Weimar America: Every restaurant is going to become a Wendy's, destroying a decade-old meme

 Get ready to pay "market price" at more and more restaurants as docile younger adults are just fine with it.

Pretty insane that every transaction in America is going to become a negotiation. It's a hamburger, dammit, not a 2024 Honda.

This is not progress. This is America becoming a third world bazaar.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Surge Pricing Is Coming to More Menus Near You

Dozens of restaurant brands use Juicer’s technology to change their prices based on demand trends, with an average swing of up to 15%, Patterson said. Delivery services such as Uber Eats and technology platforms like Tock also allow restaurants to bump prices up or down. ...

An estimated 61% of adults support variable pricing where a restaurant lowers or raises prices based on business, with younger consumers more in favor of the approach than older ones, according to an online survey of 1,000 people by the National Restaurant Association trade group. 

These assholes are trying to sell this as analogous to "Happy Hour".

Happy Hour is happy because the normally COSTLY bar service is CHEAPER during Happy Hour, hello. 

Just wait until the grocery store starts doing this, then see how you like it.

LOL, it's not "affordable": It costs $41k minimum, goes 270 miles, and takes 18 minutes to charge

 

A 2022 Honda Civic LX will cost you about $24k, go 446 miles, and take you just a few minutes to fill its 12.4 gallon tank.

The car America needs right now is the Honda Fit, withdrawn from the market in 2020 due to falling demand for small cars

 The $17k subcompact gets about 36mpg, and more, on the highway compared with the HR-V which gets only 30mpg and costs $5k more.

Hey, who wants a Fit during a Plague, right?

 

There wasn't a single new car on the lot for sale or in the showroom at my Honda dealer yesterday, and I got the very last door lock assembly in the parts department

 Blank, like this page.

If this keeps up America will be just like Cuba

The average age of a car on U.S. roads rose to 12.1 years in 2021, according to IHS Markit. The average age had been 11.9 years in 2020. In 2002, the average age was 9.6 years. ... Car shopping site iSeeCars publishes a list of the longest-lasting cars on the road. Recently, it found that 16% of the Toyota Land Cruisers on the road have at least 200,000 miles on them. Meanwhile, at least 2.5% of several other models — from car makers including Toyota, Honda and General Motors — also have at least 200,000 miles on their odometers.

The story never mentions that a declining middle class finds it increasingly difficult to afford newer vehicles.

More.

 

Bailed-Out GM Auto Recall Surges To 4.8 Million In 2014 From 0.76 Million In 2013

Top 20 vehicles by sales volume 2013

There's your everyday, run-of-the-mill, garden-variety recall from going automobile companies like Toyota and Honda who recall vehicles and still make a profit, and then there's your government-subsidized, taxpayer-funded, otherwise bankrupt recall like one from General Motors or Chrysler.

Which would you prefer?

The New York Times reports here:

General Motors announced on Saturday morning that it was recalling 490,000 trucks and 172,000 compact cars, meaning the automaker has now recalled about 4.8 million vehicles in the United States during the first three months of the year. That is about six times the number of vehicles it recalled in all of 2013. ... G.M. recalled about 758,000 vehicles in the United States in 2013, ninth among automakers, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Toyota was first, with about 5.3 million vehicles, followed by Chrysler with 4.7 million and Honda with almost 2.8 million.

Taxpayers lost $10 billion on the GM bailout, $1.3 billion on the Chrysler bailout.

Economic Stress: Top 10 Selling Cars In July All Get Combined 28-32 MPG

The top 10 selling cars in July 2013 all get a combined MPG between 28 and 32 in their four-cylinder offerings with automatic transmission. In June most consumer spending was on autos and gasoline, and when those were backed-out, remaining retail was actually down 0.1%, the first time in a year. Soaring gasoline prices have no doubt been at work in spending allocated to more fuel efficient vehicles. Gasoline has been averaging above $3.50/gallon nationally since the beginning of February. See Good Car Bad Car here for car sales data by month.

Toyota Camry 28 mpg

Honda Civic    32

Honda Accord 30

Nissan Altima  31

Chevy Cruze    30

Toyota Corolla 29

Hyundai Elantra 32

Ford Fusion (fwd) 28

Hyundai Sonata  28

Ford Focus          31