Random Thoughts Thread

[balthazar]

What a tremendous miss that in the 21st century there wasn't a universal BEV plug standard developed from the start, instead of the mess above.

[Drew Dowdell]

4 hours ago, A Horse With No Name said:

I love old hand drawn blueprints...

You should see the place where I work. It has road plans, housing developments, and building plans going back to the 1920s. One of my projects that I started last year and will go on for a 3-4 more years is to get all of that stuff digitized.

[Drew Dowdell]

1 hour ago, balthazar said:

What a tremendous miss that in the 21st century there wasn't a universal BEV plug standard developed from the start, instead of the mess above.

Yes, SAE should have stepped in a lot earlier, however there would still likely need to be at minimum two different plugs Depending on if it's an AC or DC charge.  The best one, IMHO, is the CHAmoDo/CCS charger. It allows AC charge or DC Fast charging up to 350w (and possibly higher).  The different shape of the plugs doesn't really matter for different continents. I don't really care what mainland China does. 

[trinacriabob]

11 hours ago, oldshurst442 said:

I see...a stain on that dress.

You find some good GIFs.  That lady is funny.

Now, let's bring on the blue dresses.  

(This never fails to make me laugh.)

[A Horse With No Name]

[trinacriabob]

No separate thread needed.  Less is more.

Today, the 14th, marks 14 years of ownership of my sled.  Back then, I got the keys to this LaCrosse with the odometer reading less than 20 miles. This morning, the odometer showed 112,023 miles.

(The last one - more or less the same type of vehicle - probably had TWICE the above miles on it at 14 years.)

Happy Friday, folks.

[ccap41]

I finished my Beretta model. Well, this wasn’t so much if a built as it was just a paint job as it was an old dealer promo model that I painted to look as close to my first car as I could. It has the same body as my Z26 had but different wheels. 

[trinacriabob]

1 hour ago, A Horse With No Name said:

I don't have a joke for the joke thread, with a punchline and all, but this reminds me of:

"I think I need to talk to my doctor about my thyroid."

"I think you need to put down the fork."

[ccap41]

Speaking of diecast, @Cory Wolfe, I've been into building models for the last year+. This is what I've built and the ones I have up next. I'm currently building an Enzo that I'm about finished with. 

[David]

23 hours ago, Drew Dowdell said:

Yes, SAE should have stepped in a lot earlier, however there would still likely need to be at minimum two different plugs Depending on if it's an AC or DC charge.  The best one, IMHO, is the CHAmoDo/CCS charger. It allows AC charge or DC Fast charging up to 350w (and possibly higher).  The different shape of the plugs doesn't really matter for different continents. I don't really care what mainland China does. 

Nissan has a great tech with CHAdeDo, they failed as they tried to do what Sony did with Beta, charge for others to use their spec. In 2020 they released the 500V CHAmoDo and stated it could easily do 1000V once they had finished testing.

CHAdeMO 3.0 released: the first publication of ChaoJi, the new plug harmonised with China’s GB/T – Chademo Association

Sadly, they realized no one was going to pay them and they should have taken the road like Panasonic did with VHS and pretty much let everyone just copy it for free to make it the standard. As such the CCS became the world standard.

The site is still up for CHAdeMO Chademo Association – EV Fast Charging Organisation They even returned to trade shows in Dec 2021. Not sure how it will survive with the rest of the world going CCS/CCS2

[Cory Wolfe]

2 hours ago, ccap41 said:

Speaking of diecast, @Cory Wolfe, I've been into building models for the last year+. This is what I've built and the ones I have up next. I'm currently building an Enzo that I'm about finished with. 

Nice builds! Love the Beretta. Here is some of my collection.

[David]

Seems Bollinger is out of the retail EV game and focusing only on Commercial now.

[balthazar]

Going to be more of these start-up failures.

[trinacriabob]

Good morning ...

I think I might have some "slight" OCD issues ...

[Drew Dowdell]

On 1/14/2022 at 9:22 PM, balthazar said:

Going to be more of these start-up failures.

Bollinger never ever could have made it. This group collectively could have built a better vehicle. 
——————-————

And the children were nestled,

All snug in their beds,

While visions of premium fuel danced in their heads,

 

[balthazar]

3 hours ago, Drew Dowdell said:

Bollinger never ever could have made it.

I think some of the functionality was interesting, but for what you got & how it looked, it's chances were around $30K, not $125K.

[Robert Hall]

From their photos, the Bollinger looked like a '70s kit car inside, very crude and amateurish.

 

[Robert Hall]

First real snow of the season.  Jeep is safe and warm in the garage, not going anywhere.   Snow started about 6 pm last night, still coming down.  

Edited January 17, 2022 by Robert Hall

[Drew Dowdell]

1 hour ago, Robert Hall said:

From their photos, the Bollinger looked like a '70s kit car inside, very crude and amateurish.

 

They probably had to scramble as they lost their main supplier when JC Whitney went under.

[oldshurst442]

As a Cowboys fan...all I wanna say, because its been too long of a time since I actually could say it with pride, but somehow saying it in shame works just as well THIS time around.  

 

 

[trinacriabob]

On 1/16/2022 at 5:44 PM, Drew Dowdell said:

Love that car in the garage.  While I obviously like the shrunken down and refreshed colonnade coupes of about the same time and which had a fairly vertical backlite, they took the rear window all the way out to the edges, and that's where the moldings were installed.  On the Toro-Riv and Eldorado of this genre, the rear window has that slight inset away from the edges, either with a vinyl roof or with a regular sheet metal surround that was the same as the body color.  The latter was less common, but definitely interesting to look at! 

It gave them a limousine type look.  The shrunken down and newly FWD Cadillac Coupe and Sedan de Villes used the same treatment when they were not decked out with a vinyl roof. 

However, like yours, most of them seemed to have vinyl roofs.

This must have been a while back.  Look at the price on the windshield.  I'd even hop on a Greyhound to purchase this one.  Looks like Texan suburbia.

On 1/17/2022 at 8:25 AM, Robert Hall said:

Nice!  How I miss an all-brick ranch home with lower pitched hip roofs.  I used to live in one when I lived in Atlanta.  With all the red brick, the carport under the roofline on one side, and all that Southern pine making it seem like you were living in a forest, it was nice to come home to.

[Robert Hall]

7 minutes ago, trinacriabob said:

Love that car in the garage.  While I obviously like the shrunken down and refreshed colonnade coupes of about the same time and which had a fairly vertical backlite, they took the rear window all the way out to the edges, and that's where the moldings were installed.  On the Toro-Riv and Eldorado of this genre, the rear window has that slight inset away from the edges, either with a vinyl roof or with a regular sheet metal surround that was the same as the body color.  The latter was less common, but definitely interesting to look at! 

It gave them a limousine type look.  The shrunken down and newly FWD Cadillac Coupe and Sedan de Villes used the same treatment when they were not decked out with a vinyl roof. 

However, like yours, most of them seemed to have vinyl roofs.

This must have been a while back.  Look at the price on the windshield.  I'd even hop on a Greyhound to purchase this one.  Looks like Texan suburbia.

Nice!  How I miss an all-brick ranch home with lower pitched hip roofs.  I used to live in one when I lived in Atlanta.  With all the red brick, the carport under the roofline on one side, and all that Southern pine making it seem like you were living in a forest, it was nice to come home to.

Yes, I love being in a neighborhood with brick houses and lots of trees.  Fun factoid—the house with two snow covered cars in the driveway—one is a blue Lincoln Mark VII LSC, and there is a Buick Grand National in the garage.  
 

Of those ‘79-85 E-bodies the Eldorado was my favorite.  Love the crisp lines.  I like the Riviera also. 

Edited January 19, 2022 by Robert Hall

[trinacriabob]

I sort of remember a discussion on here about "keystoning," the upcharge for parts that go into an automotive repair.  Keystoning is where the mark-ups are a little out of hand, and repair shops definitely do it. 

This is how I understand it, using simple round numbers:

Retail price of an auto part to a consumer:  $ 100

Price of that auto part to the repair shop who probably has an account with a supplier:  $ 80

Assume the mechanic habitually marks up at 50%

Marking up on their cost would make the part show up on your repair bill as $ 120

Marking up on retail cost would make the part show up on your repair bill as $ 150

That's an added cost of $ 30, which seems like keystoning, which you'll also be paying additional taxes on.

@David  does the above sort of represent the logic?

If it's a small amount, I won't bother.  If it's a large amount, the person has hopefully gotten the estimate in advance, checked retail prices on the parts, and will pass on that shop.  Sometimes, when something breaks without warning, it makes for a more vulnerable situation for the consumer.

[balthazar]

^ What's a 'large amount'?

[David]

1 hour ago, trinacriabob said:

I sort of remember a discussion on here about "keystoning," the upcharge for parts that go into an automotive repair.  Keystoning is where the mark-ups are a little out of hand, and repair shops definitely do it. 

This is how I understand it, using simple round numbers:

Retail price of an auto part to a consumer:  $ 100

Price of that auto part to the repair shop who probably has an account with a supplier:  $ 80

Assume the mechanic habitually marks up at 50%

Marking up on their cost would make the part show up on your repair bill as $ 120

Marking up on retail cost would make the part show up on your repair bill as $ 150

That's an added cost of $ 30, which seems like keystoning, which you'll also be paying additional taxes on.

@David  does the above sort of represent the logic?

If it's a small amount, I won't bother.  If it's a large amount, the person has hopefully gotten the estimate in advance, checked retail prices on the parts, and will pass on that shop.  Sometimes, when something breaks without warning, it makes for a more vulnerable situation for the consumer.

This is a good example of Keystoning prices for the 90's early 2000's, now I have seen keystoning of 100 to 150% on retail pricing even if it is a repair shop. Pricing of the parts is out of hand as is the labor charges now.

[David]

Very cool to see as a final farewell to the Escalade ICE 

 

Another good review to see

 

[balthazar]

Nothing established as a hard end-date yet, so we'll see (BOF SUVs & trucks especially; GM has backpedaled there more than once.).

- - - - - 
Leno is one of the best reviewers out there, because he has actual hands-on perspective and has no need for awkward 'click bait' word games / phraseology. 

[balthazar]

'61-62 Pontiac final drive ratio options : 
2.56, 2.69, 2.87, 3.08, 3.23, 3.31, 3.55, 3.64, 3.90, 4.44, 4.67, 4.88, 5.13, 5.38, 5.57, 5.86, 6.14 

[Robert Hall]

3 hours ago, balthazar said:

'61-62 Pontiac final drive ratio options : 
2.56, 2.69, 2.87, 3.08, 3.23, 3.31, 3.55, 3.64, 3.90, 4.44, 4.67, 4.88, 5.13, 5.38, 5.57, 5.86, 6.14 

That’s a lot of options.  Been a long time since most cars had any optional axle ratios.  

[trinacriabob]

Random thought:

I can and do inhale French onion dip.

[David]

17 minutes ago, trinacriabob said:

Random thought:

I can and do inhale French onion dip.

Not alone that is some addictive stuff, especially with a Costco Size bag of Ruffles Potato Chips and Home-Made French Onion Dip while watching a movie! 🤤

[balthazar]

'30s ~ 

[David]

11 hours ago, trinacriabob said:

Random thought:

I can and do inhale French onion dip.

Still thinking on this hours later, gonna have to make some and enjoy it with a movie this weekend.

[trinacriabob]

1 hour ago, David said:

Work out a little extra.

And, damn, why did you have to put up this photo?!?  With a good night's sleep, I had forgotten all about French onion dip.

[Robert Hall]

12 hours ago, David said:

Not alone that is some addictive stuff, especially with a Costco Size bag of Ruffles Potato Chips and Home-Made French Onion Dip while watching a movie! 🤤

I've found Whole Foods 365 brand Ruffles-style chips to be tastier than Ruffles.   With the crappy snowy and cold weather, think I'm going to stay in and stream movies this weekend. 

[David]

1 hour ago, trinacriabob said:

Work out a little extra.

And, damn, why did you have to put up this photo?!?  With a good night's sleep, I had forgotten all about French onion dip.

Ya know you want that Dip NOW with crunchy Chips.

1 hour ago, Robert Hall said:

I've found Whole Foods 365 brand Ruffles-style chips to be tastier than Ruffles.   With the crappy snowy and cold weather, think I'm going to stay in and stream movies this weekend. 

Cool will have to try them, thanks for posting about them.

[David]

Seems GM is going head-to-head with all the other GM parts online web sites as they have anounced they will launch via their Marketplace web site a online parts department to buy GM/AC Delco parts for all global GM auto's.

General Motors Expands Digital Commerce with Launch of Online Parts Sales (gm.com)

Welcome to Marketplace (gm.com)

 

[David]

Well, my head unit is getting flakey on my Escalade, and I have to say, I am liking what I see here in the Pioneer AVIC head units as they all can connect everything including maps wirelessly. Once a feature you had to pay thousands for along with a monthly charge to BMW. Now that BMW has given up on it, the tech is now coming out on 3rd party head units.

Love that my phone can be in my pocket, and I still have full connection to the head unit.

AVIC-W6600NEX - 6.2" - Amazon Alexa, Apple CarPlay® (wired/wireless), Bluetooth® - Multimedia Navigation Receiver | Pioneer Electronics USA

AVIC-W8500NEX - 6.9" - Amazon Alexa, Android Auto™/Apple CarPlay™ (wired/wireless), Bluetooth® - Multimedia Navigation Receiver | Pioneer Electronics USA

AVIC-W8600NEX - 7" - Amazon Alexa, Android Auto™/Apple CarPlay® (wired/wireless), Bluetooth® - Multimedia Navigation Receiver | Pioneer Electronics USA

[oldshurst442]

https://www.autoblog.com/2022/01/20/2023-chevy-corvette-z06-markup-price-protection/

 

 

 

It wasn't even two weeks ago that Ford's VP of sales for the U.S. and Canada decided he needed to tell the dealer body to stop squeezing 2022 F-150 Lightning buyers for more reservation money. The shenanigans risk alienating the very important new customers of a very important new truck. Corvette Action Center reports that now Steve Carlisle, General Motors' president for North America, has done the same thing with the Chevrolet dealer body to stop the same kinds of antics happening with the 2023 Corvette Z06. The problem according to Carlisle is "a small number of Dealers [that] have engaged in practices that do not support a positive sales experience for our customers." Those dealers who don't end such practices will risk losing their Z06 allotments.

The letter identifies three unwelcome tactics. The first is dealers insisting customers pay more than the $1,000 reservation fee that GM set for the Z06. This problem is already years old, with some dealers opening up their own reservations lists in 2019, more than two years before GM announced the car. While some dealers only took $1,000 for a reservation, a dealer in New Hampshire claimed to have more than 1,300 potential buyers who had put down $2,000. 

The second game Carlisle wants to take down is the dreaded market adjustment, dealers having "requested customers to pay sums far in excess of MSRP in order to purchase or lease a vehicle." We're not sure what recourse GM has against this. We're sure Ford isn't happy about F-150 Lightning markups, either, but Ford specified in its letter that it wouldn't tolerate gaming the reservation system as opposed to ADMs. Carlisle insists that these methods can be "harmful to the reputation of Dealer, General Motors, or its Products," and "puts our collective interests at risk and generates negative press that reflect poorly GM's brands and your dealership."

The third offense is dealers reselling vehicles to brokers; having a broker volunteer fat sums over MSRP is an easy way for a dealer to sidestep having to ask for more money. Carlisle notes that this practice is explicitly outlawed in the dealer's sales and service agreement with GM.

It will be interesting to see how dealers respond. With the prodigious sums on offer, we expect some dealers will continue to explore where the line is and whether it can be nudged further into the black. Surcharges have been around as long as there have been more buyers than product, and in a market where a dealer feels justified asking a $38,000 ADM on a regular 2022 Corvette — which GM hasn't said anything about, remember — stopping all of these practices could be a mighty challenge. GM has to put up a fight, though. Just like Ford, it has additional, crucial new products arriving soon that are trying to attract crucial new audiences, and it needs to be seen doing its best to provide the best experience.

[oldshurst442]

It looks like MLB in Montreal will have to wait a little longer as the collective MLB owners changed their mind on allowing a shared  season between Tampa Bay and Montreal.  

It was a crappy solution, I must admit. Nothing good could come out of it. Especially for Tampa Bay.  But then again, Montrealers would also be fed up with that kind of set-up.   

I honestly do think baseball in Tampa Bay is finished. 

I also see that baseball in Oakland will also come to an end pretty effin' soon.  

For me, it looks like Las Vegas AND Montreal will be getting MLB teams in the very near future.  Its not 'when' that is the question, its more of 'how' will these cities be getting a team.   The 'when' is just a matter of time.   Its the 'how' that complicates things.  

 

[balthazar]

16 hours ago, oldshurst442 said:

It wasn't even two weeks ago that Ford's VP of sales for the U.S. and Canada decided he needed to tell the dealer body to stop squeezing 2022 F-150 Lightning buyers for more reservation money.

Reminder that Ford also decided to tell private owners of Lightnings they are banned from squeezing 2nd owners for more money, too.

- - - - - 
 

[David]

Seems LYRIQ has gone into full pre-production assembly.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mark-reuss_as-ive-said-before-our-people-and-manufacturing-activity-6889937412676489216-CUAQ

You can see the LYRIQ coming off the assembly line.

[balthazar]

On 1/21/2022 at 10:03 AM, balthazar said:

Reminder that Ford also decided to tell private owners of Lightnings they are banned from squeezing 2nd owners for more money, too.

Add to that the State charging you sales tax on a used vehicle according to THEIR arbitrary valuation of your vehicle, and NOT on what you actually paid for it.  That's not how sales taxes work.  Can I pay a sales tax based on MY valuation of a new item I bought, that via my inspection/opinion is far overvalued?  Like a new vehicle?  Of course; nope.

How that's not blatantly illegal, IDK.

 

Oh, and states like KY charging you a YEARLY valuation tax on your vehicle... YEARLY.

[David]

Rivian destroys the TRX as well as Tesla Y at the drag strip. Seems Rivian can do multiple runs without any battery prep unlike Tesla that needs an extensive battery prep.

https://carbuzz.com/news/performance-truck-drag-race-850-hp-rivian-r1t-vs-700-hp-ram-trx

[balthazar]

I realize the nature of BE vehicles is excellent acceleration, but that has never been a significant component of pick up sales... basically ever.  BE models will obviously push the fact, but do truck buyers care? 

[David]

Another good read for those interested in how solid state battery tech is moving forward to commercial production.

https://cleantechnica.com/2022/01/21/200-million-says-solid-state-batteries-will-soon-crack-gasmobile-death-grip/

1 minute ago, balthazar said:

I realize the nature of BE vehicles is excellent acceleration, but that has never been a significant component of pick up sales... basically ever.  BE models will obviously push the fact, but do truck buyers care? 

YES, more and more you can read online people who have bought trucks and due to various ways of use such as off road or commercial where the desire is less maintenance. 

Once these trucks are out, no more oil changes, differential oil changes if in high dust use case as well as other use cases that have a need for more often maintenance, even diesel would like to have less maintenance. 

I do see companies changing over faster than expected.

Fleets I see leading the way, this will create a positive impression for home use buyers especially a company like Skanska which is a launch customer for the GM work truck ev. That will give plenty of people both positive and negative impressions, but I expect more positive than those that wish to remain stagnant in past glory days of ICE.

[oldshurst442]

1 hour ago, David said:

Another good read for those interested in how solid state battery tech is moving forward to commercial production.

https://cleantechnica.com/2022/01/21/200-million-says-solid-state-batteries-will-soon-crack-gasmobile-death-grip/

 

I just found that article to be just full of hot air really.   Nothing but hopes and dreams.  Promises,  but nothing real of how or when all those hopes and dreams will come true.   Empty words...  

It will be this and it will be that. It will do this and it will do that.  It will end the gasmobile's death grip and it will save the planet.  It will be better than lithion ion. It will charger faster and offer more range.  It will save grace for OEMs by giving OEMs another angle of saving the planet.  It will be produced cheaper and faster and it will be packaged smaller and lighter.  

But nothing technical about solid state batteries was mentioned.  Well, if you consider a sentence or two comparing solid state and electrolytes with swimming in water versus swimming in concrete as technical...then Im wrong and misunderstood... 

No timeline of production.  No actual solid state battery powered EV tested to prove all that was said.  Just empty words of it will be this and it will be that. It will do  this and it will do that....   

Edited January 22, 2022 by oldshurst442

[balthazar]

1 hour ago, David said:

YES, more and more … days of ICE.

Was any of your post intended to answer mine?

BTW- differential oil changes are a once in a lifetime occurance (if that) and are unaffected by dust. I have to wonder -based on numerous posts now- where you’re getting your info on general IC vehicle maintenance… 🤔

[balthazar]

5 hours ago, balthazar said:

How that's not blatantly illegal, IDK.

Reading elsewhere; a guy claiming he's trying to junk a car in CA, but the State wants him to pay the past 3 years registration fees (how long he owned it), despite the fact he never registered or drove the car. 

[balthazar]

Recycling (same car) ~ 

 

2-dr fastback '49 Caddy, chopped & hard-topped ~