Good question. I suspect not, except to the extent that GM provides some kind of contribution to certain dealer ad campaigns.

Curious how you found the ride quality in the Y? I found the 3 comfortable and the Y unbearably harsh.

Yea, this is why cars like the Rimac are just not comparable with most of the McLaren (or Ferrari, Aston Martin, Porsche) range. They are hypercars for the top 0.0001%, whereas McLarens and other supercars get driven, at least a few thousand miles a year for the typical owner.

I think the important distinction here is hypercar vs. supercar. The Rimac is in the same bucket and price band as Bugattis, Paganis, Zondas and all the other ultra-expensive exotica. Most of McLaren’s cars compete with Porsche GT cars and V8 Ferraris (plus the newer V6 cars). It’s just a different market altogether,…

It’s interesting to put the advertising comments in context. GM spent about $700 per vehicle on advertising in 2022, on 5.9 million units sold (i.e. $4 billion in total spend). If Tesla had done the same, they’d have spent $890 million on advertising on their 1.3 million units sold. Would that have moved the needle…

I don’t think many people buying a new car are thinking about whether it will last for 200,000 miles. EV sales have slowed because they are more expensive than ICE cars, and the Covid car market is returning to normal.

See above. This is actually what he ended up getting, since he sent in this request for advice a year ago, and the post was only published today.

For anyone who’s interested, there is a pretty ridiculous Rennlist thread about someone deciding which 911 to get in Singapore. His budget is capped at $1MM.

They do lose that much, as evidenced by the rate at which they are burning through their cash. And you’re also assuming their market is as large as it needs to be to support that growth. The market for $100k+ vehicles, which is the price point they need to be at to make reasonable margins, even assuming they can cut…

Maybe not in this specific situation, but virtually every time I’ve gone to an EA charging station, where there are multiple 150 kW chargers and usually only two 350 kW stations at most, it’s very common for the 150 kW chargers to be empty and the 350 chargers to be in use by vehicles that can’t charge at that rate.

I agree that the R1T doesn’t seem huge in real life, but I think that’s just because we’re used to pickups being very large. Even though the R1S is actually shorter than the T, it seems huge in real life in the way that a Suburban or Escalade seem much more massive than their pickup truck cousins.

It does have some unique attributes - carbon fibre doors, single mass flywheel, GT3 RS engine, different gearing (shorter ratios) and shift linkage I think. There are some unique interior trim options as well. Matt Watson did a pretty good back-to-back drive of the S/T and a 992 GT3T, combined with an intro that walks…

I just can’t get over the amorphous blob styling of the EQS SUV. But I suppose there really isn’t much choice in this segment yet. The iX is actively hideous, and the Rivian R1S is too cartoonishly huge. The Model X has always been an ugly vehicle, and the new interior only helps its appeal marginally. So I guess…

It would have to be a pretty old one to have the free supercharging for the life of the vehicle. I think they stopped that in 2016. My Model S was a 2017, and had free supercharging, but only for the first owner. Regardless, as nice as the rear hatch is on the Model S, it’s not the same as having a wagon.

I’ve had a few sets of Nokian Hakkapeliittas, and am definitely a convert.

Did you ever drive an M550i 5-series or an M50i X5. Or an M760i 7-series for that matter? M Performance cars have always been quite, comfortable and fast, and nothing like their “full fat” M brethren. There has also never been a true M7, so the approach with the M70 is entirely consistent with past large BMWs.

The best part about the i5 is that they are making it in touring form. That might be enough to tempt me back to the BMW fold after my awful G05 X5 experience. However, it seems unlikely we’ll get the wagon in the US or Canada.

That does seem like a lot of chrome, but I’m also sick of the blacked-out look on many cars, so a more subtle use of chrome / brightwork wouldn’t be terrible. The 992 looks fantastic with the silver window trim vs. the matte or gloss black finish, for example.

Do they really sell for this price? The only one that sold for $60k on BaT was a one-of-11 special edition with less than half the mileage. A 38k-mile one sold at the end of 2022 for $40k. A 44k-mile 1982 went for $41k in 2020.

First gear: I am curious what insurance companies will do with Cybertruck premiums. It’s being reported in the UK that many insurers are refusing to underwrite policies for EVs, and when they are, premiums are much more expensive than diesel or gas ICE vehicles. The Cybertruck raises the same concerns as other EVs for…