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Why Goodyear's Bizarre Glowing Tires Were A Failure

https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news...bbb08ee2da9880

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Seeing this photo reminded me of an event that I had while working for Ford Motor Credit.

All the cars on a dealer's lot were financed by FMC - called a floor plan. The dealer paid interest on the wholesale cost of the car. When the car was sold and the dealer paid, he had 24 hours to get the money to FMC.

Every 60 to 90 days we did an audit of all dealerships in our division (greater Boston area). Just to make sure the dealers were on the up and up.

Cape Cod was in our division. There was a small Ford/Lincoln dealer down there. We had 2 dedicated audit people. But Ford had a rule - they could only audit the same delaer twice in a row. The third time had to be someone else - like one of us who worked in collections. And just by chance, I was given the list of cars to this CC dealer (I had to check to make sure each car was either on the lot - VIN had to match my list of VINs, paperwork was in process for sale or if a car was a loaner, the dealer had to produce the car while I was there.)

One car was missing - a 1973 Lincoln Contintential. "Where's the car?" I asked. The dealer started to mumble something. "You have in contract for sale?" He shook his head. "Did you loan it out?" He answered "yes." "Ok - call them and have them either drive the car here or tell me the address and I will go look at it." The dealer answered "that's going to be a problem."

The dealer loaned the car out to one of the Kennedys and they weren't returning his calls.

So I went to the Hyannis Police Dept. and explained the problem to them. "We can help you - follow us." They sent 3 cop cars and me to the Kennedy compound. We're all parked at the entrance to the compound - gated BTW - of course. Some guy comes over to see what the brohaha is. "There's a stolen car here! We want it. Let us in!" The guy almost passed out from fright - immediately opened the gates - we drive in. There sitting in the drive way is the Lincoln. Some one - a maid I think, comes out. "Give us the keys to this car immediately or we will arrest you for vehicle theft!" Man - she moved so fast. 10 seconds latter she runs out and hands the keys to the cop. He gets one of the officers to drive the car back to the dealership.

"I hate those Kennedy's - they think they are above everyone else. Thanks for this opportunity to show them they aren't." And he shakes my hand.

Looks familiar. Here's my Grampa's 71 Golden Anniversary Continental. And he paid for it - we got the paperwork to prove it from Eastchester Lincoln Mercury.

Well, actually ABC Television paid for it under the X-plan (I think that's what the paperwork says?) but my Grampa negotiated the deal as he was a hands-on executive. He was eventually given the car when he retired in 1972 as the VP of ABC.

Lee Said:

"The dealer loaned the car out to one of the Kennedys and they weren't returning his calls.

So I went to the Hyannis Police Dept. and explained the problem to them. "We can help you - follow us." They sent 3 cop cars and me to the Kennedy compound. We're all parked at the entrance to the compound - gated BTW - of course. Some guy comes over to see what the brohaha is. "There's a stolen car here! We want it. Let us in!" The guy almost passed out from fright - immediately opened the gates - we drive in. There sitting in the drive way is the Lincoln. Some one - a maid I think, comes out. "Give us the keys to this car immediately or we will arrest you for vehicle theft!" Man - she moved so fast. 10 seconds latter she runs out and hands the keys to the cop. He gets one of the officers to drive the car back to the dealership.

"I hate those Kennedy's - they think they are above everyone else. Thanks for this opportunity to show them they aren't." And he shakes my hand."

Guess it could have been worse. Could have ended up in Poucha Pond.

I have a client whose nephew is in the Oklahoma State Penn right now. Got 30 years for negligent homicide. Drank too much and crashed his car, killing the passenger, and he did NOT leave the scene.

So much for blind justice.

Are those SS emblems upside down (the side and the grill)?

https://www.cnet.com/personal-financ...-anytime-soon/

I realize this is cyclical and that prices will eventually come back down; but still, glad I am driving a plug in right now.

Lynn - what kind of vehicle are you driving?

K

It is a 2019 Hyundai Ionic Plug in Hybrid. I don't even have a "quick charge" cord for it. I just plug it into a 110 outlet. All the outlets in my garage are just 15 amp. I have never had one pop.

The plug in feature charges the HV battery enough that I can drive 35 miles without the gas motor kicking in. Of course that is assuming City driving. My commute is 18 miles, mostly highway. Driving at 80 mph, we would run out of the pure electric mode at about 26-28 miles. When I get to the office, I plug in. That means the HV battery is fully charged when we leave. MOST (not all) days are like today. We used zero gasoline. When I turn it off, it show "18 miles, 999 mpg" That's as high as the readout goes.

The great thing about it is if we decide to drive across country, then it functions just like a normal hybrid. We drove it to MCACN last year and got 50 mpg for the entire trip. The rear seats fold down giving incredible storage. We brought home four tires and ralley wheels as well as some other parts and our luggage.

Just turned over 33k miles. So far, all I have had to do is change oil & check the air in the tires.

Winter driving is a bit different. For some unknown reason, they did not put in any kind of auxiliary heater (unless you count the heated seats). That means if I turn the heater on when we leave the house, the gas engine kicks in just to run the heater. Still, normally on one of those trips it gets 300 to 400 mpg. If it isn't really cold, sometimes we don't turn on the heat, but just use the seat warmers. My garage is heated, so it isn't like we are getting in a cold car.

I don't understand why the powers that be think we need to go 100% electric cars by xxxx (pick your date). Plug in hybrids are the perfect transition, IMHO.

As far as the cost of the electricity; I bought a meter to see how much electricity I was using to charge it overnight. After driving home (18 miles, mostly at 80 mph) it takes between 36 cents and 40 cents. I think the biggest variable is North wind or South Wind. When we first got it in March of 2020, it cost about 27 cents. OG&E has hiked the rates from 7.1 cents per kwh to 10.56.

I fully expect rates to continue to climb. The increased demand for electric can't result in any thing other than higher rates.

Not trying to make this a political post; just reporting what is working for me.

Thank you, Lynn. Good summary*.

I think many folks here know I was on the Volt program, and therefore drove a series of preproduction vehicles over a four year period.

It worked great for me, too. It was 33 miles to the Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant, so I could go all the way there on one charge, spend the 8 hours (or 10 or 12 hours) during work re-charging and then head home. I could go months without turning on the internal combustion engine.

Conversely, if my wife called and pulled me off my normal commute I didn't have to worry about running out of juice while performing her errands.

Same here; we did have some die-hards on the team who were "hyper-miling", and would drive through the winter without turning the heat on. I wasn't quite as hard core, but with the seat heaters it didn't take much cabin heat for me to be comfortable.

Unfortunately - the hybrid vehicles are the "worst of both worlds" in terms of complexity, housing both the internal combustion engine and everything that goes along with that, plus the electric drive and everything that goes along with that. They are both "fish and fowl", so to speak. I suspect that is why, from a manufacturer standpoint, there is a desire to go fully electric.

But, like you, I felt the hybrids were the perfect transition, helping owners and potential owners wean themselves off "range anxiety" while providing some impetus to develop the infrastructure, if not in earnest at least as a practice round.

*My comments are also apolitical; I don't have a political bone in my body. I tell people I am just a dumb car guy.

Good goin', Keith and team! Had two Volts, loved 'em - Went for a third and they were cancelled!