Author: Eric Peters

Most people don’t go gray overnight; it is a gradual process. But one day, you wake up, look in the mirror and… your hair has gone all white. It’s the same with things like tax-by-mile. This can’t, for practical reasons, be decreed overnight. For one thing, most of the cars in service – or at least, a very large number – are not  equipped from the factory with the necessary technology. But, almost all new cars are equipped with the technology. They have some form of the send-and-receive-capable telemetry system, marketed as “concierge” or “driver assistance” technology. GM’s OnStar was … Continue reading →

The post Are You Driving a Gestapomobile? appeared first on LewRockwell.

Why is the government even involved in dictating “safety” standards for new cars? Did the EPA ever get put to a vote? These are legitimate questions. But rarely asked – and forget about answered. The Constitution lists – enumerates – the specific powers the government is supposed to have. The Constitution also clearly states that the specific powers not enumerated are “reserved” to the people and the states. Well, where does it say in the Constitution that the federal government shall have the power to lay down bumper impact standards? Or require that cars be fitted with airbags and backup … Continue reading →

The post Agencies and Apparatchiks appeared first on LewRockwell.

Standing up to bullies is usually the best way to end the bullying. But what if you can’t do that? Legally, I mean. That’s the dilemma when it comes to dealing with the Enforcers of the Law. No matter what they do to you, “resisting” is not a good idea. Perhaps later, your family will be able to obtain some money as compensation via a wrongful death civil suit against the municipality. Provided of course a fellow mundane managed to video your execution. And it got enough attention as to cause sufficient embarrassment to make the Enforcer’s handlers desirous of making … Continue reading →

The post You Can’t Resist Oppressive Road Police appeared first on LewRockwell.

I got into a debate the other day with a reader about the future of the car hobby; about whether today’s cars are fundamentally disposable appliances that work great for a long time – their chief virtue – but when they do finally begin to wear out, the cost to replace their numerous complex systems (especially the electronics) will be so high that most people will simply throw the car away in favor of a new one. Like cell phones, for instance. Also, that the new stuff’s complexity is a turn-off to tinkering, especially for beginners– the new crop of the old … Continue reading →

The post New vs. Old appeared first on LewRockwell.

We live in a lunatic asylum .. the lunatics being us. For believing, we ever lived in a “free” country. As long ago as the reign of His Rotundity – the second president of the United (at bayonet-point) States – people were being dragooned off the street and roughly thrown into cages for having annoyed the powers-that-be. Or who were deemed “dangerous” by the powers-that-be? This was more than 200 years before The Chimp came along with his squinty-eyed pronouncements about “the enemies of freedom” and being either “with us” or “against us.” Not much is taught in government schools (for the … Continue reading →

The post Has the US Ever Been a Free Country? appeared first on LewRockwell.

Have you ever set (or paid to have someone else set) point gap? The answer dates you. If the answer is yes, then – probably – you’re old enough to buy beer. Back in the ‘80s. Otherwise, you probably have no idea what “points”  – in the mechanical sense – are. Much less how (and why) “gap” is an adjustment that must be made every now and then. If you happen to have a car that’s at least 40 years old… . Your vintage may be a bit more recent if you remember what the first thing you needed to do in the … Continue reading →

The post Remember Setting the Point Gap? appeared first on LewRockwell.

Looks like Mercedes is in the gunsights now. With VW shot full of holes and sinking fast over the diesel emissions “cheating” scandal, the heavy artillery has been retrained, azimuth and altitude calculated, the breech closed. The nextsalvo’s ready to fire. At the three-pointed star. At its line of BlueTec diesel engines. Which are alleged to be “cheating” Uncle’s emissions tests, the same accusation that’s rocked VW and which may, ultimately, end VW (via potential liabilities/fines in excess of $50 billion)? Automotive News reported the other day that “independent” testing discovered “evidence of a defeat device” that causes Mercedes’ diesel … Continue reading →

The post Another German Car Company Targeted for Destruction appeared first on LewRockwell.

Here’s a tale of two start-up car companies: Elio Motors and … Tesla. One execrable, the other admirable. Elio is developing low-cost ($6,800 to start) very high mileage (80-plus MPG) commuter car. Tesla builds expensive toys. This – the building of toys – is not of itself an execrable activity. Lamborghinis and Porsches are toys, too. They are expensive, impractical things. As is the Tesla – including the new Model 3. It’s expensive ($35k to start; probably closer to $40k once all is said and done) and impractical. Not a car for cold places or long trips … unless you … Continue reading →

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So why did VW “cheat”? Uncle? That question hasn’t been asked enough. It ought to be. Now we have the answer – confirmation of what I suspected and wrote about earlier when this “scandal” broke last year. VW “cheated” because it had to. Because “cheating” was the only way to keep on selling diesel engines that delivered the mileage buyers expected at a cost that made economic sense to them. Satisfying Uncle – passing his Rube Goldberg-esque emissions tests, which among other defects don’t measure the totality of a vehicle’s output – grams per mile –  but rather sample parts per … Continue reading →

The post Why Did VW ‘Cheat’ the Federal Mobsters? appeared first on LewRockwell.

There is a way out. Of half a dozen (or more) air bags and seat belt buzzers and back-up cameras and narc-you-out black boxes and automatic braking (soon to be a mandatory “feature” on all new cars). Just don’t buy a car.    Buy a “motorcycle” that just happens to be a car… or close enough to be serviceable as one. Like the Polaris Slingshot, for instance. Technically – legally – it is a motorcycle. But it seats two, side-by-side. You do not ride it, as you would a bike. You drive it. Just like a car. But without all the … Continue reading →

The post You Can Buy a Cheap, Fun, Unregulated Car appeared first on LewRockwell.

Termites start low and work their way up. By the time you notice them, it’s often already too late to save the place. All you can do is rebuild, start over. This analogy may be useful in terms of understanding what’s going on in the car business… on the lower end of that business. And what that could portend for the rest of the business – ostensibly “doing gangbusters,” according to mainstream media accounts. You know … like the housing market was “doing gangbusters” a few years back. Until, of course, it wasn’t. Well, check this: The number of “subprime” car … Continue reading →

The post Ka-Boom appeared first on LewRockwell.

Well, that didn’t take long. The car companies havedecided – on their own – to install automated braking in all the cars they make by the 2022 model year, just six years from now. They have come to love Big Brother. No, they have become Big Brother. Anticipating a federal mandate, they have decided to pre-empt NHTSA – the federal bureaucracy that has somehow found authority in the Constitution to “keep us safe” (I’ve looked, could not find the clause) by making us pay for new, expensive technologies most of us neither need nor want. Like automated braking. It appeared a few … Continue reading →

The post The Car Goes Full Federal appeared first on LewRockwell.

It’s like a Monty Python skit – except it’s not funny. The Covert Joint Mobile Mission. Sounds all rugged and special ops, doesn’t it? But these body-armored geeks are just jacked-up traffic cops looking for seatbelt violations and such. In a blacked-out tour bus, these low-rent Rambos prowl the North Texas highways looking for offenders. The height of the coach giving them a bird’s-eye view inside your car. And if they see you’re not buckled up for safety or texting then – Hut! Hut! Hut! – they radio to a colleague in a car who Hot Pursuits the dangerous scofflaw. All … Continue reading →

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I know a guy, a local guy, who has an older (1980s vintage) car that he bought with tinted windows. This guy is pretty poor and makes his living driving a truck. He is in his mid-50s and just trying to get by. I ran into him the other day and he had a story for me. A local Hero issued him a $100 ticket that he can’t afford for the heinous god-awful crime of having tinted windows. He was at the local gas n’ go, filling up when the Hero spied the crime and immediately took the necessary action. No friendly … Continue reading →

The post You Can Spot a Hero appeared first on LewRockwell.

One of the most obnoxious trends lately is the leveraging of government force to pad the pockets of private businesses. Obamacare is perhaps the most grotesque example (pssst… you don’t get “free” or even “reduced cost” medical care; you are forced to buy an insurance policy, and that is something quite different) but it’s becoming SOP – standard operating procedure – in terminal stage America. Here’s another example: The Automotive Service Association – which is the lobby for repair shops (yes, they have a lobby, too) is pushing with all its might for a nationwide car “safety inspection” mandate (see … Continue reading →

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