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Was your car towed illegally? What a legal parking-lot tow needs in 4 states
No sign? Towed while you watched? Towed from your apartment for expired tags? We read the private-property towing laws of Texas, California, Florida and New Jersey: the sign rules, who must authorize the tow, your right to stop it, the penalties and the Texas 14-day deadline.
How much can a tow company charge? The legal caps, from $125 to $272
Your car got towed from a parking lot. What's the most they can legally bill? We pulled the official caps for Texas, Colorado, Virginia, the Chicago area, NYC and Miami-Dade, plus California's rule: tow fees, storage, drop fees and what changes for work trucks.
Warren says fire truck costs doubled. We checked the paperwork.
Sen. Warren says a fire truck that cost $500,000 in 2013 cost $1 million by 2023. We checked federal price indexes and 12 council purchase records. Inflation explains $86K to $242K of the jump. Here's what the paperwork shows, what the lawsuits allege, and what the makers say.
The shortage has a CDL, not a VIN
Freight shipments are up 1.9% from a year ago. Freight spending is up 20%. Class 8 orders are up 95% for the year. The trucks are coming. What's missing is the qualified driver for each seat, and that changes what your next equipment dollar should buy.
The camera on the chassis is not proof the finished truck complies
A service body, bumper or liftgate can change what the factory backup camera sees. For trucks rated at 10,000 pounds GVWR or less, ask the upfitter how the completed vehicle will meet the rear-visibility requirements, not just whether a camera is included.
Everyone is selling pre-buy. NTEA's June chassis numbers do not show it yet.
NTEA's March outlook put 2026 truck sales growth between 1% and 12%. Through June, U.S./Mexico chassis sales are down 5.5%. June itself was a different story.
Three components decide whether a remount is a new truck
A new body on a previously registered chassis is a used vehicle to NHTSA. Change the engine, transmission or drive axles in the wrong way and it becomes a new one, with a label and a penalty ceiling of $27,874 per truck.
Clean CA starts at the exhaust, not the brochure.
NTEA wants nothing proud of the rails behind the cab. IMT starts the tape at the stack. GM still ships a DEF relocation kit in the cab for 3500HD service-body jobs.
The metals tariff now counts the whole part, not the steel in it
Since April 6 the Section 232 duty on a hydraulic cylinder or pump runs on the full invoice. June added a reduced tier tied to cranes and lift trucks. Dump trucks are not on that list.
EPA's 2027 relief has a lane for Class 6 and up. Class 4 and 5 are not in it.
Nonconformance penalties are proposed for Medium and Heavy HDE diesels only. EPA's own cost figure for a Class 6-7 engine is $3,683. Light HDE, Classes 2b-5, is not in the proposal.
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