I bought from Carvana back in 2015 and customer service was great. They brought the car right to my house, it was in immaculate condition and payment online went fine. The car only had one key, which wasn't disclosed, and I had no problem getting them to reimburse me the $300 or so to have a second key made.

Three out of four of my last car purchases were made online. I'm very happy to stay away from major dealers, especially Hyundai and Kia.

I’m not sure I really understand what a completely new vehicle is. Automakers tend to keep many parts, even full platforms, from one generation to the next. It seems like a new generation occurs because most automakers provide scant updates from year to year. Which leads to my question - what about the model s and x…

Haha, $34k for a battery pack is complete bs. That’s an 85kwh pack for $400/kwh. Back in 2017 industry average was $209/kwh at the pack level, and most mainstream manufactures (GM, Hyundai, low end Tesla...Aston Martin) are sizing packs to between 60 and 65 kwh. Sounds like he's just looking for an excuse to keep…

I'm about 90% sure the flex has been cancelled at least once if not twice, sounds like Ford just keeps forgetting.

There are two air steams on each side (two for the driver, two for the passenger), you can join them together to create one or split them and direct them up and down or left and right symmetrically about a center reference point.

I use a model 3 for family duties (one 3yo and another on the way) and it’s great. The kiddo gets a great view out of the car with the glass roof and reasonable beltline. It’s nice with any ev to be able to pull into the garage and keep the ac running while the kid sleeps. He can use the door handles on this car (and…

I think an SUV sized asteroid hitting our atmosphere at near relativistic speeds would probably convert most of the air on Earth to plasma almost immediately in addition to sending massive shock waves through said plasma. Let’s see, kinetic energy from a 1000kg asteroid at half light speed = 0.5*(150,000,000 m/s)^2*100…

I think power at lower throttle opening is probably not super relevant because you can always get more power by opening the throttle. It may be applicable to driveability though.

Why don’t we also report the integral of the wheel horsepower over the rpm range instead of reporting peak hp numbers while we’re at it. This would help make electric drivetrains power output more directly comparable to gas. Of course, I’d also like to see a metric that takes gearing into account, like average power…

Damn, forgot to chime in yesterday. I'd go with upgradeable batteries and / or standard battery form factor. With integrated bms and standard power/cooling attachments this seems doable, at least within a given manufacturer. 

My last two car purchases were made online. Most recently a model 3, and before that a Leaf from Carvana. The Carvana purchase process was much better executed and we test drove a few local cars first. Considering Carvana’s 30 minute test drive and 7 day return policy, plus the car’s low mileage and age (2 yr / 15k mil…

So, it’s neglected in the other diagrams but the top diagram shows that the chiller is just another evaporator on the ac system. It’s dumping heat into the condenser, not the radiator. Sure, there’s small heat transfer to the radiator but should be pretty negligible. That allows coolant temp to run below air temp as a …

On the plus side, the operating temperature is way lower than on a gas car, so the plastic is likely to degrade more slowly. 

I completely agree. When I moved to Texas I filled my Roadmaster wagon with all my earthly possessions AND hitched up my Miata for the 1600 mile drive. Made it like a champ.

Ohh, WORKED on it. I did an oil change, transmission fluid change, spark plugs and air filter right after buying one a few years ago but I guess that’s not quite what you meant. 

I remember back when they debuted that transmission it was marketed as a dsg with a small torque converter to improve low speed driveability. Looking into it though it seems to still use planetary gearsets, etc... and is mostly a normal automatic with a torque converter that locks earlier than most.

Eh, comment retracted. Looks like Mazda marketing worked well on me back in 2011

Part of the problem with low efficiency is longer recharge times as well. Part of the reason the model 3 supercharges at close to 500 miles per hour at peak rates is the very high efficiency combined with high power charging. With the huge battery, low efficiency and generally low power of available j1772 stations, eve…

I’d vote e46, and this is coming from an e30 / e24 owner. The e46 is the last BMW that really had a distinctive style. The e90 / f30 / g20 all look like they kinda melted a bit - there’s just something I can’t stand about modern BMWs.