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Filed under: Car Buying , Government/Legal , Safety The Federal Bureau of Investigations has shut down a car theft ring operating in the U.S. for more than 20 years, causing in excess of $25 million in losses to owners and banks. According to CNN, the ring would clone cars, swiping the legal identity of one car - VIN numbers, tags, stickers -- and applying it to another, stolen car. The cloned car would then be sold to a dealer or consumer, and the countdown would begin: Eventually, most would be discovered as stolen property and confiscated, but the buyer would remain on the hook for the money owed. For example, a man in Florida bought a Ford F-350 Super Duty for $27,000 last year from a used car dealer. Nine months later, it was tracked down and confiscated, but the bank has told the owner that he's still on the hook for the loan for a vehicle he no longer has. Although the FBI admonishes, "Folks should be educated enough so that they don't buy a car from a stranger, on the...
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Filed under: Etc. , Government/Legal , Earnings/Financials , Lifestyle Virginia lawmakers are taking a metaphorical battering ram to suburban cul-de-sacs, those little dead-end roundabouts that are almost all adorned with a yellow sign saying "No Outlet." Caught out by spiraling maintenance and development costs, the Washington Post reports that legislators are now mandating that the state will only maintain new subdivision roadways that meet its revised requirements for narrower dimensions and increased connectivity. That maintenance includes not only things like pothole patches and striping, but also plowing in winter, meaning that the state's new laws will carry very real consequences for planners and developers who choose not to comply. The rise of cul-de-sacs occurred when suburban city planners and private developers decided it was better to have a few roads act as central spines instead of connecting all roads in a grid. Unfortunately, the result has been that the large...
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Filed under: Trends , Etc. , Government/Legal , Lifestyle Repo men working in rural Alabama attempt to take a man's car at 2:30 am. The car's owner, 67-year-old Jimmy Tanks, hears noises and steps outside with his gun. Shots are fired and Jimmy ends up dead. The tables were turned on another repo man working in Alabama, who ended up dying of a gunshot wound. A third repo man, also in Alabama, was wounded by a gunshot while towing a vehicle away. With repossessions predicted to exceed 1.7 million vehicles this year, and the industry itself loosely regulated, violence during lawful repossessions is also predicted to rise. Only California, Florida and Louisiana license and keep track of "recovery agents," which leaves the rest to operate in a vacuum as far as limits are concerned. Federal law states only that they can't "breach the peace," but it's left to judge and jury to determine when that has happened. One Alabama sheriff wants the state legislature...
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Filed under: Sedans/Saloons , Euro , Government/Legal , Audi , Police/Emergency Switzerland, the same country whimsical enough to bring us yodeling and cuckoo clocks, takes a decidedly draconian approach when it comes to speeding. Speeding that would get you a stern talking to and a big ticket in the U.S. will get you three days in jail , a 1,000 Swiss franc fine (about $850 USD), and a fine of 20% to 35% of your net monthly salary. To watch over the potentially speeding populace, the Swiss police have added a raft of Audi S4s with laser radar to their arsenals. The black Audis with the tinted windows can detect your speed while they are driving behind you, in the opposing direction, or parked by the side of the road. If you're going to take a spin in the canton, save your wild abandon for the chocolate, restrain yourselves on the roads. Hat tip to Jerome! Gallery: Swiss unmarked Audi S4 radar cars [Source: Car Platform ] Switzerland using fleet of undercover Audi S4s with high-tech...
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Filed under: Etc. , Government/Legal Michigan is a state of contradictions. The authorities there are so worried about your focus on the road in front of you that it's illegal to hang anything on your rear-view mirror . Yet if you want to triple tow - that's pulling two trailers at one time, like an RV camper and a boat - you can do it after you pay $10 and take a 15-question test. And you just need to get 12 answers right. The only caveat worth mentioning is that the total length of the tow vehicle and two trailers can't exceed 65 feet. That's about the length of a semi-trailer combo, the differences being that a semi-trailer has only one articulated point and the folks who drive them need expensive specialized training and commercial driver's licenses. Incredibly, Michigan is not only not alone with this, it is not the most permissive : Wisconsin and other states allow 65-foot triple-towing combinations, South Dakota allows 75 feet, and Wyoming gives drivers a whopping...
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Filed under: Euro , Government/Legal , Green European car ads are always mentioning how many grams of CO2 a car emits because more than twelve European countries tax drivers based on those emissions. Germany, home to a cadre of automakers for which CO2 parsimony is not a prime consideration, has held out from the carbon dioxide taxation scheme, until now. The leading government coalition has finally agreed on a plan to tax CO2 output. The only problem is that it doesn't really change much of the scheme already in place, and it's hit-and-miss. This, naturally, has Germany's environmental parties calling foul, yet the nation's domestic producers like VW, Audi, Porsche, Mercedes, and BMW initially gotten the government to consider lowering the taxes on gas guzzlers. In that light, the new taxation proposal could be seen as a victory, albeit a small one. As it stands, the yearly tax will be calculated based on engine size and emissions, and smaller-engined, cleaner vehicles...
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Filed under: Government/Legal To be fair, the new president faces a lot of immediate challenges. But when it comes to the auto industry, the biggest four challenges could be the bridge loans, fuel economy mandates, the EPA vs The California 14, and the board of czars that will oversee the fortunes of GM and Chrysler. The similarity between these challenges and others on the domestic and global agenda: he doesn't have a lot of time to get them right. It was clear that the $17.4 billion granted to GM and Chrysler was just the beginning of a process needing a well thought out and long term endgame. Part of that endgame involved the two automakers coming up with viability plans, which are due on February 17. Then Congress and the president will need to decide, based on those plans, whether the car companies should receive more money. Should the carmakers get more money, the necessary car czar position is looking like a body-of-car-oligarchs instead, which sounds like a more reasonable idea...
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Filed under: Hybrids/Alternative , Government/Legal , Green , I.C.E. , Tech The uncertain future of the alternative-powered and alternative-fueled vehicle is being decided by a confluence of old and new technology, big business and start-ups, marketing, vested interests, and public perception. It is no surprise, then, that when it comes to government regulation, we are bound to end up with some conflicting decisions. A company in California that converts regular hybrids to plug-in hybrids has found itself smack in the middle of one of those conflicts. Last year, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) cut its mandated amount of electric vehicle sales in California by 70%. Some thought that might leave an exploitable opening for plug-in hybrids to gain serious market share. A number of start-ups have been established that install additional batteries into cars like the Toyota Prius, rendering them all electric below 34 mph, and allowing them to be recharged in 4 hours from a standard 3...
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