oldshurst442

Depending on the car, but Im one of these guys that likes sporty exterior enhancememts...especially on my FWD dreams..(I miss them dearly actually) Therefore, for me, a little exterior sporty enhancememt is welcomed. I see nothing wrong with it. And If the boyracer looks also comes with the goods, even better!!! (mind you, the Turbo GP was not too shabby in the performance department back in the day...not an AMG Hammer, but respectable..) AMG Hammer also got the boyracer styling too. Brings a smile to my face! 😁 Back to the XT5 Its just a subtle appearance package that is tastefully done. What seems to be the problem? Maybe wanting a V Series version? OK...fair enough. But how would you like that appearance though? Boyracer like the ATS-V and CTS-V or understated? Because Id understand a lot more if the complaining was for the boyracer looks of Cadillacs V Series cars...

I have been shoveling snow, like, since forever. Even before my parents bought our house when I was 14. Even if I lived in the city. https://www.google.com/maps/place/3873+St+Catherine+St+E,+Montreal,+QC+H1W+2G5/@45.5461798,-73.5368287,3a,75y,311.75h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s-3cHX9lG5YvTumF8U-KlAQ!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D-3cHX9lG5YvTumF8U-KlAQ%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dsearch.TACTILE.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D86%26h%3D86%26yaw%3D311.75183%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656!4m5!3m4!1s0x4cc91b865c19c47f:0x27e83dbc873130a!8m2!3d45.5462721!4d-73.5369815 We lived in that house on top of the restaurant (different restaurant back in the day. My room was to the right of that For Sale sign). I used to shovel that big balcony to the side of that building. That was our balcony. (it was the whole length back in the day, like the whole length) and I even shoveled the street. Why? For my dad to park his car when the city did not clean the streets. Or to shovel so he could get out. You know...front heavy RWD cars back in the day... He usually parked where the other Vincent Restaurant at either lamp post. Back in the day, Vincent Restaurant did not have a parking at the side. And those lamp posts were not there. Two huge maple trees were there. Maybe the second lamp post was a lamp post. I do not remember. But the first lamp post was definetly a maple tree 30 years ago!!! Then we bought a house so the driveway cleaning duties were passed on to my adolescent ass...all the way until I left the house when I got married. When I was like 30 years old... I got a snow guy that I only pay $200 per season and he has a tractor and clears my driveway...Its only 200 dollars and days like today and tomorrow, well worth it! Even if this is the only snowfall all winter long, the 200 dollars paid itself. I do shovel sometimes though when he is "late" and I need to get out of the house. I have this contract JUST for snowstorms because whether the snow is light and fluffy, icey or wet heavy, or powdery and blistery, its only 200 dollars. And Montreal gets all the types of snowfalls there is. Depending what point in the season we are in.

Depending on how the storm hits, I guess. For the school closures, you guys had very high winds too...That plays a factor Im assuming. As of now, we are just getting the snow fall. Its light. Winds are normal. But it will intensify by 6:00 PM (Eastern time for you westerners)

You're f@#k& fluffy! You sissy! Wet snow is a bitch to shovel! Icey snow too. Light and fluffy can be fun. Heavy snow is best for snowball fights. Anyway...you are right, shoveling that white mess is no fun at all. Its started to snow here. On our way to 40 cm. yay!

If I was a millionaire/billionaire playboy, Id make an incredibly high offer for it and buy it. Then...Id drive it. Of course I wouldnt be driving it in Montreal. Cold weather, ice, snow, salt, potholes... Id be putting the miles on it it someplace dry and warm. Like maybe Arizona or Nevada or California. But yeah...Id definitely would pile on those miles. Cars are meant to be driven, and Id be driving it. A reader's comment: (which I do not agree with) yes. All cars are meant to be driven. Its a shame if one is able bodied to do so and NOT enjoy the true nature of a beast like this. I got a diecast scale 1/18 of a GNX. I see the beauty of it everyday in my display case. (along with the other 73 cars I have). But to truly enjoy this thing, I HAVE to drive it, to really truly experience it to enjoy it. I mean, those Buick and McLaren engineers built this thing for one specific reason, and that reason was to drive the shyte out of it...not to look at it in a museum. But to rip the rear tires to shreds to embarrass Corvettes and Mustangs and anything else that dared to get in its way...

Wow! You get paid to use cruise control. This is awesome. Your salary is calculated by the mile traveled with cruise control or by the minute that it is used? I wish I had extra income to come in as easy as that. Thanx! But still...no reason for this accident to happen regardless if the driver is an idiot or auto-pilot faltered.

Is there any ice or snow on the ground? Because that too will "confuse" any autopilot system. (Not just Tesla's system) The NTSB should rethink on how it views autonomous driving technology as a whole going forward. Tesla or otherwise. And Tesla, with yet another accident, even if driver error, should rethink its policies and strategies (for human life) concerning this shyte! It does not matter if the consumer does not understand the tech, or even if we humans abuse the tech, or because the tech is still at its infancy. Its clear that the tech is flawed. The way we use it, the way it is to be used and consumed, the way its currently set-up...it aint working... Its up to the corporate world to make a moral decision on it NOT based on money and how to entice people to buy their vehicles and its up to the NTSB, as a government agency, to protect the citizens that they are supposed to protect as a good and honest government agency should do...

Consumers might as well do the bird box challenge...

But that is the thing. The Model 3 aint "low" build quality. We manage to over exaggerate that a little, non? All 3 Tesla vehicles get very very high crash ratings... I dont really care for the nuances of the Model S being downgraded by Consumers Reports because of... Despite all the political clout (not governmental but corporate politics surrounding Big Oil and GM and Ford and EV manufactures and batteries and the like) and all the monetary reasons behind all that clout regardless on what fence you are on, the REAL, TRUE facts is that Tesla cars are built to WORLD standards. And Tesla cars seem to be better than satisfactory in build quality in ANY WORLD standard... And Tesla cars seem to have high crash ratings in ANY world wide crash tests... So... No...I will NOT accept opinions that counter to what I just said... What I just said is not only my opinion, but its closer to reality of what is what.

I aint throwing rocks your way. I respect you and understand your wants and needs out of a vehicle. And yes! All Tesla interiors, for their price, have sub par interior quality. Hell, A Ford Fusion, a car about the same size as the Model 3, has a better quality interior at a much much much cheaper price for that matter! But in this case, in any Tesla vehicle case, the money is not on the quality of the interior, but on the technology that the Model 3 utilizes. Either in the battery tech and power train or the electronics. Those electronics are superbly assembled, excellently and tightly packaged at placed perfectly in the right areas of the vehicle and manufactured with less defects than any other OEM as of now. For a compact sport sedan, it even manages to be, at worst an equal sport sedan driver to an E30 BMW and at best, it betters it... Meaning, the Model 3 out-BMWs the current crop of BMW sport sedans... But like I said, I aint throwing rocks your way. I understand you. Im just defending the Model 3 against another certain individual that may or may not discuss the real honest to goodness truth about the Model 3. PS: On the interiors of Tesla vehicles. This reminds me of a Corvette discussion when people hatin' on Vettes ALWAYS go to the default, go to, flaw for the Vette. The interior. As with the Vette and with Tesla cars, one does not buy for the Italian leather. One buys the Vette and Tesla for the technology and the powertrain they get with either purchase.

That is a light snowfall. The snowbelt, Minnesota, Buffalo, Chicago, Montreal...I guess Denver too...that is peanuts. Although shoveling sucks, its child's play! Montreal is expected to get 30-40 (12-15 inches) centimeters tomorrow. Its gonnna start this afternoon and end sometime tomorrow night. It already hit Toronto and its coming towards the East. Schools are planning to close for tomorrow.

I too could respect that. And I could see why some people in some areas of the world could see it as a novelty car, but seeing as my next door neighbor having one and he being one of those folk that daily drives it for about 40 miles (about 60-65 kilometers)to get to work and he enjoys it, lives with it, does not have ANY issues with it, despite "cold weather" range loss and yuuuuge body gaps and #facts of faulty electronics despite real industry insiders saying that Tesla electronics are the best there is NOW on the market, despite driving a 1st generation Chevrolet Volt and NEVER having the engine turn on to power up the battery despite that 40 mile drive, and having his employer use the company's charging stations, (then was free, now maybe he has to pay a fee, but now he has a 310 mile range Model 3...) there are some in this world that do not see the Model 3 as a novelty car, but as a honest to goodness alternative to Ford, GM, Toyota, Honda, BMW, etc and are quite happy and ecstatic to own it and daily drive it. And despite this "new found scandal" and problem of range loss, when 1st generation Priuses and Volts and Nissan Leafs were roaming around with ONLY with a handful of range, somehow this range loss due to cold weather was NOT a factor but now that Bolts and Model Ss, and Model Ys and Model 3s all have 200-400 mile ranges, NOW it has become a problem. I guess, because having only a handful of electric miles was not a threat to ICE vehicles...for real. But NOW that EVs have REAL mileage, REAL THREATENING mileage, I guess NOW is the time to try to get a scare campaign out to try to limit the popularity of them... Novelty to some. Yes. I agree 100% But to others, like people in Montreal, the Model 3, as a PERSONAL vehicle, not as an UBER taxi service vehicle, but as a personal transportation pod, it aint a novelty. Its THE real deal. And, as enthusiasts on this board, the ONLY thing it lacks, is maybe a muscle car V8 or Ferrari V12 sound? (yet some of us who complain about the sound and lack of sound fury, drive pathetic 4cylinder CUVs? Or like me, pathetic muffled 300 horse V6s...when the Model 3 not only out accelerates me with ease, but also dances around a rink faster than I could ever do with the TL...because the Model 3 is THAT good in handling on rails track performance) We could invent other things about it to dislike, but that wouldnt be genuine now, is it?

Me: BLU: DFELT: President Trump: A Horse With No Name: Me: Me again:

I saw that episode too. That is why I downvoted Blu... When folk have predisposed ideas in their heads and spew #fakenews...

*yawn*

Ill take this far. Uncertain future? Its safe to say that you are not a Native American. Even if you were, your ancestors did have to travel to get to North America anyway. But, I think that your ancestors came from Merry Ole England. They had to travel the Atlantic Ocean back when they thought the world was flat. It was proven otherwise by some chap named Christopher Columbo. Be as it may, there must have been some folk that doubted that and disputed that fact vehemently. Yet, for whatever reason, your ancestors decided to leave Merry Ole England, Or Ireland, or Scotland, because their future on that God forsaken island was...uncertain...to come to a new place to start fresh and take a chance on a perhaps better uncertain future. In America, like I said, their future was also uncertain. If I know my American History (which New France history coincides with American History...and I do live in Quebec and we actually do learn about American History do to the fact that the French fought Les Anglais...) and between the French and their Native American Indigenous peoples alliance versus YOUR British roots and their Native American Indigenous peoples alliances...well, all of our futures were uncertain. Famine, wars, cold winters... And if all that is still not enough, when the 13 colonies were established and New France was kept at bay, at the Natives tamed, that STILL was not enough, your ancestors decided to complicate their future slightly more and create more uncertainty by deciding to declare independence from Merry Ole England. And STILL that wasnt enough as some of your countrymen decided to trot further west into the wild where the Natives seemed to be more savage and the weather even more savage-ier. Uncertain future you say? To put it mildly...YES!!! And then as a young nation, you went all out on a new technology called the railway train... You know Blu, its fun talking to you...but if you havent noticed...if YOUR ancestors were truly afraid of an uncertain future, like you seem to be, then your ancestors would have never left that rainy, foggy island. If your ancestors were truly afraid to embrace new technologies, they would have never learned about what MY ancestors brought to the table... and perfect it and utilize it to colonize half the planet with it and rule the world with it later on, and then start a new nation with it and then police the whole world with it... all with uncertain futures attached it...to the history of...well human kind really... Here is another angle... Man always dreamed about flying...and ALWAYS failed trying. A couple of thousand of years later after this story was told... And the flight of that bird...well, it was shorter than the length of a Boeing 747. Even though flight failed a million times before 1903 and thousands of times after 1903... Because after that disaster, the future of flight was...uncertain... We still kept at it...and if we stopped and just held unto the same ole same ole safety zones...well... That would have never have happened... Phoque man...let it go, bro!!!

Point proven on my side. Adapting is a very human trait. Humans ALWAYS adapt to their environment. THAT is why humans have become the apex creature it has become. Hell, humans have this crazy idea of colonizing Mars and beyond. EVs with a 40% range loss because of cold is a mere nuisance in the grand scheme of things. Bratt Pitt said it best. (For 40% range loss at the shortest level and if you like...for the grand scheme of things...Mars colonization, moving from England to the new world, and then leaving the East to go West and getting killed by the savages and tornados we may encounter, changing from ICE to EVs, going from Coke to diet Coke to Coke Zero back to Coke) You know, my partner owns a Model S. In the 4 years he has owned it, he NEVER once complained about range loss...he has mentioned it to me, but never complained about it. And, it was NEVER an issue with him either. Keep in mind that I DO live in Montreal and not in warm Los Angeles where this may or may not be a thing... This whole thing about cold weather range loss that just popped up everywhere the last month is probably hate propaganda from anybody that has an invested interest in oil and gasoline... I repeat. The low end Model 3 has a range of 220 miles. The story was just entertainment value. 50% of 220 is 110. Same as my story line. Yes it had a purpose. Yes I did the 220 thing on purpose to prove a point. 110 mile range. Each and every day when someone starts their day. In the morning. At an extreme level of trying to prove a point. If your employer has a charge system set-up for their employees to charge up...moot point. that would be another 110 mile range. One could stop and shop and joy ride. Even if the commute to work IS 60 miles. Like 3.3 million Americans do everyday. The average commute is 16 miles. Common man! Theoretically, one could charge his 220 mile range, after losses 110 mile range EV after the 2nd day with out any panic... Even if the battery loss is compounded... 110 becomes 60, which becomes 30. This is getting a little tiring, talking about non-existent range anxiety. This is not an issue anymore. Move on from it!

310 miles for a Model 3. You start your day at 310, because you plugged it in the night before. 310 miles minus the 40% drop gives you? Hell, Ill go with 220 miles starting your day because you left work at 5:00. Called your wife saying that your boss needs you to stay because you need to file files that havent been filed for 5 years. Went to happy hour instead, saw a buxom blonde. You bought her a wine spritzer. From a wine spritzer it became a Long Island Iced Tea. From there it became mutual belly shots and then...well, you went home at 3:00 in the morning and your wife was none the wiser. You plugged it your Model 3, but 7:00 AM came fast (and so did you coincidentally) and your Model 3 only has got 220 mile range. We will reduce that range by not the 40% they say, but by a whopping 50%. So now you got 110 miles top go to your work that is 40 miles , 50....hell 60 miles away. You go to work every phoquing day 60 miles away from where you live. 60 motherphoquing miles. SHYTE! 60 goddamned miles. You got enough to get there, but how do you get back home? You could ask that buxom blonde from the night before to pick you up and drive you back home. You could entice her by asking her for a quickie in the backseat of her soccer mom SUV that is gasoline powered... Anyway...back to the 60 mile problem...because now you only have a 50 mile range and you got to travel 60 miles... 1. Maybe your employer has installed charger stations? 2. What the phoque are you complaining about the 40-50% ? You are travelling 60 miles to work everyday. I think you got a bigger problem than 40% range loss because of cold weather in your EV, find yourself travelling and losing time doing it every phoquing day... If that scenario was real...120 miles to go to work every day will bankrupt you in gasoline if you had a joe schmo job and you drove even a V6 automobile let alone a V8. Also, the wear and tear on that V6. 4 cylinder you say? WEAR AND TEAR I SAY. So...as you see, even in extreme scenarios, 40% is a lot of range loss. But man!!! YOU ALWAYS START THE PHOQUING DAY WITH A "FULL TANK OF GAS" SINCE YOU COULD AND MOSTLY LIKELY YOU DO PLUG IN YOUR CAR EVERYDAY AFTER COMING HOME... ON A 1st GENERATION LEAF THAT HAD 30 MILE RANGE, YOU MAY HAVE A BIIIIIG PROBLEM, YES! BUT ON ANY TESLA, CHEVROLET BOLT, EVEN THIS GENERATION NISSAN LEAF, AN AVERAGE COMMUTE FOR THE AVERAGE AMERICAN TO GO TO AND FROM WORK IS ABOUT 16 MILES. THERE ARE SOME THAT TRAVEL 50 MILES,YES, BUT A 40% RANGE LOSS IS MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. EV HATERZ FIND THE JOY, BUT EV OWNERS JUST ADAPT AND THEY MAKE SURE THEY PLUG IN AND IN THE MORNING, A FULL TANK OF GAS AWAITS THEM... BATTERIES ARE GETTING BETTER. BETTER INSULATED TOO...SO THIS WILL EVENTUALLY BECOME A MOOT POINT TOO!!! https://itstillruns.com/far-americans-drive-work-average-7446397.html But even with my very extreme examples, those 3.3 million Americans could STILL get home with juice to spare...

Yeah...they should do a BEV Blazer, like yesterday. This is where I do NOT understand the product planners. We saw a couple of years ago how many people forked over deposit monies for the Tesla Model 3 without ever seeing the car and how it looks on the inside and the outside. The crossover trend has been on the rise since the mid-1990s. Like...no-one at GM (or any other company for that matter) could marry the two together? Is it THAT hard to come up with a BEV that meets the masses expectations? CUVs sell. EVs DO sell. Yes its only Tesla that has a run-a-way success rate. But man...dont CEOs see what I, and many other folk like you guys see that the Nissan Leaf just plain SUCKS visually. The BOLT SUCKS visually. The Leaf and the Bolt are NOT the right package. The Model 3 is at the most minimum of car length and size. No one at these companies that get paid quite well, I might add, they cant figure that out? The Model X may not sell quite as high as the Model S...but it does sell. This is where I do NOT buy the argument that only Tesla EVs have the capacity to sell. 1. The Model S and Model 3 sell in a CUV/SUV dominated world. 2. They are attractive, normal looking cars 3. They are NOT that affordable yet swathes of people are flocking to them 4. Both the Model 3 and Model S are quite capable in cargo hauling duties and are quite comfortable in daily driving their owners and their families from point A to point B without being CUVs. 5. If Chevrolet has a tough time selling sedans, but they do not have a tough time selling Equinoxes, maybe a cool factor BEV for them CAN be a BEV midsized, sporty CUV...like the Blazer... If you cant beat Tesla and their Model 3 because Chevy does not have a BMWesque little sedan to do battle head on with the Model 3, because the Bolt and the Model 3 are THAT different from one another, then Chevrolet could STILL play in that game by offering something COMPLETELY different yet just as cool as the Model 3 yet sticking it to Tesla by making a BEV Blazer and giving the fight to the Model X... Undercutting the Model X in price. The Blazer as is, is a SEXIER SUV than the Model X (in all honestly, the Model X is ugly AF!!!) Its easy as that... There is NO risk. CUVs sell. They sell a lot. There IS a market for EVs. GM and Chevy are NOT tapping into the right segment. Chevy has ITS strengths and they COULD do CUVs BETTER than Tesla. I said that the Model 3 is eons ahead of the Bolt. Well, a BEV Blazer could be eons ahead of the Model X. Sure the Model X has cool rear doors. Make a Blazer a more practical and capable BEV CUV and Chevy might be able to peddle at least 200 000 BEV Blazers...at least... You cannot tell me America is not ready for EVs when Tesla sells a ton. You cannot use the Bolt and Leaf as proof because the Leaf and Bolt are crap as compared to the Model 3. You cannot use the iPace as Jaguar does NOT have the charging network that Tesla has. The Jag asks Model S and Model X prices but Jag does NOT have the charging network behind it. You cannot use the Leaf and Bolt as "affordable" BEVs when in actual fact, they are about the same price as the Model 3...Tesla has a charging network behind it. The other EVs are based on same model cars that are considerably more expensive than their ICE model counterparts. The Volt 2nd gen included over the Cruze but it still did well enough. A BEV Blazer, although GM does not have the charging network of Telsa, will have a huuuuge price advantage OVER the Model X. Maybe EV folk will overlook that. Its not as if the Blazer comes cheap either. But a 60 000 BEV Blazer, (what?) I think the ICE Blazer is 50 000, still undercuts the Model X considerably at 60 thousand... They wont make money off a BEV Blazer? Well...didnt GM just say they will go full out on EVs anyway...so moot point!!!

bland exterior. Interior looks to be a great place to spend daily in. Bottom line: Id rather the Camry over this.

Yup. For me, its not about the price. Well, its not JUST the price tag, but how small it really is. I get that tech is expensive and the early adopters have to foot the bill for new tech, and usually Im NOT the first early adopters, but somewhere between, the second wave of early adopters to just before half of the population accepts the new tech. Its just that the Bolt is a sub-compact. I dont do sub-compact cars. And Im guessing many people are like me in that they too, dont do sub-compacts. This is where General Motors really needs a BEV slightly BIGGER than the Cruze/Volt. It could be slightly smaller than the Malibu, but ideally, for the masses for GM to really sell 200 000-400 000 BEVs per year, like Tesla's Model 3, is really doing a Chevy Trax, but more so an Equinox sized CUV BEV. If they truly are serious, which I think NOW they are, but when they did the Bolt and released the Bolt for sale, I think they just wanted to be the first to market. (with an "affordable" BEV to beat the Model 3.) But I feel that was a piss poor effort, in hindsight. It is NO secret now as it was NO secret then: 1. sub-compact hatchbacks do NOT sell well in the North American market. Like ever. 2. compact, but more mid-sized CUVs are the hot ticket items 5 years ago and even more so today. But the trends were showing themselves then. Piss poor attempt to capture the market with piss poor decisions or the product (the packaging) and piss poor marketing. Being the first to market, while it works if you got the perfect product, is NOT a good marketing strategy...and the Bolt is NOT the perfect product in its class. The Telsa Model 3 wipes the floor with it. And THAT is the reality. The Bolt is a very good BEV. The Model 3 is eons ahead of it. And then we have Tesla's (super)charging network. I will keep on stressing that part as Tesla's image is not only the cool factor with its cars, and the crazy, zany Musk pet projects like the loop tube and the space rocket thing, but Tesla's image is strong with the EV folk with their charging network.

Los Angeles.... I was waaaaaay off. LOL Dont know Everlast as a soloist either. Its funny we are mentioning House of Pain and West Coast hip hop and hooligans from a ghetto somewhere as I was JUST JUST listening to Straight Outta Compton. I saw the movie recently, like last week I think, or was it the week before....anyway, and I always had that song stuck in my head all this time while resisting the urge to play it on youtube. Well, the 5 seconds that I listened to The Disturbed Shout cover, I went all out ghetto hip hop. And while House of Pain was not part of the playlist, other bling bling and gangsta rap was. I like some rap. Not all. Some bling bling rap like Biggie Smalls is kinda funny to me. Although I dont like the lyrics to Straight Outta Compton, I do realize and respect why its there...but I like the "melodies" and the beats to these. Kinda fun to listen too once in a while. Back to February car spotting. I got nothing interesting other than the Pontiac G8 for today. I did see a cleanish Buick Park Avenue last week. It was an Ultra. With the portholes on the side telling me it was a 2003, 2004 model?

Yeah...a bunch of white boys...Irish? From Bahsten? Or was it New York? trying to be be all ghetto. It was all the rage back then... I heard that song for the first time while I WAS in New York for the first time... I believe my friends and I went to the Palladium dance club. I liked the song back then. Dont hate me! Not so much today though.

RIP

Black Pontiac G8. Couldnt tell if V8 or V6. Despite all the ice, literally ice covered trees, roads, cars , the G8 was super clean. Garage queen perhaps. But why was she out and about today? I dunno, but Im sure glad I got to have a glimpse of her.