Stick a Fork in the US Auto Industry

I have noticed this feature on vehicles around me at stop lights. It seems people inch forward to start their car up anticipating the light change or something. It seems to defeat the purpose of the feature when it is so bothersome you have to inch out into traffic repeatedly to keep the car running through the light. Just buy a car that does not do that.

Okay, y'all know that Genesis is owned by Hyundai, right? And that both Hyundai and Kia (which is owned by Hyundai) cars of fairly recent vintage can be easily stolen with nothing more, and I'm not making this up, a dent puller and a USB cable. It's gotten so bad that not only are the cars being recalled, but states are suing the automakers over it. Why do I bring that up?

Now you can use your face and fingerprint to access and drive this EV These advanced features on Genesis GV60 aim to offer convenience, security, and personalization options.

FIFY

Do tell. I was looking at getting a Hyundai EV next year, but now I might just nick one.

Wait, Kia is owned by Hyundai? How did I miss that? Well, that throws a wrench into my next car-buying plans.

Anyway, implemented correctly, this is fine. But Hyundai is not Apple… not even Samsung, for that matter… so it won’t be.

Happened back in 97, so it’s been a while. They’ve had ties to both Ford and Stellantis in the past but I think that right now they’re tied in with GM for things like tech sharing, etc.

Subaru announces 4 new all-electric crossovers as it catches up to EV transition

According to that article, it's estimated that by the end of this year, 50% of all new cars sold in China will be electric. We've got a lot of catching up to do.

That would explain this:
Ford's EV Division Had a Bad First Quarter

Having owned more than one 1st gen Ford product, my hat's off to anyone who buys it, but don't expect me to have any sympathy for you. To call it "hot garbage" would imply a utility that just isn't there.

Jebus, when even the idiots at Ford are calling you out, you've fucked up.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-65643064

China becomes the world’s largest exporter of cars.

Cadillac Announces All-Electric Escalade IQ That We Can Only Assume Will Weigh 10,000 LBS

You want to know how far back the rot at GM HQ goes? Feast your eyes on what 70s-era GM Brazil was turning out.



That's a 1978 model and looks a damn sight better than what Detroit was turning out at that point.

But what twigged my interest was when I saw a pic of this model



That's a locally designed, 1978 Brazil Chevrolet Opala. It had components sourced from Opel and a few other of GM's hapless puppets. I knew I had seen a design strikingly similar to that one before. Some quick digging and...


Not identical, of course, but not so far apart that one might not have influenced the other.

That car in the sketch? The 1965 AMC Cavalier concept car.

Yeah, so it looks like they were just raiding AMC's back catalog at the same time. What was AMC going to do? Sue them? Then where would AMC get a bunch of the parts that they need?

That's not going to last. Give it a few years past the era of low interest loans, and these people going into debt up to their eyeballs to buy the newest, fanciest thing will be the subject of rampant repossessions, and dealers will be flooded with used cars they can't unload.

The same will happen to the real estate market, and I have ZERO fucking sympathy. Reap the whirlwind, bitches.

We know

Stellantis And GM Must Pay $363 Million For Not Hitting U.S. Fuel Economy Requirements

Not mentioned in the article is that these are fleet requirements, so GM's not getting dinged for selling the 'Vette, that drinks premium, but because the mileage numbers of all their cars are too low. They don't even have to bring the mileage of every model up, or cut back on the low mileage vehicles that they sell, just throw an electric or hybrid car more in the mix than you have now, and you're golden.

Speaking of the Corvette, they have an hybrid one hitting the market next year IIRC



Hybrids are winning the car wars.

It's funny. Ferdinand Porsche's first car was a hybrid. In 1899. In the 1920s, there were hybrid delivery trucks, because the wimpy gasoline motors of the era (I think Ford had one around that time that was something like 400 CI, and it made around 60 HP, so not a lot) couldn't handle hauling really heavy loads. Had we just stayed with hybrid designs, we'd have been far better off. There'd be bigger gains, not only in automotive technology but things like electronics, batteries, and electric motors.

A great movie is "The Reivers" starring Steve McQueen. It was built around the adventures of some Mississippi rascals (reivers) and a "borrowed" Winton Flyer. McQueen gave a great performance. Oddly it's based on a Faulkner book. A Faulkner book that's humorous? Trust me, it's a great watch!

That is what I want, a chevy Mid Life Crisis that is a hybrid. I grew up thinking MLC drivers were Sam Malone. Then I started driving and realized they were all dumpy trumpsters with golf polos and receding hairlines.

The problem was that the technology was way ahead of the infrastructure to support it. Electricity was in many big cities*, but not in the rural areas where there were much wider gaps between towns until after WWII. A New Yorker isn't going to be bothered by a 25.mile range as much as a farmer in Nebraska.

*I say "most" because I worked with a San Diego native who was born in the 1930s and didn't have electricity in his home until high school.

Yabut, the beauty of hybrids is that they don't need all that infrastructure for electric power. I know that a 1900s-era electric car would have been useless on the farm in the middle of Chickenscratch, AR, but a hybrid would have worked just fine. In fact, if you equipped the cars so that they could also act as generators (totally possible with that era's technology), they could have been used to help electrify places.

Oh, and I'll see your guy who didn't get electricity until the ~1940s, and raise you. In the 1980s, when I was in high school (so you know, before you were born) a youth group I was in went and sang Christmas carols at the homes of senior citizens. One of the houses, which was located in one of the more populated areas of the town I lived in (pop. less than 5K) was owned by an elderly woman who'd lived there for her entire life. She was probably in her 80s or so when I met her, and her house didn't have electricity. In the 30/40s, the WPA came through and offered to electrify people's houses for free (of course, you'd have to pay for your monthly electric bill, but wiring your house up would cost nothing). She turned them down, saying that she'd lived this long without electricity, she didn't see any need to get it now. She died without ever having it done.

The Dead Chevrolet Bolt May Not Actually Stay Dead

Just needs the Chevrolet Nut and Washer?

I thought the chevy nut and washer were truck nuts and a broken washing machine on the back of a 1990 silverado?

Por que no los dos?

Also, I heard the Chrevolet Screw isn't actually a new model car they're designing, but an accessory for car tires. Best results in the sidewall.

This is some bullshit.

Biden Administration Tells Car Manufacturers to Ignore Right-to-Repair Law

One of the things that made the automobile industry take off was cars that were cheap and easy to repair. As they've made it harder and harder for you to do this, the number of new car sales has steadily declined. And a shitload of innovation happened in the industry at that time.

Yep. They want you locked into expensive dealer repairs until you say "fuck it" and go into more debt for a new pile of planned obsolescence.

They are all drowning in repos, and I say FUCK EM.

So ..., like everything else, corporations wrote a law, it passed the house and senate, and Biden signed it.

Because that's what citizen's united is.

Every grass-roots law stopping the oligarchal take over of the US government is being overridden at the federal level.

Volkswagen CEO Admits It Was A Mistake To Abandon Buttons And Other Physical Controls

He's fucking right, and I hope any car company that doesn't agree with him on that gets wiped out of existence. Seriously, I get that all the shit new cars can do is amazing, but everybody out there has had those moments where you absolutely cannot afford to take your eyes off the road and you also need to do something to help keep you safe. Maybe that's turning lights on, cutting off the radio, or changing the station, fucking with the window. Whatever it was, you needed to do it, and you couldn't look to see if the display was on the right screen, or that you were touching the right part of it. Argue all you want about if manual or electric windows are better, but I think that we can all agree, no matter which one you pick, you shouldn't have to take your eyes off the road to use it.

Manual. Controls. Every. Time.

Still irked about the lack of physical volume dials on "modern" computer screens.