I’m not saying you’re wrong. But I *am* saying that the tiny number of these, relative to the overall passenger vehicle market, is irrelevant to the future of the planet. Corporations emit 80% of all greenhouse gases. The five largest cargo ships make more pollution than ALL THE CARS IN THE WORLD. Yet somehow, the…

I have no idea where you’re going, or what hotels cost for the duration of your stay, but this seems to be turning into quite a bit of money, frustration, and inconvenience just to avoid getting a room. 

What’s your tolerance for repair and maintenance costs? Because you pretty much have to assume that anyone who’s selling a car like this (they’ve owned it a while and have a list of documented repairs) has finally gotten to the point where they’re tired of throwing money at it, and they probably know or suspect that…

So there’s a $2,250 asset limit. But the first $4,650 of a car’s value is exempted. Leaving aside the insane notion that the state of Ohio could accurately value vehicles, let’s say you have a car worth $10,000. So you sell it to keep your benefits, and buy a $6000 car. Don’t you now also have $4,000 in cash, thereby…

It’s really just the bragging rights that drive this, particularly the tow ratings. An F-150 can tow up to 12,000lbs. That takes a lot of engine cooling, frame, and axles to accomplish, all of which make for a bigger, taller vehicle. The insanity of all this (to me) is that anyone who regularly tows that much will…

The comparison here is not with crossovers. There’s not a single crossover on sale today in the US market that can carry 6 adults *and their stuff.* For that, you need a Expedition or larger. And minivans are cheaper and far more fuel efficient than those.  They can’t tow, but if you have the same number of children…

Think about a Wrangler for a moment. It’s very good at going off road. But it’s not as good as it *could* be, because designing the best, most focused off-roader has inherent compromises that significantly impact how good it is at the things most of its buyers use it for most of the time. So what it actually is, is an…

Please stop equating zero-emissions vehicles with BEVs. They’re an arrow in the quiver, obviously, and they are, at the moment, the most widespread and best-developed alternative to fossil-fuel-powered ICE vehicles, as long as carbon sequestration technology isn’t viable at the level necessary to offset our gas a…

Your arguments are spot on. Also, the majority of your objections are predicated on the idea that California is mandating BEVs. They aren’t. They’re mandating zero-emission vehicles. Biofuels, hydrogen, or some other technology may well come along in the next 15 years that makes this requirement perfectly possible.…

And this, right here, is why there’s a market for $200,000 Aston Martins. 

I mean, I understand what you’re saying, but the dealership doesn’t cover those costs out of the goodness of its heart. I pay those costs, rolled into the price of my car, or markup on the financing, or doc fees - something - or the dealer goes out of business. The difference between direct sales and a dealership…

She did. Or rather, her coworker did. And the police took her car. For doing nothing wrong. So if you stop when the cops tell you to, they’ll take your stuff and make you buy it back. For nothing.

I’m happy to be educated, so please actually correct me if I’m wrong. But isn’t the problem with fossil fuels that we’re digging up carbon from millions of years ago and putting it in the air? Biofuels also put carbon in the air, but it comes from the current-day atmosphere, because whatever plants are used to make it…

Because Latin-based words that end in -us are sometimes pluralized that way. One nucleus. Two nuclei. There are others. Not knowing about a thing does not negate its existence. 

I don’t know the specifics of the minivan Lessor’s situation, but the money factor on a new car lease, at least if you have decent credit, is likely less than the interest rate on whatever other debt they intend to pay off over the course of three years with a low payment. In that case, wouldn’t it make more sense to…

If that were true, there would only be a few body-style variations of Prius for sale. A hatchback, a wagon, and maybe a minivan. It makes the most sense on a spreadsheet. But that’s not what people buy. Because emotions *do* play a big part in what people buy. 

This!!! I can walk up to my stock F-150 and comfortably rest my chin on the box rails. And I’m 5’ 11”. How am I supposed to grab a 50# bag of feed or whatever out of there? With the step contraption they had to put in the tailgate, I guess. Also, get off my lawn!

Garbage trucks get roughly 3 mpg, partly because they idle so much, but at a high idle to run the hydraulics. They average around 130 miles per day. So they burn 43 gallons of diesel. Diesel has a kWh energy equivalent of 39.75/gal. So you’d need a 1700 kWh battery somewhere in the truck, and the infrastructure to…

The Lexus LS 500h has a CVT, along with a 4-speed automatic bolted to the back of it, and together, they pretended to be a 10-speed automatic. So, yes, all Toyota hybrids have a CVT. But one *also* has a conventional autobox. I hear rumors that the next-gen Tundra may come as a hybrid, and perhaps only a hybrid, so…

Work-from-home economics will also drive this, because urban dwellers are paying $2,000/ mo for 500 square feet of space. That they now have to be stuck in, all day, working. But if you can get 2000 square feet of space for $500/mo in someplace rural, why wouldn’t you do that instead? A dedicated office space? Much…