SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the random-and-intermittent-failures dept.
https://qz.com/1066966/how-many-cars-were-destroyed-by-hurricane-harvey/ and also at other news outlets.
For Harvey victims, it's going to be rough if they lost their car, Houston is a very car-dependent city. Like many states, Texas only requires liability insurance — only those that bought comprehensive coverage will be able to claim the loss on insurance.
Ideally most of these flooded cars will be scrapped, as it's very likely water damage to electrical systems and other parts are not cost effective to repair professionally. However, there will be "new" and used cars on the market that have been underwater (to a greater or lesser extent). Many will be sold "as is" and some of them will be cleaned up and sold fraudulently as if they were not damaged. Buyer beware, these cars will be shipped all over in search of buyers (marks?)
After Katrina, friends of mine with time on their hands bought several new-flooded Honda Civics (which they were familiar with from building "street stock" race cars). They pulled out the interior and then the full wiring harness. Bought new harness from Honda and replaced everything, and had perfectly good near-new cars for pennies on the dollar (and a few days of hard labor).
(Score: 4, Informative) by bzipitidoo on Sunday September 03 2017, @04:21PM (4 children)
Harvey disrupted gasoline production and delivery. On Aug 31, many gas stations in the Dallas Ft. Worth area ran out of gas. Prices jumped from $2.03/gallon to $2.59 and higher. Saw one station asking $3.39. People panicked and rushed in to top up. The lines spilled into the right lanes of the streets adjacent to those gas stations that still had gas. I hear some were waiting in line for 2 to 3 hours. The stupid part is that they were running their engines the whole time and some ran out of gas while waiting.
I held off as long as I could, tried to calm the wife down. At 10pm I ventured out to fill up, carefully picking a station that was downhill from the approaching lane so I could coast with the engine off whenever the line advanced. Took me 31 minutes to reach the pump, fill up, and leave. They had a police officer at the head of the line directing people to the pumps. Seems there'd been fights breaking out over people cutting in line and such like.
The lines have pretty much disappeared now. Some stations are still out of gas. The $3.39 station has lowered its price to $2.89.
Last week I realized Harvey cars would be hitting the used car market pretty soon.
(Score: 3, Informative) by dry on Monday September 04 2017, @03:00AM
Meanwhile, here in BC, gas has gone up to $1.44 a litre, or close to $4 American for an American gallon. First they jacked the prices for the eclipse, now due to the shortage in Texas (as if we get gas from Texas) they've jacked it more. What I really love is the competition, they manage to up the price within an hour usually, which company will charge more for the gas already in their tanks the quickest is how they compete. Some time after Xmas the cheaper gas that Texans are already enjoying will work its way through the system to here.
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Monday September 04 2017, @08:53AM (2 children)
For those too lazy to do the conversion into sensible units, 1 US gallon is 3.785L, so those work out at $0.54/L, $0.68/L, and $0.90/L. At today's exchange rate, that's €0.45/L, €0.57/L, and €0.76/L. For comparison, the cheapest petrol in Europe (using figures a couple of months old, YMMV) is €0.99/L in Slovakia, the most expensive is the Netherlands at €1.61. The UK, at €1.23, is almost exactly in the middle. So, once again, we see the US suffering from creating economic incentives that favour inefficiency and avoiding paying for externalities.
sudo mod me up
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Monday September 04 2017, @09:58AM (1 child)
Too true. I know gas is far more expensive in Europe, but most of my fellow Americans haven't a clue. US prices peaked at a bit over $4/gallon in 2008, and people were trading in their SUVs for economy cars in droves.
It's sad the simple gas saving measures that aren't being used. For instance, automobile manufacturers do not smooth the undersides of their cars. It's like driving around without the hood. Sure the car still works, but there are all these components sticking out and causing drag. When they have added wheel skirts, their moronic customers whine that the skirts are "ugly" and take them off.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Grishnakh on Monday September 04 2017, @01:43PM
US prices peaked at a bit over $4/gallon in 2008, and people were trading in their SUVs for economy cars in droves.
Yep, but lately they've all been in a rush to trade those in on big-ass SUVs. Americans are so stupid. Gas was over $4/gallon as recently as 2012 in Connecticut, IIRC.
For instance, automobile manufacturers do not smooth the undersides of their cars.
That's wrong. When was the last time you looked under a car? My Mazda has smooth paneling covering almost the entire underside, and it's not a high-end car.
When they have added wheel skirts, their moronic customers whine that the skirts are "ugly" and take them off.
The main problem with wheel skirts is that they *are* ugly, because they're assymetrical: the skirts are only used on the rear wheels, and not the front. If they could figure out how to fix that, they'd be more accepted. I'm not an aerodynamicist, but I do wonder how much difference rear wheel skirts really make, compared to other things, like underbody paneling, mirrors, etc. Have you ever noticed that in the latest cars, the headlights are specifically designed so they're not smooth? I'm told that's done to help aerodynamics over the mirrors. But before too long, mirrors should become a thing of the past, replaced by cameras.