How Global Chaos Ends Up in Your Driveway

Hey everyone and welcome back to the straight shift.

Yeah, I know it's been a little while. As many of you know, my mom was sick with acute myeloid

leukemia. And over the past few months, I had to step away from the podcast and my newsletter

to focus on taking care of her. Unfortunately, she did pass away at the end of March, but in her

own bed and in her own home. Taking care of her was one of the most difficult things I have ever

done. But it was also a great honor. She was there when I took my first breath. And I was there

when she took her last. So first of all, I wanted to thank everybody who checked in with me, sent

messages and just gave me the grace while I disappeared for a while and understood that

real life and family had to take priority for a bit. I genuinely appreciated more than you will

ever know. So we are back to the straight shift. And normally I save most of the industry news

bullshitery for the straight shift newsletter, which by the way is also coming back. The first

newsletter will come out next Wednesday, because it does the second and fourth Wednesday to compliment

the first and third Wednesdays of the podcast. So if you're not subscribed yet, head over to

the carchick.com and sign up because the newsletter is where I break down what's happening in the

automotive industry, all of the economic nonsense that goes on, the market trends, pricing changes,

just weird automotive news. I also give you car care tips and tricks, everything that you need to

know to understand what the heck is going on in the market and how you can save money when you're

buying and maintaining your car. But since I basically just appeared for a couple of months,

the world did what the world does. It's like when you turn your back on a toddler for two freaking

minutes and they wreck the whole damn house is if the tariff situation wasn't creating enough chaos

in the industry. Now we've got an escalating conflict with Iran threatening one of the most

important shipping routes in the entire world. And that has helped drive gas prices up 60%

in less than three months, 60%. That is one of the fastest fuel price spikes that Americans

have seen since the oil embargo is back in the early 70s. So I wanted to do this comeback episode

about what's been happening, why it matters and how this global chaos is once again changing the car

world and your bank account and in ways that go a lot further than just how you feel at the gas pump.

So grab your coffee or your wine or hell at this point, just get out the bourbon. Let's get into

it. First things first, we have to talk about the straight of Hormuz. Most people didn't even know

what or where that was until a few weeks ago. The straight of Hormuz is this tiny little

shipping passage between Iran and Oman and it connects the Persian Gulf to the open ocean.

Now when I say tiny, I mean shockingly tiny, like 21 miles wide in some places. And that's

microscopic considering how important it is because this narrow little bottleneck of water

transports approximately a fifth of the world's oil supply. It's basically the fuel line of the

modern global economy. And right now, somebody's stepping on it. It's gotten pinched. So when these

tensions flare up in that region, the oil markets immediately start panicking. Not because we run

out of oil overnight, but because everybody starts realizing just how dependent modern life is on

this one dining strip of water halfway around the world. It's kind of ridiculous. And the automotive

industry is especially vulnerable, not just because most cars run on gas, but because they're global

platforms with parts sourced from all over the world. A modern car today might have electronics

from Asia, steel from Canada, wiring from Mexico. Your software might come from Europe

and petrochemicals from the Middle East. Now remember that word folks, petrochemicals because

it's going to end up being the word of the day. Every vehicle on the road today depends on global

shipping, obviously the fuel that fuels the vehicle and the global shipping, all those raw

materials, the manufacturing plants, transportation and supplier networks. It's a staggering

amount of logistics. So when one part of that global system gets fubard, the ripple effects

just go through everything. Fuel prices jump up, that sends shipping costs through the roof.

It increases parts costs. Next thing you know, your repair bills get uglier, which means insurance

rates climb. And eventually your next car payment starts looking like a small mortgage,

which it kind of already did before all this started. But the problem goes even deeper than

that. When we hear oil prices, we think gasoline, right? Gas pump, higher fuel prices. It's going

to hurt every time we fill up. It costs twice as much to go to work now. Oh my gosh, my car

takes premium gas instead of regular. This is what most people think about. But a barrel of crude

oil doesn't just become gasoline. It gets separated into different products like gas, diesel,

jet fuel, lubricants and petrochemicals. Yep, there's that word again. And those are used

to make everything from plastics to synthetic rubber to seat foam, paint, wiring, insulation,

thousands of everyday products, including a huge number of the parts in your car.

Yes, large chunks of your car are literally made from oil. And once you realize that,

suddenly a lot of the automotive pricing and sanity starts to make a little bit more sense.

You know, think about it, tires, synthetic rubber, your dashboard, petroleum based plastics,

seat foam, petroleum byproducts, same thing for wiring, insulation,

paint and adhesives, more petrochemicals, even carpet fibers are synthetic these days. And oh,

that vegan leather in your SUV. Yeah, instead of being made from a cow, it's made from petroleum.

Modern cars are basically an iPhone, a lazy boy recliner and a barrel of crude oil all

smushed together at 60 miles an hour. And that's before we even get to the actual fluids in the

car. Things like coolant, your transmission fluid, lubricants, sealants, most of those come from

petroleum byproducts. So when oil prices spike, it's not just the cost of the gas that you need

to put in your car to make it go, that go up. It's the cost of thousands of little components

and materials throughout the entire vehicle. And when those costs start stacking up on top of each

other, congratulations, your car costs a shitload more. I forgot to give the disclaimer that there

was going to be cussing in this episode, but you can't talk about this type of stuff without cussing

just a little bit. In fact, there are days when the supply of available cuss words is

completely insufficient to meet my demand. But anyway, when those costs go up, your repair bills

go up. And that gives the insurance company a reason to say, oh, wow, okay, it's costing us more

money to repair your car when you crash it. Therefore, we're going to hike your insurance rates.

So everything just snowballs and we wonder why inflation feels exponential. So this is where

people hopefully start realizing, hmm, this is all connected. Welcome to the global economy, folks.

And even electric vehicles are not immune. Yes, they reduce our global gasoline dependence,

and that's a good thing. But they still exist in that same global manufacturing and supply chain

ecosystem along with everything else. And think about it, they're still made from the same plastics,

synthetic materials and other petroleum byproducts that are sourced from all over the world.

They still have to be assembled. They still have to be shipped to a dealership near you for you to

buy it. EVs are actually incredibly material intensive vehicles. They contain massive amounts

of wiring because they're roving computers even more than your gas powered cars are. They contain a

ton of electronics, those large battery packs that are made from rare earth minerals, and all the

lightweight composites, which is a euphemism for plastic, it's just plastic, you know, all those

things contribute to an electric car. And it's to help make it lighter so that you get that further

range. Even the tires have to come into the conversation because EVs tend to be a little

bit harder on tires, the tires wear faster than in regular gas powered cars, because the EVs are so

heavy. And especially if you don't maintain your tire pressures properly like I preach all the time,

the EVs can wear out the tires faster. And again, more synthetic rubber.

So it's not just a gas car problem. This is a modern industrial product design and manufacturing

problem. And honestly, this is for a lot of our conversations tend to go sideways, especially on

the internet. People like for things to fit into nice neat little boxes that they can easily

understand. Things are either good or bad. They're good for the environment. They're bad for the

environment. This is great. This is green. This is evil. This is a solution. problem.

We like those little boxes, but reality is a lot messier than that. Every technology has

trade-offs. Every manufacturing system has consequences. And every energy source has its

pros and its cons, its advantages, and its downside. You can't produce energy without having some

sort of waste. I mean, even as humans, you know, we have to eat to get energy, but then there's

the other end of it. So that is just how the nature system works. And it extends to manufacturing

systems. Really everything. It's also interconnected. And that makes it incredibly fragile. And the

automakers know this. They learned that the hard way during the pandemic. And then the let's see

the microchip shortage, and then the tariff situation, and oh, now more geopolitical instability

and shipping route threats. Yay, there's just never a dull moment. The automotive industry

has literally never seen so much chaos. And that's why the automakers have started not only making

sure that they have multiple supply chains for each product in part, because for some reason,

years ago, they never got the message, hey, don't keep all your eggs in one basket.

They're finally figuring that out. But they're also starting to experiment with more sustainable

and recycled materials. And this is where it starts to get kind of interesting and cool,

for least for us nerds. And yes, some of it is marketing hype, as it always is. But some of

it is genuinely smart engineering and a smart supply chain strategy. For example, BMW and Lexus

have been experimenting with bamboo trim in interiors, because bamboo is not just for pandas

anymore. Bamboo is a wonderful, easily renewable resource. I mean, it's basically a weed. Let's

just be honest, bamboo is a weed, and it grows like crazy, and can be very invasive. So we might as

well use the stuff. There are only so many pandas that can eat it. Audi and BMW have also

experimented with other natural fibers like hemp, flax. These are things that we can grow,

and we can grow them very quickly. And they can be used for so many different things.

Ford has been using soy-based seat foam for years now, instead of petroleum-based. Companies like

Volvo, Mercedes, even Hyundai and Kia are starting to use more recycled plastics and textiles in their

vehicle interiors. So all of those cool ocean cleanup projects that people like Mark Rober and

Team C's have been working on to clean up all the crap that ends up in our oceans, especially all

the plastics. Yeah, some of that recovered plastic and that fishnet material that we just kind of

they are turning that into things like carpeting, insulation, and other interior materials.

So yes, somewhere out there, there's an old Dasani water bottle and possibly a pair of

yoga pants living their best second life as somebody's SUV interior. It's weird times, folks,

but honestly, it's also kind of cool because recycling is how we're going to reduce our

dependence on these natural resources that are stuck in certain places in the world and hence

affected by little strips of water that can get closed when people get pissed off. So does this

magically solve every environmental or manufacturing problem or even any political problem? No,

of course not. But here's what it does do. It's encouraging to see how the industry is working

to adapt to those rising material costs, supply chain instability. And as a result, they're looking

at reducing waste and they're changing consumer expectations. And hopefully they can get us to

think about it differently as well. Granted, they're doing it mostly to save money. But hey,

there's nothing wrong with when saving money aligns with doing things that are more sustainable

for our planet and for our economy and make more political stability in the world.

Hey, that is what I call a win-win all around. That's because everything is connected. And

that's kind of what I really wanted to talk about today now that I've kind of wound my way

to this point. That's not just about oil and the current conflict in the world creating this problem

because the Strait of Hormuz is essentially shut down and it's wreaking havoc on the oil supply.

It's not just about that. It's not just about tariffs and the shipping lanes.

It's more about perspective. And that's one of the reasons I think that we've become so divided as a

society is because we keep looking at issues through just one lens, one angle, one headline,

one ideology, one God forbid, TikTok clip. And then we build entire belief systems around that

one piece of incomplete information, what everything is connected, energy, transportation,

manufacturing, mining, recycling, consumer behavior, politics, economics, technology. It's this tangled

web of our global society and economy. And that's why the automotive industry is really

a fascinating lens for looking at the world right now. It's just one of those things that shows you

how interconnected everything is. And you can literally watch global events roll outward in

real time and show up at the gas pump, at the repair shop, and your insurance bill,

and in your monthly payment. So nothing fits into one simple box. Real life is just more

complicated. Oil gave us mobility and manufacturing and modern industry and made a lot of people a

lot of money. And it also created pollution and geopolitical dependence. We have solar energy,

which can reduce that fossil fuel dependence and solar is endlessly renewables, you know,

long as the sun doesn't go, no, the honest. But it also requires dangerous chemicals and

manufacturing. And when those solar panels get to the end of their usable life, disposing of

them is terrible for the environment. So there's a trade off. Globalization made products cheaper

and more accessible to everybody. But it also made our supply chains fragile as hell. So nothing

is completely good and nothing is completely bad. Everything has trade offs. So I think as I'm

getting older and I have been reflecting a lot on things since mom died. But I think maturity is

basically learning how to live in that messy middle ground, that gray area where reality

actually exists and working to find a balance. So yeah, I'm not going to go full on Star Wars

nerd and Yoda you. There's a moment in the Empire Strikes Back where Yoda is teaching Luke on Dagobah

and he says, you must feel the force around you here between you, me, the tree, the rock,

everywhere. And that's I guess the point I'm trying to make. Everything is connected and

everyone is connected. So just maybe if we spend a little less time trying to prove that we're right

and the other side is wrong and one thing is good and one thing is evil, maybe we should spend a

little more time understanding how everything is interconnected and how everything is interdependent.

Maybe we'd make some smarter and maybe more compassionate decisions. Maybe we would waste

less and maybe we would fight less and maybe shit wouldn't be so damn expensive. So that's my

challenge to all of us today, myself included. We should maybe step back more often and look

at that bigger picture, see the connections between things instead of only looking and considering

one tiny piece of the puzzle before we form opinions and start making decisions. And hey,

maybe instead of throwing out that nasty grungy t-shirt that's not even fit for a goodwill

donation, don't just chuck it straight into the bin, maybe take it to that textile recycle box

that's at the grocery store parking lot and that t-shirt could come back in its next life

as your car's headliner. As always, guys, thank you for listening. It's good to be back. I have

missed doing this podcast and talking to all of you. Until next time, drive safely and may the

force be with you. I'm out of here. The Straight Shift podcast is copyright Lee Ann Shattuck,

the car chip. All views expressed by guest and or co-hosts are those of the guest and or co-hosts

and not necessarily those of Lee Ann Shattuck or the car chip.

How Global Chaos Ends Up in Your Driveway

About this episode

straight of Hormuz

shipping passage

petrochemicals

ripple effects

electric vehicles

rare earth minerals

lightweight composites

range

tire pressures

synthetic rubber

trade-offs

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