Drew Dowdell

21 hours ago, knightfan26917 said:

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THIS weekend, 04.18.2026. ALL welcome, rain or shine. I will be in my 2003 Mercury Grand Marquis LS with some model cars & other items.

# to TEXT me is on this page, under CONTACT & LINKS:
https://www.oldcarsstronghearts.com/ocsh-cruise-nights/2026-ocsh-steaknshake-events/

PEACE | Cort, pig and cow valves with pacemaker
2003 MGM LS + 1981 cmc SC; need 1975 Chrysler Cordoba
"You take the good, you take the bad" | Gloria Loring | 'The Facts Of Life'

Darn. if it was 5/18/2026, I might have actually been in town. no firm plans yet but... 

Just now, G. David Felt said:

Too funny on the German thing, but so true, there are consistent ways German's dress and I can always pick out relatives faster than anyone in a room due to how my extended family dresses on both sides. Germans are very interesting as a German myself.

In regards to Ford EV division, I agree that they should have never had two divisions, but getting rid of the person who was leading it with better insight into the EVs than turning this over to ICE people makes me think EV will always be second and that the Skunks work project in California will probably get minimized if not outright killed as the ICE leaders move all back to local Ford headquarters and leave it on the back burner as they refocus on going backwards in ICE development.

Ford not having cleaned up their books like GM did for debt, I feel is in a much worse position to compete with China and Korea. Japan will have consolidation as they try to step up, with EVs, some will survive others will die or get consumed and made into rebadge divisions.

I think that platform is do or die for Ford. If anything, everything not named F-150 or Explorer is likely on hold until that project is done. 

18 hours ago, trinacriabob said:

This one weirds me out.

Everywhere I go, I meet Germans!  In grad school ... on vacation ... on this ship.  I now have a new German friend who lives in the greater Houston area. I don't have any signs on my head!  They're friendlier to me than Italians.

lol that use to be a joke when i was traveling for work with the energy company. I have friends in germany and there are certain stereotypes about german men's fashion that are proven true far too often and I can pick the german guy out of a lineup every time.  

15 hours ago, G. David Felt said:

This imho is the start of the death of Ford. Going backwards to ICE and dissolving the EV division is a failure move.

 

https://electrek.co/2026/04/15/ford-doug-field-leaves-ev-unit-dissolved/

eh, it didn't make sense to run it as a separate division. I don't see a problem with this. It's not the end of EVs, just the end of the division. It never really made sense except for ford to do battle with their dealers.   This is a paper move only.  

5 hours ago, G. David Felt said:

While home charging is 10 cents per kW, The work chargers are 29 cents per kW which is still not bad compared to other public chargers around Washington state.

Tesla has had one affect here, initially they were very cheap compared to the first few public chargers, now that we have them all over from Rivian to EVgo, ChargePoint, etc. it is interesting to see that they are all within a penny or two of each other now, so the price has come down greatly.

While you are lucky with your energy prices where you are, the rest of the country is seeing steep increases in energy costs. I used to be able to get eight cents a kilowatt hour for the commodity charge, now the cheapest I can find is 13.9 cents per kilowatt hour. There’s a delivery charge on top of that and that has also been increasing.

2 hours ago, G. David Felt said:

Pretty interesting read, but wow: The rest of the charts are very eye opening.

How far will $1 get you in a diesel car and an EV, and which cars are cheapest to drive?

3.04 miles and 25.6 miles in freedom units.

I still wonder what they are considering an average vehicle since this is in KM.  An average vehicle in Europe is different in size than an average vehicle in the U.S.

2 minutes ago, G. David Felt said:

We are in interesting times and I think that those with the balls to look into the future past Idiot47 administration see change and growth as good for the EV industry.

It's not even a hard business case to make now. Even with gas stations, the money is in the selling of snacks, drinks, and prepared foods, not in the selling of gas.  For EVs, that calculus actually gets easier because EV drivers are MORE likely to stop in for food or coffee while charging. 

Just now, Robert Hall said:

Interesting.. we have Circle K and Get Go here in the Cleveland suburbs, and they tend to be small locations.   The bigger stations around are Sheetz. 

Sheetz is getting Ionna also.

15 hours ago, G. David Felt said:

Very cool

Ionna has agreed to take over all Circle K's and will manage the charging network, upgrade where needed and add super fast DC charging at all locations.

 

https://insideevs.com/news/792988/ionna-circle-k-fast-charging-partnership/

This has interesting implications in the greater Pittsburgh and eastern Ohio region. We don't have Circle K in our area. However, our grocery store chain Giant Eagle just sold off its chain of gas stations called GetGo to Circle K's parent company.  Apparently all of the stores are slated to be remodeled to the new branding eventually.  Would make sense to install these during the remodel in locations where they will fit. (some GetGos can be very small and won't have room)

53 minutes ago, ccap41 said:

Haha no more kids. We wanted two, got two, and I had a vasectomy last October. 

I ran the numbers on keeping what I have and buying something economical to just drive to and from work and the numbers just never make sense. 

If I remember correctly, the numbers were something like a 6k car averaging 40mpg wouldn't pay for itself in just fuel for nearly 5 years. A more modern hybrid averaging 60mpg and costing 12k (Ionic hybrid) still doesn't pay for itself for like 6 or 7 years on just fuel costs alone. I couldn't justify a payoff period that ends when the vehicle is nearly needing to be replaced.

It just makes more sense to buy what I want that is more economical.

It's more getting out of the $1000/m payment that I was looking at. I'm sure the feeding of both the Navigator and SVR is pricey, but also paying for them is pricey.  Getting into something cheaper to get out of that payment PLUS also getting something that is more efficient in both cases, would probably net you ahead.  Didn't we figure out that you were paying close to $7k a year in fuel just for the Navigator? 

1 hour ago, ccap41 said:

What I would really like to do is get rid of the SVR and keep the Navi for my wife. Ideally I'd trade in her SVR for a ZDX. Buuuuut, she's stubborn and that's why she has that in the first place. At least she can finally acknowledge she overspent and can't hardly afford her car. That was supposed to be between her and her parents, which is why I was like "whatever" to her buying it (although I had to cosign on it). Long story short, her brother is a POS and her parents have spent a $h! ton of money paying their bills so now it is a my wife and I paying for it. The reason the SVR was supposed to between her and her parents is because she is always helping out at their store but never actually "getting paid" so they were splitting the car payment (the same as when she had her G55). Well now the nearly $1000 car payment is on us and I am none too happy about it. She did know at the time it was more than she wanted to spend but her G55 had gotten to unreliable, and with having a child with her, she simply didn't trust it to get her pretty much anywhere anymore. It had died multiple times driving leaving her stranded on the side of the road. Two times was on the interstate going 70mph and it just died. Luckily there was no kid with her at the time and she could safely get to the shoulder. 

Annnnnyyyywwwaaaayyyyy, What would realistically happen is trading in the Navigator. There would be no reason to have a RR Sport, Navigator, and another good size SUV in a ZDX, Prologue, or Lyriq. 

Well, at the rate you're making kids, trade them both in on...

and then get a used Ioniq 6 for commuting. 

On 4/8/2026 at 9:55 PM, ccap41 said:

As much as I like the Lyric, I can’t justify a 40k vehicle…

The only one here that I’d consider price-wise is the ZDX. I’d really prefer sub-30k, which is why the Prologue piqued my interest in the first place. 

I don’t want black, but if it had to be, I’d want a red interior. 
 

This is one of the “close” ones to me and still 206 miles away. 
 

I thought you would like this Used 2024 Acura ZDX A-Spec for $32500 on Autotrader http://atcm.co/S2PVDP/2E481ABF.

Are you going to keep the Navi and just have this as something to burn miles on?

Sweet!

10 minutes ago, ccap41 said:

I'm not THAT opposed to a sedan, but I'd be more leery of a small company like that, that doesn't exactly have somewhere reasonable to service it, more than it being a sedan. 

That's a good point too.  Living where I live gives me better access to that kinda of service.  I actually see a good number of Lucids around here.  For me, the range is the attraction and with having 3 other gas vehicles in my driveway, it wouldn't be catastrophic if I had to send it back to Lucid for a few days. 

On 12/10/2025 at 7:07 PM, oldshurst442 said:

Except on the Mercury Sable, it ACTUALLY looked good. 

Imagine that light bar with LEDs...

I also like the Pontiac Grand Prix too.

 

But modern cars though, I think Lucid does it best. Because you cannot tell its there.

The stainless trim camouflages it.

But its there alright!!! And even at night, its subtle.

 And I like how LUCID lights up

 

But its overplayed, I agree. 

The really do like that Lucid though. If it wasn’t a sedan, I’d tell @ccap41 to watch for those also. They’re on my alert list.

But why is it so ugly?

1 hour ago, ccap41 said:

Awesome information and I'll just continue to keep an eye on them. Thank you

Also, are two year leases a common thing? I think I've only ever heard of three year leases.

@G. David Felt, what's your lease? 

A lot of of the early electric vehicles were on two year leases. Especially those in the luxury brand class. Acura, MB, and Cadillac all pushed them. 

1 minute ago, ccap41 said:

Oh I can easily wait until then. I'm really not in a rush or anything. Mostly just reading a ton and wanting more and more, haha.

I did look for Lyrics but they all seem to be starting around 40k used around here yet. 

How do you know that there will be wave of lease returns in September? 

Because that's when new model year vehicles tend to get released and the first large batch of 2yo ZDXes and 3yo Lyriqs should be coming off lease.

Plus... there were a bunch of EVs that came out in that same time frame and there have been more than a few reports that there is a wave of EV lease turn-ins due to hit the market late summer.

2 minutes ago, ccap41 said:

I started in December. There's no free charging at work, fwiw. There are public chargers out in the public parking, but I'd only use that if there were somehow an emergency. 

Try and make it to September at least. That’s when the big wave of lease returns starts. 
 

edit: also watch for Lyriqs. Even nicer interior, more of them built, only GM electric that isn’t the Bolt or EValanche Work Truck that has CarPlay.

3 minutes ago, ccap41 said:

I'm not sure if I'm thankful or spiteful for @Drew Dowdell pointing out the ZDX exists and now I want that, but they're a fair amount more monies than a Prologue used still (as expected as it offers a more luxurious interior, bigger battery, and more performance). I'm looking everywhere to read more on it... 

when does your new job start?

On 4/2/2026 at 10:08 PM, smk4565 said:

Does Subaru have more EV models than Tesla now?  LOL.

Uncharted, Soltarra, Trailseeker, Getaway
Model 3, Model Y, Model S, Model X, Cyber Truck

Yup. Soon.