This really isn’t true. You’re correct that Tesla doesn’t have a negative gross margin (i.e. they don’t actually sell cars for less than the costs of inputs to make them), but if you back out emissions credits, the company has negative earnings, and it helps to show why EVs are mostly unprofitable for most…

Right, but Tesla doesn’t make money on selling cars, which is why the price point seems so attractive. Tesla has convinced the market that it’s some kind of black art, but ironically it’s only because they’ve convinced the market of this that they can continue to do it. The vehicle price is still subsidized…

It probably sounds stupid, but one of the reasons I’m not going back to Tesla is because there’s no CarPlay. I’m just so used to having easy access to the podasts, music, Siri functionality in the car, and it’s frustrating that Elon is stubborn about such irrational things.

I actually did have a really bad wrap on my Model S (to make the chrome elements black).

It’s even more staggering that so many people are willing to believe it.

Volvo made those claims on the basis of obsessing about safety and crash testing results for decades, and real world data about injuries and fatalities in their vehicles. Elon Musk has said publicly that Tesla will achieve Level 5 autonomy by the end of 2021. Surely you can acknowledge that these are different orders…

Well I’d definitely rather have an E38 vs. E39 debate vs. sparring with someone who thinks their current design direction is good!

Yes, I realized that after I posted. Agreed, a low mileage 540i six-speed manual would be fanatastic. Touring even better.

The E39 is peak BMW. The M5 is peak E39.

I didn’t mean to suggest that no middle class people work out of the home. More just that in my circle I get sick of lawyers and bankers (i.e. stereotypical upper income white collar workers) seeming to have no empathy at all for people whose livelihoods are entirely different from their own.

I think this is a pretty typical middle class view of the pandemic. Many are happily working at their traditionally office-based jobs from home, while an underclass of service industry and manufacturing workers have either had their livelihoods crushed or been forced to continue working in potentially unsafe…

I agree regarding manual Ferraris, and I don’t understand why the 456 isn’t more loved, since it’s really one of Ferrari’s most beautiful designs of the 1990s. Interest in these will go up as the more desirable F355s, F430s and other “last of the manual” Ferraris attract even more crazy money.

Came here to say Lancia Delta Integrale.

I knew that all that was missing from this insane bubble of a market was a gig economy mobile EV charging startup. They just need to accept payment only in crypto currency and their slide deck is complete.

The 911 does have this, but it doesn’t actually eliminate sticking your hand in the gap to get the latch to release. The option is called Porsche Entry and Drive on the 991, and it also allows you to unlock / lock the doors and start the car without using the key. You still start the car by turning what looks like a…

Yes, the 2009 rework of iDrive actually made the interface intuitive and pretty good to look at. Everything before that was a complete mess.

Jaguar in general seems to be a trainwreck in terms of its ability to grow sales and sustain profitability. Its US market share peaked at 0.23% in 2017 but was back down to 0.15% last year and 0.18% in 2019, pre-covid. They seem to be consigned to being a choice for people who want a cheap lease deal on something that…

I think it’s tough to see Lucid making it. Their first product is in the large luxury sedan market, which in the US = a total of about 60-70,000 units a year and declining. If they got 100% of that market, that would be maybe $1.5 billion in annual profits at the outside. I think the Air looks fantastic, but it’s…