Author: Eric Peters

Uncle admits that his current fuel economy fatwas have added $1,800 (laughable; it’s much, much more) to the price tag of every new car – a sum that renders the savings achieved at the pump an irrelevance. The current MPG mandatory minimum is 35.5 MPG (average) vs. 27.5 (what it was back in 2010 before Uncle kicked it up). Most new cars don’t average 35.5 MPG; a very few hit that marks (like the Prius hybrid) but most fall far short. But let’s – for the sake of discussion – say that Uncle’s fatwa achieved its stated goal of forcing … Continue reading →

The post The Feds Make War on Car Gas Mileage appeared first on LewRockwell.

A guy was killed by his auto-piloted Tesla last week (new story here) and Uncle is looking into it. Of course, he won’t do anything about it. Because “if it saves even one life” is very selectively applied. It applies only when whatever the danger happens to be is something Uncle wants to use as an excuse to impose yet another mandate. Never to rescind one. See, for instance, air bags. Or – lately – cars that drive themselves. Uncle very much wants such cars and so is prepared to do nothing about their potential – and now actual – … Continue reading →

The post Taken for a Ride appeared first on LewRockwell.

If you wrench – or even just tinker – you may already have a portable jump-starter rig. They are super handy to have. For those who aren’t hip, it’s jumper cables plus a high-capacity battery (lithium-ion) that recharges via household current. If you – or someone else – ever needs a jump, you won’t need another car. You also won’t risk hurting your car. Modern cars have sensitive electronics and these can be damaged by traditional car-to-car jump-starting. There is also the traditional risk of sparks – and possibly, an explosion. (Batteries can leak hydrogen gas, which isn’t what you want … Continue reading →

The post We All Need This Cool Gadget appeared first on LewRockwell.

Uncle has turned me into a litterbug. I’ve chucked empty beer bottles out the window. I do not like doing this. I feel guilty about doing this. I never used to do this. So why do I do it now? Because having an “open container” – or an empty one – in one’s car invites severe (and for me, a car journalist, life-altering) consequences. If one happens to be pulled over by a cop for any random reason (seatbelt “violation,” “speeding,” an out-of-date sticker) and he sees an “open” or “empty” in the car, you are in serious trouble. Better call Saul. Even if the “empty” has been empty for … Continue reading →

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It’s interesting that the car That Makes Sense – economically and functionally – gets almost no press while cars that don’t (like the Tesla and other electric cars) do. Elio Motors (company website here) had a near-production-ready car on display at the New York Auto Show last week. Company founder Paul Elio gave a presentation to reporters and took questions. Bet you didn’t hear a thing about it. This is downright Weird. You’d think the media would be champing at the bit to let the public know that there is a car on the verge of production (with 41,000 of … Continue reading →

The post $10,000, 80 MPG appeared first on LewRockwell.

California has become – ironically – the most anti-car state in the country. Fifty years ago, the Beach Boys sang about The Little Old Lady From Pasadena. Today, the state government wants to restrict how often you’re allowed to change your car’s oil. And also, who’s allowed to do it. A bill (S. 778) is working its way through the California Assembly Committee (of all things) on Privacy and Consumer Protection that would impose new bureaucratic rigmarole on shops that perform oil changes and reclassify the procedure for regulatory purposes as a repair rather than routine maintenance. Repairs being subject to … Continue reading →

The post No Oil Change For You appeared first on LewRockwell.

The VW emissions “cheating” scandal has been below the fold for a couple months now, but the repercussions are beginning to hit home. Literally. At home. If you are among those who own a diesel-powered VW – whether “affected” of not – its resale value has dropped by about 20 percent, according to data compiled by Kelley Blue Book. The average auction price paid for a used VW diesel last month was down to $10,674 vs. $13,196 last August. That’s a big hit – especially for cars that (pre-scandal) were known for holding their value better than average. But expect resale values … Continue reading →

The post Measuring the Cost of the VW ‘Cheating’ Scandal appeared first on LewRockwell.

The criteria for defining an illegal search has never been whether you’re aware of the search having been performed. If, for instance, investigators sneak into your house, go through your things – but leave everything so it appears nothing was touched, so you never suspect they were there – it’s still illegal, if it was done without a warrant. Even to this very day – at least, kinda sorta. So how about these license plate scanners that cops are using to – yes – search us without our knowledge, much less a warrant? Maybe you haven’t heard about the scanners – more correctly, these … Continue reading →

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There are millions of cars out there with ticking time bombs in their dashboards … and steering wheels. Airbags with defective components produced by Takata, a Japanese company that supplied the components to 14 different automakers, who unknowingly installed them in their cars. Some of these defective bags have spewed bits of metal – shrapnel – into people’s faces, killing at least ten and causing serious injury to 100. Understandably, people who own cars with Takata airbags are nervous about going anywhere near their cars – let alone getting behind the wheel. Much more could be injured – and possibly, killed – … Continue reading →

The post Are You in Danger From Your Car? appeared first on LewRockwell.

Do “blue lives” matter more than other lives? According to Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards, they do. He signed a new law last week making attacks on armed government workers – you know, cops – a “hate crime” subject to harsher and additional penalties than would otherwise apply. Edwards – a former armed government worker himself – has an interesting view of crime and punishment, as well as of rights. These vary in degree according to such things as the color of the uniform one wears. Punch a mere peon (not uniformed) in the face because you hate the guy’s … Continue reading →

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Donald Trump doesn’t want to Drive 55 – but Hillary does. Well, she wants us to drive 55. The Dear Leader’s armored limo, of course, is not subject to any speed limits. They are for the Little People (that’s us) only. And if Hillary becomes Dear Leader, we may be driving 55 again. Here she goes: “The 55-mile speed limit really does lower gas usage. And wherever it can be required, and the people will accept it, we ought to do it.” She uttered this ten years ago almost to the day – May 24th, 2006 – at the National … Continue reading →

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New cars  are very good at meeting Uncle’s crash test requirements – but even minor impacts can and do cause a lot of very expensive damage. Despite the fact that most new cars are really heavy. Older, pre Uncle-ized cars may not have been as “safe” – as measured by Uncle’s current criteria – but they were harder to damage. Minor fender benders were just that; the entire front clip of the car didn’t crumple like a ball of Reynolds Wrap. This despite the fact that most of them were a lot lighter than today’s cars. This interesting juxtaposition is chiefly … Continue reading →

The post They’re Fat and Fragile appeared first on LewRockwell.

The Uncle-ized car (which is all new cars) has some “features” you may want to consider carefully before you buy in. Features that could hit you with cost – and hassles – once the warranty runs out. And otherwise, too. Let’s have a look at a few of these: * Direct injection – In order to achieve a fractional gain in miles-per-gallon (in order to avoid Uncle’s “gas guzzler” taxes) the entire industry (all brands, all models) has been switching over to direct gas injection (DI) in place of port fuel injection (PFI). DI offers no obvious/quantifiable advantage to the car buyer over PFI but has several disadvantages … Continue reading →

The post 4 New Car Things appeared first on LewRockwell.

If Elon Musk’s various projects are so Iron Man fabulous, why do they all need so much government “help”? Shouldn’t Tesla – and Solar City and SpaceX – be able to stand on their merits… if they actually have merit? Tesla fanbois – and Musk himself – will tell you all about the virtues of his electric cars. They are sleek and speedy. This is true. But they are also expensive (the least expensive model, the pending Model X, will reportedly start around $35k, about the same price as a luxury sedan like the Lexus ES350) and come standard with … Continue reading →

The post The Green Crony Capitalist appeared first on LewRockwell.

Hidden in VW’s announcement yesterday that it was “setting aside” nearly $9 billion to buy back – and destroy – about half a million diesel-powered cars convicted of “cheating” Uncle’s emissions tests was a statement by CEO Matthias Mueller that tells us how craven – and divorced from reality – car company CEOs are these days. Mueller told reporters that VW will undergo a “wide-ranging transformation” that will end up with the company “focusing more” on “digital services” and “zero emissions” vehicles; that it would be sinking money into “mobility services” such as ride-sharing apps and car-sharing. Because it looks like selling … Continue reading →

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