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Drew Dowdell

Editor-in-Chief
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Everything posted by Drew Dowdell

  1. Drew Dowdell
    1tb of storage is 896 minutes / 14.93 hours of 4k Video.... Unless you're Jane Goodall in the jungle with no way to dump your video files, I simply cannot see the point of that much storage at this time.
  2. Drew Dowdell
    Not really necessary for the vast majority of people yet.
  3. Drew Dowdell
    The LEAF is the best selling EV to date with over a million units worldwide. Tesla is a distant second. I haven't driven a Fusion hybrid since the last bodystyle (Only a current MKZ Hybrid), but even that one was excellent enough for us to consider a Milan Hybrid at the time. The current Fusion is in the top 5 of the mid-sizers in handling, I"m not sure I'd call any hybrid "fun" because their acceleration is geared more towards ECO, but the Fusion's handling shouldn't be an issue... certainly better than the awful Pruis. The nice thing about the Ford hybrid is that it just goes about its business without any fuss about being a hybrid.
  4. Drew Dowdell
    I hope the 2.4 gets retired.
  5. Drew Dowdell
    The DSG also helps.... they sap less power than a torque converter automatic.
  6. Drew Dowdell
    I'm guessing they need additional capacity for the Colorado/Canyon and whatever they replace the Savana/Express with. I guess trucks built inside the NAFTA zone are not subject to the Chicken Tax.
  7. Drew Dowdell
    It's brand new. Other Moto-Z attachments are a mini-Projector, a big set of speakers, an additional battery that triples overall battery capacity... and if you don't want any of those or the camera and just want a slim phone, you put a thin back cover on it and use it like normal. I wish they had this sort of thing for the Nexus... or Pixel as future Google brand phones will now be called.
  8. Drew Dowdell
    It sounds like you maybe want to buy an unlocked phone off Ebay instead of buying new. The Moto-Z is what I was referring to above. The different attachments you can get for it are something I've wanted in a phone for a while. I **love** the idea of the camera attachment that has a real zoom lense.
  9. Drew Dowdell
    I'm happy with my Nexus 6P. The new Moto's with the attachments look interesting.
  10. Drew Dowdell
    Every niche, or nothing.
  11. 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.
  12. 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.
  13. 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.
  14. Drew Dowdell
    Wages Costs.
  15. 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.
  16. 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.
  17. 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.
  18. Drew Dowdell
    Different strokes... I think the newest Prius is the ugliest in a long line of ugly.
  19. 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.
  20. 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)
  21. 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.
  22. 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.
  23. 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.
  24. 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.
  25. 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.
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