balthazar

Bit of a pickle : with engine stuck I cannot easily disconnect the transmission. Need to rotate the flywheel to disconnect from torque converter.... no rotate-O. Going to have to basically completely disassemble the engine and try to manual work the pistons free.

I thought all that mattered was 0-60.

drips & drabs.

All the chargers are in CA, quite a ride from… any other state. NJ has 846 chargers for 9 million people. 3 + 30% = 4. Percentages here are misleading.

3.5% is nothing remotely like “quite common”. Imagine if 3.5% of people coming thru your restaurant door/calling actually ordered any food. Now add in everyone else in the city never contacting your restaurant yet still eating food (existing vehicle owners).

Canada as a whole was 3.5% market share in '20, the U.S. was 1.8%. Quite basically; that's in the same small basket from where I sit. Quebec from '19>'20 gained 1.0% marketshare. I don't expect you'll see more than a 2.5% gain per year, and don't forget- as the pool accumulates, each percentage point takes a larger & larger volume to accomplish. At 3.5%, Canada needs to find the other 96.5% of buyers.

Quebec 2020 plug in market share : 6.8%.

If Tesla remains static, they will be surpassed and falter. And IMO, if they stop making vehicles and merely supply batteries/motors to other manufacturers, they failed. They've certainly made missteps (who hasn't); they should never have dumped the Roadster, then announced a return almost 5 years ago now. All those potential roadster buyers are long gone. We'll have to watch & see what happens.

Automobile magazine / Robert Cumberford's analysis. He actually worked in GM Styling about 1954-58 (he's 85-yrs old now), but I can tell he's looking only at a few pics and making a lot of assumptions (and errors). For example- he calls the thin steering wheel rim a "GM conceit" when it was without question a global occurrence. He quizzically states 'gauges, gauges everywhere and not a thing to read'. Lastly; thin whitewall tires were "enormously fun to draw"??? https://www.automobilemag.com/news/1964-pontiac-grand-prix/

I predict the proposed 2035 'ban' will fall / be delayed. Unless & until some profitability case is demonstrated. Otherwise, we'd be staring down another round of bailouts.

Interesting assumption; asking someone who has no home if their home has internet. Kinda doubt it was a component. Probably a lot longer. So.... ? .... how long will it take consumers to fully adapt to BE vehicles & charging at home?

Why are U.S. Model S sales down 50% from 3 years ago? Are people moving on from just 0-60 numbers? Is the now 10-year old Model S just too out-of-date?

Not for most folk it isn't. Incremental, evolutionary change has happened, not revolutionary. A 2019 Microsoft analysis found 162 million Americans didn't have broadband internet access. An entity called BroadBandNow in '20 pegged it closer to 42 million. No one is completely sure. Point being; change takes time, and if you think charging scenarios are vastly different than 2020 (the date the report was released) to now, I'd question that hard.

'21 model year is over in 2 months.

The Daimler-Chrysler' story is an interesting one, primarily colored by the oh-so-typical fudging of numbers on Daimler's part. They're ravenously money-hungry, and will do whatever it takes to make a buck. It's documented how Daimler bled Chrysler dry, and they never "gave" anything to Chrysler, they mandated and then forced Chrysler to pay. It got so petty that Daimler back-charged all international calls to Auburn Hills.

If Chrysler was so unprofitable, why did Daimler buy them?

I personally am a model year '66, so I turned 13 in '79. I was drawing cars probably since I was around 6. I got heavily into them around '78-79. So... you're 13, you're getting into cars, the current brand new one is on the left, and the one on the right is still only 10 years old... and they're still around. The '69 looks 1000 times better... then you look up the power/performance figures, and it's game over. 260 CI V8 vs. 455 - are you kidding?The gas shortage tried to get rid of them, but circa '80 the 60s stuff was already mostly in enthusiast's hands and getting appreciated especially in contrast to new cars. I'm not sure such a young used car ever made an 'about face' in interest/value in 10 years ever (before or since), but the '79-into the 80s cars PUSHED enthusiasts right back to the mid 60s-early 70s stuff. Musclecars began to take off circa '85-89; there were multiple publications focusing on them. I remember my brother (7 yrs younger) and I laying on the floor, paging thru MuscleCar Review the afternoon each issue hit the mailbox. Now he has a '65 GTO, '68 Firebird, '71 GTO (his first car... ironically 7 yrs younger than my 1st car), and a '69 Firebird project car he's building with his step-son. I 'grew up' around the late 70s-late 80s stuff, but I never had more than a passing interest in them.

No no; not 1979 the calendar year -- 1979 the model year. But I was already into '50-60s Pontiacs either way then. I bought my '64 GP in '86, and I had 'officially' tried to buy a '59 Catalina Vista in '81 (tho too young to drive / my dad said 'no way').

^ Granted... however at the concept car level, there was still a 'quotient of dreaming'. The Rageous killed that for me. I'm a Pontiac guy, but with a handful of exceptions- I'm out after '79.

Tube headers have their own set of problems. There are repro 'long-branch' cast headers, but they are 1. out of stock, 2. extremely heavy, 3. $600 (plus shipping). The short 'Ram Air' cast manifolds only add about 10 HP, kinda a poor return for $450. Exactly like aerodynamics; it's hard to look at a part and tell how well/poor it handles airflow.

Powerbarn is empty!

The Rageous was my first ‘falling out of love’ experience with Pontiac.

In 2010, Challenger posted circa 35K units sold. From 2015 thru 2019 it posted between 61K and 66K, and it on pace for the low 60’s in ‘21 as well.

That's not what the sales number say. 2016 : 24K 2017 : 27K Model S peaked at 30K U.S. sales in 2018, and that was the year the Model 3 was in full swing (selling 140K). 2019 : 14K. 2020 saw a rise to 20K, but 2021 is only on pace for 16K. Model S is definitely slowed down.

People are getting 1.2+ Gs out of Challengers. That's 'going around a corner' very well.