Common sense would lead you to believe once they figured out the manufacturing flaw they made a greater effort to not repeat it. LG Chem makes batteries for 1/2 the EV market, so its not just a GM problem. Its a low % of most EVs, far lower than gas cars (as the story states). Completely overblown, its a non-issue.…

Very impressive. Zero clutches at 217k? Thats got to be a record.

EV fires have long been overblown by the media, mostly because they’re new tech. While its true that EV fires are less often, they also tend to happen when the car is off with more intense flames.

GM finally did the right thing and is replacing all Bolt batteries with a higher capacity, fire free version. Though…

It warms the battery as well. Some use “preheating” as a tactic for heating the cabin/battery off the grid before a longer drive to extend the range. Its a good practice, but I mainly just like being warm when dropping the kids off at school.

The best part is that you always leave your house with a “full tank”. No more spouses driving on fumes before you head out the door late for work. 

I’m embarrassed to admit that I don’t think I did. I left well enough alone, but I probably should have lubed them up. There’s a chance, it was 18 months ago and I replaced brakes on 3 of our vehicles since then.

How many clutches have you replaced over the life of the car and how many miles? I never engine braked my previous cars, and racked up 160k on original clutches. It may very well depend on your car, but there’s no way I’d do that on a my R53 Mini, a clutch is 13 shop-hours if you can find someone to work on them.

My ‘13 Volt had original brakes (70-80% life) when I sold last month, living in the middle of the rust belt. I pulled them apart myself to replace a few times, and was surprised they looked fine. Surface rust, but thats it. |

Now for the price of a new set of pads there’s an argument to be made for just changing them,…

Can confirm, former Volt owner here. Just sold my ‘13 with original pads. I took the brakes apart to inspect, the backings were fine but I’ve read other “complain” of the backing coming off.

Drums have more surface area, and actually have more stopping power, but heat up more under extreme conditions (racing). Thats what I always understood, right?

Get out -------->

A warm cabin/heated seat/heated steering wheel. My garage is detatched and unheated, so in the winter I can “auto-start” my car with an app or fob which gets everything nice and toasty without filling the garage with fumes, which could be deadly if you piddledick around while getting buckled.

Qualifiers acknowledged, but the Outlander PHEV is the best selling PHEV SUV in the world (might be changing soon with the new Rav4 Prime). I’ve got an Outlander PHEV and its a solid SUV and one of the few PHEVs with AWD, and in my case full-time AWD. I’m getting 50-60mpg after I use all my battery’s 22 miles of…

Wagons aren’t selling well in the US.. CUVs are basically compact wagons aren’t they? Check out the Kia Niro EV or VW ID4, they both have a shape *close* to a wagon. If you squint.

Thats a good point, and super easy to do at home. EVs do have some maintenance, but its every 30-45k miles. My bolt says “check” various things (wipers, brakes, coolant) but doesn’t require any maintenance up to 75k miles. I would probably do a brake flush every 2-3 years, but thats about it (adding slide pin to the…

Was I being smug or just responding to a question with facts? Now if I’d said something like like “I feel sorry for all those suckers paying for oil changes” then you’d have a point.

I’ve got a Bolt, it looks like an egg and is kind of dorky but its a blast to drive. You can pass just about anything from 0-45 mph with a blip of the pedal. Passing cars on a country single lane road is the most fun I’ve had in weeks.

I have an old Jeep to wrench on. My commuter? The less to think about the better. EVs are the anti-wrenching car for sure. I guess there’s always suspension and motor upgrades, check out the EV mod channels on youtube.

They come on when you take your foot off gas (if using 1 pedal driving mode). To “coast” you can either use cruise control or keep the pedal just in the right spot. This part annoys me, and I usually switch to regular drive (let off gas it doesn’t brake) until I’m done with that section of driving.

Cruise works most…

Very vocal minority. Super vocal. Way too vocal.