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"The Relay" Online Newsletter
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As I am writing this the election is a week away although in Virginia we now have 45 days to vote. I don't think we need that many days but I too have come to embrace early voting because of the convenience. You don't have to make sure you can vote on election day you have choices that can fit into your schedule. Early voting passed the General Assembly because they thought it would give one party an advantage. Today whatever advantage they sought is gone as everyone seems happy with having the choice as to when to vote. I just hope the election is decided on election night and not days or even weeks later. In these modern high tech times we shouldn't need days or weeks to determine the outcome of an election.
All Classic Car Enthusiasts and Clubs Are Invited
He has hosted more than 100 episodes of his Barn Find Hunter videos, now available on YouTube and the  |  |
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 Might Need to Fix that Pothole |  |
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Cruise into Fall at the Antique Mall October 6 - See all the photos at Album - opens to a new window
BMW Chief Says EU Combustion Engine Ban Will Shrink Car Industry
From The Guardian
Oliver Zipse tells Paris motor show 2035 cutoff point for CO2-emitting cars is ‘no longer realistic’
The EU’s plans to ban the manufacture of traditional combustion engines from 2035 will shrink the industry, BMW’s chief executive has warned as the German car industry battles with increased competition from China in the electric vehicle sector.
In a comment that will alarm Brussels, Oliver Zipse told the Paris motor show the 2035 cutoff point for CO2-emitting cars was “no longer realistic”.
The ban “could also threaten the European automotive industry in its heart,” Zipse said. The measures will “with today’s assumptions, lead to a massive shrinking of the industry as a whole”.
European car manufacturers are out in force in Paris to defend their home turf, with Chinese brands representing just one-fifth of those on show compared with 2022 when they accounted for half the brands displayed.
BMW, one of the driving forces of the German car industry, is showcasing 15 electric vehicles in Paris, the most important industry event in the calendar.
“A correction of the 100% BEV (battery electric vehicle) target for 2035 as part of a comprehensive CO2-reduction package would also afford European OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) less reliance on China for batteries,” Zipse added referring to Beijing’s dominant position.
Carmakers including BMW, VW and Renault, as well as the Italian government, have called for the CO2 targets to be loosened or delayed.
On Monday Carlos Tavares, the chief executive of the Fiat, Citroën and Vauxhall owner Stellantis, said proposed tariffs on Chinese cars would speed up plant closures in Europe, as they would push Beijing to move manufacturing to the continent in direct competition with European brands.
Tavares said a decision would be made on the future of its UK plants “in the next few weeks”, amid a row over government electric vehicle quotas. Stellantis said in June that it could be forced to close its Vauxhall plants at Ellesmere Port and Luton if government rules were not relaxed.
Tavares predicted Chinese brands would not be going to Germany, France or Italy, the home of Europe’s oldest brands, but China would seek cheaper options in countries such as Hungary, where BYD is already planning an assembly plant after efforts by the prime minister, Viktor Orbán, to woo investment from Beijing.
This, he said, would mean “accelerating the need to shut down plants” elsewhere in Europe.
The German car industry, once the envy of the world, is suffering partly because of weaker demand but also a slow reaction to competition from China.
Efforts by BMW to push back against green targets will set alarm bells ringing in Brussels, which thought it had seen off the German car industry in 2023 when they were at loggerheads over the planned 2035 phase-out of CO2-emitting cars.
Under the rules, secondhand petrol and diesel cars can be sold after this date. But after the row last year, Germany squeezed a further compromise out of Brussels, which will now also allow new combustion engine cars to be sold beyond the deadline if they use efuels.
Cash for Clunkers - what a waste of money and vehicles. Cars traded in for the Cash For Clunkers program sit in a storage lot August 26, 2009 in Fairfield, California. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Cash for Clunkers Turns 15. Did It Do All It Was Supposed To? (No.)
From Hagerty
I climbed behind the wheel of a used but loaded four-door Ford F-150 XLT pickup. It had a 5.4-liter V-8, an engine about which a mechanic friend once said, “If every vehicle came with that motor, I’d be out of business.” I checked the air and the heat; both worked. The stereo sounded good. The interior was clean.
I drove it from the back of a GM dealership to a bay in the service department. The automatic transmission shifted properly, the power steering worked, the brakes were fine. I pulled it into to the bay and handed the keys to a mechanic. He drained the oil and replaced the plug.
Then he prepared two quarts of a special oil replacement that was 40 percent sodium silicate and 60 percent water. He poured it in and started the engine. The mechanic gunned the accelerator a few times, then kept the truck idling at 2000 rpm. After about six minutes, the engine began to falter, and the mechanic applied more throttle to keep it at 2000 rpm. Soon the engine shook, rattled and died.
The truck then sat for an hour as the solution hardened. I was shaken more than I expected I’d be—this truck was nicer than the pickup I had at home that I used to tow my race car. To purposely kill it just seemed, well, cruel.
But that’s what the Car Allowance Rebate System, or CARS—known nationwide as “Cash for Clunkers”—did to 677,081 vehicles in the summer of 2009. Hard to believe it has been 15 years since the federal government funded the $3 billion program, and it has been essentially forgotten. But it was big news in 2009.
The economy was grim, with the auto industry hit especially hard after overproducing and underselling. (One Ford executive wryly confided that they were losing money on a bunch of sales, “But apparently we think we’ll make it up in volume.”) Chrysler filed for bankruptcy on April 30, 2009, with General Motors filing a month later. They got an $80 billion bailout from the federal government. Compared to that, the CARS allocation was pocket change.
But if CARS took more than 677,000 vehicles off the road, then it had to put 677,000 brand new ones back on it at a very dire moment for Detroit. New-vehicle sales were suddenly robust. Customers, trading in “gas guzzling” clunkers, got a credit on newer, more fuel-efficient vehicles. You had to buy a car with an EPA-rated fuel efficiency of at least 22 mpg, which got you a credit of $3500, or 28 mpg for a credit of $4500.
For the story I was working on, I went to multiple new car dealers to look over the collection of trades they’d taken with CARS. But there were awfully few legitimate gas guzzlers. Yes, the government said they had to average 18 miles per gallon or worse to qualify, but given the type of job the vehicle was built to handle, 18 mpg may not be so bad.
At the first lot, a Ford store, doomed CARS trade-ins included two Chrysler minivans with V-6 engines, and a very nice Ford Windstar minivan with a V-6, full leather interior, a six-disc CD player, and what appeared to be brand-new tires. Three Ford Explorers with V-6 engines, two Dodge Dakota pickups, two six-cylinder Jeep Cherokees. There was a clean Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo with the 4.0-liter six-cylinder engine and a new set of Michelin tires, which alone probably cost at least $500.
And there was a white-over-red Ford Mustang LX convertible with a white leather interior. With a 5.0-liter V-8, it met the 18 mpg threshold exactly. Cash for Clunkers vehicles, by the way, had to be drivable—you couldn’t push your car with an already seized-up engine to the dealer and expect to participate.
I saw no land-yacht station wagons, no runout full-sized vans, no Chevrolet Suburbans, even. Relatively few of the Clunkers were, well, clunkers. The Obama administration, which backed the legislation, took it on the chin for that. Said the right-leaning Cato Institute: “Suppose each clunker was worth $3000 at a guess, that would mean that the government destroyed $2.25 billion of value.”
“Destroyed” is a bit of an overreach. Car recyclers had 180 days to part out the clunkers if they wanted, with the exception of the engine, which did have to be destroyed. (Break the rules, and there was a $15,000 fine.) Some proponents of the program complained about this—why let them sell parts if it just helps more clunkers stay on the road?—but a lot of the CARS trade-ins did indeed go straight to the crusher. A car’s engine is the most valuable piece of the vehicle to recyclers, and some passed on participating in CARS at all because of the limited amount of money they could make selling fenders off a Grand Caravan.
CARS began on July 1, 2009, and ended on August 24, after the $3 billion was exhausted. Congress originally appropriated $1 billion, figuring it would last until winter, but the money went so fast they had to ante up another $2 billion.
I followed that Ford F-150 to the salvage yard, where it was delivered the next day. Turns out they had plenty of F-150 parts and didn’t need any off this truck. It would go straight to the crusher in a few days, flattened and placed atop of a stack of crushed vehicles that looked like toy cars a child had stepped on.
Did I want to come back and watch? I did not.
Periodically, there has been talk over the years about bringing CARS back, but it appears to be one and done. In many respects, CARS played a successful role in preserving the American automotive industry; it did give the economy in general, and the auto industry in particular, a shot in the arm at a critical time. And, statistically, it did raise the average fuel mileage of the American fleet.
But did it take “clunkers” off the road? In a word, no.
Jewels Found On Ebay
Here are a couple of hot finds from Ebay Motors.
eBay item number: 375716426739
$6,500 opening bid - no bids
eBay description: About this vehicle
S10 frame 358 hooked to a turbo 350 Stock s10 rear
Seller's Notes
Ran when parked Needs a carb Racing bucket seats
Vehicle Details
V8
From the broken driver's side glass to the filthy "racing" seats to the missing front sheet metal this car is a mess. If whoever did the "mods" to this had just left it alone then perhaps someone could have done something with it.
Next up is another "project".
eBay item number: 135271600990
$27,500 buy it now
eBay description: Henry Steel 1933 Ford Five Window Coupe
Nice Steel Body, Minor Rust in Rockers where water has no where to Drain, Two Original Steel Front Fenders Included, Original Hood, Original Grill In Nice condition (No Bent Bars or Re-Welds), Original Trunk Lid, Nice Solid Dash, Original Radiator, Original Frame, Banjo Rear Included, Other Miscellaneous Parts Included. On Dolly mounts for easy transport.
Clean & Clear Title.
Hey it's only $27.5K for a body on a frame - and the body has some rust. There are also a lot of parts missing such as the floor, engine, trans, and more! And instead of "big" wheels this car has some very "tiny" wheels. Twenty plus large can still buy more car than this even with inflation.
eBay item number: 395806364268
$21,500 or best offer
eBay description: 1964 Mercedes 230SL Project 2 Tops Complete w113 Pagoda 250SL 280SL
Up for your consideration is a 1964 230sl project in need of full restoration car has both tops rear jump seat car is pretty much complete has not run in a while and missing key please if you have low feedback contact me before closing the auction additional pictures and videos avaliable upon request $500 deposit due within 24 hours of sale
I checked to see what this car would sell for in much better condition and it looks like over 100K. Judging by the photos it would take more than that to bring it up to a value of 100K. It's rusty and banged up. The car needs everything and may be a couple of other things. Best to buy one in better shape.
Fort Lee Baptist Church Community Outreach Event & Car Show October 12
See all the photos at Album - opens to a new window
Scientists Find No Change In ‘Global Warming’ Rates Since 1970
From The People's Voice
Despite the “hottest year ever” in 2023, scientists have found no change in global warming rates since 1970.
A paper written by an international group of mathematicians and scientists, is not likely to be acknowledged in the mainstream media where the usual hysteria reigns over the 2023 experience.
The Daily Sceptic reports: A sensational science paper has blown holes in alarmist claims that global temperatures are surging. Just published results in Nature show “limited evidence” for a warming surge. “In most surface temperature time series, no change in the warming rate beyond the 1970s is detected despite the breaking record temperatures observed in 2023,” the paper says. Written by an international group of mathematicians and scientists, it is unlikely to be acknowledged in the mainstream media where general hysteria reigns over the anomalous 2023 experience. As we have seen, constant misinformation is published to scare the general public and this is exemplified by climate comedy-turn Jim ‘jail the deniers’ Dale forecasting almost daily Armageddon and exhorting people to “join up the dots”.
In science, one swallow does not make a summer and in climate science it is impossible to show a trend by picking on short periods or individual weather events. This paper is an excellent piece of climate science work since it takes the long statistical view and challenges the two-a penny clickbait alarmists looking for a headline on the BBC. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a biased body but it understands the importance of long-term climate trends by stating, much to the chagrin of Net Zero-promoting activists, that it can find little or no human involvement in most extreme weather events either in the past or in the likely immediate future. But these findings, along with the paper on the warming trend, are inconvenient to those promoting the unproven claim that humans control the climate thermostat by utilising hydrocarbons.
The paper is highly technical and mathematically-inclined readers can study the full workings out in the open access publication. It notes that global temperature datasets fluctuate due to short-term variability and this often creates the appearance of surges and slowdowns in warming. It is important to consider random noise caused by natural variation when investigating the recent pauses in temperature and the more recent “alleged warming acceleration”, it adds. In fact there have been a number of plausible explanations given for the recent spike, with attention focused on the massive Hunga Tonga submarine volcano adding 13% extra water vapour to the stratosphere, a strong El Niño and even the reduction in atmospheric particulates caused by recent changes in shipping vessel fuel. Several “changepoints” were used by the mathematicians and it was found that “a warming surge could not be reliably detected any time after 1970”.
While the focus was on whether there had been a continued acceleration in the rate of global warming, it was recognised how unusual the surface temperature anomalies were in 2023. Indeed they were, and it was widely argued that this showed the climate was breaking down, or in the silly words of the UN chief Antonio Guterres that the planet was “boiling”. Last year’s hysterics were useful for short-term alarmism but they help destroy the ‘settled’ science around CO2. If human-caused CO2 is responsible for the rise, why did the temperature pause from 1998-2012 when atmospheric levels of the gas were on the up. Does alarmism on the BBC and most other mainstream media only apply when the temperatures spikes upwards for a few months?
One of the key conclusions in the paper arises from considering two time series – 1970-2023 and 2013-2023. This of course includes the early 1970s when global cooling fears were all the rage and average temperatures were falling. Estimated temperature trends were said to be 0.019°C per year for the first time segment and 0.029°C for the second that includes the spike from last year. This 0.029°C estimated slope “falls far short” of an increase needed to point to a change in the warming trend in the recent past. This is because of short-term variability in the U.K. Met Office HadCRUT global database since 1970 and “uncertainty” of the 2012 changepoint. This uncertainty arises over speculation as to whether 2012 and the ending of the pause was a year marking an important change in the longer time series. ”The HadCRUT record is simply not long enough for the surge to be statistically detectable at this time,” they note.
The Moonlight Cruise-In - A Tribute to the Late Thomas Terry October 12
See all the photos at Album - opens to a new window.
It's Car Tax Day (October 7), Let's Move Forward on Governor Gilmore's "No Car Tax" Pledge
By Kimberly Pinter and Callahan Burton (Jefferson Policy Journal)
Governor Gilmore was right. His “No Car Tax” slogan resonated with all Virginia vehicle owners and catapulted him to the Virginia Governor’s mansion in 1997 with 56% of the vote.
The tax is universally hated and perceived as unfair. You pay good money for a car (plus sales tax!), more to insure it and fill up the tank, and even more to maintain it (and perform mostly unnecessary annual inspections). And then you’re hit with an annual tax for the pleasure of owning the vehicle. Worse, Virginians pay the highest car tax rate in the country, with an average effective rate of 4.05% and an average annual bill of $1,011. No wonder young people are moving out of the Commonwealth.
Car Tax Day for Commonwealth residents has a similar significance as April 15 does to all Americans nationwide. It is a day that every Virginia car owner dreads. It is the day when the locality where you live demands its pound of flesh simply because you own a car.
Why, in 2024, are we still paying this tax? What happened to Governor Gilmore’s promise?
Governor Gilmore did his best to deliver on his “No Car Tax” promise. In 1998, The Personal Property Tax Relief Act (PPTR) was enacted. The goal was to phase out the car tax by 2002. However, the new law didn’t really end the car tax, it just shifted the burden. It was also capped at the first $20,000 of the vehicle’s assessed value. Because the localities that collect the tax were so heavily dependent on its revenue, the Virginia government tried to replace the revenue rather than trying to wean the local governments off the windfall it provided.
Starting in 1998 at 12.5% of taxpayers’ car tax liability and steadily increasing to 70%, the strain on the Commonwealth’s budget ballooned well beyond the projected cost. In 2002, the General Assembly froze the reimbursement at 70% rather than fully covering the tax, as was originally envisioned. The cap was not sufficient to address the continued rapid rise in the cost of the program, so the General Assembly further undermined relief to the taxpayer by capping the entire pool of relief paid to the localities to $950 million per year starting in 2006. And that is where it remains to this day.
As a result, as populations grow and the number of cars increases, relief rates have steadily decreased. In addition, inflation acts to further dilute any relief, as the $20,000 per vehicle cap and the $950 million cap on the available pool are not indexed for inflation and become worth less and less with every passing year.
Logically, population growth along with a higher number of cars that are increasingly more expensive would allow localities to rely more on volume for needed revenue than on high car tax rates. But the political pressure for increased spending for education, infrastructure, and other public services has limited the desire to forgo that additional revenue. In fact, many jurisdictions have actually increased their car tax rates over the last 20 years.
As universal as the hatred of the car tax is, its application is equally diverse depending on where you live. In each locality, there are several moving parts that operate in conjunction to determine the ultimate tax liability.
The first is the tax rate, expressed as $x.xx per $100. This can range anywhere from $0.55 to $9 per $100.
The second is the valuation method. Typically, localities rely on JD Power and use one of three valuations: 1) retail value, 2) trade-in value, or 3) loan value. Each of these valuations are further categorized by vehicle conditions – clean, average, and rough.
Third is the relief rate. Relief rates vary widely, generally ranging between 14-58%, although relief may be up to 100% depending on the assessed value of your vehicle.
Fourth is the assessment ratio. This is the percentage of the assessed value on which the tax is levied. This seems to range anywhere from 30-100%, with many jurisdictions levying on the full 100%.
The final factor is the method of disbursement. Most localities simply apply the first four factors and distribute accordingly. However, the City of Alexandria is an outlier in that it employs a declining percentage method. The more expensive the vehicle, the less tax relief you will receive. Vehicles valued at $5,000 or less incur no car tax liability (100% relief). Vehicles worth $5,001-20,000 qualify for 52% relief. Once you hit $20,000, the difference really becomes apparent. Vehicles worth $20,001-25,000 get 26% relief, but only on the first $20,000. Once your vehicle surpasses the $25,000 mark, it qualifies for only 12% relief and only on the first $20,000.
The resulting interaction of all these factors produces a stunning lack of transparency in that the lowest or highest tax rate doesn’t necessarily translate to the lowest or highest car tax liability in the final analysis. In fact, low-income communities in Virginia are disproportionately affected by the car tax. Vehicle owners in the City of Buena Vista, which has a median household income of $36,634, pay a 31% higher effective tax rate than Loudoun County, the richest county in the country by median household income. This is insane.
The real question is, is it worth it? While the car tax clearly brings in a significant amount of revenue, it is not without cost on the other side of the ledger. The most obvious, as indicated above, is the cost to the Commonwealth’s finances to reimburse the localities for the relief provided. This mechanism ensures that there are administrative costs at the state level as well as all the administrative costs to collect the tax incurred at the local level. It doesn’t appear that anyone has published an analysis of what those numbers are, but they certainly should be a significant consideration in any discussion of the car tax’s effectiveness.
There are also clear behavioral incentives at either end of the income scale. On the lower end of the spectrum, blue collar workers who can’t afford to live in urban centers with mass transit must rely on their cars to make a living. In cases where they don’t have access to a car, the tax adds an additional hurdle to obtaining one and possibly being able to travel to a better, higher paying job, which would yield more income to the Commonwealth in terms of income taxes, etc. At the higher end of the spectrum, those who love and are inclined to purchase very high-end, expensive vehicles are going to do all they can to avoid registering and garaging these cars in Virginia. Go to any high-end car show and admire all the Montana plates. Wouldn’t it be preferable to have them purchase (sales tax) and register those cars here rather than in another state?
Finally, the car tax provides a clear incentive for taxpayers to hold onto older, less efficient vehicles rather than buying newer, more fuel efficient or electric cars. This is in direct conflict with environmental concerns about reducing carbon emissions.
The car tax is not political; it is hated by more than 80% of Virginia voters. It is high time that Governor Gilmore’s original vision became a reality.
Kimberly Pinter is a Fellow in Tax Policy at the Thomas Jefferson Institute and Callahan Burton is a Research Fellow at the Thomas Jefferson Institute finishing his degree at the University of Virginia.
Chesterfield Career and Technical Center Car and Truck Show October 13
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The Briefs
You might think a little old lady with white hair driving a Honda Accord would be harmless, but that’s not always the case. This lady was pulled over by a Minnesota trooper after she pulled into a lane that was closed off for road construction. Soon, the benign traffic stop would escalate into a near shooting.
When a police officer pulls you over for a traffic violation you might not be immediately under arrest but you are legally detained. That means you can’t just drive away and you have to answer certain questions and produce documents like your license, registration, and insurance information.
If a cop tells you to step out of the vehicle, you also have to comply. And if they tell you to stay out of the vehicle the best thing to do is comply. This lady doesn’t like that one bit and after getting back into her Accord, while the trooper is trying to pull her out, she produces a handgun and points it right at the cop. That’s a good way to get shot and she’s lucky that wasn’t the outcome.
Later, it was discovered the gun was in fact fake. It was actually made out of duct tape and aluminum foil, which is hilarious but in the heat of the moment a cop can’t afford to assume something that looks realistic isn’t actually a gun.
It turns out this sweet little grandma had a warrant and probably knew it. Most of the time when we see people get combative like this during a traffic stop it’s either that or they have something illegal on them.
Thankfully, this grandma was arrested without incident. She ditcher her car and was hanging onto the outside of a pedestrian bridge while holding onto a bottle of tequila. As Homer Simpson said, alcohol is the cause and solution to all of society’s problems, which is probably why it features so heavily in many of these crazy traffic stop videos.
Actor Ben Affleck was seen stranded on the Los Angeles Freeway with his son on Saturday after his electric Bronco stopped working.
The Batman star and his twelve-year-old son, Samuel, who he shares with ex-wife Jennifer Garner, where able to make their way to a gas station where they indulged in some snacks while they waited for a tow truck to cart their dead EV back home, according to TMZ. He shouldn't have ruined a classic Bronco with an electric motor.
A family in Bedford, Ohio, reported their Nissan Rogue and their 8-year-old daughter missing around 9 a.m. on Sept. 15, the Associated Press reported. Police learned that witnesses had seen a small child driving nearby, but it wasn't until they checked the parking lot at Target, about 13 miles away, that they discovered the car. The girl was inside the store; she told officers that she had hit a mailbox during her journey, but otherwise it went fine. Authorities were weighing whether any charges would be filed.
When 33-year-old Ravesh Rabindranauth attempted to steal a Corvette in a Miami Beach, Florida, parking garage on Sept. 17, he encountered a little trouble, Local10-TV reported. He got stuck inside the car, which is where its owner, Julio Solano, found him. "Can I get out?" Rabindranauth asked Solano as Solano recorded the incident on his phone. "No, you can't get out. We're calling the police." Solano said the car's security system wouldn't allow the thief to start the car or escape. "He didn't know about the manual door release under the seat," Solano said. Rabindranauth was held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on $2,500 bond.
U.S Customs and Border Protection shuts down smuggling attempts on a daily basis, but what its officers caught on Sept. 23 at the Presidio, Texas, port of entry wasn't the usual contraband. While inspecting a vehicle being driven into the U.S., CBP personnel discovered 748 pounds of Mexican bologna. The New York Post reported that 40 rolls of the deli meat were hidden in a number of suitcases throughout the vehicle. CBP Presidio Port Director Benito Reyes Jr. said in a news release that "the concern with pork products is that they have the potential to introduce foreign animal diseases that can have devastating effects to the U.S. economy and to our agriculture industry." The driver, an American citizen, was issued a $1,000 civil penalty; the bologna was destroyed per USDA regulations.
En route from Nebraska to Oregon on Sept. 21, a single-engine plane made an emergency landing on Highway 25 north of Cheyenne, Wyoming, Cowboy State Daily reported. Levi and Kelsi Dutton, who were traveling south on the highway when the plane landed in front of them, offered assistance to the pilot, who identified himself as Steve. The pilot calmly inspected the plane’s fuel line before announcing, "I got the tools right here. I'll just open it up, figure out what's going on and get her fixed." After making the repair, Steve hopped back aboard the plane and, as the Duttons stopped traffic to free up a runway space, taxied south and took off for Cheyenne Regional Airport, where he could do a more thorough inspection.
WSVN in Miami reported on Sept. 21 that an SUV fell from an overpass on I-95, crashing through a fence below and narrowly missing a bystander -- and miraculously, both driver and passenger walked away, apparently unscathed. Those nearby rushed to help, including Mariah Lewis, who offered a knife from her glove box to aid in cutting the driver and passenger out of their seatbelts. “It’s just by the grace of God that the people lived, because I don’t understand how you fall from that high and [live],” she said. Both occupants were checked by paramedics, and the driver was taken to a local trauma center for observation. “It was bad, but it could have been worse,” Lewis said. “I was just telling my daughter I’m so grateful. You’ve got to be grateful for life.”
Reach for the stars, kids! And by “stars,” we mean “wheelbarrow.” John Loghry of Saylorville, Iowa, made his dream come true when he set a new world record -- for the fastest motorized wheelbarrow. WeAreIowa.com reported that Loghry’s vehicle reached 57 mph at an event on Sept. 21, beating the previous Guinness World Record of 47 mph. A local sheriff’s office helped Loghry confirm the speed with a lidar gun, as required per Guinness rules. “He’s been very determined on doing it,” said Loghry’s wife, Jeanne. Members of the local community came out to watch the attempt, so Loghry, a veteran, ended up using the event to raise money for the Wounded Warrior Project. He said he hopes he can inspire others to pursue their dreams, even the wacky ones: “If you think you can do it, try it,” he said
Kody Adams of Oklahoma was due for a court appearance in Pawnee County for a hearing on car theft charges on Sept. 27. So when Adams couldn't bum a ride from any of the patrons at a gas station in Stillwater, some 30 minutes away, KOCO News 5 reported that he improvised by commandeering an unoccupied LifeNet Emergency Services pickup and driving it to Pawnee. An Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper caught Adams after he had ditched the pickup and was entering the courthouse. "The trooper did make sure he made his court case," said Preston Cox of the OHP. Adams was then transported to Payne County and booked on new charges.
Jeep and Chrysler parent company, Stellantis, announces CEO will retire in early 2026 at the end of his contract amid broader management shake-up; announcement comes amid stagnating US sales, with shares down around 40% this year.
The last full-scale Kmart in the continental US closed Sunday October 20 in Bridgehampton, New York, marking the end of an era for the once-iconic retailer. Known for its "Blue Light Specials"—flash discount announcements—and celebrity partnerships, the chain struggled over the years to compete with Walmart, Target, and online retailers.
Founded in 1899 as SS Kresge—the first Kmart branch opened in 1962—it was a pioneer in discount retailing. At its peak in the 1980s, annual revenues exceeded $36B with over 2,000 stores. By 1986, the store was the second-largest retailer, behind Sears. Kmart eventually filed for bankruptcy in 2002 and again in 2018, largely due to mismanagement, failed acquisitions, outdated locations, and failure to adapt to online shopping trends. After merging with Sears in 2005, both brands suffered losses, and Kmart’s remaining stores gradually closed.
Only a small Kmart outlet in Miami and a few locations in Guam and the US Virgin Islands remain.
“It’s a trojan horse for globalism, led by the UN and their puppet masters.” Australian senator Alex Antic blows the “man-made climate change” narrative completely out of the water. “Alarmist rhetoric about man-made climate change is nothing new. The United Nations and the media have been pushing it for decades… These prophecies of doom simply never come true. The polar bears are still here, the sea hasn’t risen, the ozone layer is fine, but the point of this messaging is to make you afraid, and why? Because if a climate apocalypse is imminent, then governments of the world can centralise their power and control, and control your actions with the so-called emergency.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled the highly anticipated robotaxi last night, a driverless, $30K vehicle called the Cybercab. Tesla says the car—which lacks pedals and steering wheels(both of which are against federal regulations)—will go into production by 2027. The company also debuted a 20-person robovan and touted its Optimus robots. The debut is almost a decade in the making and comes amid a series of lawsuits and investigations over Tesla's supervised driving vehicles. The company's investors hope robotaxis will generate almost 90% of Tesla's value and earnings by 2029. This would involve drivers being able to rent their vehicle through an app when not in use, earning passive income in a "part Uber, part Airbnb" model. Tesla hopes electric vehicle sales will eventually account for only 9% of Tesla's value. Tesla is not the first company to pursue this model; Google’s Waymo already services 100,000 paid rides per week, including in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Phoenix. Amazon's Zoox is coming soon to San Francisco.
The US auto safety regulator is investigating Tesla's "Full Self-Driving" software in 2.4 million vehicles after reports of four crashes in low-visibility conditions, including one that killed a pedestrian. The probe will assess the software's ability to detect and respond to reduced roadway visibility and examine any system updates that may have affected its performance in these conditions. The investigation comes amid ongoing scrutiny of Tesla's autonomous driving technology.
FAA approves regulations permitting electric vertical takeoff vehicles, or eVTOLs, opening the door for an emerging air taxi industry; marks the first new category of aircraft recognized since 1940.
Robotaxi developer Waymo raises record $5.6B in funding. The funding round is the largest for Alphabet's autonomous vehicle division, Waymo, as it looks to expand its robotaxi services across more cities. The round—led by Alphabet and joined by venture firms including Andreessen Horowitz, Fidelity, and T. Rowe Price—brings Waymo's total capital raised to more than $11B. Waymo operates in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles, and plans to expand to Austin and Atlanta as part of a partnership with Uber.
Volkswagen reportedly plans to shut down three factories in Germany, lay off thousands, and cut salaries by 10%; domestic closures would be the first in the 87-year history of Germany's largest employer.
Repair Mistakes & Blunders
From Rock Auto
I thought I would share this so others might learn from my stupidity! I suspected some kind of fuel tank leak or rusted fuel lines on my 2002 Honda Accord, because I began getting a strong fuel smell, terrible mileage, and an EVAP code CEL. I had replaced the fuel pump a few weeks prior, and that should've been my first clue, but instead of starting there, I assumed the new fuel pump was not the problem and spent a grueling day in the heat dropping the entire rear subframe in order to inspect the tank and associated plumbing. I found the tank and fuel lines in perfect condition.
Perplexed, I reinstalled everything, only for the fuel smell and EVAP code to immediately return. Finally thinking about the recently installed fuel pump, I took a look at the old pump and discovered the old gasket still stuck to it. Then I looked inside the box the new pump came in, and there was a new gasket, still sealed in a plastic bag! I popped off the access panel in the trunk, and sure enough, my new fuel pump was installed without a gasket! There were quarter-inch gaps all the way around, explaining the smell, EVAP code, and bad mileage. I can't begin to imagine how I neglected something so basic, but luckily from that point it was a five-minute fix. And I've never forgotten a gasket since!
Justin in North Carolina
Taste of Brunswick Festival Car Show October 12 - See all the photos at Album - opens to a new window
Photo by Ron Clark
Kamala Harris Attacks On Gasoline Vehicles Coming Back To Haunt Her
From New Conservative Post
Kamala Harris may have trouble brewing in Michigan, home of the three biggest auto manufacturers in the country.
Newsweek reported that a “statewide poll of 709 likely voters, conducted on September 30 by Mitchell Research & Communications, shows the former president with a 1-point lead over Harris in a direct match-up (49 percent to 48).
When broken down further, the latest Michigan poll reveals (52 percent to 37). In the eight-person ballot, Trump’s lead among independents is reduced to 7 points (44 percent to 37).
The independent and undecided voting demographic will be particularly vital in Michigan, one of the battleground states that could determine who wins the 2024 election overall.”
A key reason for her struggles in the Great Lakes State is her relentless push to ban gas-powered vehicles—a stance she’s now attempting to downplay.
The New York Post writes that Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday hit the brakes hard on her previous support for banning gasoline-powered cars, pledging that she will “never” tell Americans “what car you have to drive.”
Harris, 59, made the remark during a campaign rally in Flint, Mich., where she also promised to “retool existing factories” and push policies that support innovation in “advanced batteries” and “electric vehicles.”
“Michigan, let us be clear: Contrary to what my opponent is suggesting, I will never tell you what kind of car you have to drive,” the vice president said.
Biden and Harris’ push for EVs will likely lead to the losses of 37,000 jobs, according to a recent study by the America First Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, reported The Detroit News.
In March, the Biden administration continued Obama’s radical policies against gas vehicles, enacting harsh new regulations meant to foist unpopular electric vehicles onto the public.
The new regulations will “impose the strictest vehicle-emissions regulations ever enacted as part of an effort to push the American car industry toward electric vehicles,” The National Review noted.
The emissions standards, which will cover light-duty vehicles — cars, SUVs, and pickup trucks — are set to apply to models produced from “2027 through 2032 and beyond,” the Environmental Protection Agency said in a statement.
The new rules set targets for the number of electric models produced in the United States as a percentage of all light-duty vehicles created each year. For instance, in 2030, hitting the EPA’s new targets would require somewhere between 31 percent and 44 percent of new cars, SUVs, and pickup trucks to be fully electric, with the exact percentage depending on the amount of emissions from other vehicles.”
Harris herself used to support the banning of gasoline cars. Axios reported that “as a senator from California, Harris co-sponsored the Zero-Emissions Act in 2019, which would require by 2040 that 100% of new passenger vehicle sales in the U.S. release no greenhouse gases.
Only electric and hydrogen vehicles currently fit that criteria. The bill didn’t pass.
During her 2020 campaign, Harris promised to go further and implement an “accelerated model” of the Zero-Emission Vehicles Act, according to her archived website.
She proposed requiring ‘50% of all new passenger vehicles sold are zero-emission by 2030, and 100% are zero-emission by 2035.'”
Despite having the UAW president, Shawn Fain, in her pocket, Harris has struggled with unions this presidential cycle. She became the second Democrat in decades not to win an endorsement from the firefighters union, the IAFF, and a poll of Teamsters showed that rank-and-file union members back Donald Trump.
34th BOPC Show October 13 - See all the photos at Album - opens to a new window
Photo by Ron Bartek
Ford Falcon - Peanuts (1961) Commercial
Experts Say It’s Possible For Hackers To Take Control Of EV Features, Even Trigger Battery Fires
From Just The News
In September, thousands pagers and walkie-talkies held by members of Hezbollah exploded. The incident appears to have been the result of explosives hidden within the batteries of the devices by Israel’s intelligence service, Mossad, and the Israeli military, then triggered remotely.
While the devices appear to have been physically modified, the incident highlights a security concern for electric vehicles. The vehicles have a number of safety systems to prevent the battery from catching fire, and the battery packs in the vehicles are much larger than any hand-held device. Those safety systems run on software that can be hacked. When large lithium-ion battery packs catch fire, the result can be anywhere between a smoldering fire lasting months or something more explosive.
Roy Fridman, CEO and chief revenue officer for C2A Security, an Israel-based cybersecurity company focused on the automotive industry, said that one automaker told him that the software that controls a motor has 2 million lines of code. And that’s just the motor.
“You have hundreds of millions of lines of code inside a vehicle. If you were talking about autonomous vehicles, it's even more. But the number of lines of codes in a vehicle is continuously growing,” Fridman told Just the News.
He said that in addition to the lines of code in the vehicle’s software there are also wireless connections to the internet for software updates, connections to charging infrastructure. And there are connections to the electricity grid for vehicle to grid technology, which allows EV owners to sell their energy storage capacity to grid operators.
“The more communication protocols you have, the more lines of code you have, the more you are susceptible to controlling something that will trigger events that are … let's call it malicious,” Fridman said.
The Heritage Foundation released a report recently that included a proposal that Chinese-made EVs be banned. Software to remotely disable cars already exists inside American-made vehicles, and the report argues such a tactic could be used maliciously by a foreign adversary.
In addition, cybersecurity experts are looking closely at the possibility that EVs could be hacked to cause all kinds of problems. This includes stealing personal information, such as credit card and banking information during charging station transactions, or possibly making the battery catch fire.
Fridman said that the complexity of the vehicle and supporting infrastructure, as well as all the communications involved, creates a lot of opportunities to influence what’s happening inside the vehicle.
“I believe, in my personal opinion, there is a constellation in which you can create a battery overload and disable some of the protective mechanisms,” he said.
In 2002, David Colombo, a tech security specialist, hacked into 25 Teslas around the world using a third-party application. He was able to take control of multiple features including turning the car on and off, locking and unlocking the doors, getting the vehicle’s precise location, and changing temperature settings inside the car. He even made the vehicles play YouTube videos by 80s pop star Rick Astley, a meme called “rickrolling."
Colombo wasn’t able to make the car accelerate or steer it, but he said with the systems he could control, he could do a lot of damage.
“I think it‘s pretty dangerous, if someone is able to remotely blast music on full volume or open the windows/doors while you are on the highway,” Colombo said in a thread on X about the hacks.
It doesn’t appear that Colombo accessed the vehicles’ battery management systems (BMS), which monitor, protect and optimize the EVs battery, including maintaining safe temperatures.
Lithium-ion batteries catch fire when they enter an uncontrolled, self-heating event called thermal runaway. Most often, it occurs due to damage or a defect in the battery. An overheated battery gives off toxic and flammable gasses, which can cause an explosion. At the very least, they produce a smoldering, smoky fire that’s a huge risk to firefighters due to the difficulty in extinguishing it. A recent battery fire in a Tesla Semi required 50,000 gallons to extinguish.
Fridman said these risks can be managed. C2A Security, the company for which he’s an executive, supports security at every stage of the software development process, from development through operations.
“I would call the full cycle. There is another name that you can call it. You can call it risk management. You are always managing your risk,” he said.
Fridman also said that electric vehicles posed a different challenge to owners, compared to cybersecurity on their computers. Those have been around for a while, and it’s what Fridman called a mature industry.
“When we are talking about products that are becoming more and more heavy with software like vehicles, like medical devices, like industrial control – this is an evolving industry. And this evolving industry is basically transitioning these products from being very hardware-centric to being a software-defined machine,” he said.
The nature of the devices, Fridman also said, also create their own challenges. A hacked car, industrial device or charging infrastructure can do a lot more damage. And in terms of IT solutions, he said, you have to understand all the components that are running the software.
“You need to understand the bits and bytes, the communication protocols inside in the context of the product. It's a different world, but both of them need to do the same thing. They need to, at the end, do what your antivirus is doing in your computer. It's just very, very different worlds,” he continued.
Just asking for a friend
Cigarette Lighter or 12 Volt Power Outlet?
Automotive cigarette lighters are one of the few things that have not changed much since the 1950s. I made sure my kids grew up surrounded by old cars equipped with almost as many cigarette lighters as seats and glove-box-sized ash trays. Younger people who were not so lucky may only know the empty sockets in modern cars labeled "12 volt power outlet." They have no idea that the socket's odd tubular shape was intentionally made the size of a cigar.
It turns out that everybody may have something to learn. An old car's cigarette lighter socket can also be used as a 12 volt power outlet, but a lot of the newer "12 volt power outlet" sockets do not have the clips inside needed to hold a cigarette lighter and maintain the electrical connection while it heats up. You will not be able to light your stogy or start a campfire if you insert a cigarette lighter (found under "Interior" in the "Tools & Universal Parts" tab of the RockAuto.com catalog) into one of those newer sockets that does not have the clips inside. That helps explain why car interiors and owners manuals are not festooned with warnings about the risk of fire if a cigarette lighter is inserted into a socket located at the bottom of a console box filled with old receipts and other flammable material.
Newer car owners manuals may not mention "cigarette lighters" at all, but some of the "12 volt power outlets" easily accessible to the driver may still have the clips inside needed to retain a cigarette lighter as it heats up. Peering into sockets with a flashlight may be the quickest way to tell. The cigarette lighter clips may vary slightly between makes and model years. The cigarette lighter from my 1979 Chrysler 300 (Cordoba) heats up in the socket on the dash of my 2014 Dodge Challenger, but the 2014 clips only tenuously hold the 1979 cigarette lighter in place.
Odds are good that cigarette lighters/12 volt power outlets will continue to outlast a lot of the latest new technology. An eight-track tape player that plugged into the cigarette lighter would have been easier/cheaper to discard than one mounted in a hole in the dash. I rented a new Toyota Tacoma that as far as I could tell, only had the newer USB-C connectors. Luckily, the truck still had a cigarette lighter socket that we could plug an inexpensive USB-A (now the old-fashioned type of USB) adapter into to charge our phones.
Using a cigarette lighter/12 volt power outlet is often a smart way to charge devices even if the vehicle has the correct type of USB (or other type of) port. Vehicle computers cannot communicate with a device plugged into the cigarette lighter. Guests riding in the vehicle can happily charge their phones without any distracting messages popping up on the infotainment screen. A worn-out USB adapter that plugs into the cigarette lighter is also always much cheaper to replace than an original equipment (OE), built-in USB port. A built-in USB port that only provides power rather than both power and data is still relatively expensive.
Tom Taylor,
RockAuto.com
Varina Ruritan Car Show October 19 - See all the photos at Album - opens to a new window
McKenney Cruisers Cruise-In (Appreciation Day) October 20 - See all the photos at Album - opens to a new window
Hurricane Helene Fires: Salt Water and Lithium-Ion Batteries Still Don’t Mix
From Hagerty
By Monday morning, Hurricane Helene and the damage it caused last Thursday was still the top story in Tampa news, with an unsettling focus on electric cars, and the damage they caused after being shorted out by rising salt water. It’s a topic we’ve covered before, but it’s worth an update.
The resulting fires occurred despite a near-constant warning from the media to move electric cars out of harm’s way. Said Tampa Mayor Jane Castor: “Water and ion batteries do not mix. They literally explode.” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis joined in: “If you have an EV, you need to get that to higher land,” he said during a news briefing on Wednesday, well before the storm. “Be careful about it getting inundated. It can cause fires.”
Indeed they did. An early count suggests perhaps a half-dozen homes were damaged or destroyed by burning electric vehicles along the Florida Gulf Coast. And this time, there’s video.
Understandably, many homes hit by Helene were very close to the seashore, and consequently some were in high-end areas. A popular image on the area newscasts was a mansion-sized home in Davis Islands, one of two in the upscale area that was gutted by fire, leaving little more than the front wall. In the garage was the unrecognizable rubble of an electric car, reportedly a Tesla.
Even more troubling, it appears that it doesn’t take much salt water to cause a fire. A 50-second Nest surveillance video that went viral was taken in a Siesta Key home, showing a Tesla in a garage with barely a few inches of salt water leaking in. A battery fire ignites from underneath, and quickly turns into a fireball. The family was home and had to evacuate after midnight as the hurricane raged. “If they blow that easily,” said Lisa Hodges, the owner of the toasted Tesla, “it’s just unfathomable.”
One of the loudest voices regarding electric vehicles and fires has long belonged to Jimmy Patronis, Florida’s chief fire marshal, who continued to warn about the danger when lithium-ion batteries short. In 2022, Patronis detailed his own experience with a battery fire: “I joined North Collier [Florida] Fire Rescue to assess response activities related to Hurricane Ian and saw with my own eyes an EV continuously ignite, and continually reignite, as fire teams doused the vehicle with tens of thousands of gallons of water. Subsequently, I was informed by the fire department that the vehicle once again reignited when it was loaded onto the tow truck.”
It will be some time before numbers are in for Helene, but exposure to salt water reportedly caused 21 electric vehicles to catch fire in 2022 with Hurricane Ian, and at least half a dozen due to Hurricane Idalia, which did not result in as much salt water on dry land in populated areas as Ian did. An early assessment said that of the first 16 reported electric car fires due to Ian, one was a Porsche, one was a Lucid, and 14 were Teslas.
According to data from the U.S. Department of Energy, Florida has the second-highest number of registered electric vehicles in the country, with more than 250,000. Some 42,000 of them are in the Tampa area.
As Hurricane Helene progressed northward, it began picking up fresh water instead of salt water, so resulting electric car fires in states like Georgia and North Carolina are expected to be less common.
Tesla is taking it on the chin in most news reports, which typically don’t mention that Teslas make up more than half of the electric vehicles sold. Tesla has released no statements about the battery fires caused by salt water and severe weather.
The company does have a “Safety Report” regarding fires on Tesla.com, though it doesn’t detail salt water intrusion as a cause: “Our global data indicates that, between 2012 and 2022, approximately one Tesla vehicle fire event occurred for every 130 million vehicle miles traveled. By comparison, data from the NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) and U.S. Department of Transportation indicate that one vehicle fire occurs in the United States for every 18 million miles traveled.
“Compared to average vehicles on the road, Tesla vehicles are comparatively even less likely to be involved in a fire event than these numbers suggest,” it says, “because Tesla’s data includes fire events that are caused by structure fires, wildfires, arson, and other causes unrelated to the vehicle, whereas the NFPA data excludes any fires where a structure is involved.”
A call to Tesla for comment was not returned.
Remember: Al Gore won an Academy Award and a Nobel Peace Prize
for telling people New York City would be underwater by 2013
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