It’s the end of the year, and with it comes a series of holidays enthusiastically celebrated around these parts. We don’t discriminate. If you are a Happy Honda Daysian, a Toyotathoneran, or even a Lexus December To Rembertarian, you’re welcome here. What if you’re car-themed holiday agnostic but want a new car? Now it might be time to find that old-time religion because the deals are likely to be so good that you’ll start building an altar to Toyota Jan and laying bowls of skinless grapes out for her, in the Toyotathoneran tradition.
Carmakers are always skewed toward selling more cars at the end of the year as current model-year cars (2024) begin to get replaced by 2025 models. This year there’s an even stronger incentive for some automakers as production delays, overenthusiastic production, and a desire to show growth in the fourth quarter push up incentives a whopping 60% year-over-year.
I’ve been keen to avoid election issues for a week here at The Morning Dump, but as much as you might want to ignore politics it doesn’t ignore you. We finally, officially have a sense of what Elon Musk is going to get out of his support for Donald Trump. Is it a meme joke? It’s a meme joke.
Yesterday I mentioned that Volkswagen’s software division was a ticking time bomb and then, like two hours later, Volkswagen announced it was increasing its stake in Rivian. That seems important.
And, finally, if you’re in the Los Angeles area this weekend there’s a fun event you’ll probably want to attend.
The Compact SUV Space Is A Great Place To Be A Buyer
The car-based, compact SUV (think Nissan Rogue) is a segment that’s been around for decades but has grown to be one of the biggest and most competitive. Back in 1998, there were 10 different compact SUVs on sale. Right now there are 25 different all vying for market share.
As you can see in the latest Kelly Blue Book report, the average transaction price (ATP) has remained mostly flat since 2021 with the usual fluctuation. Incentives, on the other hand, have been rapidly charging back to pre-pandemic levels.
Incentives are averaging 7.7% of ATP, but that’s just an average. If you want a good deal you still have to know where to look, and it’ll depend a lot on the automaker. Stellantis brands are above average right now and, as always, Porsche, Toyota, and Land Rover are on the bottom end of what’s being offered, although Toyota is starting to open its wallet a bit.
According to KBB, more than 45% of the sales in the United States are in one of the Big Three segments: compact SUV, full-size pickup trucks, and mid-size SUVs. The ATP of a compact SUV was $36,769, which is about 30% lower than the industry average. And incentives? A whopping 9.4% of ATP, meaning if you’re willing to cross-shop there’s a lot of competition and therefore a lot of deals to be had.
“’Tis the season for automakers to make their final push for 2024 sales,” said Cox Automotive Executive Analyst Erin Keating. “While some automakers focus on managing production, many will likely maintain or even increase their seasonal incentives to attract buyers. With competition intensifying, these strategies will be crucial in maintaining market share and driving end-of-year sales. Our team is generally optimistic for new-vehicle sales to close out the year – extra incentives will certainly help.”
With the election over I’m expecting car sales to finish strong this year.
Elon Musk, Head Of DOGE
It started as a joke, but now it’s a real thing. CEO Elon Musk will head up a “Department of Government Efficiency,” aka DOGE, that will be created by Donald Trump (who, by the way, says he plans to delete the Department of Education). He’ll work alongside Vivek Ramaswamy.
“They will work together to liberate our Economy, and make the U.S. Government accountable to ‘WE THE PEOPLE,’” the president-elect said.
Details of the department — such as the size of its staff, if any, and the scope of its mission — were not yet available.
The budget-cutting endeavor gives an unusual and influential role to Musk, who spent more than $100 million to help elect Trump and has billions in government contracts through his Space X and Starlink companies.
Given that the U.S. House of Representatives has ultimate budget power and Republicans, though likely in the majority, will be down to a razor-thin majority, I’m not sure how that’ll actually work. Perhaps cutting the federal budget isn’t as hard as getting people to buy electric cars or catching a reusable rocket booster. Or perhaps it’s even harder. I guess we’ll see.
Rivian Getting $5.8 Billion From Volkswagen
I had no idea yesterday when I wrote about how Volkswagen’s biggest risk is its software division that, barely two hours later, Volkswagen would then announce it was giving even more money to Rivian as part of its move to save itself from impending disaster.
The timing makes sense, though, right? It’s not extreme to guess that someone close to Volkswagen CEO Oliver Blume pushed a message of look how screwed we are if we don’t make drastic moves to the local press so that when the next announcement came out it would feel like the obvious next move.
This new venture will be called Rivian and VW Group Technology, LLC or, Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies for… short? Let’s just call it RVWGT.
What is it?
Through this JV, the companies plan to bring next-generation electrical architecture and best-in-class software technology for both companies’ future electric vehicles, covering all relevant vehicle segments, including subcompact cars. It is highly complementary reflecting Rivian’s industry-leading software and electrical hardware technology as well as Volkswagen Group’s significant global scale and industry-leading vehicle platform competencies.
The original VW-Rivian deal was for up to $5 billion and now that’s been expanded to $5.8 billion. What does Blume say about all of this?
“The partnership with Rivian is the next logical step in our software strategy. With its implementation, we will strengthen our global competitive and technological position. The launch of the joint venture demonstrates the potential we want to leverage together in the coming years. We have a clear plan to offer our customers the best products and digital experiences at attractive prices through state-of-the-art development processes, innovative technological approaches, and a competitive cost base driven by synergies.”
Obviously, this was a long time coming as Blume had to spend some amount of time planning an outfit that said “We are a hip, young company.” He eventually came up with the businessman’s equivalent of Don Johnson from Miami Vice. What do we call that? A Wolfsburg Vice? I never know what to wear anywhere, so maybe I’ll steal this look.
With Rivian looking to build cars in more VW segments and VW explicitly building cars in Rivian’s lane, via Scout, I feel like something will have to give there eventually.
Icons Of Design Is Happening This Weekend In LA
You might know Johnathan Ward as the creator of tastefully absurd resto-mods, but he’s also a generally nice dude in my experience and he’s hosting an event this weekend at Hagerty’s Garage + Social in Van Nuys supporting the GO Campaign.
What is the GO Campaign? Founded in 2006, it “improves the lives of vulnerable children around the world by partnering with Local Heroes to deliver local solutions.” To date, the GO Campaign says it’s supported initiatives helping more than 195,000 children in 40 countries.
The event will feature custom cars and trucks, art, fashion, independent craftsmen, and a chance to get your holiday shopping done early. Also, food trucks! I just flipped through the photos they sent me from last year’s event and recognized half the people so it looks like it’ll be a fun scene.
Tickets are available here. The event runs from 9 am to 6 pm both Saturday and Sunday.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
Here’s the Steve Miller Band doing “The Joker,” which feels appropriate this morning as that’s what I feel like I’m slowly becoming.
The Big Question
As head of DOGE, which regulations and federal expenditures related to cars would you like to see cut? I’ll go first: end the 25 Year Import Rule and allow people to import any car they want.
Trump and Melon Husk/Leon Mush should be in jail…also wouldn’t “melonhead” have a conflict of interest? I guess rich dipshits just get to do whatever the hell they want now…I know, old news
Captain Boing-Boing to Donald Dump: “Who does your makeup? It looks fabulous! I need more incentives for people to buy Clustertrucks.”
Ooh! I’ll go with one thing they’ll probably even try to do – remove the waivers that make CARB possible and get us back to a common regime nationwide.
You really want to live in a country where Donald Trump alone is setting the emissions regulations?
I want to live in a world where the regulations are predictable and consistent. Really, the best thing for that is *gasp!* actual laws passed by Congress
Consistency is something you’re not going to be getting from Congress for the foreseeable future.
“They will work together to liberate our Economy, and make the U.S. Government accountable to ‘WE THE PEOPLE,’”
So quoth the man who half the population talks about and treats like a literal 15th century king.
“Off with his ear!”
What? Too soon?
As head of Dodge, what I’d cut is, wait what is left to cut? oh wait, DOGE… As head of DOGE I’d get rid of both subsidies and taxes on gas, make vehicle registration at least semi-standardized across states, and instead of the highway fund primarily being funded by gas taxes, make it be funded by registration fees. Much like with income taxes and w2’s a set portion will go to the federal government, and states can add on their own fees. Most importantly of all though, your registration costs $0.xx per LB (Dry Weight + GVWR) / 2.
RE: Musk and DOGE
WhY SO PolTICAL!!11???
Isn’t that the old site that nobody here likes?
Could it be that everything is political and pretending it’s not is bullshit? Could the editors act like grown ups and take a stand instead of pretending it doesn’t matter or being neutral when it’s clearly going to be an epic clusterfuck?
“I guess we’ll see”?
“end the 25 Year Import Rule and allow people to import any car they want.”
That would be #1 on my list too. And MrLM002 mentioned the Chicken Tax and the Footprint rule.
How about getting rid of all US car standards and just adopt EU vehicle standards.
Get rid of the chicken tax and the footprint rule first thing.
Get world standardization on crash standards at the minimum, hopefully emissions as well.
That way there’s the absolute minimum barrier to entry for automakers to bring foreign market cars into the US.
Some good examples are the Jimny, The Prius/Corolla Seven, The Hilux Champ, etc.
I wish something like a CR-V or a RAV4 would fit my family’s needs, as I have enjoyed them as rental cars (not in a performance way, but as a “this is a nice appliance without any glaring bad decisions or crap materials” kind of way). Unfortunately, we need one more seat than they offer on a regular basis, so a third row is a must and the cost of a Pilot or Highlander gets quickly into the unreasonable territory (even used).
My inlaws have a CRV and while it’s a great little rig it gets fairly cramped with three adults or grown up kids in the back seat for sure. More or less perfect for a family of 4 but I imagine it being very tricky when you have a larger family or like a family of 4 and a couple of decent sized dogs.
Yeah, it’s the reason we are still rocking the minivan for a few more years until the kids start driving.
I complain about CUVs a lot, so should be fair: when I drove my daughter’s 2013 CRV, it was perfectly fine. Handled better than almost all of the old cars I’ve owned, accelerated better than all but my present 2–and was completely anonymous. And, surprisingly, it didn’t feel soul-crushing as a 92 Camry did a couple decades back.
I do now understand why people buy them
Rand Paul has been DOGE-ing every year in his Festivus tweets. Just dig through those for some car stuff and you’re off to a good start.
Way off topic, but since this is a Government-style conversation, I am listening to the UAP Hearings going on today. It’s fucking bananas! The US has proof of “non-human” life and are testifying about it right now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kT2iWKZr0qA
Huh? Billions of people have proof of non-human life. They are called pets. Zoos are also a really good place for such proof.
lol. I didn’t get a say in the terms they were using. 🙂
Here is the document released today regarding the secret program that the DoD denies exists. It even mentions Non-Human Intelligence (NHI) on the first page…
https://mace.house.gov/immaculateconstellation
That’s swell and all, but it kind of ceases to matter when nobody has any money, everything is too expensive, billionaires control the country, and half the population just voted for a god-emperor who is literally immune to prosecution.
So, just a typical Wednesday, then. Roger.
Our government is chock full of non-human intelligence. Or is it non-intelligent humans? I can never remember.
I’d like to see all federal expenditures on Space X, Tesla, and other affiliated companies be stopped due to the painfully obvious conflict of interest.
I don’t know how it will turn out, but I for one welcome a department of governmental efficiency. I design buildings for a career, and I work on both private and public projects. It’s truly shocking how much waste there is in the process, not just at the federal level, but also at the state level. There’s typically 4-5x as many people involved in every meeting, there’s a ton of people trying to justify their positions by generating mountains of review comments (most of which are nonsense or just a time suck), and the regulations are substantial too. Then you have the rush at the end of the fiscal year to spend all the money in the budget because they won’t get an increase the next year if they don’t spend it all. It all means that things cost 2x (at least) as much as they should with no real benefit over a standard building. It also takes 2-3 times longer and about 1/3 of the time, the project never even gets built after getting a full design, or sits on a shelf for so long that it needs to be redesigned because the regulations have changed.
The end-of-year rush happens in every big company. It’s a stupid policy, public or private.
What a sweet job! What would you say are your favorite 5 buildings in the US? If your own are in there, please share…Most of mine are in Detroit, but my all-time fave is the Chrysler Building in NYC.
I’m in the engineering side of design, but I’ve gotten to work on some cool ones. I’m really like the 1920ish skyscrapers. They have such style. Detroit has some amazing ones in and around the Financial District. Guardian Building, Buhl, Penobscot, Ford, First National. The Detroit Fox Theatre is obviously a favorite too. One of the best parts of my job is to see the public and behind-the-scenes areas of so many buildings. There are so many smaller gems out there too. Almost every older building in Downtown Detroit has an amazing interior.
I agree on all of those. Hard to pick a favorite in Detroit, but I gotta for sure throw in there the Book Tower and, of course, The Masonic Temple, which is on a whole other level. 😉
Yeah, those are good ones too. It’s really hard to pick. One of the most beautiful hasn’t been open to the public in like 10 years. The Old Wayne County Building is amazing inside. It was still in great shape when I was in it a few years ago. They keep the heat and lights on and have a few staff, even though there hasn’t been a tenant in there in over a decade. It’s one that needs to be redeveloped.
Haha so true. I’m working on a public sector renovation project that has been under design since the Obama administration.
In the meantime there are major buildings in NYC that had been planned, designed, constructed, AND since demolished within the time frame (e.g. the building next to MoMA.)
Yeah, bro, that’s definitely what they’re going to “fix”
“I’m sure the two biggest liars who ever lived are telling the truth about this government program.”
Well since DOGE is in no way an official government department, with no power to act, and only has the task of having a study on government “waste” which is due to trump on July 4th (one of the only dates trump knows), the first thing I’d recommend is to not pay a fucking dime of tax payer money to this made up clown car of a “think tank.”
July 4th, 2026. The 250th anniversary.
To me, it’s just a snitch operation to push more of their imagined “enemies” out of government.
Yeah, let the dynamic dunces self fund the thing.
My first few business trips to Germany, and mostly Bavaria & the former East Germany, taught me that proper German business/office attire is a reasonably crisp pair of blue jeans, a collared shirt of some kind, and brown/tan shoes & belt.
Though, once you move up the ranks within a few organizations, into some of the executives, that’s where you start to see some creative combinations of bright red or bright blue slacks (or, when dressing down, they’ll wear khaki), multi-coloured buttoned shirts, but, again, the same brown/tan shoes & belt.
My guess is that DoGE will find a way to outlaw all competing self-driving aids (GM, Ford, MBZ, etc) and make Tesla’s FSD the only approved self-driving system, even though it’ll be just as much a scary kludge as it’s always been.
DoGE won’t actually have any power, though. They will make recommendations and act as an advisory body, nothing more.
The same old bureaucracy will have to act on those recommendations. Or in the case of Congress, vote on them. And we all know how well that goes.
And if you don’t just ask someone who own a Kei car.
Take the Chicken Tax back and give me a Hilux.
Nothing will really happen. Why? The standard 7 year plan
https://youtu.be/ZKCg40PhPCY?si=y18SuB_wKT-8g3zu
I see the new POTUS administration going after California’s CARB influence right off the bat.
Possibly, just to fuck with Gavin. But, they do seem pretty firm about putting as much responsibility on the states as possible. At least, based on what’s been said so far.
At least as long as states do things they agree with.
They’re all about local rule unless the local rules are made by Democrats. See: plastic bag bans.
Or free school lunches. I believe a Project 2025 item is banning states from providing free school lunches.
They did last time as well. A chunk of auto makers sided with CA and stuck with their regulations even though they were technically toothless those 4 years.
Let the DoGE eliminate ALL vehicular regulations!!
I’ll see all of you out there on the Fury Road!! WITNESS ME!! SHINY AND CHROME!!!
Hmm, the compact SUV deals are a tough choice. Does one choose a couple grand off a CRV, a couple grand plus 0% financing on a Rogue, or a free Hornet with the purchase of 4 tires?
I’d seriously probably still take the CRV
One of the first two.
What if you only had to buy 2 tires and they were the really cheap ones?
I mean the Hornet is bound to live most of it’s life on a mismatch set of Linglong’s anyhow, why not roll it off the lot like that?
You get the “Damn that’s harsh!” award today.
I think you mean the “Harsh, but fair” award. 😛
Then, sure. Why not. But also pick either the CRV or the Rogue. That way you won’t have to worry about getting a loaner while the Hornet is in the shop.
Specifically the first one of the first two
In 4 years I’ll still have a perfectly good set of slightly used, though slightly flat-spotted tires.
What kind of tires are we talking about? If I have to spring for a premium set of Michelins, forget it.
Something real sketchy with a badly translated name like “Wayfun several season many terrains very good high fast tires”
Replace all gas guzzler taxes, emissions laws, footprint rules, EV mandates, etc with a simple tax on gas and diesel with half earmarked to rebates for lower income households to balance out their costs and the other half earmarked to infrastructure improvements.
Do I think this is likely to happen? No.
Do I think Elon Musk might be in favor of it? Possibly yes, as it makes driving a Tesla more attractive.
The selling point of “drive whatever you want to and whatever automakers are able and willing to profitably sell” seems compelling to me though. No more compliance cars. No more sad stuff like Dodge half-heartedly selling I6 Chargers or AMG putting a 2.0T in a car branded “63” and pretending they’re excited to do so. Just make people pay for their externalities and let them make their own decisions. Remember before 100 of you come screaming in my replies that US light vehicle emissions are a tiny fraction of global CO2 (~1%). The scale of regulations and limitations are far out of whack with actual impact.
The fairest tax is a tax on the consumeable.
Also maybe a US gas tax that is inflation adusted past the early 90’s.
Big brain govenrment types hate with the voilent passion of 1000 white hot suns earmarked taxes, which has always indicated to me that they’re probably a good idea becasue you get what you pay for, and people would could actually fairly see what they are being taxed for.
Tobacco/liquor tax is austensibly to reduce consumtption and pay for healthcare costs, there would be a lot higher tollerance/less grey market black market activity if people knew the consumption tax was funding the thing they claimed instead of the infinite pit of ‘general revenue’. I’m not say that a country doesn’t need some general revenue taxes, but if you’re hitting me with a sin tax, it better go to directly to the reason claimed for the tax and not some boondoggle skullduggery no bid ditch digging.
The rub is getting people to pay for the externalities. How to account for someone’s pickup jacked skyward emitting unfiltered diesel fumes in front of a school playground every recess? Nothing malicious, just that their lunch time overlaps with recess after mornings spent shuttling supplies down some tracks that barely qualify as roads. That pickup is putting a lot of vulnerable people into harm’s way. Both immediately with asthma attacks from the immediate exposure and long term with increased cancer risks from repeat exposure.
My personal opinion is that diesel for non-commercial customers should cost about $20/gallon which I understand and accept won’t make me popular here.
Basically diesel engines in private ownership are and were a catastrophic health decision and in an ideal world you should really have to want one to own one.
Gas-electric hybrid trucks should be able to tow and haul as well as diesels with better efficiency in the near future in anything below medium duty size and that should hopefully put an end to the experiment.
That’s actually a really good solution! I’d be down with that.
As an owner of a 1st Gen Cummins I am against this haha also my truck regularly gets 20-22mpg vs my FJ that gets a whole 15-16mpg so I do wonder which is worse with putting out emissions? My firebird gets a whole 11-12mpg with no emissions equipment and on premium so I am sure that puts out the most of my vehicles but that isn’t a daily and probably driven 2k miles a year at most. My Cummins and FJ are probably split 50/50 for my daily driving.
Note that I am drawing a pretty clear distinction between CO2 emissions and particulate/soot emissions here.
The reason I think diesel is a bad idea and a severe health risk is the latter. And an early Cummins is much much worse on that front than any gas car no matter its fuel efficiency.
Expand on this, please. Do you mean “health” as in human and animal life? Or “health” as in financial well being?
When looking at fuel economy, diesel Sprinters average a couple MPG more than the same gasoline models — 18 vs 16 MPG, respectively — so I would suggest a ~12% increase in fuel efficiency for diesels in this application is a good thing, all other variables being equal. I mention Sprinters because that’s what I know, and the fuel usage difference between diesel and gasoline is representative of other vehicles offering gas and diesel options.
I agree with your comment about hybrids in light trucks if you mean Ramcharger and Scout battery-plus-generator propulsion. However, those are unobtanium in 2024 and this technology does not address the existing fleet of diesel vehicles that would be subject to $20/gallon diesel.
Definitely health in the usual sense of the term.
The tricks required to get a modern diesel to emit a supposedly safe level of particulates make them expensive, unreliable, and ultimately not save much if anything in TCO vs gas.
Older diesels without that equipment are a legitimate health hazard to humanity.
Decades ago, diesels made some sense because other than pure downsizing there was no other way to increase fuel economy. In 2024, there is really no reason to put up with their downsides in anything smaller than medium duty trucks. That’s why they are already disappearing. $20/fuel would simply accelerate that demise.
I always bring up the question with modern diesel as being better for the environment then the older ones like yes they emit less since they have DEF and DPF systems but my question is what is the process of making DEF and DPF filters? Like what emissions is put off in the production of those products so diesels put off less at the tail pipe?
Diesel is about 15% denser than gasoline and has around a 13% greater energy density per gallon of fuel which accounts for most of the slightly better miles per gallon that you with a diesel vehicle. The diesel cycle is a bit more efficient than the gasoline mainly due to the much higher compression ratios. As others have pointed out, all the additional measures that try to make diesel engines emit fewer cancer causing particulates decrease efficiency and make for a very complicated system.
I’ve heard that they are going to shut down health, so it shouldn’t matter either way.
As a diesel enthusiast I can actually get behind this. Diesel is super efficient but as you mentioned later, the emissions controls needed to make it “safe” negate nearly every positive aspect of it in the private sector today. It’s 100% necessary for commercial use and I’d push to close any loopholes of just creating an LLC to buy/register it, maybe a proof of business revenue or something, otherwise you get the private sector diesel tax.
“US light vehicle emissions are a tiny fraction of global CO2 (~1%). The scale of regulations and limitations are far out of whack with actual impact.”
https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/fast-facts-transportation-greenhouse-gas-emissions
US light vehicle emissions are 16% of US emissions. That’s a significant portion of something we can actually control.
If 1/10 the zeal for bans and regulation was brought to the other 84% as it is to the 16% that I care about deeply and personally, I wouldn’t mind quite as much.
EV mandates are a way for large corporations to offload their own emissions failures onto car owners.
That zeal for bans and regulations swings both ways. Large corporations could have eliminated their emissions decades ago by switching to nuclear power for most things but for such zeal for bans and regulations.
I’d personally like to see someone go after these pointless-to-highly-dubious-value rocket launches that pollute the equivalent annual emissions of millions of cars every time. For whatever reason, some old dorks still get semi erect for anything to do with space and the media- and politician-owning billionaires launching these things as part of a bigger wallet swinging exercise or some fantasy escape to Mars instead of doing anything to improve the planet that they’re on and that they’ve done so much to damage write the narratives, so nobody seems to GAF about the massive environmental impact of each launch.
AI and Crypto are orders of magnitude worse than rocket launches for energy consumption and thus carbon pollution. The vast majority of rocket launches are to support consumer driven things like telecommunications, rural internet, GPS, weather forecasting, etc. The rest are generally military and scientific observation.
Space tourism shouldn’t be allowed and there’s plenty of service from satellites that are already up there without needing a million Starlinks and I really don’t see the value in scientific experiments like growing garlic in zero gravity being anywhere near the cost. Plus, all of this floating space junk now restricts scientific observation of the cosmos. I don’t see any use for crypto that isn’t scamming or laundering or AI outside of medical diagnosis or similar pattern recognition applications where it is actually useful and they should be taxed heavily for their energy consumption. At least, though, AI and crypto could be powered off renewables. There are no renewable energy rockets unless they can make a giant version of those hand-pump water rockets, which I’d be all for.
I’m all for simplification to a usage tax, but BEVs have to be on the hook for something. Maybe a mileage tax, where BEVs benefit from a lower rate?
Hmm. Doing away with the absurd lighting rules that are legitimately holding us back from adaptive headlights and real sequential turn signals would be a good start.
One of my favorite things to come out of our lighting rules has been watching the various companies try to figure out “fun” turn signal tricks that fit within the rules.
Watching Audi have to add in a block of light to satisfy the 1/3 rule was unfortunate. Then seeing Toyota/Lexus just say “Hey, we can just go the other way” and make signals sweeping off their norm (and it looks way better than Audi’s band-aid!). Then Mazda with the Heartbeat signals, and BMW doing the opposite of that.
It’s been an interesting thing to watch over the past few years!
I’d go further–scrap our own safety standard and adopt NCAP wholesale, like the rest of the world did.
If it’s good enough globally, it’s good enough for us.
That would open up a whole range of low cost vehicles. Fun!
Get rid of US standards and just adopt EU standards
OTOH I’d ban red rear blinkers and blinkers that blink the whole taillight. Blinkers should be their own lighting unit, and it should be amber, end of story
I’ll avoid any real politics as much as I can here, but with Musk adding the head of a government department to his workload, at what point do Tesla Shareholders finally break and force him out? It’s clear he’s been pushing for majority shareholder status for years because he knows if he keeps over 50% of the company he’s liable to do as he pleases, and if he continues to go off the deep end, he can just strongarm himself into control of the company regardless of the board/shareholders.
Eventually the fanboys and blinded shareholders will realize he’s stretched far too thin, has become too controversial, and too shortsighted to remain the CEO of Tesla. Lets be honest, he already is, but adding another full time job to his work schedule will certainly have consequences for every other company he works for. Tesla stock has been wildly overinflated for years, and the recent post-election rally is even more proof that it’s a stock entirely driven by hype and blind speculation.
Not that I wish hardship on anyone holding a concerningly large amount of their money in Musk stocks, but the day of reckoning will certainly come, it’s just a question of when.
DOGE will not do anything other than publicize Federal Government waste, which is pretty easy to find. They will refer these abuses to Congress or Federal agencies to rectify.
Of course, nothing will actually happen because inefficiency is by design to employ more people, spread money to constituents, and reward corporate backers.
Bingo. Well said. Just another example of pointless political grandstanding. A circus like this is exactly what you get with a clown in charge.
I’m skeptical DOGE will even exist at all, at least in the long term. DOGE reminds me of Trump’s voter fraud commission that met twice and disbanded. Of course, government inefficiency is a legitimate concern (unlike widespread voter fraud), but DOGE itself strikes me more as political theater than a serious attempt to curb wasteful spending. If nothing else, it is hard to take this committee seriously when it seems intentionally named to invoke a meme with its acronym.
“Waste” as designated by partisan designees with no experience in government. I guarantee nothing in the defense budget will be listed.
Not until the economy crashes and it costs the shareholders money. And based on the history of economic crashes and Republican majorities going hand in hand combined with the extreme, chaotic policy goals of the administration I’d say sometime in the next 4 years.
While I can certainly agree that Elon is quite the odd duck, I’m gonna disagree with a few things you wrote:
Just my thoughts on your points.
The mass exodus of users from X/Twitter due to Musks ownership would indicate a large number of people are not a fan, and those who do like him do so undyingly, which I would argue is the definition of controversial. I’d also argue that his takeover and restructuring of Twitter/X has been the definition of short sighted, slashing staffing almost immediately and then having to rehire some to keep the website functioning is not a standard business practice.
Similarly, the constant churn of Tesla model announcements, and the aggressively hard push for CT production over a more affordable mass-market 2, the very long awaited Roadster, or a Model Y refresh is nothing short of vanity rather than good business sense.
The CT has quickly become a problem child for the company with a bad public perception, now 6 recalls in one year, serious reliability issues, and building up inventory they’re having a hard time shifting, all while Model S/X and Y are losing serious market share as they become less and less competitive.
And regardless of how well someone does multitasking, at a certain point there is not enough hours in the day to be the CEO/Owner of multiple multinational corporations, the owner of a social media company, and the head of a government agency, all while expecting a full and normal workload to be contributed to each of those companies. I don’t know of any Fortune 500 company CEO that has even a second executive level position, much less 3 others.
I could refute some of those points in the reply, but I’d rather not make this a thing. You do you, my dude. All good 🙂
I think the implied influence afforded will probably be seen as a boon to Tesla.
The Tesla board keeps Elmo in charge precisely because it’s a meme stock.
The day the Tesla board acknowledges that yes, they are indeed a car company, and all the “FSD any day now” for the last 10 years, Optimus robots being controlled by people remotely, AI is gonna be great bullshit is just vaporware from an Emperor that has no clothes, the stock price of Tesla is going to tank. When the stock price of Tesla tanks, so too will the fortunes of everyone on the Tesla board, Elmo, and key whale investors that are heavily involved in running hype for Tesla.
That is why Elmo will never be removed. It’s not that the board doesn’t know Elmo’s full of shit, it’s that the board appreciates more what he does for Tesla’s stock price.
Don’t get my hopes up…can we just blast the fool to Mars already?!
The Department of Government Efficiency has two leaders. How efficient.
I wonder how long it will take for one to try eliminate the other. For sake of efficiency, of course.
Both dudes are known for their collaborative natures. It will be fine. Just fine.
If they could do it Thunderdome style, then I’m all for it.
I’d pay to see that.
They could reuse the AvP tagline: Whoever wins, we lose.
We’re still owed a Muskrat-Zuckerberg fight. So get in line.
Two men enter, no man leaves.
ThunderDOGE
Now, when men get to fighting, it happens here! And it finishes here! Two men enter; one man leaves.
I’m going to report that redundancy to this department and the Redundancy Department of Redundancy Reductions as a potential redundancy to cut.
Give the already existing Government Accountability Office some teeth. And some more compliance officers well versed in how stuff is supposed to run. I know some regulation wonks. They love nothing better than helping folks doing the work to stay compliant in easy to follow ways. On the flip side, don’t do dumb stuff. They have no tolerance for that.