Have you seen the Cat?
Last month we talked about the current theft of gasoline and how they drill holes in the tank causing hundreds of dollars of damage to get a few dollars worth of gas. I got a lot of phone calls and emails from listeners and readers relating stories about how that had happen to them. I also got several calls about another theft that is going on, the theft of catalytic converters.
 A catalytic converter has a reaction bed inside that is made of precious metals, like platinum. A used converter will bring 50 to 75 dollars at a scrap yard. Industrious thieves are crawling under cars with a battery powered reciprocal saw and in a few minutes roll out with your cat. They only have to cut through 2 thin wall pipes to remove the cat and on a busy night can pack a car trunk full of them.
Every car made since 1976 has a catalytic converter. The replacement cost of a cat can be from a couple of hundred dollars to over two thousand. Of course it will be covered by your insurance, but you will still have to pay your deductible and go through the headache of having you car repaired.
The popular vehicles for cat thieves are pick ups and SUV’s because they have more under car room and are easier to crawl under. Thieves are lazy after all and wouldn’t want to jack your car up.
It seems that a popular target for cat thieves is small fleets that are left parked in lots overnight. This gives them several vehicles all in a neat row. They can slide from one to another and before their saw battery goes dead can have half a dozen cats on the ground.
Isolated parking lots are not the only place these lowlifes strike. They have been known to steal the cats out from under the car in your driveway.
So what can you do to prevent your cat from disappearing? A mean dog and a big gun are my first thoughts, but that really isn’t the answer. Motion sensing lights can provide the best deterrent to thieve. Whether its your driveway or your fleet storage lot having lights that come on as a person approaches will discourage all but the dumbest crook.
Another deterrent, not just from cat thieves but from most petty crime, is to get together with your neighbors and agree to notify each other when anything suspicious or unusual happen is the neighborhood. |
One possible future
As a member of several business groups and associations I am often asked where I think the automotive industry is headed in the future. If I truly knew the answer to that question I could become wealthy. I do have some theories and this is one of them.
There is tremendous pressure to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, reduce green house gases, improve vehicle safety and eliminate traffic congestion. There is one common answer to all of these problems, drive fewer miles.
About 12 years ago a very highly placed gentleman in the EPA told me that the only way to reduce emissions beyond the current projections was, “to make it too expensive for the average family to own more than one car”.
Looking at the current cost of cars, the rising cost of gas, the ever increasing costs of maintenance, insurance, registrations, parking and toll roads I think that time is rapidly approaching. Add those expenses to the other increases in the average family, such as the cost of education, health care, housing and utilities and something has got to give. 
One possible alternative is returning to a one car family. I know that sounds outrageous but consider for a minute that one of the hottest new ideas in planned ommunities is building apartments, lofts and houses centered on a shopping and entertainment center.
At first blush the idea of going back to the 50’s and a single car household is scary. What would it mean to us? We would face a complete change in lifestyle.
First we would reduce the miles driven significantly and as a result reduce emissions, oil consumption, accidents and congestion. Car sales would plummet and maybe that would help with the trade deficit. We would see many more stay at home moms, neighborhood stores, community events and local entertainment venues. Tele-commuting would increase in jobs where that is practical and the available workforce would decrease in areas that demand a warm body on site. To even justify the drive to work wages would have to increase in traditionally low paying fields.
To some this may sound like Utopia, to others impossibly ridiculous. The only thing certain is that our relationship with cars will change over the next few years. Increasing cost and technology that makes it impossible for the back yard mechanic to tinker with his own car will dampen the love affair most of us have with our personal transportation. |
