You’ve probably read that it is now common for people to sign up for seven years of payments – because this is the only way many people can afford to drive a new vehicle. More payments being more manageable than fewer – but higher – payments. This works – for awhile.
But it can’t work for too much longer, because depreciation catches up – and passes – you right around the seven year mark. By this time, you are likely to find that you owe more (the remaining loan balance) than the car is worth by then and that makes it not worth making those payments any longer. People walk away. The “under water” vehicle gets repossessed. Lenders know that car loans can’t be extended much beyond seven years and that will limit the number of loans written that are for longer than seven years. This, in turn, is going to limit new vehicle sales (or at least, limit the financing of them, which amounts to the same thing).
What then?
The vehicle manufacturers could try to reduce the cost of new vehicles so that people could afford to pay them off in five years or less, but that will be difficult because they have bought into the costs of compliance. It is no longer legally possible to manufacture for sale a vehicle not equipped with multiple airs bags, which entails the cost of designing the car’s structure and dashboard around the air bags – in addition to the cost of the air bags themselves. Many new vehicles have air bags built into the seats as well as the door panels and dash and steering wheel. This alone has added thousands in compliance costs to the window sticker of every new car.
Additional compliance costs include the mandatory back-up cameras and screens that display the images as well hidden/added drivetrain compliance costs such as direct injection and automatic transmissions with eight, nine and ten speeds when four or five are plenty (in terms of any meaningful benefit to the vehicle’s owner).
There are also the transferred compliance costs of EVs the manufacturers are effectively forced to make that can’t be sold for what they actually cost to make, plus a profit. The manufacturers “sell” EVs for less than it costs them to manufacture the things and make the money back by upping the cost of the vehicles that do sell because they’re not EVs.
All of these costs are invisible to the buyer because they are not line-item’d on the window sticker. That would have been the smart move for the manufacturers in that it would have made it clear why the cost of a new vehicle has gone up so much over just the past ten years, let alone the past 50 . It was about 50 years ago that the federal government got seriously into the business of imposing compliance costs on vehicle manufacturers, who passed them on to buyers who didn’t know what they were being made to pay for them and were encouraged to blame it all on “inflation.”
How many know – to cite just one example – that convertibles all-but-disappeared from the market (which was no longer that because of government interfering with it) by the mid-1970s because of a federal diktat that a car’s roof had to be capable of supporting the car’s entire weight if it rolled over? Instead of convertibles – available, mind you, for those who wanted to buy one – everyone got a government-mandated hard-top with thick “A,” “B” and especially “C” pillars that kept the roof from crushing if the vehicle rolled but also made a wreck more likely because of the blind spots created by those thick, visibility impairing (and government-mandated) structural pillars.
The manufacturers could have simply told car buyers why the cost of vehicles was going up so dramatically by line-iteming each compliance cost. Just a statement of fact, which can serve as a very powerful argument. For example:
5 MPH bumpers – as required by Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard ( FMVSS) 215, “Exterior Protection”: $500
Air bags – as required per FMVSS 208 (Supplemental Restraint System): $3,500.
Back-up camera system (per FMVSS 111): $500.
These are just a few of the readily identifiable specific compliance costs. There are also costs that aren’t specific in the each-new-vehicle-must have (insert here) but which they are effectively required to have, such as fragile plastic and very thin metal exterior panels, which help a manufacturer comply with federal fuel economy and “emissions” diktats via lowering the vehicle’s weight (which is perversely increased by other diktats pertaining to “safety”). Also in this category are the already-mentioned direct injection and automatic transmissions with eight, nine and ten speeds. The only reason for the proliferation of these things is compliance; they eke out slight gains in gas mileage and slight reductions in gaseous (C02) “emissions.”
They confer no meaningful benefit to the buyer who gets to pay for them. And nothing meaningful otherwise, either – except for the costs.
But the manufacturers did not line-item the costs of compliance, which might have caused people to see how much compliance was costing them. That might have generated enough public outrage to at the very least impose some cost-benefit discipline on the government; i.e., it might have obliged the government to prove rather than assert that a proposed diktat would be of greater benefit to people than what it cost them.
Instead, they partnered with the government and so became a kind of adjunct of the government. That worked for awhile, because while many people didn’t like it, they could still afford it. At least, they could still afford to finance it. We are arrived at the inflection point. People can longer afford it – or soon won’t be able to do. Overall sales are down – and headed faster in that direction. The palliative of extending loans to six, now seven years won’t work anymore, either because of math (i.e., of depreciation).
Can’t the manufacturers see it? It is hard to believe they cannot see it. What then is their plan? Put another way, has this been the plan all along?
For some time, several manufacturers have been openly talking about recasting their business. Instead of selling vehicles, they’ll sell you transportation as a service. They want to become mobility companies. This makes a lot of bottom-line sense, in a Dr. Evil (or rather, Bill Gates) kind of way. Car payments end. Endless subscriptions don’t. It is more profitable to keep you paying forever as opposed to just seven years.
So just maybe, the manufacturers have been in on it. They have been using the government to subtly render buying (and so, eventually owning) vehicles progressively less-and-less affordable so as to create a scenario in which the only way most people get to drive is when they rent.
We’re just about there, too.
. . .
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(I posted the article along with my comments (below), on “Gab”.)
UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT AUTOMOBILE “COMPLIANCE”
Here it is – the reason that automobiles keep becoming more and more expensive, and why soon we will need to get a 30 year mortgage in order to buy one.
“Compliance” means, the U.S. Government instituting more and more regulations which automakers must comply with. Whether it is intentional or not, the apparent trajectory of the U.S. Government, is to make it impossible for even one person to ever be injured while driving or riding in an automobile.
(How long will it be before the United States Government decrees that people are falling and injuring themselves on concrete sidewalks, and therefore ALL of them in the United States must be removed, and replaced with rubber ones??)
I figure the Feds will deem walking anywhere not pre-approved by them to be illegal. And then they will tax the hell out of you, or take whatever else they have not stolen as punishment for having the audacity to believe you owned your own legs and feet, and could actually use them the way you wanted to. But I surmise I should not give them any ideas.
The high percent of interest and let’s not forget state mandated vehicle insurance. The high cost fees and taxes. The one fee I think is over the top wrong is paying the dealer to do the paperwork. Wait until you go to buy something in a store and you have to pay X amount for the receipt the cashier gives you. Think I’m wrong, if you do not pay UPS with ACH they charge the customer $25 to cash the check, $10 to print and mail the bill and because the invoice wasn’t paid by ACH it’s late being sent USPS and 9.9% interest is added on. The rip offs keep on adding up. Next there will be a fee for the vehicle sales team and the guy who washed the vehicle. There is a long list of people who get their cut of the loot when a new car is sold and the buyer finances the vehicle. The way shady way (most of the time) vehicles are sold is so outdated but the world of Vehicles has never grown up and joined the 21st century. I don’t see much hope of that ever happening regardless that pretty much all the other things being sold have matured into being more professional. So it’s not just government’s mandated cost that cause the vehicles to skyrocket in prices it’s on the vehicles manufactures and their franchises that sell the vehicles.
I remember reading (elsewhere) that the Ford F-150 pick-up truck cost $1,500 in 1971. Now it costs so much that they won’t even mention the MSRP in television ads. But I think it’s over $50,000.
Doing the math: Can the F-150 provide 30X the utility of what it did 54 years ago?
I don’t think so.
Indeed, Kevin –
Personal anecdote, which I relate here because I was there and can attest to its veracity. My college buddy – who lives just down the road from me – bought a brand-new F-150 back in ’89 to start his roofing business with. It had the straight six and manual trans and manual 4WD – and that was about it. But it was what he needed and could afford. He paid about $8,000 for it. Even if you take at face value the government’s inflation calculator, that $8k back then comes to about $21k today. That’s half the real-world cost of a ’25 F-150.
Yes, the new truck is “nicer.” It has AC and power most everything – all of which is fine if you want it and (punchline) can afford it. How many young guys in their early 20s trying to start a business can afford it?
Not many.
Old car owner here. 1998 Tahoe, 2008 Jetta. Northern cars, rust buckets, but they run well and are cheap to fix. Tahoe visibility is great, Jetta not so much. Pillars are thicker. I’ve noticed that nobody with a new car knows how to use their mirrors or how to look out the windows when backing. They all rely on their video screens. The boss’ newer truck bricked a couple of weeks ago, so he dumped it because it was too expensive to fix.
All the new gizmos are making drivers lazy/distracted/stupid. And poor.
I had not seen the video, ‘Bowling for Soup – 1985’ before. Thanks for linking it. Hilarious, crack me up, and sad at the same time. It’s what America,… lost? The tail end.
Also, it seems we’re there now, “the only way most people get to drive is when they rent”?
Fake. Fake. Fake. Poseurs.
Plastic people, pretending to be…?
Idk.
[…] Read the Whole Article […]
TERRIFIC!
Everybody is apparently “up with the Roosters”….and youse guys beat me to the punchlines
all the time on this seditious black site….
So F…it…….I’ll shoehorn in a travel vignette……
Some dude mentioned awhile ago about traveling from to Milan from Croatia….and only encountering about 5 AGW vehicles…….on the way…. No Shit Sherlock….all the crap is automated now!……
(Sitrep) 2019 Northern Euro AGW surveillance..
While cruising the “Liberty Road” in, primarily France,(1146 kilometers) from St. Mere Eglise
to some town called Bastogne in Belgium, we encountered few AGWs.
Great. near upon leaving Verdun ..I check the Michelin France road guide….We should be hitting Luxembourg about now… scratch head…..
Technology to the rescue……..
“Welcome to Luxembourg, your T-mobile texts are free”….
Later that evening…..WE GET ZAPPED WITH AN AUTOMATED SPEEDING TICKET IN LUX!!!
Big Brother was already watching….
Asskick travel kids i.e. a pre 75th D-day anniversary run around northern Frog land etc.
Highlights:
-Pointe du Hoc (The single best D-day monument)
-St Malo just kool frog land stuff
-The Ardennes forest (Total Hansel & Gretal)
-Lux city looks like it was cleaved in half with a deep ravine separating the 2 parts
and lots more…..
-It was hilarious ordering a coffee at the Our river bridge cafe,(remember The Battle of the Bulge movie?) being served by a buxom German woman who couldn’t speak a lick of English and talked as though she was ready “to hawk a Luggee” clearing her throat.
– all the 82nd and 101st Abn, et al. small memorials scattered throughout the area
Managed to sneak one in… Kool all you smarty pants!
“Hey Mang”
All of these Venezuelans are going “banana shit” about a Maduro exit…..
Holy Chit Mang if the horseshit is true…..
I can apply for Parole in CT ……and check out some Kool Caracas real estate before Blackrock, etc. buy up all the shit……
At Present….VE happens too be the only place your money can score HUGE RISK RETURNS…
With regard to real estate purchases…NO SHIT!!!
Gee whiz , 14k for a 3 bed 2 bath condo in downtown Caracas …..sounds very doable…
“Oh well” , I bet those hedge fund managers are licking their chops..
Privatize the infrastructure … rebuilding payments AND Voila….15 minute city, here we come!
Fuk it, run it… I’ll see if I can ride an expat repatriation wave back into VE….
Oh well…. no more cookies from Asuncion Paraguay…..:( I reckon I can live with it 🙂
Our bastard overlords, certainly are running a game.
I think, maybe, as long as they’re at the controls, there’s ‘no getting ahead’ of them.
They’re screwing you (us all) forwards & backwards.
Idk.
Spartan kid,
I’m cycling up to “Go South” in the near future ……
Caracas at 3k altitude, 20 miles inland, no humidity , hurricanes schmericanes..
NO.
Earthquake perhaps..but… WHATEVER….
Hey Corn Belt kid (Iowa)…..are you ever going to send me a review of
Ottumwa’s famous Canteen Lunch in Alley….or are you a bot?
Loose meat sandwiches w/cheese ROCK!
From a former St. Louisiannnnian…Ok so if you’re “USA,USA” You know the Big arch thing in Missoura …..Does the place have chili cheese fries yet?
HA! Chili cheese fries are all over the place, here.
The loose meat Maid Rite sandwich shop in downtown Muscatine closed up (identical to Roseanne’s shop) and that was the closest I know of to your Ottumwa dream.
https://maidrites.com/
Anyway, I don’t understand why you would go to Caracas & not return to the Dominican, which you seem to know the lay of the land of.
Arbitrage, alone?
I love the DR…and think it’s still Norman Rockwell 1950’s land (Caribbean version) a colmado on every corner and the place for local gatherings etc.
But , I’m a lonely planet guide type dude sticking…or more accurately pissing all over Telus…..to mark my Territory….
Onward through the fog…..
The kool thing about the DR…Haiti is next door ….and it elicits a…NIMBY type reaction from pompous E/W coasters..
Funny , think NO ASSHOLE STRIP…..and adios punks…
But the jerk offs still pollute the area by during airbnb crap.
Why I believe Venezuela….is toast????
EZ kids….Israel is ordering the US to invade Iran and they (the us vassal) will need to secure a reliable source of oil when Iran cuts off the strait of hormuz.
Thus adios Maduro, reinvigorate the Gulf Cost refining operations specifically geared to handling VE (Heavy sulfur crude)..
AND CHANGE THE SUBJECT …AND DISTRACT THE 10 SECOND
INTELLETUAL “USA USA” MIDGETS….
Sorry folks, I can’t believe how STUPID most people are!!!
But I call a Spade a Spade.
Hmm, One website says, “At the end of 2023, Iran accounted for […] 12% in the world.”
Another website says, “3.3%”
That’s not, alot. That’s, A bit player. A blip.
Idk. …I do know. We’re ruled by liars & con-men.
Oh yeah, I wanted to say, with GUsto: I AM NOT A BOT.
Ya crack me up, saying I might be.
I’d post my address (Eric has it) if I thought you’d stop by for a drink & to get some of the last ripe blackberries, or maybe wait until it gets made into jam. ?
I just wish you’d make a website with videos so we/I could see all your adventures down South. Envy.
Spartan Kid,
I’m retired , lazy and just cruising along…most of my “Kool Pics”… are Kodak moments , thus not transferable….
Just returned with my Caracas Squeeze after checking out
Niagara Falls….
Must admit Boyo….THAT IS A WORLD CLASS CHECKLIST FOR BACKPACKERS….AND DESERVES, it’s reputation!
Wow I was there in 1964 on a family trip around Lake Ontario
to check out the 64 Montreal World’s Fair….
And was amazed by the SHEER VOLUME EXITING 4 of the 5 Great Lakes…WOW!!!
If you are a USA, USA fist pumper and have not viewed this Magnificent Geographic spectacle….
Put it on your “Bucket List”.
Oh, for the record kids….I rate Niagara Falls above the following:
-Victoria Falls …Zimbabwe
-Sutherland Falls …New Zealand
-Iguazu Falls ….Argentina/Brazil
Yes.. its That Kool.
Oh yeah…
Forgot to mention something called “Brandywine Falls” in Canukastan B.C.
around the Whistler area.
Damn trail …just says … Watch Your Step…
as you traverse a small footbridge and realize
1) the water is moving at 15 miles per hr..
2)if you fall in …..you will meet your maker
locket split quick!!
3) the falls drop about 200 ft and if you get sucked in, you will “Splat”…on hard rock at the base…Hoest Indian!
auto correct sucks…..ahem.. It’s honest Ingin ..et al BS
ICE has an automated checkpoint development project southbound on I-69 (I’m not kidding about the number) betweeen Corpus Christi and Brownsville. I’ve written about the complex several times here.
No traffic infractions, however. Automated ticketing is illegal in Texas.
It seemed like, ‘Check Point Charlie’ down there back in the 80’s (and, points West, to the coast) I wonder what, “automated checkpoint development project southbound on I-69” means?
You need an, I-idiot-phone Tracker-Jacker? Elaborate, please?
Weird, see what technology has wrought!
I used to blow down to Matamoros from Houston….an easy run.
Most Texas beaches are “brown shit”…until you get to Corpus and south to S Padre Is…..Don’t know if the Confederate Air Force still has it’s base in Harlingen but
the hangers had beaucoup “HOT CHICK ” B-17 WW2 Nose art!
‘So just maybe, the manufacturers have been in on it.’ — eric
Ya think? The political tale of ‘Baptists and bootleggers’ collaborating to keep counties dry in Appalachia and the South is not a myth. (Witnessed it muhself as a kid — the deacons and elders backing up the Buick at the county line liquor store to load the trunk with booze).
Cockamamie corporate ‘leaders’ like EeeVee Mary Barra and Lightning Jim Farley, who got so caught up in EeeVee Fever that they became prophets and acolytes of ‘the future is electric,’ leave no doubt.
They already know how this tawdry passion play turns out, since Act I in 2009 brought us the sleazy spectacle of the US fedgov bailing out and acquiring equity in GM — literally Government Motors.
Now, as our communist MAGA regime buys stakes in Intel and Lockheed [‘already an arm of the government,’ according to Pete Hegseth] while wrecking the business model of auto makers with savage tariffs, the way is paved for braindead automakers to fail into the arms of delusional Uncle Sam, who himself is staring ruin in the face as Social Security hits the wall in 2033.
And so we watch the blind leading the retarded into the cauldron.
You know, it’s all like some new drug
My senses are sharp, my hands are like gloves
Broadway looked so medieval, it seemed to flap like little pages
I fell sideways laughing with a friend from many stages
We fell (did you feel low?) Nah (huh?)
I fell right into the arms of Venus de Milo … https://tinyurl.com/pr5y9n4a
— Television, Venus de Milo (1977)
Sometimes it is not about the money for these true believers. They are more than happy to ruin a businesses in furtherance of their own goals.
From the linked article below: …alleges that BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard engaged in an anticompetitive conspiracy to drive down coal production as part of an industry-wide “Net Zero” initiative to further anti-coal Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) goals. BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard allegedly exercised their influence as shareholders in competing coal companies to push them to reduce industrywide coal output…
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/05/ftc-doj-file-statement-interest-energy-collusion-case-against-blackrock-state-street-vanguard
Anon
I think that is the end game Eric. To make vehicle ownership unaffordable for the 99 percent. So that only the ultra wealthy and elite are allowed and able to own and enjoy a now-luxury that used to be a common staple in John and Jane q America.
I wonder that, too.
Esp. re: can you buy fluids for your vehicle?
I’ve read bits, saying certain necessary fluids, are VERY hard to come by. Idk. I want to buy a 1995 vehicle, can I get fluids for it?
Idk.
Mostly it’s a matter of logistics. Not so very long ago a guy could stock a drum of antifreeze, a couple cases of oil, a couple gallons of DOT3 brake fluid, some Dex/Merc and some type F, and be ready for most things. Now there seems to be a different recommended antifreeze, oil, etc so it’s all more expensive and harder to find.
Caveat, I still can stock those things (because I drive and ride old stuff) but they’re a LOT more expensive.
For a 95 you should be in the very sweet spot and all your fluids should be pretty easy if you’re not buying something like a 95 BMW or Porsche. The Jerries love their overcomplicated, over engineered, precisely specified stuff.
In further news, Rivian is “shocked”.
https://www.businessinsider.com/rivian-ceo-us-investment-internal-combustion-engines-gas-vehicles-2025-8
Hi James,
What an insufferable tool that Rivian CEO is. The arrogance and smug elitism, drizzled with unction about how it’s “not good for kids” that engines aren’t going away just yet. This prick’s operation caters to people who can afford to spend the $70k-plus it takes to get into one of his devices, which isn’t something I take issue with as such. What I take issue with is these pricks seeking to eliminate the vehicles the rest of us proles can still afford to buy, of which there are fewer all the time.
If I recall correctly, Rivian received a big Federal bailout from the Biden Thing during the waning days of the shambling corpse haunting 1600 Pennsylvania.
A.k.a. Socialism.
…Bastards.
…Monsters.
Let’s not forget a side effect of GovCo regulations. Seat belts have been a requirement since January 01, 1968. My Camaro was built before that date and they weren’t in it when the last owner bought nor are they in it now. People at cruise ins advise me that I should just put the belts in to make the thugs I mean Police happy. Any advice on this?
I’ve tracked down a vintage set but the guy who has them pointed out the nylon is so old that it wouldn’t stop you in the event of an accident. As for installing them; from what I can tell, once they’re installed you’re legally not allowed to remove them. I expect to drive it at most five or six hundred miles a year mostly on secondary paved roads.
I would rely on the legal maxim. “It is better to beg forgiveness”.
Or just say F it.
Hi Ugg.
Legally I don’t need them and at most it would only have had an optional belt that would be really hard to see unless I’ve been pulled over.
Check with your state, but in most states if they weren’t installed at the factory they aren’t required. And there’s a slight chance that if you install them and there’s an accident you might be liable if they “didn’t work.”
Liable to who? No one is affected if you aren’t wearing your own seatbelt. Unless you get caught in this warped court system where you are liable to others for failing to protect yourself
How about the guy’s family after he steals your vehicle, wrecks it and when the seatbelt doesn’t retrain his head from impacting the windshield? They sues you for negligence by not having properly installed seatbelts?
Sure, in Trump’s America that’s not possible, but the courts don’t operate in Trump’s America.
Hi Landru,
I’ve dealt with this issue as well. I would not worry about it given the slight road usage/annual miles unless you live in an area that ferociously enforces “buckle up” laws. In my experience, the pigs tend to leave antique vehicle drivers alone absent something blatant such as a burnout. You could also carry documentary proof (from your DMV) that the vehicle did not come with seatbelts from the factory and thus is not required to have them. Just the same as my ’76 TA is not required to have an air bag. Show the document to the pig if needed.
Hi Eric:
I’ve already printed out that paperwork. The last owners never seemed to have had any problems either. I’m probably just worried about heavily armed thugs I mean Police unnecessarily…….
I think you’re good if it didn’t come with it. If I had that car I would just drive it care free. It gets more grey only in special situations. I drive an old army truck from 1986 that didn’t come with a license plate light. I got pulled over for that and explained it to the cop. He was unsure, and gave me a warning. His argument was that a standard blazer made in 1986 would have it and my M1009 is no longer in the army. But there is enough there he didnt give me a ticket. Also he was clearly hunting to catch me on other stuff, but I know that truck is a cop magnet so I keep everything in line and he had nothing.
This was really scary to read: I mean, like, ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ scary.
“People at cruise ins advise me that I should just put the belts in to make the thugs I mean Police happy.”
By, “People at cruise ins” are you saying, ‘Hot Rodders’?
…Yah, you seriously gave me the heebie geebies.
‘Creep Show’ + brain fogged vaxxed, wow.
…DON’T Even think it, man.
Everybody wants to be the cable company, charging you $200/month for products (channels) you never watch.
HA! So right you are, ReadyKilowatt.
“also made a wreck more likely because of the blind spots created by those thick, visibility impairing (and government-mandated) structural pillars.”
I actually had this happen yesterday. I pulled up to an awkward country intersection at an awkward angle and couldn’t see well. All because of the ridiculously large fedgov compliant pillar.
Thankfully age has made me much more cautious, so I repositioned and went about my business.
Same. I live in Houston, TX. It’s extremely busy, there is virtually no freedom of movement really at any time of day. In my 2012 Acura TL, a vehicle with narrow window apertures, I was constantly finding someone snarling at me because I attempted to change lanes thinking all was clear. It was happening every day.
I ended up buying some $15.00 of those convex miirrors on amazon which allows you to see what’s in your blind spot. I put it on each mirror and haven’t had nearly as many issues since.
They look like this https://www.autozone.com/safety-and-security/blind-spot-mirror/p/k-source-2in-blind-spot-mirror-2-piece/690423_0_0?spps.s=6263&new_store_set=true
These acre actually cheaper.
I say put something like these on and see how you like it.
I think that every DMV in the country should be giving these away.
The federal motor vehicle safety standards are dangerous and they know it.
May I offer a cheaper and better solution.
Adjust your outside mirrors thus, lean your head on the driver’s window and adjust the mirror out until you seen the rear door handle or fender in the lower inside half inch of the mirror. Lean yourself to the center of the vehicle and adjust the passenger side mirror out until you have the same handle/fender in the lower inside half inch.
When you sit up you can’t see your car in the mirrors. Trust me, it’s still there.
Now when someone comes is behind you you can see them in your center mirror. When they leave that mirror they will be in your side mirror. When they leave the side mirror they will be in your peripheral vision.
Voila!! No more “blind spot”. Once you get used to this set up you will have 360 degree situational awareness, vital in today’s mini-tanks.
Great advise, Mark. Unfortunately, the wife – who is not a great driver – doesn’t take to it. Won’t do it.
Those convex mirrors do seem to work.
…I miss cars, that you see out the back of, and all around.
…F-ing pillars, I almost ran over a guy hidden by those danged things while I was distracted by a passenger. I’ll never forget it.
1960’s, 70’s, 80’s & 90’s cars were “safer” by those metrics.
30’s, 40’s and 50’s too, I imagine.
The mirrors will help with side and rear visibility.
The A-pillars on many Toyota Model cars are obnoxious. They even put an intrusive handle grip that further constricts your freedom of movement and frontal line of sight.
To me this is a design defect and automakers ought to be sued for this.
Poor frontward visibility is causing an alarming increase in pedestrian and property damage only accidents as people can’t see objects below the hood line of sight.
Pedestrian fatals have increased from 4600 in 2000-2009 to nearly 9000 today.
Much of it can be tied to loss of response time looking ahead.
These FMVSS have cost lives and are responsible for death deprivation, injury and inestimable sorrow on American roads.
Their authors need to be held accountable for this menace to car travel.
That and the combination of people’s heads in their phones and some trying to get that easy insurance payment, but it goes too far. Or random black people jaywalking in dark clothes at night in the city.
The compliance to FMVSS loss of visibility is undoubted but I think distraction has more to do with it.
And even if you’re attentive the complexity of cars with screens and controls you can’t distinguish by touch requires demanding your focus. Nevermind a making bad driver worse when forced to look away to change A/C temp or radio station.
Ditto the 2018 Grand Cherokee, thick A pillars and the outside mirrors planted at the junction of door window line and pillar. High belt line, feels like you’re sitting down in a tub. Huge blind spot, I have to head weave at intersections lest I pull out on someone to my right and also not seeing pedestrians. THAT design is flat out dangerous. I’m 6’1” it’s worse for short folks.
Swapped cars with the kids, drove their older Land Rover Discovery for a couple days. Wow what better visibility! Sit up high plus very low window belt line huge windshield and the mirrors sit lower on the door corners so no blind spot looking “northeast”.
“You will own nothing and be happy”
Well, somebody will own everything, including you. We’re being set up for Plantation Planet where everybody is singin’ in the fields. Sadly, far too many humans are willing to have others think for them and provide for them.
Yep, “Sadly, far too many humans are willing to have others think for them and provide for them.”
From my 80+ year old Dad, down to my late Gen-X baby brother and his helicopter baby momma, they All have that mindset.
Same with my Millennial nephew.
The programming, is almost complete.