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Drew Dowdell

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Everything posted by Drew Dowdell

  1. Drew Dowdell
    Every niche, or nothing.
  2. Drew Dowdell
    The platform is apparently extremely flexible. Stretch it into any shape you want.... make it longer and add battery capacity.... put another motor in the rear, raise the ride height, and so on.
  3. Drew Dowdell
    That sounds great... and yes, I'm sure every manufacturer is working towards this extensively now. In the case of the Bolt, I won't be surprised if/when GM announces other variants in order to improve the ROI. Having a single car on a platform is generally not a good idea financially unless you can sell a huge number of copies of it. So I really expect more versions of the Bolt if GM is going to have financial success with it.
  4. Drew Dowdell
    Space and packaging are key to the rest of the vehicle's abilities. In the Bolt, they moved the front wheels further forward than would normally be possible on a front wheel drive car. By packaging a flat battery carried under the car instead of in the trunk and former gas tank location, that certainly opens up more space. By doing this, GM was able to make the Bolt larger inside than would normally be possible with a gas powered car. That cuts down on weight and increases range. I think where we are getting off track is this; I am saying that it is easier to make a purpose built EV of this size interior go 238 miles on a charge than it is to convert an existing gasoline platform.... if it's possible at all to do at all. There have been a number of tries, and as of yet, not one has broken 110 mile EPA range. (Spark EV, Focus EV, Fiat 500e, Kia Soul EV, Hyundai Ioniq, Mercedes B-Class ED, Nissan LEAF, Smart ED, VW E-Golf). The only vehicles to break the 110 mile EPA range are purpose built EVs like the Bolt and Teslas. (it would be best for all involved, including Mitsubishi, if we just ignore Mitsubishi for now). Could Ford or any of these manufacturers build a version of a gas car that goes 238 miles? Probably, but it would also mean converting a sedan into a 2-seater and filling the second row with batteries.
  5. Drew Dowdell
    Wages Costs.
  6. Drew Dowdell
    As I said... there wasn't the whole story. She had an up-level mileage lease.... and she got taken to the cleaners by the dealership. No one pays sticker even on an Accord, much less a 200S.... and that's what I was saying. The sticker may be $36k, but deals on the car abound and one can find deals out there easily. Getting a $33k 200S and leasing it at $27k was what my original post was about.
  7. Drew Dowdell
    Oh, I'm sure that the Focus EV cost less to develop than the Bolt... and its costs are spread over a broader sales base as well. However, I don't think Ford would have been able to produce a car with the room and range the Bolt has by using a gasoline powered platform. One only has to look at where the battery is mounted in the Focus EV for that. It partially is in the trunk area and adds nothing to the platform strength, so that adds weight. Because the battery can't be mounted under the Focus, in order to get a 238 mile range, Ford would have needed to stuff the doors and seats with batteries.... and then it becomes a race with weight... trying to get enough batteries in there to increase range while fighting against weight creep due to the increased number of batteries. The Bolt is a lot more spacious inside than other cars with that exterior size.
  8. Drew Dowdell
    That is at once the most accurate and horrifying description of the car I have heard to date. I may be stealing it if/when I review one.
  9. Drew Dowdell
    Different strokes... I think the newest Prius is the ugliest in a long line of ugly.
  10. Drew Dowdell
    One of the things I keep reading is that it is easier and cheaper to engineer a car to be an EV from the start rather than try to convert an existing gas-powered platform to EV. I don't know how true it is, but it seems to make sense. In the Bolt and the Teslas, the battery helps to provide torsional rigidity. On a Focus EV or Spark EV, the battery doesn't really contribute to the rigidity, thus the overall weight of the car is higher than it could be. Also on the Bolt and Telsa, the wheels can moved forward... on an EV built off a gasoline based platform, engineers have to make things fit hardpoints that aren't as ideal for an EV. Even the Nissan LEAF is an extremely modified variant of the older Versa platform and as such has all the baggage related to that. A more recent example of this limitation is the Hyundai Ioniq, which was purpose built to be both a hybrid and EV.... in EV form, it too only has 110 miles of range like the Focus EV. So, while yes companies can convert a gas-powered platform to EV, a purpose built EV will nearly always be better. I won't be looking at initial sales volumes as GM has already said they will be doing a slow roll-out of the car. What I'm interested in is how long those cars sit on the lots or if they are sold before the truck even brings them in.
  11. Drew Dowdell
    1,000 miles is considered average nationally for non-commercial use, so it's a good metric to use. It's why so many leases are based off of that. The Bolt would be a very good car for an Uber driver who has access to free charging stations (there are a few around Pittsburgh)
  12. Drew Dowdell
    That's a very good point. Mechanically, our Encore has been basically flawless.... only 2 very minor recalls. But the Intelilink system (First Gen) leaves much to be desired on performance and what I would call reliability..... maybe usability is a better term.... Anyway... half the time voice control can't understand what I'm saying or she won't load Pandora... or the screen changes away from the map for no reason.
  13. Drew Dowdell
    The monthly payment in that one is after an aprox $4,000 down payment, so it's not an apples to apples comparison.
  14. Drew Dowdell
    The discussion is primarily around pricing. No one in the industry thinks that the Model 3 will really come in at $35k, and it will mostly be a $50k and up car. It's an affordability question. Yes the Model 3 will be the "more affordable" Tesla, but it will still be out of reach of the bulk of consumers. The Bolt is closer to reachable (especially if there are attractive lease deals) for most people than the Model 3 will be.
  15. Drew Dowdell
    You didn't get the whole story then... or she was substantially upside down on her previous car. This is before any dealer negotiation even.... The woman needs a financial coach, not a new car.
  16. Drew Dowdell
    EV buyers and hybrid buyers, for the moment, are a different breed of car buyer. To you and I, the Bolt may not look very attractive (though I think it's probably the best looking of models that aren't Tesla).. But when you look at cars like the Pruis, which not only looks terrible, but also has a terrible quality interior, and drives like utter crap.... EV and Hybrid buyers obviously don't care about these traits. They care about not using gasoline. GM is the first to offer an EV that truly can be a family's primary car if needed, and at a relatively affordable price. That's a pretty big deal.
  17. Drew Dowdell
    Well now Ghosn is in control of Mitsu.... I'm sure some heads will roll.
  18. Drew Dowdell
    That's what leases are for.
  19. Drew Dowdell
    A base $29k LEAF with a smaller battery and no quick charge only has a range of 84 miles. The Bolt can travel 2.8 times further on a single charge. The LEAF with the larger battery and quick charge (which still isn't Level 3 charging like the Bolt) is $35k. The Bolt can travel 2.2 times further on a single charge. For an EV buyer, spending an extra $2,500 to get more than double the range and the ability to have level three charging (plus all of the extras the Bolt gets you like CarPlay and AndroidAuto) is a no-brainer.
  20. Drew Dowdell
    As models get refreshed, LTZ goes away and is replaced by Premier. So for example, the 2016 Sonic has an LTZ trim, but the refreshed 2017 does not and has Premier instead.
  21. Drew Dowdell
    Base is an LT? That means they really aren't selling "base" models of the Bolt yet, if ever. Other Chevy cars come in L and LS trims below LT.
  22. Drew Dowdell
    Anything faster than 8 or 7 seconds is typically more than sufficient, faster than that is not really practical for daily use. My Toronado is something like a 14 - 15 second car, and yet I drove it out to 7 Springs and back this weekend just fine with @HoLottaBuicks complaining that I drive too fast.
  23. Drew Dowdell
    You betcha that the Cherokee refresh is going to look a lot like this
  24. Drew Dowdell
    No one stop-light drag races in normal driving... 0-60 is even less relevant than horsepower numbers. Even an 8-second B-Body Wagon can get you an "excessive acceleration" ticket from your local 5-0. The Buick Encore's 0-60 is 10.5 seconds, yet the Encore has outsold the entire Mini brand 2 years in a row.... So maybe you can find some other goal post to wrap your hand around,. I will add this about the Encore. Our 2004 Honda CR-V is an 8.5 second car... yet the Buick feels faster in every day driving because they geared the first and second gear so low that it is very spritely off the line where the old Honda 4-speed heaves through each gear. I'm mentioning this only drive home the point of 0-60 being largely irrelevant.
  25. Drew Dowdell
    One exists... the other doesn't.
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