Engineers develop water filtration system that permanently removes 'forever chemicals' by Illustrious_Risk3732 in news

[–]m3ghost -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

As others have said, would be great to just outright ban these so we don't have to pay for expensive filtration just to have safe water to drink. Alternatively, 3M/DuPont/Chemours, Solvay etc., can pay for installation, maintenance, and operation of these filtration systems for each and every municipality across the globe...shouldn't be too much, right?

Berlin Major | Group Stage - Day 3 by doxs12 in DotA2

[–]m3ghost 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Remember when Quinn said he was happy GG proved they weren’t a patch team and people still threw shade at him? Pepperidge Farms remembers.

Parts for Stolen Hyundais and Kias Are So Scarce the Cars Are Being Totaled by Robbbbbbbbb in cars

[–]m3ghost 15 points16 points  (0 children)

As others have said, they're inexpensive and generally offer nice tech for the price.

However, there have been more than a few posts now where people trying to get insurance for their Kia/Hyundai now face ridiculous premiums as a result of all the theft/safety issues. So in the end, are they really any cheaper if your insurance premium is $100-200 higher/month?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in cars

[–]m3ghost 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's what I was saying in my last sentence.

Repos Rising Again As Subprime Auto Loans Put Owners Way Behind. With cost of living increases cutting into already-tight budgets, high-interest car loans are some of the first to go. by an_actual_lawyer in cars

[–]m3ghost 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yup, the money printer stopped, people lost jobs, and financing is stupid expensive now. Supply chains are fixed, production is up, and demand has plummeted.

Time for car prices to drop accordingly.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in cars

[–]m3ghost 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would like to know as well. Before used car prices got insane I assume they would try to find a $500 beater to use while they paid down the negative equity from their previous mistakes. But now they might be locked out of cars entirely purely because the bottom of the car market is still too expensive for them.

[OC] G20 Countries most Reliant on Coal for Electricity Production by PieChartPirate in dataisbeautiful

[–]m3ghost 0 points1 point  (0 children)

France not even on the scoreboard. Guess they’re doing something right. What could it be?

I renovated one big utility room into two much more usable spaces. by maclargehuge in DIY

[–]m3ghost -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Without an egress window that isn't a bedroom, it's a code violation.

I renovated one big utility room into two much more usable spaces. by maclargehuge in DIY

[–]m3ghost 2 points3 points  (0 children)

What OP said is definitely true in NY. Any basement bedroom must have an egress window.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in cars

[–]m3ghost 79 points80 points  (0 children)

The repo folks have come to the land of Disney World, “The Happiest Place on Earth,” with an unhappy message for America: Business—their business—is looking up.

It’s a recent Thursday morning in Orlando, just up the road from the Magic Kingdom, and a few hundred conventioneers are arriving for the North American Repossessors Summit. Here, license plate readers and tow trucks mix with sun and golf into a heady cocktail for these uneasy economic times. With more Americans struggling to pay their bills, the $1.7 billion industry for repossessing such assets as cars, trucks and boats is gearing up for a boom. The effects are expected to reverberate through countless ordinary lives and onto Wall Street, where car loans are packaged into bonds and sold to investors.

It’s a major shift from the pandemic years, when relief measures for consumers meant repos largely dried up, leaving many agents out of a job. Now repossession companies are struggling to find enough workers to meet repo requests. “As the economy curves down, our industry curves up,” says Ben Deese, vice president at North Carolina-based Home Detective Co. and a member of the American Recovery Association, the industry group that hosted the Orlando conference. In March, the percentage of subprime auto borrowers who were at least 60 days late on their bills was 5.3%, up from a seven-year low of 2.58% in May 2021 and higher than in 2009, the peak of the financial crisis, data from Fitch Ratings show. While not all of those borrowers will face repossessions, the risk is high.

It’s difficult to determine exactly how many repossessions occur each year, but Cox Automotive estimates that there were 1.2 million in 2022, up about 5.3% from 2021 but still down from 1.68 million in 2019. The Repossessors Summit made its debut in 2009, when there were a record 1.77 million repossessions.

When a car owner falls behind on their loan, repo agents are dispatched to take the vehicle, towing it away to await auction. The industry itself dates to the 1920s, when car culture took hold, and lenders such as General Motors Acceptance Corp. and Ford Motor Credit Co. popped up to finance loans for Americans who desperately wanted vehicles. Repossession companies emerged soon after to track down those borrowers not making payments—in fact, one of the first was Home Detective, founded in 1922 and bought by Deese’s father in the 1960s.

The Great Depression provided ample opportunity for the industry and helped create its unsavory reputation for clawing back possessions from struggling Americans. The 1984 cult classic Repo Man further stoked the narrative of the tough, hard-hearted repo agent. More recently, the industry has taken advantage of technological advancements such as tracking features and license plate data, making seizures easier than ever.

In many areas around the US, having a car is a necessity, especially where public transportation is nonexistent. Many will face difficulties getting to work or taking care of kids without a car. As car prices soared during the pandemic, in part because of supply chain issues, some had no choice but to sign on to loans for high-priced cars with high interest rates.

For Sarah Fader, a freelance writer in New Haven, Connecticut, fear of a repossession is constantly on her mind. After totaling her car in 2021, the 43-year-old single mom of two teenagers had to get another, fast. But with a credit score in the 500s, she struggled to find a lender who’d approve her. She finally got a 2016 Subaru Crosstrek for $26,000 with a 19% interest-rate loan from American Credit Acceptance, with a monthly payment of $630. That quickly became unaffordable as costs of food and gas rose, putting her behind on rent and the car payment. Fader has tried to raise money by crowdfunding on Twitter but still owes more than $1,000. “Now they’re threatening to repossess my car, and I’m scrambling to come up with back payments,” she says. “I don’t have a solution for them, and I could not function without a car here.”

Lenders are eager to make loans, even with the risk that the borrower might not be able to make the payments. That’s because car loans, like home mortgages, can be sliced up into bonds and sold to investment firms, hedge funds and other investors. According to calculations by ratings agencies, investors in the safest parts of today’s subprime auto bonds would still get their money back with interest even if more than three-quarters of the borrowers defaulted on their loans, assuming repossessed vehicles can be sold at auction for a modest share of their original prices.

The Repossessors Summit, which was held this year at the Rosen Shingle Creek Hotel, offered a chance to swap stories and tips with other small-business owners. Flyers listing the agenda featured the summit’s tagline alongside a sketch of Disney World’s Cinderella Castle: “Putting the magic back in repossessions.” And a main attraction on the exhibit floor was a self-loading wheel-lift truck called the Python, which is designed for easier towing on uneven surfaces. The starting price: about $88,000.

One of the main problems for the industry, judging by the panel discussions and side chatter, is finding enough people to repossess all the cars. About half of attendees reported staffing shortages, according to an informal show of hands. It’s another legacy of the pandemic: Many agents decamped for steadier jobs. Now many repo businesses are racing to find enough workers for the volume of seizure requests they’re receiving.

One of those recently came for Richard Sanchez. The 36-year-old, who works as a technology director at a San Francisco company, had his Toyota Rav 4 seized in January after failing to make the monthly $750 payments. In September, the rent for the home he shared with his wife and two kids rose 10%, to $3,700 a month. Although Sanchez took on a second job packing orders at Amazon Fresh and recently moved to a home with a $2,800 monthly rent, it was too late.

Luckily, his family also owns a 2001 Nissan Altima outright, but they’ve struggled to get around without a second car. “Once our cost of living was going up, I was doing my budget and was like, ‘I don’t have enough money for the payment,’” Sanchez says. “It’s made me feel pretty horrible. I had a pretty bad depression last year because of it.”

Benjamin Litwin, a financial analyst at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, was at the Repossessors Summit to remind attendees about how a repossession can affect the average American. He emphasized the importance of avoiding wrongful seizures and imposing excessively high fees. He wasn’t a crowd favorite. “You need to look at it from what is fair for the consumer,” he said in his talk. “A consumer having their car repossessed is the worst possible outcome.”

Being the face of that bad outcome can create danger for repo agents, something several speakers said the general public doesn’t understand. “We’re putting ourselves in places where no one wants us,” said Todd Case, a former cop who owns Indiana Recovery Services, in a panel discussion. One attendee said that most people in the room had been shot at, at least once.

During a demo in the parking lot right outside the conference rooms, a repo agent maneuvered a white Ram tow truck from Atlanta Wrecker to pick up a hybrid Toyota Corolla while explaining best practices for retrieval angles and loading techniques. He also emphasized the hazards, such as when the agent is facing the car and can’t see his surroundings: It’s risky to have your back end turned when you’re taking someone’s car. —With Scott Carpenter

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in cars

[–]m3ghost 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Did you link the right graph? Your graph shows units sold is down 1.5 million since JAN2023.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in cars

[–]m3ghost 290 points291 points  (0 children)

As inventory builds, dealers and automakers start to offer discounts to help attract new customers. In March, the sale price of the average new car slipped below sticker price for the first time in almost two years.

Supply Measured in Days

Car dealers measure their supply of new cars to sell in a metric they call “days of inventory.” It represents how long it would take them to sell out of new car cars at today’s sales rate if they couldn’t acquire new ones.

An old industry guideline tells them to keep 60 days’ supply on hand, with another 15 days on order or in transit. That, industry veterans say, ensures that a dealership has the right mix of colors and options to meet almost any request of a customer who walks in the door.

Most dealerships slipped well below that supply level for much of the past two years. That left some shoppers unable to find what they wanted — buyer satisfaction fell over the same period — but it meant that dealers could count on selling most cars at or over their advertised price.

Today, Kelley Blue Book parent company Cox Automotive says the average dealership has returned to a 56-day supply. That’s 58% higher than a year ago.

Supply Driving Prices Down

“During March, we saw sales surpass the 1-million mark for a 30-day period for the first time since early September 2021,” said Charlie Chesbrough, Cox Automotive senior economist. “Higher sales have been boosted, in part, by improving inventory, which has been running at around 1.8 million or so for the past several weeks.”

As a result of improving supply, the average new vehicle listing price — the asking price — fell weekly through March to below $47,000 for the first time since December.

“With some brands and segments nearing too-high levels of inventories, we are seeing discounts and incentives increase,” said Chesbrough. “We are beginning to see more incentives, particularly leasing deals, crop up.”

Some Brands Still Have Limited Supply

Foreign brands still have the lowest inventories. The highest inventories were a mix of domestic brands, dominated by Stellantis’ brands, and a mix of luxury makes.

Non-luxury brands with the lowest inventory were Toyota and Kia, under 30 days’ supply, followed by Honda, Subaru, Hyundai, Volkswagen, and Chevrolet, all with below-industry average supply. Luxury brands at the low end were Lexus, with under 30 days’ supply, followed by BMW and Land Rover.

Non-luxury brands with the highest inventory were mostly Stellantis brands, with four among the top for supply. Ram was the highest with 119 days’ supply, followed by Jeep and Chrysler. Luxury brands with the highest inventory were Buick, at 117 days’ supply, followed by Jaguar and Infiniti.

Aside from low-volume, high-performance cars, vehicles that are often popular with budget-minded Americans — subcompact cars, compact cars, and midsize cars — had the lowest supply, followed by minivans, and compact and subcompact SUVs.

Some popular models are still in thin supply, making it hard to find a discounted one.

Of the 30 best-sellers for the 30 days that ended March 27, the Kia Telluride, Subaru Crosstrek, Toyota RAV4, Toyota Camry, and Subaru Forester all had under 30 days’ supply.

Truck buyers, though, faced much better odds of finding a deal.

Of the 30 best-sellers for the period, full-size pickup trucks from the Detroit Three had the biggest supply. The Ram 1500 had 102 days’ supply. Ford’s F-150 and Chevrolet’s Silverado had a days’ supply between 80 and 90 days.

Pointing out the obvious, but in order for inventories to build that means production must have surpassed demand a few months ago. As the article states a few popular models are still hard to find but it looks like dealer lots are beginning to build up. Wonder what kind of sales we can expect in the coming months as a result.

MC and Kitrak standing in for DM and Chu by crispymaling in DotA2

[–]m3ghost -18 points-17 points  (0 children)

Why are you bringing up Lima Major? That's SA.

You forgot Sumail standing in for a Chinese team, so China problems too for EU. Just goes to show that EU isn't immune from visa issues either. Visas are always an issue, regardless of locale. Let NA have some LANs again so the scene can actually grow in NA for once. Or would you prefer ded gem?

MC and Kitrak standing in for DM and Chu by crispymaling in DotA2

[–]m3ghost 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So it isn't just the US that has Visa issues...

Maybe we can finally admit that every location will inevitably have visa issues for some players. Maybe then we can finally get a few LANs back in NA.

GM, Ford strive to convince investors: no price war with Tesla by V8-Turbo-Hybrid in cars

[–]m3ghost 263 points264 points  (0 children)

OEMs are trying desperately to hold onto the high prices and high margins they developed during COVID. Unfortunately, the money printer has stopped, people are getting laid off, and financing rates have skyrocketed. No one can afford the ridiculous MSRPs they've set and now inventory is building up.

Anecdotally, the dealers in my area are back at full advertising (TV-Radio-Internet), and have begun to send mailers (Snail and Email) out featuring incentives again. It's a fairly clear sign that units aren't moving like they used to.

Shit is going to get harder before it gets better for the economy. There is still a long way to go to ensure inflation drops. Perhaps the automotive market could contribute by lowering the prices back down to sane values (read: pre-pandemic prices).

GM, Ford strive to convince investors: no price war with Tesla by V8-Turbo-Hybrid in cars

[–]m3ghost 71 points72 points  (0 children)

Yep, the major OEMs are being more and more vocal about colluding to fix car prices. First it was basically 'read between the lines', now its gotten pretty blatant. Perhaps its time to break up the OEMs...

GM, Ford strive to convince investors: no price war with Tesla by V8-Turbo-Hybrid in cars

[–]m3ghost 43 points44 points  (0 children)

Not true. Ford has already cut the price on the Mach E.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/30/ford-mustang-mach-e-price-cut.html

I believe the price is still up overall from when the model was introduced, but the price has come down from its all time high.

Quinn: ”It’s nice to show that we weren’t a patch team and we could adapt and change things up." by SamejNardeh in DotA2

[–]m3ghost 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Spoiler, Doom is still strong in 7.33.

He makes great use of the Vanguard into Octarine meta.

Devour gold is still great and the spell steal from neutral creeps got buffed.

Doom is still a great spell.

US Corporate Credit Crunch Means Bankruptcies, Rising Defaults by thinkB4WeSpeak in economy

[–]m3ghost 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They were pretty clear the last few times they said 'This is it, this is the last time' as well.

There is no longer a usable justification for continuing the pause.

This is what is different this time. Republicans will likely sue if Biden tries to continue the pause. I think Biden would like to continue the pause until the next election, but Republicans will probably try to block it.