Cars

Rental Companies Buy Up Used Cars as Chip Crisis Get Worse

By Betty C. Morrow 5 days ago

The semiconductor shortage has slashed vehicle production so much that rental-car companies can’t get the new cars they need, so they have resorted to buying used vehicles at auction.

This is uncharted territory for the likes of Hertz Global Holdings Inc. and Enterprise Holdings Inc., which have made their profits by purchasing new vehicles cheaply in bulk, renting them out for as much as a year and selling them at auction. In the past, they have bought some used cars to shore up an occasional unforeseen burst in demand, but rarely for the mainstays of their fleets.

“You would never go into auction to buy routine sedans and SUVs,” said Maryann Keller, an independent consultant who used to be on the board of Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, which is now part of Hertz. “These are special circumstances. There is a shortage of cars.”

The demand is sending used-car costs

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Saving The Automobile Isn’t Just About Cars

By Betty C. Morrow 3 weeks ago

⚡️ Read the full article on Motorious

It’s so much deeper than just some gasoline and oil.

Recently the EPA has crossed a line, putting millions of jobs in jeopardy and actively attacking the car community. Of course, this sort of thing is not new to the EPA, however, in the past, they haven’t been able to get very far with ridiculous policies such as this. In this time in which our society is simply trying to recover from the recent pandemic, others have taken the opportunity to manipulate the broken system and line their pockets. Thankfully, due to the internet, it is easier than ever for automotive influencers to speak up against the ludicrous actions of the EPA and encourage others to do so as well.

Find out what Nevada is doing to try to ruin the hobby here.

Evan Shanks is a popular YouTuber and car builder

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Rat Damage In Parked Cars

By Betty C. Morrow 1 month ago

Engineering colloquialisms.

Maybe it’s because of industry-wide mediocre documentation of customer requirements. Or maybe it’s because of a dearth of automotive systems engineering prowess. But there are phrases that act like quasi-requirements which bounce around the halls of manufacturers without a traceable link to a customer requirement and a mediocre understanding of the originally-desired need. For instance, nearly all automotive engineers use the term “firewall” — despite the desperate cries of corporate lawyers begging them to stop — but few understand the name derives from steam-powered vehicles where a solid-steel panel separated the driver from the boiler’s fire as a safety precaution. Or the term “dash” – which lawyers also despise since juries might misconstrue

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Relishing The Joys Of A Demolition Derby For Self-Driving Cars

By Betty C. Morrow 1 month ago

It’s Spring time!

Makes one hark back to visiting local county fairs and doing all the usual things that one does at such events, including eating scrumptious cotton candy, going on the dizzying whirly rides, and of course watching the annual car-smashing demolition derbies.

Demolition derbies were first popularized in the 1960s and 1970s and became what some people consider still today to be a fully bona fide sport, namely a vaunted motorsport, consisting of drivers competing to see which of them can last the longest in an automotive war of attrition. Typically involving at least a half dozen cars, the drivers overtly attempt to ram into the other cars, hoping to stop the other cars from continuing to participate. The last remaining vehicle able to drive on

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