Leaderboard

Sure they did. The early 2002's were a few hundred dollars cheaper than a same-year Chevy Bel Air, and it was certainly cheaply equipped! They weren't common, but they weren't expensive.

Heck, BMW doesn't even have ONE all-electric truck or SUV to compete with Rivian.

That livery is beautiful on the 747. Alitalia ahd a fair amount of Airbus in its fleet. Vintage Tube Pre amp, gorgeous, beyond my budget. https://skyfiaudio.com/collections/preamps/products/luxman-cl35-mkiii-vintage-tube-preamplifier-with-telefunken-tubes

'cause they cant really engineer anything of substance in that segment on their own... They went with Nissan and that failed. Too bad they missed on the opportunity to bilk Chryco. out of more money and engineering knowledge on how to design, engineer and sell pick-up trucks. They got away with it with Jeep and the Dodge Viper though... What gets me is that Mercedes does have a century of history building military trucks... I guess that doesnt translate well in the civilian market... Mercedes has NOTHING on Ford, GM and Chrysler in my opinion...

And you'd think Mercedes with that kind of engineering prowess they would engineer a decent pick-up truck without reverting to go and sleep with Nissan... They also have a century of engineering trucks and busses. Military and civilian. Boy... talk about blunders, huh??? Best or nothing is how it goes???!!! Engineered like no other??? THAT is Captain America, bud!!! Laughing at the poor little German Weiner schnitzels!!! And as I was googling Mercedes econoshytboxes, I came across this Buick looking thing of 2 decades ago... That aint luxury my dear...

So Daimler isn't going to bother trying to compete in the hottest vehicle segment, one that has been growing steadily for, I dunno, 50 -60 years?? Why would they leave those billions on the table for other OEMs to sweep up? SO stupid. And why are they still wasting time with hybrids? The industry is pushing past them SO rapidly...

[Spin the Wheel of Bar Moving....] So here again, you are applying the 'sells the most = so great and the best ever". I hadn't heard you were that in love with the F-150.

Is that what has happened to Tesla thus far?

This is the second time I saw this at my buddy’s shop (first time was on a MB e-class). This was an International flatbed :

Tesla has a hill to climb in the truck market already. https://www.motortrend.com/reviews/2022-rivian-r1t-electric-pickup-truck-first-drive-review/ "The 2022 Rivian R1T Is the Most Remarkable Pickup We’ve Ever Driven Yep, we drove it. Are you ready for the electric truck revolution? The 2022 Rivian R1T is the first mass-produced electric truck to hit the U.S. market, but that's hardly the most interesting thing about it. Its electric powertrain notwithstanding, the R1T is unlike any pickup we've ever driven—part truck, part sport sedan, and 100 percent amazing. It's been speculated that pickup buyers are too conservative to embrace electrification, but after our first drive in a pre-production Rivian R1T, both on-road and off-, we think this is the electric truck that will turn them into believers. There's so much we want to tell you about the Rivian R1T that it's difficult to pick a place to start, so let's begin with the basic layout. Sizewise, the R1T is a tweener, slotting somewhere between a midsize pickup like the Chevy Colorado and a traditional half-tonner like the Ford F-150. The Rivian R1T's shape and compact bed mimic those of "lifestyle" trucks like the Honda Ridgeline and Hyundai Santa Cruz, but it'll tow 11,000 pounds according to Rivian and rock crawl like a Jeep Gladiator according to us. And it jets around corners like no pickup truck ever has. ..."

Italian food in a nut shell. Funny... Jehovas witness...

Expensive mistake. My good friend scott and his wife nahve a bolt, they love it. Were they to fix the battery problem, i could see owning one. From a guy who hated Ford a couple of years ago, to today....Ford is getting a lot right now. Bronco and Mach E for two. Now they jsut need an EV Bronco., Horoscope...

^ looks like a ‘67-68 Olds 88/98 dash.

I don't know the year of this ad :

With those two partners alone, they are starting on better footing than Tesla (in the early days). At least they didn’t piggy back off of a useless two door (from another company) for six years before they put out their first actual car which was also not a CUV or SUV or Pickup.

Where is Mercedes (the Best Luxury Auto Company in the World according to you) Pickup let alone the 5 to 6 EV's in both car and CUV platform that you are talking about!

If Rivian didn't have partnerships with Amazon and Ford, I would have a much greater doubt in them. But, they do so I am quite confident they will make it. I'm not sure about the others though.

And none are electric like Rivian making this a truly apples to oranges comparison.

Mr Ickx and Derek Bell at Rennsport Reunion, Laguna Seca 2015. Was such a fun event.

All Chevrolet Bolt and Bolt EUV have had production suspended initially due to the Chip Shortage, but clearly the fact that all Bolts including the Generation 2 Bolt and Bolt EUV are to be recalled for new battery packs and controllers awaiting LG ability to fix the problem with the battery packs and ship replacement packs for 142,000 existing auto's and then enough to begin assembly again. Seems currently GM EV production is dead till mid September, but many believe it will go farther into fall. Chevrolet Bolt EV And Bolt EUV Production Temporarily Halted (insideevs.com) GM temporarily stops making the Chevy Bolt after latest recall - The Verge Amid Bolt EV recall, GM CEO emphasizes multiple future battery options (greencarreports.com) Seems BOLT owners, especially the first few years will really benefit as they get a new battery pack with an 8 year / 100,000 mile warranty and 8% more drivable range. GM Chevy Bolt EV battery fix could bring many owners more range than they originally had (greencarreports.com)

Want to order a Ford Bronco, must visit a dealer as Ford has paused taking reservations online for now as current model year deliveries will now stretch into 2022 for the first year release model. Ford stops taking online reservations for Bronco SUV - The Automobile Blog (automobiledot.com) Ford temporarily stops taking online reservations for Bronco (clickondetroit.com) Ford Bronco Online Reservations Paused As Production Challenges Mount (fordauthority.com) 2021 Ford® Bronco SUV | Reservation Explained

Jacky Icxx, BMW he raced back in the 60's...

Argh. Airlines are starting to use the Airbus 321-LR Neo to cross the Atlantic. It's single aisle. TAP Air Portugal is already using it for that service, along with their Airbus 330. I prefer the latter. The news about Alitalia is soul crushing. I'm hoping it's a reorg rather than completely ceasing to do business. So many memories. All good. I love their livery. Our family always got good service aboard their planes. And they had the coolest 747s. Watch it all the way until the end, when the take-off takes the jumbo toward Manhattan. Their fleet of 747s was named after resorts in different parts of Italy: Portofino, Cervinia, Capri, Taormina, Porto Cervo, Cortina d'Ampezzo, etc. Beautiful.

Most likely the 70s and that "tech" goes back to the 1960s, as far as GM is concerned. ERGS (per Wikipedia) Electronic Route Guidance System (ERGS) was a 1970s era government sponsored in-vehicle navigation and route guidance system used in the United States. ERGS was the initial stage of a larger research and development effort called the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS). Other programs include Japan's CACS and similar projects in Europe. ERGS was a destination oriented system that required a human driver to enter a destination code into the vehicle system. The vehicle communicated with an instrument intersection where the destination code was decoded and routing information was sent back to the vehicle.[1] And in 1966, https://www.wheels.ca/news/1966-in-car-navigation-system-looks-very-familiar-today/

interesting times we live in from ana viation standpoint.

Another change they made was in 1994 to open up the rear wheel wells. Made the car look less bloated than the low cut 91-93 opening.

Congratulations, sharp looking truck. I am sure while not all that you wanted will serve you well.

A lot of good info. I recall the 425. It shed a lot of cubes ... and weight. It could have made for a nicer and more respectable experience if they had put basic fuel injection on it. They did so 2 years prior for the Seville. The malaise at Cadillac during the Roger Smith years was a real black eye for the division. There was the 8-6-4, the initial problem ridden aluminum 4100 V8, their use of the diesel, and their use of Buick's 252 c.i. 4 bbl. as an option for those trying to squeak into a more basic Cadillac. It was funny to see a 4.1 L (252 c.i.) V6 in an Eldorado that was otherwise slicked up with a padded landau roof and fancier wheels. It took the division moving along from the 4.1 L to the 4.5 L to the 4.9 L V8 during the '80s to ratchet things up toward better engines by Cadillac for their new FWD products and using 5.0 liter V8s using the Olds blueprint for RWD boulevardiers to "right the ship."

Rivian R1S starts at $75K. bmw x5 starts at $59K. Not at all in the same price range. bmw x6 starts at $67K. Close, perhaps some will cross-shop, but not many. Also almost twice as slow to 60 as the Rivian (5.3 vs. 3.0)... according to your common metric that means no one will remotely consider the bmw. x7 at least is $75K, direct competition price-wise. And the only one. Rumors about the x8 have been swirling at least since summer of '20, but it's merely a 'GT' variant of the X7... nothing special. GT variants typically sell very poorly, so expect a price-topper GT to be near impossible to move.

Tesla started in 2003- 18 years ago. Do you think a person walks into BMW dealership and says 'Show me an X1, an X7, and every SUV in between; I have utterly no idea what I want and I can afford any of them"??

@balthazar seems you can charge even more for your truck if you wanted to sell it as Diesel truck/suv production has stopped at GM due to chip shortage. Already Dealers are jacking up prices. GM Temporarily Stops Production Of 3.0-Liter Duramax Due To Parts Shortage | Carscoops

Hey BIFF, If you actually paid attention you would not have ever POSTED THIS IGNORANT POST! ? Rivian having Amazon and Ford as Investors, Amazon as a major Customer (PRIME DELIVERY VANS) and not 1, 2 or 3 but 6 new models in development proven by the following: Trademark Filings Hint at Six New Rivian Models | The Drive I did my own Free Form Search at: Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS) (uspto.gov) "RIVIAN" pulls up all the current fillings of which the company has been very busy and you can see the future that is coming. Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS) (uspto.gov) Report: Rivian plans six new models by 2025 (greencarreports.com) Rivian Car Models List | Complete List of All Rivian Models Rivian To Launch Three More Models by 2024 | Rivian Forum – Rivian R1T & R1S News, Pricing & Order... (rivianownersforum.com) On top of this is the clear captures of an Extended Cab truck to go with the Crew Cab truck and other models. Rivian test footage hints at possible extended cab R1T - Electrek We then have the recent interviews by Forbes with CEO and Founder RJ and he clearly states more models are on the way. Heavily Funded Electric Truckmaker Rivian Plans IPO With Confidential SEC Filing (forbes.com) On top of this was even back in the interview Forbes did in Feb 2020, RJ talked about an expanded Portfolio. Elon Musk’s New Nemesis: Rivian Founder R.J. Scaringe Has A $3 Billion War Chest And Tesla In His Headlights (forbes.com) A moment in time at Feb 2020 comparison: End result is that Rivian is NOT LOOKING TO BE BOUGHT UP, but a well funded, superior engineered Electric Auto Company that will move beyond Tesla. Credit to Tesla for getting this and battery tech going, but they have sat in many ways on moving forward with what the public wants and Rivian I can see surpassing Tesla especially once an IPO goes out and they get an even bigger war chest to expand the company. RJ is Smarter than Musk!

Apparently you didn’t know about Rivian because you said, earlier, that they only had one so that’s a lie right off the bat. About the sedans, duh. I’m aware of the market but funny how this level of criticism did not befall a certain German brand when they introduced their first real EV SEDAN. Point here being that sedans are only surviving in the luxury realm right now so this was an appropriate release seeing as how it has been in development for years. Your entire argument seems to skip of the facts mentioned above. Exactly. He bitches about one company NOT putting out an SUV and instead releasing a sedan and then bitches about the other only having one SUV like any new company has started with twelve when they first come out. Damn if you do and damn if you don’t with his bar moving. I swear he has Tesla stock. Stick to the damn subject. The M5 is not competition for it. The Tesla Model S is and on paper, the Lucid spanks it and according to the review I posted above, it destroys it on every metric but what do I know. I just see the words of the people who actually DRIVE them as opposed to your constant bar moving tactics here, none of which involves any wheel time in the cars you mention.

here is a picture of the interior design studio, working on laying out the unique 'circles cut into a plywood wall' dashboard layout design.

1976 > 1996 = 20 years. There’s a TON more going on than merely FI there. I get your point, and it’s fun to play ‘what if’, but it’s far from just GM that walked this path. In ‘76, how many brands besides VW and Cadillac had FI?

That just points back to my original statement of laziness. They didn't want to spend money to develop technology that all of us can see was a big improvement to both performance and fuel economy, and eventually reliability. It took Ford until the 80s as well... but when they finally got around to it, the results were drastic. The '83 Continental had the carbed 302 with 131 horsepower and 230 lb-ft. By 85 they added throttle body fuel injection that brought hp to 140 hp and 250 lb-ft. In '86 they went to multi-port fuel injection and that brought power up to 150 hp and 270 lb-ft in the Continental, but with other modifications could go as high as 225 hp / 300 lb-ft in Mustangs with less restrictive / dual exhausts. That big of a swing on essentially the same block shows what they could have done had they just put fuel injection on there in the first place instead of stubbornly sticking with carbs. I can attest from personal experience that the '85 Continental with throttle body fuel injection was good for 26 - 27 mpg highway. GM didn't fair as well because they went on the misguided trip of downsizing engines (something they're repeating today) to gain fuel economy and they went so far that not even adding fuel injection could help. Tiny 135 hp HT4100 V8s with 190 lb-ft of torque trying to move Sedan Devilles and Fleetwood Broughams and working so hard it defeated any fuel economy gains they might have gotten. It took multiple upsizings of the engines to get back to... 4.9 liters just to get 200 hp and 275 lb-ft... and those required premium to do it. The Chevy 350 went through a similar metamorphosis as they added fuel injection ranging from 145 hp in 1976 to up to 330 hp in the LT1 in 1996.

If it was done right, then yes. A lot of forums will tell you to just snip a wire and it disables the system and while that's true, it also means you don't get torque converter lockup so your fuel economy suffers and eventually (I hear) you do damage to the torque converter and/or transmission. Apparently one needs to route that wire back under the dash and tap it into another wire there so you get the full transmission functionality back.

@David : you only show 1 factory paint job, tho Robert hit all 3. Most factory 2-tone jobs follow hard body lines or have delineating trim (ala the F-150). I just find the Maybach's 'break line' to be arbitrary & awkward, esp how it hits the headlights. Doesn't look factory to me, it looks like a 'one-off'.

I like 80s two tones..

I like the looks of the 70's two tone paint jobs.

I think they look more 30's 2-tone.

Nothing dates a car harder than a nice, 1970’s 2-tone paint job!

Maybach couldn't even keep itself open as its own brand... I'm surprised that trucking company hasn't gotten a tap on the shoulder from Mercedes-Benz yet. Even funnier.... I browsed their website and they use almost exclusively Volvo trucks and not Freightliners... Different markets. S-Class Maybach is all about soft, posh, silent. Sure they have good horsepower... but that isn't the point... the point is the built in champagne cooler in the back. V-Series/Blackwing are performance vehicles. Both have their place. I would love a CT6-V Blackwing, but I certainly wouldn't refuse an S-Class Maybach either. I LOVE the two-tone they can come in.

ONE LAST ONE FOR TODAY!

I do also. Theological wisdom.... WD-40 can fix a lot of things.