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And as far as top speeds of OEM custom-built race cars go, its interesting that the vast majority of mercedees are limited to 155 MPH. Shouldn't they be going 650-700 MPH by now??

General Motors has also set a 268 MPH top speed, but with a 4-cylinder, not a V-12.

I have been reading that many auto sites are now looking at Benchmark Sprints with distance covered as a more reliable test since even a V6 Camry can haul ass off the line now. I honestly agree it is time to retire the 0 to 60 quote of performance. https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2012/05/zero-to-irrelevant-in-sixty-years-its-time-to-change-the-performance-benchmark/ To Quote: It’s time to replace the 0-60 test with something that is actually relevant to modern American motoring. The quarter-mile, as wonderful as it is, really does exceed what’s safe and sane. I suggest eighty miles per hour as a good compromise. With the possible exception of I-94 in Chicago and 495 in northern Virginia, if you can accelerate to eighty miles per hour you’re going to be good to merge. I would also suggest that, in lieu to time, we substitute distance. How much room does a car need to get to eighty? That’s the most relevant power statistic we can provide the American motorist. I will say I love all the new Vehicle Benchmarking that is being created. https://www.avl.com/vehicle-benchmarking

At least Cadillac resolved the emissions issue on the CT6-V. I do hope that at least another 5000 are made and released to the public.

Ohhh...I have given up on the mainstream American media. I never watch Fox, MSNBC, CNN, NBC, CBS or the like.

Probably better built, though...high strength steel and CF instead of Tesla's glued-together cardboard , plastic and aluminum (Teslas seem poorly assembled with subpar materials).

But it's a Porsche.

Oldsmobile Pride!

Isn't this also much more expensive than a Model S along with much less range? Those are two pretty big disadvantages of the Taycan.

Merge speed on some freeways...

The diesel engine with so much torque is really ideal for low-range rock climbing. It will even help people who for some reason use a Wrangler solely as a commuter vehicle as they'll get much better fuel economy. The only drawback I see is that Jeep will probably overprice the diesel so that only the most diesel dedicated will buy it.

OK that is nice. Where is the demand for a Jeep with a diesel engine coming from again? Ten years ago I could see it, but not now.

Taycan is here. It looks "pretty good", imo. I do fear for Tesla as Porsche is a giant or at least has giant money and I think this will eat into Tesla pretty hard unless Tesla has heavy updates coming soon to the Model S. I have to believe the quality control over at Porsche will have them in a much better position than Tesla. https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a28899036/2020-porsche-taycan-photos-info/

Well, knowing VW, the Bugatti has a cheat devices in the emissions computer.

Given how ugly a Bugatti is today, can you imaging how ugly the SUV would be?

I'm waiting for a rental property to sell. I won't be buying new, I'll buy a low mileage pre-owned this:

Not familiar with it, but it makes sense as a real world freeway on-ramp acceleration or passing measurement ....more useful than 0-60.

I wonder how much the inflation and political instability in Argentina have a factor in this...

@daves87rs I am really interested in why you think putting up a commercial grade charger is harder than a destructive environmental gas station. All the EPA regs and double wall tank plus underground leak sensors, soil sensors, etc. compared to running the 220 or 440 3 phase to a pad and putting up the trickle or quick charge chargers. Right now there are 22,800 commerical charging stations in the US. https://afdc.energy.gov/fuels/electricity_locations.html#/find/nearest?fuel=ELEC&country=US&ev_levels=2&ev_levels=dc_fast&ev_levels=1 According to the U.S. Department of Energy, we have the following statistics: 270 million ICE autos, 150,000 Gas stations, 1.2 million pumps which equals 225 ICE autos to a single pump. 1 million EVs at the end of 2018 registered, 22,800 Charge stations, 63,840 Charging connections which equals 15 EVs per charge connection. This does not even include 110 or 220, level 1 & 2 home or business connections that are out there. I would say the EV charging infrastructure is building fast. I would say check out your area for current details.

BUt the thing is.. AMERICAN MEDIA.. won't cover it except for a blurb. GM or Ford.. or even Chry.. they would be running the stories back to back daily for 5 years. I mean really. I just thought about what I typed and almost threw up in my mouth at the bulls#!t. Especially if it were GM they would be obsessed over it.. demanding Trump ram Mary Barra's residence door down to get at her

I guess 1600 HP pretty much makes any upcoming 1000 HP cars completely obsolete, out the door.

The real issue is whether automakers will actually pass on the savings from ICE to EV towards consumers via lower prices. I suspect they will not do so unless forced by new entrants into the marketplace. . . . or an existing automaker wants to start a price war.

Great Fleet!! I guess I'm waiting till next spring now to get a bike.

$154K - $79K = $75K. That means if you subtracted BOTH motors, the rest of the car cost/is worth a negative $4,000. Dropping one motor is NOT equatable to half the price of the car. The question I have is; will the Taycan turn a profit at $154K??

If I ever get the urge to get back onto a bike, I would go this route for ICE: For EV I would go with the Live Wire from Harley.

Height matters in riding. Believe me. When I was originally looking for a bike (I'm 6'3) I was gonna get a Sportster 1200.. Sat on it.. all hunched over even with 10 inch bars.. went for a test.. came back with an aching back. At 5'10,.. U still might want to look at a larger bike so as U don;t have to go thru as much adjusting and changing stuff to accommodate your height.. just sayin. If U already know this.. my bad.. That BMW may have U needing to up the handle bars and change the seat.. no to mention get forward controls. TRUTHFULLY.. U can find a lotta nice deals on older bikes with low miles that are larger.. from Harley.. Triumph.. Indian.. hell even Yamaha. I admittedly was considering getting a Yamaha Raider S

I don't think they'll surpass Tesla in volume. They're not going for a volume model like the 3 and S.

Actually this is on par with what Tesla did when they first came out and I would be willing to bet that as Porsche gets their battery tech ramp'ed up especially in regards to solid state you will see more battery options over the next few years. Porsche is playing catch up, but I expect as a Premium brand they will surpass Tesla in a much shorter time frame.

In the realm of hypercar craziness, when will see 0-60 times that are negative...so fast you get to 60 before you started...;)

Yeah, I frequently get my Jeep to 75-80 or more at the merge point when entering traffic on Ohio freeways..was harder to do in Phoenix w/ the metered ramps--there 0-60 is more important. (or some freeway entrances in CA--0-30 with the gridlock and super short ramps).

Heck, most V6es can to that. But I understand your viewpoint is from the shorty onramps that NJ has.

A diesel seems to be more for someone that wants to go cray cray and try for 250k miles with a vehicle..... but the electronics will probably go bad long before 250k.

Is 267mph the same as 300mph?

I think the diesel will only go to people who actually take them off-road. The Pentastar is plenty good enough for off-roading as it is.

I’m sure those three future owners of them will be very happy...for the first 50,000 miles anyway.

Yeah, the much hyped AMG One can't do it...

When is Mercedes going to go after 300mph? They can't even get an engine to run clean...

Yeah.. saw that a few days ago. Oh well.. Its reason one why I have zero issue with waiting til the 2020s go into production.. maybe even a lightly used one to kill me taking a hit on depreciation. Luxury cars are the worst when it comes to that. Friend of mine literally went into trade his S63AMG in with less than 20K on the odo.. I think it was a '17.. they offered him $60K if I remember correct.

[quote]“This industry is about to enter what could be a multiyear profit desert,” says Mark Wakefield, global co-leader of AlixPartners’ automotive and industrial practice."[/quote] LOL - what does "about to enter" mean? Who's making a profit on EVs NOW?? It's not that 'it makes me happy' - it is what it is. EVs do not make any OEM money. The PR that Ford released saying they would be 'attractively priced' means nothing. And such has been said before, by many. Tesla has by far the largest volume EV and they still haven't hit their goal MSRP of $35K. BTW- ALL colors are new for Rivian- they aren't in production yet.

Rivian Pre-Production fleet testing in Tierra Del Fuego Agentina. https://www.thedrive.com/news/29656/rivian-r1t-electric-pickup-truck-prototypes-spotted-testing-in-argentinas-tierra-del-fuego Seems white and Grey are new colors for Rivian R1T. Seems they moved the charge port from the passenger side to the drivers side. Nothing like High Altitude Winter Testing for true battery performance.

Seems in the EV world that the BMW i3 and i8 are not dead in their current form as BMW will produce 900 final units world wide of the i3 and 200 of the i8 in both convertible and coupe form. Guess this is one way to send these autos off before they roll out their new EV product line that looks like the rest of the family. https://www.autoblog.com/2019/09/02/bmw-i3-roadstyle-i8-ultimate-sophisto/ Seems Ford has decided that the world needs more info on the up coming Ford F-150 EV Truck being built by Rivian for Ford Globally as well as their whole EV Strategy! https://www.autoblog.com/2019/08/31/ford-future-300-mile-ev/ It's a good read and I really like the following quoted from the story: Palmer says Ford won't need to tack on huge MSRPs to these electrified "icons," because it plans to make its EVs "extremely desirable, but at an attainable price.” That's a fantastic goal, and Ford knows its numbers better than we do, but when various analysts predict a "profit desert" for electric powertrains, autonomous driving and connectivity, we're keen to see how Ford manages to do that without asking un-Ford-like sums. Figure @balthazar and especially @ocnblu will like this story that was run here in the local Seattle Time Newspaper about the EV Profit Desert that they see coming: https://www.seattletimes.com/business/automakers-face-profit-desert-as-evs-self-driving-vehicles-arrive/ To quote the story: “This industry is about to enter what could be a multiyear profit desert,” says Mark Wakefield, global co-leader of AlixPartners’ automotive and industrial practice. “It’s not that it’s over. It’s a true cyclical business, and we should all understand that. There are adjustments and realignments that have to happen. It looks like some slimmer times and some lower return-on-capital times.” In Police News, Indiana Police Department is swapping Dodge Chargers for Tesla Model 3 in Bargersville Indiana. https://www.autoblog.com/2019/08/31/tesla-model-3-police-cost-savings-bargersville/ To quote this story: Even though the Model 3 costs more than the Charger, the department said the EV will save taxpayers money. The Tesla runs $39,500, a police-issue Charger costs a police department $25,000 according to figures given to the Indianapolis Star. The Daily Journal said this Model 3 ran $41,945, the Charger $33,612. No matter the differential, the Model 3 is expected to be much cheaper to run. The Dodge apparently requires more than $8,000 in upkeep every year just for gas, oil, and insurance, the gas alone totaling $7,125. The department's figures show Tesla will need just $1,728 in electricity, and one officer said that even the replacement windshield wipers are less expensive on the Tesla than the Dodge. Over a six-year period, Bargersville PD expects to save at least $20,600, with the savings beginning in the third year. The EV Front continues with some really cool marine power, I am loving the Silent Yacht 55 that is 100 percent solar and Zero NVH. https://www.autoblog.com/2019/09/01/silent-yachts-55-solar-electric-boat/

The question is if "we" revers to OEMS, or consumers. I'm betting that most of any cost savings will NOT be passed on to consumers, ESPECIALLY as the segment grows in volume. There's simply no marketing pressure to do so. More and more decidedly non-luxury vehicle brands are pushing upwards, making the entry-level market increasing low volume / barren. It may well be that the automobile returns to it's dawn of primarily high priced vehicles.

Automakers are not going to start turning back to unprofitable cars (small, low priced sedans) just because people can't afford what they're producing during a recession. They'll let the used market handle those customers and just dial back on production. Ford and GM are already stashing cash away for a recession. One would assume the other companies are doing the same. If there is one coming, there has been plenty of notice for it.

NOT to be political, but focused on the trade and it's relation to the auto industry. So many of the electrical components come from the Asian rim. As one can see from the chart below, costs have gone up across the board due to the trade war, but no real positive change in that relation and with the increased cost of auto's, we have all stated that auto's are becoming less of an ownership thing for everyone. Companies have started to move manufacturing from China to other 3rd world places in the Asian rim such as Malaysia and one has to wonder if that will really change anything. WHAT DO YOU think will happen with auto costs and as companies move to EVs in replacing ICE, does that mean we truly will see lower costs or are the higher prices here to stay? WHAT DO YOU think of the relation of trade deficit to the auto companies ability to deliver QUALITY ICE/EV auto's at prices people will pay / can afford? https://www.axios.com/trump-trade-deficit-world-china-6c0e421a-872d-4232-951c-511e0c785f68.html

Been away for a while.. summer stuff.. figured I'd get out an live while the weather was warm. Decided to get back into riding bikes.. had given it up back in '05 after my then wife (now ex) had issue with me riding with two small children, one of which had just arrived a year earlier. This time.. decided to do it legal and get an actual license.. no more sport bikes tho.. went with Harley, a Softail Cruiser in June.. and by August wanted a sportier Harley to sit next to her.. a NightRod Special (VRod). Meet Browyn (Softail) and Ronda (NRS). The Softail is an '03 Softail Standard FXST with Rhinehart exhaust. The NRS has Vance and Hines 2-in-1 exhaust and commander tune. Two different looks of the Softail are because I just change my handlebars to Ape Hangers this Saturday. The 2016 NightRod I have been customizing myself as U can see The original look is the grey bike. NRS before I started customizing (Stock Form) Softail before Ape Hanger Handlebars (below). Windshield is detachable

Maybe automakers need their own strategy against Chinese favoritism and mercantilism. Few others really have such a strategy.

Can't blame them. Their biggest seller is the CR-V rather than the Accord, followed by all those crossovers that it seems almost everyone wants these days.