Well, at least they aren’t sending us to camps… yet.
That’s probably next. One thing does follow another, like dominos. The logic of it being as inexorable, ultimately, as gravitational pull.
So I ought not to be surprised that GM has pulled its panties tight and told me I will no longer be granted access to GM press vehicles because of the article (this one) I wrote a few weeks back about GM’s retiring Vice President of Diversity, the right reverend Dr. Eric Peterson, LLD, DDS.
Well, GM hasn’t said it’s because of that.
Sort of like not mentioning the role of the Moon’s pull on the inflow of the tide.
It is just coincidence that, after an unbroken 23-year run of regular access to GM’s press fleet, of having written for almost every major auto mag/paper/web site, including cars.com, TheCarConnection, AOL Autos, The Detroit Free Press, Chicago Tribune, major airlines’ in-flight magazines… it just happens that a couple of weeks after that article ran, I get a sour note from Joseph LaMuraglia of GM’s “media team” (we’re all team players!) that their internal metrics or some such criteria as fed into an algorithm have spat out the result that I am no longer eligible:
Eric,
Thank you for your notes. As I mentioned before, we are in the midst of a restructuring of our fleets to reduce costs. This cost reduction involves reducing the number of vehicles and consequently, the number of loans we offer.
Unfortunately, based on the responses you provided on the survey and the facts stated above, we cannot offer you any vehicles at this time.
Thank you for your understanding.
Joe LaMuraglia
Meanwhile, EPAutos has more eyes on it than my old newspaper – The Washington Times – ever did.
I mentioned this to LaMuraglia without effect.
He, of course, did not mention the Peterson article, the true source of the trouble.
Someone inside GM saw it and – no doubt – an outgushing of micro (and macro) aggressed aggrievement erupted.
Within the company, to show less than orgiastic enthusiasm for “diversity” – however defined by the perpetually aggrieved – is a worse offense than forged engineering credentials or having designed a defective engine. One must demonstrate the sort of striving joy toward Persons of Color (except one color) described by Orwell when he portrayed the yoga-suited harpie female exercise (“physical jerks”) leader who put Winston Smith through his paces.
“You’re not trying, Comrade! Anyone under 40 is perfectly capable of touching his toes! Watch me. I am 35 and I have had three children. There! That’s better!”
This isn’t just GM; the entire industry is lousy with racial (and sexual) Stalinism. To be white and male is to be a cretin by default who must genuflect and atone; who must never, ever evince the slightest hesitation about embracing diversity.
Your Libertarian Car Guy pulled away from the camel clutch – and now GM wants to make me hombel.
Not just me, either.
The message is clear: Do not criticize the gods else the gods will be angered. Cue smoke, glowing eyes and – where possible – thunderbolts of punishment.
Oz is affronted!
Well, good. It’s high time.
Racial animosity – on the part of most whites – is a phantom menace. Myself – and other white guys I know – haven’t done any oppressing lately.
I have, however, rolled my eyes at race-hustling “journalists” Of Color who hector the car company marketing/PR people at press conferences with race-laced questions about what efforts the company is making toward “increasing diversity” and “appealing to the (put racial/sexual/preferential category here, except straight white male) “community.”
That is crime enough.
Writing an actual column along those lines amounts to a capital offense – or the next best thing.
I have been privileged (not in the racial entitlement sense) to have interviewed guys like Bill Porter, the Pontiac engineer who designed the gorgeous Honeycomb wheels that grace my ’76 Trans-Am and also early GTOs and other classic Pontiacs. I am privileged to know Martyn Schorr – a name car guys will immediately recognize. I have become friends with many people inside GM, some of whom remain – but must remain silent, else they will no longer remain there.
The business is no longer about cars. It is about politics.
Truckling, kowtowing and ass-licking.
And it will be their undoing.
The diversity mongers may have noticed that people begin to not care about cars much anymore. It is a dying business. Because who gets passionate about the number of air bags a car has? Its crash test scores?
Whether an ad campaign is “diverse” enough?
I touched the third rail. I mentioned an unmentionable, in print no less.
Well, so be it.
I’m not getting rich doing this. At least I have the compensation of knowing I didn’t suck the rancid tit when it was presented. Others who get paid more can do that.
They have earned it, I suppose.
EPautos.com depends on you to keep the wheels turning!
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Manipuflation from ZeroHedge. What is spam here?
It depends!
Do ZeroHedgers regulary spam you? I doubt that.
Eric, I work in a ASE auto shop for right now. I have been following you since the Ron Paul 2008 campaign. I have never felt the need to comment on your board. Something about what I read that was a ZeroHedge article that included LewRockwell.com bothered me.
Your article bothered me more. I read your articles of course and you 100% on. People do not realize how close they are to not having a car anymore unless they have $100K laying around.
You have my respect. Maybe things are just fine as they are. If the snowflakes come for you you have friends. And if the the snowflakes come for you with a GM 3.6 liter that has never had the oil changed at least YOUR timing will be correct.
Peace Eric. Keep up the great work that you do. You are always welcome at the Hedge. I hope that I am welcome here.
Hi Manipulation,
Thanks – and, likewise!
The spam filter here is hinky; my computer guy is trying to suss out the issue. If you ever have a problem again, e-mail me ([email protected]).
And: Let the snowflakes/Clovers and such come. I will fire until the last shot, until the barrels of my turrets glow red from the heat.
We need each other to amplify the pressure. What happens when I refuse to fix a clover’s car? Cash, gold, guns, wrenches and some parts.
I hate TPMS. Thanks for that .gov. I currently have one truck, one car, one van, two Harleys and a 1978 Honda Twinstar that I taught me wife to ride bike on.
I have tools and everyone knows it. I don’t want to lend anymore tools. I am tired of buying 10mm anything.
Oh, my MIL is on can you read the code for me? Yes, but no. What do I get out of it? Right, you have a bank sensor out. Looks like the intake side for an 02 sensor. This my personal garage and not the shop I work at.
People are helpless and yet they treat me like crap and they treat my shop like a fast food restaurant.
Hey Snowflakes, fix it yourself then.
“How much will that cost”. I have no idea, look it up yourself.
The thing I resent about modern society more than anything is the masses of helpless, lazy, imprudent, irresponsible, and rude people. In that order.
And I mean actually rude, not backassward clover rude. Not person who gets annoyed that someone parked in the driving aisle but the person who parked there.
This society has been rearranged to deprive productive men of the payment side of the deal. Everything becomes a social con, but we are supposed to keep the machines running, things being built, the sewers flowing, the lights on, and all the rest. Why?
It’s getting close to time for embargo. Who run Bartertown?
Master Blaster run Bartertown. Notice Master Blaster lived down below, with the swine and filth? A ‘swamp’ of vileness, sort of like Washington DC and all the swamp critters now employed by Trump.
The reason people are “rude’ is because humanity is currently being deconstructed, meaning, everything it means to be ‘human’ is under attack. Gender? Choose it. Lifestyle? Borrow it. Interpersonal relationships? Tweet them to an email. Education? Replaced with propaganda. Medicine? Corrupted by money and ‘fox guarding henhouse’ agencies. Science? Facts are optional.
You think things are bad right now, give it a year or two. The grand solar minimum is here and weather patterns are going to get Biblical. We live on a farm and crops are suffering from all the geo-engineering crap they spray and all the electromagnetic noise is doing things to natural cycles. Not much time left, hope you are prepped for it.
Like Eight, I have a bottle of good whiskey and a good .45 semi-auto…
I don’t go along with “climate change” as “it’s all man’s fault” bullshit but it is climate and it does change.
In 1348 Britain(England) and some surrounding countries experience The Plague which was 3 separate plagues that definitely thinned the ranks and it rained from Mid=summer’s day to Xmas day that year, non-stop. It sorta lent the lie to Noah’s 40 days and nights but it damned sure decimated the population. That cooling spell lasted 300 years. So what do the SJW’s have to say about that? Not a damn thing since they are so ignorant they don’t even know this part of history.
Lots of people lost faith in religion at that time and with good reason. Of course the Pope issued all sorts of decrees and the best he could finally settle on was the sinful ways of humanity had brought it on….same thing some SJW’s say only they can point to “cars” and rarely do they even consider factories and other sorts of pollution including mother nature.
As eric says, I have my bourbon and my Spike’s Tactical and I seem to get very steady although not better vision(I might or might not be able to see a badge as if it matters) after I’ve had a few shots of WT and definitely the 3 S’s attitude. Within reach I have 3 30’s, one 40, too many 20’s to count. FEFEFH’s.
When it comes to THEM an SWP Hydra also doesn’t feel remorse or pity or fear.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDtJimXHTVM
An self ordained Serious White Prophet will never stop mocking and being a thorn in the Hydra’s side until they are DEAD!
– TOR DEMOGORGON
I’ve lived over 45 years, despite the best efforts of others.
Keep on keeping on. Semper SWP.
Non Desistas. Non Exieris.
https://disqus.com/by/pyragorgon/
Nah.
Who is John Galt?
Gotta love the pan, knuckle and shovel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3ZwiF88RkE
Keep in mind that sites like zero hedge, LRC, etc often have to be manually removed from spam and other filters because they are there by default.
I don’t think it should be a shock. I’m certain you’ve deleted comments or banned IPs of people who comments you didn’t like so its no shock GM chose to disassociate with someone who criticised one their employees and marginalised the fact that minorities and women don’t have the same opportunities as a white abled body straight man does.
In you are article you ended the article asking if your article was racist..only you know if you are or if you arent, but it’s typically not good when one has to ask.
I see nothing wrong with GM trying to give opportunities to people who typically don’t get them because of racism and sexism. Its not government, so why do you care so much?
Mike,
You “…see nothing wrong with GM trying to give opportunities to people who typically don’t get them because of racism and sexism.”
By denying opportunities to people on account of race and sex.
How does this do other than perpetuate racism and sexism – collectivist attitudes that group people according to generic things such as their pigment and what’s between their legs?
GM hires “Joe” because he is black over “Ron” who is white… because 50 years ago a different guy – “Frank” – was shown the door because he was black. So now let’s show “Ron” the door because he is the same skin color as the guy “Frank” lost his job to 50 years ago.
Do you suppose “Ron” might feel aggrieved? You know… like “Frank” did all those years ago?
When does it stop, Mike?
If you want people to stop obsessing over race and sex… stop obsessing over race and sex. Treat people as individuals, on their merits.
PS: You mention that GM didn’t “arrest” me. True. But this PC diversity stuff leads to that, ultimately. See, for example, the United Kingdom. Where it is an arrestable offense to offend the PC Diversity code. Do you have any doubt that there are people – and politicians (Hillary) who would love to enact – and enforce – the same sort of thing here?
“But it’s the cool kind of discrimination I use.”
LOL
Non sequitur, and whom are you quoting?
+1. Spot on, Eric.
Thanks, Pyra!
Mike, I’ve had an account here for a good length of time. I read the comments through the admin screen (without any privileges beyond read, you may have seen regulars discuss that before as the best way to read the comments). Because of that I see the ‘pending’ comments. I’ve not seen Eric to delete anything other than spam unless a particular commenter has become prolifically abusive.
As to what Eric wrote of GM, GM knows exactly why it has diversity executives. GM knows why it doesn’t downsize people of various demographics. It has nothing to do with ability or unfair lack of opportunity. When I worked for mega corp they would concentrate on downsizing white males followed by other males in an order that maintained demographic numbers.
It didn’t matter how worthless the individuals of other demographics were as far as doing their work, they had to keep their numbers up and did so. Many of these people understood this and abused it. One particular individual sometimes just didn’t come into work or showed up after lunch. There was no penalty for that. Management would have the rest of us take up slack. They did not care. It was about having the numbers and this person was H1-B which meant a cheap way to make numbers if the lack productivity wasn’t considered and it wasn’t. GM has to operate on the same way to block being shaken down politically. All big companies do.
“As to what Eric wrote of GM, GM knows exactly why it has diversity executives.”
One of the computer companies I worked for created a brand new diversity executive position specifically to have someplace to stick a VP who was completely hopeless in every other position he had held, but couldn’t be fired for political reasons. Yet another meaning for political correctness.
By the way, I love your diversity poster in the article above. The other thing the stager forgot was to line the minority people up ten yards in front of all the others.
Thanks, Henry!
George Carlin sums it up quite nicely: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkhUivqzWv0
All about political correctness: Fascism disguised as manners.
How is it fascism too freely choose not to associate with someone? GM didn’t arrest him for his article. Freedom of Speech doesn’t mean Freedom from Consequences. He made his bed and now he has to lay in it. He isn’t entitled to access to GMs cars.
Mike,
I never said they weren’t entitled to decide who gets access to their press cars; I simply pointed out that they denied me access – after 23 years! – as a way to punish me for not toeing the politically correct line. The object being to control coverage.
Which I am just as entitled to criticize.
You, as a reader, ought to be concerned about a car company that uses such tactics to stifle criticism of itself and/or its products.
I’m a car journalist; been one for almost 25 years. I know this business and the people in it very well. Believe me when I tell you that this kind of thing has an effect on what you read. Do you want to read press kit pabulum? Rehashed talking points, spoon fed to compliant, cringing “journalists” who are terrified of offending their master?
That is the issue here.
I am not – and did not – arguing “there ought to be a law.” I am arguing there ought to be outrage. And action. The kind Libertarians advocate. Public contempt; declining to do business with companies that operate this way.
It’s the same with Facebook – Libertarians want private companies to run society then complain when private companies start discriminating. Facebook shouldn’t censor or have a political side? Oh I’m sorry freedom of speech and press has no place in the private sector.
What do you mean by “to run society”. For that matter, what do you mean by “society”. Serious questions.
Gil, in a libertarian world nobody runs society. It’s you ilk that want some people running society.
Without the present political climate no company would ever hire a diversity executive. A non-productive position that exists only to appease political forces. Without that no article from EP and no discrimination. But I suppose logic isn’t something you’re practiced in.
Aussie Clover! I knew you were still out there, somewhere… .
Look: It’s not discrimination that’s the issue here. Did I argue that GM didn’t have the right to take away my press car privileges? I never said or wrote any such thing. I simply pointed out that GM had done so – in order to punish me – a journalist – whose views the company took issue with. Which ought to be an issue for people who value honest journalism and who may, perhaps, wish to not do business with a company that tries to muscle into submission journalists whose views it takes issue with.
Put another way: GM has every right to “take away the keys.” And I have every right to tell potential GM customers they did so – and leave it up to them whether to do business with such a company.
Did you note the key element, Gil?
Voluntary action.
No laws, no coercion.
You know – the way of handling things Clovers can’t abide.
RIP Janet Reno
https://voat.co/v/fakes/1395762
Interesting, I have suspected that GM was trying to target diverse groups for some time now. I used to be a GM guy but I haven’t found any of their cars that appealing within the last 10 years or so. Right now I have 2 Volvos (an XC60 I bought new a couple years ago and one the same MY recently purchased certified used), a Scion tC, a Suzuki Sidekick Sport, and an Olds Cutlass GLS. The Olds is in storage with a new but defective from stock fuel pump that I can’t be bothered to replace again. The GM will soon be donated and I probably won’t look back. Frankly there are really very few cars that excite me anymore and I probably shouldn’t be surprised as I’m not a “diverse demographic” being a white (and approximately 1/16 Navajo) Quality Assurance Manager in my early 30s. It would be nice if Subaru would bring back the STi Hatch. If they also fixed the issues with the new FA20 turbo engine grenading with light modifications, could be persuaded to replace my Scion tC. In my mind GM has failed to deliver many compelling products (but I do like turbos and AWD), Ford has a bad image in my mind from way back and I won’t ever give them money, Chrysler hasn’t fixed their reliability issues but are decent to drive… That leaves Toyota (which are generally appliances with invasive nannies), Nissan (which are good but use CVTs and have a lot of older designs), and Hyundai/Kia (which have had a lot of issues with the 1.6T and 2.0T engines burning holes in the center two pistons in warmer states, too heavy for their size, and are getting too expensive for what they offer). BMW, Audi/VW, Mercs, I just get a bad douche vibe from people that own them and they have reliability problems. That doesn’t leave a lot out there for enthusiast drivers who need power, fuel economy, reliability, low douchebagerie, and AWD.
Oh haha, the other Volvo is an XC70. Both are T6 AWD models.
Thanks, AMS – and welcome to EPautos!
Do what the auto workers did in Detroit around 1982 to a Japanese import. Only with a recent GM car (from a junkyard, but looking pretty good). Smash it with a sledgehammer. Put it on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNvWoMrS-m8
Hi John,
I have hoisted the Jolly Roger and trained my guns; I may go down – but it won’t be without a fight! 🙂
Skip reporting on GM and instead report on another socialist car company: Kaengsaeng of North Korea: http://www.caranddriver.com/features/cars-from-north-korea-features
Your treatment by GM is pretty much the same treatment that Clay Travis received from Jack Daniels when he called out Vanderbilt’s PC decision on the renaming of Confederate Memorial Hall. If you point out PC behavior for what it is then you are a problem and all ties must be cut, lest your opinions be seen as validated by the almighty sponsor.
Thanks, Skeptic – and, yup!
Ever notice how PC changes depending on what you speak of and who you’re speaking to? Or is it just me?
It’s not like it doesn’t change too so I’m never sure of what PC would be on any topic from day to day. I tune out all the bullshit in life I can so I’m clueless about PC for the most part. The wife was trying to explain something to me about a Dale Jr. advertisement many years ago. Hell, not only was I not paying attention back then I could certainly give a shit now. Since she was about to rent a car it had something to do with renting a car, having it delivered and going to pick up Jrs. girlfriend. At least I got a laugh out of that poor guy pretending to have a girlfriend but I can’t say so or not in public anyone, only here where nobody can physically hurt me because I think Jr. is a little light in the pants. What’s more, I don’t care. He can be gayer than any fairy and it makes not a whit of difference to me since I am definitely not his audience vice versa.
I don’t care about what rent car he’s selling either. Even if you put Beyonce’ up there butt naked renting a car would be the last thing I would remember. If it was a Loretta Young song like See the USA in your Chevrolet I might remember Chevrolet but then again, if she were naked, probably not.
But it’s all this “work” PC that makes me wanna go puke and be glad to crawl back into a big rig, be by myself and crack any old joke I wanted, maybe even over the airwaves.
A couple years ago living on the road, I walked in on some of the crew in their travel trailer and they were watching some tv show about two gay guys who had a child, adopted I’m assuming but wouldn’t rule out anything since the PC poleez might burst through the door and haul me off for “assuming”. Yep, you can never assume someone with a beard hasn’t had a child although it used to be a fair assumption. But these guys were speaking normally, like men, except the “mama” guy had a beard like a muff and the “daddy” guy was a tall, athletic hunky kind of guy. I didn’t know how to feel about their black, male baby though. Shouldn’t it have been a black, female baby? Or does that bring up some non-PC connotation, sorta like the Catholic church…..in reverse? I dunno, and the show that was a comedy wasn’t funny at all to me. I didn’t even get the gist of their witty reparte’.
For all those pairs of women with one being a babe(mama)and the other being almost a babe(daddy)except with a bad woman attitude, I’m just as clueless as all that other horse hockey out there.
I’m suspecting the real world, not the one that GM props up with black bosses and gay managers and god only knows what sorts of inter-sexual, inter-racial, inter-galactic marriages to sell cars, is not so PC when it comes down to it. I’d still pity the child with gay parents, esp. a black child since the black part of society doesn’t have that good of a rep and combine that with gay parents, the kids’ gonna have a handful to deal with. Well, I’d better shut up before “they” come to get me. Don’t know who it’ll be this time but if they’re adding PC poleez to the crowd there won’t be room enough for everybody even in the barn. I gotta be honest, I’m nearing my breaking point with poleez these days.
ERIC,YOU DID NT EXPLAIN WHAT THAT LOSE MEANS.NOT TO HAVE ACCESS TO THE FLEET MEANS NOT BEING ABLE TO REVIEW THE LATEST MODELS .AND THATS YOUR BUSINESS.AND ONE MORE POINT ,IF YOU THINK GM IS PC BETTER LOOK TO THE DEALERSHIPS.WOW!! MY CHEVY BUICK GMC DEALER A MINI MEGA DEALER.IS DOING EVERYTHING THAT IS P C .THEY HAVE EVENTS AT THE DEALERSHIP YOU CAN T BELIEVE.WHAT THEY HAVE TO DO WITH SELLING CARS I DON T KNOW .BUT I GUESS IT GETS PEOPLE IN THE SHOWROOM.BUT WHAT I REMEMBER OF MERCHANDISING AND SALES ,YOU WANT QUALIFIED BUYERS NOT SOME PC TIRE KICKERS.
Hi RA,
The ALL CAPS has got to stop. Last warning. It’s not an unreasonable request.
Please.
r a feibel,
As a option, (I think you may have stated that it is easier to read large type) is to
• type your response in a word processor in ALL CAPS.
• then highlight your text
• then select the formatting option for “Sentence Case” (It makes the text lowercase except for the 1st letter)
• copy the formatted text and paste it where you want to reply.
You can read the text you type and others do not perceive you SHOUTING at them.
The above is not the only option, but it is one that I find easy to put into practice.
I agree that all caps is annoying, and suspect it may be more a problem with education rather than vision. After all, a self-identified Clover used them. But it is PC itself to label it as shouting.
Some computer-weenie, probably a Unix programmer (no PC here, I calls ’em the say I sees ’em) because Unix is case-sensitive, defined it as such a few years back. Now we all have to fall in line and agree. A computer-weenie myself, I have to live with all sorts of nonsense as “language evolved”. Like “notebook computers” having become “laptops”. I remember the first “laptop” and the bugger was more like a suitcase and “weighed a ton”. So the folks who built the things we use now kind of looked at theirs and said “Ours look more like a notebook.” Logic prevailed until….. Even Michael Dell, the last holdout, has caved. I claim that everyone has a “laptop” every time he sits down (PC again, but I was taught English in 1946). You rarely see anyone ever actually use his notebook on his laptop. Unfortunately, the zeitgeist gets to set the language rules. Ain’t that a bitch? (“‘Ain’t’ isn’t in the dictionary!” was a battle cry in 1946).
I fear the current zeitgeist is actually a poltergeist. Just look at the best-of-the-best we have running for president.
Call it what you will. I can “see” lower case better since I’m used to it and the differences in the letters. All caps, esp. all caps that are run together is hard to decipher because nobody writes in all caps. You grow up learning the specifics of when to use caps and all caps throws that on its head. Hard to tell the beginning of a sentence or a name that is normally capitalized when it’s all caps. To me it’s as if one person is trying to force me to relearn how to read.
“it may be more a problem with education rather than vision. ”
It may be, but in this case it appears to be a problem with basic intelligence. Some people are simply unable to express their thoughts in text, and lack the basic intelligence to realize that their keyboard pounding is annoying or insulting to others.
I’m more annoyed by his illiteracy … 🙂
Since you’re the owner of the site, you could have a policy of deleting any message typed in all caps. You wouldn’t be the first site owner to do that. All caps is a dodge used by dimwits who can’t be bothered with using a shift key or any punctuation.
IMO, if a person is too damn trifling to use the shift key, or to even attempt to use punctuation, he’s too fuckin trifling to be heard.
Hi Ed,
Yeah… I’m inclined that way. The caps lock thing looks ugly and is off-putting to most people, which is a problem for me as the befehlshaber of EPautos.
It seems everybody is annoyed with him for one reason or the other. He didn’t come to make friends for certain. He may be an old wrencher but he showed up here with one screw he never got tight.
Yup,doesnt even show up.Yup Eric,youve blown it.
Im sorry,but YOU brought this on yourself. Maybe you can afford to poopoo peoples opinions,and heavily censor your board but GM cant. To them to insult potential customers is death.
An example,I made a comment that there are some good things about electric cars and they are happening,like it or not,comment was gone so fast made my head spin.Now me personally,I continued to read because you said other things I liked.But found it insulting nonetheless.
When GM gets complaints from readers,they will listen.They have to to survive.1 less reader to you means nothing,every car sale to GM means thousands in income.
Mixing politics with your business is a death sentence,and thats what you did.Sorry,YOU blew it,not GM.
Hi Fred,
Your comment wasn’t deleted; we had a server crash, that’s all. Lost a bunch of stuff. My stuff included.
And – again: I have never said or written that electric cars are without any merit. I merely point out they have little economic merit – and have significant practical problems.
I criticize the gassy coverage of electric cars – which rarely mentions either of the above.
That’s all.
Fred, sorry to have to point it out to you, but you’re as full of shit as a Christmas turkey. Now, it’s your own fault that I just said that to you. You popped up in here claiming that eric censors the discussion without knowing WTF you’re talking about.
When you makes idiotic claims like that, you’re just asking for someone to set you straight.
I’m not sure if I should offer you condolences on the way they treated you, or congratulations for causing the poophats enough trouble that they banned you. Either way: I still read EPAutos, and I’m not going to buy anything from Government Motors anytime soon.
Thanks, Darien –
I’m still surprised by their attitude. As I mentioned in the original piece, I’ve been getting cars from them for 23 years and felt I had a good working relationship with the company. I’ve always been fair in my coverage of GM vehicles and go to bat for the industry generally over idiocies such as CAFE and much cost/little benefit emissions regs. I’m not antagonistic toward GM – or the industry. A majority of journalists are.
They claim they cut me off because I’m too small potatoes to justify the “ROI.” Well, I asked them to define that; to give me specific numbers as far as circulation/readership – which has been the criteria for as long as I have been doing this, which is a long time.
They refused to give me any specifics.
That is interesting.
It leaves me without any objective metric to make my case.
Instead, I get their arbitrary whim.
It is exactly like dealing with Goog-guhl.
I’m completely unsurprised by GM’s response. Don’t worry, it won’t affect my enjoyment of your site one bit. It’s not like I was going to buy a new GM car anyway…
Hi Mike,
I never thought it’d happen to me.
I used to mingle with their marketing/PR people at “ride and drives” and we always got along because I – unlike most of my fellow car journalists – like cars and am not obsessed with saaaaaaaafety or sweating “climate change.” Much less a Diversity Monger. I made fun of African Americans on Wheels.
But, times have changed.
Saaaaaafety and “climate change” and “embracing” diversity are the new Corporate-State Religion and I am an apostate.
So be it.
It is an honorable title.
These marketing people inside the company who’ve given me the bum’s rush? They made a mistake. I may not be a Bismarck any more. But U-Boats can be very effective.
eric, that guy should be selling insurance he’s so full of shit. No doubt was to where his source is though. I’d bet he and his wife have a “his and hers” set of buffers mounted on the wall to shine their noses. His bs is spit polished like his nose. You have to get the tint right and then work on the shine every day.
I always wondered where all the old biddies in the Republican party got those hats they wore at the conventions. His wife seems to have a source and that’s one hell of a look. Of course I’m accustomed to Tx. women who wear hats that have “Resistol” on the inside or ones that have hung onto their old Stetsons, something that never goes out of style. I’d bet she’s just as smart as she looks, esp. after a few magnum Margaritas. Woo hoo!!
Good luck dealing with this mindset…..well, lack of mind. I mean no ill will but I’m sure glad they’re closer to you than me.
Hi Eight,
Feed ’em fish heads!
I’ve been doing this since before ol’ Joe sprouted pubes, prolly. I expect I’ll be around long after his have turned gray.
Hi Eightsouthman
I just read that you had been collecting US car magazines sine the ’60s. That was excellent news and I had hoped you may be able to help me out.
Some years ago I purchased a box of magazines from a school fair. Among the collection was a magazine published ~1979 which had an article about a man who’d built a V-16 engine out of a pair of small block V8 engines. He’d fit it into a plain sedan. The article had lots of black and white pictures showing how he made this engine work. I recall he had welded the two crankshafts together. He held the two blocks together in alignment with a fabricated frame (or brace). This item attached to the original engine mounting locations. The article had good technical descriptions of the project and how the guy built his engine up.
Now here is what went wrong. I allowed one of my no good “friends” to borrow the magazine and it never got returned. He insists he did return it to me, but he is untrue. Since then I have been trying to locate another copy. So far no joy. The magazine was a hot rod type enthusiast publication. It featured plenty of stories about building up performance street cars and customs as well as cruisers etc. It touched on the social scene of modified cars in the US, pare US particularly CA.
What I’d like to do is get another copy of the magazine or even a photocopy of the article. All I need is the title and date of the magazine and I can do the rest! Believe me I have tried hard to find it, but no joy. Can you help? Do you recall this?
Actually, does anyone remember anything like this?
All help gratefully received!
Thanks and regards
Sione
Hi Sione,
I used to have a mighty collection of Hot Rod and Car Craft from circa 1975 through the early ’90s. Gone now, though. Just like my marriage…
Hi Sione,
Have you already searched this site?: http://www.hotrod.com/hot-rod-magazine/
My mother saw to it I had no mags left to a certain date but that would be something I might have had had not the b&C thrown away a lot of mags when we moved in ’85(bitch…..really, made me mad). I do recall an engine of this type but don’t have a clue where you could find it except searching for various ways to state a V 16 dual engine SBC. Lots of stuff out there now and somebody might have something about that. I always found it hard to believe women simply threw away many things I had kept and valued, magazines being only one of the categories. I’d admonish anyone who has old love letters to hide them well. They seem to fare badly. And only after reading them does it cause a woman to have a photographic memory……especially with, uh, photos……d’oh!
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!! Thank you for finally putting into print what I have been feeling and seething about for the past 25 years. If race and gender, (the two REAL genders, not this loony toon made up crap), aren’t important, then why is everybody shoving it in your face 24 hours a day! Great article man, you’re getting a donation from me today!
Thanks, Cleophus!
I was on radio the other day discussing this. As a Libertarian, I am so sick of the race-writhing expected of whites but also – more fundamentally – of the obsession (never spoken about openly) with race by those who trill loudest about their colorblind credentials.
There are policies in place that specifically focus on race (and sex) as criteria for acceptance/hiring/advancement. How is this by definition not “racist”?
If we are supposed to be striving for a “colorblind” society, why the agonizing over people’s color?
Why not let society organize organically on the basis of mutual agreement?
It’s true some people will “discriminate” (decline to hire/work with) others due to their ethnic/racial background. But this is a lesser evil than institutionalizing race-based policies.
My bet is that – as in most things – most people are “ok” and don’t have any desire to harm anyone else. But rather than let the “general goodness” of humanity do its work, we get the general evil of an authoritarian corporate/state system that imposes blanket solutions on entire populations without specific cause.
This is pervasive.
It applies as much to racial groupings as it does to categorizing everyone who has “x” BAC as a “drunk” driver, regardless of their actual driving.
It’s the typical “one size fits all” attitude of government.
The problem is that “one size” doesn’t actually fit that many.
‘that “one size” doesn’t actually fit that many’
Prolly doesn’t really fit anyone, except the joker that wrote it, and then only if he intended it to apply to himself and not be exempt.
Honest (and very cordial) email sent to Mr. LaMuraglia. Shame.
Response from Joe LaMuraglia:
“Thank you for your note. Mr. Peters isn’t being punished in any way, shape or form. We are reducing our fleet expenditures across the country and as a result, fewer journalists will be receiving product from us. He lives 6.5 hours from our closest vehicle vendor and his audience doesn’t justify the expense. Period.”
I made the point that I’m a 30 year car buff and this is my first stop for honest reviews. If the audience is as large relative to other media sources as Eric says, then his logic doesn’t compete re: “justify[ing] the expense.”
Hi Wally,
Joe is full of PC beans.
This site has a six figure audience – and I guarantee they are sending cars to journalists with a third my numbers.
I queried Joe as to exactly how many readers a journalist has to have to justify press loans. He would not answer. Here is what he wrote:
Eric,
There is no magic threshold for outlets. Our analysis is based on many criteria: audience size, audience composition, alignment with current strategic goals by vehicle and the ROI of the cost of a loan.
Unfortunately, your audience isn’t in alignment with our current strategy and the cost of a loan, even out of Atlanta, doesn’t ‘pencil out’.
Per my previous notes, our fleets are considerably smaller than before and we are being more strategic with our loans. As a result, we are not able to provide vehicles to you at this time. If that changes, we will be in touch.
Thank you for understanding. This type of news is not easy to deliver but it is the way we are operating at this time.
Regards,
….
Now, consider: If even one person buys a GM car as a result of something I wrote, that is thousands of dollars in profit for GM. Do you suppose that covers gas money for a 6.5 hour drive to and from Atlanta? And, mind: This whole deal is a business expense for GM. A write-off.
Classic asshole. He doesn’t like your audience even though you and me and lots of others are GM prone, some to the maximum. Maybe he did a background check on me and decided my opinions were shit(pro-GM)or GM didn’t want a felon’s money. But, I’m going way out on a limb here and guessing he’s based this on dissing GM and their PC bullshit. He’s doubly pissed cause he was best jerkoff pals with this criticism of this look-alike GM “minority” I spoke of as looking just like the dear leader of the denizens of the planet Mayo on Alf Tales. Alf would diss him too. Oh, for the love of gawd!
Hi Eight,
Yup.
He’s also a failed “journalist” who became a PR flack.
Prolly resents that I have been doing this since before he grew pubes, prolly.
Here’s a radio rant about all this: http://ericpetersautos.com/2016/11/01/perils-political-incorrectness/
“The business is no longer about cars. It is about politics.
Truckling, kowtowing and ass-licking.
And it will be their undoing.”
Not as long as there are taxpayers and bond holders to screw, and the UAW is a primary owner.
PC would not be so devastating to engineering, manufacturing, “Journalism” (gad, who writes most of the stuff on the web?), software development, and such, if we still had schools that taught reading comprehension, and logic and problem solving. Then most people would recognize the con. Oops, we don’t teach those because of PC.
What to do? What to do? Jim Rogers is having his kids learn Mandarin Chinese.
” Jim Rogers is having his kids learn Mandarin Chinese.”
In case you never noticed, Jim Rogers is the guy you can thank for George Soros’ wealth. Rogers partnered with him for years and helped him become a billionaire. I never understood Lew Rockwell’s fascination with Rogers. Sorry if he’s one of your heroes. I wouldn’t let him come in my yard if his car was broken down on the road.
The social engineering evil doesn’t come out until later. When some people get money they think they become entitled to manage society.
Ed, before my mother died she was sitting at the kitchen table(mine) and telling of some ridiculously paltry bad luck some local yokel pig had. My dad simply sat there and ate pico de gallo with chips and drinking some of my cold(28 degrees)keg beer. He never batted an eye and I could tell he felt the same way I did about it.
Then I told my mother “That sonofabitch? If I was driving down the road and about to piss my pants and stopped and realized that SOB was on fire, I’d zip up, drive till I couldn’t see him and then piss where he couldn’t get a bit of moisture”.
My mother looked at me with a stunned expression and was trying to say something. My dad continued what he was doing and said “Ace(white headed hoodoo pit bull…the ultimate people lover), want some chips and pico de gallo?”
I guess I took after my dad. He wouldn’t have pissed on him either.
8, I like your dad’s composure. Sounds like he was a tough old dude.
Don’t know of anyone tougher Ed. His dad was a truck driver and got run over by a drunk while checking his tires. At the ripe old age of ten he went to work and supported his two brothers, a sister and an invalid mother. I don’t think he ever had a childhood but he was a fun guy. He was the epitome of adapt and overcome.
8, sounds like your dad was living proof that an extended childhood is not necessary. Having to man up at a young age is a character builder of the first order. I know you cherish his memory. He sounds like a great dad.
Ed, in my mind there’s no doubt about my parent’s generation being tougher than their kids. They got culled right at birth, in the maternal bed for the most part. The ones that were left had to root hog or die.
They liked to work piss out of us guys and listen to us piss and moan but it taught us to respect what they’d always done and didn’t have a nice house or whatever they wanted to eat or a/c or heat for the most part. I grew up myself keeping warm by turning around and around in front of a Dearborn stove but it just made us stronger and appreciate a furnace.
I got enough of it according to me at the time. It could have been a lot worse and been like their lives when they were young.
Maybe we lost 10 lbs every day in body fluid hauling hay but we stuffed ourselves at night and drank enough water and tea to put most of the 10 lbs back on and whatever weight you gained back was muscle.
This is only germane to the subject because it goes back to those days. The wife and I were watching War Horse, a movie about a horse drafted by the Brits in WWl and captured by the Germans. He goes bonkers and runs across no man’s land, gets tangled in so much barb wire and posts he finally collapses. That made me think of my best friend who turned 66 yesterday and is still waiting for the coroner report on his deceased wife, tough time for him.
It made me think of working cattle one spring and his dad had this old cow that was crazier than any I’ve seen and that’s saying a lot. He was trying to push her up to the pens and she was determined not to go. He gets her up against a fence and she turns and runs into his horse so hard it knocks the horse down and Charles off. Then she can set her sights on anything that infuriates her and since his horse made a quick exit she focused on my buddy. He puts the fence between him and her but hell,it was just a barb wire fence and she doesn’t care. She ends up hauling ass with him and the fence all balled together. When he finally got free of the fence and the cow he looked like he’d been in a fight with a mountain lion,even had grassburrs up his nose. Nobody was laughing though, this crazy bitch was of the worst sort and had one of those old misformed horns that came around and pointed right into her right eye which probably was the source of a great amount of her craziness. It would have been cut off but nobody could ever catch her and probably like she did that day, they didn’t want to do much to her after catching her. They finally hem her in the holding pen for the big pens but she wouldn’t go through the gate. My buddy jumps down in the opening and makes a face at her wiggling his fingers and taunting her so she charges him. He jumps behind a big post just as she slide past and somebody shuts the gate. Then he runs into the alley to the chute and she’s right on his ass. He jumps over the alley and runs a big cedar post in behind her so she can’t get out or at least a normal cow couldn’t. But being as crazy as she was, she broke the post and got out. Then she takes a defensive position as if defense was in her reportoire and won’t let anybody into the pens. In frustration my buddy picks up a little chunk of wood that looked good to throw but weighed nothing. He chunks it and it floats and turns in the air and barely hits her beside her old crazy eye. She went totally berserk at that and tried to kill everybody around and finally runs out the gate and disappears in the pasture. A video of it would be something you could sell for millions. We see her now and then when we’re out there, head up, as usual, beady eyes focused on us and always pretty far away, good for her and us alike.
One day we go out to this big tank on their place where she’d taken up residence. You couldn’t go fishing cause she’d rush you and when you got up a tree she’d go back into the tank. Later on that fall during dove season somebody had come in and hunted dove at the tank. They were probably glad to leave alive. She was laying right at the edge of the water with a 12 gauge hole right between her eyes. His dad just looked at her and said “hhmmph”. Meanwhile we were doing a dance and laughing. Somebody probably had to clean their pants after that and didn’t come back I’d bet.
Ed
Soros raised the investment capital while Rogers was the analyst (and brilliant he was at it). After the BoE fiasco and the UK dropping out of the ERM the two men went tehir separate ways. I understand there was a disagreement but have never found out exactly what occurred. One can imagine though…
Si
Si, thanks for the response. Soros would have remained a third rate grifter without access to Rogers’ talent. Rogers became wealthy along with Soros. That makes him stink enough to me that it’s hard not to dismiss his “libertarian thought” out of hand.
Lew has, over the years, included some distasteful assholes in his daily site lineup. Burt Blumert agreed with that assessment of mine in an email exchange a few years before he passed. I had emailed him to comment on Lew’s inclusion of an article by Jeffrey St. Clair. Burt stated that sometimes he winced at Lew’s choices of “allies”.
Anyway, Rogers is still filed in my memory as Soros’ partner.
So, GM doesn’t want nearly free advertising for their cars, for the price of a week long loaner?
They’re even bigger idiots than I thought.
A co-worker told me that your site was having issues with GM and loan autos for review and other issues.
He knew I read auto reviews and read yours from another, site I visit often.
I read a lot of auto reviews by women, men and since anyone with a drivers license is now an EXPERT on autos.
So, one has to separate the good from the junk.
Even tech sites, like CNET and others have auto reviews. Heck, to rent the auto and drive it does not make a good auto reviewer.
I read some of these reviews and a good photo would have told me more than the review. God, forbid if you have any thing negative to say about the auto.
Sites like Coms.com and USA Today, I find a waste of time to read along with many others, I will not list.
Always enjoyed your review and hopefully, you will be doing so in the future. Hope to see you farther down the line, as they say, on the internet.
I do wish reviewers would list the dependability of their autos in question. Any TSBs on this model, or recalls, even what others are saying.
Do wish you well and hope you can continue to do what you enjoy doing. Very few people find their niche in life.
As a observation, big corporations today, love being PC as demanded by our Fed Govt. (another reason to vote them all out of office)
The white male is the dog that gets kicked for anything and everything.
Women and minorities love blaming men for all their life issues. The white male has no one to blame and has to take responsibility for his actions, just like women and minorities should do.
Life is not fair and will not go the way one like it to, so accept it.
Big corporations do not want to hear this or even consider the possibilities, especially when dealing with employee issues.
To have a political website would be nice, since auto reviews and politics do not go well with some big moneyed corporations.
Good Luck.
As Truman’s sign in his white house office said, “Don’t let the Bastards wear you down”!
Thanks, Dick!
I am like the Scharnhorst; I will fight until the barrels glow and the last shell is fired.
eric, you’re like the Tom of old who said what he thought and companies responded back then by addressing the issues if they were smart. They couldn’t afford to cut Tom off at the knees and miss a Motor Trend Car of the Year award on the cover of the mag even though Motor Trend picked that car by how much money they got from the car maker.
I recall one year the comparison between a Galaxy and an Impala came down to a more expensive Chevy($7…..wasn’t shit back then either)and the fact that the Impala had a positraction rear-end which the testers deemed to be too much for the average driver. Mission Accomplished is what the review should have stated.
or, in pseudo-Latin, “illegitimi non carborundum”
Very sad story bro.
Thanks, Chris –
With luck, I can get it fixed. I still have some friends over there. We shall see… .
OK, so now that powwow season is over and I have time to resubscribe, I have to get on y’all about how lax you have been while I was on the pow wow highway.
#1, Nobody has been keeping up with the Hillary clone/body double thing. Y’all know that the hag on TV since the 911 “medical episode” ain’t EVEN Hillary. Look at her. She’s dropped about 30 pounds, 50 if you count the 20 pounds she lost in her ankles. She can kind of walk now. Her hair ain’t all greasy and she’s quit hawking up green blobs into water glasses. C’mon now. Y’all need to mention that Hillary’s probably dead and her double is out there watching the moderators debate Trump.
#2 Poking fun at Trump is way down these days. What a target that phony old turd makes for humor. I mean, this is an election year and we’re down to the last few days. Y’all are letting me down in the comedy department.
There’s more, but nevermind. It’s enough that I say “Im Back”. Well, kind of, for a few months, anyway. Let the fish head feeding recommence.
Oh, and one more thing. Y’all have been real slack about hijacking threads, too. See what you can do about that.
Ed, all true. I’ve read some good expose’ stories with pics about the Hil stand in and just never found a place to post them and was fain to hijack the thread. Of the few times I did I was ignored. I hate to comment with important stuff and nobody even responds……gives me some sort of complex.
Trump is such a Republican that’s about all I can say. Sure, he’s contradicted every thing he’s said and sometimes, more than once even though he never returns to his original stance but it’s just plain ol politics for me. I’ve seen same all my life. Every time I think I’ll diss him some I recall unknown governors(BC, BO)nobody ever heard of getting elected along with CIA agents and closet Nazi’s and once, a man who couldn’t remember who he was nor anyone else. Hey Ronnie,tell us about your good friend Ollie. Who? Ollie North. Can’t say that rings a bell. Shit no it don’t. Your bell was run before you ever got up and used an easel and butcher paper and magic markers to show us something we couldn’t figure out via your mumblings and you never had a clue in the first place. I could go on but it’s a wast of effort. Good to have you back though, I missed those jokes and hope you have a store of new ones.
“was fain to hijack the thread. ”
Oh Lord. I thought thread hijacking was a tradition here. Anyway, none of the crew here now, except you, Tor and Bevin, seem to respond much anyway. Aint that the shits? The site gets fixed so that comments can thread properly, and the comments just kind of dry up.
Trump is funny as shit without meaning to be. He’s a scabby old turd, ain’t he?
Oh well. There’s always TBP when I’m in the mood to have nutjob off-topic discussions.
I don’t get a button to review comments any more… I lose what I said.
Still stopping by now and again…
Hi Jean,
Apparently, some of this depends on which browser and so on you’re using. On my end, it’s all here…
Not true, I get this floating title bar (which I hate and is very annoying!!!) on Safari, Google Chrome, Firefox and Internut Exploder. Haven’t tried Opera or MS Edge yet but I hate Opera & Edge! (aside, I hold a degree in Music Comp & Theory)
David Ward
[email protected]
Hi Dave,
I promise – on a stack of RA III cylinder heads – I’m not seeing this on my end!
David, I must agree. Click on a comment and when it reloads to that page the comment is hidden under the floating thing. I despise floating things. I get tired of clicking off the thing on the side too.
Now and again, when I reload a page it comes up in some screwy format but I think that’s my dial up….slow, real slow.
Too long for a bumper sticker, maybe even for a T-shirt, but I’m:
Proud to no longer be a Republican
Proud to have never been a Democrat
Proud to be libertarian, but not a ‘Libertarian’
Just have one made that says “I support N.A.P.” 🙂
not enough people would understand
Going along I-20 one day and this new Dodge pickup passes the crewcab. It has a blacked out rear window and Molon Labe in original script…..looked really good. I said “That’s nice, I dig it”. Blank looks. Dig what? Molon Labe on the back glass of that pickup. Shit, I couldn’t tell what it said, looked like some foreign stuff. What’s Molon Labe? At least somebody asked. I told them. Then it was “You come up with some strange shit”. The one guy who could have understood wasn’t with us.
I’m leaving the pit and come across a trucking buddy coming in on pit road. We stop and talk a minute and I’m telling him something I don’t even recall. When it was his turn to reply he said “I didn’t understand anything you said…..but I’m up for it”. Probably all of us here get reminded now and then that not everybody digs the written word. When I’m not on this site or a couple others I’m reading a book. Just now reading the prequel to Dune. It’s pretty good so far but since it’s by other authors it’s not as good as Dune. Maybe it’ll get better.
Eric, congratulations!!!!
This is wonderful!
You are freer! And you know that your articles are exposing truths and hitting nerves! In this world of censorship in which so many knuckle-under, you are bucking the system and shining a bright beacon!
The fact that a small obscure website is on GM’s radar, and that they care so much about your opinion, is a great trestimony as to the effectiveness of what you do here.
Anyone can review the latest pieces of rolling garbage. I just read your review of the FIAT 500x, and I think that was the only car review I’ve read here, ever; or anywhere else in a long time- and that was just for laughs. I read it because I knew you’d be honest about it — which brings up another issue: Honesty about the vehicles will yield the results as does honesty about the political machinations of the manufacturers.
But who cares? Like I said, anyone can review a car. Your strength is in general commentary about the absurdity of our world, and how Libertarian principles could so easily fix those problems. That is what I come here for. Your Libertarian articles; other readers comments; and occasional reminiscing about the GOOD OLD cars, make you the only individual author I regularly read.
I couldn’t care less about the new car reviews. I will never be purchasing any of these nanny-state safety mobiles; and I doubt that many others who read your articles will, either, as these over-priced overly-complex rolling tracking devices are the antithesis of the principles by which us Libertarians live.
And I especially would never purchase anything which was made by Government Motors!
GM just lost some free advertising. Another genius move on their part! Good riddance to them! Why would you even want to soil your site with details of their crappy vehicles? It only made you look bad. (Seriously, when I first stumbled across this website, I was suspicious of your integrity and motives, seeing that you review new cars. Luckily though, I stuck around long enough to see that my fears were unfounded.)
Really, being free of GM, doesn’t it feel like you’ve just taken a long rape shower?
It’s a shame they felt they had to go all George W Bush on you and kick you out of the pool. I guess that’s how they’re going to keep everyone in line. Say something that doesn’t fit into the “story” marketing wants to tell and you’re gone. Extremely effective after 9/11 for the Executive branch. If no one is around to question authority, all you have is hearsay and theories. I’d like to say that journalism has become a sad shadow of its former self, but it seems the only time journalism does any work is when they don’t like the politics of the country. And product driven magazines have never been able to actually say anything negative about a product. I’m sure that even though there’s a “Chinese wall” between ad sales and editorial, I also know that everyone is aware where the paychecks come from. Hell, my first job was shooting commercials because there was so much work available in advertising during the first Gulf war that they needed another production crew. Don’t tell me CNN isn’t wishing for another war.
Diversity dude wasn’t there for any reason other than to pay shakedown money to guys like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, and so that they could market to guilty white people. You pointed that out, and the fact that it’s cheaper to play the game than it is to ignore it.
My employer does the same thing. In order to protect the high margin products, they offer a bare-bones product for people who meet certain eligibility requirements. Why can’t they just make all the products less expensive for everyone? Well, because that would cut into the high margins. So instead they crow about how we are “helping poor people” get our product, and the rest of us (well you do, since I get an employee discount… but if it breaks I’m the one who has to go out and fix it) have to pay up.
I don’t know what the fix is, aside from a cynical public. I think the best thing about growing up in the 1980s was that I got a healthy dose of shitty washed up 60s and 70s era bands and crowing about the 20th anniversary of everything the damn boomers did. When the “edgy” radio station in town is playing Born in the USA 25 times a day and Phil Collins is celebrated, sometimes Talking Heads and Sex Pistols become necessary. Now that traditional media is losing eyeballs, they’re going to play whatever game the advertisers want. I just hope the millennials have figured that out. My generation seems to have forgotten.
Hi Eric,
The writing’s on the wall anyhow. Cars are almost on par with sail fawns – disposable electronics, basically.
I can still write about politics and philosophy and cars that aren’t sail fawns.
Or, maybe man whore.
I still look ok… 🙂
Start reviewing motorcycles too.
Yeah… I dig that idea.
The difficulty is (and has been) that the bike manufacturers are much fewer in number and they do not maintain “press pools” – in part because of logistics.
The bottom line, though, is that if EPautos’ traffic gets big enough, I’ll have no trouble getting GM to… reconsider its position.
Time and desperation heal all wounds.
If I had an old High Guard ship of the line, I’d show ’em something!
I came to the conclusion decades ago it’s only a small percentage of any generation that figures it out and then lives it the same way. It took a lot of scared people in my generation and other generations too to get us out of Vietnam. Once the onus of the draft was basically gone though most of my generation(boomers)immediately sold out. Seems like those of us who didn’t sell out didn’t fare so well and we were expendable to a degree reserved just for that crowd.
I’ve noticed though that it’s that way regardless of the crowd. There’s never more than a small amount of people willing to think for themselves and follow their conscience.
WWll had a great deal to do with indoctrinating my parents generation into believing govt. dictum.
It varies from area to area too. Texans came from people who had no choice but to depend on themselves and rightly knew if somebody or something(govt.)offered a deal too good to be true it was verily a lie. The fast and furious talkers were looked on with askance since that followed the fast talking of people looking to take something from you and try to make you think it was a good deal.
There is still a vestige of small town car dealerships that have a loyal following since they know the bottom line on price isn’t the best way to go. My dad bought an S 10 after I’d driven all the small pickups available and told him to avoid it. Oh well. But the small town dealership didn’t leave him high and dry when the rear seal on the engine gave up immediately after the warranty ran out. The dealer just entered a mileage number in warranty and made it good anyway. The big dealerships would have left you with a big bill and a bad taste.
Sad that you are being black-balled by GM.
GM is not alone in this maneuver, all car companies would do the same.
You can not bite the hand that gives you the free cars to test. They do not want to be associated with bad publicity or any way out ideas. Or bad comments on their corporations or management.
They are so political correct, they can not even thing what is correct or right.
They care less about your politics and do not want to hear them or be associated with them. You have to separate your car reviews from your politics.
Blog it somewhere,that is separate from your reviews.
This libertarian bent is not the most popular theme in main stream politics, today or the nation.
Just look at your candidate.. he can not name a World Leader, today. His brain is so cooked with pot, that he can not think. Just give him free dope and leave him alone, is his thing. What a Great Leader he would be!
Looking at your and others comments made on this site. Like Trump, you call people names , with no respect for them or their opinion and go into a rage of bellicosity. And reasonable thought and discussion is thrown overboard.
Why would anyone want to come back, let along make any financial donation?
Like GM, they dropped your site from their Google searches and auto reviews.
Hate to see you go… but this is the beginning of the End, for you Labor of Love website, I am afraid.
Wish you well.
PS.
Maybe, those commenters that think like you do and cut of the same cloth, will come to your rescue.
All you nasty commenters, outliers and lunatic fringe political animals, throw your Supreme Leader a Life Line.
Y’All Tight Wad and Free Loaders.. Just like draft dodgers, always Wanting a free ride. Let the other person do it for me.
Time to pay Your Piper! $$$$$$
Hi Lee,
“Looking at your and others comments made on this site. Like Trump, you call people names , with no respect for them or their opinion and go into a rage of bellicosity. And reasonable thought and discussion is thrown overboard.”
“All you nasty commenters, outliers and lunatic fringe political animals”
“Y’All Tight Wad and Free Loaders.. Just like draft dodgers, always Wanting a free ride.”
“His brain is so cooked with pot, that he can not think. Just give him free dope and leave him alone, is his thing.”
Nice to see that you’re above “calling people names, with no respect for them or their opinion.”
Jeremy
Lee is one of those love it or leave it kind who lined up to give the shrub a bj. Reminds me of one of those posters on Yahoo or The Blaze.
“What a Great Leader he would be!”
Who wants a leader?
Who needs a leader?
If the answer is you, then go join a club, a team, or something.
Please just leave me the fuck alone. Pretty please.
Hi Lee,
“My candidate”? Do you mean Johnson? If so, he’s not my candidate. Because he’s not a Libertarian!
See here: http://ericpetersautos.com/2016/10/20/libertarian-gary-johnson-one/
As regards the rest: The back-and-forth here is, for the most part, extremely civil. I’m curious why you think otherwise.
Also, you spent a good portion of your post doing the same things you accuse me (and others here) of doing!
“Blog it somewhere,that is separate from your reviews.”
God idea. All the devoted followers here follow the philosophy rather than the new car reviews.
I stated this before, I got to the philosophy through the subject matter.
Now it is true I am not interested in more than 9 out of 10 car reviews, but they are important with regard to showing the trends and how things are being engineered. It’s reflection of the greater changes in society. I don’t see how they can be separated nor would it matter if they were. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to put two and two together.
Hi Ed,
I’ve thought about it but it would mean dividing my efforts – and that is rarely a good idea. Plus, I use the reviews to address political topics; it all ties together.
Yeah, I can see it. Even if you had already been doing it that way, the same snitch would have shown the blog post to someone at GM, and the result would have been the same.
So, fish heads for GM. I already quit buying their cars since the last Cadillac worthy of the name rolled off the line in ’94.
lee, Did you ever read Car & Driver back in the 1980s? Being liberty minded and ridiculing control freaks goes back many decades.
Have you ever visited a mainstream site or especially one with a progressive bias and put forth ideas based in individual liberty? You think Eric and the regulars here are disrespectful to other people?
I’ve gone at it with Eric here more than once myself in the comments and didn’t have a problem. I’ve never been censored by Eric even though I have very strong disagreements on a couple topics. One of which I think I got to win him over a tiny bit on, but the other probably not. But I come here with supported arguments, not the authoritarian and myth based stuff the control freaks who wander in here with. Tired old stuff that Brock Yates and others disproved decades ago. If you come here knowing your stuff and being able to express it there won’t be a problem.
Brent, here is a good page to read. Car freaks can relate to all there. http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2010/05/magazine-memories-sports-car-graphic-november-1969/
I signed up for Hot Rod in 1960 and Sports Car Graphic in 1962 and in the latter ’60’s Car and Driver. I still have a plethora of old C&D’s and AutoWeeks. I would have had a plethora of SCG and HR had my mother not cleaned my room and storeroom. I spent a lot of time dreaming and drooling and wrenching later on. I helped my BIL rebuild a ’46 Ford pickup with a big Lincoln engine when I was 10 and man, was that ever a kick. Not sure how much Bondo we used but that was a righteous pickup. It would spin one tire to eternity. An idiot in a ’57 Chevy hotrod ended it’s life. Back in the day 50’s iron with wild engines were replete at your regular drive-in. There were still lots of rat rods back then even though nobody had ever heard the term. I recall a much older friend who built a ’32 Ford with the roof cut off and a big Olds engine.
And we were very much not the mainstream anything except what they might call at school, those wild guys and the courthouse, hell-raisers. There were always plenty car mags around and nobody marched to the beat of anyone else’s drum.
GM is a private company so can engage in political correctness, or censorship as long as they don’t push the limits of the civil rights act. GM technically isn’t “government motors” yet. So what’s the problem? They have the right to be Nazis or Zionists, Slavers or Black Panthers if they choose.
Political Correctness doesn’t violate the NAP last I checked.
(For a perspective on your situation, see Vox Day’s SJW’s Always Lie. And feel free to come to the Alt-Right dark side).
Being a libertarian is so hard when others make different choices of association.
That is the one thing about Consumer’s reports – they buy the actual cars they test so aren’t biased.
Hi tz,
“GM is a private company so can engage in political correctness, or censorship…”
Yes, so what? Individuals can engage in criticism, shaming, calls for boycott, etc… as well.
“Political Correctness doesn’t violate the NAP last I checked.”
If PC activism were limited to shaming, disassociation and condemnation, then such behavior, while often deplorable, does not violate the NAP. However, much PC activism involves using force, both through law and individual action. Forced association, through law, is a NAP violation, attacking journalists and counter protesters is a NAP violation. Viciously shaming Matt Taylor for wearing an “inappropriate” shirt, while reprehensible, is not a NAP violation.
“They have the right to be Nazis or Zionists, Slavers or Black Panthers if they choose.”
You might want to rethink the “slavers” part of that sentence.
Jeremy
Jeremy, what makes the PC agenda so egregious is the fact that govt. supports their agenda, when it deems it beneficial to govt., at the end of a gun.
The right wing rags that support war for any political reason, aka, for anything US govt. deems in the best interest of its enforcers and profiteers(often the same)is just the other end of the gun of the PC crowd.
Hi Eight,
Government appeals to people’s inner bully, much to the delight of the profiteers.
Jeremy
Jeremy, hence the “love it or leave it” crowd. It’s the reason I’ve never been a “law and order” kind of guy. I can’t remember “law” ever working to my advantage. I’m not a thief so I never agreed to have anyone or anything steal for me.
Hi tz,
“GM is a private company so can engage in political correctness, or censorship as long as they don’t push the limits of the civil rights act. GM technically isn’t “government motors” yet. So what’s the problem?”
You seem to be implying that criticism of the actions of private companies, by libertarians, is hypocritical. Is criticizing the speech of others, by free speech advocates, also hypocritical?
Jeremy
Calling GM a private company is a bit of a stretch at this point. It’s a publicly traded corporation which only exists because the federal government burdened the american taxpayer with keeping it alive. Beyond that GM profited greatly from banksterism (prior to sending GMAC out into the woods) and relies on its relationships with parts of fedgov.
Hi Brent,
I agree. In fact, I don’t think any company that receives targeted subsidies or receives government contracts can be considered truly private. However, I was merely responding to tz. I think he is the same person who comments over at Tom Woods. He seems to think that libertarian criticism of the actions of private companies is illegitimate because they’re “private”, and thus can do anything they want.
I find this argument as absurd as claiming that free speech advocates shouldn’t criticize the speech of others because, after all, they can say whatever they want.
Jeremy
Jeremy, Brent, I’m unaware of any auto company being “private”. The entire point of corporatism is special favor by the courts and tax laws of govt. When the Supremes ruled that a corporation was the same as a person, every single person in the US had just been spit in the face, relegated to semi-slave status…..or simply slave status. After all, any person who doesn’t do exactly as govt. edicts can be imprisoned and failure to comply means death. It’s really that simple.
None of us truly own anything. There is nothing the govt. doesn’t claim tax on. I rent land, vehicles, livestock and pets, buildings and anything else I claim “ownership” of. In Texas, my wife and I don’t need to get married. We can only live together for a limited time before the state declares us to be “married” and as such, suffer the same fates…..taxes and death and both will be punished for any failure to accept this. Even our bodies are not our own and we aren’t free to do whatever we would to them.
There might be freedom, true freedom somewhere……but there’s none inside what the US govt. claims as its own.
And now we can move half way around the world and the US govt. insists, at the point of a gun, the right to take as much of our earned revenue or bartered goods as they deem fit.
Land of the free, home of the brave. What a bad joke.
Hi Tz,
I never accused GM of violating the NAP. I accused them of political correctness.
In re CR: Everyone is biased. CR is in denial about theirs. I am open about mine, at least! 🙂
Yeah, without CR, people might fall prey to the PedEgg or ShamWow displays at Walgreens.
Hi Trevor,
I actually have a PedEgg… my wife bought it. I used to use it, too. 🙂
“Thank you for your understanding”
Oh, we understand, all right.
Yup.
23 years… and this is what it comes to.
Well, fuck ’em.
I raise the jolly roger!
Thanks for including Mr. Lamuraglia’s email address, I’ll be sure to send him a note to let him know what I think. In the meantime, no great loss that you can’t review Government Motors cars, I wouldn’t buy one under any circumstances anyway. Well…… maybe a Corvette 🙂
Thanks, Vz!
It astonishes me that GM would do this given I have always been fair in my coverage and (where appropriate) come to their defense.
At least, I am a journalist who actually likes cars – and doesn’t hate the industry.
Some special snowflake has to have his ego assuaged.
However, PC is a Marxist tactic to sabotage America as is feminism. It’s working out nicely for them
Wow, Eric. Through this process, they’re shown that they are truly racist. And, even using their redefined term that the big “they” covertly attached a silent “institutional” to the meaning of as well.
Explain that, Dr. Dyson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZ0QfLkjujY
Thanks!
Thanks, Warp!
I’m hoping the EPAutos Army comes through…
I’ve read car reviews for almost 60 years. Every year Motor Trend gave their thumbs up for best of the year to some Mopar mostly or Ford you knew weren’t the best product but it was obvious to even a 9 year old companies rewarded good reviews.
The year the Northstar made its debut Car and Driver had this huge white beast on the cover and couldn’t say enough good things about it. The problem being, the pic on the cover showed the rub strips all the way down that POS misaligned……badly. That car looked like shit. They couldn’t have hand picked one is all you could think. The next issue was thick with letters to the editor taking C&D and GM both to the cleaners for such a bad looking car and pointing out C&D obviously were sucking ass to write such an over-the-top review of a car with such a sorry exterior fit and finish. Money may talk and bullshit may walk but bullshitting the public for a big corporation has always been a good pay day.
Of course paper mags didn’t criticize top brass or company policy to any degree for obvious reasons. I guess we could descend on the GM HQ in everything except vehicles they make and protest. Take your farm tractor or road tractor or anything you could stay in a line of protestors with. And instead of lots of publicity like farmers got when they descended on DC, now the military/police would come out in force and bust heads and steal everything in sight. This ain’t the country I grew up in for damn sure. After all, the corporation was made legal for reasons to let businesses run roughshod over consumers and not pay taxes and when the Supremes said they were the same as a person the end wasn’t in sight, the end was that ruling. fish heads to the entire corrupt system
And you even gave positive words about the new Chevy Volt. Not enough I guess…….. you got to drink all the kool aid.
I’m hoping the EPautos Army rises up in a rictus of rage… spread the word!
Or, Richard Teague has come back from the grave to bite you in the ass for this.
“* The entire American Motors Corp. (AMC) lineup –
From dreadful dreadnoughts like the malformed Matador to demented detritus like the Gremlin and Pacer, no other automaker ever managed to build such a seemingly endless conga line of bizarre, poorly conceived (and often, poorly built) cars within such a short span of time (from the late 1960s to the early-mid 1970s).”
🙂
Eric,
It seems that you have been ISACed.
“AUTO-ISAC ANNOUNCES BOARD OF DIRECTORS
October 21, 2015
Washington, DC – Automakers continue moving forward on collaborative efforts to advance cybersecurity protections with today’s announcement of the sector’s Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC) board of directors.
ISAC board officers include Chair Tom Stricker of Toyota, Vice Chair Jeff Massimilla of GM, Secretary Steven Center of Honda and Treasurer Keith Moss of Ford.
“Our ISAC work will be another essential layer of cyber protections,” said Stricker. “It will act as a central hub for gathering intelligence that allows us to analyze, share and track cyber threats and spot potential weaknesses in vehicle electronics.”
GM’s Massimilla said that the “Auto ISAC will allow automakers to identify trends and common cyber threats more quickly and further enhance the industry’s on-going efforts to safeguard vehicle electronic systems and networks.”
Other board members include Christoph Huss of BMW, Scott Kunselman of FCA, Mircea Gradu of Hyundai, Henry Bzeih of KIA, Masamitsu Koike of Mazda, Joerg Breuer of Mercedes-Benz, Manabu Kuroda of Mitsubishi Motors, Forrest Smith of Nissan, Shinichiro Sumi of Subaru and David Geanacopoulos of Volkswagen Group of America.
The industry’s two trade associations, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and the Association of Global Automakers, announced the ISAC’s formation in July and have worked to establish operations by year end.
The Auto ISAC’s establishment complements another joint action by the two associations to help promote the security of vehicle–generated data.
In November 2014, participating members of both associations voluntarily adopted Privacy Principles that will govern data retrieved from vehicles. These principles – the first of their kind in the “Internet of Things” – reflect a major step in protecting personal information.
The Auto ISAC and the data Privacy Principles are the latest examples of the proactive and diverse approaches that automakers are taking to enhance vehicle and data security which remain among the industry’s top priorities.”
You, my friend, are a threat to cyber-security.
Best thing about the U Connect system, security-wise at least, is that it runs on the Sprint cellular network. No signal means no hackers!
True. I dumped Sprint in ’04 when I went to one of their stores to complain about lack of coverage and couldn’t get a signal even there. I shit you not.
Yup. I had signed up with Sprint when I got my 1st cell phone back in the day. Couldn’t get any signal except in the corner of my roommate’s bedroom. When I went to return the device and cancel my contract the guy behind the counter actually had the cheek to tell me to step outside the apartment to make and receive calls.