This is sort of like if Chevy released a new type of vehicle. It’s advertised as 45mpg, passed all the safety certifications, roomy, comfortable, decent sound system, fairly quick, seats 6, looks great, reliable, and it only costs $15,000 out the door. But after about 20,000 miles, the 12 speed transmission needs to be replaced. The tranny is $9,000 and the dealership won’t cover it. A warranty wasn’t part of the deal. The people who have had this car for a year or two are complaining about issues but GM is still advertising everywhere in every form of media. The people are buying it as fast as Chevy can make it. Every news station is telling you to buy this miracle car because it’s affordable with a relatively small carbon footprint and it does everything well. People are absolutely scrambling for this thing. Meanwhile, the people who are getting close to that 20,000 mile mark are starting to see problems. Things like, It’s got a loud “whine” above 40 mph. It’s slipping. It’s running hot. It grenaded on the freeway... Owners are complaining on all the review sites. KBB is flooded with complaints. GM is KBB’s biggest advertiser, so KBB wipes out 99% of the negative reviews for this car. The only reviews potential consumers see are from people who have 75,000 problem free miles on their 2 year old car. Are those reviews even real? Certified Chevy mechanics are trying to tell people what they are seeing with these wonder cars, but as soon as they post a video on YouTube, they get fired from the dealership and have their ASE cert pulled. Frustrated owners are turned away by the dealership so they take their nearly new vehicle to an independent mechanic for a quote. This mechanic, free of GM’s power over them, is yelling from the roof top that there is a big problem with these cars and that there should be a recall. He goes on every car forum to describe the issues he is seeing with these new style of transmissions. Then, he finds a fix. There is a seal that fails prematurely. It’s made of a material he’s never seen before. He replaces it with a standard 0-ring he had in his shop and refills with fresh fluid. He drives around the block, then around town. It’s perfect. Cost was $200 in labor. Far cheaper than the $9,000 dealer cost. 5 years later there is a recall on the transmissions. About half the cars are still around. Many were junked with bad transmissions. What a shame. It was a $1 O-ring and some labor…

I read somewhere that people entering and LEAVING a gated area near the Capitol were ID'd. I think the theory was that the enclosed gated area was now occupied foreign territory and anyone leaving was now entering US soil. Do we know if that is still the case or was that proved to be false?