Aiding and Abetting

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People ask why car culture is dying. It is being helped along by car journalists. They have become not far removed from the vapid-in-the-background guitar-strumming infomercials for insurance companies that tell you much you’ll save by buying something you neither need nor want but which they have managed to maneuver the government into forcing you to buy from them.

They are PR hacks, most of them.

Press kit regurgitators of every bromide of the Safety Cult that has just about killed off car culture.

Here, for example, is a cliche-riddled affirmation of everything the Cult embodies – purveyed by a car journalist (that sound you’re hearing is Brock Yates, who was a real car journalist, spinning in his coffin) named Sebastian Cenizo, who recently threw together an amen-brother encomium of the latest advance of the Safety Cult without any context that would enlighten his readers about the fact that it is the very same Safety Cult that created the “safety problem” he now urges be “solved” by even more Safetyism.

The piece is ostensibly about legislation afoot in New York being pushed by a Leftist car-hating state senator (a member of the Working Families Party, hint hint) by the name of Brad Hoylman that would require all new cars be fitted with electronic speed limiter systems – these are styled “assists,” so as to imply people need it. As in, something helpful rather than cloying and infantilizing. As if people needed assistance to avoid driving any faster than speed limits that are set deliberately low such as to turn almost every driver into a “speeder.”

But, you see, there is a need for such “assistance” – according to this Hoylman character and this Cenizo character.

The assertion of need is premised on upticking accidents and fatalities, reported by the federal Safety Apparat (NHTSA).

Here is where a car journalist such as Brock Yates would have begun his dissection. It would have begun by noting that “speed” doesn’t “kill.” It is incompetent driving – lethal at any speed – that does. And that Safetysim fosters more and worse by replacing expectations of attentiveness and competence behind the wheel with “technology” that is only “advanced” in the sense that fitting a diaper to an adult in order to catch the effluvia is a better option than teaching him continence as a child.

Instead, we get the amen’ing of this Sebastian Cenizo character.

He repeats without comment – or rather, context – the fact that vehicles in general have gotten bigger and heavier and that outward visibility in many new vehicles is atrocious, which is given as one of the reasons why drivers are driving into and over things – even when they’re not “speeding” – notwithstanding all of the “advanced” Safety Technology that almost all new cars are fitted with already. Including beeping back-up cameras and closed circuit cameras, Lane Keep Assistance and Brake Assistance, to name just a few of them.

He does not explain to readers that one of the reasons why almost all new vehicles have these “assistance technologies” already is precisely because they have limited visibility – and the reason why they have limited visibility is because of Safety Apparat regulations (rear/side impact and roof crush “standards”) that have caused the front and rear ends of new cars to swell to Orca-like proportions and hoods and trunks to rise so high that is difficult to see over them and thus what may be in front (or behind) of them, without”assistance.”

“Clearly, we need more and better technology,” says Cenizo.

Really? And who is “we,” chief? Well, we is who will end up having to pay for the next slew of “advanced” Safety Technology the Safety Apparat will impose on all of us to crutch the problem created by the Safety Apparat. This Cenizo concedes. But then he says “You can’t put a price on safety.”

And thereby amens the foundational idiocy of the Safety Cult and its “vision zero” . . . vision. Which (like “zero COVID”) would shut down everything – at any cost – to “save even one life,” which is literally not possible without giving up living. And even then, no one is going to live forever. 

Better visibility – you know, like cars used to have – would do a lot more to deal with the problem created by the Safety Apparat.

But that would entail undoing the “safety” regulations of the Safety Apparat – a solution that, apparently, has not occurred to Cenizo. Who is probably a Millennial who grew up strapped into a “Safety Seat” as part of his early induction-training as a member of the Safety Cult.

He goes on to copy-and-paste the well-known PR talking point of the Safety Apparat, such as that “Studies have shown that Intelligent Speed Limit Assistance alone can reduce traffic fatalities by 20 percent.”

And you can lose up to 20 pounds in one week if you eat these pills.

Which “studies” does he mean? No doubt the “studies” commissioned by the insurance industry, which funds such studies to support its government-enforced mulcting of drivers who are forced to buy insurance – and pay more for it – when they are caught “speeding,” irrespective of the safety of their driving (as evidenced by their lack of crashing).

What a car journalist looks like…

Never mind.

“We must applaud Senator Hoylman for actually doing something about the state of road safety,” Cenizo says. We cannot “just sit back and accept the way things are.” 

That sound you are hearing is Brock Yates’ fingernails trying to claw through the lid of his coffin, so as to pay this Cenizo dude a visit and explain to him that “we” must not “applaud” anything that furthers the advance of Safetyism by making cars less actually safe – and more expensive.

Not to mention as much fun to drive as it’s fun to wear a diaper – if you know how to use the bathroom.

. . .

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63 COMMENTS

  1. Elsewhere online a BEV fanatic was quoting a BS stat that made BEVs not seem so fire prone. I pointed out it was BS* and this fool then started linking all the articles from every website and publication that repeated the same BS stat from the original source claiming that this showed consensus. Eventually he got to where Car & Driver repeated it and asked if it was vast conspiracy because C&D said it now I had to believe it. I had to respond that C&D went downhill years ago from the days of Brock Yates.

    C&D with Yates and the rest of the crew was great. Now they just repeat narrative nonsense. Apparently we are supposed to believe it because of the good old days. There’s no understanding that authority is built on trust. The old C&D crew would have pointed out the stat and then told us exactly why it was BS.

    *(they used a math trick taking all fires by type of car in a given year and then doing it as a percent of sales for that year, so basically if someone’s T bucket hot rod caught fire it was counted against current new car sales. So it vastly increased the number of fires for gas cars and decreased the population size. Any failure due to neglect or poor workmanship in some old car would count against gas cars too but BEVs are still too new in the modern fleet to have much effect from age and hackery.)

  2. Terminating ice cars will cause huge problems, a lot of EV buyers hate them and want to switch back to ice.

    Why do they hate them?
    long charging times, no chargers available, expensive fast chargers, electricity rates increasing monthly, going way up, broken chargers, charger lineups, frequent tire replacement with expensive tires, very high purchase price, $22, 000 battery replacement bills, high maintenace costs, short vehicle lifespan, very dangerous lithium batteries, many EV fires, a huge safety issue, increasing awareness of the massive EMF EV’s give off harming your health, tesla self driving crashes scaring people off EV’s, very short range, 50% worse in cold weather, no towing capacity range, range anxiety, can’t take long trips because of very short real range, getting the EV towed because of dead battery,

    Ev’s make up less than 3% of vehicle sales after 13 years on the market and
    80+% of former ev owners say they will not buy one again……that tells you the product has failed, people don’t want it….but the government will ram them down your throat…

    20% of the first EV buyers have switched back to ice vehicles.

    I know one myself, he had an ice Porsche and bought a Taycan EV, he didn’t like it, when cornering you can feel the huge weight, these huge over weight EV’s don’t like corners, it is like a 5 ton truck. He sold it and bought an ice Porsche Cayman, almost 50% less weight.

  3. The globalist satanists controlling the narrative to ban ice vehicles.

    The global warming, climate change narrative and the evil CO2 lies are more globalist/satanist propaganda and lies.

    The control group at the top of the world pyramid of power are satanists, they are deep into the occult, this is very dangerous, you will end up possessed with demons.

    These monsters think/say they are the new gods, a long time ago there was a warning about an antichrist taking over, the antichrist is multiple as in antichrists, there is 3000 monsters at the top controlling this reset, they are the antichrists, replacing a good god, with satan.

    Global warming is a lie, there has been no temperature change since 1895. So it is a satanist lie, used to manipulate. It also implies the place wasn’t designed properly by god.

    Climate change?….yes……..the sun has cycles, it has always had cycles since the beginning of time….but the satanists say it is evil…lol
    so they are saying it is a design defect, they are smarter then the architect, god. so they are going to alter it, correct it. this is a satanist anti god narrative.

    They are saying people are bad too, are destroying everything, they must be controlled/eliminated, that implies another design defect. They call people useless eaters, they hate people….

    They say CO2 is evil, it is actually plant food, they are insane, that implies another design defect.

    Oil was a gift to mankind as an efficient form of energy. The satanists say it is evil, that implies another design defect.

    The satanists say everything is wrong with the planet so they are having their great reset to fix it…..lol

    • The globalist/satanist/leftists leaders call people useless eaters, they hate people….that is judgement, that is a witch hunt, that will backfire on them, they will be the witch hunted.

  4. Oh boy what an interesting article and comments. After 25 years of driving BMW sedans, my 2020 3 series lease is coming up next May. For the last 10:years I used to simply get another new lease but for the first time am not enthusiastic about the options and have no desire to go electric. The nanny in this car is the first time BMW surprised and creeped me out by remotely updating the car in the second year of the lease. After the update was suddenly required to manually turn off assists every single time the ignition gets turned on. It seems so unfair and like a bait and switch because I never would have leased the car in the first place if it had that feature. I can only imagine how much more onerous the assists will become and dread buying out the lease for a car that can be continually auto updated to…what?…..implement a remote kill switch, assists that cannot be ever be turned off? Must begin diligently reading your car reviews! My new goal is to get a reliable car or small suv like a Crosstrek that I can drive well past 2030 in the hopes the EV craziness flops due to total inadequecy of the grid.

  5. Propaganda weasels its way into the auto bidness, another 800 pound gorilla in the room.

    iCars are more or less backseat drivers telling you how to drive.

    You will be propagandized while you drive. Your brain ain’t good enough, said some idiot New Yorker. Safer to listen to the daily propaganda, what’s best.

    You just can’t be too careful. Something has to be in control, not you, you are a risk.

    I once owned a Chevy Silverado, I backed out of a driveway on a Sunday afternoon, halfway out of the driveway, the control arm on the right front broke in half. Can’t drive very far until you replace the broken part, you have to make repairs if you want to drive the truck.

    Somebody was driving the truck to death. Had a 454 with a broken piston, bought a 350 used and wrangled the thing into the engine compartment, drove it until it was gone.

    There is always something that can and will go wrong through no fault of your own, it is still going to be your fault.

    The winds of change are in the auto business, you can feel it more than see it.

    If you own an ICEV, you’re shamed and made to feel guilty. What are you doing on the road? Move to the right, take an exit, go home, park the gas hog, move on.

    Hydrocarbons are precious commodities, gold is a secondary source of a means of exchange, value, rock oil rules.

    Fungible as it gets, everybody wants oil. Russia produces some 10,000,000 bpd, exports 6,000,000 of them per day, Putin is raking in 600,000,000 USD at the end of each day. Plenty of caviar in the bunker solidly ensconced in the Urals.

    The US was buying 264,000 barrels of Russian oil per day before Putin had all he could stands and could not stands no more.

    Somebody is buying Russian oil, it will sell. People in India will buy it, China will buy it. Anybody will buy it, just has to move through the market, by hook or by crook.

    Not you, you don’t get any.

    You can have your EV that you can’t drive without help from your momma and that’s it.

    • Hi Funk,

      Yup. And even if they solve that problem, the problem of grid capacity remains. And it is a big problem. Unless, of course, the point of EeeeeeVeeeees is not electric cars but to get people out of cars.

    • However said that is spreading disinformation…. the reality is…

      Fast charging?…start a fire….lol

      The fast chargers now….
      Extreme fast chargers, for example,can push battery pack temperatures to 270ºC/514ºF after just a few minutes of charging.

      zero grid capacity and they are reducing electricity production….lol….what a joke…fast charge where?….lol

      Build faster chargers….. have bigger fires quicker…..these lithium fire bomb batteries must be a gift from the devil, fires all over the place, very dangerous batteries….

      If you fast charge a lot, you wreck the battery, if you don’t…. you wait hours to charge….lol

    • Fast charging batteries are the least of the concerns. You need the power to do it the amps, the kilowatts. These people are ignorant to a ridiculous point.

  6. Eric – As a guy who grew up with a subscription to Motor Trend and Car and Driver in the 90s / early 90s, most new car reviews today I find completely depressing. The worst I remember some years ago was a British car journalist who reviewed the Cherokee Track Hawk (one of the few American cars launched in Britain with a proper American style engine) on a youtube video. The moron couldnt get over how cheap the plastics were, how out of date the infotainment was compared to other German cars in that price point. Or how inefficient it was and the noise may disturb your neighbours. Yes he did say one good thing – he liked the Alcantara on the sun visors. And he demonstrated this by rubbing this on his cheeks with a big hipster soy smile. Now I dont know how much soy you have to have to even think of that – but its clear he (assuming it was but I didnt check pronouns) doesnt at all get the point of that car, or his role in society as a “car journalist”….

    But thanks Eric for being one of the few real car journalist out there – I read most of your car reviews, despite many being irrelevant for me (as we dont even get most of the cars in the UK that you review)..

      • I gave up on Motor Trend, Car & Driver, Automotive News et al probably 15 or 20 years ago. They all started focusing on exotics, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Bugatti, Indy race cars, etc. I’m a car guy, I love all cars, but I have much more interest in stuff that that I might actually be able to drive or own, like a Charger, Mustang, Subaru, Miata, whatever. Maybe even a Camry or Accord that I might actually buy for the wife or something. Really got tired of the articles about whether the Koeniggseg is better than the Bugatti Veyron. Not like I’m ever gonna be within a hundred miles of either one of those cars, so who gives a shit. That’s what I love about your site, Eric, you test drive cars and trucks that I might actually buy, not a bunch of exotic stuff that I realistically can’t even dream about.

        • Me, too. I stopped my last remaining C/D subscription in 2012 or so. As greats like Rich Ceppos, Csba Cedere, Brock Yates, Patrick Bedard, David E Davis and others and quit or retired, the writing became stale and it avoided the hot button automotive issues like speed limits, emissions, safety and others. In fact, I remember sitting in a Discount tire and seeing C/D basically rerun an IIHS press release. I was done. Couple that with one more Porsche road test and I had enough. I discovered Eric’s site about 16 years ago through the National Motorists Association. Best political and automotive writing today.

          • The car magazines are in decline and it’s another case of ‘blame the interwebs’ but they simply don’t offer anything good to read almost all the time. I still use ancient terms from CD. Insurance Institute for higher surcharges. Anti-destination league, etc. If only they could offer that sort of writing.

  7. ‘“Clearly, we need more and better technology,” says Cenizo.’ — eric

    Here’s a more sophisticated version of Cenizo’s crude agitprop, in a New York Slimes article headlined You Want an Electric Car With a 300-Mile Range? When Was the Last Time You Drove 300 Miles?:

    ‘Providing the power and range that have made E.V.s appealing to American buyers requires massive batteries, which help make the current crop of E.V.s, on average, around 30‌ percent more expensive than gas-powered cars.

    ‘Despite dramatic growth in median E.V. range, to 234 miles in 2021 from 90 miles in 2015, consumer demand for range is always one step ahead. Three hundred miles might have been a desirable figure for potential E.V. buyers in 2019, but come 2021 it was 341 miles, according to findings from Cox Automotive.

    ‘By improving home charging for urban apartment dwellers and prioritizing vehicles with smaller batteries, rather than road-trip-enabling charging stations and big batteries, we could maximize the miles we can affordably electrify.

    ‘The short time frame remaining to ‌limit climate change brings unique urgency to the electrification challenge, but freeing our thinking from a century of car-bred habits will be critical …’

    https://archive.ph/YYklG#selection-633.0-633.187

    Taking the headline first: several times a year, I used to drive 335 miles one-way to Cortez, Colorado to buy retail weed. In a trusty Toyota, refilling the tank in Gallup, New Mexico, it’s easy. In an EeeVee, navigating the vast emptiness of the Navajo rez, essentially impossible.

    NYT’s flack grasps that Big Gov subsidies distort the EV market in favor of luxury solutions. And he’s equally right that “the average American motorist drives about 40 miles per day and 95 percent of our car trips are 30 miles or shorter.”

    But short-range special-purpose EeeVees are a luxury that few can afford, compared to a gasoline-fueled vehicle that can make a beer run to 7-Eleven or a road trip to Montana with equal aplomb.

    ‘Climate change’ agitation from ideologue scribblers who regard carbon dioxide as a ‘pollutant’ is a total non-starter in my world.

    They can kiss mah ass.

    • Hi Jim,

      One of the things unmentioned in the NYT’s “piece” (of you know what) is that an EeeeeVeee’s touted range isn’t really its range. Because unlike a non-electric car, an EV’s range is dramatically affected by such things as heat and cold and use of accessories as well as driving habits. So a “300 mile” range can easily be 200 – or less. And whatever the range is, it’s always less because you always have to leave a reserve sufficient to get you to the charge point and if you don’t want to rapidly wear out the battery, you should always keep it at least 30 percent charged as regularly discharging it will hasten its demise.

      And then there is “The short time frame remaining to ‌limit climate change “…

      It is beyond belief – almost – the way these political assertions are put forwarded as scientific fact by newspapers.

      • Eric,
        “The short time frame remaining to ‌limit climate change”
        How many times have we heard that over the last 50 years? Are we not supposed to be baking in our homes while the coasts are underwater by now? In fact, should we not be extinct by now? Chicken Littles can’t keep their mouth shut.
        As far as “climate change” goes, we have had none. 1-2 degrees C in 100 years is not only insignificant, it’s most likely well within the margin of error in the record. Was there even tech available 100 years ago to accurately record temperature? Much less any vigorous standards for where to record it, which we still don’t have.

    • That headline is so feminine, it’s the automotive equivalent of the Blind Date/Fix-Up conversation between a man and a woman where the woman is trying to pair up an unseen friend:

      Him: “So, what does your friend look like?”
      Her: “Oh she’s smart, and she’s funny, and she’s so nice.”
      Him: “Yeah, but what does she look like?”
      Her: “Why are you guys so hung up on looks? What a person looks like doesn’t matter! God! You are so sexist!”

      EVs are the homely friend everyone wants to pawn off. So they make excuses for them or shame you for caring about “stupid” things like range or changing time.

    • I read the article you linked to and saw this:

      “Rather than holding E.V. adoption hostage to our ability to make batteries match internal combustion in every way, government policy should focus on the cases where E.V.s have advantages that internal combustion will never match: waking up every morning with a full “tank” sufficient for daily commuting and errands.”

      Um, yeah, about that. Literally a block from my house a homeowner in my subdivision has a Tesla Model 3. Yesterday I drove my internal combustion engined Mustang past his house and saw it sitting on the driveway backed up to the garage with a charger plugged into its charging port attached to an extension cord that snaked back into the garage.

      An hour ago I drove my internal combustion engined Sonata past his house and the Tesla is STILL parked in front of his garage with the charger attached.

      So if he didn’t unplug it that bad boy has been sitting charging now for nearly 24 hours. And the best part? My Mustang will match his range and our Sonata will beat it.

      But electric cars are totes better you haters.

    • Re: Jim H August 27, 2022 At 11:58 pm

      Control freaks always assume that everyone else should live the way they do and if they don’t government will be deployed to make them.

      Another thing I’ve noticed is that control freaks want everyone to pretend they are rich people. They continually drive up the base cost of living. It’s either because they have no idea of other people’s financial limitations or it’s very much intentional to keep people struggling.

  8. Car and Driver was the wittiest, with Roan and Track next then Motor Trend and Automobile was hit or miss. I used to devour those magazines. The ONLY thing they cared about then was the drving experince — zero politics. Haven’t looked at them in 20 years. Can only imagine the woke garbage they are now.

    • Hi Mark,

      I read them all in my youth as well. The writing was often literature and the writers cared about cars and driving, deeply. It emanated from the pages. Now? It’s all the same gelded PR flacking. And they wonder why their circulation is circling the drain.

        • Hi Tom,

          That’s not my recollection… I have a library of old issues and often refer to them. One standout was a review of the then-new L69 HO Z28 (and Trans-Am) vs. the 5.0 Mustang.

          And some of the Japanese stuff made in the ’80s was not unworthy. Examples include the Mitsu Starion and Toyota Celica Supra, among others.

        • Re: tom August 29, 2022 At 7:23 am
          Consumer Reports did that. I recall C&D mocking them as well as being very critical of them and their methods.

  9. ‘People ask why car culture is dying. It is being helped along by car journalists.’ — eric

    More egregious than Sebastian Cenizo is Al Root at Barron’s, who is beside himself with joy at CARB’s peremptory diktat:

    ‘This time around, Ford praised the CARB decision. GM did, as well. “General Motors and California have a shared vision of an all-electric future,” says a GM spokesperson.

    ‘All of this makes sense. Traditional auto makers are all-in on electric and are spending billions of dollars to develop EVs and battery plants as fast as they can.

    ‘Will people buy EVs? California isn’t leaving that up to chance. The state has included rules to help improve consumer confidence in the new technology. Cars, for instance, will have to maintain roughly 70% to 80% of their original per charge range for 100,000 miles to count as a zero-emission sale.

    ‘CARB believes that EVs and gas-powered cars will cost the same by 2030. Still, full parity shouldn’t be required to spur demand. An EV costs about 40% less to maintain, according to CARB.

    ‘The EV industry has gotten a lot of good news lately. New or old, they’re all winners now.’

    https://tinyurl.com/38adw4zk

    Al Root perfectly conforms to the definition of a flack, who servilely cheers on his corporate masters when they deign to toss him a doggy biscuit.

    Root hails a new CARB rule requiring 70% to 80% of range to be retained at 100,000 miles. There’s a word for a car buyer who thinks that’s a good deal: SUCKER.

    This ink-stained hack’s email address at Dow Jones is shown at the bottom of the article, for any EP Autos readers who’d like to administer a textual bitch-slapping to a flaming eco-green libtard who celebrates our destruction.

  10. I drive through the canyon somewhat often and most of the time the PSL is 50, sometimes 40 and when it probably should be slower it is 60. Most of us just do 60 or 65 except in the tight corners, and we all seem to get through OK. The accidents I see are commerical vehicles, which tells me the CDL is pretty much worthless any more.

  11. I saw the writing on the wall in the late 70’s when Consumer Guide- which used to do good car info which were concerned with performance and durability, switched to being obsessed with MPGs, and made that their primary metric for ranking cars. [Their metric- so that if you wanted/needed a 6 passenger sedan or big wagon, or were more concerned with durability, it didn’t matter, ’cause the disposable Ford Fairmont or Plymouth Colt were lauded over, simply because they got good MPGs and were “the wave of the future’- though none of those cars-of-the-future managed to make it very far into the future…..

    • so true Nunzio. half my friends are obsessed with mpg. I’ve never understood it.
      Even had a cousin trade in a brand new Toyota FJ Cruiser because it got ‘bad’ mpg according to her. I pointed out that she lost approx. $10K in the trade which would have bought a LOT of gas, enough to make the mpg of the FJ un-important. Crickets.
      My brother and I laugh about it all the time. “Give me a 10mpg car/truck, so we can enjoy it”
      We even both bought a few 8.1L GM’s cause the owners couldn’t deal with the 10-12 mpg when gas would go up. We stole them and the savings paid for gas for them almost forever, adn darn nice trucks (for the time).
      What’s weird though, is now with gas way up again, you can’t get any deals on used V8 trucks.
      Maybe Eric would know why?

      • Hi Chris,

        I’ll “amen” what you said about the strange fixation with gas mileage that some people have – and maybe even do a rant about it. As far as the lack of deals on V8 trucks, I think that is a function of their imminent scarcity. There is big demand for that which will soon be unavailable. Get ’em while you can!

  12. “Leftist car-hating state senator (a member of the Working Families Party, hint hint)”

    FWIW, in Wisconsin the moronic Lt. Governor is running for US Senate against Ron Johnson, one of the very few pols worth a darn. “Mandela” Barnes is of that commie party.

  13. So many of these safety cultists appearing out of nowhere. Propped up and supported by unseen forces and a hidden hand. In a better vanished time they would be lucky to hold a job sweeping the floor at a shoe store, or taking tickets at the toll both on the turnpike.

    As safety cultists casually destroy civilization through a death of a thousand cuts. The sane people making up the majority, seem unable or unwilling to do the hard heavy lifting required to put these insane busybodies in their place.

    At the end of the day it is a war on white people. I know, no one, or very few want to admit this cause it sounds racist, but facts is facts. You can say it effects all people, but the ones who will feel the greatest pain and loss of modernity will be white. The ones who get the biggest gains, not white. Follow the money, not the narrative.

    Every time I listen to that song I get the chills now. I can only hope the law of unintended consequences stomps these brain dead people good and hard

    • >At the end of the day it is a war on white people.
      It is actually a war on heterosexual male Gentiles.
      Those of Teutonic (Nordic) heritage (ja, das bin ich) will be selected for Sonderbehandlung.
      Count on it.

      • Heterosexual male Gentiles are just the tip of the spear, so to speak. Once we’re gone, white women and children will be treated as a harvestable resource.

        • Speaking of race, I’m still amazed that seemingly 100% of Internet ads and YouTube commercials these days feature almost exclusively black actors. At first I thought this was merely a spillover from 2020–almost Madison Avenue’s way of saying “thanks guys!” to the BLM movement for providing some of the shock-and-awe behind the communist events that took place that year (e.g. the Minneapolis riots). But it has carried on far too long to use that excuse now.

          Companies are spending billions of dollars to create ad campaigns tailored around black people, which begs the question: why so much focus on a demographic that is not only a minority in the U.S., but has far less disposable income than white Americans? I still don’t have the answer, but the following 8-second Bitchute video provides some context:

          https://www.bitchute.com/video/7TvJ54LzAt7Y/

          Could it be the PTBs are preparing us for a massive influx of African immigrants arising from the food crisis?

          • Pulling it back to cars (well trucks), I particularly like the GMC ads where a well off AA gentleman is buying a ginormous GMC 4X4 pickup, and the Toyota ad where an AA gentleman “dressed to the nines” meets his group of similarly attired friends at a downtown restaurant and pulls up in a new Toyota 4X4 pickup.

            As
            If.

            Does the urban demographic buy big, lifted, 4X4 pickups? Anything is possible, but is it probable they do? Anyway it’s fun to watch.

          • Hey Jim, They all must go back. And wouldn’t it be nice if we could stop them from coming in the first place? At this point, why every politician (R&D) hasn’t been rounded up and placed under citizens arrest is beyond me. 30 years of open borders, when the overwhelming majority of us want it to end, is a mystery of mysteries. How long will the universe allow this to stand.?..

          • For about the past two years, TV ads as well as YT and other Internet Ad “pollution” have almost 100% featured “Knee-Grows” and mixed-race couples, almost always a black male and white, BLONDE female…it’s no longer “subtle”. Way beyond hawking “Afro-Sheen”. An enormous turn-off to yours truly.

            Certainly the demographics make no sense, as the “13% certainly have, overall, the least spending power”. They do “make up” for it in VIOLENT CRIME, perpetrating over 70 percent of them. Methinks it’s more about woke virtue-signaling as well as a no-longer subtle propaganda effort to promote race-mixing and the contamination and dilution of the white race. IDK about it being “preparation” to import masses of Africans in the near future.

            Since it’s become far more widespread, simply identifying these racial “traitors” and encouraging a boycott of them is almost futile. I’d say a more involved approach is to GET OFF THE GRID. IOW, STOP BUYING STUFF. Seriously. It’s realized you can’t entirely just go to “Nomanisanisland”, as that didn’t work in the overall picture for “Syndro” of the Incredibles either. But what you can do is to disconnect from “consumerism”, buy used, from thrift stores, grow your own food wherever possible, barter with others for things you can’t produce yourself. This “unplug” movement has another benefit…it “starves” the “Beast” (Federal/State/Local governments) from TAXES, as sales taxes are reduced. This is more of the “nonviolent” resistance that Gandhi promoted, and which ultimately wore the British out and caused them to abandon India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh after WWII.

            However, do NOT expect that “Uncle’s” response will be “non-violent”. Indeed, expect to be considered as a “terrorist” for advocated “off-the-gird” living and “prepping”, that’s already been mentioned by Deep State figures. Especially if you’re WHITE and at least once supported the Orange Man.

  14. Oh! Almost forgot. Yes I fucken can put a price on safety. I can put a price on any damn thing… including Mr. Cenizo. Again, I draw upon my studies of Italian organized crime.

    Every single thing has a price, maybe yet undiscovered, and maybe sometimes the price gets lowered/raised by certain “incentives” but every single real thing can be bought. So therefore has a “price”.

    Since everything has a price, even it is not explicit, then everything has a cost/benefit ratio.

    Everything.

  15. I have been hating the ever-decreasing visibility in modern cars. Without knowing anything else about the cult of safety, since the trend began, it has bothered me deeply. Before I knew about how developed is the safety cult, I implicitly figured “must be because people are worried about glass breaking in accidents”… or more likely “government”.

    Once I was given an Audi Q7 as a loaner car. A freaking house boat on wheels and it’s impossible to see out through the rear in any meaningful sense. I was super freaked out because of their “rental” (aka loaner) policy. The freaking beast costs and obscene amount of money and they will literally make you buy the vehicle (per the agreement) if it can no longer be sold as new. Which makes zero sense because kind of by definition, a loaner is not “new”, right? WTF??

    But OK, sorry to repeat my old yarn about my POS old-ass dumpy ’02 A6 wagon worth about $1000 at best BUT! You can see forever (on a clear day) out those windows in any direction! It doesn’t have a back-up camera. It did have one of those rear radar beep system things but that quit working long ago. It’s gonna break my heart when I inevitably must put it to rest.

    In my daily driver the much smaller A4 Allroad, you can’t possibly see out the rear in any useful way. The backup camera juts doesn’t cut it for me. I’m always twisting around looking and re-looking because I don’t trust the camera. And I can’t see out the fucken car!! frustrates me to no end.

    • Amen, EM! I’m 6’1” so I need the rear view mirror set high up so I can see underneath it out the windshield off to the right. My old cars are fine, especially the now departed 2 door Pontiac, fashionably lean A pillars, high up rear view mirror, two doors meant looking left meant a clear view not another pillar.

      The 2018 Grand Cherokee has that claptrap of electronics on the windshield plus fat A pillars, almost creates a RH forward blind spot, my 2005 GC was even worse that pod of electronics even fatter. Literally have to look underneath all that to see RH traffic at intersections.

    • Exactly right EM. I rented a BMW Z4 super cool M something for a run up to Flagstaff. Fine car for that purpose. But for day to day driving I prefer my 2017 Crosstrek with larger greenhouse and lower beltline. Just friendlier to drive.. Plus it can carry stuff.

  16. New sports cars like the Corvette, can make numbers and lap times but they are over weight, they understeer everywhere because they are too heavy,

    to offset the weight they add huge power, this makes them unstable, so they use AI computers to drive the car, to keep it out of the ditch, with the driver aids turned off they are unstable, they aren’t involving (the AI computers drive the car, that is how they make lap times), they are boring,

    the EV’s are way worse they are another 1000 to 1800 lb. because of the lithium fire bomb battery, their biggest problem, which is huge is, they are horrible on corners, bad lateral acceleration, only good at linear acceleration,

    can’t stop, bad brakes because they weigh 4000 to 5000 lb., a light car will outbrake them by huge margins and out corner them, (lateral acceleration) by a lot.

    they are very unstable, so AI computers have to drive them to get them around a track and out of the ditch. They have no sound or soul they are boring.

    So now we have over weight, dangerous, very unstable, whales that you can’t see out of….lol

    • anon 1,
      Started ages ago, when Honda put a 200 hp engine in a front wheel drive Prelude. They had to put a computer in control of the right/left drive bias in order for it to be drivable. A thing called torque steer, when you throttle up a 200hp front wheel drive it tends to steer itself. Right or left, I forget which.

  17. ‘that sound you’re hearing is Brock Yates, who was a real car journalist, spinning in his coffin’ — eric

    Brock Yates was a formative influence, through his brave and supple writing in Car & Driver. Instead of acting as a mindless flak for the latest shiny new models, he ventured into biting social commentary, such as in his April 1968 article The Grosse Pointe Myopians, whose provocative title left no doubt about where Yates was headed:

    ‘Automobile executives live in splendid isolation in the posh suburbs of Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills, and Grosse Pointe, and progress through the corporate echelons can be traced in many instances simply by an individual’s address changes. In effect, the auto industry is an immense upper and upper-middle-class family, with congregating points at half a dozen country clubs, the London Chop House, and the Detroit Athletic Club. Here information and gossip is exchanged about their parochial little world in an incessant babble that reveals a unique narcissism and widespread ignorance of the world outside.

    ‘It might be said that all Detroit cars are designed and conceived on the basis of the White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant world in which the auto executives live. They think the Electra 225 4-door is a helluva car, so why shouldn’t the rest of the world. They are 3-car families, why in hell shouldn’t the rest of the world want three cars? Their wives like cute little intermediates to drive to the hairdresser, so why in hell shouldn’t every wife in America?

    ‘For the most part, they stand by the statement made by C. F. “Boss” Kettering, “It isn’t that we are such lousy car builders, but rather that they are such lousy car customers.”’

    https://www.caranddriver.com/features/columns/a20053814/the-grosse-pointe-myopians-feature/

    As a punk kid on Galveston Bay, I’d never heard of Grosse Pointe, Michigan. Yates’s article was my first glimpse into the well-heeled but conformist corporate world, and its suburban redoubts — one which awaited me in early adulthood.

    Brock Yates informed, challenged and entertained his readers. They rewarded him by purchasing his books. What more could a writer aspire to?

    • Yates makes a great point. Car makers are aloof to the needs of their customers. It only worked well for a limited time when cars were made to meet those needs. Enter a guy named Ralph Nader, who turned the entire industry on its head in 1965 with his unfounded allegations. I remember at one time thinking that Nader’s statements had a grain of truth and were rightly made. Today, my view is far different. That guy was a cancer that metastasized quickly throughout the car culture.

      GM’s execs authorized hiring a prostitute to tempt Nader into having some extracirricular fun. That might have worked in Suburban Detroit in the 1960’s, but they had never dealt with a monomaniacal control freak like Nader, who’s lust is for power over individuals with laws and saaaafety mandates drives him. I would bet a huge sum of money that Nader has never been with a woman. Not then, not now, not ever.

      Ever since that high school stunt, car makers have been deathly afraid, with virtually no excpetions to challenge any narrative, rule or otherwise that comes from the mockingbird media propaganda arm of the government.

      • Nader’s a queer, that’s why setting him up with a hooker was nixed. Private investigators did pursue that angle but simply couldn’t tag him with any fellow sodomites.

  18. They say they are worried about safety, but that is a lie, what about all the lithium fire bomb EV fires never mentioned?

    Here is another problem they don’t talk about…..

    Sit in your EV when charging and get microwaved and if you are unlucky the lithium fire bomb battery will catch fire and incinerate you….

    Health damage from EMF radiation from EV’s

    Since Tesla is an electric car with a large battery and an electric motor, it emits high amounts of EMF radiation. The latest models emit high levels of electromagnetic radiation.

    Dangers of EMF Radiation from Tesla Cars and Other Electric Cars
    According to a study by Scripps Clinic Research Foundation, high levels of EMF from EVs make the drivers drowsy and sleepy while driving. Based on the study, drivers who are exposed to high levels of EMF while driving are likely to sleep 52 minutes faster than those exposed to low levels of EMF. Is this why there are so many tesla, EV, crashes?

    In addition, exposure to radiation while driving can result in headaches, neck stiffness, and dry eyes or blurred vision. Long-term exposure to these sources of EMF radiation may have long-term health complications.EMF Radiation from Electric Cars
    blurred vision…..is this causing crashes?

    According to Dr. Joel Moskowitz at the University of California Berkeley, hybrid cars and other electric cars have increased levels of ELF that cause cancer, increase the level of oxidative stress that leads to DNA fragmentation, cause cell damage, fertility issues, drowsiness, etc.

    So drive an EV and get…..damaged DNA , cell damage, get sterilized, get drowsiness and crash….lol

    Electric cars, including the Tesla EV do emit a dangerous amount of EMF ……….Electric cars do emit more radiation compared to standard fossil fuel vehicles.

    If you sit in your EV when connected to the super charger/ high speed charger you get microwaved, stay away from the car when it is charging.

    Stay out of the car….lol……….this will be interesting in the middle of the night, in a dark parking lot, when it is snowing and freezing out….lol….these Ev`s are a safety hazard in many ways…

    Avoid Sitting in the Car While Charging the Battery
    When supercharging the battery, a high amount of EMF is emitted, therefore, do not stay inside the car.

    Charging the car creates substantial amounts of dirty electricity (DE). When you charge your car in the garage, you are putting extremely high levels of DE onto the wires of your entire home. turn your house into a microwave oven….lol

    To supply electricity for EV`s the electrical grid has to be expanded by 500%, so the EMF radiation from the transmission, distribution lines will increase 500%, destroying people`s health.

    This is especially problematic as most people charge the car overnight when the occupants are sleeping – the time of day when we want our EMF exposure to be as low as possible.

    they went on and on for 2 1/2 years about a mild flu, relabeled as a dangerous bat germ, but haven’t said a word about this health issue, that is actually real and 100 x worse then a mild flu.

    https://emfguardtips.com/do-electric-cars-emit-emf/

  19. “You can’t put a price on safety.”
    How absurd. Of course you can. All these cars infused with “safety” cost more. if you can’t afford it, you can’t buy it. Closely akin to “even if it saves one life”. If it cost a million dollars to save one life, and you can save 1,000 lives with the same expenditure, it is immediately apparent that unlimited cost to save one life is preposterous.
    I would agree with you Eric, the lack of visibility in late model cars is perhaps the most dangerous aspect of “safety” not being safe at all. Once upon a time, with the encouragement of my former wife, I traded my Miata for an Impreza. Of course Subaru, in its fit of “safety” installed massive door pillars. Which cut the visibility I had in a Miata by more than half. On top of that, the side mirrors would not adjust out far enough for me to make some adjustment to that lack of visibility. Which means I was cranking my head around to see beside me, instead of seeing what was in front of me. I drove it for a year before trading it in for another Miata, after my former wife departed. Lucky I lived that long driving it. As a young man, I was a SCUBA diver. There were two tank valves available. One was a simple on off valve. The other had a “safety” reserve, where you could flip a lever to access the last 600 psi of air in your tank. I chose the former, because too much accommodation of “safety” invites carelessness. I understood this at the tender age of 22. Why monitor your tank pressure since you have a “safety” reserve? Unless you forgot to reset the valve, and ended up breathing the last bit of air before you realized it was the last bit of air.

    • It’s akin to what enthusiasts in the “Tank Community”, like in “World of Tanks”, will debate to Kingdom Come. As tank design is a compromise of the Tank “Holy Trinity” (Protection, Mobility, Firepower, not necessarily in that order), it’s debated whether more armor or anti-missile gadgets, a higher-performance engine(s), larger fuel tank, wider tracks, or mounting a BFG, or adding other weapons like a TOW missile launcher, and so on, will enhance a tank’s survivability. Of interest of late is the Russian T-14 “Armata”, their lastest “Super Tank”, which has the 3-man crew entirely in an armored capsule in the front of the hull. While this beast looks impressive, it does away with a time-honored design feature of MBTs…the Tank Commander sticking his fool head out the turret and looking for targets and/or threats. My contention is that as long as the T-14 can stand off from the enemy and pick off targets, it’ll be a “world beater”, but once it mixes it up with enemy armor, or it has to go into any town or terrain where infantry can stalk it, it’s a SITTING DUCK.

  20. I read that this is going to be mandatory for all vehicles sold in the EU in a few years; great, coming soon to a state near you. Can’t wait to see how this will cause more injuries. I once managed to avoid being T-boned by stomping on the gas to get out of the way of the idiot blasting through a stop sign right at me, would have been a worse outcome if the car decided to override my speeding up.

  21. Auto journalists

    Someone said these new auto journalists are mostly young people, with zero knowledge or experience with cars, some don’t own cars and don’t even have a driver’s licence, have never driven. So when they see an EV that does 0 to 60 in 2.8 seconds they think it is the best car in the world and push it.

    The problem is there is 50 other qualities a car has that determine if it is any good, linear acceleration is only one, an EV that does 0 to 60 in 2.8 seconds might be the worst car in the world.

    Here is an example of a very good car:

    If you want the ultimate top down driving experience get a super 7, it is also the exact opposite of a nanny state car.

    A super 7 (a 1957 design by Lotus), is the ultimate driving experience, buy or test drive one, it is a completely different experience. The most direct, analog, raw, visceral, unfiltered driving experience, perfect for the hard core driver enthusiasts, this is how a car should be, small, light, agile, fast, no frills, no driver’s aids, mechanical art made to go fast only, no luxury, no doors or roof, some have no windshield, nothing extra, with a 4 cylinder engine about 1200 lb. A car you can connect with completely.

    The closest thing to an old F2 car for the street, very fast,

    A Super 7 weighs around 1200 lb. a modern nanny state vehicle could be 4100 lb.

    The Super 7 is built with a steel tube frame like the older race cars, it is very strong, stronger then unibody design and very light (under 100 lb.), that is why the Super 7 handles so well, it is low, light and very stiff.

    A Donkervoort a Super 7 clone, with an Audi 1.8 lt. 20 valve turbo engine in 2003, 2004 had the world record lap time for any street legal car on the Nurburgring, (quite a bit faster then the tesla plaid lap time).

    A Super 7 is the 2nd most copied car in history, 160 companies made copies, (Cobra was the most copied car), the Super 7 is a close copy of a 1913 Bugatti Type 22, the specs are close, one of the first small light cars (did Lotus copy it?).

    Chris Harris reviews the Caterham Super 7…….he says it is the best sports car….
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAwNfgvF_Ww

  22. “They are PR hacks, most of them” – so just like every other mainstream journo?

    This has been a big contributor to the dumbing of America. What was once a reporter is now a spokesman masquerading as a newsman.

    • Corporate “news” is nothing more nor less than an add agency. Selling their coverage to the highest bidder. In general, that would be Pharma. In cars, that would be insurance. Which in itself has become an agent of the state, or vice versa.

  23. CDOT is experimenting with variable speed limits on I70 through Glenwood Canyon. In clear weather the PSL was actually raised to 60MPH, from 50. That’s just keeping in line with what most everyone was doing anyway, aside from the tourists trying to take it all in (If you ever come out to the western slope make sure you go through). At times of inclement weather someone with some authority will slow everyone down to 40 or less, although this summer it hasn’t been tested much due to the policy that preemptively closes the canyon when the NWS issues a flash flood warning due to danger of rock slides after the Grizzly Creek fire. It’s been a long summer…

    I drive through the canyon somewhat often and most of the time the PSL is 50, sometimes 40 and when it probably should be slower it is 60. Most of us just do 60 or 65 except in the tight corners, and we all seem to get through OK. The accidents I see are commerical vehicles, which tells me the CDL is pretty much worthless any more.

    Which brings up a point about regulators. They set the minimum level of safety as determined by them. So as long as you’re meeting the safety requirement you’re good to go. Never mind that the requirement was established by committee consensus. Never mind that some interested parties may have carved out exceptions for themselves. And never mind that it’s not their risk.

    The regulator has no skin in the game, aside from professional reputation. And reputation can be twisted and bad decisions can be excused for the right people (as witnessed by most of the “public health” regulators). So their arbutary rules can’t possibly account for all people, yet here we all are. Living in the minimum standard and wondering why everything sucks so bad.

    So bring on the governors. We’ll all just keep our foot in the floorboards all the time no matter what, letting the governor do what it does. And the’ll likely be even more wrecks, especially when added to lane assist and other “driving aids” that allow drivers to ignore driving.

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