EVs may be harder on tires, but they’re often much, much easier on brakes because you can get so much of your routine slowing down from regen. The brakes on my ‘19 Bolt EV still look like brand new, with 4 years of lots of stop and go driving and a fair bit of highway driving as well in that time. I fully expect the…

It’s a 4,200 lb non-hybrid AWD box with nearly 300hp, raised ground clearance and large, wide, high rolling resistance knobby tires. Defeating those physics is tough to do. I’m frankly surprised the rated mileage isn’t worse.

For comparison - my 250hp/295 lb-ft 2018 Buick 2.0T/8A AWD wagon (on much narrower 235/50-18…

Yup. In several decades of buying new cars and motorcycles, I’ve never bought the same brand twice. Although I have bought a lot of Honda cars and motorcycles used (3 used Civic hatchbacks and a Civic wagon, 6 1980s Honda M/Cs) of various generations.

Dealerships have nothing to do with whether a lease holder can buy the car at the end of the lease. They literally cannot prevent you from doing that if you want to and your lease has that option; it is between the leasing company and the person who signed the contract.

Yup. One client of mine bought his range rover at the end of the lease last year, cleaned it up and sold it in three days for a tidy $25,000 profit, after expenses.

My quad cab long bed 3/4 ton has been a “real truck” (whatever that means) since it was built back in 2005. It pulls the camper and racecar hauler trailers quite well, and handles 2500 lbs of gravel/topsoil/lumber with relative ease, or two liter class motorcycles.

Anyone in California has been able to walk into a Toyota dealership and buy or lease a Mirai (not “Miraj”, LOL) since 2015.

Not that that is a good idea, or that many people have actually done that over the last 7 years.

I don’t know, but considering that the repeat lifter failures on my clients’ ‘16 Escalade happened before 55k miles, on an exclusively (and carefully) dealer maintained vehicle tells me that the lifters are problematic, even with the right oil, filled to the right level, changed at the right time. The latest lifter…

Okay? That does not affect anything I said. “Energy consumption” does not mean “electrical power generation”.

They’re not regular lifters, the complexity and extreme precision machining required to not have internal seals (from what I’ve read) don’t play well with normal levels of oil contaminants, wear and viscosity change over time - and they’re apparently very sensitive to using the spec oil and nothing else.

Is there some trick to watching the videos? None of them work for me.
Windows 10, laptop, firefox.

I’m glad you had that experience, especially since my customer’s meticulously dealer maintained 2016 Escalade Platinum EXT sucked down over $10,000 in repeat lifter/pushrod failures in 18 months, and was in the shop 7 times and out of service for 55 days due to transmission problems - and all under the factory…

The AFM lifters seem to be the major issue, GM has changed the part number at least once if not more times. The lifters break the lock pins or lock pin springs, from what I’ve read.

California resident here. Hydrogen just doesn’t work in the real world yet. maybe it will some day, but not anytime soon. The fuel is far too energy intensive and expensive, the problem-prone refueling network is heavily subsidized yet barely exists statewide outside of three major cities, and half the stations in the…

Here in California, my power (and the power for millions of others in NorCal) is 91% carbon free.

PG&E’s standard power is 48% renewable, 39% nuclear, 4% large hydro and 9% natural gas. 0% coal. And you can choose 100% green power for about $3/month more for the average residential user.

Oh boy. Seriously, do you not understand?

Oh sure, I’m no fan of AFM/DOD. Or the GM 8 speed automatic transmissions or (shudder) CVTs. Some of my customers have had big dollar repeat failures of those systems, I would not own them if I had a choice. Just illustrating what’s being used out there.

Oh, for sure. I’ve seen plenty of GDI engines from various manufacturers that need expensive walnut blasting semi-regularly, head gasket and oil consumption issues on various Subarus, Ecoboosts with their issues, etc.

Just noting that NA V8s are also complicated and frequently unreliable and expensive to fix these…

They had a legitimate test case, with an actual trucker who got fined, had standing, and suffered actual quantifiable loss. And they are a litigious plaintiff, as they sued CARB before this and they sued CARB again after this, for the current electrification rule. That suit is in process right now.

If they and their…

AFM/DOD and VVT all help, when they work. So does more gears in the transmission, up to a point. With most people driving between 0-85 mph 98% of the time, having more than about 8 or 9 gears yields fewer and fewer efficiency benefits relative to the increased cost required. Atkinson cycle engines (Toyota hybrids,…