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I think many of the “traffic calming “ techniques that civil engineers are using today end up having the opposite effect. I think they end up angering drivers, and while it might slow the driver down at that exact point, they end up speeding up in between the traffic calming devices. Further, it just makes traffic worse and angers drivers even more.

I’m in favor of traffic circles because they actually improve traffic flow and you can get through them faster. I’m talking about aggressive “smart traffic lights”, speed humps on major neighborhood arteries, and artificially slow speed limits that don’t get enforced so you end up having a mismatch of people who obey the speed limit and people who drive the natural traffic flow speed limit. For example, there’s a road near me that is 50 miles an hour for most of its length but then it drops down to 35 miles an hour even though the road itself doesn’t change. The speed limit was dropped because people in town complained. But the speed limit isn’t enforced so now you have some people who do the speed limit of 35 and other people still trying to do 50. This is a fairly large road and 50 is entirely appropriate for it. With smart lights, they are able to detect how quickly the traffic gets from one light to the next, and if the traffic light feels the traffic is moving too fast, they start turning red more often to slow the traffic down. All that does is aggravate people, and then people speed more than if they could just pass through a few green lights. At their worst, the lights will only let three or four cars through even if a bunch of cars are backed up behind and then change very quickly back to red again

On a happy note, AI can be used to generate endless images of cars, and I love vintage cars so...

Traffic circles are pretty awesome devices. I don't recall ever driving over a speed hump that wasn't in a parking lot. I'm sure there are some, but maybe not in IL or MO.

We'll seems the first of many auto lines are being idled due to rare earth material restrictions from China against the world. Mercedes has halted their A-Class and B-Class, the compact SUV GLA, the all-electric EQA and the new CLA that are built at the Rastatt plant. China’s rare earth restrictions halt first auto industry production lines Terrible reality TV star at that and a convicted business fraud and six-time business failure based on his bankrupt nature to not have to pay people who built things for him. As such on top of his other convictions, the worst ever leader of this country and a pathetic example of morality, integrity and clearly clueless on how much he is hurting this country and the auto industry on top of the environment.

Let's keep in mind that he doesn't know how things work. Someone who was a reality TV star and golf course and casino developer doesn't have the background. Not even close. It's a cluster of people who are driving this, and him, and unearthing that would provide more answers.

I think I like the idea of a whole new 007 ish character that is not a typical straight white male. I sort of feel "007" got played to death back when Nixon was president. The character needs a fresh sheet of paper and a fresh incarnation. The whole world. FAFO. Zero sympathy for folks bringing this on themselves. Plenty of cyber trucks with healthy discounts though.

As far as Bond girls go, sure, one has the name that raises the most eyebrows - Pussy Galore - but the one that is probably the most well-known and most parodied had to have been Tiffany Case as played by Jill St. John. And there was Plenty O'Toole in the same movie. And Bambi and Thumper. And the high-rise Las Vegas Hilton doubled as The Whyte House. "DAF" really went out on a limb after a much more true to form 007 flick like "OHMSS" but, man, was it ever funny. Great lines like: "Just shove in a couple of gallons of 'HI-TEST' " and "Hi, I'm Plenty ... Plenty O'Toole" - - - "named after your father, perhaps" and "I didn't know there was a pool down there." The whole Vegas atmosphere sure moved things in a different direction from OHMSS having taken place in the Swiss Alps. Thanks to Wikipedia, we can learn that Jill St. John had an IQ of 162 and was admitted to UCLA 2 years earlier than a normal high school senior. She didn't go to or complete college. Lana Wood who played Plenty O'Toole is the late Natalie Wood's sister and, after she hit the wall and wasn't acting anymore, was living in a motel outside of L.A. with 1 or 2 of her kids for a while. But she appears to be back on her feet. To be fair, one of her kids had extensive medical issues that were costing them a lot of money.

We'll looks like things are about to turn into a COVID size shortage and hurt on the Global economy due to incompetence in the U.S. Leadership and the lemming team that is allowing Idiot47 to destroy just not the U.S. but the Global Economy. Global alarms rise as China's critical mineral export curbs take hold Tariffs leave manufacturers without supplies in pandemic flashback Wall Street drifts following some discouraging updates on the economy There are parts of Auto's that cannot be made up from any other place than China due to the world allowing China to take control of the bulk of rare earth elements. With exporting to the America's and Europe on hold, China is strangling the global economy allowing only Chinese auto companies to have access to parts that are being shipped to their manufacturing locations around the world based on current news. Seems the auto industry is in for a very tough time be it ICE or EV.

Have to totally agree that the look of the Maverick was exciting when it first was released and then grew stale and blah to me. This Lobo look is a awesome update imho. Disappointed in the drop in power, but expensive aftermarket upgrades will cover it. I question why the particulate filter has to be small and not performance oriented where they could have done a boost in overall performance. Agree that I think they could have put in a bigger motor. Big wish is that this was available in EV format which would give far more room interior wise along with a much-desired performance boost. Hyundai has been pushing out their N-line performance across the various models. I suspect the Santa Fe will get an N-Line trim soon.

Ahhhh yes, I did misunderstand you. I understand what you meant now. Thank you!

Oh, I get it, I think you misunderstood me. I'm saying make a Maverick Raptor with that engine. For a Lobo version, they'd need something like Lobo Max.

I mean, that's what's listed on their website. Do you always add destination charges to your pricing? I doubt it, unless it fits your argument. The $28,145 is not employee pricing. Hahaha exactly... so why compare the two???

Anything at the Raptor level is specialty and people don't expect fuel economy for those trucks.

It's not even that companies can't make money building sedans (except you Nissan), it's that the profit margins are so much higher building what is essentially a tall hatchback economy car and marking it up by $5K. Because the margins are so much better on something like Trax which sells for the same as a Malibu but is lower tech/quality/content, it forces management to look at sedan margin and ask "Why are we even doing this when we could just make a Trax 2-inches longer and sell it for more as a new model?". Manufacturers who want to stay in the game, Honda mainly and to a degree Toyota (though I see them faltering), they have to push their sedan prices higher to justify continuing to build them. A Civic costs every bit as much to engineer and build as an HR-V and CR-V, but it starts at $24k while the HR-V starts at $26k and the CR-V at $30k. You can't really blame manufacturers with numbers like that.

Correct. There's no way it's 150kw at those charge speeds. My guess is 40k - 50kw. The Chevy Bolt at 55kw can do slightly faster than a mile of range per minute when you're charging from 0-100% which is roughly the same as this RAV-4 PHEV speed at 10% - 80%.

Honestly, I like it. Am I wowed beyond belief? No, but I think it'll sell like crazy. I appreciate a lot of the upgrades to the interior. I wish the release came with more details. The interior tech upgrades got my attention. That's what is holding me out of a CX-50 (well, that, and one larger detail that I'd have to check out myself, and one really small thing that shouldn't bother me, but it does 😉). Just curious--not that I'd ever take something off-road, but how to CVTs fair with off-roading?

Hmmm that is interesting. I wonder why 7.2 isn't more standard, if they're already accepting L2 charging. Thank you for looking this up!

In looking this up for you, I found out that many/most PHEVs seem to be at 3.2kw on Level 2. Some are 6kw. Not sure why that is and why they wouldn't be designed to take the 7.2 from most L2 chargers. The Volt was 7.2.

Yeah, I wondered who was going to pick that up. It's faster than L2 charging, but that's probably a max of 50kw. That said, the RAV-4 isn't the first PHEV to get fast charging. The Outlander PHEV, the Volvo XC40 Recharge, and the Mini Cooper Countryman ALL4 can do it already.

"fast charging" isn't all that fast for a small battery. 30 minutes for like 35 miles of range added is really slow.