G. David Felt

Very exciting to see that the future will have quiet zero emission delivery vans in cities and urban areas. Should help with clean air as well as just keeping things quiet. Right now it is so noisy with all the diesel UPS and FedEx vans moving around to deliver everything due to the pandemic.

Gouda

Do not forget the crazy Jug handles and then left turns every other intersection. The year and 1/2 I lived there and worked in Princeton, I was still amazed at the two road standards that competed for how you got around. Very crazy, but yes the traffic volumes are heavy.

Actually people have no problem changing out Propane BBQ Tanks as to why the growth of having $17.99 propane tank swaps everywhere. Fast and easy compared to waiting to fuel up the tank. Tesla dropped the battery swap as the cost of the automated equipment at the time was so expensive, but now especially in china, ya drive into the assigned space, and boom, 90 seconds later your done with a fully charged battery. I suspect times have changed big enough to make it a more feasible option than the charging station at least in china. Be interesting to see how this all pans out. ICE has a diverse choice of auto's something that EVs are not yet there which you know.

Crackers

Yes another kind of beauty. I love my rain, hike and camp year round. Only wimps do not go out in the rain. The ability to ski, the Hoh Rain Forest with 200 to 300 year old Douglas fir trees, all the water, mountains, see to mountain fun year round just like you, just more water and green.

Spanking

No trees either, easy to just pave over everything. I agree the Prius and BMW drivers are the worst with Mercedes-Benz second for getting over to the left and driving 10 under the posted limit. Drives me nuts. Last summer both Washington and Oregon created laws with heavy fines, $259 dollars for driving under the posted speed limit in the left lane. At first they were enforcing it till the pandemic and now they are not and with the state opening back up, seems that BMW / MB and the Prius drivers are back to their 10 under ways of driving.

In 2019 the largest investment in oil refinery was finally allowing gas production to catch up to consumer consumption, then the Pandemic hit and Covid-19 brought people moving about to a halt. With that change and especially here in the US with everyone under shelter in place orders for the last 10 weeks, Electricity has become the biggest cost to a persons budget for the first time ever over oil / gas according to the latest reports from IEA (International Energy Agency) https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1128365_energy-investment-to-drop-20-in-2020-a-turning-point-toward-greening-the-grid Oil amounted to 50% of consumer spending on energy and electricity was 38%. World Wide oil consumption is expected to drop by over $1 Trillion dollars due to the pandemic. Due to a huge consumer change in taste to trucks and SUV's/CUV's auto efficiency took a significant hit in 2019. Lots of interesting details in this IEA report story. https://www.iea.org/reports/global-energy-review-2020 To quote the story: Global energy demand declined by 3.8% in the first quarter of 2020, with most of the impact felt in March as confinement measures were enforced in Europe, North America and elsewhere. Global coal demand was hit the hardest, falling by almost 8% compared with the first quarter of 2019. Three reasons converged to explain this drop. China – a coal-based economy – was the country the hardest hit by Covid‑19 in the first quarter; cheap gas and continued growth in renewables elsewhere challenged coal; and mild weather also capped coal use. Oil demand was also hit strongly, down nearly 5% in the first quarter, mostly by curtailment in mobility and aviation, which account for nearly 60% of global oil demand. By the end of March, global road transport activity was almost 50% below the 2019 average and aviation 60% below. The impact of the pandemic on gas demand was more moderate, at around 2%, as gas-based economies were not strongly affected in the first quarter of 2020. Renewables were the only source that posted a growth in demand, driven by larger installed capacity and priority dispatch. Electricity demand has been significantly reduced as a result of lockdown measures, with knock-on effects on the power mix. Electricity demand has been depressed by 20% or more during periods of full lockdown in several countries, as upticks for residential demand are far outweighed by reductions in commercial and industrial operations. For weeks, the shape of demand resembled that of a prolonged Sunday. Demand reductions have lifted the share of renewables in the electricity supply, as their output is largely unaffected by demand. Demand fell for all other sources of electricity, including coal, gas and nuclear power. All fuels will be affected: Oil demand could drop by 9%, or 9 mb/d on average across the year, returning oil consumption to 2012 levels. Coal demand could decline by 8%, in large part because electricity demand will be nearly 5% lower over the course of the year. The recovery of coal demand for industry and electricity generation in China could offset larger declines elsewhere. Gas demand could fall much further across the full year than in the first quarter, with reduced demand in power and industry applications. Nuclear power demand would also fall in response to lower electricity demand. Renewables demand is expected to increase because of low operating costs and preferential access to many power systems. Recent growth in capacity, some new projects coming online in 2020, would also boost output.

GM supposedly is going after the Commercial delivery fleet of the world. Production and availability is expected by the end of 2021 for Electric Delivery van. Sounds like this is an answer to Rivian and their 100,000 EV van contract with Amazon. https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1128390_report-gm-electric-van-for-fleets-due-as-early-as-2021 Chinese EV auto company NIO has proven what Tesla originally proposed and then failed to deliver that Battery swapping is faster and makes customers happier than sitting and charging. According to NIO and their country wide battery swapping sites, NIO had their 500,000 battery swap. Not that people do not also recharge their NIO, but when on the road, a 90 second battery swap and off for another 300 miles is faster than any Gas fueling ICE auto can do. https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1128364_hey-tesla-china-s-nio-has-completed-500-000-battery-swaps

I did get a response from @Drew Dowdell He has been dealing with other stuff but he says we will see him around more as he does some maintenance and other stuff. I also have to think as he did loose his job that job hunting right now is hard. Over all, am looking forward to seeing him around in the near future. Saw this on YouTube and I have to say I agree with the guys laughing at this turd. I see so many Subaru STI / WRX do this and they deserve to get nailed.

Interesting song, the guy looks like he needs to eat as he is looking anorexic.

Conviction

Yea, these have to be staged, the old days were never that clean.

Yup, wrong again @USA-1 These are the only refineries in Washington and suppliers via distribution points to ALL GAS Stations. Yes Shell, Chevron, Exxon, etc. do have their own labeled trucks, but they cannot supply all the time to their own branded store via their own branded trucks and as such since all these refineries resell unbranded fuel, aka their surplus fuel under the B2B process, this is where Costco get's their Top Tier Fuels. As long as it meets the certification, Costco sells Top Tier fuel at a bargain to their members and that means one day you might fuel with Shell, next Chevron, next Exxon. Yes they buy from who ever has capacity to sell and they do it as an unbranded fuel purchase, reselling it as Kirkland Signature with the same certification that Shell, Chevron, Exxon, etc. also got as it is the same fuel. Yup been fun pointing out the flaws in your thinking.

Kerrie McMahon

Kerrie Underwood

Costco gas stations at least here in Washington are open 5am to 9pm 7 days a week. I see long lines usually in the afternoon and early evening. Rarely in the mornings or late night. It is interesting to see the same company trucks come and fill up the costco stations and then go across the street to the Shell and fill up their tanks. As @USA-1 posted link, it is true that not all gas is created equal and you do have farm grade cheap ass gas. Yet with the standards today and the fact that cheaper farm grade gas is also sold at local pumps and clearly marked, not all auto's can handle the cheaper gas especially those blended with ethanol. Costco has their certifications posted at the pumps and online as their detergent gas comes from the same distribution centers and is certified Top Tier and like @ykX stated, I have auto's with 200,000 miles on them running still just fine on Costco gas too. Why the long response to you, is that you HIT THE NAIL on the Head and Costco is on record that the gas is an additional benefit they offer to help their members do one stop shopping, just like tires. It is not about maximizing a profit on every sale but about offering value to the members who then also go in and spend on average $150 per trip into a costco to get stuff. The Business model is about generating profits on large about of turn over at an average of 5% mark up. Yes there are some products brought in that clearly have a much larger mark up, but Costco business model on how they built the business has always been on the average small markup on sales of thousands of units rather than a large markup on a few sales. Costco gas is the same thing, they buy Bulk Top Tier Gas to offer at a small markup to their members as the general public cannot buy gas there. A benefit to membership, unlike a shell, Exxon or Mobil where the franchise owner has a large % markup so that they can make a small profit after they pay all the fees to the oil company. Two different business models, some get suckered into paying crazy high gas prices for the same grade of gas versus others who see the value and benefit from having less outlay in cost. FYI @USA-1 The recommendation from my Cadillac dealership is not the only GM dealership as both the east side Bellevue Chevrolet/Cadillac Dealership where I bought my SS and the Everett Chevrolet Dealership as well as the Everett Buick dealership where my sister bought her Buick all recommend Costco as it is a CERTIFIED TOP TIER GAS SUPPLIER. End of explaining this, I wish you the best paying out much higher gas prices to your local Shell or which ever name gas station you use. Happy your happy with your auto performance on their over priced gas. Like you said you get what you pay for and in your mind you have a superior product. Interesting that my custom tuned SS runs so awesome on Costco Premium gas as it always has required and I am at 140,000 miles on my SS and it runs better now than it did the day I bought it new from the dealership. Seems Costco gas is a quality less expensive product for me.

Very cool read about the Ram Charger and could it take on the Ford Bronco. https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/enthusiasts/dodge-ramcharger-rendering-brings-back-a-classic-suv/ar-BB14VstG?ocid=msedgntp

If anyone thinks VW will still have Diesel after this I have ocean front property to sell you in Colorado. https://jalopnik.com/volkswagen-could-face-billions-in-new-fines-over-diesel-1843856085 Seems the 9th US circuit court of appeals has sided unanimously with Utah and Florida about the excessive environmental damage VW diesel auto's have caused. The two states had a combined 6,100 VW Diesel auto's and each place has a $5,000 a day fine for pollution. This ruling makes the potential penalties $30.6 million per day or $11.2 billion per year. VW has committed to appeal this judgment to the next higher court. This makes me wonder if this could be the breaking point for VW in forcing them into Bankruptcy. ?

Must be the same way Costco can sell Chevron Techron 20oz in a two pack for $12.99 is to buy their gas and then extract the product from the gas and then sell the gas cheaply at the Costco pumps. I see that O'Reilly's auto parts store has one 20 oz for $13.99

WRONG WRONG WRONG, If you actually researched the gas and the certification for Top Tier you would know that Costco gets their gas from the same distribution pipe as Shell, Exxon, Mobile, etc. Top Tier Gas is all the same. The only difference is in the case of Chevron which has Techron added to the Top Tier gas when the distribution trucks are filled. That is a very different additive than traditional top tier detergents. THERE IS NO TOP TIER, MID TIER, LOW TIER gas. Gas either meets the Top Tier Spec or Not. You Are WRONG on this in so many ways as is your trusted family friend. IF GM Recommends Top Tier Gas from Costco then how would they be wrong and your trusted friend be right?

I am going to have to say that your Family Friend is wrong and not understanding todays Certification spec on Top Tier Gas and how the Auto Industry recommends top tier detergent gas. Per the AERA Engine Builders Association here is their document that covers all OEM auto companies in the US and Top Tier Gasoline Recommendations for Gasoline Engines. http://www.engineprofessional.com/TB/TB042015-1.pdf Per this page here is the ones that they state are Top Tier:

Garth Brooks Friends in low places!

That picture reminds me of the oil tanker derailment fire from Canada. Garth Brooks Friends in low places!