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That’s a side effect, but no. It’s harder to do both engine and vehicle platform at the same time than it is to have them alternate in cadence. but that’s kinda true of all major projects with large separate components.

I am a hybrid type of person, some things are just easier to do to stay connected through out the day that text msg just works better for than a couple of seconds call. If it is family or a special event like birthday, anniversary, etc. I totally agree that a phone call is required. Considering the Toyota Frame failures and now axel failures, I agree sad if anyone gets hurt, but way to funny that peeps think Toyota is this perfect company. The Beverly Hills Cop series is still great to watch even today. Yup some politically incorrect moments in the films, but they were part of that generation.

Ultium is a sound concept but GM's execution has been terrible. I would equate it to Alfa's rollout of the Giorgio platform that went horribly, but if you think about it, it has parallels. Have you not noticed that no manufacturer, not GM, not Toyota, not VW, ever rolls out a truly all-new car? When a new platform comes out, they usually carry over powertrains or pluck a newer powertrain that has been running in some other vehicle for a few years. Then, once they're 2 years in, there is an engine'/transmission update. You used to be able to set your watch to the "All new Camry with same engine" / 2 years later / "Camry gets all new engine" / 3 years later / "All new Camry with the same engine" cadence. The reason for that is that it is incredibly difficult to set up a whole vehicle platform AND engine / transmission platform all at the same time. The latest "all-new" CR-V came out in 2022, but the engine platform dates back to 2014 when it debuted in a mid-cycle refresh of an overseas market Honda Fit. And that is why the Alfa Romeo Giorgio platform had so many issues at the beginning. The Giorgio, which debuted under the Giulia and later the Stelvio, was the first truly "all-new" vehicle we've had in decades. It was a new platform, on a new production line, with a new engine. The only off-the-shelf component in that car was the ZF 8-speed automatic. These days, Giorgio seems to be doing just fine as the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Grand Cherokee L Now take that task and multiply it by 10. Not only did GM build a new platform, they built a new powertrain, and a new battery pack, and then they had to build the plants to build that battery pack, which they'd never done before. They called in LG for help, but it is still a massive undertaking. The early Teslas were utter rubbish (some would argue they aren't much better today). Worse than anything GM is experiencing at the moment. GM, for all its faults, at least had the wisdom to stop production so the issues could be addressed instead of pushing out sub-par beta-test products like Tesla did. Keep in mind that the earliest Tesla Model-Ses are now 12 years old, one year OLDER than my Avalanche. I've been in a battery presentation for Ultium, and I do believe that GM is on the right track. Their modular design makes it easy to future-proof the design for new chemistries as they become available. They'll get there, they're further ahead on the curve than Tesla was 12 years ago simply because, unlike Tesla, they can make a door that shuts properly.

Since I'm a spelling fanatic, I was just picking up on the aXLe transpo. And capitalized on it to incorporate AXEl Foley. I only saw the first one. Every one knows all the lines to this skit. Inimitably funny.

There are fanboys of every company though. I know people who think GM is perfect, Ford is perfect, Toyota, Honda, Merc, BMW, Audi, etc. Somebody here was trying to convince others that the Ultium rollout hasn't been a complete shtshow.

I almost forgot: Happy Leap Day, folks. This buys us more time, if you catch my drift ...

They "sent" me this article. It was a wake up call and I didn't know how good we had it, so to speak. This is sad. https://edition.cnn.com/travel/the-a340/index.html It contains a lot of great information. I came to realize that pilots and passengers alike very much like them. There's the earlier 300 with the 4 "skinny" engines and I flew on one by Swiss in the recent past. However, I haven't flown on the 600, with its 4 large engines, in a long time. Since the 600 is longer and carries a lot of passengers, those 4 large engines "might" pencil. Currently, only Lufthansa flies the A340-600. They also have a small number of the earlier A340-300s, as does Swiss. Lufthansa brought the A340s back while temporarily mothballing their ginormous A380s, which are being put back into service (out of Munich and not out of Frankfurt). Here's one coming into LAX. Beautiful. I would really like to fly on an Airbus A340-600, so I'll be looking on the schedules to get routed on one.

I didn't vote laugh because of the content, which is serious and sad. I voted laugh because ... There's an axle ... ... and then there's Axel Foley

Money well spent on hydrogen Honda. Just ask Toyota, who merely has to bribe folks to buy theirs lol. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/toyota-wants-hydrogen-succeed-bad-210720557.html#:~:text=If you hurry%2C you can,the car off its hands.

Yup the Badge engineering has come around to be terrible again.

OUCH Major recall as Toyota axel can separate from the auto causing a crash. Toyota Announces New Recall: Over 683,000 Vehicles Affected In A Week (msn.com)