[ad_1]
As we begin the Memorial Day weekend I trust you are preparing to scamper off on your bicycles:
Just beware of nonplussed wildlife:
Also, hopefully you can finally land that Hyundai you’ve had your eye on:
Speaking of wheeling and dealing, as you know I’m attempting to drive up the price of vintage bonded aluminum frames, so I was encouraged by this ambitious listing:
Scoff if you will, but it does have the Biopace sticker and the original pie plate, which has to command a premium of at least $250:
Also, further to yesterday’s post about cars, and cities, and so forth, the smugness contingent seems very excited that Washington, DC is going to dramatically increase registration fees for very large motor vehicles:
If you’re a city or state leader, you have a limited arsenal of tools available to discourage residents from operating these behemoths on local streets. A proposal from the District of Columbia would add a new one: The city is poised to require owners of vehicles weighing over 6,000 pounds to pay an annual $500 vehicle registration fee], almost seven times the cost to register a modest sedan. No other US jurisdiction has created such a forceful financial disincentive against the biggest, heaviest car models.
“You can’t ban sales of these things,” says Mary Cheh, a D.C. councilmember who developed the new fee structure, “but you can make them pay their own way.”
Okay, so according to my cursory research, a Lexus LX 600 weighs 6,000 pounds:
It also starts at over $104,000:
And gets 22mpg on the highway:
So do we think the decisions of someone in the market for such a vehicle are going to be informed in any way by the cost of registration?
I don’t.
That’s not to say people who drive larger vehicles shouldn’t pay more, but to frame it as something that will somehow reduce the number of them in the city is basically absurd. (As if the person driving a Ford F-250 around Washington, DC actually lives within the city limits.) If anything it’s just going to inflame the already engorged entitlement of people who think, “I pay for the roads and you don’t, get out of my way!”
But hey, my cynicism is worth the pixels its rendered in, I’m more than willing to be proven wrong, and being forced to eat my own words has certainly kept me well-nourished thus far.
As for bicycle prices, kids’ bikes are getting more expensive. One local news station’s advice? You guessed it–wear a helmet!
They really do fix everything.
[ad_2]
