BMW M5, bad return on investment. Loses 70% of value in 3 years, 80% in 5

Autoweek, May 12, 2014 voulme 64 issue 10, page 20

I just learned that there is a biannual international competition for windshield repair and replacement technicians in the Belron company

This year it was held in Rome, May 21st and 22nd

The Belron group is the owner of the Autoglass company in Italy

Since its creation in 2000, the Best of Belron® competition has enabled Belron® to instil a one-way approach to fitting and repairing glass, known as ‘the Belron Way of Fitting’. This means customers can expect the same exceptional levels of service world wide, thanks to the constantly evolving processes, tools and materials we have developed over a hundred years.

Overall, we want to inspire and motivate every one of our technicians to achieve the same levels of excellence as our winning technician, and ultimately further benefit the millions of customers we serve each year.
http://www.bestofbelron.com/event/best-of-belron-2010

competitors have to win a competition in their country first, then go onto the world finals. 29 techs compete in the finals, and the winner earns the title best tech in the company

They even have a webpage celebrating the winners from the competition http://www.bestofbelron.com/event/previous-winners

Georgia makes it illegal to hold up traffic in the fast lane. Stay right unless you are passing is now the law in Georgia

The bill makes it a misdemeanor for any driver on a divided highway who does not move to the right when a car going faster approaches from behind.

Senators said they were not trying to encourage speeding. However, as Senate Rules Chairman Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga, said, “often times drivers travel through (the left lane) as if they’re in tourist mode.”

http://www.legis.ga.gov/legislation/en-US/display/20132014/HB/459

Upon roads, streets, or highways with two or more lanes allowing for movement in the same direction, no person shall continue to operate a motor vehicle in the passing lane once such person knows or should reasonably know that he or she is being overtaken in such lane from the rear by a motor vehicle traveling at a higher rate of speed. For purposes of this Code section, 'passing lane' means the most left-hand lane other than a high occupancy vehicle lane.

House Bill 459, the slow poke bill,  passed the house almost unanimously 162 to 9, and goes into effect July 1st

Pennsylvania law enforcement just won the battle, simultaneous no warrant vehicle searches, and they got a law passed to make hidden compartments illegal

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled recently that police are allowed to search vehicles without a warrant. Meanwhile, the state General Assembly is advancing a bill to grant police authority to arrest those with “secret compartments” in their vehicles.

The bill’s sponsor, State Rep. Kate Harper, said law enforcement asked her to introduce the bill, the PA Independent reported, to crack down on smuggling between New York and Florida.

So what the hell happened in Philiadelphia? Now law enforcement is making laws, and the constitutional law that the revolutionary war veterans crafted in response to the British intrusion into American homes, is now ignored in Pennsylvania.

In a 4 to 2 decision weeks ago, the state Supreme Court decided that police could conduct searches of vehicles based solely on probable cause, or an officer’s reasonable belief that the vehicle contained illegal goods or evidence of a crime. The new standard puts the state in line with the federal law, which allows warrantless searches of vehicles.

If cops were trusted to behave professionally, getting a warrant from a judge would not have been a requirement since 1789, and the 6th ammendment "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

Looks like the people in power in Pennsylvania have decided that the vague terms "unreasonable" and "probably cause" are all up to the officers to decide.... and no longer an impartial 3rd party, a judge, to be convinced that a search is going to be needed to find evidence of a crime.

A search warrant used to be a legal requirement that specified what was being searched for, where, and when, all with the reason why.

With a search any time a cop feels like harassing someone, anything they find regardless of why they are looking will be immediate cause for arrest.

 In addition to New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah, I'll also recommend avoiding Pennsyvania
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/cops-pennsylvania-search-car-warrant/
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/state/Pa_giving_more_authority_to_cops_in_car_searches.html

Last year it was cops stopping people for questioning, now it's vehicle searches.

If a cop claims to smell marijuana, then they can search, and a driver or car passengers have zero legal protections against police abuse, regardless of the facts or actual circumstances.

And if a cop claims you are a terrorist, or support terrorists, or suspected of being affiliated with terrorists, you're going to have zero legal ground to defend yourself, and be arrested, indefinitely held, and never get a trial  http://rt.com/usa/obama-ndaa-appeal-suit-229/

A federal appeals court just ruled that the police have a legal right to stop, search and arrest you for innocent behavior including driving with your hands at the ten-and-two position on the steering wheel at 7:45 p.m., taking a scenic route and having acne.

To the Tenth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, these factors added up to fit the profile of a person smuggling undocumented immigrants and drugs. The court said, "Although the factors, in isolation, may be consistent with innocent travel ... taken together they may amount to reasonable suspicion."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larry-bodine/federal-court-the-police-_b_5223918.html

the sound of the new 2015 Challenger

found on http://www.autoblog.com/2014/05/23/2015-dodge-challenger-srt-hellcat-revving-sonic-bacon-video/ thanks to Case!

This is going to sell out quick, is my forecast

2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat - Overview from driveSRT on Vimeo.

What could have happened if GM had went under... Center for Automotive Research gives this answer

84,000 people out of a paycheck and with no income.
factor in manufacturing jobs that supply GM and now the number is 238,000
impacts to spinoff industries and non-auto jobs would have caused 1.2 million people to lose their jobs
personal income in the USA would have suffered a 79.5 billion dollars of loss
income tax and social security would have seen a drop of 17 billion

Thats just in 2009

In 2010 another 674,000 jobs would have vanished, and the country would  have missed another 50 billion in income

If when Chrysler also died, it would have meant about 4 million jobs in 2 years.

The cost to tax payers for the GM bailout? 11 billionish

Compare that to a Air Force debacle... they have a plane that costs a lot of money. It is an older design, and our national congressmen kept it from getting axed, and the money saved would have then went to a new plane contract.

6000 jobs were on the line. Mostly Air National Guard. It works out to about 620,000 per job to keep the old plane funded.

Keeping GM alive cost about 125,000 per job. Or if you take the 238,000 jobs in manufacturing supply for GM, it would have cost 44,000 per job.

Or if you look at the spinoff and non auto jobs, it cost about 9,000 per job.
Not bad in comparison. 

Applause to the USMC helo CH 46 and CH 53's at work fighting fires

In response to the problems encountered a couple years ago when the worst wildfires in California history swept through So Cal, major efforts were pushed to get the US military wildfire fighting capable helicopters unleashed from moronic rules about not operating in civilian causes (corpus something latin US history 101) and now they can help out the under manned, underfunded, and basically overwhelmed Cal Fire airborne fire fighting ability

Six specially-equipped MH-60S Sea Hawks are supporting CAL FIRE firefighting efforts in response to wildfires throughout the County of San Diego.

Image from https://www.facebook.com/USNavy?fref=photo

Low and slow, and man, if Pixar could release "Planes 2" right now, they'd make a lot of money with the increased attention on fire fighting planes

not even news, America is bankrupt, and yet still wastes money on pork projects... meanwhile, the roads and bridges are falling apart

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx kicked off the week on Monday, warning that the Highway Trust Fund, which relies on gasoline taxes that haven't been raised in 20 years, could run dry in August.

 President Obama was to travel Wednesday to the Tappan Zee Bridge, a major crossing point over the Hudson River that's in dire need of replacement nearly six decades after being built.

 Vice President Joe Biden added his voice on Tuesday, telling local leaders in St. Louis that "we've stalled" on infrastructure as he promoted a $410 million renovation to the famous Gateway Arch that's being funded largely by donations.

 The Obama administration has proposed a four-year, $302 billion transportation plan. Of that amount, half would be in addition to the programs paid for with fuel taxes. That additional spending would come from revenue raised by closing corporate tax loopholes and by making other changes in business taxes, a longshot idea in a politically divided Congress.

 Found on http://news.msn.com/us/obama-to-ask-congress-for-cash-for-roads-bridges

Has everyone forgotten that the I-35 bridge collapsed in rush hour traffic August 1st 2007? http://content.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1649086_1420827,00.html

For the worst bridge collapses in the US http://content.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1649646_1421724,00.html

Autoweek May 12th issue has a multipage article on Mary Barra and the congressional hearing about GM's

the article is called "General Motors CEO Mary Barra goes to Washington"

It's not online yet, so grab an issue of the magazine hardcopy,

but get this,

It's a really good read about how the congressional hearings do and don't work. Seems to the writer of the article that some of the congressional questioners were clueless, and couldn't ask intelligent questions, whiel others used the opportunity to get some face time in the news soundbites. 

A couple did a good job of trying to ascertain what the hell is wrong at GM, who has been sloganeering for decades that they are "Safety first" but obviously the number of dead proves they are unable or unwilling to live and work to that slogan. 

My post about the GM lack of responsibility http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2014/04/26-million-gm-vehicles-have-been.html

Horse drawn carriage rides in New York, possibly soon to be replaced as those poor horses aren't having a decent life of it... here's a possible replacement with class and style (and it's electric - zero emissions)

At the New York auto show, Florida-based car restoration firm The Creative Workshop http://www.thecreativeworkshop.com/  introduced an eight-passenger electric horseless carriage, commissioned by a nonprofit animal-rights group (NYCLASS) who has been petitioning the New York City to remove horses from the streets.

The designed to replace today's horse-drawn carriages. The company says its car blends “early 20th-century style, nostalgia and romance with 21st century eco-technology, comfort and safety,” calling the Horseless eCarriage the first brass-era-type car in more than 100 years.

info from the May 12th issue of Autoweek, and  http://www.autoweek.com/article/20140418/newyork/140419832

there are 68 horse-drawn carriages that offer tourists meandering rides around Central Park, and though the rides are a New York tourist draw, opponents argue that the long days on busy city streets are dangerous and inhumane to the horses (I agree.. you wouldn't allow your dog to be treated like this).

To fight this battle, activist nonprofit animal-rights group (NYCLASS) are turning to the same weapon that was used a hundred years ago: an electric, brass-era horseless carriage.

The horseless carriage might look like cars from the period, but it’s not a replica — it’s a custom-made creation designed by Wenig. "I took my favorite things from that era and combined them into the ultimate homage," he tells me in a telephone interview. He borrowed bits and pieces from period touring cars made by Pierce-Arrow, Rolls Royce, and Maxwell.

Once he drew up his dream car, the struggle was to turn it into a reality. That meant passing federal regulations. To make it, Wenig had to add modern touches not found on vehicles from 1909, like a windshield, electric headlamps, and seat belts.

NYCLASS contributed over $1.3 million to that campaign, and it put up the $450,000 for the electric carriage revealed today.

Allie Feldman, a representative for the group, says that they decided to go for the vehicle after attempts to outright ban the horse-carriage industry failed because of concerns about the 150 drivers employed by the rides. So they’re taking a different approach: "We see this as upgrading the industry … not banning the industry," Feldman tells The Verge.

 If a horse ban can pass through the City Council, NYCLASS plans to open a shop in Brooklyn or Queens to construct more of the electric carriages. They’d sell for roughly $150,000 to $200,000.

info from http://www.theverge.com/2014/4/17/5625050/the-beautiful-electric-carriage-tearing-new-york-city-apart

at the Mille Miglia yesterday

from https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dave-Vince-at-the-Mille-MIglia/276729679157796?fref=photo

Security of expensive cars, apparently not so good... the Magamos Crypto algorithm is 20+ years old technology

That algorithm allows the car to verify the identity of the ignition key.

Flavio Garcia and the Dutch researchers Baris Ege and Roel Verdult from the Raboud University discovered the unique algorithm could lead to the theft of not just the luxury cars including Porsches and Bentleys but also of lower-end people-carriers and other makes, including Audis which use its Megamos Crypto algorithm and had planned to publish their paper at the Usenix Security Symposium in Washington DC in August, but Volkswagen won a temporary injunction banning this.

Volkswagen complained to the judge that the publication could "allow someone, especially a sophisticated criminal gang with the right tools, to break the security and steal a car".

"The chip dates back to the mid-nineties and has since become outdated, but is nevertheless still widely used in the automotive industry," they said in a statement issued by their university. "The paper reveals inherent weaknesses, on the basis of mathematical calculations, and is based on an analysis of publicly available information. The publication in no way describes how to easily steal a car, as additional and different information is needed for this to be possible," they said.

"The University of Birmingham is disappointed with the judgment which did not uphold the defence of academic freedom and public interest, but respects the decision. It has decided to defer publication of the academic paper in any form while additional technical and legal advice is obtained given the continuing litigation," a spokeswoman said.

"The interesting thing is whether this discovery renders the cars no longer fit for purpose / satisfactory quality under the Sale of Goods Act, enabling owners to return for a full refund."

Found on http://automobileandamericanlife.blogspot.com/2013/08/stealing-cars-porsches-bentleys-and.html via the Manchester Guardian

Last summers big California fire known as the Chariot Fire, was a BLM agent in a jeep

Cal fire released their report:
"The Chariot Fire began just before 1 p.m. July 6 near Butterfield Ranch Resort and the Great Southern Overland Stage Route on land managed by the BLM, according to Cal Fire. The blaze, which burned out of control for 10 days, destroyed 149 buildings and blackened 7,055 acres. More than 2,100 firefighters from around the state eventually stopped the fire from spreading."

Investigators have identified the BLM agent who was driving the Jeep Cherokee that started the fire, but he has refused to answer questions on the advice of his attorney, UT San Diego reported. The BLM completed its own investigation, but the agency has refused release it, the newspaper said.

Found on http://fox5sandiego.com/2014/05/09/chariot-fire-sparked-by-blm-jeep-cal-fire-says/#axzz31GCKmM00

Keep in mind that tall, dry, dead weeds can catch on fire and burn from contact with a catalytic converter... which is really hot. In 1995, in San Diego, during the NAS Miramar airshow, a police cruiser wsa parked and running on the side of a road to watch the airplane show, and started a wild fire

FYI, the Great Race this year is on the East coast, from Maine to Florida

http://www.greatrace.com/ has lots of good posts about the pre run, some of the participants, and their cars

A Night At The Movies With Alex Xydias June 14th

Alex Xydias, will be hosting and narrating a director’s cut screening of his 60s documentary, The Hot Rod Story. All the while, he’ll be sharing tales from the golden age of land speed racing, the stomping grounds of drag racing, and warming automotive enthusiast’s hearts with the spirit of nostalgia.

The event will be held at the Sheraton Fairplex Conference Center located on 601 W. McKinley Avenue., Pomona, California 91768. As detailed in the event flyer, cocktails and a silent auction will begin at 6:00 p.m. and following that is dinner and a live auction at 7:00 p.m.

Tickets for the event are $100, $60 of which is tax-deductible. Some may hesitate based on the price but know that proceeds will be going towards two fundraisers dedicated to the preservation of automotive culture, check it out.

“The evening is a fundraiser for the Alex Xydias Center for the Automotive Arts, which is a real-live entity that teaches the performance-car hobby to local high school kids who no longer get to attend auto shop in school.” Furthermore, “The evening also benefits the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum.”

found on http://www.rodauthority.com/news/event-news/a-rare-opportunity-a-night-at-the-movies-with-alex-xydias-june-14th/

I just learned that Mooneyes is having a Mothers Day car show at Irwindale this Saturday

Pete n Jakes will be having their 40th anniversary open house this Saturday

this Saturday at the Peculiar, Missouri, shop is the annual Open House car show and charity auction.
The party kicks off at 9am at Pete and Jake’s Hot Rod Parts (401 Legend Lane in Peculiar, Missouri, 20 minutes south of Kansas City).

Pete Chapouris and Pete Eastwood will be on hand along with hundreds of rods and customs for a day (and night) of cool cars, good friends, pinstriping, and live blues.

And it’s all for a good cause, as proceeds from the event benefit the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Each year owners Jerry, Peggy, Jason, and Tina Slover partner with the South 71 Cruisers to host the car show, which draws around 500 rods and customs. It’s free to the public, and they ask that car show entrants make a $10 donation to the JDRF. It’s a cause the Slovers have been involved with for the past four years, and in that time have raised over $60,000. “It’s a great way to help the kids,” Jason says, “and it’s also a great excuse to hang out with our friends and our cars for the day.”

American U2 spyplane over 50 years old still flying around, this time causing the FAA fits when their computers glitched due to trying to track the U2

http://www.redflagnews.com/headlines/update-spy-plane-fried-air-traffic-control-computers-shut-down-lax

On Wednesday at about 2 p.m., according to sources, a U-2 spy plane, the same type of aircraft that flew high-altitude spy missions over Russia 50 years ago, passed through the airspace monitored by the L.A. Air Route Traffic Control Center in Palmdale, Calif. The L.A. Center handles landings and departures at the region’s major airports, including Los Angeles International (LAX), San Diego and Las Vegas.

The computers at the L.A. Center are programmed to keep commercial airliners and other aircraft from colliding with each other. The U-2 was flying at 60,000 feet, but the computers were attempting to keep it from colliding with planes that were actually miles beneath it.

Though the exact technical causes are not known, the spy plane’s altitude and route apparently overloaded a computer system called ERAM, which generates display data for air-traffic controllers. Back-up computer systems also failed.

As a result, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had to stop accepting flights into airspace managed by the L.A. Center, issuing a nationwide ground stop that lasted for about an hour and affected thousands of passengers.

At LAX, one of the nation’s busiest airports, there were 27 cancellations of arriving flights, as well as 212 delays and 27 diversions to other airports. Twenty-three departing flights were cancelled, while 216 were delayed. There were also delays at the airports in Burbank, Long Beach, Ontario and Orange County and at other airports across the Southwestern U.S.

http://fox5sandiego.com/2014/05/06/faa-u-2-spy-plane-caused-air-traffic-computer-outage/#axzz30xyCRAlo