I have an A7 PHEV that has roughly the same electric range and a desire to get the highest possible fuel economy (while still accounting for my fast-ish driving habits) has forced me to completely change the way I drive. My car has full EV mode (the gas engine only kicks on when more than 40% throttle is needed),…

Regarding the Tesla- Some parts will have flown off by the time you reach the bottom of the hill, so that will help lighten the load. 

They are quite pretty.

The US has 300% more vehicle deaths per capita than Germany. How does Germany do that? Not with any of that BS you wrote about. They have strict licensing requirements and good transit infrastructure.

Definitely a side note conversation since the situations are not similar.

I wondered how long it would take for consumers to sour on their business model of buying used cars and charging thousands of dollars more than brick and mortar dealerships. Carvana is the Ticketmaster of used cars.

If a PHEV covers at least 80% of your mileage needs without requiring you to stop at a charging station along the way, then yes that would be the best.

Don’t forget to add in maintenance costs into your calculations. My Bolt requires two cabin air filters in 130k miles, that’s it. And what’s your time worth? Rough napkin math tells me that in the 45k miles I’ve driven the Bolt I’ve saved about 34 hours of standing at a filling station pumping gas. I know it won’t…

I think Kia still has the $7500 EV tax credit though so it reduces the cost a good amount.

Where are you getting $12k from? The Niro starts at $39k and qualifies for a $7500 rebate making the effective starting price under $32k.

Manual transmissions are overrated for daily driving.

Station wagons are better than SUV’s.

If the issues they had with the Bolt continue, Blazer is the perfect name for this.

I vote for a vac-formed plastic shell over a Harbor Freight Predator:)

Rolls-Royce: We’re redesigning the Spirit of Ecstasy to be more aerodynamic!

I ordered a base MT Kia. It didn’t come with cruise control. The dealer wouldn’t install it either. Jumped on a Kia forum, yep you can install it. Ordered the steering wheel ribbon cable and switches (2 parts total) took off the steering wheel, installed the ribbon cable and the switches. Took me 45mins. Latter on…

Solar storage seems to be the best use for these. Recycle the batteries that are truely no longer good, but reuse the batteries that have some capacity left. With most single family homes(82m in the US), space and weight is not an issue like it is in a car so a heavily degraded battery is not useless. A battery bank…

Totally, I make a decent wage but even then there is no way I could afford an E-class wagon new, especially with kids etc. They hold their value so much more than the sedans so its funny how they dont depreciate much... but there arent enough people to want to spend the 70k and up base price for one. Maybe fewer lease…

Counterpoint, I think it’s really funny when people put atmospheric BOVs on the 1.5T CRVs. You can’t do that with a V6.