15 hours ago, surreal1272 said:

That thing is hideous and just looking at the profile of the two, the $650K Ferrari looks way too similar to a $40K Toyota.

That's a fair point. Even if it isn't "the same", it is certainly far too similar. 

When cars had personality ...

... 1978 Cadillac Couple de Ville

A lady I knew - Velma - when I was a teenager had one of these with a Cerise Firemist Metallic exterior - sort of a light grapefruit color popular in those years.

She knew I loved her car.

On 5/26/2026 at 5:45 PM, surreal1272 said:

 

Have to say it was indeed a surprise to find out that Ferrari collaborated with Toyota to make the new Crown EV.

 

Oh wait.

 

 

Welcome to the iCar as Jony Ives was the designer and lead during production. He could not get his iCar produced at Apple and so he got Ferrari to do it in an overpriced way. Ugly as heck, but hopefully the experience of actually driving it is better than the look.

@surreal1272 @ccap41

Ferrari should have released the auto as a Concept to get feedback from the public as this iCar is a styling failure. They could have take the Jaguar XJ220 and put in an electric powertrain and been far more successful than this iCar release they did without all the negativity it has generated.

Does Ferrari need to go electric? YES

Is this the right auto for them? NO

Is the software and driving dynamic worthy of a Ferrari? Unknown

American, European and Asian automakers just got put on notice by China.

BYD’s $10,300 EV Gets LiDAR While America Still Treats It Like Luxury Tech - Autoblog

Only auto's that have LiDAR are going to truly deliver self driving auto's.

In a sad note due to INCOMPETENT Idiot47 and his administration as well as the Lemmings of GOP in the House and Senate. 

Mercedes-Benz Faces US Sales Ban Over Chinese Ownership Ties | automotive | informed, clearly

Mercedes-Benz may be shut out of U.S. market under congressional bill

Mercedes-Benz faces sales and production risk in US over Chinese-linked ownership

Kiss the 11,000 manufacturing jobs goodbye, plants closed and the estimated 163,000 jobs at parts and supporting companies goodbye if this bill get approved. Another destruction by Idiot47 and his lemmings. Ignorance is destroying America.

This is a sexy SUV I would love to drive
BYD Gets 100,000 Bookings For A $36,700 Electric SUV Americans Haven't Even Heard Of - Autoblog

...and Chinese EV's can't get into the American market fast enough IMHO.

So now there's a "cruise addiction:"

I like traveling by ship (realistically ocean liner) and I've now done 2 repositioning crossings. I went from Fort Lauderdale to Barcelona on a transatlantic repositioning (sadly not on Cunard) in April. The ports of call were the Azores, Madeira, and Gibraltar. I'd been to Gibraltar before. The cable car up to the top was being refurbished, so I didn't get off the ship.

It's really interesting, but it can wear on you. Port days are great but you have to pace things. I prefer sea days, where you've got the whole day to relax. There is too much food, and most of it is good. You will gain 5+pounds. Some of the people on board are weird. There are a lot of single older women, by being widowed, divorced, or never married. Some are way too friendly and you have to balance being polite and conveying being unavailable. If they didn't get their act together when they were younger, they shouldn't be putting this burden on someone now. You do ship travel with a significant other, if you have one. You should not do it expecting to meet someone because it's probably not going to happen, especially when someone has hit the wall.

Some of these people are crazy - they go on one cruise right after another. I've come to realize it's an escape for some people. If you're always at sea, or in ports, or going to the dining room, shows, and planned events, you don't have to face anything you should be dealing with psychologically. You get assigned to a dinner table and, because it's 6 to 8 people, you have to be a little guarded ... I can't tell most of my jokes and make most of the comments I'd ordinarily make with friends. Everyone is usually likable enough, but, toward the end, you have to stiffen up a little bit as you disengage from any of these groups. They all have to make sure that as they go on to their next cruise, and the next one, they haven't exchanged contact information with anyone. I've done so with only a few people and that's because they'd be the kind of people you'd probably socialize with anyway.

https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles/21-signs-youre-a-cruise-addict

I have 7 of these 21, and some aren't even that pronounced:

2 - my desktop wallpaper is indeed a ship

5 - it's not so much post cruise "blues" as it is adjusting to a different schedule and having to make or buy food

7 - I have rank with just one line and that's Cunard (which operates Queen Mary 2)

8 - people don't come to me for advice about cruises; people I know approach me for all kinds of travel advice ... I don't have a sign on my head, but people know I like to travel

9 - I have bought exactly one item on each trip, so less than 10 items total

11 - I've memorized the layout of a few ships, but that's also what most of my jobs have required doing, and it wasn't about the layout of ships

15 - I could spend hours on cruise sites, but I could also spend hours on many travel and transportation sites

I had November 2026 booked (Europe to the States) and am not going to go, so I will lose a small deposit. I redeemed frequent flyer miles and will be flying. But I'm keeping a reservation for a U.S. to Europe crossing for spring 2027.

I only go transatlantic - it's to go from point A to point B. If you choose a basic cabin, t's not much more than the combination of a one way air ticket, lodging, and restaurant costs.

The last true ocean liner - Queen Mary 2 - so they had to make it beautiful and not have it look like a floating condominium tower. I stay in the black hull area and in a simple cabin. I love this ship.

Wow, incompetent leadership truly has put the U.S. behind the world in EV tech.

A battery pack equal to the density of gasoline.

CleanTechnica

CATL Developing 12,000 Wh Per Kg Lithium-Air Battery - Cl...

CATL said this week it is developing lithium air batteries that could have an energy density of up to 12,000 Wh/kg.

Imagine a 3,600 mile battery pack equal to the size of today's 320-mile battery pack. The amount of weight they could drop by going with just a battery pack 25% the size of today's 100kW battery pack would still be a 900-mile range battery pack at 1/4 the weight.

8 hours ago, G. David Felt said:

Wow, incompetent leadership truly has put the U.S. behind the world in EV tech.

A battery pack equal to the density of gasoline.

CleanTechnica

CATL Developing 12,000 Wh Per Kg Lithium-Air Battery - Cl...

CATL said this week it is developing lithium air batteries that could have an energy density of up to 12,000 Wh/kg.

Imagine a 3,600 battery pack equal to the size of today's 320 mile battery pack. The amount of weight they could drop by going with just a battery pack 25% the size of today's 100kW battery pack would still be a 900 mile range battery pack at 1/4 the weight.

In everything, not just EV batteries.

On 6/6/2026 at 3:43 PM, trinacriabob said:

So now there's a "cruise addiction:"

I like traveling by ship (realistically ocean liner) and I've now done 2 repositioning crossings. I went from Fort Lauderdale to Barcelona on a transatlantic repositioning (sadly not on Cunard) in April. The ports of call were the Azores, Madeira, and Gibraltar. I'd been to Gibraltar before. The cable car up to the top was being refurbished, so I didn't get off the ship.

It's really interesting, but it can wear on you. Port days are great but you have to pace things. I prefer sea days, where you've got the whole day to relax. There is too much food, and most of it is good. You will gain 5+pounds. Some of the people on board are weird. There are a lot of single older women, by being widowed, divorced, or never married. Some are way too friendly and you have to balance being polite and conveying being unavailable. If they didn't get their act together when they were younger, they shouldn't be putting this burden on someone now. You do ship travel with a significant other, if you have one. You should not do it expecting to meet someone because it's probably not going to happen, especially when someone has hit the wall.

Some of these people are crazy - they go on one cruise right after another. I've come to realize it's an escape for some people. If you're always at sea, or in ports, or going to the dining room, shows, and planned events, you don't have to face anything you should be dealing with psychologically. You get assigned to a dinner table and, because it's 6 to 8 people, you have to be a little guarded ... I can't tell most of my jokes and make most of the comments I'd ordinarily make with friends. Everyone is usually likable enough, but, toward the end, you have to stiffen up a little bit as you disengage from any of these groups. They all have to make sure that as they go on to their next cruise, and the next one, they haven't exchanged contact information with anyone. I've done so with only a few people and that's because they'd be the kind of people you'd probably socialize with anyway.

https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles/21-signs-youre-a-cruise-addict

I have 7 of these 21, and some aren't even that pronounced:

2 - my desktop wallpaper is indeed a ship

5 - it's not so much post cruise "blues" as it is adjusting to a different schedule and having to make or buy food

7 - I have rank with just one line and that's Cunard (which operates Queen Mary 2)

8 - people don't come to me for advice about cruises; people I know approach me for all kinds of travel advice ... I don't have a sign on my head, but people know I like to travel

9 - I have bought exactly one item on each trip, so less than 10 items total

11 - I've memorized the layout of a few ships, but that's also what most of my jobs have required doing, and it wasn't about the layout of ships

15 - I could spend hours on cruise sites, but I could also spend hours on many travel and transportation sites

I had November 2026 booked (Europe to the States) and am not going to go, so I will lose a small deposit. I redeemed frequent flyer miles and will be flying. But I'm keeping a reservef U.S. to Europe crossing for spring 2027.

I only go transatlantic - it's to go from point A to point B. If you choose a basic cabin, t's not much more than the combination of a one way air ticket, lodging, and restaurant costs.

The last true ocean liner - Queen Mary 2 - so they had to make it beautiful and not have it look like a floating condominium tower. I stay in the black hull area and in a simple cabin. I love this ship.

How often can you travel? I have heard that the time slots for transatlantic ocean travel are quite limited.

On 5/29/2026 at 7:43 AM, Drew Dowdell said:

Th en$h!ification of the country continues.

50 minutes ago, A Horse With No Name said:

In everything, not just EV batteries.

How often can you travel? I have heard that the time slots for transatlantic ocean travel are quite limited

Cunard's Queen Mary 2 does the crossing from April through December. From January up to April, she is on a world cruise to keep her mostly in the southern hemisphere.

At other times, the crossing takes 7 days. She goes from New York to Southampton UK. She obviously has to do the journey in the other direction, too. That's quite a few crossings. Interspersed might be some cruises to the Norwegian fjords, the Mediterranean, and New England with Eastern Canada. This is the only ship dedicated to doing the transatlantic crossing most of the year.

Most of the other cruise lines do repositioning transatlantic twice a year. They go from mostly Florida to the Mediterranean in April and they come back in November. For that, it is a limited window, but there are a lot of lines doing it with at least one of their ships: Norwegian, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Holland America, Carnival, etc.

It's a great experience, and you might get to stop at Bermuda, the Azores, Madeira, the Canaries, and/or Gibraltar. The ships run quite a bit slower at ~16 knots, and those crossings take about 14 days.

You do not want to be accosted by overweight older women who are Trumpers and might even attend a Bible study or two. They will not make your day. However, there will be some interesting people aboard.

If you choose to ignore just about everything around you, the experience can be incredibly relaxing.

Valid points made, interesting read.
Opinion: Move over, MAGA — it’s time to take America back

I'm trying to be realistic and I have to say that I feel bad for Barron Trump. Like any other kid, rich or poor, he was probably hoping for a normal childhood, yet his parents are both so controversial and getting increasingly raked over in the media. It has turned into a circus, and this kid is smack in the middle of his college education.

2 hours ago, trinacriabob said:

I'm trying to be realistic and I have to say that I feel bad for Barron Trump. Like any other kid, rich or poor, he was probably hoping for a normal childhood, yet his parents are both so controversial and getting increasingly raked over in the media. It has turned into a circus, and this kid is smack in the middle of his college education.

Sadly all kids are affected by their parents, I hope he just does not become as narcissistic as his dad or brothers. He is starting with some other rich people a energy drink company. I wonder if he will actually try to grow it or as soon as he thinks he has gotten what money out of it, will abandoned it.

1 hour ago, G. David Felt said:

Sadly all kids are affected by their parents, I hope he just does not become as narcissistic as his dad or brothers. He is starting with some other rich people a energy drink company. I wonder if he will actually try to grow it or as soon as he thinks he has gotten what money out of it, will abandoned it.

I didn't know about this. I know that he did one year at NYU in New York City and it wasn't the greatest experience for him so he transferred to some kind of satellite campus or program of it in DC.

It is the only First Family that I've seen in my lifetime that has such questionable people. Most of the time, the extended family just stays out of the picture ... like they should.

On 6/8/2026 at 1:07 PM, trinacriabob said:

I'm trying to be realistic and I have to say that I feel bad for Barron Trump. Like any other kid, rich or poor, he was probably hoping for a normal childhood, yet his parents are both so controversial and getting increasingly raked over in the media. It has turned into a circus, and this kid is smack in the middle of his college education.

Hard to feel bad for someone using his daddy's insider information to make huge trades in the stock market to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.

On 6/8/2026 at 11:00 AM, G. David Felt said:

Valid points made, interesting read.
Opinion: Move over, MAGA — it’s time to take America back

The moral ineptitude and vileness of one third of the country will never wash clean.

On 6/9/2026 at 1:30 PM, Guest nobody said:

Hard to feel bad for someone using his daddy's insider information to make huge trades in the stock market to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Hard to feel any sympathy at all for a country that elects the people it has elected, not just Trump.

On 6/8/2026 at 8:48 AM, trinacriabob said:

Cunard's Queen Mary 2 does the crossing from April through December. From January up to April, she is on a world cruise to keep her mostly in the southern hemisphere.

At other times, the crossing takes 7 days. She goes from New York to Southampton UK. She obviously has to do the journey in the other direction, too. That's quite a few crossings. Interspersed might be some cruises to the Norwegian fjords, the Mediterranean, and New England with Eastern Canada. This is the only ship dedicated to doing the transatlantic crossing most of the year.

Most of the other cruise lines do repositioning transatlantic twice a year. They go from mostly Florida to the Mediterranean in April and they come back in November. For that, it is a limited window, but there are a lot of lines doing it with at least one of their ships: Norwegian, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Holland America, Carnival, etc.

It's a great experience, and you might get to stop at Bermuda, the Azores, Madeira, the Canaries, and/or Gibraltar. The ships run quite a bit slower at ~16 knots, and those crossings take about 14 days.

You do not want to be accosted by overweight older women who are Trumpers and might even attend a Bible study or two. They will not make your day. However, there will be some interesting people aboard.

If you choose to ignore just about everything around you, the experience can be incredibly relaxing.

I intend to check this out.

She was making her mark on the comedy scene in Austin, Texas. This budding talent was taken away from us too soon by cancer ... she was in her early forties.

When I need to be put in a good mood with some good sass, I listen to her from time to time.

RIP, Lashonda Lester

Showing a little home team love (about forty miles from my house) for the 2026 Stanley Cup Champs!

8 minutes ago, surreal1272 said:

Showing a little home team love (about forty miles from my house) for the 2026 Stanley Cup Champs!

I'm no Hurricanes fan, but I am a despiser of the Golden Knights and love that your Hurricanes won! Congrats!

It's a really fun time of life when one of "your teams" wins a championship, especially when it's a series and there's a month-long build up of the playoffs. I remember the 2019 Blues championship run and it was such an exciting month+. Everyday I was either talking about last night's game or talking about tonight's game with a fellow Blues fan coworker or friends.

On 6/15/2026 at 12:48 PM, surreal1272 said:

Showing a little home team love (about forty miles from my house) for the 2026 Stanley Cup Champs!

No writeup on the new 2027 Silverado Silverado?!?

This is totally expected as used EV sales have skyrocketed as people dump the gas guzzlers.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/gm-says-buyers-are-moving-away-from-pickups-faster-than-expected/ar-AA25SjWu?ocid=msedgntp&pc=W069&cvid=6a334d1b1b004c0a86bdb27cb1f9c27c&ei=30

12 hours ago, ccap41 said:

No writeup on the new 2027 Silverado Silverado?!?

Interesting how they are attempting to state that OLD is New and better again. Welcome the old 5.7L and 6.6L V8 engines again. Nothing new, just rehashed.
Chevrolet Introduces the Next-Generation 2027 Silverado 1500, the Most Powerful and Advanced Silverado Ever

Due to my job, I have had no time to write anything.

If you like all things black and matte, then Cadillac has an old but new Blackwing for you with nodes to F1.
Blackwing hits the track: Introducing the Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing F1® Collector Series

GMC News, Denali has a new higher trim level, the Denali Ultimate trim. Blah ugly all black interior imho.

GMC introduces first ever Acadia Denali Ultimate for 2026

GMC has a new design studio that seems to be rehashing old Hummer concepts.

GM officially opens new Advanced Design Pasadena Studio, reveals GMC HUMMER X truck and SUV concepts

GMC Hummer EVs have new trim options and they enhanced crab walk mode.

2026 GMC HUMMER EV: A more capable, more advanced supertruck

Silverado has the AT4 and Elevation trims now for an EV truck.

More choice, more adventure: 2026 GMC Sierra EV adds AT4 and Elevation trims

Sad that the Buick line has no new press releases since April 9th 2024 when they announced:

2025 Buick Enclave, a flagship premium SUV with available Super Cruise

@Drew Dowdell & @G. David Felt , when BEVs lose battery capacity due to age and/or charging habits, etc. do you still charge the full capacity and it's just a less efficient vehicle? Or do you only charge to the new capacity?

For example, If I have a 100kWh battery that has degraded 50% (simple numbers for simplicity). When I charge do I still put 100kWh into the battery and I'm using two times the amount to go from A to B? Or am I now only putting in 50kWh, as that is what the capacity has degraded to? Does the question make sense?

1 minute ago, ccap41 said:

@Drew Dowdell & @G. David Felt , when BEVs lose battery capacity due to age and/or charging habits, etc. do you still charge the full capacity and it's just a less efficient vehicle? Or do you only charge to the new capacity?

For example, If I have a 100kWh battery that has degraded 50% (simple numbers for simplicity). When I charge do I still put 100kWh into the battery and I'm using two times the amount to go from A to B? Or am I now only putting in 50kWh, as that is what the capacity has degraded to? Does the question make sense?

You’re now only putting in 50kw (plus or minus some from charging losses)

20 hours ago, G. David Felt said:

Interesting how they are attempting to state that OLD is New and better again. Welcome the old 5.7L and 6.6L V8 engines again. Nothing new, just rehashed.

What are you talking about? They’re new. Just because they use the same displacement as an engine from 1996 or the 1960s doesn’t make them old

1 hour ago, ccap41 said:

@Drew Dowdell & @G. David Felt , when BEVs lose battery capacity due to age and/or charging habits, etc. do you still charge the full capacity and it's just a less efficient vehicle? Or do you only charge to the new capacity?

For example, If I have a 100kWh battery that has degraded 50% (simple numbers for simplicity). When I charge do I still put 100kWh into the battery and I'm using two times the amount to go from A to B? Or am I now only putting in 50kWh, as that is what the capacity has degraded to? Does the question make sense?

There have been plenty of studies done and I will post them here if your interested in the pure science. End result is that depending on the EV manufacturer, some loose range faster than others. Yet for the most part, EV battery packs will last far longer than the fear of the ICE folks are trying to say you will pay for.

Pure science

EV Battery Degradation Assessment Under Standard Drive Cycles Using Simulated EIS

Lithium-ion battery degradation: Comprehensive cycle ageing data and analysis for commercial 21700 cells - ScienceDirect

Early prediction of lithium-ion battery degradation with a generative pre-trained transformer | Nature Communications

Battery Lifespan | Transportation and Mobility Research | NLR

Reports based on outside the US studies:

The EV Brand With The Slowest Battery Degradation Isn’t Tesla

New study of 1,300 EVs busts battery degradation myths, Kia and Tesla top the list | Electrek

Kia beats Tesla in battery capacity retention over time as used electric vehicles exhibit remarkable longevity - Notebookcheck News

https://internet-satelitarny.eu/2025/10/31/new-mega%E2%80%91study-of-1300-used-evs-just-blew-up-the-battery%E2%80%91degradation-myth-heres-who-tops-the-list-hint-not-tesla/

8 minutes ago, Drew Dowdell said:

What are you talking about? They’re new. Just because they use the same displacement as an engine from 1996 or the 1960s doesn’t make them old

Yes, they are new engines with old displacements and marketing that I find funny as I think due to all the V8 issues GM has had especially in the States where they say to use 0w-20 and yet for the same engines outside the country they say to use 5w-30 GM seems to be spinning to take hold of their old reliability that folks remember from the 80's and 90's here. Just my own take on how I am seeing things as GM tries to get in front of their engine issues.

2 hours ago, G. David Felt said:

Yes, they are new engines with old displacements and marketing that I find funny as I think due to all the V8 issues GM has had especially in the States where they say to use 0w-20 and yet for the same engines outside the country they say to use 5w-30 GM seems to be spinning to take hold of their old reliability that folks remember from the 80's and 90's here. Just my own take on how I am seeing things as GM tries to get in front of their engine issues.

They rebuilt the towanda plant almost from the ground up for these engines. I’ll reserve judgement for now.

15 hours ago, Drew Dowdell said:

They rebuilt the towanda plant almost from the ground up for these engines. I’ll reserve judgement for now.

Cool had not heard that they had rebuilt the plant. Agree that until the engines are in the wild, it will be interesting to see how they do. My own experience with the 5.7L V8 that was in my 1994 GMC Suburban was awesome, solid engine even after I bored it out into a 402 mean machine. Would love to have that Suburban with an AWD EV powertrain.

Just now, G. David Felt said:

Cool had not heard that they had rebuilt the plant. Agree that until the engines are in the wild, it will be interesting to see how they do. My own experience with the 5.7L V8 that was in my 1994 GMC Suburban was awesome, solid engine even after I bored it out into a 402 mean machine. Would love to have that Suburban with an AWD EV powertrain.

Yeah, it was in the news a lot in the past year because a certain segment was saying it was proof that EVs weren't the way forward. GM spent a billion or so rebuilding that plant.

18 hours ago, G. David Felt said:

There have been plenty of studies done and I will post them here if your interested in the pure science. End result is that depending on the EV manufacturer, some loose range faster than others. Yet for the most part, EV battery packs will last far longer than the fear of the ICE folks are trying to say you will pay for.

I'm not trying to dispute that, at all. I know this. I should have used different numbers so you wouldn't have jumped to the conclusion that I'm expecting a 50% degradation.

20 hours ago, Drew Dowdell said:

You’re now only putting in 50kw (plus or minus some from charging losses)

That's mostly what I expected, but didn't know the science behind batteries and/or charging. Thank you!

24 minutes ago, ccap41 said:

I'm not trying to dispute that, at all. I know this. I should have used different numbers so you wouldn't have jumped to the conclusion that I'm expecting a 50% degradation.

That's mostly what I expected, but didn't know the science behind batteries and/or charging. Thank you!

The concern is also largely going to disappear in the emerging generation of batteries. LFP chemistry (available in some Teslas and supposed to be coming in Hyundai/Kia/Genesis soon) have degredation curves that far exceed a vehicle lifetime. We're talking over a million miles before the batteries reach 80% of design capacity. The downside of LFP is they don't have the energy density that standard EV batteries (NMC) have, meaning you either have to be comfortable with less range or an even bigger battery pack.

GM has LMR batteries on the way also. These are a medium point between standard EV batteries an LFP. They have 30% plus more energy density than LFPs. There hasn't been extensive degredation testing of this chemistry yet, but it is expected to be well above NMC and closer to LFP. Even if its 500k miles plus instead of 1 millon, it is functionally the same as LFP since so few cars reach that mileage anyway.

What's interesting is that LMR and LFP could make the pursuit of super-capacitors obsolete. The only advantage super capacitors would have is rapid charging and possibly weight, but at the speeds we have today with EV charging, it might not be worth the cost for a technology that multiple automakers are struggling to bring to market.

9 minutes ago, Drew Dowdell said:

The concern is also largely going to disappear in the emerging generation of batteries. LFP chemistry (available in some Teslas and supposed to be coming in Hyundai/Kia/Genesis soon) have degredation curves that far exceed a vehicle lifetime.

I believe Ford's new platform and mid-size/compact truck are supposed to be LFP chemistry. It's good to know their degradation curve are even better for the consumer.

1 minute ago, ccap41 said:

I believe Ford's new platform and mid-size/compact truck are supposed to be LFP chemistry. It's good to know their degradation curve are even better for the consumer.

Yep. And I think they got the energy density a little higher than Tesla's. Not a huge jump, but enough to matter and bring the vehicles over the 300 mile range mark will still keeping battery size in check.