Insurance Companies are Continuing to Misuse Powers of Attorney
- Established Practice Enhances risk of Car Title fraud

Last weekend my car was in a wreck, and it looks like it is a total loss. In talking with my insurance company, I am stunned that they are telling me that I need to execute a power of attorney to them when I hand over the vehicle and that "the bureau of motor vehicles requires it." The reason why I am stunned is that I have been through this before. More than 10 years ago, I had a vehicle totaled, and the insurance company gave me the same line. I refused to sign the power of attorney and offered to sign the title to them instead. The reason: insurance companies have engaged in systematic fraud by misusing powers of attorney to launder the title of savage vehicles. In 1998 the Indiana Attorney General brought a case against State Farm insurance alleging the company laundered the titles of thousands of vehicles. The Indiana case led to a consent decree settlement between State Farm and the attorneys general in 49 states whereby State Farm would pay millions of dollars in voluntary compliance. Various estimates suggest that State Farm improperly titled 30,000 to 50,000 vehicles.

After the hub-bub of the State Farm case, I am surprised that most states have not amended their unfair practices law to specifically say that it is an unfair practice to require a power of attorney to sign over title. The practice is clearly unfair, and if you sign over a total-loss vehicle that you have paid for outright, you should refuse to sign a power of attorney to the Insurance company. If they give you a hard time, find a consumer attorney through the National Association of Consumer Advocates at www.naca.net.

AIG Might Sue US Government over Bailout

AIG, the insurance conglomerate that did as much as any other company to take down the entire US economy, the company that needed billions in bailout cash to survive, has announced that it might sue the US government over the "oppressive" terms of the bailout. Since when did Scumbag Steve become CEO of AIG?

Wither the Tax Resolution Companies?

I was recently thinking that it had been a good year since I'd received a consumer complaint about national tax resolution firm J.K. Harris. With good reason, as it turns out. Roughly a year ago the authorities finally caught up to the firm and shut it down. Apparently firm founder John K. Harris hasn't been too forthright about what's happened to all the money. The Taxresolutiontalk blog has a list of other tax resolution companies that have bitten the dust in 2010-2012. All in all, this is one of the best trends in consumer affairs / consumer law that I've seen in a long time.

How Times Change

Hurricane Sandy Bitch-Slaps the Eastern Seaboard

Too harsh? Not according to the Googleteer

search: Hurricane Sandy bitch-slap

Almost 1.5 million hits as of today. It's too bad neither of the presidential candidates thought it was important to talk about global warming.

Paul Ryan & Ayn Rand

This weekend, Mitt Romney picked Paul Ryan as his VP running-mate. Ryan is a darling among the "new conservatives" even though (or because of) his major accomplishment in Congress has been promoting gridlock. Ryan's budget, which Romney has not completely endorsed, proposes gutting almost all government programs except defense and social security while dangling carrots in the form of tax cuts which mostly flow through to the very rich. Even though Ryan is Catholic, Catholic clergy groups have derided Ryan's budget, even calling it immoral in the way it treats the poor.

Ryan is unperturbed by the criticism. He has bought into the morality espoused by Ayn Rand which promotes selfishness something to strive for rather than to avoid. More on Ayn Rand below.

From the "and that's what banking is all about Charlie Brown" file:
Victoria Explains It All

Victoria Grant, a 12 year old Canadian girl has taken the WWW (wonky world web) by storm with her pitch for a public reserve bank rather than a private reserve bank.

Exclusive Clip - The Dark Knight Rises

The Dark Knight Rises is the hot movie right now.  I was given this exclusive clip that was cut out of the movie.  Well, I'm told it's from the movie.  I think Batman was a little more macho before the French got involved.

Weweese Weuwns Womney

The calls are growing louder for Mitt Romney to release more than a year's tax returns.  Now even conservative media players like George Will and Erin Burnett have joined the call to the Mittster release his returns.  I just wanted to use this issue as an excuse for a Monty Python reference.

Ford C-Max Targets Prius-V 
But is that the best comparison?

Ford is issuing press releases touting the fuel economy of its new hybrid, the C-Max, by saying the bulbous compact gets better fuel economy than Toyota's Prius-V. The V is the larger sibling of the traditional Prius. At 47 MPG, the C-Max beats the Prius-V by 4 MPG. The problem is, looking at the specs, the C-Max is really squarely sized in between the regular Prius and the Prius V.  At 173.6 inches long, the C-Max is three inches shorter than the standard Prius, and is 8 inches shorter than the Prius V.  In fact, the C-Max is only 2 inches longer than the hatchback version of the Ford Focus. The C-Max shares an assembly line with the Focus in Wayne, Michigan.  What about cargo space? Here again, the C-Max is closer to the regular Prius than the Prius-V. The C-Max has 24.5 cu.ft. in cargo space with the rear seat up.  That's just a bit more than the regular Prius's 23.8, and it's a lot lower than the Prius-V's 34.3 cu.ft. The C-Max barely exceeds the cargo space of the regular Focus, which has 21.6 cu.ft.

This is not to say that the C-Max doesn't have some advantages over the Prius V. The C-Max has an inch or two over the Prius V in virtually every measure inside the passenger cabin. The C-Max has a substantial edge over both Prii in total system horsepower. Ford is quoting a combined gas-electric rating of 188 horsepower. Both Prii have only 134 horses. Per Edmunds, the C-Max weighs 3,674 lbs, significantly beefier than either the Prius V or the base Prius. Even so, that's 19.5 lbs/hp. That's a better power to weight ratio than the regular prius (22.7 lbs/hp) and the Prius V (24.4 lbs/hp).  Based on the numbers and the performance of the lower-powered 2008-2012 Ford Fusion hybrid, it is likely that the C-Max will be able to go from 0-60 in the 8.5-9.0 second range, compared to high 9's for the standard Prius and mid-10s for the Prius-V. 

The bottom line is that the C-Max really isn't an extended family wagon like the Prius-V. Ford makes and sells in other markets a slightly longer version of the C-Max called the Grand C-Max. The Grand C-Max would have been a closer match to the V. The C-Max is really just a somewhat taller version of the Focus Hatchback, a car much closer in size to the standard Prius.  It's likely that comparably equipped, the C-Max will be available for a somewhat lower transaction price than even the regular Prius, because Toyota dealers still seem to have a problem selling the Prius without a bunch of dealer-added gunk.  The fuel economy difference between the two is essentially trivial. For the typical car buyer the decision will come down to which one you like better and which dealer gives you a better sales and service experience.

The C-Max covers the hybrid field in one respect. It's union-made in the USA. The C-Max seems to be a good blend of fuel economy, practicality and performance, and the hybrid premium is relatively low, much lower than the discontinued Ford Escape Hybrid. The C-Max is therefore on my short list for new car shopping this fall.

Here's the link to the edmunds.com comparison that I used to look at these cars. Feel free to play around with it at your leisure 

Image credit: I got the image from thecarconnection.com, but it appears to be a Ford press image.