G. David Felt

Marmaduke

Earlier this week our local County Fire Fighters News Letter arrived and on the cover was a picture of all the various Fire Command Personnel and their new Toyota Rav4 Hybrid AWD CUVs. The county stated that they had been looking for replacement auto's that would meet the go anywhere in any weather SUV/CUV to replace the aging Tahoe fleet. GM lost out big time on this 59 vehicle order and today in running out for the weekly Grocery run, I saw one of the new Fire Command Rav4 hybrids at an intersection. Sharp looking CUV, bummer Toyota won the sales over GM. GM has always responded to slowly to what the needs have been. Been stated in this forum before by others, the Chevrolet VOLT system should have been moved with Gen 2 into a CUV as well at the time and I am now positive due to the crazy Sales and waiting List for Rav4 Hybrids that GM could have sold everyone they built.

CUE is currently on version 22.10 and can be done over the air if you have the WiFi setup or the dealer can install the latest version and it works great compared to the buggy early issues. Current CUE with Alexa is very cool to use and very simple. IMHO, It really depends on which model of which german auto company you have and how much cutting edge tech you have. MB as well as BMW have a long record of buggy new tech worst than the Americans. Japanese and Korean seem to be far more reliable, but that can also be due to using much less tech. The EV world is gonna be interesting to see.

HellBoy

So lets put this in perspective as our recently more than quiet MB fan used to talk about the quality of MB years ago and how it was worth $1,500. Back in 2006 when New the MB headlight assembly based on my memory was $1,500 and the Escalade then was $500. Now I look and see that the Escalade headlight assembly for my 2006 is $164 dollars give or take a dollar based on which GM parts web site you look at. So the Escalade headlight assembly has dropped by more than 50% over 14 years. So the MB headlight assembly is still about half price and 3 times more expensive than the Escalade assembly to replace. Yes you and @Robert Hall are correct that the bulbs are what you replace more often and my HID bulbs for the Escalade as I did just last year replace both to get full brightness back were $90.00 each. Looking at the GL450 I see they had Xenon lights not HID and as such those bulbs are $86 each.

Easy, considering how we all have complained at one time or another about the lack of Cadillac Luxury, it is nice and to be pointed out that they themselves is talking about it which has not happened in the past and so is looking to return to a true luxury competitor. Mercedes Benz has and always still seems to be buggy in electronics and expensive to repair. Example is that my Escalade head light to replace is $500 but Mercedes SUV is $1,500. That is a big difference for an SUV that is half the size and to me questionable quality over my Escalade that has been rock solid for the last 14 years. Two different posts, two different things to talk about, I did not pull them together and do not see it as a Bias, just pointing out what I see. Pretty much everyone here has talked about how BMW and MB are lease appliances due to cost of repairs after going off warranty.

Thanks for that info, what I found was what I posted on, did not see any articles about New Jersey going with an implementation goal of emissions reduction as my searches showed it joined California in that ban mandate. Did finally find this news story that correlates with you about the 80% reduction and that they are looking to still ban new ice auto sales by 2035. Will be interesting to see what happens. Will New Jersey be next to place a ban on gas vehicles? | EVANNEX Aftermarket Tesla Accessories

According to the Electrek web site, the Cadillac Lyriq will start at less than $60,000 as a luxury SUV to compete against Tesla. Cadillac unveils Lyriq electric crossover’s infotainment system as new EVs aim to compete with Tesla UX (electrek.co) I have to wonder if they mean $59,995 which is pretty common for GM to use to say they are underneath a certain price point. Reality, I expect this to be in the high $60,000's to a more common mid $70,000 range.

Cadillac EV News Cadillac released today the first actual info and images of the new LYRIQ interior dash and WOW very Luxurious! 33 inch display, Next generation HUD. People will get even more details and a look at the actual interior dash display at this January 2021 CES Show which last I checked is a virtual online show. Delivering-Electric-Luxury.mp4 Cadillac Looks Outside Automotive Industry to Deliver Next-Generation User Experience To quote the Cadillac Press Release at the link above: Visit GMExhibitZero.com starting Jan. 12 to learn more about Cadillac’s next generation displays. Cadillac-Looks-Outside-Automotive-Industry-to-Deliver-Next-Generation-User-Experience.mp4

Another state joins the ICE ban mandate. Massachusetts has stated new ICE auto's will not be allowed for sale starting in 2035. This will help the state meet their 2050 Decarbonization Road Map. Massachusetts is the 3rd state following New Jersey who also set 2035 as the last year for new ICE auto sales in the state which is also following California with their 2035 ban of all ICE related new auto's. Mass. to require all new cars sold to be electric by 2035 as part of climate-change measures - The Boston Globe Massachusetts to Ban Sale of New Gas-Powered Cars by 2035 (caranddriver.com)

Latest EV News Mercedes-Benz EQS Luxury EV car will have a full-dash Hyperscreen Interface. Considering that there are NO BUTTONS, touch screen dash, one has to wonder how expensive this will cost to repair / replace when a pixel goes out, area stops responding, etc. Cool Tech, but WOW, big single plane of glass for an interface is crazy IMHO. Mercedes-Benz EQS electric luxury car will debut full-dash Hyperscreen interface (greencarreports.com)

Excellent capture of the crazy moment in time and history now. Thanks for posting.

DeadPool

Yes in the Matrix they are! Love this story and all the pictures about the Luxury years of Flying in a Boeing 377 Stratocruiser! Who knew that it only held 100 people, had beds and had a social lounge along with made to order French food. Cool read for those that would love to live and fly in the 50's. Boeing Stratocruisers were retired in 1961 as they made way for the faster and more capacity of people and freight Boeing 707 and 737. Boeing 377 Stratocruiser: Pan Am's luxury era of overhead beds and caviar | CNN Travel

This was interesting, pretty cool, wonder if anyone will actually use a limo like this. Sadly they kept all the cheap plastic inside. Yes, Someone Really Made a Dodge Challenger Limousine With Quad Gullwing Doors (thedrive.com)

CentOS

Interesting story on the NHTSA write ups on Tesla and their poor fit n finish. The pictures are amazing as while Tesla has been known for their power trains and battery tech, their suspension along with everything else is very poor quality based on the images and complaints. These Repair Bulletins for Tesla's Quality Problems Are Downright Embarrassing—and Serious (thedrive.com)

Fake News! What Fake news source did you pull this from? Where is the hard GM link on this? I have posted before the GM released news from their site saying the BOLT EUV was to be on the new BEV3 platform and then BOLT would be updated to it also.

Peppercorn Pasta, Yummy ? Three-Pepper Cacio e Pepe Recipe - Liz Mervosh | Food & Wine (foodandwine.com)

Thanks @William Maley Great to hear from you, what you been doing and that you are doing your best like the rest of us to survive this crazy pandemic. Wishing you and your family all the best.

Now that I have gone to work from home full time, I honestly cannot see giving up my 2hrs a day to go into an office when everything I do can be done remotely. Like you, I do like sleeping in till 5am rather than 4am when I would get up and get going to catch the bus into Seattle for my early concalls with Cork Ireland. I honestly see no value to having people go into an office versus Zoom and working at home. Cheaper for the companies and better work / Life balance for Employees. I think many companies will see the value in not having to provide commercial office space. Higher profits, lower costs for the company.

Down Voted as you went political here.

Wrong, GM has stated that the upcoming BOLT EUV will be on their new Ultium platform as the refresh of the BOLT will also move to that platform. Current 2020/2021 BOLTs are on the current platform. The EUV is NOT in production yet. GM clearly stated it will be on the new Ultium platform. Originally this new platform was to start being used on the BOLT/BOLT EUV in 2020 as a 2021 model but was delayed due to the pandemic. Current BOLTs on the lots are on the old platform. With that we also have the first look of the all new Headlights that will be on the 2022 BOLT EUV. GM Reveals New Ultium Batteries and a Flexible Global Platform to Rapidly Grow its EV Portfolio 2022-Bolt-EUV-Signature-Lighting-First-Look.mp4 Chevrolet Shares First Look at 2022 Chevrolet Bolt EUV Signature Lighting (gm.com)

You Nailed it my friend. I think what Robert is thinking of as I am also is Chevrolet and Ford that have both said they need EVs for the masses and GM at least has stated that the new EV platform that the BOLT, BOLT EUV will come on will help deliver the lower price points. Rumors have it that the BOLT EUV will take over current BOLT pricing and the update BOLT will drop in price, but again that is a Rumor and one we will have to wait on. I totally agree with you that we need EVs starting from $19,995 and on up for the masses.

VW EV News Due to sell out demand of the VW ID.4 1st Edition SUV for the US market, management has decided to add another batch of this auto for sale. This is VW first Global EV built on their all new MEB platform. ID.4 Electric SUV will start at $39,995 which will be available starting at the end of 2021 while the 1st edition ID.4 is now shipping to dealers for delivery to the early buyers who had reservations. 1st Edition started at $43,995. VW also has the ID.5 to 7 comping over the next 18 months. VW makes new batch of ID.4 1st Edition electric SUVs for the US - Electrek VW roadmap: Expect an electric Kombi in 2022, followed by electric mini cars (thedriven.io) As they say, Common Sense is NOT SO COMMON as I see in your own posts.