I don’t disagree at all. I’d guess that (in a totally unscientific blind estimate), 75% of the increase in vehicle costs over the last 2 decades are a result of paying essentially for the technology that generated a higher MPG. You’re pretty much pre-paying your gas. Higher cost for the car but lower number of gallons…

You’re asking me to prove a negative here. I’m saying that it’s hypothetically possible for someone to come up with a cheaper car. But the higher the entry fee is into entering the competition at all, the less incentive there is for a new competitor to enter. This is nothing but an example of self-serving…

I don’t disagree with your statement about most lower-cost competition likely being foreign. US labor rates are very high compared to China or other parts of Asia/Africa/South America. Korean exports are subsidized by the government (or at least used to be, I assume they still are?) to gain a market advantage in the…

“new guy undercuts the market” is vitally important to market competition. Without a “new guy undercutting the market”, there is no competition and no way to control rampant bloat. We’ve seen it already over the past 20 years in the price of vehicles on the market. Granted, a lot of that is essentially paying up front…

Here’s a chart from 2016 from the DoE tracking fuel prices in both real $ and 2015 $. From the late 40's until the mid 00's, gas stayed pretty flat in 2015 $ with the exception of about 5 years from 1979 thru 1984 where it reached today's prices.

It’s relatively affordable. But only due to the increased fuel efficiency standards offsetting the increases in fuel cost to keep $/mile somewhere close to flat. If cars had the same fuel efficiency of the 90's, people would be outraged at the cost & there is no way we would be calling it “affordable”. Remember to…

Not raising current standards is not the same as reducing the standards. A “highly polluting” car won’t pass the current standards. Unless you count hitting the current CAFE standards “highly polluting”. What this does is nothing more than raise the bar for any new competition that doesn’t have the tens of millions of…

Gas is NOT cheap. It’s still expensive by historical standards. That we’ve somehow convinced ourselves that European fuel prices are the “norm” and that the $4/gallon of the late 00's were somehow more “normal” is a recency bias. Even factoring in inflation, fuel prices should be about $0.50/gallon or more cheaper…

It also helps further lock out any potential smaller upstart companies from potentially competing since they won’t have the capital or R&D to develop the technology to compete with the big boys. As little bit of a ladder that there is left into entry into the gas/diesel auto segment, this is an attempt by…

Auto trade group wants increased fuel efficiency standards because it helps block out any small upstart manufacturers that would maybe try to enter the gasoline/diesel segment but can’t because they can’t meet the higher efficiency standards without the sort of technology that only the big companies can afford to R&D.…

I’ve always been of the opinion that kicking tires is perfectly OK. And anyone that views that as a negative and those that do so to be disregarded or ignored as “serious buyers” is someone that’s permanently lost my business. The point of kicking tires, no matter what the product is (but considering the term is…

Maybe. But there was no discovery of this particular crime until whenever this thing got dug up. Until the crime is actually discovered to have occurred (insurance fraud, not the original crime of vehicle theft), the clock on the statute of limitations doesn’t start ticking. So essentially, the clock started ticking…

Honestly, I don’t see it actually ever kicking in on time. Maybe eventually, but not on time. It’s going to get delayed when costs for electric don’t come down enough to actually be affordable without absurd subsidies from the govn’t to make it within the realm of possibilities for anyone under the top 20% of earners.…

Wait... so it’s a racist law, and stopping a white lady makes it a racist law? I’m so confused by the world anymore. None of it makes a lick of sense. If they only stopped brown people to detain & question, then it’s a racist law. If they stop white, it’s a racist law. If they stop everyone, it’s a racist law. I quit…

NHTSA isn’t forcing VW to fulfill my ABS Module recall either. When I called them after VW denied my claim for the recall, NHTSA told me I should try calling the Federal Trade Commission.

As a guy that flips comics on the side (to help pay for my comic habit & my car habit), the first thing to keep in mind is the age of the seller.

I’m more in favor of teaching people personal responsibility & just general basic 101 ethics & morality again, since we stopped doing that like 30 years ago. But this is about 1/2 way there.

So he’s a shitty racist asshole & she’s a despicable human. Great. Match made in fucking heaven, those 2.

The better question would be “does anyone in elected office have anything BUT a (D) next to their name?”.... I don’t think we’ve elected anyone with even an (I) in decades, and definitely nobody with an (R) next to it.

Neutral: No. Not anytime soon. Between the environmental costs of producing the electric to charge the car & the horribly polluting items used to MAKE the car & the components of the electric car, it’ll be a long ass time before we find a way to make batteries & other components cleanly.