balthazar

Ohio State Reformatory ~

I do get that living with the charging life of a Tesla or Bolt-ranged EV is not that difficult. Well, for most; there still are very real scenarios where that doesn't and won't work at home (street parking, most lot parking). Those scenarios are going to kinda force eating Panera "Clean Soup" for a half hour every weekend. It's the buy-in price for EVs that's the major hurdle.

https://barnfinds.com/one-million-dollars-1980-ford-fairmont-ev/

^ Since 1958.

I also don't eat in mall-typical food joints. Red Robin (once), Cheese Cake factory (once) - no thanks. Panera is across the street from me (Tesla chargers); eaten in a Panera once, maybe twice. Not a draw for me. I prefer to eat on the run, and have it done in 10 minutes, which is measured from shutting the vehicle off to restarting it. I'm a shark; have to keep moving. The black helicopters, you know. Maybe it's just me, but I find it curious and dubious that 'fueling' your car is now commonly intertwined in other consumerism/ eating/ peeing. Just seems a strange, semi-mandated pairing.

Last week: helped a buddy replace the shocks, struts & stabilizer links on his 115K mile '02 Infiniti QX4. That's really wasn't much fun. Why nissan felt it a good idea to mount rigidly-connected stuff over the top strut bolts was beyond me. Already rebuilt the structure under the running boards about 3 years ago. Today : went to a small local junkyard I first went to 25 years ago- found some of the parking brake hardware I need for the rear of the B-59 (MoPar 11-in drums, we'll see if the pieces I got out of a '99 Town & Country are the same). There's only 2 sources for these pieces new, and the one is $125 for (4) stamped pieces of steel & some misc hardware. Today's cost? $5.

I find the Bolt kinda cute, if I had to apply a general adjective. It's more generic/utilitarian than 'dorky'. At least it's not origami-esque like the horrible prius. Bolt is selling well…… for an EV. So far this year, it's #2 in sales. But there's a weird disconnect here where 'poorly selling' is commonly attached to 'the Bolt', when other than one Tesla, ALL EVs sell poorly. I don't know that I buy that theory- there were dozens upon dozens of mainstream OEM, small company & private enterprise (read backyard efforts) at designing & marketing EVs over the decades- there just weren't buyers for them. From what I've read on the EV1, the bottom line is it wasn't viable from a business case, and that's eminently believable. I JUST read the finance report that Tesla reported "it's first quarterly loss since" 9 months ago.

What if you don't, like, shop? I can't remember the last time I was in a mall {shudder].

That's precisely the point. And at 2% of the market today, one can argue they still aren't at scale. >>"It took a long time for cars to scale and they were for the 1%ers"<< Most still are. $75K is not a mainstream-price product. There's only 3 in the meat of the price range (Model 3, leaf, Bolt), and most of the proposed models seem to also be skewed toward the upper end too.

Chains haven't been semi-common since when- the '60s? On old cars, this would perhaps make sense INSIDE the fenders (except it doesn't), but the size of the fender opening has zero bearing on whether you could get a less than 1 inch tall chain set around the tire. I think that's an unfounded myth. On trucks, I believe the over-large wheel wells are primarily there to allow much large tire upgrades by owners (tho that also seems to be falling off in popularity to some degree).

^ Except internal combustion vehicles took off FAR faster than EVs have done over the last, well to be honest; efforts go back to the 1970s [if you push the whole early 1900s EV market off to one side]. RE the Tesla Roadster : I'm not seeing it on the Tesla site; available to build & price. Perhaps those vids were taken before Elon shot it into space.

^ '54 DeSoto Adventurer II - - - - - '53 DeSoto Adventurer I (gone)~

^ Since 2016, no?

What Tesla Roadster? - - - - - Much like a new model's sales peak (because it's new!!), it might be prudent to watch EV sales going forward. Tesla's 61% sales collapse from Q4 to Q1 is not a mere blip.

Silverado offers (2) 17" wheels, (2) 18", (5) 20" and (1) 22". It's not an issue of 'too small' rims; it's the wheel well size & how high the trucks sit. I wouldn't want any but a 20", this from stomping around on a GMC lot and comparing this aspect specifically.

Frameless door glass really is a very very minor distinction- especially in that the door pretty much needs to be open to make it noticeable. Unless it's accompanied by a missing B-Pillar; yawn.

The Great Homogenization of Auto Design continues. This looks like, nothing. And everything.

^ That's exactly what all the '4-door coupes' are; fastback sedans.

No laws protecting the company from getting screwed by advertising?

Has Cadillac released MPG ratings for the CT5 yet ??

Having a hell of a time finding parking brake hardware for 11x2.5-in MoPar drums. Don't want/need concourse-quality, correct-coded pieces at $70/2 stamped steel arms. EDIT : found some at $30/set. Still: sheesh. - - - - - '56 DeSoto ~

Isn't that standard practice? BMW 4.4L V8 currently in production has a 100 HP & TRQ range, depending on application. If I were buying, I'd certainly expect a power difference between in the CT6 & CT5 output.

Turbo Diesel don't care what else you may be doing.