Gas prices are at all time high

Complaining and blaming isn't going to change anything. It does make folks feel a whole lot better though. Remember, nothing lasts forever.

Have a good day guys,

UticaGeoff

 

Blaming certainly is going to fix this issue. The elite flying around the world in private jets and living in mansions are causing hyper-inflation and rigging the oil and gas market while taxing our carbon footprint and shaming us. If we don’t hold them accountable we will end up limited by a social credit score attached to our digital ID to determine what we are ALLOWED to do.

You are correct, this fiat currency with no backing cannot last forever as they just keep printing paper notes to no end.

 

I remember some childhood reading about technology advancing to where advanced ultra high speed space, aka star, ships would generate both their propulsion and direction by locking onto two distant stars and utilizing a combination of ionic and photon generated power to achieve speeds we could only dream about.

I also remember reading in either Popular Science or Popular Mechanics magazine in the mid sixties about cars equipped with miniature nuclear reactors to generate almost endless power for propulsion.

I'm all for new ideas and inventions, provided it's not a case of creating two new problems for each one "solved". This is what's happening on a large scale.

Quickly accelerating EV development and rollout without laying proper ground work, ie: upgraded support infrastructure, is an exercise doomed to ultimately fail, or severely stumble for perhaps years at best.

I just don't make unnecessary driving trips.

 

Usually every time there is a spike in gas and diesel prices at the pump, the general public either decides to conserve fuel by changing driving habits and/or downsize to an econo-box. Just a casual observation in my little world, not much of either of those are going on in any noticeable amount.

Hybrids and full electric vehicles aren’t being embraced like some would want them to be. There was a huge push to rid the world of ICE vehicles for ECE vehicles (external combustion engines, aka electric), just before 45 was elected (hold your delete finger, Larry). That seemed to get put on the back burner, but now with soaring fuel costs, obviously that push is back on. As mentioned 1000 times, the infrastructure is not there to support so much more demand on the grid, and as things ramp-up, and electricity demand will rise and with that demand the cost of kwh is certainly going to skyrocket also. How are states like CA going to handle EV’s when they already have rolling blackouts??

Anyway, technology with EV’s is ramping up and things are getting better. One of my employee’s father-in-law lives on Long Island and he visits his daughter and grandkids here in Syracuse, NY. It is a 5-6 hour trip, and his Tesla’s computer says it will be close but he should be able to make it, but he prefers to stop and charge-up on the way and he watches a movie while that’s happening.

If you’ve never driven a fully electric vehicle, they certainly are different. There are boring, econo-box ones, and then there are some that are truly exhilarating. A couple of weeks ago, we had a 2022 Audi E-tron GT in the shop for repairs. This one was truly exhilarating to drive! But for 100k++, it better be. One issue not spoken about too much is who is going to fix all of this technology? The rate at which technology is progressing is outpacing the repair industry’s ability to keep up, including at the dealers. Not many at the dealership level are eager to try to find some intermittent gremlin on a brand new vehicle, as it’s very difficult and frustrating, and it pays horribly. But the consumer rightfully demands that the vehicle gets fixed.

In the case of this Audi, it was in a frontal collision requiring a corner radar replacement. We had to get the radar module back in service and calibrate it, which is no easy feat and put us at the very end of our capabilities. The unit is “locked” from Audi, and it takes a locksmith license, a factory scan tool, a subscription for Audi’s software, and then the component protection removal, programming and calibration can be done. And that’s if everything goes smoothly!! The dealerships shy away from working behind bodyshops, and for good reason. It’s a mess out there is new-car service world.

 

Agreed Dave . Burger King and McDonalds are higher than going to a regular diner

 

Hmmmm?

I thought I was pretty diplomatic, guess not huh?

 

One gas station's cash price was $4.49, but I used a card so I could pay 4.55

 

We just drove to visit my Dad this weekend. 350 miles each way just about 4hr-40min. We got 35mpg going and 36mpg return home. We were even running the ac compressor both ways. 225,000 mile 2008 Honda Civic auto..
That is good mileage in my opinion.
Why should I go electric? Gas prices are high for sure, but why do I need someone to tell me I need to have a car payment and what type it even needs to be?
Just curious.
As you can see by my drive times I was not sitting idle and I left 10 minutes early.

 

If it was only gas that went up, this would be annoying. The problem is that EVERYTHING has gone up, in most cases by quite a bit more than the inflation rates we are told. I'm an engineer and I make decent money - For me this means cutting on toys and luxuries, but many people are hurting very badly.

 

Not meant to be political BUT sorry but I ain't buying the BS people are selling o justify what is going on everywhere. Was not like this awhile back!!

 

It had to be this way to wake people the heck up...

 

People are very bad at determining the root cause of problems. Don't be surprised if the solution they demand makes things worse.

 

ECE’s = electric vehicles. The majority of electricity in the US is generated by burning coal or fossil fuels, hence the sarcastic and ironic name for electric vehicles.

The Audi was in for a corner radar calibration, which is an involved process. The body shop replaced it when they did the body work. I’m well aware that ICE vehicles have ADAS systems. We’ve been calibrating them for years. The point was this EV is very complex period, not just the ADAS systems. Job security? Sure.. There is always job security in work that no one else wants to do. I do believe we are loosing money by performing these calibrations. Even after the initial outlay (another building, special tools and equipment), and even charging an accelerated labor rate, the problem is is there are no corresponding parts sales/profit to tag along with each labor hour I charge. If we had nothing to do, then ADAS could be considered very profitable because labor is more profitable than parts, according to the smart people. Found revenue. But we are always busy, and then when something goes sideways with ADAS, let the good times roll! Body shops really can mess things up, and miss things, requiring diagnostic time. But an indirect plus to it all is we get to see emerging technologies very early in the game. So the time spent self-learning the systems, investing in factory scan tools, learning how to use them, etc hopefully pays dividends down the road when these vehicles come off of warranty and hit our lot, and not from body shop sublets. Just like anything else, these do-dads will eventually just be a light on the dash with a piece of tape over it.

 

Just window shopping .

 

I saw a Tesla on the interstate a few weeks ago with a personalized plate that said "COALPWRD". At least he knows where the power is coming from...

 

Wasn’t Meryl Streep in that one, lol