If the government’s fuel economy fatwas “save” Americans so much money, how come it’s costing them billions?
FiatChrysler just made the latest payment – $77 million – which was actually a fine for failing to make its cars “save” enough fuel . . . for Uncle’s tastes.
Irrespective of FCA customers’ tastes.
FiatChrysler’s model lineup – the ones that sell well – are big cars like the Dodge Charger and big SUVs like the Jeep Grand Cherokee – and Uncle is not happy about it.
Similarly about Jaguars ($46.2 million in fines) and Mercedes ($28.2 million) and other car brands that don’t make cars “efficiently” enough to make Uncle happy. These get socked with fines as above, every year. It is not small change. And it will become even more change soon, if Orange Man doesn’t succeed in preventing the fatwas from doubling or even tripling the cost of “saving” all that money ($300 billion, in total, says the Hombre Naranja).
But why should any of us care whether Uncle is happy?
Wasn’t it supposed to be the reverse? Some may recall reading in school about the pursuit of happiness. That Uncle’s job, the very justification for his job – was to facilitate this, chiefly by leaving people free to pursue it. This would seem to at least imply the freedom to buy whatever vehicle suits them, no matter how much fuel it burns.
Do they teach this in school anymore? Probably not in Uncle’s schools; it makes him look not so good. It might get people to thinking about what an obnoxious, insufferable bully he is.
Someone who thwarts the pursuit of happiness.
At any rate, American car buyers continue to buy vehicles that make them happy, Uncle be damned. And that makes Uncle mad.
He therefore piles on the fatwas – and fines. In order to punish the car companies for attempting to make their customers happy.
Note that nobody is being forced to buy a Hellcat Challenger – despite its 13 city, 22 highway rating (which is actually quite stupendous, given its 707 horsepower V8 engine).
People beg to buy it anyway – at full sticker price. No need for “incentives,” much less mandates or subsidies.
Clearly, the car’s ability to burn a great deal of gas is tremendously appealing. If it were not so, Hellcats would collect cobwebs on dealer’s lots. Like the Chevy Volt, for instance. Which – notwithstanding its “106 MPGe” (an inscrutable amalgamation of its combined combustion engine/electric drivetrain mileage) rating.
You’d have thought (using Uncle’s argument) it would have sold like proverbial hotcakes, given how much it “saves” people. Instead, GM had to cancel it for lack of interest, even when it was made available at a tremendous discount.
As it turns out, the highest-mileage cars are of the least interest to customers; they also make the least money for the car companies – typically just a few hundred bucks, net, each.
Which explains the general reluctance to make them – and the need for the proverbial cattle prod, via the fuel economy fatwas, to force the car companies to make more of them.
But why is the government even rating gas mileage – much less mandating it? If customers desire this information, car makers would certainly provide it – just as they eagerly tout the power made by their engines and other such information of interest to buyers.
Italics added, to make the ought-to-be-obvious point that no one stays in business very long if what they’re selling isn’t of interest to buyers. Unless, of course, they can force “customers” to buy. Then it is possible to make a fortune.
See, for example, the health insurance mafia.
Or, Tesla. It doesn’t use the government to force people to buy its cars – yet. It is a more sophisticated mafia. It uses the government to force people who don’t buy Teslas to finance the purchase for those who do.
This certainly “saves” the – the Tesla buyers – money.
But what about those who had to pay in order for those others to “save”? It takes at least one $7,500 per car discount to convince people to buy an EV – that $7,500 coming out of the pockets of those who didn’t buy the car.
It is quite something that hands are almost never raised when the subject of government decreeing how much gas our cars – which we pay for – will be permitted to use comes up. That almost no one ever asks the question: If gas mileage is of such paramount concern to the car buying public, why does the public seem to consistently prefer cars that emphasize attributes other than how little fuel they use?
And: If fuel economy were such a desperate priority for car buyers, wouldn’t the car companies – in the interests of making money – build as many of them as possible? Wouldn’t they build fewer “gas guzzlers” like the Hellcat – without any need for coercion in the form of punishing fines?
Crickets.
For the very important reason that the subject does not bear discussion.
The fatwas, you see, aren’t actually meant to “save” anything – including gas, which is merely the excuse.
They are designed to get rid of the kinds of vehicles which Uncle does not want Americans to own. Or would, at least, prefer that only a very few can own.
In order to make owning them exclusive again.
For the elite.
Not for you.
Note that Uncle – as manifested by the pants-suited women and “beetle like” men Orwell wrote about, who hold the offices and issue the fuel economy fatwas – is not very concerned about his city/highway numbers.
You will never see a motorcade of armored Priuses.
Just as you will never see “gun control” applied to the government.
The Priuses (and “gun control” and all the rest) are for us – including the several thousand dollars extra per Prius we must pay vs. an otherwise comparable non-hybrid car, in order to “save” all that money.
Same goes for “features” such as ASS – automated start/stop, which has become de facto standard equipment in almost all new cars. And direct-injected, heavily turbocharged engines. All of these added to cars that would otherwise not pass fatwa muster, but which people still want – and so the car companies continue to try to build.
All of it costs us plenty – ostensibly to “save” us.
But the idea is to make it cost us so much that, eventually, we’ll be forced to “save” . . . by not driving at all.
Note that EVs – which are being heavily pushed from the top down – promise to at least double the cost of driving for the average person as well as make driving more inconvenient.
Cui bono?
It isn’t us.
. . .
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At least I can relish in the fact that the Orange Swan didn’t talk about “climate change” in his long speech in front of the Political Class last week.
It’s ridiculous that this “power” to regulate fuel economy was something that the Economic Prevention Agency happens to control…the one major entity of the federal bureaucracy that doesn’t have direct Congressional oversight, since it was created by Executive Order. Which begs the question: Since they have had 48 years of practice, how come they never figure out the right amount of restriction that should apply to anything they control? It would almost be a blessing if they were only granted one shot at the apple.
I say “almost” because it would always find a way to take a stab at changing or worsening their own rules.
Until then, we all have to suffer while we wait for the Great Prius Caravan to drive through Washington, DC.
Happen to have in the shop just now a customer’s car… its a 1989 Toyota Corolla, 1600 4 valve OHC, five speed manual. Came in for a clutch change. With the engine out, there are some “add ons” I suggested they handle whilst it is out.. timing belt due in 5K, don’t want to miss that. Water pump glitchy and leaking, do it now. Right there a couple hudnred in labour saved, as its out on the shop floor with the easiest access ever. They said OH YES
THey’lll be sinking about a grand into the car.. but the body is SO straight and clean, never hit no rust great paint and interior, good tyres all round. Car has ~200K on it, exhaust in the pipe looks super clean, no oil or smoke buildup.
They get high 40’s for mileage with mixed town/expressway driving. They’ve had the car in the family since it was less than two years old. They could look for years and never find a car ike that,so clean and straight, for the grand they’ll sink into it. Car will probably run another 200K. I had thought that if thjey did NOT want to “spend that much” on an “old car’ I’d ask if they want to sell it as is. Oh no, they’re too smart for that.
I can’t thinkof anything else out there that would be sucha great town car and sjhort highway trip ride. Day trips, not overnight.
WHY does no one build anything like that any more?
Thanks, Oncle Stupid……..
FCA makes high-powered engines intentionally to enhance the image of all their cars.
Gas mileage has nothing to do with the V-8’s and anything over 250HP with FCA, and its not because the consumer will buy them in any number. Notice how they only make a few of each model? That is not how to take advantage of buyers that will pay anything, and it is not to create artificial demand.
When what is now FCA was formed from the partial sale of the business from the Brazilians in the early 2000’s, the no-longer-U.S.-manufacturer that is FCA today knew the quality and demand for their vehicles was the lowest in the market. The 300 had been planned as this big brand revival, but the facts are that the first few years of those cars (and a few others) were abominations.
FCA knows it has not fixed any quality problems in the last 15 years, and it has not been trying too hard to do so.
If you worked at FCA in the last 10 years you will know about how the ‘life’ of a engine/drivetrain is referenced as if it was some type of insurance product.
Instead of using tests in labs, FCA has created a system which makes longevity estimates using the mechanical-equivalent to actuarial charts. For real gear-heads, this is embarrassing and its also embarrassing.
What the actuarial data show is that FCA can get the lower-end vehicles to last longer than the factory warranty (on average), and that no one puts 6-figure mileage on a 400HP-or-more engine.
FCA knows exactly how long your Hemi or Hellcat drivetrain will last. I do too.
But FCA is just hoping you don’t have the credibility to complain to anyone about it.
Thanks for your outstanding articles!
Thanks for the kind words, Mary!
Eric, the Cafe standards are not about mileage as you know. Their goal is to completely eliminate cars and their private use. Thanks for speaking out about the truth at least we still have the option.
Hi Rik,
Amen. I will continue to mention the unmentionables, as long as I am able.
Hi Eric I was told you could disable the start stop function on GM vehicles with full-time S-T. The one method was to bypass the hood closed switch to indicate an open hood status. This function of the bypass is to allow for vehicle servicing, this was done on a CNG conversion vehicle to allow for uninterrupted CNG use. I also heard you could put a phantom load (resistor) to preform the same function on vehicle that you cannot disable the start stop function. Great article by the way.
Can Automatic Start/Stop be turned off? I’m just coming off a storm in which night temps reached 25 below zero F. with 30 mph winds gusting to 50. I ran into a ditch and got royally stuck earlier that day, when the wind chill was a mere -50 F. I partly warmed up in a car we kept idling for heat.
Would ASS make that kind of idling for comfort or even survival possible?
Eric would be able to answer this more thoroughly and hopefully he does, but from my understanding most cars will allow you to turn it off. If not, the black market should be able to take care of it.
Hi Ross,
Yes – for now.
There is usually a button you can push to turn the ASS off. The catch is, you have to do that every time you go for a drive. Still, you can turn it off…. for now. I am certain, though, that it will be made impossible to turn off in the years ahead – just as ABS (and even TCS, in many cars) cannot be turned off.
I’ve heard there is a hack – a way to defeat the system. I plan to look into it and do a write up as it’s not illegal to defeat ASS… for now.
Starting my Cherokee is a four button and one pedal procedure: Foot on the brake, push to start, push the ASS button, release the electric parking brake, acknowledge the EULA on the nav system. I could override the automatic parking brake, but given the issues people have had with the transmission I’d rather have an extra button/lever to hit than an expensive repair, so there’s no chance I’d forget to set the parking brake if I leave it in auto mode.
I’m thinking about pursuing a private pilots’ license. The process for starting, taxiing and takeoff follow a highly structured checklist. Some of the checklist items are along the lines of hitting switches and buttons in a sequence. I have a feeling that eventually we’ll be doing something similar for our vehicles, even (especially) if they become “automated,” since they’ll be full of lawyered and Uncled up acknowledgements and dead-man switches.
I’ve read that there is a switch to tell the system that the hood is open and that if disconnected this will disable the start/stop system. (Though it will also light a warning on the dash.)
There is also a company making an add-on device that is supposed to do this without triggering the warning light:
https://www.smartstopstart.com/
When I read this, and saw the photo of the menagerie of Uncle’s ZILs and Chaikas ferrying our Dear Leaders from dacha to dacha, these thoughts came to mind:
1. Uncle must either be willfully ignorant of climate change, or must know something we don’t, namely, that human activity has little or no effect on climate, to keep running motorcades like this.
2. If our Dear Leaders truly walked the walk on climate change, and abided by the fatwas they issued, we’d see a lot fewer of these motorcades. I mean, if Skype is good enough for my boss and me, it ought to be good enough for our Dear Leaders…and the rest of our government workforce, for that matter.
3. A reason our Dear Leaders need these motorcades of hut-hut-hutting is that deep down, our Dear Leaders are terrified of the people they misrule. They may act idiotic and downright insane, but they aren’t stupid. They know about Louis XIV, Nicholas II, and Reza Pahlavi. They also know about Nicolae Ceaucescu and Benito Mussolini.
The story I’ve read is that after Reagan got shot (recall Jimmy Carter actually walked his inaugural parade), Nancy chewed out the SS and they took it to heart. The White House was made more of a compound, they closed off Pennsylvania Ave, and greatly increased their numbers.
Given the odd (coincidental?) relationship between the Bush syndicate (whoops, I mean family…) and the Hinckleys, and the fact that Bush the First didn’t like Reagan at all, I think the SS is more worried about keeping the president safe from the CIA than us. I mean, if you have a bunch of paid assassins and spies on the payroll the most important thing you need to do is make sure they are well fed and happy. Or make sure your defenses are in order.
But yea, when I see the rich folks in Aspen bulldozing their 15 bedroom “vacation cabins” and scraping their jets then I’ll start to worry. But the current game of buying climate indulgences and not changing their lifestyle at all just says they want us cold and dark in order to magnify their “superior” genome.
Great piece, Eric. The penalties and technological gyrations associated with CAFE standards are insane. People have no idea where they are being led. I attended a dinner party last night where a guy was telling me his next car was going to be some new electric SUV coming from Detroit. He read about it in the Wall Street Journal. He (and his wife) were a bit dumbstruck when I said my 1999 Accord would still go further, fill up faster, run in all weather, cost less to operate and not set me back $80k plus. And my 20 year old ULEV Accord probably has lower emissions than the equivalent power plant emissions his electric car produces. I guess I am out of touch with modern society, and dinner parties.
The USA is now an immoral bankrupt warmongering police state flooded with illegal immigrants.
Americans either don’t know or want to know that the US is collapsing or think that nothing can be done to save the USA.
There is also a group of people like Thomas Paine, Patrick Henry, Gandhi, MLK, Snowden, and Assange who see the problems of the world and cannot stay silent even when speaking up is risky.
If you see the problems with the US and are having trouble sleeping at night, now is the time to say something.
The collapse is real and is getting worse by the day. The problems will not go away. Even if we cannot save the USA, we must at least try to wake people up and prepare them so that they can be allies when the US Ponzi economy collapses, the civil war breaks out, and the elites start WWIII.
What good would money do if you end up in a concentration camp?
You should also start a website today with links to pro-freedom sites like the Institute for Justice, Heritage Foundation, the Hoover Institution, ACLU, Libertarian Party, NRA, the Birch Society, militias, and John Stossel, Ron Paul, and John Whitehead articles to get the word out. Every freedom website will increase awareness and bring more people to our side.
Most people know something is wrong, but they don’t know what and feel hopeless about what to do. The best weapon Americans have against the elites is our numbers.
The 1% can use all of the power of the media, corporations, Hollywood, Wall Street, and the government to defeat the patriots, but we must try. You have to live with your conscience.
Heritage, Hoover and NRA are neo-conservative think tanks who would be more than happy to see your rights taken away…
Read this. Answers the question of how did we get here.
Brutis
A stunningly beautiful write up on the unconstitutional overreach of government. Couched beautifully with humor, as always. The saddest observations is understanding the concept of Eminent Domain for the Masses of the general public. Uncle (Evil) Sam owns you, your stuff, money, house, etc. And there’s not a thing you can do about it, bo but go “Galt”, as (((Ayn Rand))) would have you do. However there’s much more getting ready to do for this fourth turning we are in the middle right now we can do. Follow Eric’s example, when TSHTF, he will be sitting pretty relative to most of us. The only Constructive “suggestions” I can offer Eric is to “dumb” down his writings to a 6th to 8th grade level I.e., by substituting an easily understood explanation for “fatwas”. I understand and laugh at his wickedly funny sense of humour and the religious undertones, but the average dumb Joe is going to go” Duh, Whuttt? I don’t get it, big words hurt my head”. To wake up the Masses, sometimes you have to spoon feed them. Keep up the great work Eric, your stuff is epic.
Hi BK,
Thank you for the kind words, first of all! Your comment was the first I read this morning – and it cheered me even more than having Beezy cat in my lap (she’ll never divorce me)!
I have hope that there is still time – and that there are enough people out there to call a halt to what is “trending.” But that would be an anomaly in history. Civilizations rise – and fall. It may well be that the only hope for the West lies in the East. Russia, China… no idylls of liberty, I realize. But also not suicidally insane – and that is no small thing.
Hey Eric,
Glad it helped get you started out right for the day. Been thru a divorce myself, not pretty stuff, very ugly and unpleasant. Best way to get thru it is to “keep on keeping on”, as the Midwest says, and developing resilience training skills. Immersing yourself in work and social organizations to keep your mind busy and distracted from the trauma, and animals will help a lot. Time does heal all wounds. There are still plenty of fish in the sea, even if you aren’t interested in fishing right now. Two of my motivators to keep moving today is that its always darkest before the dawn, and last presidential election. Is Trump perfect, of course not, who is, right? Always the choice is the lesser of the 2 evils. But, the Golden Orange Golem of Greatness is worth the price of admission alone, if he does nothing other than continue to blow up the heads of Social Justice Warriors worldwide. Every day the MSM is like Christmas for me with their Kabuki theater emotional eruptions. Donald Trump, It’s like he’s the gift that just keeps giving. Is he still owned by the powers that be? Of course, but he is still doing what he can for us traditional white men/women out here in the hinterlands. I’ve been a long time lurker, and just had to post when I read this column, hit home for me for a lot of reason. Again, “keep on keepin’ on”, and know that there a lot more people out here rooting for you than you realize. Love your work.
No way. KEEP the crypto explanatioins. Fatwa is NOT a “big word”. If a reader is so sheltered he cannot comprehendwhat you write, he is too sheltered and lazy to DO anything about it anyway. IF yuo pque his curiosity and get him to start peeking behind the curtain, he’ll eventually figure it out and then be truly useful
It is a trivial matter to look up a word online. Macs and iOS devices have a dictionary built into the operating system. Just highlight any word on any window, right click or two finger tap, and select “look up (word)” from the menu. Windows does something similar or just copy/paste into a web browser.
I’m glad Eric keeps his FOG index high. Helps to keep me on my toes as a reader.
Here is a way to save gas: “Learn to Ride From The Experts” was what the advertising ling said that took me to this page below.
https://www.harley-davidson.com/us/en/learn-to-ride/new-rider.html?source_cd=Banner_p_ebay_endemicbnr_01312019_ridingacademy_us&utm_source=banner&utm_medium=ebay&utm_campaign=endemicbnr
What a farce, and an uber-expensive one at that. Now all they need to do is build and sell a machine that is rideable in more than just a straight line, oh yeah, and make it affordable, like that will ever happen! The AD might as well say “Come Join the Elitist, More Money Than Brains on 2-Wheels Club”.
Fucking Harley. Notice all the people on that page but one was a woman (5 chicks, 1 dude)? The “Harley Culture” and motorcycling in general traditionally was a male only space.
It’s just like Toyota and their stupid “Makeup2Mud” campaign (Makeup2Mud is a feature they run during Supercross). So sick of gynocentrism and how all these male-oriented industries/sports/activities are catering to females now. Can males not have any space to themselves anymore that isn’t eventually over run with feminism/gynocentrism? Fucking hell.
Amen, c_dub…
The thing of it is, men seem to be just fine with leaving women to themselves – e.g., “girls night out” – but Feminism cannot abide anything that is just for men. This includes, of course, the Boy Scouts – a very sore spot for me, as an Eagle Scout myself. At times I’ve thought of sending my award back to them, to express my contempt for ruining that, too.
Agree with both of you c dub and eric. Very sad. I’ve witness the erosion of the true man around me in NY Metro area, however I travel to very rural areas and the real man is alive and well and gives me hope.
I makes me happy to have raised two young adults that seem to get it pretty well. Even my daughter calls me from college recently “dad I have to take a dam feminist course, do I challenge them?” Of course you do, with respect, and ask why are you wasting our time with this. We’ll see where it ends up.
Eric, I wouldn’t send the Eagle award back, they will just bury it. You should make dis-owning it public on your website.
Eric,
I remember your article on the Boy Scouts. It is sad. Don’t they already have the Girl Scouts? It’s just fucking stupid. Augusta National even eventually caved.
I agree with Chris. I’m sure it would be a hard decision with regard to your awards but if you’re going to go that route, use your website to do so. Or at least make that part of your story by making a video of you sending them back.
I’ve thought about starting a series of male-only gyms since gyms have become the new hunting grounds used by women since the club/bar scene has died. Most dudes just want to come in, get their workout done, and be gone. Not distracted by scantily dressed thots the whole time. There’s female-only gyms, why can’t (don’t?) they use those? In fact, there was much wailing of the teeth to get their own gyms so as not to be objectified by the “evil men”. Now they’ve done a total 180 (shocker that) and it’s where they go to try to find men. It would never fly though. They’d shut the idea down before it even got off the ground. Sad.
yeah, they’ve got “Curves”. There are still coffee houses, some mixed exercise type classes (yoga, tie chee, pilots, ) but most of the “men” theree are girly men from what I’ve heard. Go aheas, start a macho gym where guys will be guaranteed freedpm from “hits” by hungry females to concentrate on their work.
Hi T,
My gym has a special/separate area for women only – and of course, women are also free to use the main floor as well. Imagine the result if they locked off the main floor for men only…
The fictional Col. Ernesto Bella of the Cuban Army in “Red Dawn” considered we Eagle Scouts as an “Elite, paramilitary organization”, hence he’d have been especially wary of the opportunist turncoat Mayor Bates’ dweeby son, Darryl, rather than Jed and Matt Eckert!
Yes, “womyn” can’t STAND the “ideer” that the boys want to just go off by THEMSELVES and just “Let the boys be boys!” with their “Toxic Masculinity” and all. Some 35 years ago, that feminazi hag, Gloria Allred, had the audacity to sue an LA Gentlemen’s club, on the rather questionable grounds that “womyn” were being denied “Business Opportunities” by not being admitted. Hey Gloria, you dried-up hag, did it ever occur to you that pushing your way into a place that didn’t welcome you of its own accord might NOT enhance your “marketability”? Anyway, the hag won her case, and the club began to admit women. Then, of course, came the complaints that the women didn’t have their own locker room, which was constructed at considerable expense. Then, of course, followed complaints that the more attractive of their number were uncomfortable at being “ogled” (likely Allred and her feminazi cohorts were secretly jealous that they weren’t being “observed” so earnestly!), so they clamored for a SEPARATE exercise room, which was granted, and promised to be “specially” equipped, and it was…with a mop, broom, vacuum cleaner, and ironing board!
https ://ww w.ohio. com/news/20190210/all-girl-boy-scouts-troop-launches-in-wayne-county
I had a thought about the men in dresses movement, that it is basically an attempt by dressmakers to expand their market. I mean, yea, we all knew that dude who seemed to enjoy the tranny Halloween costume a little more than he should. And there was the kid in the school musical that did his own makeup. But what was once done for shock value is now attempting to become the new normal. There’s got to be more behind this than a bunch of closeted men wishing to break free from the tyranny of the sport jacket.
I have exactly two suits. I’ve had them for decades. Don’t recall when I last wore one. One pair of “good” shoes and a few casual. Jeans and whatever seem to fit into any situation today. T-shirts are under $20 even for the good ones. I probably have more money tied up in bicycling/skiing/hiking clothing than anything else. Compare that list to any woman’s wardrobe, and I’m sure the average woman has more money tied up in underwear than I have in shirts. The clothing manufacturers, having supersaturated the retail space with women’s clothes and still not seeing any growth, needs to expand to new markets. Why not see if they can get men to wear dresses?
Sister and BIL had a Honda GOld Wing tourer, they enjoyed rides out when they coiuld,They had two kids, maybe 8 and 10 at the time, there was a full family event (wedding of one of our siblings) up north. Sis and BIL decided they wanted to ride the Wing, and farmed the kids out to Dad to ride up in his little early SUbaru. They left, the trip was about 400 miles, went up the coast valley route (101 in California, Orange County to SF) They thought the trio would be fun, and they’d save fuel over the 30 MPG their family car got. (Wing got 35 mpg) One thing they failed to compute….. the fuel tank on the WIng was pretty small. MAYE 150 miles per tank? They had to go way out of their way to find tuel, and stop more often then they wanted to. But well into the ride they realised this was good…. in their 30”s and not active, they got SO STIFF riding in the same position they HAD to stop even not for fuel. Trip was miserable. Never again. They laugh about that now…. how silly we were!!!. Ah, youth and iggeruntz. I drove y VOlvo that got 42 mpg cruising at 85 mph. I spent less than half the time on the road they did, and used about 30% less fuel.
Imagine if they’d had an all electric ride….. they’d have taken longer than I did, too.. re”fuel” at least twice.
I always wondered how FCA was meeting CAFE. They even discontinued the pretty cool model 200. So they pay the fines vs. spending the $ on highest tech, bullcrap mpg stuff. Good strategy to me.
And why I have two newer FCA V8 300 and Grand Cherokee, cause they are one of the very few real V8’s left with the least amount of mpg crap built into them. And they both have the magic ‘sport’ button that makes them run awesome, like a 60’s muscle car, but with much better handling and comfort.
I think my ’69 Judge did low 13’s, and I think my 300 does mid 13’s? pretty awesome.
I’m probably buying a ’19 or ’20 Ram with V8, and when the 300 is a little older replace it with the 6.4L Charger.
We had all GM’s except for one MB E350, and was sick of mpg-tunes, mgg-shifting, start-stop crap, ect… I made our decisions with my wallet.
Keep it up FCA, I love what your doing. I’ll help you pay the fines, hahahaa…….
Thanks Eric for the explanation.
My son and I located a perfectly serviceable 400 Cubic Inch “B” block (a ’73 from a truck), it’s Carter two-barrel will link up just fine with the old throttle linkage that worked with the “Poly 318” Stromberg…and it came with a 3-speed which has FULL synchromesh, so no issues with changing crank pilot hubs and don’t have to deal with the A903 “Crash Box” stock in the Fury II…the only ‘glitch’, which isn’t too hard to remedy, is that we have to take about 1½” out of the stock driveshaft (the one on the truck was gone, and with the truck being a different wheelbase anyway, likewise it’d be the wrong length as well). There’s a local driveline service shop in West Sacramento that’s done great work and can cut to fit (they actually know the EXACT length as they’ve done this sort of work before) and the old shaft needs to be balanced anyway. So for cheap, we can get this heap on the road! In time, that Poly motor will be rebuilt (line boring the main saddles to accommodate a 360 crank with it’s larger mains, this makes a default 0.27″ “stroker” and will raise the compression to about 10.3:1 without any fancy head work. The old Mopar B block still has good compression, runs on regular gas (but it has the hardened valve seats and the sodium-filled valves, so it can handle unleaded without extensive head work), and has gobs of TORQUE…not bad for a engine and gear box nabbed out of a Stockton, CA, Pick-n-Pull on a half-price weekend!
I didn’t know those ridiculous fines were already being levied. Now it makes much more sense why certain automakers, GM, Honda, Tesla, fight tooth and nail for these fuel economy mandates, because it artificially inhibits their competitors.
CAFE will eventually become another hidden tax if any automaker wants to stay in business or simply make automobiles unaffordable.
Like you say Brent, either way they win.
In regards to your other comment, taking that to its logical conclusion, New York City for all. Their attack on cars was pretty much successful and is nearly complete. It took, what, about 50 years? I fear they will be beginning their main attack on homes soon. Carbon footprint and all. “Efficiency” and all. Apartments and housing authority projects for all. I’m grateful that I will, at least I think, still get to experience this final piece of the American Dream pie, before they finally take that away.
I would want my livestock happy. But these farmers want to decrease the standard of living of their livestock. Instead of having free-range livestock feeding on nature, they prefer a tyson factory cage setup. They prefer to increase their profits by cutting costs and variability to the bone, as opposed to increase revenues by fostering creativity and new production, and just taxing a portion of that.
Cash for clunkers, the real estate version.
Indeed. it’s industrial farming of humans that is being worked towards.
Imagine for a moment the entire nation (or region or world) is your company with all resources owned by you and the living beings that make it go aren’t employees but livestock. Once I started applying this point of view what did not make sense before made sense. From the POV of the ruling class the people are consuming their resources. If this were your point of view, you would of course make it so your livestock were consuming less.
Look at agenda 21/2030 and how it would function. It’s a productivity vs. cost set up. The people would live in the smallest accommodations possible with the least amount of stuff traveling the shortest distance to their employment. They would be easily moved to anywhere the corporations needed their skills.
Some say a view like this is just that of a conspiracy theorist needing to make sense of a random world. To see patterns in the clouds. But I’ve watched human behavior. Everyone sees this sort of behavior on the small scale. If the portions were cut back in the company cafeteria they would see it for what it is. We accept a small-scale-big-scale repeating pattern as part of mainstream science. But the moment it is applied to large scale of human society then it is a “conspiracy theory”. Some sort of mental block comes down. A conspiracy isn’t even required, just the same human behaviors we see every day but with people who act them out on a larger scale. That’s all.
That’s exactly how I started seeing things as well Brent! It all makes sense when you see how they trying to herd people into big cities and pile us on top of each other in small apartments. The livestock theory is how I try to explain the state of the world to individuals I meet who are curious to learn more about the world we live in. It seems to work better if you first give them a reference they can relate to first, i.e. how we ourselves view livestock. “See that cow/pig farm over there? Well that is how the “elites” (or whatever term wants to use) view us.” That usually hits them quite hard. They usually don’t argue too much and it’s a realization that they had in them all along it seems but just never really gave it much thought or put 2&2 together.
Brent & cdub,
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbp6umQT58A&has_verified=1
The Story of your enslavement.
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Pretty much explains the story of enslavement without having to watch the video, no?
One of the ways to prevent a video from being taken down is to make it age-restricted. Has to do with how youtube’s automated system works.
Ken,
What Brent said is true. But usually everyone uploads their videos to Bitchute as well. So just go there and you can listen to it with having to sign in. https://www.bitchute.com/video/tyHOnlFRzys9/
Also, all of Stephen’s podcasts can be found on Freedomainradio.
https://freedomainradio.com/
I’ve probably watched that twice over the last few years.
God Bless Stefan Molyneux for this production and everyone be sure to check out his Youtube Channel. Philosophy vastly improved my life and most readers here are into “Red-Pill” which is all about facts, logic, and reasoning. Worth exploring his life-changing content.
This is the system the federalists were trying to protect.
Eric,
“Note that no is being forced to buy a Hellcat Challenger – despite its 13 city, 22 highway rating (which is actually quite stupendous, given its 707 horsepower V8 engine).
People beg to buy it anyway – at full sticker price.”
And I don’t understand why.
It is a piece of cheap plastic shit. As are all the new cars.
It is loaded with crap that I would never order if I were allowed the option.
When was the last time you saw a hot model sitting on the hood of a new car? Even the 70 pound waitress from Auschwitz Hooters will deform the paper thin metal.
Sure, it can support the weight of the car on the roof, but you can’t reach across the hood to wipe off the polish without putting a dent in the damn thing. Besides, I don’t park my cars on the roof.
Miles of the thinnest wire with tiny contacts and more sensors than the Starship Enterprise.
A dashboard with more lights than a Christmas tree.
And if you drive a new car at top speed, off to the gulag you go. Unless you’re on “private” property.
Man! I have got to get me one of these! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=g2O7rZTBs7w
Hi T,
I agree with you in re the plastic and gewgaws… but… 707 horsepower from an everyday driver with AC is pretty spectacular, too!