Jump to content
Create New...

David

Premium Subscriber
  • Posts

    35,370
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    266

Everything posted by David

  1. I can understand this, but then this is part of my daily life. With two kids with their own families and grandkids it is not uncommon for us to be out and about for the day, come home for a bit before heading out to help with the grandkids and their afterschool activities. Plus, with family that is living from both sides north and south of us, it would not be uncommon to drive 75 miles down south to deal with my wife's side of the family, see the nieces/nephews and then up north to my side to see folks and with both our parents in senior years with health issues, also moving back in forth. Course this is why Sun puts on about 15,000 miles a year on the SS. We all have different use cases.
  2. @ccap41 @Drew Dowdell Thank you both, this is the kind of dialogue I feel the Auto buyers need to be made aware of and the various use cases in understanding as I feel most DO NOT really understand this and give into the FEAR Mongering of News Stories. While I still feel that everyone should have the same charging rate capabilities, I also understand both your points. I do feel that this will change electrical across the WORLD over time due to the need of charging.
  3. So I posted this in my company Slack auto channel and am reposting it here to share my crazy Sunday with the Wife who is now considering retiring the SS for a new auto. Interesting, my SS that the wife drives has started to have gremlins. As such upon my return on Saturday from my work trip, she complained to me about not feeling she can rely on the auto. I asked her what she would like to do since I picked the SS for her and over all she loves the power, AWD of the 2008 Trailblazer SS AWD, but at approaching 300,000 miles, it is coming time to retire rather than put money into the auto. She responded that she would be open to an EV. So, Sunday we spent the day driving EVs to check them out. My wife's response to the following EVs we drove: BMW - Nice to drive, was fine with the interface, but the exterior was just ugly with the big kidney grill in the front and weird pinched rear end look. Still will consider. Mercedes - Interface was fine, driving was nice, liked the interior for the most part, but what were they thinking with the Jellybean shape? Hard pass. Cadillac - Nice to drive, exterior was far better than the Mercedes or BMW, Failure in that they do not support Android Auto / Apple carplay. As such not acceptable. Yes, there is the * that Lyriq has a limited support for Android Auto, no Apple Carplay and the sales rep did say that GM was moving away from it with their Android system that is voice controlled and easier than using your cell phone. Wife was not impressed with the limitations, wants full support of her Ultra S23 in the auto. Hyundai - Was not wowed with the style exterior, but interior loved it and roomy for me. Loved the full Android Auto/Apple Carplay support. A solid candidate to consider. Kia - Again the exterior was not bad, but not wowed by it either. Interior was nice and fit her well, but the tight bucket seats of the EV6 were super tight for me and she said it would not work for us due to my size as no one could sit behind me. EV9 was great, anyone can sit behind me and was very spacious for both of us. Liked the style much better exterior and interior was very nice to her. One to consider, only thing was the poor slow charging speed for L1/L2. Genesis - GV60, she liked exterior was fine, Interior was very nice. It fit us fine though no one could sit behind me. Interface was very easy to use. But she even asked them if there was a bigger version for the GV70 or 80 and they said not yet, it was coming. Ford - F150 Lighting she liked allot about it exterior and interior wise, just was hoping for a mid-size rather than full size vehicle so would think on the truck. Mach e she liked, we both fit comfortably and clearly anyone could sit behind me, as the lead developer who is 6'2" tall stated, the EV was designed to handle tall people. Major dislike was the salesperson who was very pushy and made comments that told my wife he was a male chauvinistic pig. He actually to me to man up as the wife would drive whatever I decided for her since I was the man. Big mistake, if we go with a Ford, it will be a different salesperson and might even be a different dealership. Rivian - Exterior and Interior were big wins for her, she loved everything about it and even the test drive was great. Sadly, Rivian is off the list as she asked the counselor about Android Auto/Apple Carplay and no support, no plan for support. FAILURE big time. Tesla - She wanted to look at the Y. We went in and over all the experience was good, but no one can sit behind me. The counselor went over the interface and then offered for us to take it for a drive. Wife asked if it supported Android Auto/Apple Carplay and the Answer was no, and then they said a major failure. Musk knows how to build a superior interface, and no one needs those old cell phone connections, only Bluetooth to use your phone. With the crazy way to start the EV and lack of cell phone support she passed on even test driving it. One thing my wife did tell me was that an all-software app interface is a failure point to her. She wants physical buttons for the basic stuff and then will be happy using the touch screen. Not sure what her choice will be, but she is going to think on this.
  4. Yes I get all that you said and most EVs have it set for 80 to 90% charging level unless your on a road trip and at a DC then you can choose to go 100%. Point I am making is that if all levels of ICE fuel at the same rate, why not have this for all EVs. Yes charging overnight would not be an issue, but if you had been out and about and did not charge the night before and got home with only 10% left and needed to go out in a few hours, having a fast L2 charger (19.2kW) versus the Bolt (7.2kW) levl 2 charger would get you juice into the battery pack fast so you can run out later. I also have to believe that if an OEM standardized on a top charging controller economy of scale would push down the cost and their whole product portfolio would benefit with all EVs having the maximum capable charging speed.
  5. This is my feeling about this that Auto companies are shooting themselves in the foot in regards to EV charging. GM is a perfect example of this in that the Chevrolet line of EVs have the slowest L1/L2 charging controller and Cadillac has the fastest. The charging speeds start at a pathetic 7.2kW to 19.2kW. Yes when it comes to GAS Autos they all fill the same into the tank. As such, if an Auto company really wants to give the best experience possible and not have charging complaints, all their Autos from the lowest level to the highest should have the fastest possible. Mercedes is pathetic with only an 11kW onboard controller for charging their EVs at home compared to Porsche and Audi that are 19.2kW charging controllers. Mercedes FAILs here in that this is an EQE and as such should have the highest available charging controller. 19.2kW
  6. Interesting read, I think some over estimated the ease of an ICE to EV transition as Hertz never took the time to train and inform renters of the difference between EVs and ICE in driving and operating them. https://fortune.com/2024/03/15/ceo-steps-down-prices-following-purchase-teslas/
  7. If your into tech, then this will be of interest to you. Seems Microsoft is working on crazy fast SSD storage and the leak of such storage shows just how fast and big it is in an NVMe M.2 format, 1TB, 2TB and 4TB size with Read/Write speeds of 2,400 mb/s / 1,800 mb/s which is rapid fast. Think of it this way, while like the reading states, it is probably designed for Microsofts own cloud use, it is backed by Dell Technologies and this could find it's way into laptops. A laptop that could have crazy storage as the Precision Dell Laptops have three NVMe slots, which would make it a 12TB storage for a laptop using three of the 4TB NVMe units. Newly discovered Microsoft Z1000 SSD baffles experts — no, world's most valuable company won't start selling SSDs anytime soon but it may well be tinkering with data center storage as it did with CPU | TechRadar
  8. Cool Read The Tesla Cybertruck Engineering Teardown Is Finally Happening (thedrive.com) Well worth the watch, interested in what others think. Another good watch.
  9. Ok auto friends, running from my Madrid to Frankfurt flight to catch my Frankfurt to Seattle flight I spotted this auto on display and have no idea the brand. Striking and good looking, was in a hurry as I had no time to stop due to passport control being so slow. What is the brand?
  10. While Ugly as hell and you and I agree on that, I will say I do like the Rhino color that has become very popular on many an OEMs product line. Rear Lights are nice and very visible. I like that the charging menu is very easy to understand and straight forward. Need that for my wife who is not a tech person. Sorry to hear about the G wagon, sucks when you have to get them repaired.
  11. One thing I forgot to mention is in the picture with the Pizza, you see a bag. They bring you fresh out of the oven hot bread. so yummy, it was great to eat by itself and I am sure if I asked they would have brought me butter to go on the hot bread.
  12. Saw these two interesting versions of Jeep and Honda. Jeep Avenger Honda 2 door civic type S
  13. Breakfast and dinner at the hotel here has been great. Breakfast bread spread. You have such a wide assortment of foods to eat and drink. Dinners I have been eating my way through the menu. Pii day was started with crunchy pork belly on spicy mashed potatoes, then a spanish ham pizza and a hot chocolate pie with vanilla bean icecream. Here is some of the other foods I had too. The two pictures above is their cheescake with vanillabean icecream. Had gyoza and pestrami sandwich for one meal. This was cheesecake with Belgium Icecream which was creamy amazing. 24 month aged steak. Their half pound hamburger. All food at the AC hotel by Marriott is amazing.
  14. I had Spanish Pie for breakfast.
  15. Would love to see GM shock everyone with a Hybrid or EV version of this sedan that is very modernized with the current technology and style.
  16. Madrid Spain has been an interesting view of autos.
  17. Working here in Madrid Spain this week. A couple of interesting observations. @Drew Dowdell reminded me that SEAT was the official car of Spain and yet until today, I had not really seen any in the financial / tech sector that I am in on the east side of Madrid. Observations is that they have allot of Diesel autos here and pretty much all Stick. Very few automatics. Tons of mopeds and allot of EVs. Will snap a picture on my way back to the hotel today as this one company, not sure what they do, but they had a ton of Pugeot EVs all plugged in and a few Tesla's in their lot. Everything here seems to have high fences as while it seems safe, everything is secured and locked down. There is a school I pass in walking to the office from the hotel and this is where I saw the Seat parked in front of a Jeep Compass. It is an interesting observations that besides the normal German luxury auto's, I then see a ton of Kia/Hyundai and then Pugeot and finally Citeron in this area. Seat seems to be very few here. @Robert Hall 2019 CT6 AWD What trim level is this car?
  18. Congratulations Robert, that is a nice-looking car!
  19. I would not be surprised to see it start at $150,000. Expect the V edition to be a $200,000 model imho.
  20. I do not believe it is about cross shopping. The science shows we are running out of OIL. Folks can deny it all they want, but Saudia Arabia the worlds largest stock pile of OIL for Decades is now reducing production as their wells run low. Climate Change is also changing peoples attitude about what they drive and the Boomers can try all they want to stop and stay stagnant, but Humanity has always moved forward and the future is EV. Those that want ICE will have ICE options and those that want EVs will find more and more options and lower prices. People are hating the maintenance of ICE and as lower cost EVs come on the market they will buy. GM was Stupid to end BOLT before they had true replacements ready as the BOLT sales just like the VOLT sales shows there was a market and customers buying. We will change over and Stellantis is behind the 8 ball and as such this is to grab attention while they still sell their fuel thirsty cars/SUVs and trucks.
  21. Ioniq 5 was based on their original Pony car. A awesome modern take of the 1970's Pony. I am excited for the 2025 model year with all the enhancements they are offering including a larger battery pack.
  22. 🤔 Is it me or does this thing look like the Hyundai Pony?
  23. Your acting as if Rivian is Tesla. Yes they over promised, under delivered in their initial EV, but I think they have this pretty well sorted out. Will be interesting to see what the price is in 2026, could be less as battery prices drop. Sadly Rivian is a NO GO for me as any auto I purchase has to support Android Auto and Apple Carplay.
  24. It is an interesting observation that as you push out into the rural and mountain area you find only SUV. Yet in the major cities Chargers all over here in Washington and especially a move to Tesla's as the EV of choice for traffic patrol for Suburban and inner city.
×
×
  • Create New...

Hey there, we noticed you're using an ad-blocker. We're a small site that is supported by ads or subscriptions. We rely on these to pay for server costs and vehicle reviews.  Please consider whitelisting us in your ad-blocker, or if you really like what you see, you can pick up one of our subscriptions for just $1.75 a month or $15 a year. It may not seem like a lot, but it goes a long way to help support real, honest content, that isn't generated by an AI bot.

See you out there.

Drew
Editor-in-Chief

Write what you are looking for and press enter or click the search icon to begin your search

Change privacy settings