Well, with my current car - a 2017 Chevy Cruze, it was the moment I realized I had been penny pinched by GM and that my car didn’t have any lumbar adjustment, no tint at the top of the windshield, and the non-extending sun visors. All things I thought were standard on cars these days.
doug
dwford
2024. $100k. UP TO 300 miles of range. 2024......
These things become about race when the press makes it so. The press went after the white racist christian Trump crazies from January 6, but totally mute the race and religion of other attackers when they aren’t white. My local newspaper made a public announcement that because too many arrested suspects were black,…
Since his name is Noah Green from Indiana (very white sounding, right?), the press seems content to leave it at that with no photo, glossing over the black Muslim part
The Ridgeline doesn’t sell because it’s perceived as weak and because of the perception of Honda owners as effete suburbanites. Which is why the Ridgeline has been restyled to look tougher, and why the new commercials are more outdoorsy.
How slow are you going if a dump truck is accelerating faster than you up the on ramp?
Some automakers tried factory owned stores 20 years ago, and got their asses handed to them by the franchise dealers. The automakers quickly sold those store to private companies.
People are willing to over pay for the security of knowing that the next buyer also overpaid.
Everyone likes capitalism until they are on the wrong side of the transaction
That’s an important point. This current generation of Tesla’s will be obsolete, and some currently driving cars will have been scrapped before Level 5 autonomy is achieved. At that point, what did all these Tesla owners pay for?
As for Illinois capping the auto loan interest rate, Connecticut also has a cap, so the bank work around is to charge a loan origination fee on low FICO loans, which can be an up front cost of several thousand dollars. Technically the dealerships are not allowed to add that to the price of the car, but it happens all…
Just like buying a house. Once you start the process, you see how many people have stuck their hands out to get paid as part of the process, for no obvious reason.
At a certain point it will become worthwhile for an enterprising hacker to offer to jailbreak cars.
Note on the BMW i3. With the range extender motor the battery will get you about 55 miles, then the range extender kicks in. It’s a LOUD 2 cylinder motor that doesn’t produce enough juice to keep up with highway driving, and you may find yourself in a speed compromised limp home mode as the range extender struggles to…
I know someone who owned a used 2011 Hyundai Elantra for a reasonable payment. Unfortunately they got enamored with the BMW i3. They ended up trading the Elantra, and refinancing about $6k negative equity onto a used i3. The payment and insurance combined to be about $1000 a month - for a used BMW i3. Needless to say,…
Yeah, this will be an instant classic in 2024/25 for 1/2 price. Only a completely insane person would buy one new.
Exactly. When everyone is selling s skateboard platform with a bunch of Panasonic cells in the floor and 2 electric motors, what’s the differentiation? The intangibles. Brand image, style, comfort of the seats, surprise and delight features.
It’s pretty simple: Just eliminate the gas tax and create an annual user fee paid by all motor vehicles. You can vary the cost however you want - gas, EV, weight, whatever. Then you don’t have the privacy issues of tracking mileage, but still capture the road usage of EV vehicles.
The best part about this interior is that even though it has multiple screens, it still looks very luxurious and the screen are all integrated nicely.
The exact opposite is going to happen. These will be coveted like the Ford Excursion is. Once ICE engines become the minority, people will hold onto these like grim death.