Author: Eric Peters

Changing a car’s oil is pretty simple – so it’s surprising it gets done wrong so often. Sometimes, by “professionals”  . . . who actually aren’t. See that part above about “simple.” Many places that do oil changes (such as tire shops and quick-lube joints)do not pay trained mechanics to do them. Because trained mechanics have better things to do – and because most shops can’t offer a $19.99 oil and filter change and pay a trained mechanic to do them. Not without losing money on the transaction, anyhow. For that reason, they have whoever they’ve hired for this duty do the job. … Continue reading →

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Trump is like a set of studded tires. They suck most of the time, but then comes a blizzard – and you are grateful. Just so now. If he were not jefe and instead we had her instead, it is probable that – before this day is out, an emergency executive order would emanate from Washington, outlawing the possession of “weapons of war” (as she has styled them) by other-than-government-workers and, of course, the people such as this Stephen Paddock character. The laws – and strict punishments – that attend murder didn’t much persuade him. It is doubtful new laws would have much if any power … Continue reading →

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Robin Hood may have been a fictional character, but the thing that drove him and his “Merry Men” to become outlaws was real enough: Oppressive laws. Specifically, oppressive taxes. At every turn, the Sheriff of Nottingham and his not-so-merry men would demand their pound of flesh. The only way Robin and his men could survive was to forget the law – and live outside the law. It was an act of desperation and necessity. This is happening again – to millions of American drivers. None of them merry. It starts with a ticket for a traffic offense – a pratfall that is becoming … Continue reading →

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I expected it to happen, but not this quickly. California officials are, apparently, “mulling” a ban on cars with internal combustion engines, according to an article in the industry trade publication, Automotive News. If they more than mull and pass a ban, CA would be the first American state to do so – following the example set by several European states, including most recently the UK. Part of the reason it is happening so quickly is because of amen-corner support from American publications like Automotive News. Perhaps they should reconsider changing the title of their rag. Because it isn’t “news” when you editorialize – and AN editorializes egregiously … Continue reading →

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If you’ve gone to get new tires recently, you may have already dealt with the latest outcropping of technocratic busybodyism: The scanning of your car’s electronic ear tag, its Vehicle Identification Number or VIN. The VIN is a bar code – literally – just like the one on the packages of stuff you buy at the supermarket or anywhere else that’s corporate. The VIN specifically identifies your car – including every last detail about it, such as the engine/transmission it came with, the color it was painted and the tires it came equipped with from the factory. And now it is … Continue reading →

The post Tire Nazis appeared first on LewRockwell.

Every new car is infested with Little Brothers – in the form of code and programming that “corrects” outright or thwarts whatever it is you wanted to do. It goes way beyond the Seat Belt Nanny. Have you tried backing up a new car with the driver’s door cracked open? Several won’t allow it – refusing to engage Reverse until you close the door. You can try all day to move the shifter into Reverse – but programming controls whether the transmission will comply. It’s all drive-by-wire now, you see. So no direct, mechanical connection between the gear selector and the transmission. When you select a … Continue reading →

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It’s interesting about the Chevy Volt. Uniquely, it carries around its own recharger – so it’s not tied to a corded umbilical like other electric cars. So it isn’t gimped by a much-abbreviated radius of action, like all other electric cars – the best of which can travel maybe 150 or so miles before their batteries conk out and the car must hook up to an electric IV for an extended recharging session. When the Volt’s battery pack’s charge runs down, fresh current is fed into it as you drive – without having to stop driving. This is superficially similar to the way hybrid … Continue reading →

The post The One Electric Car That Makes Some Sense appeared first on LewRockwell.

Whenever the government is rabidly enthusiastic about something you can be reasonably sure you shouldn’t be. Electric cars are being pushed for all kinds of reasons, none of them beneficial to us. If that weren’t the case, then it wouldn’t be necessary to push (mandate, subsidize) electric cars. They would be embraced as naturally – as freely – as a better smartphone or more-delicious (and cheaper) hamburger. Of course, it is necessary to push them. The why gets interesting. One of the reasons for the electric car push has to do with their very high cost. Which – if electric cars are to become mass-market cars – necessarily entails … Continue reading →

The post If Government Is Enthusiastic About Something appeared first on LewRockwell.

Even better – from a certain point-of-view – than a radar trap based on an under-posted speed limit is a radar trap with a changing speed limit. One that can be dumbed-down at random and with no prior notice, at the whim of the same government workers who enforce the limits and profit from that enforcement. It’s called Variable Speed Limits and the Feds – through the Department of Transportation – are not only encouraging the states to adopt them, they are bribing them to adopt them. Cue Dr. Evil voice – one billion dollars mulcted from taxpayers has been earmarked to … Continue reading →

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Whenever Congress does something unanimously (or nearly so) you can rest assured it’s in their interests, not ours. The USA Patriot Act comes to mind. Another is the Safely Ensuring Lives Future Deployment and Research in Vehicle Evolution Act – aka the SELF DRIVE Act – which was rubber stamped through Congress the other day. This is the law that exempts automated cars from the safety requirements that apply to autonomous cars – that is, the cars which are independent of government control and controlled by us. Just as the Patriot Act was written, not to “fight terrorism,” but to make it easier for government to terrorize us, by circumventing or … Continue reading →

The post The Four-Wheeled Patriot Act appeared first on LewRockwell.

Working on cars has become part of America’s cultural past, like so many other things which used to define American culture. Which was, above all, a car culture. What you drove was very important and – especially for young guys – it was almost as important to know how it worked and to at least plausibly be able to work on it. Males were expected to have a degree of mechanical competence or at least interest and if not your maleness was somewhat suspect. That’s all gone now. Almost no one wrenches anymore – male or female. Not unless they’re paid to. And most people have to pay … Continue reading →

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GM’s Buick division is doing extremely well . . . in China. The Chinese own Volvo. And may soon own Jeep – one of the few still-viable pieces of what used to be Chrysler. For now, it’s FiatChrysler. Emphasis on for now. Fiat invested in what was just Chrysler, hoping to use the once-Big-Three company as a kind of Mulberry Harbor – the floating piers used by the Allies during the Normandy invasion toward the end of WW II to establish a beachhead in Europe – only this time in America and cars rather than troops. But unlike the Normandy invasion, the Fiat … Continue reading →

The post The New Motor City appeared first on LewRockwell.

As the waters recede from Houston, thousands of flooded cars will be aired out – and shipped out – to unsuspecting used car lots all over the country. Their titles as “washed” as their interiors (and the rest of them, too). As OJ used to say – and will probably say soon again – look out! Ideally, these flood-damaged unterseebooten would be written off as collateral damage of the hurricane. But when there’s a buck to be made, people will try to make a buck. What happens is as follows: The cars – many of them brand-new – are declared total losses and … Continue reading →

The post Danger! Danger! Will Robinson! appeared first on LewRockwell.

If they were at least consistent, you might be persuaded that Our Controllers were truly concerned about our safety. As opposed to using “safety” as the pretext for controlling us. Not infrequently, to the detriment of our safety. There are many examples to prove the point but the latest is the push for congressional approval of an exemption for automated cars from the federal safety requirements that apply to not-automated cars. Specifically, an exemption from the regs which forbid the sale of automated cars that lack back-up controls which a human driver can use to prevent the car from doing something manifestly unsafe because … Continue reading →

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The fuel delivery system in a new car costs more than the entire engine used to. And still does – if you’re lucky enough to own a V8-powered American car or truck built before the mid-1990s. If you do, you can usually buy a brand-new/manufacturer-warranted crate engine for about $2,000. Compare that with the cost of a modern car engine’s direct-injection fuel delivery system – resorted to as a way to eke out another 2-3 MPGs vs. port fuel injection. You don’t want to know . . . If you ever have to replace the transmission in a car built since about 2010, better … Continue reading →

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