In the Spring of 2024, I finally decided to return to a truck life after spending two years trying to survive the gas prices with an 03 Saturn and a 2011 Chevy HHR.
The Saturn was truly a magical thing to behold for someone who can drive up to 1000 miles per week and at times, averaging 40MPGs to a tank in the summer. However, being largely plastic and the thought of a 60MPH accident, no cruise control, no AC, no radio, and a seat that was as uncomfortable as its mileage was awesome turned me toward a newer, but still 4-cylindered funny retro looking station wagon in the HHR.
Alas, the irony of a station wagon having less space than any vehicle I owned previously. So little space to where my daughter was seat-less with my winter clothing and tools in the back and a lunch box in the front seat. But also averaging a pitiful range of 23MPGs in the winter for a 4-banger lead me to the planet destroying truck life again.
And I couldn't be happier with my 08 Avalanche and ability to destroy the world my daughter will have to grow up in..... unless, they're all wrong, again.
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It wasn't long ago that the EPA and very left leaning news outlets started admitting that recycling plastic was not only not worth it, but that it actually created more waste and pollution than it saved purely through the process of recycling it.
It was also not long ago that the scam was revealed on ethanol gas; largely the same conclusion that the process by which it takes to refine the corn added to the gasoline negated its numbers by the time it came out of the tailpipe, not to mention the severe drop in mileage.
And what of the toll ethanol gas (especially E85!) takes on your vehicle? Well, it triggers your check engine light by fouling up your O2 sensors. So to be clear, the "clean gasoline" - or cleaner - we were told to use for 20 years not only drops your MPGs by huge numbers, it also potentially throws engine codes which to the layest of laymen vehicle owners - i.e. those who don't have their own code readers to switch off that pesky light - means they may be down a vehicle for a day or more while the perfectly good O2 sensors are needlessly replaced by a shop at a huge needless cost. How many perfectly good O2 sensors are sitting in landfills?
How bout the notorious destroyer of top-end Chevy engines - Active Fuel Management. What is that you ask? It was someone's brilliant idea for V6 and V8 Chevy engines to "'turn off' half of the cylinders under light-load conditions to improve fuel economy. Estimated performance on EPA tests show(ed) a 5.5 - 7.5% improvement in fuel economy." This according to the Wikipedia page on said fuel saving scam. But what happens when you allow this mechanical behavior to run wild on your engine for miles and miles. You end up needing a top end replacement because your lifters have gone bad. It also doesn’t do a thing for your mileage, depending on driving habits.
My Avalanche had a computer stored average of 14.8 MPGs when I got it, and also a catalytic system related engine code active (likely an O2 sensor) i.e., a check engine light on the dashboard. I disabled the AFM through a OBD2 plug-in that keeps in V8 constantly and also stopped using any sort of ethanol gasoline. The engine code has not returned in 6 months and my average MPGs are in the 15-16 range. Keeping it in V8 constantly and not using ethanol gas has raised my “fuel management” 2 – 8% from it’s surely ethanol gas and AFM days. THE definition of irony.
To save 5-1/2 to 7-1/2% on fuel, you will end up spending upwards of 4 or 5 grand to have the top end of your engine rebuilt. The lifters can fail anywhere between under 100,000 miles or well into the 200,000s. But the point is this: for an engine like Chevy's (potentially) bulletproof workhorse 5.3 liter Vortec that can live well beyond 300,000 miles (with proper care), for lifters to fail in the 150,000 mile range likely means the vehicle is off to the junk yard, when it was not even at its half-life.
What is the most commonly known way to do your part in saving the environment with the vehicle you drive? Drive it for as long as possible. How many Silverados, Tahoes, Suburbans and Avalanches (and the GMC counterpart) have met their demise well before they needed to?
And lest we forget… the 6 and 8 and 10 speed GM transmissions. What was the purpose and goal of these, departing from the solidly functioning 4 speed??? Efficiency. Mileage.
What will a quick internet search show you? Well, the 8 speed has a class action lawsuit against it for failing egregiously early and you’ll find plenty of people who aren’t a fan of the 6 or 10 speeds due to poor shifting, lack of towing power and a multitude of other gripes not generally heard when speaking of the previously used 4 speed.
Poorly designed transmissions, meant to solve problems and save the planet but end up falling on the shoulders and wallets of consumers, many of whom are like me, middle class, construction working, neanderthals. Company execs and politicians with shady wealth don’t care if a transmission fails, or lifters go out or a check engine light comes on – just pay someone to fix it.
An entire article could be spent on the almost complete destruction of the Diesel engine at the hands of the environmentalist radicals that restricted its efficiency and over regulated its engineering. An engine that used to go 600,000 miles and more, to one that isn’t even worth driving after 100,000 with all its DEF (Diesel exhaust fluid) related problems. Not to mention the manner in which it “cleans itself.” Also…. something about California and not accepting Diesel semis soon, I believe I’ve heard….
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How is DOGE relevant to all of this?
As someone in construction, an ironworker specifically, how I have described Trump 2.0, with Elon clubbing every activist, leftist policy and agency over the head like a caveman bringing home a wife, is this (that sort of graphic political incorrectness is permitted again): DOGE is remodeling a 249 year old house.
I have actually worked in buildings that are 120 years old and more, trying to restore or remodel them in a manner the architects and engineers have come up with (hint: plans on a computer tend to become a disaster in the real world, the older something is). But in the end, it always gets figured out.
Things break along the way that weren't supposed to. Or they were supposed to, because they're 100 years old, but the plan (hope) was for them not to. So you go back and fix it later, or if it is critical to your current task, you fix what just broke, usually making it stronger, and move on toward the goal.
The current Leftists politicians, media outlets and progressive talking heads that are whining about every little snag and misstep with the ax Trump and Elon are taking to spending and Government agencies and tax payer funded handouts are akin to a foolish bystander wandering into the 249 year old America House and saying, "why doesn't it look better in here? Why doesn't it look beautiful and new and restored? Why isn't this house livable yet," when 1 day earlier, it was demoed to the studs and plywood and floor and roof joists?
When you attempt to work under the hood of an 89 Trans AM, especially one that's lived its entire life in Minnesota, something is going to break during your adventure. You will then potentially have to drill out that bolt with the snapped head and re-tap the hole, or rethread the hole after you've stripped it. But it will sound glorious in the end and be the envy of the neighborhood once the salt is gone and the spring sun comes out for that first 55 degree day.
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To find out what kind of waste has been uncovered through DOGE, waste to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars, maybe into the trillions, has a lot of Trump voters sounding a bit like our V.P....
For the working middle class ironworkers, and carpenters, and electricians, and sprinkler fitters, and sheet rockers, and pipefitters who buy high mileage vehicles and then have to put up with and spend their own money on problems that are caused by near total scams for the "sake of the environment" is what makes a lot of us say, like J.D, "we don't really care Margaret! This absurd 50 billion, to this place over here, is gone? We don't care! This agency lost 100 million for a week before it was restored? We don't care! These people got laid off after 15 years of being paid for nonsense? We don't care! And these people or this company was actually doing good but got axed..... yes, that's unfortunate.... but trying working in construction... just another day in our lives."
It all adds up to the new Republican Party.
And for 4 years, Trump is going to continue remodeling it. Again.
And guess what, we don't care... just get it done.
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