

      • Life does not have to be “either or.” We are all on this Earth for a short period of time (80 years, if we are lucky), and it should be enjoyed and savored. What is the point of scrimping, saving, and sacrificing if at the end of the day you can’t enjoy your hard work?

        One can be debt free and still find pleasure in living. That means different strokes for different folks, but I am a believer that there is nothing wrong with wearing well made clothes, driving nice cars, traveling, dining at top restaurants if that is what someone favors. Work hard, play hard. We all should be able to enjoy what we labor for. That doesn’t mean we should go in arrears for it, but martyrdom shouldn’t be a mind set.

        • I agree, RG!

          Heck, it’s why I treated myself to the lift in the garage! But I was able to treat myself because I am careful with money and only treat myself when I can afford to. I used to get into arguments with my mom over this business. She spent above her means and ended up in a not-good place as a result. I think it’s important to avoid extremes, either way. I don’t want to live like this dude I watched on YouTube the other day (someone here posted the link previously): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbZeg9I-gQI

          • Yeah, that video is not how I would want to live. To each his own, but I am a big proponent of showering. I don’t see any place I could put a bath tub or store my large collection of bath salts.

      • Living of the grid in the desert…..

        As far out as one can get in the continental United States is a place tethered to nothing other than the open skies, dramatic landscapes, and a deep feeling of freedom. Removed from the stresses and restraints of the cities is a community living by their own rules.

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

  8. When the weather is nice, I’ll take a walk around downtown Tulsa. 90% of the cars that drive by sound like vacuum cleaners. It’s depressing. A bunch of pickups still have that V8 rumble, and on occasion a performance car like a mustang or challenger will drive by with obvious modifications to the exhaust to make it sound mean. I wonder what it was like walking these streets in the 60’s and 70’s?

    I like to drive my 79 Firebird around the downtown area sometimes at lunch. The cat deleted dual 3″ exhaust trumpeting out of the Flowmaster style mufflers really echo off of the buildings nicely. All the suited business people look and smile and some give the thumbs up.

    Cops will write tickets for loud exhaust, but I haven’t been written up. I didn’t see any cops chasing the fighter jet that rumbled overhead a few minutes ago, sounding like thunder. Guess it’s ok when it’s their fellow GovCo employees.

  9. And those engines cannot last nowhere nearly as long due to being turbocharged.
    Bureaucrats really are one group of poeple that really need to be purged of this planet.

  10. Objective: make modern ICE offerings so miserable, so overworked, so buried under complex tech, half baked engineering and feature bloat of dubious reliability and longevity that the marks will gladly switch to EVs.

    Sorry. I am an automotive minimalist, but unless it’s a Geo Metro or Mirage I will never consider as 3 cyl. Or an EV.

  11. A four-banger engine is inherently unbalanced in the secondary sense; it takes six or better, eight cylinders to cancel out that dynamic balance. There are reasons when the auto industry could simply innovate in response to consumer demand that six and then eight-cylinder engines replaced the fours in all but the smallest of vehicles, where the small size made whatever vibrations the little four-banger put out tolerable.

    • Correcto! The two cars we have with a V6 are reasonably smooth but not the match for a well designed V8 for smooth especially at idle. The daughters 2015 Mazda 6 series is a fine car, but that 4 banger just isn’t going to idle smooth and accelerate as smooth as at least a V6. When I drive it I pop it into neutral at a long light to get a decent idle with minimal shudder. Our V8 ‘91 truck with nearly 200k miles still idles like an old line luxury car.

      What saves the modern 4 banger is the gazillion gears automatics. That Mazda is pretty zippy for a non turbo 4 even though it sounds like s**t under hard acceleration.

    • Correction:

      A 4-cycle 4-cylinder engine is inherently unbalanced.

      A 2-cycle 4-cylinder engine should be able to balance just fine.

  12. ‘The hack-parrot is silent.’ — eric

    … as the barbaric relic, gold, approaches a 20 percent gain since mid-February. Chart:

    https://tinyurl.com/2zth48bm

    Real money says that their fiat currency / permawar system is cracking up, gradually then suddenly.

    Let it bleed.

    • … as the barbaric relic, gold, approaches a 20 percent gain since mid-February……way under valued still…manipulated since 1971…..

      Meanwhile the stock market looks like it might have topped out?….way overvalued….real estate market too…..

      https://finviz.com/futures.ashx

    • Silver is a better investment then gold…for leverage….and there is far less silver on the planet…above ground…then gold….

      and silver is used up in manufacturing…think solar panels….millions of them…..

  13. Curious that the hack parrot failed to mention the reduction in durability. In fact, all it mentioned is that “it’s just as good”, which it isn’t, given the durability issue.

    • I think it’s a longevity compromise even without a turbo. The stress / physics of moving that mass with 4 pistons vs 6 or 8 – no thanks.

  15. When you hear the put-put of a four-cylinder engine, you can tell right away that it is not a V6 or V8.

    For the size of the vehicle that you see, a four-cylinder will be under-powered.

    Easy decision after that, don’t buy one. They’ll make good clown cars.

    Probably 24 years ago or maybe more, Jim Cramer was doing an analysis on Company XYZ. He advised viewers to sell. I was well aware of Company XYZ, the company merged with Honeywell and never was a sell to begin with.

    The CEO of Company XYZ became the CEO of Honeywell.

    If you were holding shares and were advised to sell, there was a buyer, had to be.

    A lot of foam and froth in the DOW at 39,239 today.

    What a clown Cramer is, but he was just saying words he was told to speak, just plain lying, nothing else. Parroted everything. Cramer had bells and whistles and horns and whatnot back then. Can’t listen to a word he says. Worst investment advice you’ll ever hear.

    Squawk Box nonpareil.

  16. I put a throttle position sensor in my elderly neighbors’ mid-90s Camry on Sunday afternoon. They got the most informative of all cautions / warning / alerts, check engine. Heck the car doesn’t even have 100K on it. Charmed life of elderly retirement, I suppose.

    Anyhow, I told him to hang onto that V6 bc its gonna be worth something when the EV thing grenades and the bevy of turbos start failing. Not sure if that’s true but it sure seems like it.

    • Hi Mike and others, Good advice here for those ‘check engine’ lights. Buy a can of Deoxit. Read and follow directions on the can. Clean the computer pins and terminal plugs. I have found this fixes the warning light issues 80% of the time. This is what I do before replacing ANY expensive parts. 🙂

  17. Establishment media & the Biden regime have also been silent on REAL environmental damage resulting from things such as endless wars, a giant leak of methylene chloride from a Pfizer plant into a river in Michigan to the blowing up (by the U.S. government no doubt) of Nordstream II pipeline to the toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio last year. Has anyone heard about East Palestine, Ohio 1 year after that disaster?

  18. “hack parrots” – Ha! I like that one.

    …Lotsa those around, in many arenas.

    Also, good, thought provoking comments from your other readers, below.

  19. I get better gas mileage with my new SUV that has an inline turbo 6 cylinder than I did with my Audi A4 Allroad with a 2.0T. The thing is that that stupid little shit in the Audi, I had to be on that damn peddle every second for it to perform anywhere near what I wanted. With my new SUV, I only need to get on the peddle when I want a nice surge. Very little peddle required to drive the way that I’m happy. And, when I get on the peddle with the 6-cyl, I usually get off it pretty quickly. With that stupid 2.0T, I couldn’t let off forever. I would’ve killed that car eventually; I just know it. 6 cylinder makes way more sense to me.

    And the 2.0T in the Audi, even on long hauls, was only getting 20MPG. I get that all the time with the new SUV and better most of the time (except short trips).

  20. The 2.4 liter Toyota? No thanks. And turbocharged to boot? Double no thanks.

    This thing will get the 22 MPG they tout – for oil.

  21. There’s been an awful lot of silence the past few years from establishment media & government on various issues, from harms caused by draconian COVID lockdowns and the “Safe and Effective!” COVID jabs to the Ukraine war NOT going the way we’ve been endlessly told it was to the obvious BS about EVs being some sort of “Climate savior”.

  22. They’re b-a-a-a-a-a-c-k — 535 Congress Clowns flocked in their foul buzzard nest on Capitol Hill, hell bent on bankrupting us:

    ‘Drama is building in the House as lawmakers return to work on Tuesday waiting to see if Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) will follow through on her threat to force a vote to unseat Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).

    ‘[Johnson has] made clear that his first priority will be more military assistance to Kyiv’s beleaguered forces, along with new funding for Israel, Taiwan and security at the U.S.-Mexico border.

    ‘But the Ukraine portion of that package risks a direct confrontation with Greene, who has all but dared the Speaker to put such a measure on the floor, warning it would lead to his ouster.’

    https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4581611-johnson-gauntlet-greene-ouster-threat/

    If you take any interest in the shady, sordid spectacle of log rolling, this is the week to call your Congress Clown and demand no more dirty dollars for Kyiiiiiiiiiiiv.

    • Every Congressclown who votes money for Keeeeev and Israhell should be ousted and tried for treason. Our infrastructure is failing apart while those s.o.b.’s can’t send $billions to foreign countries fast enough. Throw them all into the slammer.

  23. Since ditching my 4 cylinder BMW 3 series for a 3 series with an inline 6 I can say is there is a noticeable difference in power. It would be pretty hard to go back now.

  24. Worse than the silence of the “hack parrots”…periodicals spewing crap like Toad & Smack (road & track) and Liar & Shyster (car & driver)!!

    It is the scribbling of the “Luggenpress” full of lying liars telling lies about the “improvements” of modern vehicles…while lowering the capabilities!!!

    Next the Luggenpress will inform us that next week, our chocolate rations will be increased to 5 grams from 10 grams, a la Big Brother, just as George Orwell predicted in “1984”, which was written to be a warning, and not a “how-to manual”…

  25. Tax dollars at work….slowly regulating all cars off the road…the real agenda

    The slave owning control group steals tax money from the slaves….then uses the money to bring in more regulations to harm the slaves….

    The tax system is a con!…..Why are the slaves taxed when there isn’t even a profit?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGN44Qq8Dus

    • The Supreme Court agrees!
      [The term income is defined nowhere in Title 26 of the US Code, which is the law that relates to the “income” tax. The term “income” has repeatedly been held by the courts to indicate “gain on capital” and not receipts, wages or a fee received in exchange for selling an item of property. Since a tax on property would be a direct, unapportioned tax that the US Constitution does not allow, even selling a house for more than you paid for it would be a direct tax on property. As you will see below, the US Supreme Court has ruled, not just once, but repeatedly, that the federal government cannot levee a tax on your property, and ultimately, your labor.]

      Problem is government ignores it. Irwin Shiff fought it,,, died in his eighties chained to his bed in prison. Like a dog that gets the taste of blood the mutts in clowngress and the executive continue on their merry way oblivious to the Constitution or the Supremo’s.

      As an example of governments lawlessness observe the border problems. Observe the money wasted on non citizens. All contrary to the Constitution and laws on the books. Observe the J6 group called insurrectionists.

      The government is completely rogue. Spending illegally acquired taxes,,, illegally printed counterfeit on wars that are in no way related to the security of the nation. In fact I’d venture to say the monies given are a direct security risk. No where in the Constitution does it allow for handing tax receipts to foreign nations for any reason.

      Gullible Americans in general are fine with this situation so long as they think it does not affect them or simply do not care.

      For those interested….

      https://www.freedomlawschool.org/posts/the-us-supreme-court-definition-of-income

  26. ‘The hack-parrot is silent.’ — eric

    What was once a rare sighting of a hack parrot has morphed into vast swarms of them, blotting out the sky like passenger pigeons used to do.

    Green vehicles, green power plants, and semiconductor ‘chip mountains’ have become magic totems of marauding hack parrots, elevated into a political empyrean where they are now sacrosanct state doctrine.

    Taiwan Semiconductor will build a third plant in Arizona, collecting a cumulative $85 BILLION in fedgov subsidies. This is de facto state industry, comrades — a hybrid of the Soviet and fascist models. Come for the construction jobs; stay for the price-crushing overcapacity.

    Today the New York Slimes chronicles an increasingly desperate effort to prop up America’s moribund electrical grid, which needs to double its capacity by 2040 to support the fulminating AI and EeeVee bubbles:

    ‘Today, most power lines consist of steel cores surrounded by strands of aluminum, a design that’s been around for a century. Several companies have developed cables that use smaller, lighter cores such as carbon fiber to hold more aluminum [conductor], carrying up to twice as much current as older models.

    ‘Replacing existing power lines with cables made from state-of-the-art materials — known as “advanced reconductoring” — could roughly double the capacity of the electric grid in many parts of the country, making room for much more wind and solar power.’

    https://archive.ph/EsqXD#selection-3271.0-3271.339

    AAARGHH! The Slimes stenographer, brightly feathered and pecking the keyboard with his yellowed beak, just couldn’t resist appending his ritual ‘Wind and solar, praise be upon them!’ fillip, ruining the article for tech nerds merely interested in the facts, ma’am.

    Death to the Lügenpresse.

    • Even if these alleged 2X gains are possible it’s incredibly difficult to compete with a product already built. That’s the reason why cable TV lines haven’t been supplanted by fiber in most areas for Internet. The coax offers similar capacity, is simple to maintain and most importantly, paid for. Fiber on the reel is cheaper than coax on the reel, but you have to pay men to install it, splice it and terminate it. That’s the expensive part. Now the nice thing is once you bite the bullet and cut the dividend it will pay off in the long run, but you have to have a CEO willing to take a long view with the shareholders. Maybe you have enough cashflow to pay for it, maybe not. Maybe you won’t have a municipal broadband interloper come along and kneecap your rates with taxpayer supplied subsidies… maybe your cable competitor won’t drop their prices to keep market share…

      Steel is pretty easy to install. Carbon fiber? Who knows? I know that my CF bicycle frame is basically unrepairable. If it cracks or is damaged, that’s it. My steel frame tourer can be repaired with basic welding tools, although the quality of the frame might mean I want someone who knows what he’s doing making the repair. CF usually requires layers of material infused with resin cured in a vacuum bag and heated. That might not work so well on a utility pole. But OK I’ll give ’em the benefit of the doubt. Still doesn’t resolve the labor cost.

      And with intermittent sources you have to build for peak power from the source, not a balanced system. Some sources will be running above name plate capacity while others are idle. So everything needs to be built to the extreme instead of expected load. Kinda like living with a bipolar girlfriend, but that’s enough bad analogies for one post…

      • Forbes is on the ‘advanced reconductoring’ case too, with an article from which the NY Slimes hack parrot seems to have cribbed heavily before shitting his cage liner.

        Shockingly, Forbes even includes a cross-section of steel core and ‘composite’ core cables — an immersion into the grubby world of men, machines and manufacturing that, to effete Slimes readers, would mean getting their fingernails dirty and ruining their manicure.

        But then Forbes’ hack parakeet pledges his undying allegiance to the Kultursmog:

        ‘Congress should fund grid modernization and expansion, industry collaboration, and training for utilities to work with advanced conductors, beyond the funds allocated in the Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure and Investment Jobs Act.’

        https://tinyurl.com/6caacbte

        *sigh*

        Might as well smoke another bowl of crack with my concubines …

        • Second that John,
          Even if there was a breakthrough in ambient temperature superconductors and transmission lines could be cost effectively reconductored with such there’s not enough generation behind them. Gonna need some reliable base load for Big Brother to run all those “data centers” being set up to watch over all of us sefs 24/7.

        • Here in WA they’re hell bent on removing stable generating capacity as well. The Snake River dams provide about 10% of our power here, better yet it is year round 24/7 stable power resource. The visitor center at the local wind farm even states the wind farm is viable because of the adjacent Columbia River hydro system that can throttle up/down quickly in response to wind power variations. This place has become a nightmare of insanity:

          https://www.columbiariverkeeper.org/news/2023/12/breaking-news

          Dear Wagon Burners – you lost. Want to fish for salmon go see your relatives up in B.C. and Alaska. Oh and the missing salmon go look at the ocean scavenging factory trawlers and the exploding sea lion population. G. damn I am sick of this nonsense.

      • CF is similar to fiberglass….to repair the crack….

        maybe apply some fiberglass resin….a layer of fiberglass cloth…some more resin….?

      • That CF bike frame is easily repairable. The skill exists. Those experienced in its use are mostly in Taiwan or China where frames have been made by hand for 20 years. Here in consumer land weve outsourced many useful trades. The local guy who repairs frames from all over just rode by on his daily ride. Major waiting list for his services. The bike industry just sabatoged itself by involving in lithium ion mopeds. Enjoy the ride while we still can

        • I test rode an e-bike a few years ago. Really fun, at “full assist” it was effortless to get up to 20 MPH on flats. But it was hardly riding a bicycle. And for $3K+ I think I’ll just keep my granny ring triple tourer. I’m not that old yet.

    • Is the SOLAR PANEL WASTE CRISIS arriving faster than we thought?

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

      People believe that the Sun provides energy 24/7….but… You can only get sufficient power between 10am – 3pm. Even within that timeframe Solar provides insufficient power for industrial applications.

      As of now we have no way to recycle solar panels. They are loaded with lead and cadmium that leech from the panels and contaminate soil. When retired, they will need to be stored in a dry space forever.

      Renewables and industry built around propaganda in every sector of our Society. Lie long enough everyone accepts it as the truth. Problem is in in the real world ‘Mother Nature’ doesn’t give a damn about Climate Change Zealots lies.

      Transition from burgeoning wealth for the masses to grinding poverty for all but a few. Who’s not for that?

      The experience in Denmark the useful “life time” of a giant windmill is 20 years when they have to be scrapped,i.e.buried since they cannot be recycled. An oil refinery many are approaching 100 years of operation with updates are not obsolete.

      More evidence, if it was needed, that the “green new deal” isn’t about energy at all. It’s about hobbling the productive sectors of civilization in order to benefit the unproductive sectors. For the equity. On the plus side, the GND provides essentially unlimited opportunities for graft and corruption.

      It’s only “green” (as in the color of money) for the grifters who are perpetuating the wind and solar companies.

      It’s clear the leftists are sending us down a dead end road with windmills and solar panels. A major problem will be that, having already spent billions of dollars and more billions on the way, they will be increasingly unwilling to admit the money has all been wasted.

      They will thus become increasingly unwilling to back down, even when confronted with the dismal facts of failure. It’s the same thing as has happened with California’s high-speed train, only on steroids.

    • from video comments….

      The problem with the solar panel recycling is it cost $30 to recycle a meters square panel and only recoups about $3 worth of useful material. These facilities also show people wearing hazmat suits during the process. Neither one of these sound very environmental to me. Of course I am just a conservative not an environmentalist

      A poster said….Been working on a big ‘solar farm’ we are doing the switchgear for near Adelaide. The panels are from China and are shite. 1 year old farm. As big as Harborne and Egbaston put together. They had 10x 40ft containers full of scrap panels less than a year old. The failure is off the charts. Its total BS mate….cheap Chinese junk….

      One of the greatest problems with recycling semiconductor glass is that the silicon itself will never be pure enough to make new semiconductors. Same reason it is impossible to make clear glass out of colored scraps.

      having PV panels on your land for 5 years reclassifies the land as Brown belt land – not Green belt….they leach chemicals…it pollutes the soil…. Brown belt is able to apply for planning permission. More money in that than solar panels!

      Solar farms in the Northeastern US turn beautiful green meadows into dystopian black hell-scapes. And in the Summer, the panels absorb and reflect the sun’s heat, turning these meadows into giant heat sinks. that contributes to global warming?

      one thing that isn’t disclosed is solar panels are inrepairable since they’re bonded to each other (glued together) meaning if one LED fails inside it that entire row of LED’s is dead because of this solar panels have an incredibly short lifespan meaning they can’t offset there costs of manufacturing or their carbon production from being made.

      if one LED fails inside it that entire row of LED’s is dead …sounds like EV batteries…lol

      And here in Lincolnshire we currently have proposals from 20 companies to cover over 35,000 acres with Solar Panels, add that to a further 15,000 acres proposed for North Notts and that’s 50,000 acres (of decent arable land taken out of agriculture) in a relatively small area. This would be storing up disposal/recycling problems for the future, never mind most of the profits going to China.

      a poster said…..former wife installed solar panels in 2011, against my advice, while I was away working.
      Result, immediately, if you had had showers at night and I have a family of 5, there was no hot water unless you charged off the grid at full cost. Prior to installation, you could use off peak, much cheaper rates !
      After a few years several panels no longer worked, now all have ceased to work! We are still having to pay much more expensive PEAK rates.
      ALL renewables ARE A SCAM.

      The Solar panels/Batteries that I have will never give me a ROI in 10 years time as they do not work in the winter and over heat in the summer and now I will have to add the disposal cost into the ROI.

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

      • A poster said….Been working on a big ‘solar farm’ we are doing the switchgear for near Adelaide. The panels are from China and are shite. 1 year old farm. As big as Harborne and Egbaston put together. They had 10x 40ft containers full of scrap panels less than a year old. The failure is off the charts. Its total BS mate….cheap Chinese junk….

        Can you imagine the amount of tax slave’s money that is being burned up by the lefist’s pushing this green bs?….

        and 80% of all this crap comes from China…only benefiting them…..all G7 leaders are CCP….lol

    • Go out and buy candles….power outages coming…

      AI Demand For Data Centers Is “Absurd”…increasing demands on the grid…just like EV’s…which will cause far higher electricity prices and rationing….

      To switch to EV’s they said would require a 500% increase in the grid’s capacity….now with AI it will be way worse….current capacity is actually dropping…..freeze in the dark soon?…..

      A surge in artificial intelligence demand is sparking the need for significant upgrades to the nation’s decades-old power grid as new data warehouses come online. Several of the nation’s power grids face increasing power brownout/blackout risks during high-demand periods.

      https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/ai-demand-data-centers-absurd-next-trade-unfolds

  27. The more I think about it, as you post more & more articles about the ever shrinking ICE engine sizes and the general downgrades across the board in power & performance, I’m starting to sense a pattern. Because I have become so cynical reading this site, I’m now wondering if part of the strategy to “EV” everyone isn’t also to target people who like performance cars as well. (myself definitely included in this)

    “Well, -yes-, we DID offer V8s and turbo V6s in the bad old days, but no more. Now, you want some serious horsepower? Get yourself a nice Eee-Vee!”

    You’ve touched on this repeatedly, that the original EVs were actually something that made sense. Smaller ‘city cars’ smaller range, less battery weight, lower price, generally affordable. Those were sort of done away with. Now they are all basically luxury cars, with the EVs that were actually practical and affordable being phased out effectively. 50K+ price tag to walk in the door.

    So now the EVs are the fastest cars on the road for the most part. BUT! As you pointed out that comes with considerable cost, that being range. You drive an EV like a Vette and you will be lucky to get half the range out of it because accelerating that much weight that fast repeatedly will drain that battery lickety split.

    The whole thing is so sinister it feels like some plot to a bad B movie, but it’s real. 🫤

    • “So now the EVs are the fastest cars on the road for the most part.”….that is a MSM lie…pure propaganda….

      EV’s are so useless they had to push the only thing they are good at…0 to 30 mph….which is completely useless because it causes very bad driving dynamics…it makes people seasick….motion sickness….

      after that they start dropping off….midrange their power drops off…. and electric motors have very weak top end so have very low top speeds compared to high performance ice cars….exactly where you need lots of power…the top end…the electric motor has none…lol…

      electric motors in cars are far inferior to ice engines…they figured that out 100 years ago….now they are trying to revive dead technology through lies, mass marketing disinformation, paid for by stolen taxes and coercion…force…

      There is a lot more to going from A to B then just 0 to 30 mph acceleration…on lots of roads there is corners….because EV’s are so heavy they will always be the slowest cars….their braking and cornering is poor….and they change direction like a 5000 lb whale…very slow….just take a look at the electric car Nurburgring lap times…where there is actual corners….they are slow…

      Very high performance ice cars are a lot quicker then any EV….Top fuel dragsters, F1, Indy cars, GT3 cars, IMSA cars, DTM cars, LMDh cars, etc., etc., many ice cars modified for drag racing, many modified ice cars for the street will beat any EV….

      On a 400 mile trip, even a 100 HP ice car will beat any EV….the elapsed time for the trip, for the ice car will be less because the EV will have to stop and charge….so the EV is slower….

      EV’s are very slow compared to good ice powered cars…and are very boring…

      For example here is an Audi RS3 with 1300 HP…0 to 60… 1.6 seconds…1/4 mile under 8 seconds…it weighs 3000 lb…..far quicker then any EV….and is pure emotion, it has sound….EV’s are dead…for dead people….

      The Audi RS3 is powered by a little 2.5 liter…5 cylinder engine….one of the best engines on the planet…it is one half of a Lamborghini V10 engine….

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmTqHWS7IeQ

      • Well-said, Anon!

        Most “high performance” EVs top out around 130 MPH – which isn’t very fast by almost any remotely modern standard. A 1976 Trans-Am with the 200 horsepower 455 and four speed could achieve about the same, all out. The Benz EV I drove recently touts close to 500 horsepower but isn’t appreciably faster. In part because it is so goddamned heavy. I can attest – having driven dozens of EVs – that they jump off the line very impressively. But that – as you say – after that initial burst of acceleration, you notice things are slowing down. At the same time, you also notice how fast your range remaining is plummeting. The same basic thing occurs in a powerful gas-engine performance car. But the difference is it doesn’t matter – because it’s so easy and fast to get more fuel.

        • My 06 Miata redlined at 120mph in 4th gear. Though I never pushed it further, it seemed to have power left for more in 5th gear. By my calculation, it would redline in 5th at about 140.

        • I wonder what’s stopping the EV engineers from adding a transmission? If all of the EV’s torque is down low, why not create a transmission to take advantage by keeping the motors’ RPMs low where the peak torque is?

          • If an ice powered car came with an engine with the same characteristics as an electric motor….nobody would buy it….and no manufacturer would even try to sell it….

            Electric motors have full torque at 1 RPM…a lot of torque…..the problem with that is there is no transmissions around that will take the torque…it breaks them….

            (Porsche made their own in house transmissions with 2 gears….)

            No transmission….you can’t get peak efficiency and fuel economy…and high top speed…… in a Tesla the motor is turning over at 18,000 RPM at top speed…..causing motor failures….premature wear….and bad fuel economy…25 MPG for EV’s…

            Electric motors have full torque at 1 RPM….this causes horrible driving dynamics….a huge surge on initial takeoff….an uncomfortable ride….you get seasick….this was marketed as a plus….0 to 60 in 3 seconds….they knew it was a negative….

            0 to 60 in 3 seconds….you get seasick….part of the problem is it is not accompanied by an increase/change in sound like an ice engine…this disorients people in the EV…so they puke….EV’s are the worst product ever forced upon the public…..

          • …..If all of the EV’s torque is down low, why not create a transmission to take advantage by keeping the motors’ RPMs low where the peak torque is?….right…

            The problem is they break all the transmissions available right now…some are supposedly coming..haha…

            EV’s use very aggressive diffs for performance….

            Apart from the Porsche Taycan Taycan, with a two -speed transmission every production EV uses a single-speed transmission,

            EV makers setup their EV’s for quick 0 to 30 for around town…(and to help marketing lies)….they are not suited for the highway, because they have a one speed transmission so have a low top speed…limited by having only one gear…and suffer high motor rpm and bad fuel economy…

            Where most electrics top out around 125 mph (Tesla limits its cars to 163), the Taycan will touch 161 mph….top speed is limited by the diff. ratio and maximum engine rpm….

            NOTE: these EV’s have very short diff. ratios….increasing motor rpm….Taycan 8.0 to 1….Tesla 9.0 to 1…..compared to a Corvette 4.1 to 1……another reason they accelerate quickly….

            The Porsche Taycan electric motors reach up to 16,000 revolutions per minute…..it has a 2 speed transmission

            The maximum RPM of a Tesla motor …it has a 1 speed transmission….depends on the vehicle, but the new carbon-sleeved motor is capable of 23,308 RPM @ 200 mph compared to the previous P100D redline of 18,000 RPM @ 155 mph…..lower rpm in the Taycan motor means less wear, longer lifespan…..

            Nobody would buy an ice powered car that was geared for 11,000 rpm engine speed at 100 mph….like the EV’s have…..lol

            All lies and BS…

            NOTE: these EV’s have very short diff. ratios…Taycan 8.0 to 1….Tesla 9.0 to 1…..compared to a Corvette 4.1 to 1…..shorter diff. ratios = quicker acceleration….

            there is lots of ice cars that would have a very quick 0 to 30 mph time if they had a 9.0 to 1 diff…….

    • Indeed, Useranon99 –

      The idea seems to be to make the EV the “vehicle of choice” by making those that aren’t seem pathetic in comparison. A good case in point is the current Mercedes S-Class, which used to come standard with a V8, which put it a cut above the mid-priced stuff that came with V6s. You got something objectively more for your money. What do you get today? The S-Class comes standard with a small six that hardly makes more power than the sixes that used to be available in Camrys that cost less than half as much. Which raises the obvious question: Why would anyone want to pay six figures for what has become – essentially – a pricey Camry?

      • On exception is Porsche……The billionaire class can still get a V8…..

        Porsche made one good move, they brought back the V8 in their Cayenne SUV, now it will have a na V8 in the base model again instead of a turbo V6…sales dropped when they dropped the V8…..

        The V8 has about the same HP as the Hybrid V6, but is quicker because it doesn’t haul around a heavy battery….proving pure ice engines are better…..

      • Mercedes and all the other luxury cars have got worse….

        The W126 era of Mercedes S Class was way ahead of its competitors, so much so that it can still stand comparison to the best of today’s luxury cars.

        But more surprising is that buying a W126 era of Mercedes S Class….. then using it every day for three years, would work out cheaper than buying a Porsche Taycan….or other high end EV luxury car…

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMW7F96H-w4

        • Awards

          The 300 SD received the 1981 Motor Trend Import Car of the Year.

          The 380 SE was the Wheels Magazine Car of the Year in 1981.

          The W126 was awarded the U.S. Highway Loss Data Institute “Safest Passenger Car of the Year” in 1988 and 1989.

          The W126 was the third-ranked luxury vehicle in J.D. Power’s 1990 Initial Quality Survey (IQS).

          From 1987 to 1990, Mercedes received the highest customer ratings in the J.D. Power Sales Satisfaction Index.

          W126 weighed 3500 lb…so is better then a 5000 lb EV…

          Diesel was available….even better…some old diesel Mercedes went one million miles….

          W126 auctions…the last great S class….

          https://bringatrailer.com/mercedes-benz/w126/

          an EV will probably go 70,000 to 100,000 miles (if you fast charge it…even less)… till the battery is screwed…then it will have zero value and be scrapped…that is progress….lol….

      • Right….

        Through regulations they have been ruining ice cars since 1970…..they are almost totally destroyed now….and soon will be banned….

  28. Eric wrote, “Four cylinders (all else being equal) having less displacement than six, the engine draws in less air and burns less gas. At least, when it’s not under pressure.”

    Which begs the question, how is this different than VW and their diesels? Under laboratory conditions the diesels emitted one thing but, under load, another.

    When owners realize they won’t be getting the touted mileage will Toyota get the Hyundai treatment? Or worse, the VW perp walk?

    Enquiring minds want to know.

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