balthazar

Then what the hell was the point of comparing the rav4 sales to dodge??

I have seen that one. The chrome script above the headlight pinpoints it as a ‘40. But the ‘38-40s all have the oval grille. I hate colorized B& W pics. Truck is an interesting restyle. But the forward-leaning greenhouse totally fights the rest of the rounded cab.

So your logic smk is to kill any brand selling less than the Rav4?? wow.

Your tone-deaf “one or a couple” is a lot closer to 50 million people than it is to 2.

Except for the market that wants RWD V8s. EVERYTHING can't be a teeny 4-banger CUV.

What special kind of idiot would badge-engineer a euro car as a Dodge and put 425K unit sales at risk?? Reciepe for quick failure. There's no US market for citroens & peugeots, zero. Contaminating an establish brand image with eurotrash unsuited for the brand isn't going to boost sales even REMOTELY; instead- it'll crater them.

There are no production solid state battery vehicles. I guarantee you they'll be priced at a premium to 'regular' EV vehicles, at least initially. This places them even further out of 'Maria's' reach than a 10-yr old Leaf. IC bans CANNOT be enacted until the tech is readily able to filter down to the low income tier of consumers.

Not all of them and not all of them extensive. I don't ride buses, but I have a hard time picturing a mother, 2 kids and weeks worth of groceries going by bus. Plus, she already has a car, remember? Teslas might as well be Rolls Royces to the low income tier. Unobtanium. And a lot of inner urban areas rely on small local groceries rather than chains, chain supermarkets don't like to move into inner city areas (and don't). One customer of mine runs a fish market, and there's a dollar store and a African market to either side. I've worked for the landlord on many various parts of the building, and he's insanely, near criminally cheap. I really feel sorry for the tenants living upstairs over the stores- the conditions are not nice. There's a small parking lot behind the building, but there's no way in hell he'd remotely consider putting chargers in for them. Maybe if they cost $25 to buy & install. Maybe. LOT of scenarios just like that, all over the country.

For 'blu (and anyone else who likes) :

You don't see cars in the pic's driveways BECAUSE THERE ARE NO DRIVEWAYS. :facepalm: Yes, people living in those types of housing absolutely have cars- I know the city those were taken in well. No, not everyone, but those that have no driveways do this weird thing; they park in the street. Now... take away their gas-fueled car, and tell them they have to buy an electric and BTW; they're going to need to charge it at home.

That's an entirely other issue.

I'm not sure we're having the same conversation; you're simply stating city planner talking points. What are these people (and untold millions of others like them) going to do? Tone-deaf politicians are going to take away their affordable transportation with 'bans'.

Chrysler 300 by itself outsold the entire 3-model Alfa lineup in 2019. Alfa as a brand was down 23% vs. 2018. Rumors are swirling it'll get yanked- can't survive on that kind of horrible volume. Right, smk?

Whose sister or niece?? ? Tons of future dreams out there, but my "scenario" stated an IC ban in 5 years (because it's all conversation at this point). There's no diamond x-1000 battery car this sister/niece can afford because she's near poverty in the inner city. That's why she's in a urban area duplex with on-street parking. That's brand new vapor-tech not on the market, and if it were, it'd command the segment premium because of it's advances vs. the rest. You did get the point I made, right? 'Poor' cannot afford new battery electrics, and a great many have no place to charge them. All these tech pipe dreams / lab experiments have to be proven & in production before various municipalities cut the mobility legs out from under the under class. And most of them are locked into a poverty cycle they will never get out of, so stating 'maybe in 20 years they'll be in a better spot / a Tesla'. This is real world stuff. The wide-EV-eyed don't seem to care about the class of folk that can't hope to afford all this Jetson-age tech. 'Fuck 'em' seems to be the message; 'you'll have to figure it out when there is no more cheap transportation because we made it better for you / you're welcome'. Here's an idea- instead of rushing to "ban" things, get more OEMs to build more AFFORDABLE EV products, and let the market speak.

Fiat unquestionably does, if it has any image at all. But Chrysler & Dodge have very good images- you're stuck in 1982 with that. Dodge also isn't "dead weight"- they moved 422K units in '19 withOUT Ram. Alfa is what's dead weight; 18K units sold, down almost 23% from 2018. Citroen & Peugeot are dead on arrival- lost in the crowd with nothing to pull buyers with and a negative image. Carlos can try and bring something here, but he had better understand the market before pushing billions anywhere or he's going to lose.

verb tenses.

And American buyers have zero positive perception of peugeot. A fool's gamble.

'56 Ford has the hood off, maybe showcasing a '57 T-bird F-Code 350 TRQ supercharged mill? Note the lil 4-banger mercedes in the background. Surprising it's anywhere near the Ford, what with having a brawny 114 TRQ, but that's artistic license for ya.

Oh sure; there's plenty of talk. By those same illogical planners. But "it's going to happen" (theoretically) is no where near "it is happening".

In many... perhaps a majority of instances, inner cities house lower and low income families. SCENARIO :: •• Imagine you're a single mother of 2, living in half a duplex in an urban center. While your kids are in school, you have a short workday waiting tables at a diner. Your ratty 19-yr old Corolla takes you there, drops/picks up the kids from school, takes them to the doctor's, etc. You struggle, but you're keeping your head above water. The Corolla parks at the curb, because you have no driveway. One afternoon you overhear 2 city planners at lunch @ the diner, talking about banning all gas cars/truck in the city in 5 years, because "it'll be good for the environment". You try not to panic. You've read an article; electric cars should be charged every night. You have no driveway, you don't even have an extension cord... not that that wouldn't likely be 1. tripped over by a pedestrian, or 2. stolen within a week. The diner has no facility to plug in. Plus, most electric cars are hella expensive. Cheapest nisson leaf on cargurus is $4 grand, (when your beater Corolla cost you only $1K and it now worth scrap value) - where are you supposed to come up with 4 grand?? Maybe the city planners will leave one of those newsworthy mega tips. Can you whip up some fake tears and a sniffle? After all; they arrived for lunch in a brand new city-bought Tesla... ••

I do have that intake, those valve covers, that timing cover. I have those heads, but mine are Stage 2, and I suspect highly that those are Stage 4. - - - - - Last time I tired my truck, Costco didn't carry those general sizes at all. I usually go to a local tire shop. Recently shopping online for tires for the GP (engine is soaking right now), and a site called simpletire.com had the best price for a Cooper Cobra I was looking at (better than Costco, tirerack, couple of others).

OK, so it's unlikely we can wager on this one (despite me being completely willing). There are approx 275 million IC vehicles in the U.S. alone- will take forever to make them 'rare'. Unfortunately, there are too many living scenarios to allow every motorist to own an (expensive) EV. Those scenarios simply aren't going to be able to change. There's always going to be a market for IC vehicles, and as more of the market, any negative contributions of IC vehicles becomes, by consequence, a fraction of today. Their costs may actually decline as luxury & premium brands switch over, leaving lower end market (a non-business case for EVs) to ICs. Plus, the theoretical future slump in gas/diesel demand should have those costs likewise plummeting, so for at least a while; the lower end buyers would see significant fuel savings. (Eventually, production cuts will follow product demand, which means alternative petroleum end products, also extensively used in EVs, will see price increases.

Is that from today forward, that '50 years'... or are you counting from the 'new' start of 1997 (which would mean by 2054). I'm working on a wager proposal and I need your terms defined.

One more way of looking at your silly example : It took 150 years for the automobile to get to 96% of the market vs. horses... and some believe pure EVs will have 100% vs. IC in a mere 10 or 15 years / 30 years total. (STOP IT, I can't laugh anymore!)

No question these trucks are tall in general; this is my beater 2500HD (factory ride height) next to a new F-350: