G. David Felt

Being that I buy many auto's for my extended family, one thing I have always felt strongly about is setting the ground rules with the sales person. When I go on a lot, greeted by the sales person, I stop and set the rules of how, what and why I am there. If just window shopping, I let them know to not waste their time. If shopping seriously, I usually have a set idea of what I want to look at and specifics I am interested in such as their best interest rates they have compared to my own bank or the bank that my family member is able to use. I always am very clear on what I am looking at and want to see and that I am not there to look at other options as they will be working with me as the representative for said family member. I will be honest that in how I approach auto buying has shocked and thrown off the sales person. I have had more than one walk away crying as I did not play their game for monthly auto payment, sales process that they were trained on. Experienced quality sales people know to roll with the flow and can get a sale when I am there to do a serious look and possible buy. I always sit down and in a sense qualify my own family member on what they are looking for, wanting and minimum to maximum dollar range. Making them write up a list of what they want helps to narrow down the auto they should look at. Not gonna waste my time, theirs or the sales person. So far seems to make a solid auto buying experience. Hope this helps on how I do it for the future.

Pepper

I wonder if the programming in the Truck is slow and delayed compared to the Camaro for shift points and throttle response. I have seen this in two totally different GM auto's with the same engine and it really does suck when GM does this as I felt it gave a great experience in one auto and a sucky one in the other and unless you had driven the better programmed one, you would leave with a bad taste about the motor. Sad that GM does that as where I noticed it was in a comparison of Cadillac to Chevrolet auto with the same engine/transmission. Sucks that they do that.

Jumanji!!!

So sad when train operators do not pay attention to the right rail they are supposed to take, as such you end up with millions of dollars of damage and some people new auto's destroyed. Seems Ford will have some auto's to deal with as a Ford Explorer and Lincoln Navigator appear to be totaled. All the crushed auto's appear towards the end of the video, but clearly another bridge hit one of the train cars which must have been taller than the others since damage already appeared before hitting this low bridge. Shocked that in this modern time, we still have so many old train bridges that do not work with newer train cars.

nurse

CDC

Interesting, @Robert Hall take a look and let me know if you agree with what they say about Jeeps. https://blog.cheapism.com/jeep-pros-and-cons/

Looking at the front end of this car has reminded me of one thing that I have come to dislike about all of them, the lowered airdam plastic thing that scraps or gets ripped off by the cement wheel stops in parking lots. @ocnblu made his truck look a 1000 times better when he took off that over bearing piece of plastic. I noticed regardless of who the OEM is, they have all given a big buck tooth look on the black plastic look in the front to push air around the auto rather than underneath it. I get that it helps with fuel economy, but man does it suck in the looks department.

Boomers

OMG, what they hell is up with taking Miata headlights and putting them on this butt ugly auto. Hell that is a pathetic attempt at an update.

@trinacriabob Is that an 8 Track deck I spy on that Buick?

Dawn

Financial in my mind of thinking is when someone finances said purchase for X amount of years. As one who does not like payments, I save and purchase outright. So yes, money for a purchase with no payments. Saving to buy what I want rather than just an appliance.

No Oppressive Regulations, auto companies have been able to step up to making cleaner running auto's. Over styling seems to be the new norm. We will probably see more style return as we go to EV's where they do not pollute into the air. Future is bright for auto's both ICE and EV and companies will find a way to give the public what they desire while stepping up to clean regulation to ensure we are not breathing toxic emission.

Your right, the accord is crashing based on the sales numbers database. Still strong but clearly down big time. Through August, Accord has sold 125,142 cars to date. With only 4 months left and 10's of thousands expected to be laid off by just the airlines industry alone as the loans ends for keeping them on the payroll, I suspect the last 4 months ARE NOT going to make up the 142,425 that will be needed in sales to equal 2019 sales. I suspect they might get close to 200,000 but would not be surprised based on the average numbers right now if they end up in the 190,000 plus range. Seems that the Accord peaked in 1990 with 417,000 plus Accords sold and then has gone down since. Clearly they still have figured out how to make money unlike the US brands. Full details at the link below. https://carsalesbase.com/us-honda-accord/

Washing

As an auto enthusiast, I would say it is not about the financial. For me, I saved for 5yrs and then bought my Escalade ESV Platinum. I CHOOSE to not have auto payments and as such have no problem buying a new auto that I know I will have for 10 plus years. I think when it comes to auto enthusiasts, it really is about what they want long term. Is it a new $100,000 auto or is it a classic in mint condition or a classic that needs a complete restore project? I know that I fall into two camps, auto project and new. That is just my preference. So for me, I agree with the financial sites that one should not spend more than 10% of their yearly income on an auto payment, but the exception is when it comes to being an Enthusiast and where you find yourself. Classic Classic restore project Classic rat project CPO Luxury CPO Performance New Luxury New Performance There really is many different areas of where one falls into for Vehicle and the money it will cost as an Auto Enthusiast. I do not think this is a Money vs Vehicle question. IMHO

greasy

Looking at this car again, outside still Meh in my book, interior is nice for the class of car it competes in. For those that want a car, this should serve them well. I do wonder where the auto market will be by 2025 and 2030. I wonder how many actual cars will still be around compared to trucks, SUV, CUV and some sort of car hybrid, mix of car with CUV. Interesting times we live in for sure.

I understand your concern, I felt that way when I saved up and bought my first $100K auto, my Escalade ESV Platinum. Yet cost of maintaining it, repairs, etc. have been low and over all the pleasure on road trips have been great that I would not want anything other than the Escalade ESV for a road trip auto. Quality products bought for the long haul last in my opinion as long as you follow the maintenance schedule. I see no reason to not keep doing what I am doing. 2006 Escalade ESV Platinum with 140,000 plus miles and here it is 2020. Worth the money.

I liked the video showing the motors that would be used for the SUV/CUV 4x4 class type of auto. Some serious power coming here. Torque will make off-roading a fun world for more people I think. I wonder how soon they would add Crabwalk mode to other EV CUV's down the line.

GM's new EV power train lineup has been released.

GM announced today their new family of EV motors, The Ultium Drive family. The Ultium Drive family is made up of five interchangeable drive units and three motors. This will help transition the current portfolio of auto's to fully electric lineup. Performance, scale, speed to market and manufacturing efficiencies will provide GM significant advantages over past EV auto's. GM is leading the way with industry class leading drive units that use an electric motor and single-speed transmissions to apply power best in class horsepower and torque. Ultium Drives will be more responsive than internal combustion motors with precision torque control of the motors and smooth performance. The design and development of the Ultium Drive modular architecture allows us to offer industry-leading torque with power density across a wide spectrum of different vehicles types. GM has applied their 25 years of EV experience in creating the Ultium Drive family with lighter and more efficient designs. The Ultium Drive family integrates the power electronics into the drive units assemblies allowing for a 50% reduction in electronics over previous auto's thus saving cost and packaging space while increasing capability by 25 percent. To Quote GM press release: “As with other propulsion systems that are complex, capital intensive and contain a great deal of intellectual property, we’re always better off making them ourselves,” said Adam Kwiatkowski, GM executive chief engineer, Global Electrical Propulsion. “GM’s full lineup of EVs should benefit from the simultaneous engineering of Ultium Drive. Our commitment to increased vertical integration is expected to bring additional cost efficiency to the performance equation.” Ultium-Drive-to-Help-Power-GMs-All-Electric-Future.mp4 https://media.gm.com/media/us/en/gm/home.detail.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2020/sep/0916-ultium-drive.html

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