Drew Dowdell

I have to say, the setup of the Scion FR-S sounds rather smashing. The styling is tepid, but who can argue with a low mount, flat four, 200hp, RWD coupe weighing less than 2800lbs? I've had a thing for the Infiniti G-Coupe since the start. The current Accord coupe is also rather attractive for a Honda. They accidentally got that one right. My issue with BMW is how over-hyped they are, but a 7-series could probably steal my heart. The E39 5-series remains one of the best looking sedans on the road, stark contrast to the E60. there hasn't been a Benz I've liked since the W210 E-class

I like it better than the Eqqus or Genesis...

All five of them!! On paper this seems like a good idea. In practice, I'm pessimistic it'd work. Unless BMW mandated joint SAAB/BMW or SAAB/Mini dealerships, the Scandanavian brand's limited dealer network would hinder the brand. Going toe-to-toe with the Buick's, VW's and Acura's would be a challenge. Mini had immediate brand awareness that BMW could milk from the get-go. SAAB has nowhere near the brand cachet. That being said, if they could pull it off, it'd be a really cool revival for a brand that even I believe deserved a lot more love than it got. The current Saab network would have no affiliation with the "new Saab" at all. BMW could offer Saab franchises to whomever it chooses from the old network, but would more likely team them up with their existing network.

Battery development is not at a standstill. Electric motor development is not at a stand still. You guys want range? The 640hp AWD electric mini-cooper has a range of 200 - 250 miles. Or... roughly Pittsburgh to D.C. If they made it just FWD *cough* sorry, if they made it just RWD and 320hp, and only increased the range to 350miles, that would still be a longer cruising range than I have on my Toronado or CR-V or my old CTS. I realize it is just a concept, but it is also proof of concept.

The equus is already being used in black car service here in NYC. I counted 6 today..... along with 3 new A8s oddly.

One of the reasons I supported BK writing this article is because of the white flag of surrender that the manufacturers are waving now. Look at the "fog lights" on that Ford Edge above. How effective are those going to be at lighting anything? They aren't even all that effective at increasing your visibility to other drivers because their lumens are so low.

But those aren't fog lights. Those are perimeter lights as you said. If the distance that headlights let you see is an issue, than the answer is more likely to be active headlights that adjust up and down and not just side to side. At slower speeds, the headlights can angle down slightly for more immediate vision while at higher speeds they can raise up to normal

Leafs are still wait listed. So if Leaf sales are pathetic, it is a supply issue and not a demand one.

Toyota went in there with the Pruis and was charging 5-series pricing for that crap trap. It is unsurprising to me at all that the Germans took no notice. The only redeeming quality of the Pruis is its powertrain, the rest of the car is crap, handles like crap, drives like crap.

I'm not willing to say that we shouldn't pursue EVs just because Camino says so. I think at this point we keep all options open and be willing to admit that it might take a combination of these technologies to make it work. I see no reason that we need to pick just one.

You don't learn unless you make mistakes. Suppose you are right and EVs can't be developed beyond their current level. What harm is done? A few city dwellers drive their leafs around and eventually give them up once all the charging stations are removed. What I described above is a multi-prong approach. Diesels, 3 cylinder turbos, eAssist... It is getting to be far more diverse out there in engine technology than it has been in 7 decades. The only thing we're missing at this point (to my sadness) is steam vehicles. Eventually one will become (or remain) the dominant technology. Mistakes might be made, but we will learn from them and move on.

Who, besides Tesla, has put all of their eggs in an electric basket? Not one single manufacturer has. The Spark EV will arrive about 18 months after the Cruze diesel. Ford is talking about 3 cylinder turbos to compliment the Focus EV in the lineup. The transit connect comes in standard, electric, and natural gas. The Sonic and Cruze are both getting upgraded 1.4t power plants. If there is a misunderstanding here, it's how you came up with this idea we are going all electric anytime soon.

And a miata is an unsuitable primary vehicle on a farm, and a GMC Sierra Denali is an unsuitable primary vehicle for the average NYC dweller. And a SMART is an unsuitable primary vehicle for Octomom, and a Suburban is an unsuitable vehicle for a middle aged female office worker to commute 50 miles each way in..... And yet, those vehicles are still built and sold. For some people, the leaf is a suitable vehicle. You complain, loudly, when there is the threat of someone taking a V8 out of production. You feel that such the removal of choice is a disease to be stomped out. Physician, heal thyself!

If you're more than 100 miles round trip from a hospital, you're probably not buying a leaf in the first place. You can come up with all of the strawmen you want, I'll still be here to set them on fire.

Lots (all?) of the electric card articles that I or Mudmonster have written added value to the site as they are news of the current direction of the auto industry. That hasn't stopped you from rating them down. Clearly you feel that my and mud's writing don't contribute to the site.

Situations change all the time. The cts fit my daily routine until it didn't. Suddenly I needed a truck so I bought the Avalanche. Then my financial situation changed and I had to sell the avalanche and end the CTS lease and drive a $750 Buick Wagon that I borrowed. Then I went with no car for a while and just used Alberts CRV and the bus. You don't buy a car today based on what you think you might need in 5 years. Lots of families are 2 vehicle families, thus the leaf or focusEV or SparkEV do make sense.

You vote down every post about an electric car no matter what. Since you can't vote on your own posts, I voted it down for you.

Simply untrue. Even the Leaf/FocusEV/SparkEVmakes sense for certain people. I posted this article on Friday from the Acela train to DC. The guy in the booth next to me and I were talking about electric cars. He's on a wait list for a Leaf. He lives in D.C. and takes the metro for most things. If he goes long distance it is normally by train or by car. He only needs a car for the occational trips out to the suburbs. His wife has a crossover for hauling the kids around. He is trading in a Jetta for the Leaf and it seems to make a lot of sense for his needs. No need for the Volt because he doesn't need the range in his second car. Even my Albert could make the Leaf work as his primary car if he wasn't so insistent that he needs AWD. We would still need something for distance runs, but for his run to work, he would have 85 miles of range left over at the end of the day. Just because it doesn't work for you doesn't mean it doesn't work for everyone.

"barely better than the base 2.4" isn't at all correct. The base 2.4 in the Lacrosse was barely able to eek out 30mpg highway and got an abysmal 19 in the city. You had to work that engine hard to wheel around the weight of the Lacrosse. I did 36mpg highway / 27 mpg city in the eAssist Lacrosse. Now, some of the eAssist increase in mileage does come from an improved 6-speed transmission, but not that much. The 2.4 is aging. I wouldn't expect it in any form to be on the Wards 10 best anymore. Watch the 2.5 though. If there is anything holding them back on the Volt it is the gasoline engine. It is an old technology family zero 4-cylinder that is tuned to run on premium. As advanced as the rest of the Volt power train is, the 4-cylinder in there is about as old-school as GM has on the shelf right now.

The advancement in batteries has been in size.

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Don't care... which is the whole point about electrics! You don't care where the electricity is coming from as long as you're getting it. You like to $h! all over the Volt and Leaf and even the eAssist Lacrosse for using electricity. So the source of the electric doesn't seem to matter to you. As the technology continues to improve, battery range will get you further. In the meantime there are vehicles like the Volt to mitigate that problem. Electric is the power of the fastest land based vehicles on earth that move through the force of their wheels. So no, I don't care where the power is from. The point is I'm running at 125mph under electric propulsion which is faster than ANY of the vehicles you have owned can go. IF by chance you did own one that could reach 125mph... in an hour I'll be in the 150mph zone.

Not with more cut lines than a 92 Silverado it doesn't.

I'm doing 125mph right now in an all electric powertrain. Just saying.

The entire Lexus line rests on the RX and ES. I don't think Lexus can afford to screw up the ES... and I also don't think that interior is a step forward for them.