Tegger's new cat

"Elle" > wrote in news:UdXBk.36179$QF5.7338
@newsfe08.iad:

> "Tegger" > wrote
>> I've been told the thieves tend to target SUVs and
>> minivans because they're
>> higher off the ground (easier access). The crooks use a
>> cordless Sawzall,
>> and are off and running with the cat in less than a
>> minute.
>>
>> What baffles me is how all radios are protected by that
>> fancy anti-theft
>> mechanism that renders them useless without the security
>> code, but cats,
>> ECMs and airbags (all far more valuable than the radio)
>> are protected by
>> nothing at all.
>
> From a little more research today, two followup comments to
> your own above: First, some companies are now selling
> anti-cat converter theft devices. E.g.
> http://www.catclamp.com/.



Then it's surely only a matter of time before the OEMs start doing
something similar.




--
Tegger

The Unofficial Honda/Acura FAQ
www.tegger.com/hondafaq/

Tegger ) writes:
> (Micheal C. Jordan) wrote in
> :
>
>> Tegger ) writes:
>>> (Micheal C. Jordan) wrote in
>>> :
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Mr. Tegger. Check out this calculator at the Province of British
>>>> Columbia's emissions testing web site (AirCare). The year of the
>>>> car, engine size, and curb weight is entered. It then calculates the
>>>> CO, NOx, and HC limits for B.C..
>>>>
>>>> The weight part is a bit sticky. B.C. uses "Curb Weight". The
>>>> Ontario DriveClean program uses "ETW" (Estimated Test Weight).
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> No, it's "Equivalent Test Weight". Look at the DriveClean printout.
>>
>> I'm looking at 3 printouts, 2002, 2004, and 2006, and they all read
>> "Estimated" test weight. They also contain GVWR. Did they change the
>> "ETW" definition after 2006?
>
>
>
> I'm looking at a number of printouts right now. I didn't look far enough
> back when I said the word was "equivalent" and not "estimated".
>
> The switch to "equivalent" from "estimated" appears to have taken place
> some time between mid-2002 and mid-2003. All my post-May/03 printouts
> say "equivalent".
>

My 2006 printout says "estimated".

Maybe something to do with the various different DriveClean Zones perhaps?
I'm not in the GTA (first introduction zone). I'm also exempt since 2006.

>
>
>>
>>
>>>
>>> This figure bears no relation to gross weight, curb weight, dry
>>> weight, your hat size, the phase of the moon, or anything else that
>>> exists in the real world. It's a weasel number used by the government
>>> to shuffle cars around so the ones they don't like are given a hard
>>> time while others get a free ride, all without needing to change the
>>> schedules themselves.
>>>
>>
>> Do you know which ones they don't like?
>
>
>
> Older ones. McGuinty want so force old cars off the road. This is why
> he's eliminated the 19-year rolling exemption, even though 20+ year-old
> cars make up something like 1% of the cars on the road in Ontario, and
> typically cover far lower annual mileages than newer cars.
>
> My '91 is required to meet the same HC and CO numbers as a '99 of the
> same "equivalent" weight class. My wife's '99 Tercel /was/ in the same
> "equivalent" weight class as my Integra up to the last two tests. For
> those it was inexplicably dropped a weight class, which entitled it to
> higher legal emissions. The effect of such legal weaseling is to force
> more older cars into failing while making it harder for newer cars to
> fail.


Perhaps until the "newer cars" get old, and go out of factory warranty?



This allows the McGuinty government to justify their actions by
> pointing to the higher failure rate of older cars.
>

You make perfect logical sense. Have you notice how the politicians (of
all stripes) in Canada, are trying to spin the definition of cynicism 180
degrees, by calling each other politician a cynic. According to the
definition of cynicism, and its derivatives, in my old thick dictionary,
cynicism is a positive attribute. Citizens need to be cynical, to protect
themselves from the politicians.


>
> --
> Tegger
>
> The Unofficial Honda/Acura FAQ
> www.tegger.com/hondafaq/

Tegger ) writes:
> jim beam > wrote in
> t:
>
>> Micheal C. Jordan wrote:
>
>>>
>>> Many car owners have been financially victimized by DriveClean.
>>
>> i bet manufacturers and dealers haven't!
>
>
>
> Smog testing in Ontario was sold to repair garages by including the
> regulation that repairs had to be made at a DriveClean facility in order to
> count towards the "repair cost limit". This assured garages that they'd be
> able to use drivers as sugar tits to help them suck back the $80,000 or
> whatever it cost them to install the equipment in the first place.
>

A lot of the machines are leased... same difference though.

> It was later discovered that not enough cars were failing, and garages
> weren't making enough money off smog repairs, so the allowable numbers were
> successively dropped and the repair cost limit was raised from $400 to
> $600.
>
> Some years ago Lee Harvey McGuinty floated a trial balloon to the effect
> that he thought smog testing wasn't having the effect it was supposed to,
> and that it was terribly expensive for poorer people. Garages and the
> environuts screamed blue bloody murder. McGuinty then went in the
> completely opposite direction, making the test /more/ expensive and /more/
> strict. Then he got re-elected. Ontarians are pretty stupid.
>

In sticking with your subject line...

McGuinty really does eat kittens! :->



>
> --
> Tegger
>
> The Unofficial Honda/Acura FAQ
> www.tegger.com/hondafaq/

(Micheal C. Jordan) wrote in
:


>>
>
> In sticking with your subject line...
>
> McGuinty really does eat kittens! :->
>
>


LOL! I remember that!



--
Tegger

The Unofficial Honda/Acura FAQ
www.tegger.com/hondafaq/

(Micheal C. Jordan) wrote in
:

> Tegger ) writes:

>>
>> The switch to "equivalent" from "estimated" appears to have taken
>> place some time between mid-2002 and mid-2003. All my post-May/03
>> printouts say "equivalent".
>>
>
> My 2006 printout says "estimated".
>
> Maybe something to do with the various different DriveClean Zones
> perhaps?


That's possible.



> I'm not in the GTA (first introduction zone). I'm also exempt
> since 2006.



You must have an '87. Lucky.



--
Tegger

The Unofficial Honda/Acura FAQ
www.tegger.com/hondafaq/

> (Micheal C. Jordan) wrote in
> :
>

>
>> I'm not in the GTA (first introduction zone).



I'm not in the GTA either. I'm in one of the later introduction zones.

Wasn't it interesting that Mike Harris's home town is in a zone that was
exempted from emissions testing? Hmmm...


--
Tegger

The Unofficial Honda/Acura FAQ
www.tegger.com/hondafaq/

Tegger ) writes:
>> (Micheal C. Jordan) wrote in
>> :
>>
>
>>
>>> I'm not in the GTA (first introduction zone).
>
>
>
> I'm not in the GTA either. I'm in one of the later introduction zones.
>
> Wasn't it interesting that Mike Harris's home town is in a zone that was
> exempted from emissions testing? Hmmm...
>

We can always take solace in a phenomenon called "unintended
consequences". Think about all the "smokers" being shipped up to North Bay
Ontario to be sold, because North Bay is exempt. Mike gets to re-live the
aromas of his cough, cough, youth pre 1970's, sitting at a traffic light,
while a "smoker" oils Mike's grill.

A few years ago I bumped into an engineer who was involved in Transport
Canada's emission testing lab. You should have seen his eyes roll into the
back of his head when I brought up the subject of Ontario's DriveClean
program! They don't have "false negatives", when they test cars at
Transport Canada, in their multi(?)-million dollar "lab".

He told me how they test cars for emissions. They literally "bag"
everything that exits the tailpipe. A huge empty bag is connected to the
tailpipe, the car is driven (on dyno/rollers) to a very rigid program set
out by the EPA (USA). They then analyse everything in the bag
(spectroscopy). The analogy is basically... DriveClean is an amateur
photographer, with a cheap disposable camera, taking a snapshot, while
Transport Canada is a professional cinema-photographer, taking a movie
with a Panavision camera.


>
> --
> Tegger
>
> The Unofficial Honda/Acura FAQ
> www.tegger.com/hondafaq/