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Drew Dowdell

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Everything posted by Drew Dowdell

  1. Drew Dowdell
    Yet fewer faults than humans.
  2. Drew Dowdell
    Computers are smarter and faster than humans.
  3. Drew Dowdell
    This. For what he wants to drive, I defer to him on picking out a car. I present him with options based on his criteria and he can pick from them. Last night he said to me "I'm not getting a used car.". And that's where I corrected him. Whatever we get will be a CPO or used with a good warranty.
  4. Drew Dowdell
    That's actually pretty low for the oldest truck on the market. The 2018's are the last year for this generation of Ram, so I would expect incentives to be high.
  5. Drew Dowdell
    That's kinda what this article is talking about. Excessive leasing is starting to hurt them at the back end of the transaction. They are writing artificially cheap leases and then when the lease is done, the asset it worth less than what the lease was written for even at full retail. However, they are finding themselves unable to stop because they've hooked those customers on the crack of cheap leases. If they adjusted their leases for reality, lease prices would go up and sedan sales would drop even further than they already have.
  6. Drew Dowdell
    I'm not sure if you're intentionally trolling or are actually missing the nuance of what I said. Infrastructure is more than just charging stations, though yes, those also need to increase. There is also the infrastructure in lithium mines, battery construction, electric motor construction. GM is geared up today to build millions of 4-cylinder engines world wide... but they'll only build maybe a hundred thousand electric motors for EVs this year. (Bolt, Volt, CT6 PHEV, eAssist). It's not easy to quickly turn an engine manufacturing plant into a motor manufacturing plant. The subsidies need to continue in order to make the technology available to a wider audience. That wider audience will drive demand for infrastructure higher. The pump still needs to be primed for a while.
  7. Drew Dowdell
    I drove from Pittsburgh to NY to Pittsburgh earlier this week. It shouldn't be surprising to me that people are idiots on the road, but on the first leg of that trip I wanted to nuke the whole east coast. I can't imagine the idiots who can barely operate a Corolla operating a flying drone car...
  8. Drew Dowdell
    No, there is still not enough infrastructure to start widespread adoption yet.
  9. Drew Dowdell
    Changing a technology like this requires investment. There won't be chargers without EV demand and there won't be EV demand without chargers. It's a chicken and egg problem. Also, until any of these things hits large scale, there won't be economies of scale and the price won't come down. The Federal government started the EV credits to help prime the pump and lower costs until the price comes down. Lest we forget, the government paid for a whole bunch of paved roads 100 years ago to enable vehicle traffic. Prior to that, roads between cities were largely dirt paths with mud axel deep. It wasn't "The Market" that paved those roads.
  10. Drew Dowdell
    This is the new bubble and I'm right there with you. I've been in my house 15 years and I've paid it down so much that there are used mid-range luxury cars out there that exceed the outstanding balance on my mortgage.
  11. Drew Dowdell
    The industry got those regulations because the industry was acting badly. Corporations will poison your kids for a 5 cent jump in share price if they could get away with it. It is much better to be proactive with regulations than reactive with spill cleanup. That said, at least these tax credits are helping the end consumers directly instead of going to multi-billion dollar corporations.
  12. Drew Dowdell
    GM is weird. Sometimes they'll have a car out as soon as January of one year prior to model year and then you get 18 months of a model year's production. Other times it will be December before it goes on sale and then quickly switch in May or June. The Envision's first model year was only about 3 months long.
  13. Drew Dowdell
    My next purchase is one for me and will be something that went out of production after 2013. Albert gets his Encore replacement after I get my new to me car. I've suffered long enough with the CR-V..... though neither of us drive much anymore. He takes the bus to work and I work from home.
  14. Drew Dowdell
    The system voltage is largely irrelevant as long as it is within a certain range. The Chevy Volt's battery runs at 360 volts. The old eAssist Malibu ran at 36 volts. A first gen Prius battery is 200 volts. The original Civic Hybrid IMA battery is 180 volts. I couldn't find the battery voltage for the XC90 and XC60, but as both of them produce more total system power than the Benz, I feel the actual voltage of their system is completely irrelevant. Can you please stop thinking that the 48 volt system from Benz is anything special? It's just eAssist a decade late.
  15. Drew Dowdell
    they'll only have incentives on what's already on the lots in bulk. FCA seems to be behind with getting their '18s out.
  16. Drew Dowdell
    Tesla is too unpredictable, but yes, I am concerned for the future of the company. I don't have a personal interest in any of their automotive products (I do like their ideas for home solar and home battery), however even if I never bought a Tesla car, I would not be "gratified" to see them go under. If you are referring to my comment about shorting the stock, I can easily see the money making opportunity of an overvalued stock and yet still not want the company to go under. Tesla is not the only company on the stock market looking at precarious conditions these days. We're due for a major correction soon.
  17. Drew Dowdell
    Prior statements of yours
  18. Drew Dowdell
    It doesn't have to be a big seller in the US. The US is just gravy. They'll sell 3 to 4 times as many of them in China.
  19. Drew Dowdell
    You don't simply add the horsepower of the gas motor and electric motor together to get total system output. If the Benz 4 is not going to be a plug-in, then it is already beaten by Volvo's 4-cylinder hybrid which has 400 hp and is plug-in. You keep throwing confetti around about the Benz 48-volt system.... it's nothing but a modern version of eAssist. Buick and Chevy have that now. Benz is a decade late to the game.
  20. Drew Dowdell
    It takes a certain mindset to cheer for the death of an innovating American company, even if one doesn't care for their products personally.
  21. Drew Dowdell
    That's the problem, people have tastes higher than their budget of affordability. Add to that people are unwilling to buy used or CPO. They'd rather lease, which is usually a bad financial decision.
  22. Drew Dowdell
    The 2017s will be what they'll be pushing incentives on. Once the year rolls over, it will get harder if not impossible to lease the 2017s.
  23. Drew Dowdell
    It's the only way most people can get the car they want these days. Note, I didn't say afford... because if they could afford it, they wouldn't be leasing. The problem is that so many people have E-class tastes but a Cruze LT budget, so even if they split the difference and get Accord V6, it's still a big stretch for them financially and they end up leasing. The only reason we leased our Buick is that at the time we had different life plans and expected to need to be out of it in 2 years. The next vehicle will be a CPO or used.
  24. Drew Dowdell
    Mercedes does not have 20 models with a V8. They don't even have 20 models total. (No, the E-Sedan, E-Wagon, E-Coupe, E63 Sedan, E63 Wagon, etc are not all different models.) I'd be happy to compare some vaporware future Mercedes 4-cylinder with only 308hp to Cadillac. Cadillac's is 335hp.
  25. Drew Dowdell
    If it wasn't a breach of ethics for me, I'd short the stock.
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