Illegal Tampering By Diesel Pickup Owners Is Worsening Pollution, EPA Says 336
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: The owners and operators of more than half a million diesel pickup trucks have been illegally disabling their vehicles' emissions control technology over the past decade, allowing excess emissions equivalent to 9 million extra trucks on the road, a new federal report has concluded. The practice, described in a report by the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Civil Enforcement, has echoes of the Volkswagen scandal of 2015, when the automaker was found to have illegally installed devices in millions of diesel passenger cars worldwide -- including about half a million in the United States -- designed to trick emissions control monitors. But in this case no single corporation is behind the subterfuge; it is the truck owners themselves who are installing illegal devices, which are typically manufactured by small companies. That makes it much more difficult to measure the full scale of the problem, which is believed to affect many more vehicles than the 500,000 or so estimated in the report.
The E.P.A. focused just on devices installed in heavy pickup trucks, such as the Chevrolet Silverado and the Dodge Ram 2500, about 15 percent of which appear to have defeat devices installed. But such devices -- commercially available and marketed as a way to improve vehicle performance -- almost certainly have been installed in millions of other vehicles. The report found "significant amounts of excess air pollution caused by tampering" with diesel pickup truck emissions controls. The technology is essentially an at-home version of the factory-installed "defeat devices" embedded into hundreds of thousands of vehicles in the United States byVolkswagen, which was forced to pay $14.7 billion in the U.S. to settle claims stemming from the scandal. The report said "diesel tuners" will allow the trucks to release more than 570,000 tons of nitrogen dioxide, a pollutant linked to heart and lung disease and premature death, over the lifetime of the vehicles. That is more than ten times the excess nitrogen oxide emissions attributed to the factory-altered Volkswagens sold domestically. The report also found that the altered pickup trucks will emit about 5,000 excess tons of industrial soot, also known as particulate matter, which is linked to respiratory diseases and higher death rates for Covid-19 patients.
The E.P.A. focused just on devices installed in heavy pickup trucks, such as the Chevrolet Silverado and the Dodge Ram 2500, about 15 percent of which appear to have defeat devices installed. But such devices -- commercially available and marketed as a way to improve vehicle performance -- almost certainly have been installed in millions of other vehicles. The report found "significant amounts of excess air pollution caused by tampering" with diesel pickup truck emissions controls. The technology is essentially an at-home version of the factory-installed "defeat devices" embedded into hundreds of thousands of vehicles in the United States byVolkswagen, which was forced to pay $14.7 billion in the U.S. to settle claims stemming from the scandal. The report said "diesel tuners" will allow the trucks to release more than 570,000 tons of nitrogen dioxide, a pollutant linked to heart and lung disease and premature death, over the lifetime of the vehicles. That is more than ten times the excess nitrogen oxide emissions attributed to the factory-altered Volkswagens sold domestically. The report also found that the altered pickup trucks will emit about 5,000 excess tons of industrial soot, also known as particulate matter, which is linked to respiratory diseases and higher death rates for Covid-19 patients.
Bubba Has To Have That Power (Score:3, Insightful)
Government control doesn't apply to bubba. Just ask him. That shit is for other folks.
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Well it's not like bubba is going to pull himself or any of his friends over for modifying their trucks. Country deputies enforce the law very selectively.
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All becoming a moot point. Wont be much longer and they will be banned from metropolitan areas all together. Then there will be the howls and cries of anguish at collapsed resale value and changes in law allowing corporations to drop making spare parts for fossil fuellers much sooner in the life of the remaining fossil fuellers. Those old pickup trucks will be very popular in Africa, as used vehicles and as spare parts.
Re: Bubba Has To Have That Power (Score:4, Informative)
Itâ(TM)s not that, itâ(TM)s the devices improve pollution conditions and reduces fuel burn. There is more to pollution than what comes out of the trucks tail pipe, mostly related to the production, transport, excess CO2 etc... that these devices resolve. Fuel economy normally improves dramatically.
Go on Youtube and search for "rolling coal" to see what diesel pickup drivers think of your opinions on pollution.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
More complicated (Score:5, Informative)
Go on Youtube and search for "rolling coal" to see what diesel pickup drivers think of your opinions on pollution.
Only a small minority are fitting things to "roll coal". The GP is correct that a lot of the defeat devices are installed to increase power and actually increase fuel efficiency.
In attempting to reduce NOx pollution, [accessmagazine.org] mileage for diesel engines plummeted, and with diesel often MORE expensive these days than gasoline, that puts those in diesel trucks in a bind, especially now that they're expected to buy DEF/Adblue as well.
NOx is created when you have excessive oxygen available in the combustion chamber to react with the nitrogen also in the air introduced into the piston chamber. Basically, temperature and pressure get high enough to disassociate N2, getting them to combine with oxygen in several different compounds. DEF, when introduced correctly, causes the NOx to degrade again. [greenchem-adblue.com]
Gasoline engines work by throttling both the amount of air and gasoline introduced into the cylinder, often premixing the gas with the air, and controlling the airflow. So there's just enough air to combust the fuel, which keeps NOx formation down. Since there isn't too much NOx, you don't need much more than the catalytic converter.
Diesel engines, of course, need enough pressure to detonate the diesel when it is injected, so when you're not running at full throttle, there's lots of air available to form NOx compounds. When new environmental regulations stopped giving diesels a large pass on NOx emissions, holding them much closer to what a gasoline engine can do, they had to get creative. This resulted in shifts towards Adblue and regenerative systems that DO cost power and fuel economy. For example, one way to clear out NOx is to "burn it" by ensuring there's hydrocarbons that want that oxygen more than the nitrogens do. But that requires burning more fuel. Same sort of deal with dealing with the other problem diesels have, pollution wise, over gasoline engines - particulates. Again, you can make a filter, but if you don't want to have to replace it regularly, what they do is a sort of burning for the filter, heating it enough to burn the particles. But uses more fuel to do that...
So Bubba, wanting to save some money despite buying a huge diesel truck, kills the emission system that people are telling him will improve his fuel economy, saving him substantial money at the pump, and the "pollution" isn't that bad anyways. And, since NOx will break down given time anyways, out in the country they might be right.
Re: Bubba Has To Have That Power (Score:5, Insightful)
AdBlue is the correct term for the artificial pee on the European market. On the US market it's designated DEF (Diesel Exhaust Fluid). It can however only cope with the NOx to a certain level and it is also something that many of the mods are disabling because it's expensive as well.
But what a lot of pickup trucks are modified for is to "roll coal" and that should be a one way ticket to the scrap yard for those trucks because then there's no reason whatsoever to actually have that modification.
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I would support a law that the penalty for rolling coal even once gets your vehicle turned into a small metal cube. Stilll making payments? Tough shit. Now you are making payments for a cube.
Re: Bubba Has To Have That Power (Score:5, Funny)
This might be responsible for the large increase in cases of asthma - but, a la Trump - no news is good news.
Yep, those tiny squirts of Adblu are responsible for this, definitely not the continuous measurable emissions of NOx and particulates that come out of the tail pipes in amounts that measurably affect the environment of an entire city. Not those. Definitely the additive that is consumed at about 1L / 1000km and nothing to do with partially combusting the many L of fuel over that same distance. Nosirreee bob.
It's a *conspiracy*.
In other news I've moved my newsletter to email form for those who want to subscribe. Next week's core topic: why are we still being mind controlled without so many Chemtrails being sprayed in the air? Has the government put it in our water?
Re: Bubba Has To Have That Power (Score:5, Informative)
No, that is nitrous oxide, i.e. N2O. NOx is shorthand for nitric oxides NO and NO2, with completely different chemical properties.
Re: Bubba Has To Have That Power (Score:5, Informative)
That is true for CO2, but for NOx it is a completely different story. NOx* is produced over a very limited range of combustion temperatures,
No, not a limited range. When the combustion temperature is 1300C/2370F or HIGHER, NOx is produced. At that point the combustion is hot enough to oxidize the nitrogen in the incoming air.
"AddBlu" (also known as pig's piss). A microprocessor is required to guess how hot the combustion chamber is, and for how long, as this cannot be measured - and squirt the right amount of AddBlu into the tail pipe. No one knows if this is even remotely the correct amount, because, like with the VW story, tests are only done in the lab. There are NO reports of real life emissions being measured at all. In reality, we are exposed to unknown amounts of excess AddBlu squirted into the environment which has not been measured - probably because mass corruption might be exposed. This might be responsible for the large increase in cases of asthma
It's the Urea [wikipedia.org] that is used that reduces the NOx. Urea is non-toxic and is not responsible for asthma. However NOx is responsible for smog, acid rain, ozone depletion, etc. NOx is well known to exacerbate the effects of asthma. There have been several publication that show it may also be linked to the cause of asthma, heart disease, diabetes, birth issues and several other health problems. Granted, the link to these is not as well understood at this time.
Particulate emission is a completely different story, and can be removed by filters - if fitted. However, AddBlu, NOx and soot do not cause cancer, unlike the unburned hydrocarbon pollution from petrol (gasoline), which is a known carcinogen, but we are told is the safer alternative.
Particulate matter [nih.gov] it appears is very likely to be a factor in cardiac disease. There have been close to a dozen publications showing this in the last 5 years now. Obviously I agree that hydrocarbon pollution is bad as well, but NOx and soot are not at all benign. I've yet to see a diesel pickup truck with a particulate filter attached.
*NOx is the stuff in those silver cylinders used to "enhance male performance" on Saturday night. AKA laughing gas.
You seem to be very mixed up on this. Nitric Oxide (NOx) is not the same at Nitrous oxide. NOx is a generic term for NO and NO2. Nitrous Oxide is N2O. Also, keep in mind that breathing a substance can have a very different outcome than digesting it.
In the cath lab acetylcholine can be injected into a vessel to test endothelial function. In a person with good endothelial function, it is converted into nitric oxide and cause the vessel to dilate. If it there is poor endothelial function, then the vessel will constrict. If it is severe enough nitric oxide will be injected to open the vessel up.
Drinking water is good for you; breathing it, not so much. Nitric Oxide supplements are used in hopes of increasing blood flow. Nitric oxide in the blood stream will cause the blood vessel to relax and allow more blood to flow through it. It's still unclear if digested nitric oxide supplements actually work, or to what extent that they do. The effects of breathing it are not good. It's just a matter of how bad it is and besides causing issues for asthmatics, what else are the health risks. And the effects of smog and acid rain are also quite evident.
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Wonder no more.
Re:Bubba Has To Have That Power (Score:5, Insightful)
Many of them Yes. A lot of them are in jobs and life conditions that offer them little Authority or Power in their daily lives. Doing these small crimes just because they can get away with them, gives them a false sense of power and control of their life. (Bucked the system that was trying to keep them down) They take pride in that, because they are in a condition where they may not be able to do do more.
Re: Bubba Has To Have That Power (Score:3)
Well are you living in a fucking democracy or not??
Cause in a democracy, like you, bubba gets to pick the government and tell it what to do too. No matter if others dislike it.
(I'm pro saving the environment, because I need it to survive, too, but rights are there for a reason. We can still choose to split the country or throw somebody out of the country to make his own, to then embargo it, or a defend ourselves if it attacks us, e.g. with poison gas, of course. Within the bounds of fairness, logically. WE
Re: Bubba Has To Have That Power (Score:5, Insightful)
"No matter if others dislike it"
In a Democracy if more Others don't like it than Bubba doesn't get his way (For the most part).
Right now the problem is that we are talking about "Bubba" as some sort of other who is an evil inhuman character who is so Different than You and I, that he Must be stopped.
Trumpian/FoxNews Politics loved to do this, against Liberals, Non-Whites, City Folks... Basically creating an other image where the others are also Different, inhuman and must be stopped.
Re: Bubba Has To Have That Power (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: Bubba Has To Have That Power (Score:3)
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In addition to the devices talked about by this article, there are also things like gas recircs (EGR) particle filters (DPF) and the associated sensors. There is a small performance gain from removing the EGR but mainly it's a cost thing.
The EGR went in my wifes car, was ~£200 to replace it or £10 for a blanking plate. The DPF went in my car, was £500 to get a blank module installed and re-code the ECU, or ~£1500 worth of new DPF and sensors. In both cases we got the work done proper
Re:Trump won. Get over it, bitter clingers! (Score:4, Funny)
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My penis may be small... (Score:4, Funny)
...and I grew up with rednecks, but I personally don't feel the need to "roll coal".
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I grew up with rednecks too and they can take their tail pipe and shove it.
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Nah, it was always like that.
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Rolling coal is quite different: It actually impairs performance and engine life, in order to make a personal statement.
The statement is "Dumb lie-berals love the planet so much, I'm gonna trash it like a Captain Planet villain just to troll them!"
Re:My penis may be small... (Score:5, Informative)
When it happens to me I send my dashcam video of the event, along with the license plate to the local law enforcement. It's got them a few tickets.
No it hasn't (Score:2)
How would you ever know they were ticketed?
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When there's only one cheap pub in town, all you have to do is sit at the bar for a couple of hours and you'll hear all about it when a bunch of these assholes get a few pints in them and start bitching about how cops should get after the real criminals.
Re:My penis may be small... (Score:5, Insightful)
What are you proposing they should do instead? Follow them until they stop, then drag them out of their truck and beat them? Do absolutely nothing and just take it? How exactly is reporting their illegal activity not a valid, measured response?
Re: My penis may be small... (Score:5, Insightful)
Including air exchange and such
I see what you did there, with bubba literally poisoning the air exchange.
Bubba "coal rolling" serves no purpose other than to try and hurt another person.
We can all agree Bubba is just a dick, right?
Re: My penis may be small... (Score:5, Interesting)
What a heap of smelly bullshit.
Self-defense is always valid, if we accept the concept of human rights. But the problem is that everybody defines harm differently, and nobody is special, so nobody's definition is more equal.
You leave out the essential part in the beginning, namely that in which we agree, as a society, what constitutes harm. And then go ahead and codify that into laws. And then go even further and instate law enforcement agencies and agents, courts of law etc.
And then, when we witness wrongdoing, we pass on that information to precisely those agencies and agents.
This is pretty much the antitheses of "self-defence" and "everybody's definition ...bla bla yadda yadda... grey area".
Rolling Coal (Score:4, Interesting)
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I was 20 once, and I didn't. Don't be retarded, it is easy.
Re:Rolling Coal (Score:4, Interesting)
A ticket? Why not jail?
Rolling coal is at the very least misdemeanor assault, which should be good for six months in most states.
As for defeat devices, they might not cause much harm out in rural counties, but if 15% of these trucks in a city have them, that's a different kettle of fish. In a lot of states tampering with emissions equipment or falsifying an emissions test is a Class B misdemeanor.
The thing is, I have never heard of anyone being prosecuted for these things. It may happen, but not enough to discourage people from making these things common practice.
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You obviously don't drive a Tesla then. Video's of Tesla's being 'coal rolled' are ten a penny these days.
Big Trucks, small dicks.
I don't drive a Tesla. Wouldn't be seen dead in one.
Inspections, and fines. (Score:5, Insightful)
So it sounds like it's time for law enforcement to step in, and enforce laws.
Fuck around with your vehicle's emissions and expect to have registration good for public roads? Nope, registration is cancelled, tags forfeited, vehicle towed, and registration will remain cancelled until you demonstrate that your emissions equipment is returned to a compliant state. And here's a fine for driving a vehicle on public roads that doesn't conform to published and duly ratified safety and emissions standards in this legal jurisdiction. Oh, and to have your registration reinstated, you will agree to random inspection of your vehicle's emissions system to make sure you didn't just disable or temporarily remove the defeat device. And if you get caught again, there won't be a re-registration of that vehicle - a title lien gets applied until the vehicle is sold to a licensed dealer who can certify the emissions equipment has been returned to operational and compliant condition previous to resale.
"Coal rollers" are going to keep being fucking douchebags unless there are real consequences. Creating a huge cloud of poison behind them while they thrash the engine is entertaining for them, so you need to make the incentive to not doing that something they care about - remove the ability to legally drive their "rig" on public roads without risking fines and other legal consequences and they'll get the message.
Re:Inspections, and fines. (Score:4, Interesting)
Long ago, some cities outlawed cars which rode extra low to the ground... know what happened? The car moders simply started building in mechanisms to allow the driver to raise/lower the car on demand, so they could show up and say "see! my car is legal, I fixed the issue!" then get back to their low riding ways.
Pretty easy to disguise a toggleable system for those seeking to coal roll or otherwise change the performance of the car... just as Volkswagon.
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I will admit... I know little about cars, gas goes in from time to time, change oil when it says, take to mechanic when idiot light comes on... and to me they are like how most people treat computers... I turn it on, it takes me to where I want to go and I turn it off... however, I can observe that you ignored the entire second half of my point: "or otherwise change the performance of the car... just as Volkswagen"... which is more related to this story than simply rolling coal.
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[...] registration will remain cancelled until you demonstrate that your emissions equipment is returned to a compliant state.
...by holding down the cruise-control button for two seconds.
Marijuana (Score:5, Insightful)
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If you want that to work, it's easy: Just allow the police to seize modified cars and sell them at auction, and the department to keep the proceeds. Then watch how eagerly that law gets enforced.
The cops stopped giving a fuck (Score:2)
The cops around here seemed to have stopped giving a fuck even before Covid hit. Now you can do pretty much whatever you want and not get pulled over. Run all the red lights and stop signs, drive double or triple the speed limit. Nothing happens. I haven't even bothered to get my car inspected this year.
There was a solution to this in the 1990s (Score:3)
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Were the smog inspections free to the car owner? Why?
In (most of?) Europe you pay for it during the regular inspections, either as part of it or as a technically separate thing you do at the same time. So e.g. you pay $30 to get the emissiosn checked, then go across the street and do the rest of the mechanical inspection for which you also pay $50 or whatever.
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The coal rollers are easy to see, but rolling coal doesn't give you any extra power, it's just unburnt fuel spewing out the exhaust. Harder to find are the simple +100 HP tuners, or scr delete, .
Though I agree a coupled months in jail and that the state impounds the truck and pays a technician to return it to stock. If you don't pay back the state's cost they can foreclose on the truck and auction it off to recoup costs.
Also public/private road doesn't matter, the air is a public resource, it's just easier
When the delete costs less than the repair bill... (Score:5, Informative)
The problem with all these emission systems is that they are prone to failure and extremely costly to repair. More costly than the delete costs.
And in nearly all cases, the engine runs better and uses less fuel without the EGR and DPF. Engines that use only DEF to catalyze the NOx are already efficient, so removing the DEF has no impact on fuel economy. But DEF systems are very expensive to fix and are only made by just a couple of companies (regulatory capture). Bosch, I'm looking at you!
This is all very problematic for farm machines. During the tail end of harvest this year I got a low SCR pressure alarm and engine derate. So for now DEF is deleted until I have time to go over the all the filters and tubes in the system and figure out what's wrong with it. Normally I leave things intact because I figure without the DEF getting injected, the catalyzer module could be permanently damaged from the high heat (making the DEF delete a permanent thing).
Anyway I have no illusions that the guys belching smoke at intersections are doing it to save on repair bills. These are tricky issues. Because any attempts to solve the problem will disproportionately impact those who legitimately need a large vehicle for whatever reason.
By the way, there's already a $10,000 fine in the US (levied through the EPA?) for getting caught with an emissions defeat system installed. But the only ones that are going to find that are the repair shop people and they'll never bother to report it to the EPA as it's bad for business.
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Anyway I have no illusions that the guys belching smoke at intersections are doing it to save on repair bills.
In my experience as a diesel truck enthusiast, this is the reason about half the time. DEF system breaks, truck goes into limp mode, and the cost to delete is less than or equal to the cost of repair. May as well delete and get the extra benefits.
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By the way, there's already a $10,000 fine in the US (levied through the EPA?) for getting caught with an emissions defeat system installed. But the only ones that are going to find that are the repair shop people and they'll never bother to report it to the EPA as it's bad for business.
Then it sounds like there needs to be incentive for repair shops to report defeat systems. Like fines and loss of operating license if defeats are not reported.
Re:When the delete costs less than the repair bill (Score:5, Interesting)
I know of more than a few shops that will actually suggest the delete because they know the customer is going to take a bath in repair costs on the emissions systems otherwise. In my opinion, if governments mandate a system that is so vital but expensive to repair, they need to legislate a mandatory 10 year warranty on these components. That's really the only way their going to stop many/most people from doing the delete.
Or just ban diesels outright, such as what is happening in Europe. The thing about diesels are that they are incredibly efficient but hard to clean up under all circumstances. Even the best emissions system won't help emissions during cold starts. Just commuting to the grocery store in the winter will not achieve enough heat to even start catalyzing the NOx. However diesels are a lot cleaner now in general than 20 years ago. I remember how a lot of European and middle eastern cities reeked of diesel smoke back in the day. Now it's not nearly as bad, even in places that still drive a lot of small diesel cars.
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No, the government does not need to legislate a mandatory 10 year warranty. The government needs to put air quality detectors and surveillance devices all along he major roads (anything paved). Emissions need to be tracked in real time and linked to specific vehicles. Any set of consistent readings exceeding limits should be cause for license revocation. Do it again - go to jail. Three strikes and you are out. There should be no regulations on the specific devices being installed. All that matters is the en
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This kind of talk is disturbing on a board that generally is against government surveillance.
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They probably ARE drunk drivers.
Share the wealth (Score:2)
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Okay. so... no fine, but a 10k reward? I'll turn myself in! Free money! (Okay,I know this isn't what you intend.)
They don't care (Score:2)
Re: Simple answer is ban pick ups unless necessary (Score:2)
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99% of pickup owners dont need that extra load / capacity. and they should be banned or at least taxed to hell.
It's true- most of them never go farther off-road than a gravel parking lot. I also never see them actually hauling stuff around.
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I used my 4x4 truck for the mountain passes here. In the winter, having all four tires driven makes a big difference.
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Nor should they. Wear and tear associated with near maximum and maximum performance usage is hundreds of times that of nominal usage.
Considering the emissions associated with making a new vehicle, using a vehicle at near maximum or maximum performance ratings is far more harmful to environment than even rolling coal like a douchebag.
Re:Simple answer is ban pick ups unless necessary (Score:5, Funny)
A ban on pickup trucks?
The result would be a Republican landslide in the 2022 midterms.
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I'm a month into being a pickup truck owner and have already hauled a dozen 2x4s, 3x sheets of sheetrock, and about 40 bags of leaves... Tell me again of how I don't need that extra load / capacity. Still waiting to see if I get to go deer hunting this winter and toss a couple of dead animals in the bank without worrying about getting blood on the carpet in the back of a car or SUV.
Also... just filled up the tank for a second time. The math says I got ~13mpg... and you know what, I don't care.
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There's a simpler way to solve this problem.
Just raise the fuel tax until it covers *all* of the external costs caused by pollution, climate change, environmental disruption, and military security costs due to global petroleum trade. Then tack on the costs to address of the crumbling infrastructure in the country that we've been deferring for decades.
That would make people like you care about your fucking 13 mpg, instead of mindlessly dumping your garbage and unpaid bills on the rest of us.
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I would prefer not to sit in my running vehicle in the garage.
I know, it's so easy to wish death on those who you oppose, shame they keep reproducing at a higher rate than you.
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when presented with a social issue if your first responses include
- there should be a law
- there should be a tax
you are the problem, and should be publicly whipped, tarred, and feathered.
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Sometimes a law or a tax is appropriate. If you dismiss those options entirely because of a political ideology, then you are no better.
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While you joke, lets make it more salient:
I want a fence. I want that fence to block the view from my neighbours into my backyard to keep them from perving on my teenaged daughter when she's in the pool. Why is there a law limiting its height to 8 feet? I want 12.
Seems petty? How about this.
I want to live on some land. It doesn't have sewer or water or electrical services. To connect up to those services will cost nearly 6 figures. No problem. I'll put in some sort of leech field or septic to handle sewage,
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To take that argument further, a single person only requires about 58 sq ft really. That will accomodate a single bed, desk, wall mounted TV, clothes dresser, and possibly a small fridge. A couple needs maybe 100 sq ft, but that's just to accomodate the larger bed and more dresser space rquired. You might be asking where they shower or eat. Well, nobody really needs their own kitchen or bathroom. Those can be shared with others. Need some extra storage? For what? Nobody needs anything more than a bed, cloth
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It's not 1984 anymore. Today's diesels are more efficient, clean, and often quicker than gasoline ones.
Re:1984 Diesel Escort (Score:4, Informative)
That's precisely why there weren't many diesel passenger vehicles in the US. The lemons, like that escort gave the technology a bad name.
I drive an '06 Jetta TDI (pre-dieselgate), and it's actually quite fun to drive. Because of the turbocharger (which that escort would have lacked), it performs exceedingly well. Because of the deep, low(er) RPM torque curve, it feels really good under the pedal. It happily cruises at 120kph (70ish mph), and let's just say I've gotten it up significantly higher than that.
As to why? Well, a) it's a bit different, b) Diesel fuel is usually $0.10 to $0.15/L cheaper than regular gasoline here in Canada, and c) it gets better mileage than an equivalent gas vehicle.
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Here in the USA diesel is more expensive that premium gas.
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Yeah I'm really tweaking my dual two barrel carbs and points every week. What are you smoking? You don't even need to touch spark plugs for like 100k miles now. Other than maybe wires or a coil pack failing the ignition systems are zero maintenance.
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You know that diesel technology has changed over the last 35 years, right? Specifically, the introduction of forced induction, variable valve timing, fuel injection to name a few, that deals with many of the shortcomings of naturally aspirated diesel engines like that heap of shit you drove?
Seriously, go drive a BMW 540d or a Mercedes E350 BlueTec and tell me that's the same as a 1984 Ford Escort. Or even a Ford F150 with the turbo diesel - it gets better fuel mileage than a lot of cars.
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So you drove a diesel car once in the '80s and weren't impressed?
To be fair, you don't have to go back to the 80's for diesel to suck in passenger cars. I drove a diesel VW built in the early 2000's that was weak. It may not have been as bad as that 84 escort, but it definitely left no desire to own one at that time. I'm not knocking diesel, just pointing out that it was still a problem more recently that 30+ years ago.
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That's because it was a cheap early 80s Ford, not because it was diesel. The engine was primitive crap that was sized for Arab Oil Embargo gasoline prices.
A 2020 Mercedes E class diesel might not be as quick as its petrol counterparts but it would still be plenty fast.
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Because the BMW has a hybrid system.
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Dear slashdot, I'm still using candles made of tallow for lighting. I don't trust these new fangled led bulbs.
Re:1984 Diesel Escort (Score:4, Funny)
Dear slashdot, I'm still using candles made of tallow for lighting. I don't trust these new fangled led bulbs.
Hmm, well either you're a curmudgeon or a hipster. Please clarify by answering the following questions:
1. Do you have a beard and waxed moustache?
2. Do you render your own single breed tallow sourced from your local speciality butcher?
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Re:1984 Diesel Escort (Score:4, Informative)
It's also possible that you are uninformed as to how modern engine technology works, so here's a hint for you:
Many gasoline engines in passenger vehicles are turbocharged now too, because it's a really handy way to boost performance at high RPM, but also reduce emissions by more completely burning fuel in an oxygen-rich mixture at low RPM. See: Ford EcoBoost as a wildly popular example.
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ah yes, ecoboost
fuel efficiency of a v6, performance of a 4 cylinder.
truly a modern marvel
(i still love my fusion, but wish i would have gone for the hybrid)
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Diesels have excellent performance. Their torque is far better than that of gasoline powered engines. They do however lack peak power. Turbocharging a diesel engine removes this problem, effectively making diesel about as good as gasoline in peak power, while maintaining its superiority in torque.
Re:tampering or hacking? (Score:5, Insightful)
Probably because tampering is synonymous with "hacking" and driving a vehicle on public roads that spews an unacceptable amount of particulate and noxious gases, where that amount is defined by law, is the definition of "illegal".
Seriously though, this isn't someone doing an ECU remap to squeeze an extra 20 horsepower out of their engine, or flipping a bit in firmware to enable a feature on your vehicle that it wouldn't otherwise have. This is someone deliberately disabling a system that is meant to capture and catalyze airborne poison into less noxious substances, in order to squeeze a bit of power out; or in the worst case, just to be a douche to other people on the road by purposefully leaving a noxious cloud of poison and soot behind them, obstructing vision and potentially causing health hazards.
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I thought that when an enthusiast modifies equipment that they own, we normally call it hacking.
Why is this being spun here as "illegal tampering"?
I'm not sure what equipment you're referring to, but fiddling with your emissions equipment so that it malfunctions is illegal in every state as far as I know. Not every state does emission checks but every state will enforce emissions violations.
Re: tampering or hacking? (Score:2)
Hacking can be illegal tampering but it doesn't have to be. Hacking generally implies a technical expertise by the user. Cracking suggested the user lacks technical expertise and is illegal tampering. So if we want to be picky, it's cracking.
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Because they are falsifying emissions tests that would not pass state inspection standards.
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I didn't see that in the report. How are they falsifying these tests? Are they breaking into the test stations at night to also tamper with the test equipment?
Re: tampering or hacking? (Score:2)
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Dumbfucks are calling them "devices" as well.
How fucking stupid are they?
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Because it's producing a negative externality on other people, and that is more important than the modifications and process. Like, if you build an ICBM in your basement and blow up Moscow, sure you hacked it together, but none of the news is going to focus on that.
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Just get rid of passenger diesel fuel vehicles. Stop selling the fuel, problem solved. Just like regular gas went away, make diesel a boutique fuel, and so expensive at $40 a gallon, that coal rolling will solve itself.
Except diesel is used in a lot more things than just passenger vehicles, pretty much any internal combustion engine in anything bigger than a passenger vehicle is diesel. banning it would be a horrible idea. bumping the price to 40 would be nearly as bad, for example most mass transit vehicles are diesel bumping the price of their fuel to $40 a gallon would make then absurdly noncompetitive. increase traffic pollution and congestion.
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Nice data center you've got there... with those fancy backup generators which keep it running in the event the power goes out... it'd be a shame if something happened to the availability of fuel for them.
Also, sorry to hear your house is burning down and the fire department couldn't come and put it out, they just can't afford to drive to small house fires because of the new costs of fuel.
When building your new home, do note how all of those building supplies got to you... I bet plenty were delivered by dies
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these are the same people who see no problem with having meal delivery services and doordash 5x (or more) a week, vs actually cooking at home.
(hey, if it's okay to stereotype rural folks, why not do the same for urbanites?)
Re:EPA infilthrated by imarinary property thugs, I (Score:4, Insightful)
EPA infilthrated by imarinary property thugs, I say
Of course you do. That's because for a startling number of people the phrase "The right to swing my fists ends at your nose" has transformed into "fuck you imma punch you in the face librul".
You are free to modify your car but that doesn't extend to modifying it to spew lots of toxic gasses.
Re:Increase the punishment (Score:4, Interesting)
Just take away their drivers' license; they have proven to be incapable of safely operating a car.