a 62 kWh battery pack (such as that in a tesla 3) would theoretically come out to $8,600 using this figure

right in the equivalent ballpark range of putting in a new ICE motor

hopefully costs of reman/refurb battery packs will become even cheaper than $139/kWh

in terms of car brands in general, lexus has been leagues ahead - much, much better than toyota (and toyota isnt too bad)

but the rz450e is getting less than stellar reviews - not from build quality/reliability, but stuff like range, performance, bang for buck

i dont have experience with german premium brands sucu as merc & porsche to compare lexus against

i was inquiring local chevy dealers in my area (regarding the bolt EUV) but it seemed lackluster - this was back when new EV inventory were starting to sit, and GM announced they’d kill off the bolt, but hadn’t walked back on their decision - so the mood was in a “get rid of the '23 stock”

idk if hyundai/genesis improved the quality of their dealership network since releasing their BEVs, but the last time i interacted with them for their ICE/HEV vehicles was like pulling teeth

it wasn’t just the ICE drivetrain issue, but their service center & staff, the corporate (warranty/claims), not to mention the horrid sales experiences across 3~4 of their dealers back in the mid-2010s - enough to leave the brand & not return, regardless of how good their various ioniq lineups claim to be

i feel like their sales staff are on a whole new level of unprofessionalism

as a “light” example, one sales guy lost the keys to a car i was interested in, and i see his manager berate him over losing the keys abt ~20 yards away, and then the manager walks over to me & offers to sell me the car, all w/o me having had the chance to turn the ignition. wtf??

if this level of incompetence spills over to their BEV sales, i can’t imagine what that’d be like

i would rather suck on tailpipe exhaust or grab the HV battery contactors than deal w hyundai again

ended up just getting a tesla, no complaints, nothing to write home about

is it sacrilege to want it in rwd? fwd was a necessary holdover from the ICE era for fuel efficiency

and people who live with lots of snow aren’t exactly lining up to buy fwd golfs anyways

lol. but avg sales ppl at dealerships doesn’t know how ICE vehicles work either.

yesssss is this coming to the states also???

no more low lead 100 octane gas???

i wonder if this has the potential to de-throne the cessna 172

any workplace stories/gossip you can share?

this explains land rover range rover perfectly

tesla model S: looked better after facelift

997.1/987.1 -> 997.2/987.2: looked better after facelift but idk if its a subconscious bias knowing the .2s don’t have IMS & bearing

jeeeeeez 20k for a land cruiser model 80???

wtfffffff

does the CSP have an expiration date or limit on the model year/mileage?

but the thing is - an AE86 might be just as reliable as it was back then (whether “reliable” is by toyota’s standards back then, or contemporary manufacturers back then, or the toyotas of today) - but you still have to consider the decades of time acting on every single/component/service, and what you consider to be “reasonable” maintenance

“maintaining” an AE86 might mean having to replace rubber/polymer seals, bushings, balls, etc that will dry out/crack/disintegrate over time, which is reasonable given the age

it could also mean having to get panels of the car (or the whole thing) repainted to return it to its original color, which costs $$$, but also reasonable, given the skilled labor & time + cost of high quality paint

you might not like interior trim pieces having cracks, worn down, wrinkled, faded, turned sticky, etc - so you might have to find someone who does restoration on those

thats assuming the previous owner did their part in maintaining the car - not letting it sit for too long, keeping it garaged, keeping intervals, etc

just the other day, i saw a gorgeous AE86 (either paint restored or detailed) driving by - it mustve taken an incredible amt of time and/or $$ to get it to look that good - the car looked like it came off the production line yesterday, and the owner just had it professionally detailed

We said we were gonna go Tesla (more or less decided at that point, despite my dislike of the interface and 2 hr drive. Salesman tells us about a $7500 manufacturer rebate…

my area is flooded with white tesla Ys, but of the non-tesla EVs, i see ioniq 5 the most - especially as of recently

i suspect this manufacturer incentive (while hyundai/kia brings their US assembly lines up & running to qualify for fed rebate) persuaded a lot of consumers

very interesting you had a positive purchase experience at the hyundai dealer - dealerships are very hit or miss & one of the biggest detractors for the brand if you end up with a bad/sleazy one

stick with that one for any/all future warranty-related or recall-related work

A rare FWD instead of RWD for an EV non-AWD version.

i agree - idk how technical the winter/snow driving in MA gets, but a 2WD BEV should be RWD only imo - regen efficiency be damned

the whole point of the industry moving FR layout to FF back in the 70s-ish was for fuel efficiency’s sake. BEVs are already way more efficient than ICEs.

the industry should bury that hatchet with HEVs/PHEVs

1. Tesla Model Y AWD LR. Really fun car to drive.

and I really hated that there was no console over the steering wheel with basic info like speed (which the S and X both have). The center screen is very nice, but it felt distracting to the point of unsafe to have to look to my right to see and/or change anything.

i dont think the nuance of this gets brought up enough - stuff like speed is less critical (just match at traffic’s speed)

but the main point being tesla display centers your focal point right up by your dash just to look at anything

other cars have been utilizing a “centralized” instrument cluster for a while now to save manufacturing/assembly cost for LHD vs RHD - like the prius - but these center instrument clusters are set much further ahead on the dashboard, closer to the windshield than to the driver

this not only reduces the downward & rightward sightline angle, but pushes your focal point closer to the road/traffic

the combined (steep) deflection angle + up front focal point of tesla’s in-your-face center display adds to reaction time - maybe a few milli seconds, but enough to make a difference

after getting used to the tesla & then switching back to a legacy’s conventional instrument cluster layout, you notice how quickly you can receive info while preserving more peripheral vision

i really wish they’d throw in a “cellphone sized” instrument display on top of the steering wheel to display the stuff that occupies the left 1/4 of the screen, and then downsize the main display to save money or whatever

Or, a locomotive.

i wonder why they didnt just call it a prime mover?

diesel electric subs do this too

i think modern nuclear subs also do this, where the steam turbines only charge the battery

Lexus. Always.

anybody know who worked on the air’s suspension?

or any technical development history videos/articles?