Eric Peters – Page 3 – The Burning Platform

Tax-by-Mile and the End of Civilized Society

Guest Post by Eric Peters

Most people don’t go gray overnight; it is a gradual process. But one day, you wake up, look in the mirror and… you’re hair has gone all white.

It’s the same with things like tax-by-mile.

This can’t, for practical reasons, be decreed overnight. For one thing, most of the cars in service – or at least, a very large number – are not equipped from the factory with the necessary technology.

But, almost all new cars are equipped with the technology. They have some form of send-and-receive-capable telemetry system, marketed as “concierge” or “driver assistance” technology. GM’s OnStar was the first, but pretty much every other car company now has some version of this as well (e.g., Subaru StarLink, Ford MyLink, Chrysler UConnect) and it’s rapidly becoming part of the standard equipment suite.

As this stuff becomes de facto standard equipment in cars – Uncle may not even have to mandate it – it’ll be much easier for Uncle to demand that drivers be taxed according to mileage rather than by the gallon. It is as inevitable as going gray.

But is it a bad idea?

Yes, absolutely.

If you care about preserving the thing that defines not just a free society but a civilized one (they’re both the same thing, of course). And that thing is…

Privacy.

Being un-monitored, not watched.

Anonymous.

Free to come and go as you like, without anyone else knowing a damned thing about it.

You may have noticed the trend toward its opposite. Which is essential culturally as well as legally if this country’s transformation into something very different than the thing described in the (old) history books is to be completed.

Continue reading “Tax-by-Mile and the End of Civilized Society”

And Now Mercedes…

Guest Post by Eric Peters

Looks like Mercedes is in Uncle’s gunsights now.

With VW shot full of holes and sinking fast over the diesel emissions “cheating” scandal, the heavy artillery has been retrained, azimuth and altitude calculated, the breech closed. The next salvo’s ready to fire.

At the three pointed star.

At its line of BlueTec diesel engines.

Which are alleged to be “cheating” Uncle’s emissions tests, the same accusation that’s rocked VW and which may, ultimately, end VW (via potential liabilities/fines in excess of $50 billion).

Automotive News reported the other day that “independent” testing discovered “evidence of a defeat device” that causes Mercedes’ diesel engines to emit larger-than-allowable levels (but not necessarily quantities; this is a critical point which I’ll get into shortly) of nitrogen oxides at low temperatures.

Uncle has “requested information” from DaimlerBenz. It is never good news when Uncle “requests information.”

Mercedes – for the present – denies having “cheated” Uncle. Which is like denying you successfully outmaneuvered street mugger.

My hope – if it turns out that Benz did “cheat” Uncle – is that it does not do what VW did and don the hair shirt. It hasn’t done much for VW; it won;t do much more for Mercedes. When fired upon, the right response is… fire back.

Continue reading “And Now Mercedes…”

A Tale Of Two Car Companies

Guest Post by Eric Peters

Here’s a tale of two start-up car companies: Elio Motors and … Tesla.

One execrable, the other admirable.

Elio is developing a low-cost ($6,800 to start) very high mileage (80-plus MPG) commuter car.

Tesla builds expensive toys.

This – the building of toys – is not of itself an execrable activity. Lamborghinis and Porsches are toys, too.

They are expensive, impractical things.

As is the Tesla – including the new Model 3. It’s expensive ($35k to start; probably closer to $40k once all is said and done) and impractical. Not a car for cold places or long trips … unless you don’t mind long waits.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that… if that’s what you’re into.

Lambos are also finicky and not good for very much except going very fast and advertising that you’ve got funds.

The execrable element is that Tesla expects you to pay for its toys. Not for yourself. But so that other people – affluent people – can play with them.

It’s exactly like giving – being forced to give – your orthodontist a fat check so he can go out and buy a new 911 or Gallardo.

Elio, in contrast, merely offers its cars – which you’re free to buy or not. And if you don’t want one, they’re not gonna force you (via Uncle) to “help” other people buy one.

So, which one gets the press? The adulation of the press? The seal-clapping encomiums on Today and Good Morning America and such?

How many people have even heard of Elio Motors?

How many have not heard of Tesla?

The reason for this disparity is easy enough to grok:

Tesla makes collectivism sexy – and that makes Tesla popular with collectivists.

Selling the Green Agenda has not been easy because it seems pretty dreary. Pay more for shittier things. But the Tesla looks good. This allows preening.

It is quick – which allows bragging.

And – so they say – it is green, too.

This renders cost no object.

It doesn’t matter that the entire venture is a Jenga castle of crony capitalism; that every “sale” entails an extortion payment extracted from a real car company – a “carbon credit” that is “sold” to offset the less-than-Teslian characteristics of functionally viable but “greenhouse gas” producing conventional cars… that it is necessary to bribe even rich people who have money to burn on toys with thousands of dollars of tax write-offs (the costs for these written off onto the backs of those who pay the taxes) in order to complete each transaction.

No. The Tesla is a long-legged, G-string-wearing planet-saving sex machine… and can do no wrong. Sense is blind to the realities behind the flash in the same way that men’s reason is often blinded – and their judgment impaired – by a hot piece of ass. No matter her liabilities.

The Elio is not sexy. It is a thumb in the eye to everything the Tesla is and stands for.

It is practical; an ideal city car/commuter car well-suited to Froggering around in busy urban traffic and which can be parked pretty much anywhere a motorcycle fits.

It is cheap. A new car for just under $7k – or about half the price of the typical economy compact sedan and about a fifth the cost of a Tesla 3.

Which also means it costs less to insure.

Most of all – and unlike the Tesla – the Elio is economical. Eighty-plus MPG renders the cost of gas a near-irrelevance, even if it doubles. And makes the Tesla look ridiculous, if the criteria is economy.

Or even “saving the planet.”

How much less energy goes into making an Elio? It does not have hundreds of pounds of lethally noxious chemical batteries that required Earth rape to obtain. Nor does it depend upon C02-producing utility plants for its motive power.

But most of all, it is a car that many people could simply write a check for – that is, bought outright, no loan. No debt. And that is anathema to the Banksters who run the country and who push Teslas via the media they own, the bought-and-paid-for parrots who read the Tele-e-Prompters and know what the Talking Points are.

Can’t have people not chained to beefy monthly payments for the next seven years. Can’t have a car that doesn’t include multi-leveled kickbacks of other people’s money (i.e., “incentives”) to make each “sale.”

The Elio is sane.

A car ideally suited to every consideration of our times.

The Tesla, insane.

It touts the fact that it uses no gasoline, so no worries about the cost of gas. But you pay (with “help” from Uncle) $35,000-plus to “save” on the cost of fuel.

It touts performance – quick acceleration. But if its ability to accelerate quickly is used much, the car’s range is reduced a lot. What good is a quick car that can’t go very far?

But it’s sexy – and it’s “green” – and that makes it politically appealing, even if it’s utterly ridiculous as an economic proposition, absurd as a machine and noxious as as an example of the most grotesque manifestation of crony capitalism I’m aware of – exceeding even the effrontery of the ethanol lobby.

Cue the Zapruder film….

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VW Says: Thank You Sir! May I have Another?

Guest Post by Eric Peters

So why did VW “cheat”? Uncle?

That question hasn’t been asked enough. It ought to be.

Now we have the answer – confirmation of what I suspected and wrote about earlier when this “scandal” broke last year.

VW “cheated” because it had to.

Because “cheating” was the only way to keep on selling diesel engines that delivered the mileage buyers expected at a cost that made economic sense to them.

Satisfying Uncle – passing his Rube Goldberg-esque emissions tests, which among other defects don’t measure the totality of a vehicle’s output – grams per mile – but rather sample parts per million (PPM) with the vehicle in a stationary test rig, would have entailed a noticeable reduction in fuel efficiency and a very noticeable uptick in the cost of the vehicle. Or rather, the cost of the additional hardware necessary to placate Uncle.

Now there’s proof of this.

Continue reading “VW Says: Thank You Sir! May I have Another?”

Things Unseen…

Guest Post by Eric Peters

The hand of Uncle – which aways wields a gun – distorts our lives in so many ways it’s impossible to catalog them all. There are the things we’re forced to have – and things we never had. (Frederic Bastiat, the 19th century economist, called this phenomenon “things seen and unseen.”)

In the things-we-never-had category: Affordable big motorcycles; particularly, large touring/cruising bikes.

There are plenty of full-size bikes on the market, of course. But they are pricey – and it’s not so much because they’re big.

It’s because Uncle.

Herewith some history:

In the early ’80s, Uncle stepped in to “save” Harley Davidson from the Japanese competition, which was helping motorcycle buyers by offering them much lower-cost (and better-built) alternatives to the big cruisers and touring bikes Harley specialized in – but which Harley hadn’t done much to improve, engineering-wise, since the ’60s. Early ’80s Harleys still had generators and points and overhead valves while the Japanese bikes had maintenance-free alternators and transistorized ignitions and multiple overhead cams.

Continue reading “Things Unseen…”

When Seconds Count, a Cop is Just Minutes Away

Guest Post by Eric Peters

Last night was another object lesson in the uselessness of cops for other than random tax collecting and general harassment.

Traveling home on the Blue Ridge Parkway – where it seems there is always a cop available to ticket you for “speeding” – I came upon the scene of a motorcycle accident. I am still not sure exactly what happened – probably because for me the immediate concern was what to do about the injured cyclist.

There were three riders, one of them (a woman) having lost control or misjudged her line or maybe she swerved to avoid a deer or the bike had a mechanical failure. I still don’t know.

What was immediately obvious was the one rider was down and badly injured. Her companions could’t do anything more for her than call 911 – which they’d done about 10 minutes prior, apparently.

But no one appeared to be coming and time was of the essence, as it always in emergencies.

The woman’s friend and I decided further waiting was not in the woman’s best interests. We helped her into my car – and we took off to the hospital. On the way, I called a number the woman gave me – her family – and let them know who I was, what had happened and that she would be at the hospital in minutes.

Which she was.

I drove the Mustang press car like Rick in Walking Dead would.

Got there in less than 10 minutes.

I hope she’s ok.

I did not get her full name. I left after the emergency room people came out and got her inside.

I drove home the way I had come and came once again to the scene of the accident.

A cop was there now.

Probably trying to figure out whom to ticket. Making arrangements to have the wrecked bike – still there – impounded.

When seconds count… .

If collecting revenue and general harassment were not the primary activities of law enforcement (their favored term, let’s not forget) perhaps they’d be more available to help people actually hurt as opposed to laws affronted.

But then, there’s no money (or power) in that.

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No Dividends For You!

Guest Post by Eric Peters

First, it was (cue the Soup Nazi voice) no affordable diesels for you!

Now, it’s no dividends for you.

If you’ve invested in VW stock, it looks like you’re out of luck. The stomping Uncle has been giving VW over the diesel emissions “cheating” scandal is having the not-surprising consequence that the company’s losing money.

Which means you lose – if you’re a shareholder.

Yesterday, the industry publication Automotive News reported that VW Group (which includes Audi and Porsche) may suspend dividend payouts due to the crippling fines and other costs (including the likely prospect of VW having to buy back – and destroy – almost 600,000 “noncompliant” cars) levied by Uncle and his acolytes ,including the Little Uncles operating at the state level.

“There is no sign that shareholders might even be able to hope for a single cent,” Automotive News quoted a VW board member as saying.

Ach, mein Gott.

How catastrophic is this?

The final tab could exceed $50 billion.

VW could be doomed.

Because it’s more than just the money – though the money we’re talking about is an Everest-like, almost inconceivable sum. How to quantify what we are talking about? Put it in perspective? $50 billion is more net profit than Toyota (a much bigger company) earns – globally – in an entire year.

Volkswagen’s annual net profit is around $10 billion … and falling.

Said another way, the hit VW is looking at is such that it could wipe out the company’s ability to turn a profit for years.

Which not only means shareholders may not get a cent for years to come (which is lethal enough) it also means VW may not have das gelt for product development for years to come. That is, to update its car lineup. In a market that demands New and Improved at least every third year (and lately, every other year) not being able to change up one’s cars is as bad as selling crappy cars.

See, for example, the sad case of Mitsubishi.

Continue reading “No Dividends For You!”

North Carolina’s Cloverific Temper Tantrum

Guest Post by Eric Peters

Clovers like ALL CAPS. It is their way of temper-tantruming. Invariably, when their most sacred totem – THE LAW – is scoffed.

North Carolina has gone full Clover.

Speed limits WILL be obeyed, to the letter. Or else.

Unleash the hounds.

Well, unleash the North Carolina State Police – whose primary mission, it appears, is not the apprehension of thieves, rapists and murderers and other people who’ve actually caused harm to others but rather to enforce the speed limit on North Carolina highways.

North Carolina’s Department of Transportation – the Hauptquartier of the state police – is launching an uber-Clover unternehmen (I use the German for the same reason that “Homeland” sounds much more right when it is rendered in the original, der Heimat… as in, for instance, Heimatsicherheitsdeinst… look it up.. you may be interested to learn the literal translation, as well as its prior usage) to filch as many dollars from as many “speeders” as possible.

Continue reading “North Carolina’s Cloverific Temper Tantrum”

A Randian Derides “Libertarians” Who Don’t Support Ted Cruz

Guest Post by Eric Peters

My recent column, A Long, Hot summer (here) which wasn’t so much a defense of Donald Trump as it was a celebration of the salutary effect Trump’s candidacy is having on the irremediably corrupt GOP establishment, brought forth some defenders of (of all things) Ted Cruz. Now that the other frontman for the irremediably corrupt GOP establishment has been Trumped, all Hope is pinned on the former Bush Machine operator, who is – with an effrontery that would startle Borat – touted as an “outsider” who will rescue “our freedoms” from the grasping talons of the dread Hildebeast.

One such defender of Cruz questions the “Libertarian” (his air quotes) credentials of those who dare to criticize Cruz.

I thought perhaps it might be of interest to print – and then dissect – his missives.

Here goes:

Goodness, I am so glad to be assaulted on three or four sides by righteous “libertarians”! If one cannot figure out that a comment about a two inch penis is a “micro-aggression” than I guess it would be hard to explain just about any thing else in the world. As Mick Jagger once said “Fuck ’em if they can’t take a joke”. The political process in this country is barely functional. I have hardly endorsed any political candidate over another except to say that a Dem victory in November will be a disaster for any of us who value liberty. If you think that now is the time for revolution in this country, I empathize, but in the same breath dare you to proclaim it so. And while you are at it make sure to publish the names of yourself and all of those who will rise up with you to overthrow the Government. Truth or dare baby. And just to make it interesting, I knew Ayn Rand and Murray Rothbard. You folks have no idea. Sayonara, I am becoming quite bored with this discourse. Besides, I trust my motor vehicles are quite a bit more interesting than what you drive anyway.

My response:

Continue reading “A Randian Derides “Libertarians” Who Don’t Support Ted Cruz”

Uncles Great and Small

Guest Post by Eric Peters

The assault on VW for “cheating” Uncle is metastasizing.

The little Uncles – state governments – are piling on.

Five of them (New Jersey, Texas, New Mexico, Kentucky and West Virginia) have formally filed civil lawsuits over the TDI diesel emissions “scandal,” seeking millions of dollars in fines.

48 state-level attorney generals are “investigating” VW.

This on top of the federal witch hunt launched by the U.S. Justice (sic) Department in January that hopes to milk $46 billion out of VW AG (which includes Audi and Porsche).

Even for a major corporation, that’s a lot of coin. If the Feds are successful, it will likely mean der untergang for VW.

Continue reading “Uncles Great and Small”

Another Bubble… On The Verge of Popping

Guest Post by Eric Peters

Termites start low and work their way up. By the time you notice them, it’s often already too late to save the place. All you can do is rebuild, start over.

This analogy may be useful in terms of understanding what’s going on in the car business… on the lower end of that business. And what that could portend for the rest of the business – ostensibly “doing gangbusters,” according to mainstream media accounts.

You know … like the housing market was “doing gangbusters” a few years back.

Until, of course, it wasn’t.

Well, check this:

The number of “subprime” car loans being sold is increasing – and so is the number of delinquencies on those loans. They are up to 5.16 percent, the highest level in 20 years.

Consider what this means.

First, a growing number of people cannot get traditional loans for new cars. They lack the verifiable income to qualify – or their credit scores suck. But financial flimflam outfits are loaning them money – often, at exorbitant interest – nonetheless.

Sound familiar?

It does to Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry, who recently said “… what’s happening in the auto loan market reminds me of what happened in mortgage-backed securities in the run-up to the (housing) crisis.”

Second – and not surprisingly – these loans are being defaulted on in growing numbers. Apparently, people who can’t swing a mainline loan at 3 or 4 percent interest are having trouble keeping up with loans that have interest rates twice as high.

Who’d a thunk it?

Now, are talking about $25 billion in subprime auto loans. Will Uncle step in – once again – and bail out the shysters issuing these loans with more of our money?

Of course he will.

Spending other people’s money is not only what Uncle does best – it’s all that Uncle does. He hasn’t got a penny of money that’s not been taken from others first. Why not be generous? There’s always more where that came from.

But this rant is not primarily about Uncle and his bottomless generosity with other people’s money.

It’s about what the bubbling trouble in the subprime auto loan mark says – canary in the coal mine-wise – about the health of the car industry generally.

Continue reading “Another Bubble… On The Verge of Popping”

Why Your Mileage Will Vary…

Guest Post by Eric Peters

The window sticker says 25 city, 34 highway – but you find that you’re seeing much less than that.

Is it false advertising?

Arguably, yes.

Minimally, it’s a case of not-so-good explaining.

I’ll try to fix that.

There is the advertised fuel economy – and then there is real world fuel economy.

The mileage touted on the window sticker is based on the mileage achieved during a test loop performed by the government (EPA), broken down in two categories – “city” and “highway” driving.

The problem with this is that it’s inherently imprecise. Every driver drives differently (e.g., accelerates more or less aggressively, drives faster – or slower, etc.). And of course, the roads you drive on – and the conditions you drive in (e.g., altitude, temperature) are inevitably going to be different than the test loop’s, too.

Hence the weasel words, “your mileage may vary.”

Continue reading “Why Your Mileage Will Vary…”