David

1 hour ago, ccap41 said:

Thank you! 

Yeah, as much as I love the vehicle, I REALLY tried to avoid Land Rover because...of their well-known UNreliability.  Well, we have a 100,000-mile (unlimited years) warranty, so we should at least have that peace of mind. I know they're not supposed to be the most reliable, but I don't really hear of people getting stranded. It's usually "just" lights going off saying something needs fixed. Hopefully that is just the case. 

Oh, oh I know! I REALLY tried pushing ANY other brand, because reliability was our G issue. 

It absolutely rides better than the G. Almost anything rides better than a vehicle with two solid axels though, hahaha. My wife loved her G though. She was so used to it that she really didn't notice how shtty it rode. Anytime we'd drive something else she'd say that she liked it but she still liked her G and that she still thought that drove just fine.. I had to tell her that she was just conditioned to like to because it really drove like @ss. 

Yes, 100,000 mile warranty with unlimited years. It actually seemed like a "bargain" at $4340. That's like one repair and I'm sure it'll be used plenty, unfortunately. 

As much as I tried to get her into either an Aviator or SQ7, a little thing in the back of my head said it's okay because when those broke, it would be my fault, hahaha. Now when this breaks, I'll give her the ole "I told ya so". 

WOW, Never heard of a 100,000 miles unlimited years warranty, that is a great deal.

Agree that the $4340 will pay for itself on the first major repair. It did with my SS as I paid according to the paperwork $1993 for a GM backed 3yr/36,000-mile warranty and when in the first six months the cooling line cracked and contaminated the transmission and cooling system, the Cheverolet dealership had it for 4 months as they awaited the new corvette transmission and cooling system and the paperwork, I have shows that the charge back to GM warranty was almost $12K dollars plus the Tahoe loaner they put me into which was new and I put a ton of miles on while I had it.

I hope you never have to use it and it is just peace of mind for you as I would hate to have the wife and kids get stranded anywhere.

Awesome looking ride, wishing you all the best on it.

8 minutes ago, Drew Dowdell said:

No boxer engine = no sale.

But it's an EV  

Get a Screw bike for the Ultimate ride!
@Drew Dowdell Here is a new bike for you.
 

Was driving so I could not snap a picture, but the local Kia dealership is clearly getting a ton of new EVs as two trucks went by, one with EV9's and the other with EV6's.

3 hours ago, ccap41 said:

Welp, we finally got rid of my wife's G55 AMG. I've talked about it here a few times but there was something inherently wrong with it. It had left her stranded at least 5 times and us once. Luckily everything was covered under an extended warranty, so it was minimal out of picket and the loaners were covered or just given to us via a couple different Merc dealerships. Anyway, after getting stranded once since we've had our lil baby, my wife finally had enough of it. I tried convincing her a year or two ago when the market was nuts to bail on it and just make a bunch off of it. That didn't happen, hahaha.

When we got her G55 back about a month ago, we were looking for a replacement. She's been spoiled and had to have something of a luxury brand. She never said this but anything she'd look at had a luxury brand...of course.. She was stuck on the shape of the SUV and she hates how everything modern is bubbly or rounded. There's nothing "old school boxy" that's mainstream, really. I had her look at X5, GLE, Aviators, Q7 anything in that range. I ALMOST had her into an SQ7. We test drove one but there just weren't anything around us in the price and miles we were looking for. She didn't like the exterior of an X5, GLE, or GV80. @David She's a part of the "electric vehicles just aren't there yet" crew. 

Well, after a lot of looking and she was getting more and more anxious about the lack of faith in her vehicle, we came across a 2020 Range Rover Sport SVR that she fell in love with and it was fairly local. Typically, we have no issue driving up to 5hrs one way for a vehicle we find for the right price. She had zero faith in doing that with her G55 at this point. So the range and available vehicles decreased by soooo much. Normally we'd have Chicago, Indianapolis, Memphis, Kansas City, Louisville as potential places to buy from. 

2020 13,550 miles. SVR = 575hp, s/c 5.0 V8. All of the auto lane keep stuff, auto braking stuff, head-up display, heated cooled front AND rear seats, 4 zone climate control, massive sunroof (that we don't care about), active exhaust (that we LOVE - exhaust note was actually high on her priority list - her list was...confusing, to say the least). Apple CarPlay, all sorts of off-road goodies that we will never use, hahaha, air suspension, 

I was waaaaay off of another all-black vehicles but, again, that was on her list. I hate the black maintenance and just how quickly it looks dirty/bad.

I'm pretty sure I was all over the place with my little story but feel free to ask about any detail I probably skipped over, forgot, or jumped around and made confusing. 

Congratulations, nice looking SUV, Hope all goes well for you with this as I can understand not wanting to have her get stuck with your kid in the car.

Life Happens, I was always planning to convert my 1994 Suburban to electric and drive it.

Grandkids came last year via my son's marriage, great kids and now I have a new Grandson.

As such, time to simplify my life. Sold my suburban and said goodbye over the weekend. Some one else can enjoy the custom 402 V8 making 505hp/551 lb-ft of torque.

Newest Grandson

Farwell pictures of my suburban.

Remember when Ashtrays were common in autos?

Very cool info on expanding our power gride and connecting up green energy projects faster.

The 2035 Report: Reconductoring With Advanced Conductors Can Accelerate The Rapid Transmission Expansion Required For A Clean Grid - Energy Innovation: Policy and Technology

Very cool press release of Samsung enhancing Tesla Wall chargers. Weird that I missed this till now.

Samsung Announces Collaboration With Tesla at CES 2024 for SmartThings Energy – Samsung Global Newsroom

Life happens, about two months behind on doing some pruning, but decided to buy an ego pole saw  for dealing with some big branches over the drive way.

Love that I do not have to wear hearing protection. EGO rocks! 

I have to say that Hyundai is Banging hot for style. Not a fan of Black SUVs but this is striking. 

If your into battery technology, this is an interesting read and clearly GAC of China is beating Toyota of Japan in the Solid state race of EV batteries.

GAC beating Toyota to solid-state battery EV with 600-mile range thanks to large-capacity cell breakthrough - NotebookCheck.net News

Saw my first Cyber Truck today in the wild, WOW, What an Ugly Turd of a so called truck. Blind Spots bigger than California. Pretty much a true love or hate of the Tesla truck for sure. Funny thing is it had a California license plate. Made me wonder, did they move up here or a PTO trip to the PNW. Either way, yes it grabs heads as people look.

1 hour ago, riviera74 said:

The interior is very good and competitive in its market segment.  I really like it.  Good thing that GM replaced the 3.6 with a turbo 4, since the latter should be more reliable.

The new Enclave could do without the big mouth bass type grill.  It looks like it belongs on a RAV4 or some other Toyota.  As for the exterior, SAD.  Buick needs to go back to the 1st generation Enclave and make it curvy and Buick again.  I could mistake this version of an Enclave for an Acadia or Traverse.

Did I miss something that the 3.6L V6 is less reliable than the Newer Turbo 4?

56 minutes ago, ccap41 said:

The location has nothing to do with auto high beam feature. My 2016 MKC has auto high beams and it doesn't have stupid-@ss headlights in the bumper. 

I understand that the auto high beam feature is in traditional and these bumper headlights. Not really sold on the benefits of the auto on high beam headlights feature, but the styling trend seems to be to use the space of traditional headlights for style with daytime running lights/markers and then lower the headlights into the bumper. It would be interesting to see the studies / facts behind this change to bumper headlights and auto high beam lights on to understand the facts behind them.

1 hour ago, ccap41 said:

Yeah, I don't plan on keeping a vehicle for only 2-3 years. You kind of lose the fuel savings over ICE if you're continuing to spend more and more on a new vehicle. 

Have to compare your Fuel costs to electrical costs to see as 2-3 years here is huge difference still making leasing a good deal.

Washington for home charging is 10 cents per kW of power compared to for me with the SS, $5.45 per gallon premium that the SS uses or for average regular unleaded fuel $4.659 per gallon. With the cheap EV leases and very cheap electrical, the $500 a month I am spending on Premium fuel for the SS is easily covered by an EV with home charging.

UPDATE: EV9 that is one of the two EVs my wife is considering has a 99.8 kW battery pack. Cost to charge it 100% which you really do not do is $9.98 per charge up at home on a level 2 charger. Figuring my wife fuels up the SS 5 times per month at least and usually more as she tends to fuel every 4 to 5 days currently, $500 on average for Premium fuel versus same 5 charge ups is less than $50.

13 hours ago, trinacriabob said:

I am somewhat interested in visiting Dubai someday.  It looks sort of like a beachside Las Vegas in a rich Middle Eastern locale.

Just be very careful as they have some crazy laws that western folks who do not become aware of can easily break and end up in their crazy legal system and have one less hand, foot, leg, arm as they seem to like to cut off body parts as punishment.

I have never been there myself, but a couple of my coworkers have been for work related and were forewarned by our team members about certain ways to behave, what to watch what you say, etc. 

It is definitely not a western country, but a Muslim one that is trying to project for tourist dollars a western way, but still very strict.

3 hours ago, ccap41 said:

Just for the record, those are not dots in the grille. Those are the "tristar" Mercedes logo of different sizes. 

it still looks like @ss. I do believe Mercedes has come out and said they'll eventually make the EQS a more conventional 3 box sedan, but I think that's when the ICE S-Class goes away. 

Jeez, 50% of the most depreciated list are EVs. Doesn't seem like a great time to buy into those yet. 

Leasing is best with guaranteed trade in in 2 or 3 years for updated tech.

I have to say that Mercedes has FAILED in giving the EQS a better look, changing from dots on the 2024 front end to lines does not change the ugly nature of this dated tech EV. Nor does the going from a flat emblem to a traditional stand up version make any difference.

EV Price Shock: Mercedes EQS Loses Almost Half Its Value In A Year | Carscoops

2025 model is top, 2024 model is bottom.

Loving this and hope it comes true.
Kia’s EV9 Pickup: A Miserable Design or a Future Success? (kangnamtimes.com)

2 minutes ago, A Horse With No Name said:

Cool. Resale also plays a part. at least here in Ohio, Toyotas hold their value way better than Kias. 

You will be surprised as the Kia Sportage and Rav4 are pretty much neck to neck in retaining resale value.

Interesting that the EQS looses 50% of its value in the first year.
EV Price Shock: Mercedes EQS Loses Almost Half Its Value In A Year | Carscoops

Interesting review of luxury versus mid level.
How Does The Genesis GV60 Compare To A High-Spec Hyundai Ioniq 5? | Carscoops

It is interesting and makes one wonder if you could take the Genesis software and update the Ioniq 5 to have the same HP/Torque.

1 hour ago, A Horse With No Name said:

Everything is up. I thought about buying a new Ranger since my Ranger is at 86k. Keeping my Ranger. 

 

New Ranger starts mid thirties rather than mid twenties. 

Religion continues to go the way of the DODO bird...

 

Interesting take on things. 

Totally agree with these videos which is so true to me.

1 minute ago, A Horse With No Name said:

Although I like Kia products I find myself really not wanting to own one. Not sure why. 

I would suggest test driving one as well as the RAV4 on the same day to compare. One of my daughters friends has a Rav4 and has had a few little things that warranty took care of, but other wise solid. Yet after driving Amy's Sportage, she wishes she had checked out others. Mi actually likes the Hyundai Tucson Hybrid better and while her Rav4 is a 2023 model, she uses it for work and so it tends to get high miles, after two years she is knocking on 50K miles now and so is thinking of trading it in on a 2025 Tuscon Hybrid.

Review the Hybrid list above, test drive to compare and go with what you feel is right for you.

2 hours ago, A Horse With No Name said:

Ford needs an Electric Ranger. However, they are selling every Bronco they can build and the Bronco and Ranger shar an assembly line. Ergo, they build very few Rangers. Zero incentive to do an electric one in quantity. Good luck with your choice. 

Musk and his antics would keep me from ever considering one of their products. Which is sad, because from a need and affordability standpoint we are looking Hybrid/EV for the next car. 

Kia has some of the best styling right now. Odd, but true. 

I am highly jealous. I have thought about moving into town and onto the bus line. 

As is everyone else. I have never owned an SUV (other than a junker 69 Bronco) and am considering one. Everyone can flame me, but if I buy one it will be a RAV 4. Probably a hybrid. 

Very bizzar is that the Ford Bronco and Ranger are pilling up here on Dealership lots. I see tons of them and the amount on the road seems to have dropped off. This could be a PNW oddity as many have moved onto EVs with Tesla leading of course, but Hyundai/Kia/Genesis nipping at their heels along with Ford Mach-e and Lighting. I see tons of these EVs everywhere.

Musk needs to go and get a real CEO in there to run the company, even the loyal are realizing his time is over.

Agree, Kia has some banging style, so much better than other companies especially Buick.

City life will never appeal to me, but I do get it that if you have mass transit that is solid and reliable that being close where you no longer need an auto makes sense. The Seattle greater lite rail system has taken this into account as each lite rail stop has around 10,000 apartments that have been built for folks that need to get into Seattle or the airports and get around without the use of an auto. Crazy dense living.

In regards to the RAV4 comment, I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND you Test drive the Kia Sportage Hybrid, Far SUPERIOR over RAV4 IMHO. Daughter owns one and plenty of coworkers. the 2024 Sportage Hybrid Rocks.

https://fourwheeltrends.com/toyota-rav4-most-common-problems-explained/#:~:text=Common Toyota RAV4 issues include oil consumption%2C transmission,suspension%2Fsteering issues%2C water pump failure%2C and electrical problems.

https://www.vehiclehistory.com/articles/rav4-years-to-avoid-an-excellent-cuv-with-a-few-problem-years

RAV4 is far from the reliable SUV Hybrid they have marketed it as. Yes the last few years seem to have worked out the bugs for the most part, but it does have a weirdness that they are either right from the start or a lemon from the start. Seems to be the two types they have come in as they use some of the oldest tech now and are not class leading IMHO.

https://www.caranddriver.com/kia/sportage-hybrid

https://www.edmunds.com/kia/sportage-hybrid/

https://cars.usnews.com/cars-trucks/rankings/hybrid-suvs

A little more luxury is the Hyundai Tucson Hybrid as an option.

Consumer Reviews to look at:

https://www.edmunds.com/kia/sportage-hybrid/2024/consumer-reviews/

https://www.edmunds.com/kia/sportage-hybrid/2025/

2 hours ago, A Horse With No Name said:

It will sell big time. Starting to see them around. 

As a huge Tesla market, it has been interesting that not a single cybertruck has been seen here. They are like Unicorns I think.

55 minutes ago, trinacriabob said:

We have someone with the handle "Los Angeles" having a birthday today.

That said, I had to look up the city of Los Angeles's birthday - it's April 4, 1850.  As a native, I should have known that.  So, a birthday of April 10 (today) isn't too far off.

Admission Day for California is September 9, 1850 .... actually AFTER that of the city of Los Angeles ... and both 1 year after the most likely year for the Gold Rush - 1849.  Depending on where you went to school and/or worked, Admission Day could be a day off.

 

So then we owe a Happy Birthday @LosAngeles 

1 hour ago, smk4565 said:

Not a fan of the new look of Buick with the big grilles, but I wasn't a fan of old Buick styling either.  

Also, STOP putting headlights in bumpers!  The 2015 Cherokee did it, then no the car in history ever should have done it.

It is weird when your used to having defined headlights, but it seems to be the trend to give options for styling with day time running lights and move the headlights into the bumper area with the auto highbeam off feature. 

Not the best styling IMHO, but then this current Buick seems to have gone Big Mouth Billey Bass with that huge ugly black grill.

14 minutes ago, trinacriabob said:

What I was really going to say ... I was doing some surfing last night and was reading some biographical stuff and landed here.

Ok, she's fine where she is with the deep pockets she has access to.

However, had she not accessed those, she could have been quite successful if cast as a recurring foreign villainess in the 007 franchise.

One very evil and unattractive woman.