Electric Vehicles (the good, the bad, the ugly)

searcher said:

The rear light fixtures would rot out. Starters would go bad and when replacing them you had to be careful tightening the bolts. Failed inspections, hard getting parts. Piss poor materials and workmanship.

Had two customers (married couple) who brought two.........a his and hers. Reasoning was they could afford one good car but then they'd only have one ride and they both worked so they figured they would take the money for the one good car and buy two Yugos. Everything went well for a while they we got a call that they had a major problem. Sent the tow truck over and he brought it back. Valve spring broke, valve dropped and did a lot of damage. That was around the time Yugo declared bankruptcy. Customers were kinda broken hearted.

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I had to smirk at some of those things. Light fixtures were hit-and-miss, in the 1970s-80s. My ex bought a VW Fox, new. Three months later, one taillight housing was filled to back-bulb level with water. I really had to work on that, with aquarium sealer and to be sure, put a couple of pinholes in the bottom of the housing. That would drain into the trunk, but better there than into the light housing.

Starters, yup, a lot of eurotrash cars had that problem. Remember, Fiat was kicked out of the American market in 1979. Nobody wanted one. Europeans were okay with them, because Europeans, living in an area about as big as Ohio/Pennsylvania/New York, could easily take a train anywhere. Or a friggin' taxicab.

Owning a car in Europe was, and probably still is, a status point, first. Bragging rights. Fiats look pretty sitting there, parked.

Parts were a problem. When you bought one, you were dependent on an inept, self-important braggart. Malcolm Bricklin. Two years into the Yugo project, he was already bored - he was letting the company self-destruct.

Valve springs...yeah, the engine, again. Fiat engines were and are crap. The Fiat 500, returned when they bought bankrupt Chrysler, showed they had learned nothing in 30 years' absence. Now, Chryslers and Jeeps, having been designed mostly by Fiat people, often in Europe, are just as crappy.

All this could have been worked out with development work. Yugo, Zastava, was just a motor-car works, run by the Party. No engineering. No new-product development. No customer-service reps.

The sad part is, it was sold to exactly the kind of people who couldn't deal with such problems - the marginal, the broke, the people with no Plan B or emergency money. Yeah, such people would have been better off with used cars from established brands.

I expected trouble when I bought mine - I got more than I thought (clutch failure, and then the engine destroyed with a timing-belt failure) but I knew it would give me a lot. The little things, like wiring problems (those WERE little things in that era) I could deal with.

It was a learning experience - both mechanical and political. I learned why government-ownership of industry, in a planned-economy environment, like Yugoslavia, does not work. It was the beginning of my conversion to Free-Market Conservatism.

So, in that regard, I'd say, probably, my Yugo was worth the price of admission.

Casey Jones said:

So, in that regard, I'd say, probably, my Yugo was worth the price of admission.

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I'd like to see a company make a basic car. Something without frills that you could be used as a grocery getter. People with limited means and peeps looking for something as a spare car could buy. But I'd want it made good, quality materials, quality workmanship. Unfortunately, I don't see that happening any time soon. Cars / trucks are just going to get more sophisticated each year.

searcher said:

I'd like to see a company make a basic car. Something without frills that you could be used as a grocery getter. People with limited means and peeps looking for something as a spare car could buy. But I'd want it made good, quality materials, quality workmanship. Unfortunately, I don't see that happening any time soon. Cars / trucks are just going to get more sophisticated each year.

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Look at a Hyundai Venue SE or Elantra SE. $20k each and 35mpg+.

nickndfl said:

Look at a Hyundai Venue SE or Elantra SE. $20k each and 35mpg+.

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Are they free of airbags? No "processors" up and down? No start/stop crapola?

No "driver assists"? How about, just, NO POWER STEERING on a light car?

Manual gearbox, instead of a computer-controlled CVT with a bird's-nest of wiring and sensors?





I thought not.

But thanks for trying.

The international expansion of Chinese electric vehicles​

Tariffs are typically used at one of two key junctures in the development of a national economy: either at the time of industrial infancy, when they are trying to cultivate fledgling national champions, or at the time of financial senility, when a country’s elites are hoping to forestall impending decline. Donald Trump’s chaotically managed trade war is a clear example of the latter. Amid the intensifying retreat of American hegemony, however, an alternative geo-economic and geopolitical arrangement is coming into view: a battery-powered globalization with Chinese characteristics. In this reordering, China is poised to be the leading actor, with green technology the driver. Its most evident manifestation is the massive international expansion of its electric vehicles (EV) industry.

The excellence of Chinese EVs, which were until recently derided by the likes of Elon Musk, is now incontrovertible. What is more, China’s tech supremacy is quickly translating into market dominance, so much so that it is now threatening to overtake other leaders not only in the EV market, but in the automotive industry as a whole. This bears seismic consequences for international economic geography.

More:

searcher said:

The excellence of Chinese EVs, which were until recently derided by the likes of Elon Musk, is now incontrovertible.

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Uh-huh.

Their clothing, shoes, zippers....microwaves, refrigerators, washing-machines....their concrete, air-quality, bio-weapons engineering, are ALL...LOUSY...but somehow their electric-cars are just wonderful.

Go onto the Toob of Ewe (or its competitors) and look for "electric bicycle battery fire." One I saw, a few months back, involved a guy who got an electric scooter capable of 60 mph...he bought it, charged it, took it for a ride, and at 30 mph, the battery-pack exploded, right between his legs.

He ditched it on the side of the road, his pants on fire (had a helmet Go-Pro); got his pants put out, and called the fire department. In the five minutes the FD took, the burning pile of lithium that was his new scooter, set fire to the lawn of the property owner where he made a hasty get-off.

Obviously that wasn't part of the wonderful miraculous EV technology that the Globalists are going to force on us favor us with.

The whole EV debacle will go down as what happens when politics is put before practicality; when wishful thinking replaces scientific and engineering principles.

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FWIW

How many Tesla owners have been decapitated when their AI Autopilot aimed them under truck trailers, or into freight trains on crossings?

I trust my own reactions better than I would a black box I know nothing about. And if I do screw it up and get hurt...I have no one to blame but myself. Instead of spending the rest of my (cripple's) life in litigation against a politically-protected organization like Musk's.

• Ford’s once-secretive electric vehicle unit in Long Beach, California, has built a new platform that the automaker is using for its next generation of EVs.
• The “Universal Electric Vehicle,” or UEV, platform is expected to be critical to Ford transforming its Model e EV unit from billions of dollars in annual losses to breakeven by 2029.
• Ford is pushing ahead with its EVs, and a roughly $30,000 midsize electric pickup truck, despite challenges in the industry and the departure of its highly touted EV and technology head.

Billy Ford is a woketard.

He's gonna keep pushing these battery cars until he goes broke...or until he's told by his thought-controllers, not to.

Jesus H. Christ. Is there NO ONE in industry these days, who gives a flying frig WHAT THE CUSTOMER WANTS?

So all the lectric car kids abandon their cars when the heater depletes the battery…


and returns when the snows cleared off and fill it back up with lectricity?

Casey Jones said:

Billy Ford is a woketard.

He's gonna keep pushing these battery cars until he goes broke...or until he's told by his thought-controllers, not to.

Jesus H. Christ. Is there NO ONE in industry these days, who gives a flying frig WHAT THE CUSTOMER WANTS?

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No they are all run by the Communists

Voodoo said:

No they are all run by the Communists

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I don't know how that happened, or how it could be possible.

Billy Ford has been around forever. He's the son of William Clay Ford, brother of Henry II. He was in a power struggle with Edsel Ford II, son of Hank the Deuce...Billy was a few years younger and moar athletic, moar photogenic. Also he mouthed the Elites' shibboleths better. Edsel was quiet and not aggressive, and after a trial run running (IIRC) Ford of Australia, everyone decided he wasn't star material. So he owns or owned the Detroit Lions and Pentastar Aviation, separate from the Ford empire.

But there's nothing in there to suggest Marxism - just low wattage. Billy is stupid and not all that competent, but at SOME POINT he has to realize that he and his family's fortune and ownership, are being run with this dead-end battery-device program that NO ONE WANTS TO BUY OR PAY FOR.

If you live in the SW USA and you can afford the solar panels to generate enough electricity for your household needs and an electric vehicle, then an electric vehicle makes some sense.
Where I live in the NE USA it doesn't make sense economically to own an electric vehicle, unless you want to throw your money away.

I have solar panels for my house and my electric bill is $23 a month. I made the decision to get panels when the government was throw money at people to get them.

More commentary than anything else.

• Global sales of gasoline and diesel vehicles peaked in 2017, with nearly all subsequent growth in personal transport captured by electric vehicles.
• EV adoption is increasingly driven by economics and convenience, including lower operating costs, less maintenance, and home charging.
• Oil market disruptions and geopolitical risks are strengthening the case for electrification, as countries seek greater energy independence and reduced exposure to oil supply shocks.

EV "adoption" is being driven by government-centric Elites who want to create a False Reality - the better to push us into their battery devices, the better that they can CONTROL how and when we travel, and how much.

I'm wondering if this is part of the reason Trump, impaired as he now is, was conned into starting this jackass war in the Gulf. CREATE the push that makes the sheeple and the gullible, buy those useless, stupid things.

Several weeks ago I talked to someone who basically told me the same thing.

Man so stunned by Tesla Model Y charging costs compared to gas he takes photo as no one would believe him without proof​

This man was so taken aback when he compared Tesla Model Y charging costs to gas that he had to take a photo.

When YouTuber MyTeslasUk took his EV in for a charge, he took it up from 374 kWh to 382 kWh.

That represents the range going from 65 miles to 228 miles, a gain of 163 miles all in all.

While that sounds like a lot, the price will take you by surprise.

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/new...im-without-proof/ar-AA25lA3f?ocid=socialshare

Uh-huh. This, while these data-spy-centers are quadrupling electric rates.

AND while the tools of the nooze-rooms are likewise ordered to push the battery toy cars.

If it's even true, rates are subsidized. For political reasons. Which will change once the political aim, putting the proles out of usable personal transportation...once that is achieved.

Elon is today's genius!

TESLA JUST FOUND A WAY TO BUILD THE WORLD'S BIGGEST AI SUPERCOMPUTER WITHOUT BUILDING A SINGLE DATA CENTER

The answer was sitting in millions of driveways the whole time… your parked car.

The entire AI industry has hit a wall.. And it's not chips.. It's power..

Building AI data centers now means waiting years for grid connections.. The Stargate project from OpenAI and Oracle is spending up to $500 billion to build 7 gigawatts of capacity.. And it'll take years to come online..

Tesla just realized it already has 7 gigawatts.. Sitting in its Supercharger network.. Already built.. Already connected to the grid.. Already permitted..

So on June 18, 2026, Tesla quietly filed a trademark for something called MEGAPOD.. Modular AI data center hardware designed to drop straight into existing Supercharger sites..

No land to buy.. No years-long grid queue.. No new power plants.. They just bolt compute onto infrastructure they already own..

But that's the small idea..

Here's the radical one..

The average car sits parked and unused about 95% of its life.. And every modern Tesla already has a powerful AI chip inside it.. Built for self-driving..

So Tesla wants to link millions of parked cars into one massive distributed supercomputer..

The math is staggering.. If Tesla hits 100 million vehicles, and each contributes about 1 kilowatt of compute.. That's 100 gigawatts of AI processing power..

That dwarfs every data center on earth combined.. And the real estate, the power, and the cooling were all already paid for.. By the people who bought the cars..

Your Tesla is liquid-cooled.. Plugged in overnight.. Doing nothing.. It's basically a sleeping computer in your garage..

And Tesla's plan is to let you rent it out..

Owners could earn passive income, free Supercharging, or discounts on Full Self-Driving in exchange for leasing their car's idle computing power while they sleep..

Your car stops being a depreciating asset.. And starts earning money while parked..

This is the part competitors can't copy..

OpenAI has to spend half a trillion dollars and wait years for power.. Tesla already has the grid connections, the batteries to stabilize them, the chips, and millions of cooled computers sitting idle in driveways worldwide..

Everyone else is trying to build a giant brain in one place..

Tesla is turning the entire planet into one.

Goldhedge said:

TESLA JUST FOUND A WAY TO BUILD THE WORLD'S BIGGEST AI SUPERCOMPUTER WITHOUT BUILDING A SINGLE DATA CENTER

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All he needs is MOAR GUBBERMINT MONEY!

I guess being a trillionaire isn't enough.

Now if Tesla could find a way to instruct our Elites in the Constitution..."Unreasonable Searches and Seizures"...that, maybe, those include unauthorized data-dossiers, taken from private communications and interactions...that maybe that is a violation of basic individual rights...

...THEN we'd have PROGRESS.

But that's not what we have here.

searcher said:

What If the Most Valuable Part of an EV Isn't the Car? | OilPrice.com

The future used EV market may be driven more by battery value than vehicle value.

oilprice.com

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What if the COSTLIEST part of the battery car, is PAYING TO DISPOSE OF THE UN-RECYCLABLE BATTERY.

nickndfl said:

Look at a Hyundai Venue SE or Elantra SE. $20k each and 35mpg+.

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I went to CarMax and avoided the aggravation of buying a new car. Some people thrive on dealing with arsehole car salesmen but I'm not one of them. At least not anymore. As a younger man I used to love whittling them down to the bone and then walking out anyway as they begged. I never understood how they just couldn't understand the phrase, "give me your best price". Thats all, give me the best price your willing to sell the car for. Instead they send for their backup guy if they see an opening and try a good guy/bad guy act on you while trying to get you to sign meaningless blank sheets of paper.

I was a cop. I know what the befuddle game is played and I didn't like it then either.

And then they give you the price, then they add tax's, the $500 paint protection already on it, you ask them not to hang stickers on the paint making your $35,000 car , they just made $5,000 on, a 4 wheel advertisement for themselves. And then they put a frucking sticker on the paint anyways. I love a new car but they make the experience miserable and exhausting. And now if you want a gas truck to help ruin the environment with you can't even get one near sticker price anymore. For a Ford F-150 you'll have to pay $5 K over sticker because nobody wants those E-truck pieces of shit.

So I just went to Car Max and bought a nice used 4 cylinder Nissan SUV for a set price. No wheedling or slickstering. You do pay premium but avoid the aggravation and you get a nice clean car out of it. My entire life since I was 16yo I drove so while I may love cars I despise driving now so while I'd love a new Cadillac it would basically be a 4 wheel statue parked in front of my house to go to the Doctor or grocer a few times a week. I'd rather spend the money on gold and silver. Chitcongo has the most miserable traffic anyways.

searcher said:

Several weeks ago I talked to someone who basically told me the same thing.

Man so stunned by Tesla Model Y charging costs compared to gas he takes photo as no one would believe him without proof​

This man was so taken aback when he compared Tesla Model Y charging costs to gas that he had to take a photo.

When YouTuber MyTeslasUk took his EV in for a charge, he took it up from 374 kWh to 382 kWh.

That represents the range going from 65 miles to 228 miles, a gain of 163 miles all in all.

While that sounds like a lot, the price will take you by surprise.

More:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/new...im-without-proof/ar-AA25lA3f?ocid=socialshare

Click to expand...

I know this is Old but that Math is complete Bullshit.

from 374 kWh to 382 kWh. (either this is a typo of a whopping 8 kWh - 2.1%)

That represents the range going from 65 miles to 228 miles, a gain of 163 miles all in all. (or this is Complete Bullshit - 98.8% range increase)

Perplexity math says I'm right. Note that is about the same that you'll get on 1 gallon of gas. Looky there. Price is about the same.

A Tesla Model Y typically travels about 24–32 miles (≈39–51 km) on 8 kWh of energy, depending on trim, driving conditions, and how you drive

SilverStacker said:

I went to CarMax and avoided the aggravation of buying a new car. Some people thrive on dealing with arsehole car salesmen but I'm not one of them. At least not anymore. As a younger man I used to love whittling them down to the bone and then walking out anyway as they begged. I never understood how they just couldn't understand the phrase, "give me your best price". Thats all, give me the best price your willing to sell the car for. Instead they send for their backup guy if they see an opening and try a good guy/bad guy act on you while trying to get you to sign meaningless blank sheets of paper.

I was a cop. I know what the befuddle game is played and I didn't like it then either.

And then they give you the price, then they add tax's, the $500 paint protection already on it, you ask them not to hang stickers on the paint making your $35,000 car , they just made $5,000 on, a 4 wheel advertisement for themselves. And then they put a frucking sticker on the paint anyways. I love a new car but they make the experience miserable and exhausting. And now if you want a gas truck to help ruin the environment with you can't even get one near sticker price anymore. For a Ford F-150 you'll have to pay $5 K over sticker because nobody wants those E-truck pieces of shit.

So I just went to Car Max and bought a nice used 4 cylinder Nissan SUV for a set price. No wheedling or slickstering. You do pay premium but avoid the aggravation and you get a nice clean car out of it. My entire life since I was 16yo I drove so while I may love cars I despise driving now so while I'd love a new Cadillac it would basically be a 4 wheel statue parked in front of my house to go to the Doctor or grocer a few times a week. I'd rather spend the money on gold and silver. Chitcongo has the most miserable traffic anyways.

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This makes no sense. Someone goes to the wrong dealers or i've just been lucky. The cars I have bought were at the list or a price i wanted. Bought a new Subaru at a new at or just below MSRP and they accepted the first offer no frills. Probably not a great deal but decent. Other one was a used car and was ready to negotiate a bit and they said we don't do that, just sell what was listed online. Which was a good price. No issues.

SilverStacker said:

I went to CarMax and avoided the aggravation of buying a new car. Some people thrive on dealing with arsehole car salesmen but I'm not one of them. At least not anymore. As a younger man I used to love whittling them down to the bone and then walking out anyway as they begged. I never understood how they just couldn't understand the phrase, "give me your best price". Thats all, give me the best price your willing to sell the car for. Instead they send for their backup guy if they see an opening and try a good guy/bad guy act on you while trying to get you to sign meaningless blank sheets of paper.

I was a cop. I know what the befuddle game is played and I didn't like it then either.

And then they give you the price, then they add tax's, the $500 paint protection already on it, you ask them not to hang stickers on the paint making your $35,000 car , they just made $5,000 on, a 4 wheel advertisement for themselves. And then they put a frucking sticker on the paint anyways. I love a new car but they make the experience miserable and exhausting. And now if you want a gas truck to help ruin the environment with you can't even get one near sticker price anymore. For a Ford F-150 you'll have to pay $5 K over sticker because nobody wants those E-truck pieces of shit.

So I just went to Car Max and bought a nice used 4 cylinder Nissan SUV for a set price. No wheedling or slickstering. You do pay premium but avoid the aggravation and you get a nice clean car out of it. My entire life since I was 16yo I drove so while I may love cars I despise driving now so while I'd love a new Cadillac it would basically be a 4 wheel statue parked in front of my house to go to the Doctor or grocer a few times a week. I'd rather spend the money on gold and silver. Chitcongo has the most miserable traffic anyways.

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I actually did the same with my Smarter Car...a Scion IQ. Three years ago, everything still copulated up from the Plandemic, I had a Died-Suddenly head-on collision in Bremerton, Washington. My second-to-last leisure trip, and the one that totaled my Tundra, my camping trailer, and the motorcycle in the back of the truck.

I'm left with 200 pounds of camping gear, two massive insurance write-offs, a dead legally-liable counterparty, and I'm 280 miles from home. Fabulous luck had Enterprise able to rent me a car as a walk-in, one-way to my home city. This after the village Fire Department chaplain (there was such a person) gave me a ride to a reasonable chain motel (but with migrants all over) and Enterprise two blocks away.

Anyway. I needed a beater car, right away - and there was no Toyota worth owning for sale in my county. NONE. Used cars, good used cars, were scarce on the ground - I could have all the used VWs or Nissans I wanted, although ridiculously overpriced.

But. Spokane, a long ride away, had a CarMax. CarMax had a Scion IQ on their website - in the Seattle inventory, and I'm ashamed to admit, I accepted the $9999 price. KBB prices for that model at the time, were in the $5500-$7900 range.

At the time, CarMax had a 30-day return guarantee. And a warranty - which turned out useless, as it played out; but the issues were minor. MOST importantly, they offered FREE SHIPPING from Seattle to Spokane. Because, of course, there was no title paperwork involving moving it across state lines.

Three days; Spokane had it; and I had a bus ticket. To DOWNTOWN Spokane. No other bus stop - this is Jefferson Lines; Greyhound has abandoned Montana, now.

So. Get off, downtown, catch a cab to the CarMax in Spokane Valley, to the east of the city. Except...NO CABS!

Judas Priest. I hadn't used Uber in six years and my account had been closed. And for some reason the algos had a problem with me loading the app on the phone - and I don't do email on the phone, security, dontcha know, so I couldn't get an Uber or Lyft app.

I walked. Eight miles, in 98-degree heat.

But I got there; the car was there; it started, ran, and actually is kinda fun to drive. I still have it.

I had lined things up with my credit union, but - AT THAT TIME - their own in-house financing was cheaper. I couldn't believe it, either. And of course it didn't stay that way...

In any event, I knew I'd be paying it off once I got the insurance check. Which I did, three weeks later. But I got a car; the whole process, from the tee-shirted kid with ear gauges, greeting me, to my getting the keys (and a 72-hour transport permit; I couldn't get a temp permit in Washington State) took about 45 minutes.

The car turned out to be a keeper. I overpaid, in the end, about 50-percent (COVID premium times CarMax premium) but I knew that going in. Even allowing for how I got ripped off on the price, that they had it ready for me, not damaged, running right, money taken care of, and the financing only cost me pennies, since I did pay it off almost immediately...it's a qualified win.

If you accept the costs and limits and just want keys to some grocery getter...it's certainly someplace worth checking out.

Casey Jones said:

So. Get off, downtown, catch a cab to the CarMax in Spokane Valley, to the east of the city. Except...NO CABS!

Judas Priest. I hadn't used Uber in six years and my account had been closed. And for some reason the algos had a problem with me loading the app on the phone - and I don't do email on the phone, security, dontcha know, so I couldn't get an Uber or Lyft app.

I walked. Eight miles, in 98-degree heat.

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I would've tried calling CarMax and asking if they could send someone to pick me up. Since you were a known customer actually buying a car from them, I'd bet they would have.

Joe King said:

I would've tried calling CarMax and asking if they could send someone to pick me up. Since you were a known customer actually buying a car from them, I'd bet they would have.

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Negatory.

I sure tried.

Corporate posturing - the friendly faces, the 30-day no-question return - that's one thing. One local branch extending any courtesy to one customer...that's another issue.

This is Woke Spokane. A customer is a pest. I can buy or not, zorro fox gibbon.

Because corporate policy, the whole thing went smooth. Because a lotta pot in the shop, the paperwork was FUBAR - including my winding up with duplicate titles on the car; after they gave me a bill of sale that Montana's title office rejected.

Hey, it is what it is. I don't expect service from anyone. I don't expect public dining to be clean or even compliant with law - it's all about getting away with as much as they can.

It's a delaminating society, where trust has evaporated.

Would anyone want one of these in your garage at night?

I hear they're pretty cheap.

Save that vid, if you want it.

Because the mind-controlled Woketards at Eww Tube, will NOT allow the peons to speak ill of those fabulous ELECTRIC CARS!

Something I didn't consider.