Where the world’s unsold cars go to die. Apparently, people are not buying new cars anymore and manufacturers are trying to hide that fact. This story was debunked almost immediately (http://jalopnik.com/that-zero-hedge-article-on-unsold-cars-is-bullshit-1578124255) and we’ve waited two days for Zero Hedge to print a retraction. So far, they haven’t. Summary: cars are not being over-produced and stored in parking lots and abandoned landing strips around the world, and Zero Hedge is run by cowardly weasels.
This post was last modified on May 19, 2014
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Well, I finally got my approved account and posted a piece of my mind at Zero Hedge. I'm not the only one. They're pretty much taking it in the ass over this, but they still haven't posted any sort of retraction or apology so I don't feel sorry for them.
Any replies to your comment and is zh still "standing by our story"?
Mine is the fifth to last comment and there is no reply from the site. And the story stands uncorrected as it originally ran. ZH lost a lot of people's respect I'm afraid.
There is a comment after mine that is obviously from a liberal. It basically admits the story is factually wrong but suggests the overall point is valid. Good grief.
Ohhh, so ZH's heart was in the right place and their intentions were noble so they get a pass, eh?
I'll check out comments over there next break. Gorgeous day outside (finally) and you of most people here should understand me being outside soaking up as much as possible.
There, I fixed the original post.
query:
Since God made the original post, i.e., Let there be light., how could ANYONE fixit?
Worser and worser JP
"What struck me was how familiar it all looked. Maybe that was because I posted those same photos on The Big Picture blog and Business Insider in February 2009."
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2014/05/worlds-unsold-cars-piling-up-everywhere.html#s7XD0mcEOwyX8ABB.99
Just checked their comments. Latest ones include these gems:
"Major criticsm across the intertubes about this article. Surprising number of sites are fans of ZH and uniformly they think this article is BS and beneath ZH."
"what's a few misrepresentations when you can get over 500k hits...."
"Come on ZH, most of these pics date from 2009 and the information here is just plain untrue. Please do a little fact checking before you print this stuff, you're losing cred lately at a rapid rate."
I thought it looked like a lot full of Chevy Volts.
Can't be- no battery explosions.
Point taken.
"Trouble is, I can’t look at a car and recognize the model is years old"
I'm with you on that JP. With cars made back in the 50's and 60's I could name the year and make and model from the tail lights. These days I'd be hard pressed to tell if a car was made in the 20th or 21st century.
I witnessed a hit and run once. Called the police station, told them I saw the whole thing happen right in front of me, and they sent an officer over to my house to interview me. Not only could I not tell him the model of the car, or the manufacturer of the car, I couldn't even tell him the #$@! COLOR of the car. Worst eye witness ever. I said, "Hey, I wrote down the license plate number. What more do you want?"
I used to go by the port of Benicia all the time. You're up on the bridge and you can easily see the lots where they park all the cars that come off the ships. Before the recession they were jam packed. As this progressed the lots became emptier and emptier, not fuller.
Another auto story, but a feel good one for the day...
http://weaselzippers.us/186446-motorist-gives-obama-the-middle-finger-as-his-motorcade-passes-by/
Well in J.P.'s defense, this is just more proof that the media truly sucks. I'm willing to be he read the article, said holy shit this can't be true, but linked it any way, and low and behold, it was a crock.
Thanks, Jim. I've been in the industry on the OEM side for 25 years and I know this is total bullshit. I've been discussing this article on Facebook today and the key points are these:
No accounting method could remove this unsold inventory off the books without the financial markets and regulators screaming bloody murder.
All OEMs report sales as well as production figures, the imbalance alleged would be noticed immediately, which would call to question sales and production figures. Again the financial markets and regulators would be calling for criminal investigations.
Any railhead or port where new vehicles are marshaled look like this. Google the images of the port of Long Beach's car park.
Lastly, available land is scarce in Europe where most of those pictures were taken, it makes sense that cars being marshaled for export or trucked to local dealerships would be concentrated like that.
"No accounting method could remove this unsold inventory off the books without the financial markets and regulators screaming bloody murder."
"Again the financial markets and regulators would be calling for criminal investigations."
No, the real clue is that these cars are all fairly new. Since the crisis have been going on for a while now, there should have been large groups of cars that would show signs of having been there for years. Oh and it would have been noticed earlier, that too, just to begin with.
The financial markets and regulators themselves? If it was true, it would precisely be because there is a massive problem with the financial markets and regulators themselves, because the system as a whole is compromised. Why exactly would they make a lot of noise and call for criminal investigation when the criminal investigation would lead straight to them ?? Collapse entire economies too, just as Ben B stated.
Of course, if the author had a basic enough understanding of how the system is compromised, he or she would be able to understand why the claimed course of action would be completely unecessary.
Wow, I thought I was cynical. I didn't say my list was comprehensive. I just hit the highlights. Trust me, if the SEC, for example, thought Ford or GM or even Toyota, who trades a type of stock in the US, was pulling this crap and lying about their sales and production numbers it would be a very big deal. Likely on a scale of the real estate fiasco since 1/7 of our economy is tied to the auto industry.
Yeah, yeah, I understand it's crap now. I trusted Zero Hedge, which I will never do again.
If the author understood well-enough how the whole scam work, he or she would understand why such a thing would not happen.
You should never truly trust any website, actually. It is not because it is written so or by that person or group that it is automatically true (or false for that matter). Objective, reasonable thinking should always be your standard.
Who cars? We can still have pun with this article/post. Who gives a toot if it's inacarate?
Since so much of what is aired as mainstream news is inaccurate isn't it a bit nit-picking to fault this just because it happens to possess a few glaring discrepancies from that liberal's inconvenience known as reality?
Actually I hear the photos are of traffic running smoothly from New Jersey to New York..... either that or Obamacars destined for illegal aliens... ahh I mean documentation challenged patriots.
Ahhh- I see a few billions in taxpayer bailout dollars have finally been located- no surprise that it's overseas.
here is a web site disputing the ZeroHedge unsold cars story:
http://jalopnik.com/that-zero-hedge-article-on-unsold-cars-is-bullshit-1578124255
Certainly the URL is easy to understand. :-)
Cripes, why did I post this crap? Now I've lost faith in Zero Hedge, dammit.
Trouble is, I can't look at a car and recognize the model is years old. I'm not a car guy like that. So I fell for this crap hook. line, and sinker.
Snopes has been proven wrong, too, a time or two. So, I no longer believe them, either.
You're trying to make me feel better, aren't you? Thank you.
Have they posted an Oops/ correction/editorial message yet? I have them on one of my feeds, curious to see how it goes.
Just peeked and skimmed comments and didn't see squat.
I tried to register so I could complain, but they informed me it takes 4 to 7 days to create a new account.
Faster than OhCare, 7 days... we should all be so lucky...
(I follow the site too, kinda surprised they haven't done anything... makes me think they're either in shock or don't really care. Which says a lot. Why this site is called IHTM for a reason. I hate the people on "my" side who now have a forum and play the same games we all bitched about for years.)
I'll give them til [_]3 in the a.m. to make it right.
They should retract or clarify... I thought one of the mainstays of "our" side was personal responsibility?
Not that you trusted them, but they are being weasels and you trusted them...
By the time I get a comment account so I can ask why they haven't posted a retraction, nobody will care anymore.
Snopes is literally run by a left wing slightly beyond middle aged couple. I have zero faith in their stuff.
I blame the article on glow-bull warm mongering.
Fitting link as I was about to the the bullshit flag on this story myself!