Drew Dowdell

With how little you're driving lately, it will probably take 8 years to get another 25k miles.

You're absolutely correct. I pretty much stopped writing after Jan 2020 because I lost all my heart for it because of the flame wars. Before that I was writing 4 - 6 news clips a day during the week and one or two vehicle reviews a month. Plus William was writing regularly too. William got a new job and could no longer devote time to the site, so that's why he doesn't post much anymore. The thing is, I want to get back into it. I keep telling myself I'm going to start writing again.... but every time I log in here there is some flame war going on. Don't get me wrong, I love to debate stuff and I encourage it. But having a spirited debate and having a flame war are two very different things.... one person got himself suspended for 5 days because he was losing the debate and turned it into a flame war and added bigotry to the mix as well. And after I pulled the trigger on his suspension, I just logged off and left the site for a while out of frustration until I started getting e-mail notices that another flame war was going on. Can you see why it would get exhausting?

We get enough traffic that the ads pay about 90% of the costs. If I have to throw $10 - $20 a month at it, it's no big deal, however, I haven't had to add money to the site checking account for a while now, so if I went and looked at the reports, it is probably self-sustaining since at least September. It was not at all profitable when I was still traveling to all 4 of the car shows and 4 ride-and-drive media events each year. I did those because I enjoyed them and yes that money came from my own pocket. What I'm struggling with lately is not financial. In the past 4 years every. single. discussion. turns into a fight.... not just here... but Facebook, TikTok, Reddit, whatever. I don't want this site to become a place where it's just flame wars all the time. I want to come here to discuss cars. Unfortunately, a number of people have done their part to kill my passion for this site with their near constant negativity about cars and/or people they don't like. This site will be 20 years old in August. I'd like to see it continue into its 20s, but damn if some people aren't doing their best to kill it before then. I'm just not sure how much fight I have left. Where will my passion to write reviews come from if every article comment section turns into yet another flame war? Is a flame war site some place you'd want to visit? (not just you, everyone) If you guys just want to flame each other over stupid shit, I'll just leave the site running as long as it is financially self-sustaining, turn off notifications, and go ride my motorcycle and you won't hear from me again... when something breaks, oh well. Give me a reason to want to write again and run this place again...

No. I’ve had to suspend premium members in the past.

Well, a second person got themselves put into a 5 day timeout. This is not Reddit or 4chan. This is a place for respectful discussion about cars. I don't care if I have to ban everyone except Balth, Horse, Robert, and Dave. After the year we just had the very least we can do is just be nice to each other. But if you want to keep acting up.....

I did... I pulled yours for the next 5 days. Edit: Because you are still doing it... I made it 7.

oh look, the server bill just came in.... I guess I’ll have to decide if I want to pay it anymore if fucking adults can’t act like adults.

Up until about 30 second ago, we had been keeping it civil and philosophical, and then @dwightlooi ruined it again.... he is now under moderation watch... anything he posts will have to be approved by me until his points start expiring.

Silly. Just bury the problems in the desert instead of dealing with them and actually using it to our advantage.

hmmm..... except.... it's a problem.... Nuclear Waste Costs Americans Billions Every Year | by FSI Stanford | Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies | Medium "We’re spending $6 billion a year trying to deal with the problem, and we’ll continue to spend $4.5 to $5 billion a year without solving the problem." So, spend $12 billion... two years of maintenance on the problem and build a few breeder reactors to break down the waste and eliminate the problem and generate a few gigawatts of power at the same time.

That's an awfully convoluted way to get grift. There are far easier ways to get it than creating a global lie and getting 96% of scientists to agree with it.

And that's why none of us can take you seriously when you're not talking about engines or transmissions.

@dwightlooi - I have to ask... what is the motivation of the Global Climate Change cabal? What ends are they trying to reach? Why commit a fraud on a global scale for no reason... there's gotta be a reason.... how will climate scientists and NOAA profit from this?

1) I said large organizations I do not trust. The federal government is a large organization. Right wing wants just as much control over the individual, if not more. 2) You're only counting air temps right? Did you just ignore the whole thing about water temps and water acidity going up? If so, Go buy property on the Miami coast then.... or oceanfront in Virgina Beach.... or any other beach. My parents live on property 9ft above sea level.... I know I'm not inheriting anything.

Oh yea, I was talking about the pebble bed reactors that are self regulating. Breeder reactors are an unfortunate necessity to deal with the waste from traditional reactors. Breeder reactors are extremely expensive, so I would figure out what ratio of traditional reactor to breeder reactor we needed to deal with the waste and only build enough of those to cope with the waste. I do think that hydrogen fusion has potential, but at this point they have only been able to power a single light bulb because it takes almost as much energy to run the thing as it generates.

1# I trust no large organization... not companies, not governments, not non-profits, not churches, none. Small groups of committed people can do good works, but when they get too large, the mission gets blurred. I think the only way to protect the individual is to have the large groups hold each other accountable and for smaller groups to take shots at the large groups when possible... so government must regulate industry, and industry must report on government largess or corruption. Companies do put profits over people and over people's lives. It is the job of the government to reign that in. On Global climate change, it's been years since they made the realization that it was the oceans that were warming faster than expected and more proof came out in 2019. All of you climate change deniers waving your hands about air temperatures love to ignore the temperature of the water which is taking 90% of the increases and also increasing in acidity, killing ocean life. This is changing weather patterns and causing sea levels to rise. Many coastal cities are already experiencing the effects. So deny it all you want and wave your hands in the air.... that way we'll be able to see you when you slowly slide beneath the water.

I had a hard time following what the point you were trying to make here was, but I'll address the points here that I do understand. There is a difference between the Electric company that services your house and the electric company that generates the electricity and the electric company that operates the grid. The grids are often non-profit entities regulated by the state and fed. The local power utilities are the ones who bill you... they are private companies and they are regulated by the states. The generation companies aren't really regulated by anyone except in terms of pollution control. I am all in favor of nuke power... I think a national program of Nuke, rooftop solar, and wind would make the national grid as green as can be. Use modern breeder reactors and pebble bed reactors that are self regulating and nuke power would be super safe with nearly no waste. The problem is the NIMBYs.... no one wants a reactor in their back yard because of Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and Fukushima. It is the sad truth about the future of nuke power in the US. It's like how the Olds V8 diesel killed the passenger diesel market in the US. The purpose is to ensure the general welfare. Grids cross state lines (out of necessity, see also: Texas and what happens when you don't), so under the commerce clause, the grids are covered under the federal powers. The Feds were basically powerless during the Texas power outage for that exact reason... the best they could do is send generators and blankets. If it were any other state, there would be federal action at the grid level.

No, the difference between you and I is that you think your beliefs are fact and should be treated as such. So far for you, facts are whatever you want them to be to support your position. Also, as you've consistently misrepresented what I've said, I also have better reading comprehension skills (#1, #2, and #3 are vastly incorrect appraisals of my stance). #4 is disproven by science.... yes climate change can be natural, it can also be man-made, and the more we learn about the climate system the more apparent the irreversible damage is happening. Wow! You DO understand. There has been no mention of a particular political candidate. There is no slurs being used. The closest things to politics we've really discussed are the need for election reform (which while the methods may differ, I think both sides agree on the need for), and even then I balanced both sides. We can make anything political if we want to... conversely, we can take the politics out of philosophical discussions as we have for the past few pages and have genuinely good arguments. But even with that, I will not hesitate to call out falsehoods, lies, and propaganda especially when used to support an agenda.

I think the reason that people who follow your agenda are so angry all the time is that none of the fact ever support your narrative. You want something to be true, you write these long screeds to support your agenda, but when someone starts looking at facts, you get angry because your whole argument falls apart. A recap on "facts" you've gotten wrong so far: 1. The reason behind the high cost of California energy prices - Plenty of other states have green energy, Pennsylvania included. My power rates are actually below the national average and I use green power at my house. The green energy requirement is not the reason for high California energy costs, a fail experiment with unbridled capitalism is. 2. Passenger usage of High Speed or Medium Speed rail - Where Amtrak has fast and regular service, it generally operates at or near capacity. Passenger rail is good for most trips up to 500 miles. The Europeans and Japan use 400 miles as their standard, but given the horrid hub-and-spoke system we have here in the US, 500 miles is more appropriate. You cannot locate a major metro area anywhere in this country that is not within 500 miles of another major metro. NO ONE is suggesting HSR for transcontinental trips. HSR is for short to medium haul trips where the train can beat an airplane in door to door time. Even on relatively slow routes like Portland - Seattle, Amtrak takes around 40% of all passengers up against ALL THE OTHER AIRLINES THAT HAVE SERVICE. Amtrak moves 811 thousand passengers and all airlines combined move 1.3 million between those two city pairs... the difference is that Amtrak also serves stops in between that the airlines do not. You complain about Amtrak's subsidy, but Airlines get their airports subsidized and we also pay airlines to run nearly empty flights through the Essential Air Services program. For example, we pay Boutique Airlines to run 4 flights daily out of Altoona PA because there is no major airport within a 2 hour drive. Amtrak runs 2 trains daily through Altoona and moves 18,848 riders a year.... Boutique only moves 10,010. In nearby Johnstown, which also has Amtrak service, the Federal government is paying $866 - $966 per passenger to subsidize flights out of Johnstown. The EAS cost $300m in 2013 (the last year I can find data) to move far fewer people than Amtrak does with its $1.9B. 3. Healthcare - Your entire cause and effect is false. You blame it on the government when in fact it is entirely caused by the system the private insurance companies set up for negotiating rates. You're so blinded by your agenda that you can't even see that is not what I even suggested. I said that companies that provide a public utility, like electricity, should be heavily regulated. Furthermore, you've got the socialism boogieman on the brain so much that you don't even know the definition of socialism!!! You just call anything you don't like or don't understand socialism. It's like Joe McCarthy reincarnate. Socialism - a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or by the community as a whole. I suggested that if the grid is not government owned, that it needs to have heavy oversight by the government to make sure reliability standards are met. For something as critical to the health and wellbeing of the general citizenry, it is exactly the governments job to make sure the grid runs well. It wasn't a once in 100 year event! They had a similar event in 2011 and were warned back then about the measures they should have taken to avoid a repeat. I have excess capacity (no one does excess generation, that would be wasteful, generation is kept on standby) AND I'm using green energy AND I'm only paying 13.9c/KwH... more than 50% of that is in grid charges NOT GENERATION CHARGES. And I just got my bill today, so you can see what my rates are: My generation rate is 6.7c/kWh... so lets go to Houston and find a green energy contract... Oh look! It's basically the SAME EXACT PRICE. So, if the generation rates are the same, we can see that the difference between the two rates is entirely in the grid charges... that difference is 2c/kWh... or... $20 a month to not die from the cold during an ice storm. And that is assuming you are correct on the total charges in Texas... considering your track record for getting basic facts correct, even that is suspect. You're sooooo close to the point. We need major election reform to abolish the winner take all system and even better, the electoral college so that third parties can spring up and be competitive. You'll hate this idea because the country is far more liberal than our recent elections would show because of the finger on the scale that the Electoral College and Winner Take All system bring. If those two systems were abolished, suddenly the 40-whatever percent of Republican voters in California would matter, and they would be balanced by the 40-whatever percent of Democratic voters in Texas+Oklahoma+Nebraska (roughly the same population, combined, as California). But you'll fight that push towards fairness because you know in the end that your agenda will lose. TL:DR: Stick to engines and transmissions because on everything else you're

I will also point out that Amtrak’s annual subsidy is less than the cost of a single highway interchange in a major metro area. Amtrak’s profits on the North East corridor help fund the rest of the system, though that’s a rather large cross for it to bare and that’s why I’d does need subsidies. when Amtrak started offering multiple daily trips to DC from Richmond VA, it quickly reached capacity because suddenly people could do easy day trips to the Capital. It wasn’t even high speed. People will use trains if given good service.

You just love being wrong like a dog loves a good rawhide.... and no amount of bolding will change your false statements into true ones. First, I'm not arguing in favor of socialism. I'm arguing in favor of capitalism with strong regulations, and direct oversight in situations where the company is providing a public good. Private companies should be running grids and health care, but the utilities should be heavily regulated and required to meet certain reliability and resiliency standards. What happened in Texas is exactly why your "ideal" does not work. It puts profits over people in emergencies, it fails to take appropriate measures to prepare for emergencies (Texas/ERCOT was warned of this exact scenario in 2011 in a comprehensive report, they did NOTHING because it would have cut into their profits) , and then it price gouges customers during the emergency. ZERO of the other grids that are heavily regulated (and in my opinion still not regulated enough) had the issues ERCOT had. FALSE - In areas where Amtrak offers high speed (Acela or North East Regional) Amtrak regularly serves more passengers than multiple airlines combined, plus they also serve many intra-trip stations. Not everyone in New Haven wants to drive to NYC to fly to Philly to get to Wilmington. As you point out, there is a whole country between the major metros and those are severely underserved by the airlines. Even here in Pittsburgh, going somewhere is always "Step 1. Fly to Charlotte, Chicago, Philly, or Atlanta. Step 2. Fly where I actually want to go. I can drive faster in under 500 miles than an airline can get me there because of the security waitlines, connections, baggage, etc. Unless I'm traveling directly to a hub, total travel time by car will beat nearly any flight under 500 miles. An Acela can do even better. But even Metro to Metro, the Acela will beat the airlines EVERY TIME. Going from Manhatten to Philly, the Acela will get you from New York Penn to 30th Street Philly before your taxi even pulls up at LaGuardia. Going out of NY, NO ONE, takes a flight if their destination is served by Acela or North East corridor. Amtrak makes a profit on these routes. Amtrak started offering higher speed service (110mph) out of Detroit to Chicago and before Covid, ridership was way up. You are correct that over 500 miles, Amtrak's usefulness starts to wain, but most Metros are within 500 miles of another Metro and those highway connections have a lot of traffic. A Dallas-Houston HSR would do very well because again, it's a 40-50 minute drive just to get from downtown Houston out to IAH to drop off the rental car. HSR could do the trip in 2 hours or less. People will use high speed rail if and when it is offered, and it wouldn't even need a subsidy to operate. (Airports are subsidized by the government, ours has a huge debt issue right now, so don't try to imply that airlines don't operate without a subsidy) False (kinda) - The insurance industry is the cause of the wacked out insurance rates. Further cause is the 30% of people who don't have insurance and defer treatment because of the lack of insurance. That means what starts as a small treatable lump turns into stage 3 cancer because the person is afraid to seek treatment due to costs. So when they get admitted for cancer care on Medicaid or whatever, they cost hundreds of thousands more to treat because they waited too long. An I would much rather pay for someone to go get treated early than pay for a full on cancer treatment. And don't be fooled, you're already paying for those people... that's why your insurance costs so much even if you're healthy. The F-35 program was a political action boondoggle. People in Canada pay around the same total tax that we do and they get healthcare for it while we have to pay extra to have insurance. And don't try to talk about rationed care, people in Canada with an emergency get treated promptly. We ration care also by letting 30% of the population die in the street. Companies are often-times actively your enemy. Texas power producers shut down power during the storm when they realized they weren't going to be able to make a profit. People died in that storm due to lack of power. The number of deplorable schemes companies come up with that actively harm you far exceeds what the government has done. I like the Defenders, but I have only ever gotten 40k out of them at best.... so that's why I keep buying them because I use that treadlife warranty.

You always run to extremes. Private companies have done horrible things in the name of profit and you should be every bit as wary about rampant capitalism as you are socialism. We had an excellent example last month of why letting for-profit companies run essential things like monopoly utilities with close to zero regulation and oversight is a bad idea. We can’t have decent passenger rail in the US, even just regionally, because of private companies. we can’t have decent, low cost healthcare in the US because of private companies. For profit companies aren’t your friends. You are merely something they can extract money from while paying their employees as little as possible. The energy company I worked for added ZERO value to the product they sold. The bought up capacity at low prices and sold it at high prices. It is literally traded like the stock market. All they did was extract money from their customers to pay exorbitant executive salaries and fancy marketing campaigns. They could have shut down over night and nothing of value would have been lost.

Well if I agreed with you then we’d both be wrong. I stand by my well documented 13 years in the energy industry, specifically, this part of the industry. I’ve been through the audits of the company because of what Enron did. Many/Most for-profit energy companies have to go through those audits yearly. I’m not saying that for profit companies shouldn’t run the grid. I’m saying that they shouldn’t be able to set the grid rules and that there must be competition. Stand by your wrong statements all you like. The Forbes link disagrees with you.

Again, you’re wrong. Solar hasn’t been 3 times the cost of traditional generation for years. Same for wind. Additionally, the fossil fuel industry gets loads of subsidies too in the form of socializing external costs. I worked in the energy industry for over 13 years. I can go buy wind power for my home right now at equal or lesser cost than coal or gas. Furthermore, a significant amount of those high California costs is the result California’s decades long boondoggle of selling their grid off to private for-profit companies to run, those companies putting profits ahead of reliability and upgrades, and way back when forcing blackouts to drive up energy prices through market manipulation. California is still trying to catch up on years of grid neglect. And we’ve seen what can happen when you turn a power grid over to a for profit company in Texas.

Well that's simply, flat out, false. I'm not sure if you're intentionally lying because of your anti-green agenda or if you're simply using data from 15+ years ago. LCOE is the levelized cost of generation after all of the construction, generation, maintenance, and decommissioning of a project is completed. Basically every dollar that goes into building, running, and then tearing down that generation. It's reflected as dollars per megawatt hour. Projected LCOE in the U.S. by 2025 (as of 2020) $/MWh Plant Type Min Simple Average Capacity weighted average Max Solar photovoltaic (PV) 29.75 35.74 32.80 48.09 Geothermal 35.13 37.47 37.47 39.60 Combined cycle 33.35 38.07 36.61 45.31 Wind, onshore 28.72 39.95 34.10 62.72 Hydroelectric 35.37 52.79 39.54 63.24 Combustion Turbine 58.48 66.62 68.71 81.37 Ultra-supercritical coal 65.10 76.44 NB 91.27 Advanced Nuclear 71.90 81.65 NB 92.04 Biomass 86.19 94.83 NB 139.96 Wind, offshore 102.68 122.25 115.04 155.55 Those are 2025 estimated numbers, but they're based on today's numbers and a prediction on the direction of costs. However, this time last year On-Shore Wind and Photovoltaic both fell below fossil fuels in lifetime costs. Solar And Wind Costs Continue To Fall As Power Becomes Cleaner (forbes.com)