G. David Felt

I am such a Depeche Head, Loved them since my first concert with them in Japan. Depeche Mode Music for the Masses Tour 1987 to 1988, Japan Leg. This is memory lane of an amazing time in my life. Depeche Mode "Music For The Masses Tour" 1987-1988 (depmode.com)

Are those the pictures he sent ya? WOW that is very sharp indeed.

Congratulations, becoming a parent is an amazing journey and I wish you and your wife all the best for what a rewarding and challenging journey of parenthood will be. Names while many will say go common and US based can still be a beautiful thing to also think of places or trips you and your wife did. I remember a friend who played trumpet with me in jazz band and until now have not thought of her as we drifted apart once our careers took off and we got married, but I will never forget her as her parents named her after a garden they always went to and where he proposed to his wife, the garden was a Rose Garden here in the UW botanical garden. As such Rose grew up to be a great trumpet player and eventually went to college and works in the medical field. Names can mean many things, so do not feel you have to stay mainstream if it is an important meaning to you and your wife.

It is interesting to see how names from TV shows are popular in naming babies. I wonder how AI will deal with pronunciation of strange forward looking names as you posted. ? How does one say Ae37-XD or Gzhn??????? Can you imagine the bullying they will get?

Becoming a grandparent in March 2024, it has been interesting listening to my son and daughter in-law talk about names for the coming grandson. Names are interesting and parents need to take into consideration the name but also pronunciation. My wife being Korean, English as a second language has a really hard time with R's, L's due to the lack of use in her native language. So as it has come up, some names are harder for my wife to say than others. Typing this I draw a blank on the half a dozen names they told us they are considering, but they did rule out strange names such as how some famous folks have called their kid Apple. Doing a bing search on top 2023 baby names, the Bing search engine returned the following: According to Parade, some of the most unusual baby names for 2023 include: Aero Alaska Ari Ashlynn Aspen Astrid Azure Bear Beckett Birdie Bode Brynlee Cadence Cami Case Caspian Charlize Cheyenne Cora Crew Cyrus Dagon Dahlia Damon Daphne Darra Daxton Dawson You can find more unusual baby names for boys and girls in Parade’s article 1. Another source, The Mummy Bubble, reports that some of the new arrivals to the top 100 most popular baby names include Blake, Brody, Kai, Rupert, Tobias, and Nathan 2. Mumsnet has also compiled a list of 200 unusual and unique baby names for both boys and girls 3. Finally, Fatherly has predicted that the following 20 unusual baby names could dominate 2023: Luxury Aurelia Maeve Eloise Alice Aurora Isla Luna Ophelia Iris Aria Nova Eden Freya Luna Arlo Atticus Theodore Jasper Levi You can read more about these predictions in Fatherly’s article 4.

Interesting is all the auto companies that have stated they would also go NACS but are not on the list like Genesis, Lexus, Infinity and Acura. I am thinking that since they are divisions, they went with the core company as Chevrolet, GMC, Buick and Cadillac are not listed since they are all under GM. The reason I bring this up is because consumers are not as aware of who owns what brands. Would be nice if Reuters had listed parent company and brands underneath that parent company label.

Latest news on NACS More automakers plug into Tesla's EV charging network | Reuters

Happy Birthday Drew!!!

Actually if you follow the threads in their recall, Toyota has reduced the size of the original 12V battery and now their battery cradel does not hold it in place. If you use 3rd party 12V batteries, most are still traditional size from your auto parts store, but looking at a new RAV4 the battery is much smaller than it used to which is my understanding. Leaves are just now changing here in Seattle and dropping. City does not suck them up, you have to bag them and put them out for pickup.

OUCH, this sucks for Toyota and all these RAV4's Almost 2 million recalled. Toyota Recalls Certain 2013-2018 Toyota RAV4 Models - Toyota USA Newsroom

WOW, I figure that was state set emission tests, etc. even here in Washington state, emission testing is gone, but every county or city does have their own taxes, but that just comes on the registration renewal so I find it very weird that your license plate would state what county you live in. Responding to you made me wonder and I did a search and while there is plenty of responses on various social media platforms, I did find Wikipedia to make the most sense. United States license plate designs and serial formats - Wikipedia To me, it would seem to be out of date and just laziness of politicians to not update and modernize and they are stuck in the past for those states that have stuck with 2 digit codes and county names on the plates. I do see that a few states have stopped it to streamline and reduce cost of plate manufacturing. Interesting.

Wonder why, is there a reason behind telling folks which county you are living in?

Agree there are some states that represent their area of North America very well and others that totally blow at it. I will say that the Northwest Territories is a very cool plate in the shape of a Bear.

Cool, production to still start at the end of this year. Chevy Equinox EV Production To Start This Year In Mexico (gmauthority.com)

Weird, I cannot seem to find any post where I stated it would start under $30k

Interesting https://electrek.co/2023/11/01/ev-sales-still-rising-at-22-3-in-ca-tesla-cedes-lead-back-to-toyota/ Very interesting to see: Stellantis ousts Tesla in Q3 in Europe as Jeep, Ram EVs coming to US (freep.com)

Seems BMW is talking back at Tesla about Batteries. “Tesla Needs To Close The Gap With Us," Says BMW On New Cylindrical Battery Cells (insideevs.com)

Moving on to This is Muse, Awesome music!!!

Today has been a Black sort of day, especially music wise as I have been listening to this multiple times today.

As one that has been in both and driven both when your 6'6" tall, 300lbs. You then have a right to call a CX-9 cramped when it is and your legs are pressed into the dash as a passenger cause the seats do not use the space efficiently, but then in a Bolt, I have inches in front of my knees. So yes, my experience of living with a CX-9 for 2 weeks on a family vacation does give me the right to call it cramped. You all are more average size for North America and forget to put yourself in the shoes of those that do not fit the general population. When a subcompact gives more room for a big person in the front and back over a medium sized SUV, then the subcompact is roomier. This is not me being blindly GM supporting, but actually calling out poor packaging of a mid-size SUV by Mazda compared to a much smaller auto from GM. Sadly, most Japanese autos are built around much smaller people due to the country and average size of the people.

I do not blindly back GM. I am more than willing to call them out for their BS. You and another are hung up on a generalized term of About and the $30,000 compared to the competition that stated starts at. Big differences in those two terms. Any company is in their right to use general terms and put in statements as GM did at the Equinox announcement in January 2022 CES show that it would start around $30,000 MSRP is subject to change. GM clearly knew they were playing the marketing card to get attention and till just now did not state actual starting prices. They also did not realize how popular the Chevrolet BOLT would become and demand for it. As such, adjusting for room in the growing EV family is understandable. At least GM did not pull a Tesla in price, offer and then give weak ass excuses for killing it after a couple months or like Rivian, try to increase prices after taking deposits with set pricing that changed to reflect inflation. Those upset about this, appear to be fixated on $30,000 price point and not the actual product. Yes, ICE Equionox are priced cheaper, but even the LT1 Equionox EV has more content than the base ICE version. Inflation has made all things more expensive and consumers have demanded more content which makes things also more expensive. As such, things will be more costly and we will not be living in the 90's when gas averaged $1.34 per gallon and the average price of a new auto was $16,950. Average Cost of Car & Gas Prices (idrivesafely.com)

I do not see the FWD 250 mile range Equinox ever actually being produced as it is a smaller battery pack and as @oldshurst442 pointed out they increased the size of the battery pack to standardize on one size. Chevrolet Equinox EV - 2024 This would mean that the Equinox LT1 FWD 300 mile range EV would be the base imho. Interesting as their websites have conflicting info depending on which one you are on about this EV.

WOW, GM never said under $30K, it was around $30K. Chevrolet Previews Equinox EV January 5th 2022 press release that clearly states around $30,000 and a clear message at the bottom MSRP is subject to change. You can get upset all you want and that is fine about a product that was nowhere near release yet nor any actual firm pricing. To me it is a moot point that is no big deal as they never were sold or had a committed price yet. Go ahead and beat up GM over an around statement and a clear subject to change statement, will not affect the end result.

This is one that we will have to agree to disagree on as Starting at price with reservation deposits versus around price with no reservations/deposits are two very different things. GM was very clear that they were focusing on having a price around $30K for the base Equinox but would not be able to commit till farther along in their work when they first started talking about this at the 2022 CES show in January of last year and then said they would hopefully be around $30k for a starting price but again no commitment to the price or reservations allowed so it was just a goal. But we each take the verbiage differently. Starting Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster Around Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster I get that around is as defined with some approach to exactness versus starting is a set point or price. Yes I get that you see it as a semantic and that GM should have delivered a $30K Equinox. After instant rebate it is still a $27K EV.

I agree with you that it is BS, but I disagree with you that the wording of Starting at $35K or $67,500 for R1T or $70K for R1S versus around $30K. Legally GM can get away with this as they did not state a firm starting price. Both Tesla and Rivian as we well know had to deliver to the original order holders that starting price for their EVs as they committed to the price starting there and took reservation money based on that pricing. Around is not a commitment to $30,000 dollars even though everyone got excited with that price, even me. I have a sister and her partner that were wanting to buy, but here is where another difference is. GM NEVER took any reservations at a set price and the reservations do not open till November now that firm pricing is established. GM's initial Equinox EV to start at $49,000, get over 300 miles range (freep.com) I agree that you have the right to be pissed as does @ccap41 about a difference of $5K for a base starting price versus originally talking about pricing being around $30K. Just remember that GM has not done a bait and switch that did get Rivian and Tesla into hot water as Rivian and Tesla both took $1,000 deposits for EVs with a clearly stated starting price that they then tried to change. In Rivians case they honored the original pricing but for Tesla, they actually produced a few $35K Tesla 3 for a few months and then said that there was not enough demand to justify the price and production and killed it then raising prices across the board. To me, that is a big difference and if GM can truly reduce costs by delaying launch of the Equinox till Q1 2024, then who knows, we might all still see a lower priced Equinox. As it stands, with January 1st 2024 the tax rebate being an instant rebate at the time of purchase on the dealership lot, a base price of $34,995 not including the instant $7,500 rebate makes this a sub $30,000 EV or to be clear, a base price of $27,495 for the base Chevrolet Equinox EV with 300 miles of range.