The Most Wanted List, Part II: More of the Greatest Enemies to the C/D Way of Life

Personal transportation is at the vanguard of freedom. Cars aren’t just p­ractical tools, but manifestations of  liberty, which, for lack of a better definition, is the ability to go wherever we want, whenever we want, in air-conditioned comfort, and while listening to Perry Como (if we feel like it). Last month, we listed five enemies of automotive culture. Here, we complete our rundown of C/D’s Most Wanted with ­profiles of five more opponents.

↳ The Interstate Highway System
As conduits for delivering goods and services, America’s highways have been a boon. But they were designed with a grim, unimaginative, straight-line efficiency that makes them some of the most boring 46,900 miles on Earth. Hills were flattened, mountains were cleaved, and the contours of the land ignored as the system was designed and built, resulting in a dull, droning sameness. It stretches coast to coast, bypassing great small towns, propagating instead a KenTacoHut/Motel 6 combo at every exit. The upside is that many of the roads the interstates superseded are lightly traveled and unsullied by billboards.

↳ Google
It’s bad enough that search engines have reduced publishing to the synergizing of mission-critical keywords to optimize organic visibility. But must Google now spend its vast wealth developing a driverless car? There’s a certain phlegmatic beauty to the idea: Issue a few voice commands and your vehicle safely and efficiently whisks you off to your destination. Meanwhile, you can call up this month’s Car and Algorithm on your tablet and read the latest comparison test of floating decimal points. Driving isn’t a chore crying out to be automated. It’s the greatest spiritual innovation of the last 200 years.

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• Dealership Fight Night! Inside the Battle Between Dealers and Carmakers
• Aaron Robinson: Google is My Co-Pilot. What Can go Wrong?
• The Da Vinci Road: U.S. Patents Reveal Automakers’ Dreams for Future Tech

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↳ American Traffic Solutions
American Traffic Solutions (ATS) is the largest provider and administrator of red-light-camera ticketing systems in America. ATS claims that its products reduce red-light running and, consequently, crashes. Supporting evidence is thin, however, and there are some indications that the cameras actually make intersections more dangerous. The cameras face mounting opposition. Los Angeles canceled its ATS contract in 2012, having stopped issuing tickets in 2011. Last November, voters in Murrieta, California, easily passed a ban on the cameras despite an ATS-financed campaign that outspent its opposition by 100:1.

↳ Car Dealers
Despite the internet marketplace, consumer-protection laws, and a savage winnowing of their numbers in recent years, many car dealers still play games with your trade-in, overcharge for paint and fabric treatments, and push financing that pads commissions. Protected by franchise laws and contracts with carmakers, dealers have resisted most any innovation that would make car buying more pleasant. And now, franchise ownership is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few megasize superstars, so you’re less likely to be dealing with a neighbor who sponsors the local softball team than a manager chosen for her ruthless pursuit of profit.

↳ Craigslist
If haggling with dealers is still a brutal battle, Craigslist makes buying a used car from a private owner almost terrifying. Essentially free and wholly unmanaged, Craigslist has inspired hucksters to promote innovative new larcenies and frauds just as quickly as they can invent them. (“Ran when parked” is a triumph of misdirection.) Selling a car on Craigslist may be even worse. Your post is an invitation for a steady stream of the dim, desperate, and/or demented to make absurd lowball offers and beg you to act as a finance company. The old newspaper classifieds weren’t perfect, either, but at least prospective shoppers had to have the wherewithal to cough up 50 cents to buy a paper.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/caranddriver/blog/~3/BawjCOs1Wc8/

Hubert Hahne Mike Hailwood Mika Häkkinen Bruce Halford Jim Hall