Guest Post by Eric Peters
Dystopian movies are entertaining to watch – when reality isn’t dystopian. We snickered when John Spartan – Sylvester Stallone’s character in Demolition Man – was honored by his hosts with an evening out at . . . Taco Bell. In the dystopian future of 2032 portrayed in the movie, Taco Bell is the fanciest, most exclusive and only restaurant left. To dine there is considered a very special treat.
And it was – for the people of this dystopian 2032.
Because that’s all there was.
Everything had been consolidated and homogenized; what remained was very “exclusive.”
That was on film – and 31 years ago – when such a thing was only plausible in a dystopian future time.
Well, here we are – almost.
It is rather interesting to observe that the date portrayed in the 1993 movie – 2032 – is precisely the date given for our vehicular dystopia to arrive. It is the date by which two thirds of new vehicles manufactured will have to be at least partially electric (that is, hybrid-electric vehicles) because such vehicles are the only ones that can realistically be manufactured since only such vehicles stand any chance of complying with the tightening corset of federal regulations that will apply by then. The chief one being a really sneaky reg that is designed to effectively outlaw vehicles that aren’t at least partially electric – and the rest entirely electric and very expensive – without saying that quiet part out loud.
The regs don’t say it’ll be illegal come 2032 to manufacture vehicles that aren’t at least partially electric; they merely say the vehicles manufactured by that date must average better than 50 miles-per-gallon, an impossible trick for any vehicle that isn’t at least partially electric to perform. And even so, the only partially electric vehicles that can manage 50-plus MPG are small hybrids like the Toyota Prius. The rest will be culled – leaving only fully electric vehicles as the alternative to small hybrids such as the Prius.
In other words, people who’d like a large vehicle – such as a truck or an SUV – will have to be able to afford an electric one. Like the “electrified” version of the Cadillac Escalade, styled the “IQ” – which will sticker for in the vicinity of $130,000 to start when it becomes available later this year as a 2025 model. If that’s a bit rich, you might be able to afford the “electrified” iteration of the Chevy Silverado pickup, which you can buy right now for just shy of $80k.
If you can’t afford to buy it, you won’t be able to own it.
Bingo!
See how that works?
The federal government isn’t banning cars that aren’t at least partially electric. Look in vain for the law. There isn’t one. The evil little weevils who nest within the apparat of the federal government have gotten smart, in the way that a cockroach is smart enough to scurry back under the stove when someone turns on the light in the kitchen. They know it might get people’s backs up if they were to read in the paper that the federal apparat had declared it would be illegal, come 2032, to buy a vehicle with an engine (and nothing else).
So they never say that.
They just say vehicles will need to average 50-plus MPG. Fait meet accompli.
This is how they silently got rid of the big (and big-engined) family sedans and wagons Americans used to routinely own – that Americans could afford in pre-weevil times. And liked very much. Combine the two and you have a reason for the manufacturers to offer them, which they did.
Lots of them.
They are all gone now. The last one of them – the Ford Crown Victoria, with space for six and a standard V8 – was retired after the 2011 model year. “Retired” isn’t really accurate, either. Ford stopped making them because Ford could no longer afford to continue making them.
Muscle cars – the real ones, which were really economy cars with big engines and a low price – have been gone for generations. There are still a few high-performance cars left, such as the Ford Mustang – but they are rich men’s cars now. 
The rip-tide effect of this weeviling has been carrying us along toward a very real dystopian future that’s already here. Witness the Taco Belling – so to speak – of engines. It is already a kind of special treat to find a six cylinder engine under the hood of any car.
It used to be common to find a six under the hood of modestly prices family cars such as the Chevy Malibu and Ford Taurus and Toyota Camry.
There are no cars left on the market that still even offer a six cylinder engine for less than $50,000. This includes luxury-brand cars such as the BWW 5 Series, Mercedes E-Class and Audi A6. They all come standard with little fours.
Perfect for an evening out at Taco Bell.
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who wants to bet that even if they cared about it,the average congressman would not know about the 50 mpg regs –
once bureaucrats promagulate a rule,congress should have to have a separate recorded vote on it —
I don’t think these regs will ever be allowed to stand.
This country is in the process of a total collapse. You ain’t seen any shit yet.
Many agencies, etc., are created by laws passed by Congress … and the ‘laws’ that create them state that it shall be the agency’s responsibility to make its own rules and regulations.
Soon. NOT just for Taco Bell. Anymore.
Poor Eric. He is stuck in the past as far as performance goes. I grew up in the 70’s and 80’s and worked on cars as old as 69 model year. Late in life I ran a restoration and mod shop and we worked on everything.
Including some franky terrifying 4 and 6 hole monsters from Japan.
Did you know you can get 325 Hp from an r20b without taking off the head? Did you know some guy reprogrames the ecu with injector drops and ford MaF system with a huge turbo you can get 500 hp for as long as you dont miss a shift and tac the bitch out?
Say what you will about old small blocks but they kept you in line by shear design flaws. Hard to take out a SB when the valves float above 5k
I miss my old 350s and later vortec 5.7s. I had awesome years with the 5.3l and 6.0l well over 300k on each in my trucks. Moved on to Dmaxes talk about easy HP gains with diesel wow!
I would rather eat bugs than to eat taco bell’s meat mixture. I have a gas truck (2016) with less than 60,000 miles on it, so will be driving that until I die or they outlaw gas. Probably die before it ever hits 100,000 at my age and miles per year. So basically fuck the assholes.
I’ll drink to that amigo
They won’t have to outlaw gas … they’ll just have to take out a few more strategic routes that provide for hauling hazardous materials … like that Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore …
Bugs? Taco Bell mystery meat? Meh. Guess i’ll just go with lentils,and the occasional squirrel.
Squirrel is good, just don’t eat the brains.
Anyone who wants to tow a boat, haul a four-wheeler, haul a horse trailer – pretty much anything with a trailer hitch – is going to want a gas (or diesel) vehicle. Sure, you could launch a boat with a Rivian pickup truck, but not everybody wants to spend $100,000 so they can launch their fishing boat. Every one of such people should be voting for Trump. (80% of them probably will.) He may be in Israel’s pocket as much as Biden is, but at least the EPA under Trump will reverse that stupid 50 mpg rule.
Fkn A
My one ton 4×4 duramax gets 21 mpg unloaded. Towing my work and play trailers feels like I’m towing a baby stroller.
A good fully tricked out fishing boat will probably cost you over 100 grand these days. So either you can afford the pickup truck, or you won’t be fishing except from a pier/dock.
Ehh? My blow up doll ought’a work.
I’m fuckin craving that shit right now….
Ew. It’s all GMO now. Go look at their webpage.
Funny because young people pay 4x the normal cost to have taco bell delivery with a phone app like door dash etc. Imagine how bad fast food is after 30 minutes riding in some dirtbags car?. Yesterday I got a half pound cheeseburger all the way with fresh lettuce tomatoes onions and pickles with a pile of crispy steak fries for $9.99 . That’s cheaper than McDonalds. This was a bar/grill so I also had two pints of Yuengling. Those were $3.25 each. Helluva lunch.
Bars sell food cheaper as they make their money from alcohol. Fast food restaurants only have soda. It has always been that way, nothing new in that. I do agree you may as well go to a sit down restaurateur and be waited on now days as fast food has gotten so expensive. Wait until you see the prices in California after the few places that can stay open have to pay their crews $20 an hour!
There is a Japanese place near me that i can get by with 10 bucks including tip. Good food eaten off a real plate with a real fork. i would rather have an apple and a peanut butter sandwich lunch than McDonalds.
I have been driving a 2009 Camry for the past 15+ years. It’s got 150k miles and is probably good for another 100k. I had no real intention of buying a new car, but went ahead and pulled the trigger in February because I’m hoping this is the last car I’ll ever need to buy. Camry is now my bad weather car and the new car is my nice weather/road trip car. I helped to justify the purchase by the fact that I have decided I’m never taking another flight again in my life. American Air travel has basically degenerated to the point of Greyhound in the skies.
I used to globe-trot a heckuva lot for my job, and easier for me to name the countries I haven’t been to. I stopped flying when I felt more harassed by the TSA freaks than by teens with full auto rifles in other airports. I think the last flight for me was Houston to HongKong then home by way of Calgary back around 2012. I still did work for overseas clients, but just sent others on flights.
After the Covidians hosed up the world, my business in Central Asia and Southeast Asia went tits up, so now I have no need to even step on a plane…
So Anon, you are not alone in cutting airports out of your existence!!
I’m on fixed income, but have 2007 FJ Cruiser with 380K on it, still rolls great. My backup is 2001 F250 with 7.3L and 280K on her. Neither wants to stop, so I just drive them. With average car prices being $50K, paying for repairs and upkeep on these old rides is waaay cheaper.
I got a 1981 ‘yota pickup with their 4-banger in it that is runnable but up on blocks as the next backup ride. I haven’t paid a car note since 201o, and likely to move on to another existence before these 3 give out.
The thing is, none of us is getting out of this alive anyway – just the due dates are different. I think Peters has some decent thoughts, but we are all looking at government collapsing in the next decade or so – if not, then they will be too broke to enforce anything at national level. I took the air bags out of a couple vehicles after faulty discharges got me concussed – funny that isn’t listed as a crime nor is testing for their presence part of state inspections – and I never seen any airbag popo either…LOL
Actually it was CAFE standards on luxury vehicles (cars)that created the SUV since the same standard didn’t apply to light trucks…..VIOLA!
Fuck everything. Blow it all up. Set technology back 200 years. Rebuild society the way it was supposed to be.
We are headed back to 100,000 B.C. at the trajectory the monsters and retards have set us on.
(Auntie was thinking about some chow right about now: the flavour of Idiocracy-)
Mike Judge is a prophet of the Lord.
It is amazing the number of food chains that have evolved themselves right out of business!
(ps I miss Sambo’s)
My favorite scene:
Build vehicles without computer chips and they will buy them!
And kill 4 billion people. Did Bill Gates pos this?
Good read. I have a Civic that gets 34 mpg on local roads. Barring an accident, I’m keeping it until they pry it from my cold, dead hands. Just wish it was EMP-proof. BTW, does anyone no the year they started putting computers in cars. I am thinking of getting an oldie just in case?
Chrysler started in 1976 with the “Lean Burn” computer. They were total junk.
Stallone’s partner in the movie was named HUXLEY. Right in your face.
U.K. laws pushed recently propose to outlaw all cars over 15 years old, as in illegal to work on or fix them.
Even then the writers depiction of a dystopian hell didn’t include bug burritos…or cricket tacos.
It is scientific illiteracy that is responsible for the (limited) “success” of EVs today–until these same scientific illiterates find out about extended charging times and limited range. Basic scientific principles are not taught in schools, being replaced by “touchy-feely” environmentalism and how humans are destroying the planet (yeah, right).
It is my humble opinion that us boomers are of the last generation who took science and technology seriously, with a hunger to know how and why things work as they do. Us boomers had electrical and mechanical systems that we could work on and improve on ourselves. Basic scientific principles were taught in school and reinforced with hands-on experimentation.
In today’s climate (and the climate of two previous generations) experimentation on the level of the 1950s and 1960s is seen as “too dangerous”. I can remember the chemistry sets of the day being sold with toxic compounds which could be used for nefarious (and fun) purposes. Such sets are banned today.
Today’s prime example of the public’s scientific stupidity being pushed by political considerations is that of electric vehicles, most people (even supposedly “educated” types) enthusiastically jumping on the bandwagon despite the major deficiencies and problems these vehicles have.
Let’s look at the technical side of electric vehicles vs. ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles. Range is a large factor in the desirability of ICE vehicles vs. today’s electric vehicles. One can fuel up an ICE vehicle in approximately five minutes and be on his way.
Not so for electric vehicles. Quite often electric vehicle charging stations are few and far between, which contributes to “range anxiety”. For short hops and city driving, electric vehicles can be an ideal solution, but for extended “road trips” forget it.
Electric vehicle batteries lose power even when the vehicle is not in use. (This is akin to a gasoline vehicle with a leaky gas tank). Add to that, cold weather and the use of accessories (air conditioning, heat, lights, etc) will reduce range considerably. Electric vehicles may be somewhat suitable for a California climate, but will fail in sub-zero Michigan winter snow and ice.
Batteries can be charged only to 80% of full capacity as overcharging will reduce battery life considerably. “Fast charging” is also detrimental to battery life. It’s all about time and convenience vs. battery life.
Gasoline and diesel fuel has an large energy content (density) in a small package, something that, in their present stages of development, electrical vehicles cannot achieve.
Let’s make a comparison…gasoline contains approximately 33.7 kwh per gallon. A gallon of gasoline weighs approximately 6.1 lbs. The typical ICE vehicle can hold about 15 gallons of gasoline with a weight of approximately 90 lbs. total, with a total energy content of approximately 500 kwh.
High-end electric vehicles have an energy capacity of approximately 120 kwh. This is equal to less than four gallons of gasoline. The typical electric vehicle has a 75 kwh battery pack, equivalent to approximately 2 ½ gallons of gasoline.
Keep in mind that the battery pack weight is well over 2000 lbs (1 ton) and still has a limited energy capacity compared to gasoline. The typical electric vehicles weighs approximately 2 ½ tons (5000 lbs.), having to haul around a heavy battery pack. This also contributes to “wear and tear” on other automotive systems such as brakes and tires. (Yes, I am aware that regenerative braking exists and is a part of electric vehicle technology).
From an environmental standpoint, lithium is nasty stuff, reacts with water violently and is much more volatile than gasoline. Electric vehicle accidents are much more hazardous than those of ICE vehicles. Water cannot be used to put out a lithium battery pack fire.
Yes, gasoline is dangerous, but we have learned to control it and live with it successfully for over 100 years.
Most of today’s generation do not understand basic scientific principles; hence the enthusiasm for electric vehicles which are “not yet ready for prime-time”. The inability of today’s generation to understand basic scientific and engineering principles is responsible for their gullibility and ignorance.