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Everyone has their story...

Percentages have their place, but they throw the casual reader off with ease. You read 'sales are up 50%!' and that's factually correct when you go from (4) to (6). Far more impactful if you go from 400,000 to 600,000.

I guess it is all relative....piece of turned work, just for Friday, not mine...

William McKinley survived the Battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg) , the bloodiest day in American history, fighting near Burnside Bridge only to be shot by an assassin nearly 39 years later. Sometimes life's not fair.

Here's a short historical overview, that I think parallels can be drawn to the battery electric vehicle arena. - - - - - The UPC / bar code device took a long time to get to the point it is today. • 1949 : Conceived and patented (as a 'bull's-eye' design). • 1952 : patent granted. • 1960 : Laser light demonstrated. • 1966 : Kroger supermarket chain produced booklet that in part mentioned a 'future where an optical scanner could read product prices'. • 1972 : Real-world (successful) test at a Kroger's of an automated check stand (of the bull's-eye design). • call to standardize the system / fielding manufacturer & marketer commentary. • 7 (all U.S.) companies put in submissions. Criteria was; it had to be a max of 1.5" square, readable at any speed & direction (the initial concern that resulted in the bull's eye design), and have less than 1 error in 20,000 scans. • 1974 : first bar code design public scan. • Not an immediate success. K-Mart led a huge push, and it 'took off' in grocery & business industries in the 1980s. • 2004 : Fortune magazine estimated that the bar code was used by 80-90% of the Top 500 U.S. companies. - - - - - TONS of parallels going on. Allowing a long interval of time to optimize the technology [scanners / batteries], 'universalizing' the bar code / charging plugs, and the normal 'evolution' of getting every corporate entity & manufacturer online. Note that from the retailer's point of view, this was openly requested/desired, and the consumer only saw faster check-out/stocking of goods- both positives. There was no change in the shopper's practice, and no massive price spiking to implement the system. It was seamless, unobtrusive, intangible. Still took roughly 50 years to become widespread. This is the natural course of commerce & manufacturing in the world. Change happens, but change takes time. A LOT of time. This example is a perfect reflection of why I continue to repeat that internal combustion bans in 14 years aren't going to stand.

Yet no AWD while the Pacifica and Toyota Sienna offer it. Seems odd to not have that as an option since it really is just a taller FWD based CUV.

Good place for thinkin'?

Buick show vehicles...

NOW who’s assuming? ? I know and have known so many pickup owners; I myself have been in the segment 26 years now, and literally none of them use it only for ‘- couple bags of mulch’.

Yes; hopefully they address the actual needs of the segment they’re trying to plant a foot in. Imagine if they came to market only showing a 2-dr pickup. ? However, what I’ve described IS what they’re spending time building.

Seems that the puny 4.5’ bed will have an available 5.5’ bed. That’s not a ‘long’ bed, nor is it a ‘standard’ bed. Rivian has a short bed and an even shorter bed. I also learned in googling around that Rivian is repeating honda’s fail of locating the spare under the bed floor.

American Pie

Sorry, just read that myself. On the wild side.....:-O

Breaking News Montgomery County, Maryland which operates 200 schools and a fleet of over 1,400 diesel buses has signed a contract with Highland Electric Transportation for phase 1 of a massive bus fleet transformation. Over the next four years, Highland Electric Transportation will deliver 326 electric school buses and electrify all five of the MCPS's bus depots including a V2G or vehicle-to-grid component. The buses will have a 226 kWh capacity power train from Proterra with a 135 mile range. Charged EVs | Proterra to deliver over 320 V2G-equipped school buses to Montgomery County, Maryland - Charged EVs

its like the Flex and previous Explorer mated. these two pics are from the costco trip we took with it right after we picked it up. I still haven't driven it yet. Kia CARNIVAL can suck it. LOL

More Buick, this time a wagon resto...

^ I dunno; it'd've been a lot more unfair if it was 39 days later. - - - - -

The proportions of the new Carnaval look more CUVish than van..

very, very true...

@balthazar @oldshurst442 Honestly, I think ZETA is wanting this contract to go to one of their supporting companies so they can direct sales to their own agenda. Right now anything would be better than what the USPS is currently driving and burning down. Sad that we went this long on these auto's. I am honestly glad this contract is a 10 year contract and not like the last one that was 3 decades long contract to keep buying old, out of date junk.

Sorry David. ZETA is hogwash! This 'protest' is a 100% pure 'millennials' type of tantrum. Rivian, Uber, Tesla, Lordstown, Lucid, Faraday Future... yes...yes...the US military...ALL branches...use phoquing petrol to power ALL war machines. News phoquing flash...ALL militaries of the WORLD use phoquing petrol to power all of their war machines. I have a feeling ZETA's protest is more of a sinister one rather than what they say is for the "best interest of the country". Its because its hypocritical in nature... Its because none of the so called electric car makers got THE contract so they are sulking no fair... Faraday Future has conned the public with a phantom vehicle...that was supposed to have been on sale 3 phoquing years ago. How the phoque will THEY provide a vehicle for the US government? Lucid has just announced yet another "go on sale" extension for their EV... How the phoque will THEY provide a vehicle for the US government? Lordstown and Rivian. These guys are just getting started and are on the cusp of selling their first models to the people. No recent delays...just yet. Lordstown's pickup truck is unproven in the real world with their new tech... As is Rivian's. Considering that GM/Ford and Dodge sell close to 3 million units of pick-up trucks/year...AND FoMoco and GM have annnounced their very OWN EV pick-ups, are we sure Lordstown and Rivian will make it to year 2 or 3? Id like to see investor's pour billions into these two companies as they did with Tesla to keep them alive JUST like they do with Tesla... Problem is...where will all this phoquing money come from to keep these two alive IF the public wont buy into Rivian and Lordstown trucks? Its bad enough that investor's KEEP on giving Tesla billions... Like Balthy said...its a GOVERNMENT project that NEEDS to be VIABLE LONG TERM... Want proof? WW2 and the Willys JEEP. The government gave FoMoCo the rights to build it as it had the know-how, and capacity to mass produce the JEEP reliably, cheaply and would NOT go under during a war... Tesla? They got sooooooo many projects going on now, with different delays on EACH and EVERY one of them...how COULD the government trust Tesla to deliver these on time? Reliably? Every single product launch Tesla has made...Tesla has botched. With the possible exemption of the Model Y. The Roadster 2.0 is delayed. The Cybertruck is said to be different than the concept we saw. Tesla just announced a so called 'real' sub 30 000 dollar EV, which the Model 3 was ORIGINALLY... Like Balthy said... Its a government project. Cost effective it MUST be...and we ALL know that government projects are NEVER BELOW or even AT the initial estimates....is the US government going to KNOWINGLY award a contract like this to a company that KNOWINGLY goes OVER the initial estimates? And lastly... Oshkosh SAID that THEIR postal truck WILL be a BATTERY ELECTRIC vehicle. It will also be ICE only. It will also be a hybrid. BUT...it will also be BATTERY ELECTRIC only too... Its VERY disingenuous of ZETA to cry like this... NOT the other way around. And you know what? Oshkosh vehicles are KNOWN to be very reliable and durable in extreme situations. They have a LOOOOONG history of producing vehicles... There is nothing wrong with Oshkosh winning this contract. PS: I forgot to mention UBER. Uber is a most rotten, corrupt company that I have ever known in my 48 years of life... Uber skirts all kinds of different country's tax laws and taxi regulations. They do NOT pay their driver's a decent wage... ANY organization that has THEM as a partner...and I distrust THAT organization IMMEDIATELY!!!

How laughably out-of-touch with reality. I wonder if ZETA has any concept of how many petroleum products are in a given BEV?? Struggling, flighty, upstart companies are not fit for long-term Gov't contract work. God; look no further than Tesla. Long-term viability is a key factor in infrastructure evaluations. Imagine the same backlash against not allowing upstart construction companies to get contracts to build major highways bridge spans or commercial aircraft. They're also not going to be able to come remotely close to being competitively priced.

Gotta Love the Trucks Celebration from the Chevy Performance team about all the Crate Connect and Cruise trucks that have been restored to modern power. A Truck Tradition (theblock.com)

IMO, Pontiac's full-sizers were on the downside of their peak after '66, tho there are still ones I definitely like. Like this '68 Catalina; it really makes the painted bumpers work here:

Essense, ST package, AWD. It was the best blend of features and price for us. It came with the black 20" wheels with the ST package. I would have LOVED the 20" silver wheels that are an option of the Essense, but it looks like GM is not making those yet. You either get the Avenir with those specific Avenir 20's...you get the Black ST 20's, or the 18's.

Heart - Barracuda Time!!!

A ‘third to a half’ of US consumers do NOT use a full-size truck with a 4.5’ bed. Zero do.

Piano

Walmart seems to be on the side ....grabbed some motor oil, watched a fight between customers......

You must've missed the part where laser / optical scanning became possible during the timeline. That was monstrous. BEVs are still not using standardized plugs or charge rates, just like in the dawn of electrification of US consumer goods, which had a multitude of different plug designs & voltages. It's a very outdated approach that seems to be ignoring past successful models.