G. David Felt

Yes they did give those dated platforms to Chrysler. Yet if Daimler really cared about those nameplates, they would have shared their latest platforms with them instead to reduce the cost of them and improve all the nameplates. Daimler really did not care about anyone but themselves to get patents and other sources of money to grow the Daimler family only. Daimler FAILED at growing the complete family of products rather than just themselves. Once the abuse was past the point of any benefit for them to dump their own costs and mistakes on they then dumped the brands. So much for quality leadership. On topic of Dodge, Pentastar and the the rest of that powertrain. I will give FCA Kudo's for smoothing out that V6 powertrain as it really moves the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Durango well. My son loves his Jeep GC with the V6 powertrain.

@oldshurst442 & @A Horse With No Name coming up on 26 years of marriage and 27 years of knowing my wife. I see both your points and realize that at some point people do grow apart and that tends to happen due to a lack of communication and shared interests. If you cannot spend at least a fraction of your time together be it watching movies, gardening, hiking, working out, etc. and cannot have a decent open conversation, then there is a good chance you should have never gotten married. To many of the short term marriages I see today, that 3 out of 5 marriages end in divorce in the first 3 years here in North America tends to come from the inability to actually communicate and have some shared interests.

@smk4565 You seem to be confused between traditional turbo's using exhaust gas and having to spool up and how they have minimized turbo lag usually by the use of a twin scroll turbo and electronic turbo's that are more like a supercharger as Drew states. Not going to repost everything what is already out on the internet, but some good sources that clearly explain the differences of hp to torque and how turbo's torque is measured at the maximum psi spin can be read here: https://www.roushperformance.com/blog/2010/12/the-meaning-of-horsepower-and-torque/ Roush has an outstanding easy to understand web page on this. Not wanting to accept Roush, then read here where 75 different engineers from Executives of various engineering companies to basic engineers explain in nauseating detail about the torque / hp and turbo's affect. https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-meaning-of-torque-and-power-in-a-car-in-layman-terms Love this thread of engineers who also go into details of turbo lag and the affects on torque and hp. https://www.quora.com/Whats-the-correlation-difference-between-turbo-lag-and-how-it-affects-torque-and-horsepower-and-in-turn-the-revving-of-the-engine One of the best clear explanations: Vikrant Vaidya, B Eng. Mechanical Engineering, Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University (2001) Answered Jul 26, 2015 1. Every engine has a published torque & power vs rpm curve. This curve is generated as per global SAE procedure on an engine dyno with appropriate exhaust. But it is nonetheless a steady-state curve which is very explicit at the start of the SAE procedure. 2. What steady state means is that, at every engine speed point (Eg. 1000 rpm, 2500 rpm, 4500 rpm, etc.) on that curve, the throttle is opened (or fuelling is done) fully and the dynamometer load is varied till a steady state is achieved in terms of target engine speed. 3. A turbo-charger is a turbo-machinery which is prone to 'spooling' delays unlike positive displacement machines. In other words, it takes time for the turbine to harness the exhaust gas energy and supply it to the compressor. It takes some more time for the compressor to pump the extra air into the cylinder. This constitutes the famous turbo-lag. From #1, #2 & #3, it is quite clear that turbo-lag would not affect the rated torque and power of the engine. It will just take more time to achieve that torque. So in real-life driving, you would perceive it to be under-performing as the time v/s torque trace would not match the speed vs torque trace from the published curve unless adequate time is provided for the turbo to 'spool-up'. Torbo'd for Torque is one of the best articles about the need to IGNORE PEAK POWER and TUNE for Average Power through the RPM range for best drivability. http://www.autospeed.com/cms/article.html?&title=-Turbod-for-Torque&A=111106 QUOTE: People tend to lose sight of the fact that when you’re accelerating through the gears, the engine revs aren’t constantly at peak power or peak torque. (Maybe an exception is a very high stall torque converter on an auto trans where the revs stay more constant as speed increases.) But normally at full throttle, the revs are sweeping through a range of engine rpm. And even more to the point in a street driven car, for most of the time, the revs aren’t anywhere near peak power. In fact, if your engine has a redline of 6000 rpm (or 8000 rpm for that matter), it’s extremely likely that you’ll be at one-quarter (or less) of that engine speed most of the time. And where does that leave your top-end power figure? Irrelevant... This is also another good how it works on Turbo's: http://auto.howstuffworks.com/turbo.htm

WOW, Guy loves his studebakers, whole project cars for sale. some in decent shape. https://seattle.craigslist.org/kit/cto/6207578764.html 1973 Plymouth Roadrunner crazy seller asking $13K https://seattle.craigslist.org/see/cto/6207570758.html

Anyone looking for a 1965 Buick special project car in good shape? https://seattle.craigslist.org/kit/cto/6207612770.html @Camino LS6 1966 with big block El Camino for sale. Thought you would like this baby! https://seattle.craigslist.org/see/cto/6207588534.html

Very interesting, especially how they say the batteries are so common and accessible now. Yet Tesla was on the low end of delivering Model S and X auto's due to a shortage of 100 kWh battery packs. So guess not that accessible.

I can see this and actually feel they would eat the Bentley lunch. I would take the Range Rover over the Bentley, hopefully better looking than the Bentley.

Bummer, just spent considerable time on both Chevrolet and GMC web sites looking at both Terrain / Acadia and Equinox / Traverse and hate the color options, hate the chrome and some of the options add/delete make no sense. Perfect example is you choose the external protection package which is mud flaps, side external step and roof rails, then choose the internal protection package and they want to remove the external protection package. Makes NO SENSE. Very disappointed in GM right now for crazy chrome bling everything and packages that should not affect each other being force to remove and pick one over the other. RIght now Jeep and Dodge are hitting it far better. Wait a year or two and you can pick one up for half price with ultra low miles.

OK, just played with both the Jeep GC SRT configurator versus the Durango RT configurator. Both have the same 475HP Hemi engine. I actually get far more auto with the Durango. Durango wins this round. Course the SRT Looses out to the Trackhawk Jeep GC. be interesting to see how they price the two. Yes the Jeep GC has the Supercharged Hemi. but still gonna be interesting.

Configurator has some interesting options. Love all the color match rims you can do especially if you want a nice contrast rim color. One of the better option choices I have seen. I will say that Dodge Durango and Jeep GC are hitting it solid.

AWESOME This is what GM needs to be doing to select CUV/SUVs. For the last Hurrah, I think the General needs to throw some flash! Think of a TTV6 in the Chevrolet Equinox or GMC Terrain. 6.2L V8 in the Chevrolet Traverse or GMC Acadia. Love the expanded pics and AWD burn out on the web site. https://www.dodge.com/durango/srt.html I will say that I do miss the days when you could order a plain jane auto with the baddest motor around and just have a blast. Wonder what the price difference would be for a basic Durango with the SRT Powertrain and Brembo brake package. I bet you could drop considerable money off that $64K plus price.

3rd picture looks like the Rhino color from the Jeep GC.

@A Horse With No Name No fit from me, go ahead and trade in the Mini for a BRZ. Your money, enjoy what you like and what you want to do with it.

@ykX & @A Horse With No Name seems Tesla is in the crosshairs of multiple issues. While the Model X is on the list of 2017 Top ratings as the safest SUV now and this makes one wonder why they throw a fit over the Model S downgrade when they have done nothing to improve it of much lately. AAA just increased all Tesla Insurance rates by 30% after deep analysis of claims showing the Tesla models are far more expensive to repair and the owners have much higher claim rates due to accidents. Loved this quote: AAA is confident the data speaks for itself. "Looking at a much broader set of countrywide data, we saw the same patterns observed in our own data, and that gave us the confidence to change rates," Anthony Ptasznik, chief actuary of AAA, said. Tesla recently updated its maintenance plans to include higher rates, but also include hardware updates. Digging into the details reveals quite a bit of activity from Tesla owners and their insurance companies. The Model S is involved in 46 percent more claims than average, and the claims cost twice as much than the average. Model X owners filed claims 41 percent more often compared to the average and repairs cost 89 percent more than the average insurance claim. Green Car Report Story

G. David Felt Staff Writer Alternative Energy - www.CheersandGears.com Musk Throws Fit, Tesla Model S Goes from Good to Acceptable! Tesla claimed they had the safest auto's in the world and this was backed up by their 2013 IIHS testing of the Model S that received all good marks. Since then 4 years have passed and IIHS has upped their crash testing standards and other auto companies have stayed on top of the game to be the best around. As such the lastest 2017 IIHS test showed that the safest auto's this year were the all new Lincoln Continental, Mercedes Benz E-Class and Toyota Avalon. Earning acceptable ratings were Tesla Model S, Chevrolet Impala and Ford Taurus. As such Tesla fired off the following statement: "While IIHS and dozens of other private industry groups around the world have methods and motivations that suit their own subjective purposes, the most objective and accurate independent testing of vehicle safety is currently done by the U.S. Government which found Model S and Model X to be the two cars with the lowest probability of injury of any cars that it has ever tested, making them the safest cars in history." IIHS 2017 report IIHS 2017 Top Safety Picks Business Insider story Green Car Reports Story

Looks like it from the pictures, I do not see the crosshair grille.

True, Washington state has actually required PSE the state power supply and natural gas supplier to put in the actual 220V chargers. Course the state brags about how many chargers are being installed but we know it is only a fraction of the actual EV's being sold at this time. Course prepped for the future as the state marketing goes. LOL Washington state is incentivizing the gas stations to install rapid chargers. A few are already being done, but be interesting to see how fast they do it.

Except the west coast which is charging full speed ahead with required EV chargers in all new homes built, all apartments built and existing have to be retrofitted with them or added while building. Public chargers are everywhere now. Every major freeway / highway system has them even at rest stops. Clearly some parts of North America will be ready far faster than others.

Escalade Platinum for myself XT5 for the Wife. Wish they still had an Escalade EXT!

CEO Torsten Müller-Otvös is a complete IDIOT! He clearly has his head in the sand and will be hurting Rolls-Royce more than helping it. His comments about hybrids clearly show he does not understand the technology. This is why he will fail. So Sad, So Bad.

Plus China's push is helping this move. Potus 45 attitude of bringing back the golden age of the 50's with Petro is very dated thinking. Totally agree here. I do wonder if they are building their own 48 volt system or using Daimlers?

I totally get where you guys are coming from and that is also why I ended up with my AWD Trailblazer SS. GM needs to get performance versions of their CUV line out the door sooner rather than later. I think many are over the Mustang / Camaro type pony cars. I can see a whole new world of performance Trucks and CUV/SUVs. GMC Acadia Typhoon edition GMC Terrain Typhoon edition Chevrolet Traverse SS edition Chevrolet Equinox SS edition Ford Explorer SVT Ford Edge SVT Just some examples of what I see as the new performance focused CUV auto's. I see these as all monochromatic versions, not chrome. Focused on performance with some off road capability maybe.

So something along these lines?

I understand your point of view. Being ahead of some who are already low is not that great of a gain. But Honda appeals to certain types of peeps. Fiesta is the rare auto that also sells in a much higher trim form in Europe. The rest of Fords product line and pretty much all of GM is a failure to that market sadly. Like VW here in North America, Ford and GM have not yet figured out the market dynamics. Still on the fence in regards to VW CUVs if they will truly capture market share of just move sales from cars to cuv's.

All yours @A Horse With No Name Too ugly and small for me.