balthazar

You'd think a guy who flipped & flopped his hands around so much might put them to use to clean out his shithoard garage for once.

What's their take on '1'?

touche'. Still; seems to me the STi is performing at it's 99th %, whereas the 2+2 is clearly capable of more as is. Tell you what, let's switch tires between the two (STi: 245/40-18s) and play the averages. >:) - - - - - Going to rehash this personal issue, as new info came to me tonight. The address numbers I've lived at : 1100 211 211 1717 11 13 1501 I dunno; the statistical odds of that many double 1's (and the single '1' of '13', which is 1+1 from the number 11), seems incredibly unlikely. I'm sure it means nothing.

I see an '18 WRX STi tested at 14.1 @ 98. 98 MPH 'should' equate to a 13.9, but that's a turbo for you- implies lag. The Pontiac at 106 MPH 'should' be at 12.8 - traction issues easily fixed with better tires. A second in the quarter is 10 car lengths at these levels- not really 'about as fast'.

If the 'Rivian truck doesn't have to sell huge, it can just be a tiny little blip", HTF are IC trucks going to go to zero sales in 7 years??? - - - - - "People think 'Teslas are expensive so people don't buy Teslas, but that's not the case" compared to "GM is closing all these plants because no one buys their cars".

"For years we were told to hoard oil because peak oil was coming, now there's going to be this worldwde glut of oil". See, that's impossible; because I read/heard 10,000 times that Peak Oil was coming, and fast, prices were going to $8 or $10/gal and I was NOT to argue about it/ all arguments were wrong. It was settled, it was empirical. How could it possibly be any other way? On this alone, I must conclude their premise is invalid. ;)

[reflections at the 10:xx mark...] They are grotesquely overestimating the current demand for EVs. If there was currently that much 'waiting demand' for EVs, on a growing magnitude to render IC sales "Zero by 2026", sales of IC vehicles NOW should be down by a huge magntitude- maybe 50% if I'm to buy into their narrative. But 2017 was another 17 million unit year in the US. Also, 'EV minded people' are forced to replace an existing IC vehicle just as frequently as anyone else; one would think that -besides the Model 3- that other EV and hybrid cars would be selling far better than they do. They don't. "2026" is a laugh riot. They ignore their solid points on 'tech acceptance rate vs. cost' completely and mention EV product without admitting the costs are often DOUBLE the IC versions. "Rivian just brought out" = they showed 2 concepts; they are NOT in production and they are rumored to be well over $60K. Model S seems to be a pretty good car, has super high awareness, been around 6-7 years now, how come it's only moving about 24K units/year?? Could it be the $78K MSRP? Nah, couldn't be. - - - - - RE trucks : "All these other competitors are entering their space" [Rivian, Bollinger, Bison, Workforce]. Rivian's reveal happened hours ago, Workforce has been 'out' for what- 2 years now, still no production/sales on these. Workforce seems to be concentrating on fleet Government sales, not the consumer pickup (via their website/internet news). In July of '17, Bollinger had a one-off hand-built prototype and only SEVEN employees- when -even roughly- are they supposed to 'sock it to' GM & Ford with their SUV? People seem to have a real tough grasp on the time element here, yet they continue to make earth-shattering prediction about near future time. Prius is now 20 years old, the electrification of automotive propulsion is no longer 'news'. Tesla Model 3 "entered the space" in April 2016, it's only had it's promised level of production this month. We still have the comments I made elsewhere here RE inner city EV obstacles- many people park on public streets or live in high rises- there's no infrastructure for them. Ignoring these hard facts puts companies in the grave, and I'm not talking about GM or FoMoCo here. They make some interesting points, but overall it cannot be considered "rational".

Well, of course a startup looking to insure their future is going to actively talk about a THIRD model when they haven't even built the FIRST one yet. Investors. Buzz me when they issue an IPO, I might be interested. Tesla is stupidly overpriced, but I got burned on Excelsior-Henderson.

LOL- apparently it's not Level 9 Autonomous. I'll have to wait.

When I was a young teenager, a couple times I went to a different barbershop than the usual. They draped the typical cloth over me, but the cartoon print on it was skiers and hikers traversing giant naked female bodies. Nothing graphic, but still kinda surprising to be covered with near life-size boobs, buttocks & legs. Anyway, I kinda assumed that's the sort of thing VR goggles were for. :D

C'mon; gyroscopically-balanced electric PortoPods are the next coming thing!!

2030, 11 years from now, I would truly be surprised if EV vehicles were 25% of the market.

Cab is completely immaterial. No one brags (or cares) about the cab, IMO. And if it IS different, it's just a tweak on the prior one- cab design isn't going to change more than 10%. Frankly, I see the whole "NEW MODEL YEAR" thing as being on the downside of the Bell Curve since about 1965. I think the '19 Ram is still using the same windshield from 1994 (and why not?) ;)

Talk to me when you can get a Rivian 'way down there' at $50K. Quick google image search gave me this : Pop-pop-pop-pop-pop-pop-pop-pop-pop-pop goes the snow plow. I'm sure there are other options, and more coming. But the fact remains that NOW, if I lived in the city and had to park on the street in various spots, an EV is NOT going to work for me. That's inarguable.

Nooo; an '18 2500HD starts at $34K, not $70K. You can buy a crew cab, 4WD LTZ for $53K. Rivian is allegedly $65K, which means more like $70K.

How are people who park in public spaces (parking lots, decks, or on the street) supposed to have a charging pad? What do they do when they come home and someone else is parked over it? What happens to the pad when a plow comes by? Or the pavement heaves beneath it? Or someone steals it? Are people supposed to take this pad in & out when they want to charge? That's just a larger 'cord'- same points apply. As for an EV truck, I'm not paying $70 grand for a work truck. That's lunacy.

A circa 2800 lb tube chassis Camaro, ran in the 8's in the quarter.

"dirty-smelly" lol. This tangible issue here is, whereas gas stations are widespread and you go to them, charging at home certainly doesn't work for everyone. My truck parks outside- I'd have to run a 25' cord to it, snake it out behind the garage door track, loop it around the other car parked outside, unplug the outlet end in case it rains, pick it up when I mow, etc. I don't find that "convenient". A lot of older homes have no garage and no outside outlets. Many inner city residents (you know; another one of the supposed 'target' buyers), park on the street; they're not really supposed to lay a cord across the sidewalk, are they? What if they only find a parking spot 4 doors down the street? Then there are apartment / high rise dwellers that park in lots (or decks) with no provisions to plug in. Infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure- it's not ready yet. No responsible OEM is going to kill an IC small car & replace it whole hog with an EV, because buyers aren't ready right now, because the infrastructure isn't. Yet. The breathlessness some folk talk about the tsunami of EVs cars that are going to wipe out ICs inside of 10 years simply isn't keeping touch with reality. There's the fantasy vision of the Brave New World, then there is the 'dirty smelly' reality version.

I'm holding out for one of these, promised in the 1960s (still waiting) :

Reading on a Buick board : Buick 350 CI V8 factory 2-bolt block, aftermarket crank, rods, pistons, ported iron heads & intake, roller cam, 850 cfm carb, 8.6 CR. Made in 'mid 500s' HP/TRQ naturally aspirated. Added procharger (12 PSI) : 838 HP @ 7100, 674 TRQ @ 6000 Different procharger (20 PSI, still on pump gas) : 950 HP @ 7200, 731TRQ Final pull on race gas : 1021 HP @ 6800, 808 TRQ @ 5750

Business is always cyclical, ALL companies plot their history via the Bell Curve. GM was there first in a personal transportation centered multi-armed conglomerate, and all others followed, learning (and some would say 'stealing') from the innovation GM pioneered. I do not jump on the bandwagon of saying 'GM lost focus'- they could do some things better, some things differently, but other things they are arguably the best at currently. Automotively, hyundai has only 3 SUVs and 5 sedans, and 0 trucks. They are behind the curve WRT current market trends here.

"Since" ; OK. but GM was in a huge swath of industries over it's history, many long forgotten at this point. A lot of them are the same ones hyundai Corp is in, too.

I prolly posted this before, but the Mustang racers reminded me of it. That's a Ferrari 2+2 V-12, and it was only ONE QUARTER of ONE SECOND faster than the '65 Catalina 2+2 421 on a 2 minute lap. "The Ferrari lapped faster than the Pontiac by a very small margin. I'd say that this was due to somewhat better handling and a little bit to its brakes, The limited slip was good, but I wouldn't say it was any better. Of course, it didn't have the work to do that the Pontiac's did. I don't think the Ferrari would be quite as good in the rain as the Pontiac, but that's largely because of the disc brakes- disc brakes are generally pretty poor in the rain until they're hot." Ferrari : 3430 lbs, 300 HP 242 CI V12, 415 TRQ, 4-spd manual, 4.25 axle, 1/4 mile: 14.6 @ 97 Pontiac : 4155 lbs, 376 HP 421 CI V8, 461 TRQ, 4-spd manual, 3.42 axle, 1/4 mile: 13.8 @ 106

Get a CPO Colorado and save yourself $50,000 for fuel, does all the same Home Depot runs with aplomb. - - - - - I don't hate the front of the Rivian; it's got a geometricality about it, but it's not what one would call beautiful or tough (maybe that's the bulk of my reaction). We'll have to watch the development moving toward certification & production. The shoulder of the Automotive Highway of History are jammed with failed efforts, rusting away with time.