Drew Dowdell

A number of the early motor replacements likely weren't even needed, Tesla just wanted the parts back to study potential failures to avoid them in future. An engine replacement in a petrol car is a big deal. Swapping the motor out of a Tesla is simple, relative to a petrol car. However, on a CR survey, it sounds pretty bad.

Another Pittsburgh plug. The optical tech that allows a car to see like a human in order to judge distance and relative speed for self driving cars was largely conceptualized and developed here. This is different from the laser/radar based cruise control systems and is a crucial piece to the SDC puzzle.

I think the article's title and body do not really imply GM as the overall leader as much as GM is among the big leaders in this emering automotive field. And autonomous tech is kind of like any technology, really. Which means easily* reproducible and substitutable in many cases. GM is among the leaders, while companies like Mercedes and Tesla (they've already brought it to market) in production vehicles, I am very sure all the technology demonstrators by all cars are very alike in capabilities. It's also just a part of the big autonomous 'auto's movement. So things from warehouse carts to mining dump trucks to huge freighliners all being able to demonstrate in daily use autonomous navigation ability. *As in easily I mean in the context of academic settings like MIT, Silicon Valley, Pittsburgh, and/or private enterprises with the resources to dedicated to this emerging technology. Indeed, Volvo Truck has been working on self driving rigs for years now.

CR's survey is unreliable because it counts on the customer making a judgement as to the severity of a defect. Customers are, in general, really really dumb. Then there is the issue of CR giving two different ratings to two mechanically identical vehicles with different badges. It is virtually impossible for there to be a statistically significant difference between a Toyota Corolla and Chevy Prism. They were built on the same lines, with the same parts, by the same workers. Yet CR rated them differently. There are other issues as well.... CR has a long history of being unreliable on car ratings. This is not a defense of Tesla but an indictment of CR.

I'm curious how many miles the self driving SRXes in Pittsburgh have racked up.... without that datapoint, you can't make that assertion.

I need to purchase a replacement snow blower this season.... that looks great

They didn't when the same thing happened with Toyota, I doubt they will now.

Correct. It depends if I go with a 3-row (Durango is top contender) or a truck. But also, if I get a Durango, then he thinks he might not want an SUV at all, and go with a sedan or coupe.

I hear Bimmers have the best V6es....

You're talking about a vehicle review like we might do here that "broke" their scale. The car reliability survey is different and is why they are rescinding their recommendation.

not waiting for the new engine for 2016? (or is it just not out yet) Not out yet, and I get the next new car. We may move up to the Envision next time depending on what I get. If I get something that can haul a lot of stuff, then we may stay with Encore. If I get something with limited seating (Read: Truck) then we'll need to move up. The Encore is great for the two of us, but with 7 nieces and nephews, and in-laws who don't like to drive during family trips, we're finding it a bit cramped. (Not all at once obviously)

CRs self reporting model has known issues and has for years.

Well Michael, I'll have an Encore repair to report next time. We have a squeeky HVAC blower motor. Only an annoyance, but I'm having it fixed.

275hp from a 3.0 diesel is not too shabby. Figure at minimum 360 lb-ft of torque. I worked back assuming a HP peak at 4,000 rpm... the torque rating would only go up if the RPM peak HP is reached is lower.

I was never into sports cars or trucks as a kid. For me I liked the big luxury cars. My parents always had imported, obscure crap-box station wagons (VW Type 3 wagon, 1970s Fiat Wagon something, '83 Subaru DL wagon, '86 Dodge Colt Vista Wagon). In reality, the modern Automotive Journalist's dream cars.... Wagons, 4x4 when available, manual transmission, no A/C. The first car my parents owned that had A/C was in 1996, the year I graduated high-school, when they bought a 1994 Pontiac Bonneville (also their first automatic, domestic car, and sedan)... and only then after much urging from me. Mom was looking at a Mercury Villager Nautica Edition just to keep up with her obscure car streak. My parents were never hurting for money, they're just frugal.... my Grandfather on my dad's side and my great grandfather on my mom's side were the Presidents of their respective companies. The former drove a fairly base '83 Caprice Classic V6, the latter a manual transmission Ford Festiva. Mom's parents drove VW Rabbit Diesels, Datsun 210s, and Nissan Sentra wagons (again, all base, no A/C, manual transmission). Gram on my dad's side had a '78 or '79 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser Diesel... sensibly equipped with power windows and air conditioning. Shutting the door on that sounded like closing the door on a vault compared to the crap-boxes I normally rode in. It was a luxury car to me, but Granddad got his frugality by ordering the diesel and Granddad had a boat to tow. Even with the diesel, it was whisper quiet at speed and road like you were on a cloud. It could haul impressive amounts of cargo though at unimpressive speeds. Oldsmobile was one of my earliest words (not kidding). The cars I admired most though were the Eldorados and Sevilles of the era. Some distant relations owned them (one was a diesel, a Seville I think). They might have been pulling in the drive in a Rolls for all I knew.... those cars had presence. They were modern cars with 1920's proportions. If a two-tone bustle back Seville pulled up, I might have expected Daddy Warbucks and Orphan Annie, or some famous and glamorous actress to step out of the back. Riding in one of those meant you had arrived. I had a matchbox car of the 2-tone Seville as a kid and it was my favorite car out of all of the hundreds of cars that I had. GMTruckGuy found an identical one for me a few years ago. As much as I want to, I've not yet taken it out of the original package. One of the neighbors had a a black Eldorado with a stainless steel roof (!!how cool was that to a 6 year old!). Another neighbor had a dark green ~1979ish Ninety Eight coupe that I had a similar admiration for. The Toronados I learned about more as a teenager. I like the Deco look in just about anything, but the Toronado hit it out of the park. The Cadillac's were known to have the troublesome 4100 engines, so I went with the Toronado instead as my first car... 1920s proportions without the 4100 boat anchor under the hood. That car was stolen and totaled while I was in college, so in 2011 I found and bought another one. So there it is... the impressions formed in childhood... with the results sitting in my garage.

Any Audi that I've been in over 50k miles has been a basket case with all of the Achtung! lights on.

In a growing number of cars the infotainment systems also control things like HVAC and even seating position. If you can't adjust the heat/AC to a comfortable temp, I would consider that a reliability issue. Reliability is more than just "does it start and drive every morning"

What I'm reading is they are only providing the guidelines to Tesla certified repair centers. If the center is not Tesla certified, no guidelines.

Toronado/Eldorado first, the rest of the E/K bodies second, the upper-class big B-Body coupes 3rd.... but yes.

FCA also makes Work van versions of their mini-van, the Ram C/V. In the Ram lineup, it gives them a Small, Medium, Large for work vans. (Promaster City, Ram C/V, Promaster) I've been seeing lots of C/Vs lately

SuperCruise is not the only tech that GM is working on at the moment. GM is funding some large self driving initiatives that may not directly have their name on it, but they get rights to the tech as it is developed. Pittsburgh is a major hub for such development. Uber, Google, and Carnegie Mellon University are all working on it here. It's not coincidence that all of the CMU self driving cars happen to be Cadillacs.

Well if that's the case, Balth already knows my soul year cars. GM E/K/B bodies from upper divisions in the 80s and the mid-80s Continental. I even own one. [sharedmedia=garage:vehicles:70] Edit: I really need to update my garage entry with new pics.

So it's okay for a Jeep to be marketed for it's off-road potential, even though nobody uses them for that, but it's not okay for BMW to market the X3's sporty driving dynamics? Got it. Nice double standards there. Regarding the price, it's in line with all the other small lux utes, the vast majority of it performs much, much better than. Even the glorified Equinox that is the SRX runs into the mid-50's. Again, different aspects. The way vehicles are marketed and the reason for people buying them are quite different.... even if the reasons people give for buying a particular vehicle aren't ultimately used. SMK stated "The X3 can run with an Ecboost Mustang or a Camaro V6 in a 0-60 sprint"..... and I replied that X3 buyers don't care about stop light drag races........ I'll add that at $54k, there are a lot of better ways to beat a V6 Camaro from a stop light than buying an X3. The target market of the X3 (Upper middle management, female) absolutely do not care about 0-60. The fact that the vast majority of X3s sold are 28i or 28d drives home that point (still not slouches, but not barn burners either). Regardless of what the BMW marketing department says the X3 can do, people aren't buying them for 0-60. There is huge list of better choices for $54k to get Camaro V6 beating results.... including quite a few at BMW. Jeep is a whole different story. People buy Jeeps because they "need to go in snow".... nevermind that an Impreza, CX5, or Trax would accomplish the same thing, people go for Grand Cherokees (or any Jeep) primarily for the aura of unstoppableness. People buy Jeeps for 4x4 even if the most use it gets is when they hop a curb at the mall. For years Jeep has sold on this capability in spite of questionable reliability. ... and I wouldn't buy the current SRX at $54k either. Well, it goes without saying that there are far better performance vehicles for 54K. It's very hard to get the impression that's what you meant however, when in the very next sentence you bring up the Grand Cherokee. Because that reads like you implying spending 54K for this is foolish when that same money buys a Grand Cherokee. As for why people buy them, while it certainly isn't for stoplight races against sports cars, you are underestimating how many people DO buy BMW SUV/SAV/CUV's for their driving dynamics. Trust me, there was plenty of bitching about the new X1's move to a FWD platform. There's also no shortage of owners with modded X1's, X3's, X5's and X6's or even who run them at the strip. Whether or not others buy them for that reason, it's pretty much impossible to argue that BMW's utility vehicles up to this point have had marked performance and dynamic advantages over their competitors, In some cases, even Porsche's. As for the X3 and it's price, if I were in the market for such a vehicle, it's hands down what I would buy. That said, I don't think I'd spend the money on one over the Grand Cherokee myself, and the first X3 was a pile of $h!. Now see? It sounds like we're largely on the same page. Yes I did bring up the Grand Cherokee Summit Hemi as a better way to spend ones $54k on a crossover. It's a lot more vehicle for the same price. It may not corner like the X3, but it will 0-60 just as fast, holds more people more comfortably, holds more cargo, can tow 7,500lbs, and is much better is snow when it gets deep. I don't have an issue with the lower end X3s. I know why they exist and I know why they sell. I just can't see optioning one all the way up to $54k and citing performance as the reason for it. Shopping in this class, I'd opt for the 28d anyway. I think people do buy the higher end BMW SUVs for their performance characteristics, but I don't include the X1 or X3 in that. The X1 and X3 are geared mostly towards aspirational types to whom the badge is more important than the ultimate performance. As most of the X3s are sold as 28i or 28d, I think my hypothesis isn't unfounded. But for my money, I'd step down to a GC Overland with the Hemi... and even that would be if I really came into money. My actual purchase will be close, but not exactly the same to that.

I don't know what year my soul was born.