G. David Felt

22 hours ago, ccap41 said:

13hrs on the slowest charger possible:

This is my feeling about this that Auto companies are shooting themselves in the foot in regards to EV charging.

GM is a perfect example of this in that the Chevrolet line of EVs have the slowest L1/L2 charging controller and Cadillac has the fastest. The charging speeds start at a pathetic 7.2kW to 19.2kW.

Yes when it comes to GAS Autos they all fill the same into the tank. As such, if an Auto company really wants to give the best experience possible and not have charging complaints, all their Autos from the lowest level to the highest should have the fastest possible.

Mercedes is pathetic with only an 11kW onboard controller for charging their EVs at home compared to Porsche and Audi that are 19.2kW charging controllers.

Mercedes FAILs here in that this is an EQE and as such should have the highest available charging controller. 19.2kW

Interesting read, I think some over estimated the ease of an ICE to EV transition as Hertz never took the time to train and inform renters of the difference between EVs and ICE in driving and operating them.
https://fortune.com/2024/03/15/ceo-steps-down-prices-following-purchase-teslas/

If your into tech, then this will be of interest to you. Seems Microsoft is working on crazy fast SSD storage and the leak of such storage shows just how fast and big it is in an NVMe M.2 format, 1TB, 2TB and 4TB size with Read/Write speeds of 2,400 mb/s / 1,800 mb/s which is rapid fast. Think of it this way, while like the reading states, it is probably designed for Microsofts own cloud use, it is backed by Dell Technologies and this could find it's way into laptops. A laptop that could have crazy storage as the Precision Dell Laptops have three NVMe slots, which would make it a 12TB storage for a laptop using three of the 4TB NVMe units.

Newly discovered Microsoft Z1000 SSD baffles experts — no, world's most valuable company won't start selling SSDs anytime soon but it may well be tinkering with data center storage as it did with CPU | TechRadar

Cool Read

The Tesla Cybertruck Engineering Teardown Is Finally Happening (thedrive.com)

Well worth the watch, interested in what others think.

Another good watch.

Ok auto friends, running from my Madrid to Frankfurt flight to catch my Frankfurt to Seattle flight I spotted this auto on display and have no idea the brand.

Striking and good looking, was in a hurry as I had no time to stop due to passport control being so slow.

What is the brand?

10 hours ago, ccap41 said:

While Ugly as hell and you and I agree on that, I will say I do like the Rhino color that has become very popular on many an OEMs product line. Rear Lights are nice and very visible.

I like that the charging menu is very easy to understand and straight forward. Need that for my wife who is not a tech person.

Sorry to hear about the G wagon, sucks when you have to get them repaired.

28 minutes ago, trinacriabob said:

Re breakfast:

Spanish breakfast buffets are different from Italian ones ... and Portuguese ones.  (These are the only 3 countries I usually visit to begin with.)  At the Spanish ones, they have those great potato pies, with other ingredients.  Their locals hams are excellent. 

So, there are things I like better on an Italian breakfast buffet and things I like better on a Spanish breakfast buffet.  One interesting thing is that a Portuguese one features mushrooms more than the others ... almost always.  And I'm very okay with that.

Re other meals:

That's a nice looking (club) sandwich.

One thing I forgot to mention is in the picture with the Pizza, you see a bag. They bring you fresh out of the oven hot bread. so yummy, it was great to eat by itself and I am sure if I asked they would have brought me butter to go on the hot bread.

Saw these two interesting versions of Jeep and Honda.

Jeep Avenger

Honda 2 door civic type S

19 hours ago, trinacriabob said:

Is it pi or pii or both ... I believe I've seen formulii and formulas at one point.

You can't argue with a hotel's breakfast buffet in Spain.  Did you have a good flight over there (on an interesting plane)?

I am amazed at how international nonstops to/from Seattle/Europe have increased.  It used to be just British and Scandinavian (I took the latter once). 

British still does it, Scandinavian no longer does it, and Air France came and went.  Now, add Finnair, Lufthansa, Icelandair, and Turkish.  

- - - - -

Food ...

Phenomenal breakfast buffet in Palermo last month ... that red slice of cake was strawberry flavored (it rotated and not every day) and off the charts, as was the pineapple juice and Sicilian blood red orange juice

Here's a recent economy lunch packaged deal at a restaurant in a town in Central Italy.

Breakfast and dinner at the hotel here has been great.

Breakfast bread spread.

You have such a wide assortment of foods to eat and drink.

Dinners I have been eating my way through the menu.

Pii day was started with crunchy pork belly on spicy mashed potatoes, then a spanish ham pizza and a hot chocolate pie with vanilla bean icecream. 

Here is some of the other foods I had too.

The two pictures above is their cheescake with vanillabean icecream.

Had gyoza and pestrami sandwich for one meal.

This was cheesecake with Belgium Icecream which was creamy amazing.

24 month aged steak.

Their half pound hamburger.

All food at the AC hotel by Marriott is amazing.

I had Spanish Pie for breakfast.

Would love to see GM shock everyone with a Hybrid or EV version of this sedan that is very modernized with the current technology and style.

Madrid Spain has been an interesting view of autos.

Working here in Madrid Spain this week. A couple of interesting observations. @Drew Dowdell reminded me that SEAT was the official car of Spain and yet until today, I had not really seen any in the financial / tech sector that I am in on the east side of Madrid. 

Observations is that they have allot of Diesel autos here and pretty much all Stick. Very few automatics. Tons of mopeds and allot of EVs. Will snap a picture on my way back to the hotel today as this one company, not sure what they do, but they had a ton of Pugeot EVs all plugged in and a few Tesla's in their lot. Everything here seems to have high fences as while it seems safe, everything is secured and locked down.

There is a school I pass in walking to the office from the hotel and this is where I saw the Seat parked in front of a Jeep Compass.

It is an interesting observations that besides the normal German luxury auto's, I then see a ton of Kia/Hyundai and then Pugeot and finally Citeron in this area. Seat seems to be very few here.

@Robert Hall  2019 CT6 AWD What trim level is this car?

11 hours ago, Robert Hall said:

Yep....treated myself to a new (to me) car today.   Had been looking, did a few test drives of CT5s and CT6s, found this minty 2019 CT6 AWD w/ 44k miles at the Cadillac dealer in downtown CLE.    Took a test drive, fell in love.   Going to take it on my road trip to the Outer Banks and Myrtle Beach next month.    Hadn't really intended on getting another black car...but couldn't find one in red in the state.   

 

Congratulations Robert, that is a nice-looking car!

On 3/8/2024 at 7:18 PM, riviera74 said:

How much is that Escalade iQ SWB again?  Cadillac needs to be careful NOT to overprice this brand new vehicle.

I would not be surprised to see it start at $150,000. Expect the V edition to be a $200,000 model imho.

1 hour ago, riviera74 said:

I find it interesting that the name Challenger has been mothballed.  Sure, if you look at history, the Charger was only a 2-door between 1965 and 1974.  The fact that Dodge made the Charger a sedan shortly after the debut of the 300 was probably meant to boost sales, while the Challenger took on the old Charger coupe role of the muscle car era.  Maybe Dodge can pull it off; only time will tell. 

As for an EV Charger, color me a little skeptical from a sales standpoint.  Since when would an EV buyer cross-shop a Charger with a Tesla or a Lucid or a Rivian?

I do not believe it is about cross shopping. The science shows we are running out of OIL. Folks can deny it all they want, but Saudia Arabia the worlds largest stock pile of OIL for Decades is now reducing production as their wells run low. Climate Change is also changing peoples attitude about what they drive and the Boomers can try all they want to stop and stay stagnant, but Humanity has always moved forward and the future is EV. 

Those that want ICE will have ICE options and those that want EVs will find more and more options and lower prices.

People are hating the maintenance of ICE and as lower cost EVs come on the market they will buy. 

GM was Stupid to end BOLT before they had true replacements ready as the BOLT sales just like the VOLT sales shows there was a market and customers buying.

We will change over and Stellantis is behind the 8 ball and as such this is to grab attention while they still sell their fuel thirsty cars/SUVs and trucks.

10 hours ago, surreal1272 said:

Those and the Hyundai Ioniq5 all share a resemblance.

Ioniq 5 was based on their original Pony car. A awesome modern take of the 1970's Pony. I am excited for the 2025 model year with all the enhancements they are offering including a larger battery pack.

1 hour ago, Drew Dowdell said:

This is what I see

Yup, I can see that too.

🤔 Is it me or does this thing look like the Hyundai Pony?

29 minutes ago, smk4565 said:

Potential home run if they really do charge $45,000 for it and it gets the $7500 tax credit.  Then we are talking $37,500 starting price, that will undercut a well equipped Ford Escape or Toyota Rav4.   But not available until 2026?  2 years away so I wont' be surprised if the price is $50k by the time it comes out because all these companies oversell the base MSRP then the price skyrockets.

Your acting as if Rivian is Tesla. Yes they over promised, under delivered in their initial EV, but I think they have this pretty well sorted out. Will be interesting to see what the price is in 2026, could be less as battery prices drop.

Sadly Rivian is a NO GO for me as any auto I purchase has to support Android Auto and Apple Carplay.

45 minutes ago, surreal1272 said:

That depends on where you are. There are nothing but Charger cops here, whether it's local cops, country sheriffs, or state troopers. There are SUVs, sure, but far more Chargers used than those.  

It is an interesting observation that as you push out into the rural and mountain area you find only SUV. Yet in the major cities Chargers all over here in Washington and especially a move to Tesla's as the EV of choice for traffic patrol for Suburban and inner city.

Some interesting reading:

Even as EV sales slow, lower battery prices are expected to boost demand (goldmansachs.com)

Electric school buses outperform diesel in extreme cold (electrek.co)

4 minutes ago, smk4565 said:

That could be true, they might give up on the Charger Police car and just let Ford have that market.

I can see a few of the EV as pursuit cars for police.

I can also see them used for Traffic duty only as I see plenty of Tesla 3 as Traffic patrol cars.

This is so cool, EV is way better looking than the ICE version as I do not like the extra big hump in the hood but over all outstanding by Dodge.

Wonder what Pricing will be? 🤔

Awesome van for the city and suburban needs by companies.