Stick a Fork in the US Auto Industry

I mean, even for my car being fairly small I certainly wouldn't turn my nose up at a new EV.

I don't blame you, but I'd hate to buy one of those things and have the wheels fall off before I could get home. The Model T wasn't much of a car, even by contemporary standards, but it was cheap enough and performed just well enough for enough people for it revolutionize the industry. That's something the Tucker, which was groundbreaking in so many ways never got a chance to do.

I just wish my own brand had one that had a longer range than a motorized Bird scooter, but seeing as I no longer need to make 8 hour long trips up and down California's coast, I've been considering biting the bullet for a MINI EV anyway.

But for the new brands of start ups...yeah, I think many have been burned by Tesla (literally, in some cases ) so they're not glamping onto Rivian or whatever else is out there with the fanaticism some had for that brand.

Broken 2024 Chevrolet Blazer EV Leaves Journalist Stranded In Virginia

It ain't a sedan, and I dunno what it'll cost, but it does look good, and it ain't an SUV.


But hey, you might be able to get a used EV cheap soon.

Hertz to sell 20,000 EVs in shift back to gasoline-powered cars

In 1968, Dodge showed off this concept for the Charger.



I was immediately reminded of it when I was reading this article that featured this Honda concept.



I'd be willing to bet whoever designed the Saloon was a big fan of the Charger III.

I understand their reasons for doing this, but there's a better way than how Ford is going to go about it.

Ford Says It Plans To Build V8 Mustangs Until The Heat Death Of The Universe (Or Uncle Sam Bans Them)

9,000-Pound Hummer EV Sinks So Deep Into Texas Mud A Tow Truck Had To Pry It Out

Maybe don't leave anything heavier than a bicycle parked on ground that's that oversaturated with water.

If you don't mind buying used...

You Can Get Polestar's Tesla Fighter For The Price Of An Accord

At least with a used ICE car you don't get a degraded battery and guaranteed lower performance. The battery thing just seems like a new high priced degradation in the used product to me. I am not saying an ICE engine or other parts will last forever, though with good care you can extend them, but the batter is going to go to shit and becomes less with use and time. I could store an ICE car properly and it will be running fine in ten years. Not so much for batteries, and in the ICE car that costs 50-100 dollars.

I am just saying I would rather have new or cut a huge amount off the used car price beyond what I would with an ICE car.

Does the Polestar 2 have 800V charging? If so I might actually get one.

There’s one 15 miles away for with 24k miles for under $29k. I have never been so tempted to jump to electric as I am at this moment.

It seems to have a couple of different charging options.

Dammit none of them have more than a 249 mile range, and none of those (vs 233 miles) are below 33k.

I'm holding out for hydrogen fuel cells.

IIRC correctly hydrogen fuel cells spew water out of their tailpipes instead of noxious fumes. Anyway, the claims that EV's cause more problems than they solve has a grain of truth in it. In New York City, automobiles solved a major crisis: the city was drowning in horse shit. It was only the better part of a century later that anyone realized how badly ICE's were polluting the atmosphere. Kind of like human "progress" in a nutshell: solve one problem (more or less) and create another. Hopefully the problems from the solution are less of a problem than the original problem.

They don’t really spew water vapor or even really have a tailpipe. They condense water vapor in a little tank and then when you push a button, (or it’s full and you’re stopped) it pees it out.

If you live in a country where you need more than 200 mile range to get from anywhere important to anywhere else important, and you haven't invested in decent railways... you may be the type of person who has fucked the planet.

I'm not necessarily blaming you. We like to have roomy apartments. But at some point if getting to the fridge burns more cals than eating the sandwich gets you...

I hope the car either lifts a rear tire or 'squats' when it goes

The 2023 Ford Mustang Mach-E Just Got A Lot Cheaper Because They're Piling Up On Dealer Lots

Toyota Offers $40,000 Discount On A Car Most People Can't Fuel Up

Idk why, but it seems the $40k is only in SoCal. Or Toyota doesn’t have their shit together in advertising this in NorCal.

Edit: it gets better: there’s only one Mirai dealer in SoCal. This is a big number marketing stunt to free up their 8 inventory spots.

Cars Without Real Buttons Are Too Distracting To Receive 5-Star Safety Rating In Europe

And this here's the logic if you want to argue why Star Trek still had buttons and dials on tricorders back in the TOS days. Tactile control in an emergency situation is vital, hell even just when you need to pay attention to other stuff. You don't want to have to take your eyes off the road at speed to confirm you hit the right slider on the touchpad.

If you can touch-type on a regular keyboard, try that shit on a tablet.

My Mazda doesn’t have touchscreen and I don’t want it. They’ve put it in some of their later models, including, I thInk, their mind blowingly beautiful CX-90, but if I understand correctly only when it’s in park.

My corolla has some touch screen things it does, but most of them do not work when the car is not in park. I think some of those things start working if the car senses a person in the passenger seat. I am not sure because it has been a while since I had to change blue tooth connections with my phone.

I still maintain the 2010 Corolla was the height of tactile UI in cars. It’s been all downhill from there. (A shame the steering was so bad on the Corolla that year)

Have you driven a Mazda3? I’m wondering how it would stack up. I love mine and the minimalist way they incorporate technology.