Automated Cars – And Dumbed Down Drivers

One of the arguments used by automated car pushers (I use the term deliberately, to convey the fact that the market isn’t asking for automated cars any more than it is electric cars; both are being forced upon the market by parties who are frustrated by the market’s reluctance to “embrace” either thing) is that […]

Guillotines and Red Octobers

The French would be in the streets. Of course, they are in the streets — but that’s in France. What about here? General Motors just announced it will be closing five plants and firing about 15,000 people — and that’s probably just for openers. This, by itself, isn’t cause for pitchforks. Companies sometimes have to […]

Presumptive vs. Actual Impairment

Yesterday, my buddy got into an accident. An actual accident — because it was one he could not have avoided. A minivan pulled out in front of him, struck his Jeep — which spun several times before ending up in a ditch. My buddy is largely unhurt — except for his heart. Because his Jeep, […]

Rat Bike Cleanup

Here’s a picture of “after”… the result of several days’ worth of OCD scrubbing and polishing my poor ol’ 1983 Honda GL650 Silverwing. This is the one bike I’ve got that I’ll ride in the rain — or at least risk riding in the rain. The others are garage queens that only go out when […]

The Automotive Low Flush Toilet

I wish I could take credit for this one, but I can’t. However, I will shamelessly use it — and credit the reader (thanks, Jim!) who made the analogy: Auto-stop/start systems — which have become de facto standard equipment in all new cars — are the automotive equivalent of the low flush toilet. You may […]

The Suicide of Harley Davidson

Imagine a Harley that doesn’t vibrate. No bark through the straight pipes when you push the starter button. No nothing through the pipes — which aren’t there anymore. There is no starter button. Just an On/Off switch. No shifter, either. Because no gears. All that remains is the “Harley” name on the tank — which […]

Freed at Last–VW Diesel is back!

A four-wheeled Shawshank Redemption is under way. About 240,000 wrongfully convicted diesel-powered VWs are about to be paroled. The doors of their cells open; the harsh light causes them to blink their eyes. Some are brand-new 2016 and 2017 models that were never sold; others are older models that were — and then bought back […]

Cognitive Dissonance and “Speeding”

Here’s video of an armed government worker (AGW) in Florida — Trooper Bryan Zegers — who crosses a median and doubles back at speeds over 140 MPH — weaving through traffic and driving on the shoulder — and then parks his now very hot car over very dry grass, causing it (and his car) to […]

Mandatory ABS for Motorcycles?

Motorcycles are the last vehicles still largely free from Uncle’s asphyxiating grasp. That is about to change. The unelected regulatory apparat known as the National Highway Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which is a gaggle of federal bureaucrats who — somehow — became Car Czars, empowering themselves to dictate safety standards which all cars must comply […]

Chrysalis Cars

The “real” muscle cars of the mid-late 1960s and early 1970s have been financial instruments since the ’90s, if not earlier. Out of reach for the average person. Because the average person generally hasn’t got the minimum entry fee of — roughly — around $35,000 it takes to buy any of these cars in decent, […]