G. David Felt

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 United States license plate designs and serial formats - Wikipedia To me, it would seem to be out of date and just laziness of politicians to not update and modernize and they are stuck in the past for those states that have stuck with 2 digit codes and county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.

Nope the General does not get a pass on this, they never committed to a firm $30K price, they stated around $30K was what they were aiming for and did not do what Tesla and Rivian did with setting a firm price and then raising the price after the fact that they could not deliver on that price. I agree with you that some folks will give certain brands a pass no matter what they pull, but I have to humbly disagree with you my friend that I have done this with GM. They have screwed up plenty of times and right now they very well might have lost out on any business from me with delays to their EV portfolio. The next few years will tell is the delays are warranted or not and if the idiots who think we should stay stagnant on ICE auto versus EVs win this or not. Interesting times we live in for sure.

Yes depending on the configuration of the R1T launch edition. According to the web this is what was stated at that time: The base model of the R1T pickup increased from $67,500 to just under $79,000, while the R1S base model had a similar jump, from $70,000 to $84,000. The new prices are effective for new customers, but early reservation holders will avoid the price hike. So the price jump was even more for those that had the truck or SUV configured up with the max battery pack and fully loaded options. Crazy

There are also still lots of options for parts online too. Amazon.com : 2003 buick park avenue parts 2003 Buick Park Avenue Aftermarket Parts & Accessories | CarParts.com

Yes, I would agree that it is time to take advantage of Black Friday and get some decent 4k resolution real estate. I have had some weird power issues with my own personal dual 30" 3K screens and am wondering if I should go with a large single screen or two modern screens where I have one in portrait mode. Liking the following: Dell UltraSharp 43 4K Monitor (U4323QE) - Computer Monitors | Dell USA Or maybe stay with dual monitors like I have maybe go with this: Dell UltraSharp30 Inch USB-C Hub Monitor (U3023E) : Computer Monitors | Dell USA But then the cost of dual monitors is pretty much the same as a single 43 4K monitor. The more I think on this now, I will go with a 43" 4K monitor when I have to replace my dual 30" monitors.

Agree that in today's inflation driven world, computers especially with AI CPUs should allow them to be far more accurate on pricing and since they could in 24 months totally design and virtual test a all new auto, they should have been able to have far better estimates. This is also where I feel companies need to post the additional information that prices are subject to market driven forces and could increase or decrease based on market fluctuations. I think this gives proper wiggle room to remind the world that what happens on wall street and stock exchanges around the world can grossly change things overnight or over a few months or a year. With that said I do love a state law we have here where if a retailer has a price posted on the shelve for a product and it rings up as more, they have to honor the price that is on the shelf, not in the POS (Point of Sale) system. I am all for having the federal government hold companies to honoring prices they advertise or state. Course in this case GM used the marketing gains of being talked about as a $30K EV by using the word AROUND $30K. Unlike Rivian where they stated a firm starting price of $XX,XXX. At least they did come back to honor those that had reservations at those lower prices. Big differences as Tesla said starting at $35K versus GM around $30K. Tesla honored for a short period the $30K EV price to keep from having more lawsuits than they have had.

Tesla Customers put money down and ended up with far more than a 5K price increase. The actual price when the 3 came out is what caused allot of my coworkers to cancel their reservation. I agree it sucks and one would think they could get more accurate pricing than this, but it was announced almost 2 years ago. This is not something that was earlier this year. Quote: The Chevrolet Equinox EV was announced for sale on September 8, 2022. The limited edition 2RS will be available in fall 2023, while the full lineup will be available starting spring 2024. The estimated MSRP for the Equinox EV is around $30,000.