This is somewhat of a predictably tragic outcome all things considered. I remember a previous conversation on these pages when GM moved massive investment into China to build their mid-size SUV brand, Encore.
Continuing the U.S. decline of the brand, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that approximately half of all Buick dealership in the U.S. have opted to take a buyout from GM, as opposed to spending millions in retooling, restructuring and retraining their staff to accommodate the EV influx.
Most of the EV’s shoved onto the dealer lots sit idle without customers to purchase them.
Wall Street Journal – General Motors (GM) has bought out about half of its 2,000 Buick dealers nationwide, based on their decision to not sell electric vehicles, according to a company spokesman Wednesday.
Dealers who are taking the buyout would give up the Buick franchise and no longer sell the brand, he said. The dealer can continue to sell other GM models, such as Chevrolet or GMC, that often account for a higher percentage of sales.
The Wall Street Journal reported in late 2022 that the automaker planned to offer buyouts to its U.S. Buick dealer network. The move came after the Detroit automaker gave the dealers a choice: Invest at least $300,000 to sell and service electric vehicles, or exit the Buick franchise. The investments would cover EV chargers and worker training, among other initiatives. (read more)
The Joe Biden EPA mandates for Electric Vehicles are going to crush the U.S. auto industry and consumers. On the upside, regular, well-maintained gasoline powered used vehicles will hold their value longer. Overall new car prices are already ridiculous and the prices of the EV’s are substantially higher.
Along with higher entry prices, the insurance is higher, maintenance costs are higher and the replacement parts for EV’s are insanely high. In some models the replacement batteries cost more than the vehicle is worth. How the auto industry thinks these mandates are sustainable is beyond logic, then again maybe that’s the feature, not the flaw.
If the overall goal is to reduce the number of vehicles on the road and control the transportation choices of the American public, then the EV mandate policy is designed well.
It’s all madness, and only one commonsense businessman seems to understand the issue.
I know both California and Georgia have inventory taxes which would make long-term storage of EVs very expensive.
That’s kind of like their wanting to tax unrealized gains. Maybe an unsold primary residence will be considered “inventory” at some point in the near future.
They already DO tax unrealized gains on primary residences.
They call it “property tax,” and they’re based upon an inflated value THEY get to determine, whether you are selling or not.
IDK about other states, but in the DPRM (Democrat Peoples Republic of Maryland), a property owner has a valid opportunity to dispute the assessment that the county submits every 3 years. If property and market conditions can be successfully demonstrated to not support the assessed value(s) then the assessment and taxes are reduced.
Yes, people ARE successful when they do their due diligence and show cause why the assessment – almost always done using an external view, prior property details/ descriptions, and quick study of recent market trends in the zipcode – was too high. But most people don’t contest the assessments because at the time the assessments are made and published, they are usually accurate. Sudden market downturns always make prior assessments and taxes appear too high.
No one ever complains when the assessment turns out to be too low, and changing market conditions provide sellers with huge windfalls……
As an ex assessor I have to say that your value for property taxes is based on similar homes that have sold like yours. If you disagree with your value you should gather some comparables and contest it.
I had 8000 properties I was responsible for and the value was calculated with models derived from sales and their features. It didn’t always get every property right and we relied on the owners to let us know if it was wrong. Being understaffed I couldn’t possibly review each property. There are 3 levels of appeals in MN and we had to defend our values in front of independent boards of real estate professionals. Then, if our overall values/changes didn’t make sense to the state review, we would be forced to change all the values in any disputed area.
There were people who actually asked us to raise their value because they thought it would help them sell for more! We did not do that even if the value was too low, because the values are derived from the previous 2 years of sales which may not reflect the current market.
Ever watch antiques roadshow? It doesn’t matter if the item is being sold or not, for an expert to value it.
Insurance is going to be the killer for these cars… My son 21 just bought a 2005 BMW – we live in NY
Insurance companies DO NOT WANT TO INSURE high end vehicles no matter the age of the car – so just for liability insurance they want 595 dollars a month – They told me the high end cars Lexus – land rover BMW….and the battery operated vehicles are killing them, She told me monthly payments on the vehicle don’t even cover the losses. She explained it like this – Most of these Battery operated vehicles cost well over 40 grand and they are new to the Market – So If a serious problem happens to say 50 of these vehicles – the amount to repair them out weighs what they took in to cover them, say in a 2 to 3 year period as opposed to a standard gas car…Inflation is also another factor with the cost of any vehicle. The only way to break even is to charge a lot more for these cars and raise the rates on those of us who have older cars…..The other problem is a lot of Homeowner insurance companies don’t want these vehicles charging in garages attached to houses….or even in parking garages…
Virginia too. Onerous taxes on business inventory. Cannot depreciate for first FIVE years.
my prediction is direct OEM to public sales will kill the dealer model
it’s working well for Tesla / Musk
I believe there’s some court case making its way through the pipeline now that will allow vehicle manufacturers to be their own dealers
Unlikely to happen in Texas
The best customer service occurs at the local level. Used vehicle trade in values must be made on a case by case basis. Local dealerships that know and understand the needs of their customer base remain the best representatives for the factories products.
My guess here is the buyback is just a thinly veiled excuse for GM to phase out a car line that’s no longer competitive. Buick will go away, joining their Pontiac and Oldsmobile brethren.
That California storage tax is one of the reasons that Nevada became the go-to place for California businesses to store their inventory as Nevada doesn’t have a storage tax and huge warehouses in Nevada holding inventory for California stores is still big business.
Ahhh, that explains the massive amounts of warehouses (Amazon, Walmart) that are being built alongside I-15 headed out of LV and towards SW Utah.
I would love to see Tesla introduce a hydrogen alternative. With the announcement last week that silver can be used in lieu of platinum for the converters, I am hoping this will become a reality. I drive a standard 2011 hybrid Lincoln. Get 40 mpg and don’t need to worry about battery failure on the road. It’s like the popular meme going around, “People with diarrhea and EV owners have a common issue: they both worry about getting home.”
Booooom!!!!!!!!!!!
So wrong. Hydrogen is every bit as bad as electricity. * Where do you get it? Cracking natural gas or water, both using electricity; thus using fossil fuels. * How do you carry the fuel supply on board? In pressurized tanks. The tech was developed for nat gas/ propane vehicles which were briefly popular and subsidized by governments, but ultimately recognized as expensive and inefficient.
* The best vehicle fuel is liquid and energy-dense: thus gasoline or diesel. Nothing else is competitive.
Provide facts please. How do you know that?
He paid attention in science class. ?
Common sense?
Hydrogen can be stored as a gas (in a fuel tank) if it is pressurized at 5000-10000 psi, or as a liquid at a temperature of about -250C. So first, consider the safety hazard of not just storing the gas in your vehicle at that pressure (accident anyone)? and of course how that gas would be refilled as such high pressures via a service station. The accident possibilities are endless. Than you have storing Hydrogen as a liquid and keeping it at the crazy cold temp of -250C. How does the vehicle maintain that temp, what’s the energy system to keep it that cooled and additionally what’s the filling station cryo requirements? Imagine if liquid hydrogen comes into contact with anything. I’d like to see the fault tree analysis on both Gas and Liquid in a vehicle and for a service station. Ooooof!
Found in the bin…. 🙁
Have you ever produced H2 (and O2) from water using hydrolysis (electricity)?
It’s not a matter of scale. It’s linear – the more H2 you want to produce, the more power you must use.
A simple model estimates that replacing the current natural gas used for electric power generation in the U.S. would require 100 Billion Cubic Feet/day of hydrogen, powered by 2,370 GigaWatts of electrical energy.
(https://seekingalpha.com/article/4392471-hydrogen-vs-natural-gas-for-electric-power-generation)
That electrical power must come from somewhere – usually the grid, if you’re going to produce H2 indefinitely or in large volumes.
The “green” idealists have suggested other methods of producing H2 but NONE are efficient or inexpensive.
Steam Methane Reforming
The process of steam–methane reforming for hydrogen production is similar to that of producing other fuels like ethanol, propane, or even gasoline
Electrolysis
Recently, research has been done on hydrogen wind systems based on the electrolysis of water with wind energy to generate the electricity required by this method using a renewable wind source. In this regard, sources including wind energy are used as a renewable energy option.
BUT we know how absurd to is to rely on windmills, and the big dams with generators are already overloaded, so…..they have to use carbon burning electrical power generation to produce the H2
Coal Gasification – too complex a multi-stage process to consider practical / cost effective
Biomass Gasification – SLOWWW! Inefficient as hell!
Thermochemical water splitting cycles (TWSCs) –
TWSCs are a sequence of chemical processes that use heat energy to generate hydrogen and oxygen from water. The temperature necessary for direct one-step water splitting is more than 2000 °C, necessitating the use of a very high temperature heat source, and existing building materials are insufficiently resistant for this operation. Really??? Ridiculously inefficient and thus costly.
Seriously, if they found an efficient & profitable way of producing, transporting and dispensing H2 for Americans to use across the country, the big oil companies would already be doing it.
Better than my summary!
Nevertheless, there are a tremendous number of efforts to discover and create catalysts that drastically reduce the cost of electrolysis, using much less energy, and there are a lot of promising options.
A search of “hydrogen catalyst” at NewAtlas.com brought up a couple thousand articles, many of which I’ve read as I follow such things, there is potential I believe.
Automotive engineer
How about this? An engine that generates enough power to run the electric motor without lots of batteries.
http://www.israelnews.eu/en/israeli-firm-invents-highly-efficient-engine/
If this or another generator can stay ahead of the e-motor demands, electric motors would be viable. Put a gallon of gas and you run for 300 miles. It could even charge some batteries if you let it run while parked.
I would love to see this prove out.
I love stuff like this.
https://www.aquariusengines.com/
I hate Technocracy, but I love great technology.
Technocracy sees a future of limitations that requires reducing humanity to a small slave race.
Technology in the hands of free minds is creating a future without limitations, with the means to bless the entire human race without resorting to slavery and savagery to face the challenges ahead.
Hope Is Never Vain, the lack thereof defines those that seek such control as their Climate Scam demands.
Hydrogen- H2- is not just a tiny molecule, it is the smallest possible molecule. As such, it is extremely adept at escaping any containment vessel or piping. All of will have to be designed and constructed from scratch. Before any H2 cars are built. You think the electric car industry rollout is difficult? You ain’t seen nothing yet. Hydrogen as a hypothetical fuel has a long, long history, and is still in the “is this just not ready for prime time, too hard, or flat out impossible “ phase of development.
Fun fact – this slippery, difficult to contain fuel ignites readily and burns with an invisible flame. Think about that.
Abdolutely true!
Advantage: Electric.
You can see those burning from outer space!
The Hindenburg comes to mind.
(1) buy a cybertruck
(2) fill the truck bed with a propane generator and ginormous propane tank
(3) direct the generator output to the charging port
(4) profit!
and, the optional tesla flamethrower makes antifa protests so much more fun
Ha ha ha ha … Range anxiety = proximity to the porcelain throne. Both are taking a dump
I’m sticking with my hydrocarbon burner for another 7-10 years. By then all this craziness should burn off and the hydrocarbons will still be around regenerating by the natural processes of the earth.
Will silver be the new platinum which is the reason catalytic converters in vehicles are stolen?
😆 I have not seen that meme, but I get it lol.
Way to “Busch” the brand.
.
It’s not just merchandise that’s crappy and doesn’t move. The dealerships have to install charging stations to keep all these EVs ready to go at all times. Major unrecoupable expense.
Recommended website for all things automotive, EV, and libertarian:
https://www.ericpetersautos.com
.
Thanks a bunch for that link. I had purged most of my auto feeds because the rote acceptance of narratives was too pervasive.
I LOVE Uncle Tony’s Garage channel on youtube – he’s definitely based.
MGuy Australia has some good coverage on the subject from the land of the jabbed down under.
I found UTG just just last month. Love it. Still getting caught up.
Then there’s those sky-high ‘GREEN’ fire insurance policy premiums –
Fire Shuts Down GM’s Electric Car Plant, Executives Blame ‘Battery Materials’
https://gmauthority.com/blog/2023/12/breaking-battery-related-fire-at-gm-factory-zero-plant/
That plant is just down the street from the health system I work for. Local news changed story to say it was a hi-lows fault 🤭
How long does it take to drain out an EV that is just sitting there?
Last I read 5 years back, people had issues when their EVs sat for 3 or 4 months. And by issues, I mean they became unchargeable bricks. Depends on parasitic drain and self discharge – but its a very big battery.
Here’s the current google answer “5% in 24h, then 1–2% per month (plus 3% for safety circuit”
Wha, wha, whaaaat? I’ve been told that electricity is FREE !! or virtually FREE. I’ve been told you can drive your EV for pennies per mile. They wouldn’t LIE about that would they?
Here in small-town America, where all kinds of real Americans know how to build and repair things, I can guarantee you that electric cars are rarely sold and therefore rarely seen.
The Cubans have famously kept cars going built in the 1930’s -1950’s because of the deprivations of Communism.
America may soon be imitating Cuba!
What a future: instead of The Jetsons, we get The Flintstones!
Depressing but accurate
I don’t think it’s depressing at all. I am going to keep buying used gas cars as long as I can. We need to go back to the days when guys could fix their own cars and teenagers learned to do it. I’m not buying these computerized to death electric cars.
We may be searching the junk yards for pre-1980 models because they can be fixed and don’t depend on computers to operate.
Might you have forgotten Obummer’s “Cash for Clunkers” program? It wiped out most of the junk yard inventory and parts for pre-1990 models.
There will be no place to by salvaged cars. 🙁
Cubans brag they have the United Nations under the hood of their tricked out cars – could not get US replacement parts, so many now have Toyota engines and anything else needed to be scrounged elsewhere to keep the outer Detroit shells going.
It is a treat to see them glossy and shiny on the exterior and boss tuck and roll on the interiors, still plying Havana maelcon.
Like, bigly.
It’s not just the ridiculous EVs the globalists are trying to cram down people’s throats, there’s a totally pathetic bill currently being discussed in the communist state of Washington that outlaws gas powered yard equipment. Ya right. Like anyone out in these rural areas will run out and replace all of their lawnmowers, power washers etc with battery powered junk. Good luck enforcing that BS.
I bought a $400 battery lawn mower once when I was ignorant 10 years ago. Grass is frequently mushy wet around here in Garbageville / Riot-town. It could only do short grass and not the whole yard. Very weak.
Then one day it just died. I knew it would cost something too much to fix it, if even possible, or to get rid of it and so one night I just left it on the sidewalk and poof it was gone by the next morning.
Sometimes a thief can be your tool.
Not just Cubans. Also count (at least) Mexicans and Turks in that number. I spent some military time in Turkey. Ten-year-old American pickups were worth tens of thousands on the black market. This was decades ago. I’ll guess that they’re not paying a plug nickel for EVs.
We seem to have the politicized judiciary and law enforcement down.
Retired Magistrate here: We are keeping my gas guzzling 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee with its 3.7 engine, weighing about 5,000 lbs. and built like a tank. There is a man close to where we live who has a garage and works on vehicles on the q.t. He keeps my Jeep in top shape and we will continue to drive it. I want to be able to take a small trip and not have to worry about going up and down hills, etc. and having the battery discharge and get stuck out in the middle of no where.
And yes, President Trump is the only candidate who sees what a scam the “green new deal” is. It certainly benefits China, but not the United States.
5.7?
6 cylinder
Constitution says we can’t take your guns but we can take your gas
they’re taking guns, anyway.
Great Stuff, we have a close relative that’s a G.M. at a major import dealer here in British Columbia.
They have been making a “ killing” on E.V. sales to “well heeled “ folks.
Me. I just added to the fleet of older vehicles as a long term hobby/investment.
It was 1998 Chevrolet 1 ton Crew Cab 5 spd ( stick) 4×4. and is nearly rust free.
It like our other vehicles is a keeper none were more than $ 6,000 ( Can) $4,500 ( U.S.) or so.
These older units that are useful are getting difficult to source, however parts are plentiful.
Treepers.. keep your older vehicles if at all possible.
Cheers!
Retired Magistrate here: We also have a 1990 Chevrolet Cheyene Truck, 5.7 liter engine with a 5 speed manual transmission with 4 wheel drive. We live in Ohio so it has rust; however, it still runs and my husband can work on it.
Every time someone has the guts to venture up our driveway, and the truck is out, they want to know if we want to sell it; Nope!
Awesome!
We CTH “branch dwellers “
are a peculiar flock.😉
Cheers!
I have a 1991 Dodge B350 MaxiWagon with a 5.9 L and 4 spd auto also a 1990 VW Cabriolet with the 1.8 L and a 5 spd stick. I do almost all my own work. I’m looking for a used Japanese air cooled 2 cylinder motorcycle which will probably be from the ’80s. I buy stuff I can repair myself.
I see your one ton has a millennial theft device.
Nice one! 😎
Our 1995 GMC 3/4 ton 4×4 is an auto and twice over the years an attempt has made to steal her.
Our dog alerted us the first time, and the second a neighbour spooked him.
Yep, can’t beat them “ stick shifts”
Cheers!
Them: What’s that peddle down there do??
Me: Oh nothing…….it’s just a place to rest your left foot while driving.
Them: Wow, that’s pretty cool, never seen one of them before……
Me: Yeah, us old guys like ’em. Helps with the arthritic ankle.
Them: Ohhhh……..
LOL.
2010 Ram 1500 here, approaching 100k miles and its book value is still within a thousand of what I paid for it 4 years ago.
Yes, Trump the businessman.
“Everything woke turns to shit.” – PDJT
Mr. Buick, meet Mr. Oldsmobile.
And Pontiac.
And Saturn.
And Hummer.
And Chief Pontiac too. (Was naming a car brand after an indian chief an act of capitalist oppression against Native Americans?)
Used to have a copy of a ’41 Pontiac owner’s manual. The book’s illustrations included depictions of little Indians in full headdress that were used to help describe and explain the car’s functions and controls. Today’s woke crowd would have an emotional meltdown looking at those pictures.
They “resurrected” Hummer but sadly only as EVs
And Plymouth.
Thanks for that. Sorry, was focusing on GM. Use to own a Plymouth roadrunner!
Nice!
I had a ’69 Roadrunner. Loved that car.
They can pry my gas guzzlin’ sporty car outta my cold dead hands.
Eff some EVs.. 😠
If I had money, tell you what I’d do: I’d go downtown and buy a Mercury or two.
Awe, the 1969 GTo we had
We were the Dukes!
Great car!…i always liked the 67-68…dual gate shifter, 389 tri-power…those were the days. Had a ’70 ,400 4brl. Wish I still had it.
The iconic Camaro is no more.
Master of Ceremonies at the introduction, Mr. Obama assisted by chief squaw Ms. Barra.
I have a 2001 Chevy Tahoe that I’ve taken very good care of. Only 138,000 miles on it. This gives me more incentive to invest money into it just in case it needs maintenance. So I think the value of it is actually going to go up!
It will not depreciate any further..if it has the 5.7 ( 350) engine even better.
The smaller 5300 series engines are fairly durable and trouble free, as long as you disable the AFM on the later ones.
And the two extra slushbox gears they get in the newer ones make up for the lost displacement.
As long as you don’t mind a very plastic interior, the GM half ton platforms before 2015 can go a very long time, with not too much maintenance.
Interesting. I did not know that.
Cheers!
THUS, THE GOVT and GM have put independent dealers, investing in $millions, communities, employees,, out of business.
SAME BS the govt did with the buyouts. MOST small town dealerships were called and said shut down and run out of business while the GOVT kept others in business…..
WHEN will we EVER wake up to this govt, we now have???
Health care was destroyed by obamacare and now small communities have no hospitals or MDs and doctor appts are months and months out, regardless of how ill, sick or diseased you are.
Doctors are leaving the profession, obtaining 20-30% of their billings from medicare and medicade, DICTATED by the govt.
US health care is soon to be extinct and the govt couldn’t be happier as the single source provided. THEN, they CHOOSE who lives, dies, recovers or suffers.
THIS GOVT is no diff than we find in China, Russia, N Korea, Cuba
Smaller numbers of business are easier to control.
The profitable ones will convert to other brands, just not GM
Joe Biden is the most successful president in history. Unfortunately, his agenda is treason.
Reminds me of when Rush Limbaugh said he hoped Obama would fail and the msm’s heads exploded.
He is the most successful dementia president we ever had
There was a time when the big sucking sound meant money was flowing to Mexico, now it is flowing to joe enterprises.
Yes. Don’t say anyone has failed till you know what they’re trying to do.
Donald Trump: We have stupid people running this country.
I also read that 20% of Cadillac dealers took a buyout, too.
“..the insurance is higher, maintenance costs are higher and the replacement parts for EVs are insanely high.”
Respectfully, I strongly disagree. I am the proud owner of an EV since 2019. My insurance is about the same. To date, my maintenance costs are zero and have not needed any replacement parts. Best auto I have ever purchased. Will never go back to ICE.
Just wait until.an old lady rearends you at Walgreens..autopilot fail, airbags deployed, car bursts into flames ( your okay) 75,000 gallons of water later…..
Knock on wood, I have avoided grandma. Never have and never will use Autopilot. Not sure what your point is about airbags. Regarding my EV bursting into flames, the odds of that happening are much lower than ICE.
Hey slaver! You do at the very least send a Christmas card to one of those kids working the cobalt mines in the Republic of Congo for the US equivalent of ONE DOLLAR a day, right? Right?? Knowing that roughly 75% of ALL cobalt utilized in EV batteries is mined in that country…..
If you are going to judge, then do you apply the same standard for every product in your home and/or business?
To the absolute best of my ability, why yes I do. Most EV owners are WILLFULLY ignorant of how the rare earth minerals are obtained for the batteries in their vehicles. The Congo has virtually NO environmental or labor laws. Hence environmental damage and child labor are widespread within that country.
The Congo? Are you implying all cobalt sourced for EVs comes from the Congo?
It is estimated that roughly 75% of the world’s mined cobalt is obtained from that country. So, chances are rather good that the mined cobalt in your EV’s batteries came from that country’s utilizing of child labor. So, either you are/were willfully ignorant, or didn’t give a damn, or rationalize that YOUR EV’s batterie’s cobalt originated solely from one of nearly a dozen other MINOR cobalt producers. Regardless, the last thing I would do, would be to brag about owning a product that had a high probability of that product’s MAJOR component being possible via slave child labor, ESPECIALLY if there are alternatives……but that’s just me.
If you apply the same standard for every product in your home and/or business, then fine. But if not, then you are a hypocrite.
As stated previous, I will NOT KNOWINGLY purchase/utilize a product from a country that uses slave/child labor ESPECIALLY if there are alternatives available. To do so would make me and anyone who KNOWINGLY engages in such purchases, by-passing alternatives, a dastardly ‘slaver’. I noticed that you never denied or denied knowing that child slave labor is used to mine 75% of the world’s cobalt, not that you could being it is well documented, so, is it that you just don’t give a damn? If so, as one who treated pediatrics, that raises a ‘special ire’ in me………
You can that the taxpayers for your subsidy.
You mean like the subsidies Big Oil enjoys?
You know, most if not all of those supposed “subsidies” are accessible to other industries.
Well, then, perhaps UncleGrumpy will thank the taxpayers for those subsidies.
Respectfully, I’ll wait to hear what you say when its batteries have to be replaced.
Batteries replaced? Not going to happen anytime soon. But by then, I will simply buy another EV.
And tell us what you will do with the old one with worn out batteries? That no one will buy or take in trade.
You’re responsible to dispose of that toxic mess.
Used EVs are traded in all the time.
Into year 5 with no maintenance or parts whatsoever? Even tires usually need to be replaced after five years from age. That’s a battery-powered garage toy that travels nowhere.
And it will have zero residual value in about three more years, when the battery replacement cost exceeds its used book value.
Until then, you can get increasingly nervous after the first 25 miles of driving on every recharge.
Thanks for playing!
Travels nowhere? That’s strange. I travel everywhere. Zero residual value in 3 years because the battery needs to be replaced? Not likely. Last, I have plenty of range to last a full day. Game over.
Somehow, I just don’t believe you.
Call it intuition.
If you choose to disbelieve me, that is your prerogative. We will have to agree to disagree.
🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 Oooh, a full day
Worst case. Normally, a full charge gets me through the week. Ohh la la..
Congrats… your choice and that is how it should be.
Fair enough…how many miles before a recharge. Do you have a charging unit in your garage.
Here a bank of 12 Tesla charging stations are nearly always occupied and have folks sitting waiting to charge up.
Most decent E.V.s here are $50,000 and up, the Rivian and Lucerne ( spelling) are around $130,000 and up (Canadian dollars)
Countless Teslas are on the road here in Greater Vancouver. Without exaggeration out walking, one will see dozens within ten minutes.
However out of the city, they are practically non existent.
Have you ever seen an E.V. on fire…yikes!
Yes, home charger. Plenty of range on a full charge to last the day. Never seen a EV on fire. Odds are much higher for ICE than an EV.
https://www.tesla-fire.com/
Dude, they are rethinking car carrier design to enable rapid dumping of rolling conflagrations, several entire ships have been lost in recent years to this phenomena.
Dude, your ICE has greater odds of going up in flames than any EV. SMH..
🙃
Trolls gotta troll. Make? Model? Year? Dealer? Were you paid to post that?
Probably.
Whenever I see a battery powered car around here, I usually see a fool behind the wheel.
Many of them are wearing masks, as the only occupant, with all the windows up.
Very expensive virtue signaling.
Not me. Call me a good old boy who loves fast cars and hot women.
Tesla Model 3 Performance purchased new in 2019. Sadly, I was not paid to post. It seems you are knowledgeable. Can you inform me on how I can get paid to post?
EVs could make an excellent 2nd car or for driving locally. I’d say they suck for 500 mile or longer trips.
Respectfully, I disagree. Chargers are ubiquitous.
great, open pit toxic heavy metal mining for the win!
These cars are spying on you…
“Today’s cars are akin to smartphones, with apps connected to the internet that collect huge amounts of data, some of which is highly personal….
Once a driver gets into a car, dozens of sensors emit data points that flow to the car’s computer: The driver door is unlocked; a passenger is in the driver’s seat; the internal cabin temperature is 86° F; the sunroof is opened; the ignition button is pressed; a trip has started from this location…
As the trip continues, additional information is collected: the vehicle location and speed, whether the brakes are applied, which song is playing on the entertainment system, whether the headlights are on or the oil level is low.
The data then begins its own journey from the car manufacturer to companies known as “vehicle data hubs” and on through the connected vehicle data marketplace…”
And it gets worse:
“In response to five class-action lawsuits, a Washington appeals court has decided that Honda and several other automakers did nothing wrong by storing text messages and call records from connected smartphones…
In other words, it’s A-OK for your car to ‘automatically and without authorization, instantaneously intercept, record, download, store, and [be] capable of transmitting” text messages and call logs since the privacy violation is potential, but the injury not necessarily actual’…
Per the first amended complaint [PDF] filed in the Honda case, Honda infotainment systems in vehicles manufactured from 2014 onward ‘store each intercepted, recorded, and downloaded copy of text messages in non-temporary computer memory in such a manner that the vehicle owner cannot access it or delete it,’ plaintiffs argued. ‘Even if the text message is deleted from the smartphone, the Honda vehicle retains a copy in on-board memory, even after the smartphone is disconnected…'”
But nothing to worry about. It’s not like the Federal government wants to mandate kill switches to remotely disable vehicles...
“The legislation then goes on to define the technology as a computer system that can ‘passively monitor the performance of a driver of a motor vehicle’ and can ‘prevent or limit motor vehicle operation if an impairment is detected‘ (emphasis added).
How the system will make this determination is unclear, as is the government’s potential role in apprehending suspected drunk drivers (more on that later).
But the law’s language could not be more clear: New motor vehicles must have a computer system to ‘monitor’ drivers, and the system must be able to prevent vehicle operation if it detects impairment.”
—–
Cars manufacturers have the right to collect your text and phone messages, including speed and location, and resell them. Once they are on the open market the government, which will have the power to disable your vehicle if it deems it (i.e. YOU) “impaired,” does not need a warrant or probable cause to collect them.
Can you see where this is all going?
Reducing the number of vehicles on the market and forcing people to buy new electric vehicles has nothing to do with the saving the planet and everything with forcing us onto the digital plantation.
Don’t drive anything newer than ’06. Some brands connected earlier, as Well as others used services. (Onstar?)but ’06 seems to be when they all are connected. All of a sudden that classic muscle car starts looking better.
Older OnStar vehicles had 2G tech and cannot use OnStar any longer. I’m not sure what model year was upgraded, but my 2014 vehicle no longer connects. Note, Canada forced GM to upgrade existing vehicles, but not the US. OnStar now offers a ridiculously priced phone app that doesn’t require any vehicle connection
“If the overall goal is to reduce the number of vehicles on the road and control the transportation choices of the American public, then the EV mandate policy is designed well.”
That’s the goal.
I have a Ford Dealer in the family. He is a relatively new dealership owner and Ford has been helping him. He acknowledges Ford is taking a financial bath on EVs which they were forced to retool for by Woke Wall Street and the Biden Administration. He is hoping to postpone the decision to add EV infrastructure to his dealership, a seven figure investment, until after the 2024 election. I think the whole automotive supply chain hopes Trump is elected and will put a stop to the EV insanity.
perhaps the worker bees want Trump, but the wall street owners do not
The UAW Bosses can pat themselves on the back as the members get layoff notices. China plans to build EV’s in Mexico.
Pierre Delecto in a skirt, pink pussyHat & stilettos gave them taxpayer 💵💰 to build them in SC.
The dealer group I worked for until recently had 4 Ford dealerships. Last year we sold 3 of them rather than buy into their electric vehicle program. It would have required millions to buy in.
Thermal runaway is all I need to know to keep me from buying an EV…..that, and the absurd politics behind pushing these vehicles onto the public. On a channel I watch from Australia, there was a story a couple of weeks ago of Cement Australia (the cement industry being one of the worse ‘green’ abusers) refitting existing diesel cement trucks with electric power, one of which went into thermal runaway just before heading into a tunnel with other commuters. The offgases when these engines ignite are beyond toxic. If you are ever in the vicinity, IMMEDIATELY get to upwind of the fire.
Saw it posted, but was thinking the same thing, that basically they’re trying to kill the Buick brand.
EVs are NOT the future. They’re the stepping stone to government controlled transportation. They’ll eventually “realise” that all the mining for the batteries is bad for the environment, etc, and then force everyone to government busses and rail.
When they digitise the currency and then nationalise the banks, you won’t own your house anymore, either. You’ll be renting it from the government.
This is the plan. Look up Affirmatively Affordable Fair Housing.
Notice all the apartment complexes being built?
Maybe the brainiacs in government should pay more attention to making public transit SAFE and clean if they want to attract more riders?
Public Transportation is less about transportation than it is ritual humiliation.
Also random violence and sudden death, but mostly ritual humiliation.
When the planet freezes over can I get me an electric snowmobile?
they do make big long lasting fires tho
Can I sell ya an Edsel ?
I’d rather have an Edsel than one of those stupid, worthless EVs
Or maybe a Ranbler?
Buick still exists?
I test drove an Encore in 2015. Didn’t buy it. The salesmen still emails me to this day,trying to sell me a Buick.
bring back the Stanley Steamer. (not the carpet guys)
That was a wonderful era when innovation flourished in garages and small factories and consumers chose. Baker, among others, made a viable electric choice in that era, much as Doble and White made alternatives to the Stanley in the steam area, a quite old technology.
Consumers ultimately chose ICE and predominantly Ford in those early days as HF mastered mass production. Did the government make them buy an ICE car by outlawing other tech? I would posit they provided incentives for oil companies since fossil fuels were becoming the dominant profit center for big business and the barons of the era.
Now government, and corporations, are removing choice and freedom. More specifically, the individual humans in those entities and any humans which inure to or support them. They are the enemy of freedom, liberty and a free market. Individually.
Many decades ago I worked for big oil. Then I saw the writing on the wall about what mega-corporations really are. I became an insurgent, the enemy of the system now enslaving us. That had costs. However, I’m not dead yet. 🙂
Now there’s an ecologically friendly car!
GM has lost its mojo.
GM hasn’t actually had any of that since the early 1970s.
Give me a Hemi any day.
GM deserves it. They took the bailout bribe from obama. And they build shitty cars. Nowadays anyway…
It’s why Toyota, who testified in Congress that the U.S. doesn’t have the infrastructure to support the electrification of the entire vehicle fleet, is in some respects exiting the U.S. market.
Read a article some weeks back that dealerships were overloaded with EV’s. Gasoline vehicles were still selling but no wanted to even look at EV’s
Won’t crush me as I will never buy one.
The corruption is at a level that no nation has ever seen.
The corruption is just so widespread. Just like the Roman Empire prior to its demise.
Wait until November 2024 when Biden “wins” a 2nd term, things will really get interesting then. They’re bringing his “voters” across the border by the millions as I write this.
EVs are a dead end.If you dont have an ICE car you will stay in your 15 minute city,same with shutting down farms,no food means you eat the bugs,or your pet or become a cannibal.They are helping us decide by limiting our choices.
Per the CarWizard on YouTube….
Used Toyotas all day long….
I’ll assume that goes for new….too.
https://www.youtube.com/@CarWizard/videos
“If the overall goal is to reduce the number of vehicles on the road and control the transportation choices of the American public, then the EV mandate policy is designed well.”
I think you’ve nailed it…
If we all switched to walking, we would have a Birkenstock mandate.
Pipe dreams and wish lists and fanciful ideologies. Even I could see that this would be a hideous expensive venture.
The Green New Deal…sorry…the Inflation “Reduction” Act allotted billions for charging stations. Few have been built to accommodate the boondoggle EVs are. What has happened to that money?
My main question is who are the CEOs who would commit vast sums of money to what is essentially an infant technology only to lose their companies’shirts shirts over it. Aren’t such people supposed to the cream of the automotive establishment?
I can see too many pitfalls to mention here as I know others can. And I am just an older lady tap tap tapping on her Kindle on the couch on a rainy afternoon.
This is the cult of virtue signalling, power seeking “Climate” despots. Those who subscribe to as yet mass unsustainable fantasies and commit eye watering sums of monies to pour down rat holes (at this point) have, methinks, been recipients of strong delusions…maybe even ones I seem to remember reading about somewhere. (Now where was that I wonder….)
I can’t imagine whatever other reason there could be for the mass corporate lunacy we’re witnessing. Jaw dropping.
Battery Electric Vehicles are not new technology. they predate the popularization of the internal combustion engine with the Model T and others over a century ago. Though, those BEV’s likely used NiFe or lead-acid batteries.
Interestingly it was when the electric starter motor was invented and caught on in the consumer market when the auto industry really took off. Thinking it was Cadillac that might have been the first to sell it on a car.
Yep, and even as late as the 1940’s, my mom rode an electric trolley to the aircraft plant to build bombers to kill Nazis. Then they all disappeared. My only remembrances of them in the 50’s were the tracks that went nowhere in the middle of the streets.
My first car still had the hole in the front grill, and attachment to the crankshaft, for a hand crank. I had to push a pedal on the floor to engage the electric starter. The old 6 volt positive ground electric system was a slow cranker. Still it beat hand cranking the thing, something I did as a child on a friend’s ’13 Buick. I cranked and oiled the exposed valvetrain and lit the acetylene headlamps.
Technology marches on 🙂
At least you didn’t have to mess around with blinker fluid!
In 1903, Clyde J Coleman invented and patented the first electric starter in 1903 here.
It was first fitted to a vehicle in 1896 in Peckham in East London. The first electric starter motor in Britain.
It became standard equipment on the 1913 Cadillac.
But I will add this…
Nobody then was ripping the earth to pieces mining lithium using child labour to bring about the end of the internal combustion engine. Or attempting, Fascist-like, to tell, nay order, that millions would be mandated to ditch their automobiles for an inefficient, potentially dangerous, unreliable, expensive to repair mode of transportation. That was actually the central point of my comment.
As for in-depth knowledge of the history of automobiles, I fear I’d be the last one anybody would consult 😎😉
Christmas Blessings to you, RF,and all your family.
Buick was the prestige auto brand in the 1930’s China. They traded on the nostalgia with tremendous sales, once China started buying western goods. Once that nostalgia appeal faded in China, Buick is back to being no longer a viable US brand. Not even for those of us who remember the ultimate sign of status was your parents driving a Buick 4-holer.
We own 2016 Buick Enclave which we bought new. It was moderately priced, aesthetically pleasing, and with the most luxurious interior appointments I have ever seen. We have owned many upmarket motors both here and in the UK…
None…and I mean none…can hold a candle to our Enclave by any standard. So while the original reason for purchasing it has passed (three growing grandchildren for whom I was the year after year school run chauffeur and all their equipment who are graduating high school or close to it) we are still in love with that car and will hold onto it.
Simply put, it remains the best, most reliable automobile we have ever owned.
We had a ’56 three holer and an Oldsmobile in the garage. I remember the Olds always overheating. My family was a GM family. I went rebel, buying a ’39 Dodge then later a ’67 Mustang. Sacrilege. 😀
Elites in Wash DC have no use for Fly-Over Land woes about mandatory EV’s.
They just fly over you. They never visit you, let along talks and listen to you.
Trump does; Trump gets Flyover Land.
I’m in the Mojave Desert; about as flyover as you can get.
And none of them “fly over” in an electric plane, imagine that.
Mechanics & replacement parts for gas powered vehicles are soon going to cost much more…
Fed Bucks to bail the bail-outers in 3… 2…
I remember during one of the much earlier bailouts by The US Regime one of the suggestions to General Motors, in terms of slimming down, went something like this:
Sometimes I wonder how that would’ve worked out.
EVs have no maintenance schedule. Dealerships will have nothing to repair. Dealerships will die off. Good luck getting service when you need it.
Get it straight. These are not “EVs”, they are battery-powered cars. And more precisely, they are coal-powered cars, because that’s where most of the charging comes from. Coal-fired power plants.
To be a true electric vehicle, it would need a 200 mile extension cord, or an onboard electricity generation source.
Battery powered cars have virtually no residual trade value after year 6-7, because the battery replacement cost exceeds the value of the car. You can’t sell a used battery powered car that can’t even take the customer home.
So the dealerships playing along with this battery car fantasy can kiss their used vehicle lots goodbye, too.
And pre-owned sales are the number two profit center for any dealership, after the service department.
After floor plan costs, many dealers make very little on new vehicle sales, and count on the used sales and service departments to keep the operation afloat.
This is a sick disgusting plan to destroy the US car industry and market. GM hasn’t had to answer to share and bondholders since before the bankruptcy. It’s Government Motors.
Because traditional America loves its cars, and everything from traditional America must be destroyed, according to these NWO monsters.
Why is this happening if President Trump will be returning to the White House in 300 days? Buick cant wait that long or what?
Start asking yourselves the right freaking questions
We have a 94 & 99 Ford Ranger. Both under 130,000 miles. KEEPERS!!
👍 👍
1990 Mazda B2200; 167,000 miles. Also a keeper.
We travel a lot, both retired. At many gas stations we stop at for 10-15 minutes along the way, at those with charging stations, we typically see 1 or 2 EVs plugged in. The other several charging station slots are always empty.
I got nothing else to say about this very-not-funny clown show that’s wasting trillions of taxpayer dollars and we’re getting worse than nothing out of it.
Hang on to your older vehicles. If you’ve got a truck with a V8 or any car with more than 4 cylinders, hang on to it, maintain it, and cherish it. Their value is climbing by the month.
Even most of the new gas-powered models are ugly, and completely overladen with electronic playpen toys and spy gadgets. Performance, comfort and functionality have become forgotten afterthoughts.
Try to find a new full-size gasoline powered sedan. You have to buy a big German at this point (Mercedes or BMW), at big German prices. And that is probably going to disappear soon, too.
This all reminds me of post-1959 Cuba. These NWO loons are out to destroy everything.
I’ve got a number; newest was 37 this year, oldest 59. The two newest are haulers ; old-fashioned mechanical diesel manual transmission pickups. 🙂
Old vehicles take skills and attention. Biggest enemy where I live is the sea air. For others it might be snow and salted roads. As we old timers die off, our skills will die with us if the younger generations move on to other tech.
I liken it to me having the skills to repair and maintain a Doble. What’s that? A steam car; quite a technologically advanced one at that. However, simply a technology which largely disappeared before I was born and to which I was never exposed. Will that day come for ICE? IDK, probably not in my lifetime. Technology, and culture, marches on.
A little financial advice for those who will listen… 2004-2009 used cars, SUVs, and trucks can still be found with low miles and a sub $10k price tag. They usually have nice features, airbags and comparable MPG and power to the 2021-2023 brands. They are way less expensive to repair, insure and register.
We sold all of our late model vehicles and replaced them with this era of vehicle. This places us in a financial and operational position to readily adapt to the insanity coming. You would have to be nuts to buy a new vehicle today.
For the price of a 2023 Chevy 1500 you can buy 5-6 2006 Chevy 1500. Same motor same functional features and a lot less electronics.
Obama is still trying to ‘make’ people use public transporation. Ran on it in his first campaign for president. Didn’t go well but evidently he’s giving it another try through his puppet Biden. Perhaps he should consider people will be less willing now that the public will be full of less desirables to travel among.
When my mom left the farm to work in town, then later at the bomber plant, she rode the electric trolleys a lot.
How did her parents get to town? Either the horse-drawn wagon or the old Nash; it depended on what they were doing.
Electric was a big thing in cities before ICE took over, and even in some of the earlier suburban areas. I remember, even in our modestly sized locale, the trolley tracks running out to the river as well as east into the agricultural areas, though the catenary had been removed by the time I was around. Some of the lines remained in service with switcher diesels to haul freight; others were abandoned. By the 70’s the tracks were all gone.
I’m old enough to remember how relatively compact cities sprawled into the countryside. I lived in that sprawl as a child. In fact, even back then, it was envisioned to revitalize the ‘inner city’. I won an award for a poster I made as a child in that realm. Of course I was largely ignorant of the politics of all that stuff at that time in the 60’s. The brainwashing was well underway by then.
Gosh, what a coincidence that the high end GM EV factory in Detroit fell to a 3 alarm fire just one day ago. What are the odds?
I feel like I’m in a nightmare. I keep trying to wake up, but can’t seem to.
They want total control over the population. EVs have limited distance before a charge is needed. Add to this the ‘requirement’ FJB signed into law requiring new cars to have a kill switch in them by 2024. GM must think the tyrants will be successful. Mechanics are already becoming robots. If your car can’t be hooked up to a diagnostic computer in order to see what is wrong they don’t know what is wrong with the car. Mechanics experienced in older non-computerized cars will be highly sought after. EVs IMO are no different than so called smart homes another way to imprison us and take our freedom away. One way to eliminate this nonsense-TRUMP 2024!
S/B 2026 when the kill switch is mandated not 2024.
This emperor has no batteries. Or something like that.
My brother and I rebuilt a ’94 jeep last year. Its an amazing drive around here, akin to the feeling of driving in the 1950s, but with lots and lots of trees.
There’s no screen, no cameras, just a floor pan, two shifters, and some nice 33’s.
FJB