OT CARS

Discussion in 'Blazers OT Forum' started by EL PRESIDENTE, Mar 22, 2022.

  1. SharpesTriumph

    SharpesTriumph Well-Known Member

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    Honestly I have the wipers set to auto and it does a great job, I never change that. When I do need to clear the windshield I hit the button or if I need to spray I hold it. It was all very intuitive. I've spent more time typing about it here than I ever thought about it in the vehicle. If I think of it next time I'm in the rain maybe I'll try to play with the settings.
     
  2. SharpesTriumph

    SharpesTriumph Well-Known Member

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    Good reply, I'll reply in bold to a few points below;

     
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  3. SharpesTriumph

    SharpesTriumph Well-Known Member

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    Thats a fair point. Some of my opinion might just be earlier vehicles I've seen of theirs. Maybe its better now. I don't think I'll ever be able to move past that opinion though.

    From a purely financial side the steep depreciation of Kia/Hyundai vs Toyota/Honda makes them much more expensive then I think many buyers believe. Now if you are going to keep the vehicle 10 years/200k miles that depreciation doesn't matter much. But if you want to change vehicles; Kia/Hyundai don't provide the low total cost of ownership many buyers expect when seeing a lower MSRP.
     
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  4. SharpesTriumph

    SharpesTriumph Well-Known Member

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    1980s Toyota to current Tesla is a good analogy IMO.

    I wasn't a Tesla fan until one of my friends had one, I spent some time on it, tried one, and ended up just totally enjoying it much more than I expected.

    Now I find myself unable to enjoy other cars. Think of when the Iphone or Android devices came out; then having to go back to use an old T9 texting Nokia phone. Thats how I feel with all other cars. Would love to see Rivian or some companies get their act together and provide a legit competition to Tesla, but right now they're just way ahead IMO.

    I'd suggest each person form their own opinion. But to fully form it you need time behind the wheel of a Tesla.
     
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  5. Voodoo

    Voodoo An American hero

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    Appreciate the insight and replies. Tesla is willing to do things that other 'legacy' car companies aren't willing to do, they are a disruptor and as a result they are able to leap frog other companies because of said risk taking. I think this is finally starting to catch up to them which is why they've had to cut the costs of their cars to put them in a position in which they are closer to where they truly are in the market. As for the door handles, I disagree, I have heard the argument it is for aero, but if you look at the design philosophy of Tesla it's clearly a design choice that fits with the rest of their rationale of trying to think outside of the box and be different. You can see it with a lot of what they do, and some of it is for the better, but things such as the door handles, no gauge cluster for the driver, etc, are IMO taking this design philosophy to such a degree in which it makes it worse.

    What they did well with their design though is making everything work and be integrated very very well, much like Apple they are coherent and everything works generally seamlessly. The phone app ties in with the car very well, and the ecosystem for the entire experience of owning the car is very good. I forgot to mention this in my last post, but this is one of the best things Tesla has done in which it is not given nearly enough credit. You can see with other car companies they have different organizations working on certain parts of the car and they aren't all necessarily as cohesive or well tied together and the user experience demonstrates that.

    As for the performance you note, I have heard mixed reviews. I have heard the car is, yes very fast, but it's also extremely loud and has tons of road noise, and the handling is mediocre. Overall the experience with Tesla is very mixed, and it really depends on what you value with your car. I think much like you mentioned earlier, if you want an iPhone like experience then Tesla is for you. It is very well integrated, is fundamentally different than what came before it, and does some things exceptionally well and others mediocre compared to the competition. I dunno, I am really conflicted about it and who knows I may buy one and become a fan too much like I did when I finally bought an iPhone, but I haven't made the plunge yet haha.
     
  6. andalusian

    andalusian Season - Restarted

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    Wife went with EVs since 2015, once her last Subaru blew it's engine. First one was a VW e-Golf, fun to drive, very shoddy build quality. It was replaced in 2018 with a Kia Soul EV - most boring car ever, but nothing went wrong on it, absolutely perfect reliability.

    She has since got a 2020 Kona Electric. A lot more fun to drive than the Kia, about as much fun as the VW was (much more power, handling is not as good but very entertaining). Like all EVs, they require a once a year service - in the last one they said they heard something with the steering column and decided to replace it just to be sure there is no issue (we never heard anything ourselves and the car never failed).

    Unlike the previous 2 EVs, I think this one is a keeper and she will likely buy it at the end of the lease. My in-laws have a TM3, very good car but we have a tight turning area at the bottom of our long driveway and the wife prefers the shorter wheelbase of the Kona. Also, it is much cheaper than the TM3, I think she got it in 2021 as the last one of the 2020s they had and after all the rebates paid about as much a Civic SI - and it's a much more interesting car to drive, imho.

    I can't really tell you anything about the overall reliability of the new Hyundai / Kias, but our experience has been excellent and I suspect the huge poaching they have done from the other companies in the last 10 years is starting to show (I have many friends at the local automotive design studios that are mostly located in SoCal and that's been the talk about them in the last decade - they invested a lot in improving their design, engineering and production).

    But, car reputation takes a long time to build, I remember being stuck on the far side of Cyprus with a broken Hyundai Excel that had a broken clutch cable, at least it was kind enough to do it where we could find a pay-phone (before mobile phones) instead of the Trodos (mountain range in the middle of the island) we traversed before where we were 3-4 hours away by car from anyone else.

    I would, btw, agree with can't go wrong with Toyota, but I have seen enough Hondas with broken gearboxes to know that's less of a safe bet... FWIW
     
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  7. SlyPokerDog

    SlyPokerDog Woof! Staff Member Administrator

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  8. Voodoo

    Voodoo An American hero

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    The dog keeps getting more and more hammered as the night goes on.
     
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  9. SlyPokerDog

    SlyPokerDog Woof! Staff Member Administrator

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    No I was just reading about the New Corvette that's coming out next year. V8 hybrid supposed to have a 0 to 60 in like 2.2
     
  10. THE HCP

    THE HCP NorthEastPortland'sFinest

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    upload_2023-1-18_20-48-21.jpeg
     
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  11. SharpesTriumph

    SharpesTriumph Well-Known Member

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    Appreciate the post.

    What do you think of CCS charging options on road trips?

    Everything I've seen personally and reviews online lead me to believe it's many years away from being dependable. I like the idea of getting a Rivian R1S if my 2024 reservation ever is actually built. But I just can't imagine being stuck unable to charge on a snowy Colorado ski trip with two little kids.

    I have zero concerns of it with Tesla superchargers. I drove from Palm Springs to Austin nonstop in under 20 hours including superchargers/diapers/bottle breaks.
     
  12. andalusian

    andalusian Season - Restarted

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    I have to admit that I do not care about any kind of EVs, including Teslas, for road-trips. Wife got her first EV which had 82 miles or range specifically for city daily driving duties and in the rare times she needed to go on business trips to Orange County or LA - she took whatever ICE car we had. Because of VWs questionable quality the battery in that first EV degraded within 3 years (no BMS heating or cooling) to around 65 miles range which is just what we needed for an airport round trip. Current car has a 260 miles range - so it basically does everything she needs that car to do. She tool my youngest recently to look at a college in Glendale (Occidental college) - which is about 110 miles away and could, in theory, do it on a single charge. Of course, in SoCal there is a pretty good charging infrastructure already. She filled some at the college while touring it and even topped it off somewhere in Orange County when they had food.

    When we do road trips we try to combine off-roading with it, we have an old Lexus GX470 that is used as a kids highschool car - that we converted to light overlanding duties. It is big enough to take all of us in comfort on long trips, or just the better half and myself on desert runs that include camping. I did drive my in-laws TM3 all over new-england and the charging infrastructure is nice, but it is still limited compared to gas stations, so as I said before, I prefer non-EVs for long distance driving. I suspect that for most people this is such a rare need - that if they do not have an ICE car for that, just rent something. We took a kid to Minnesota to college this summer, normally we would have taken the GX470 - but my wife wanted Android Auto for maps and music, so we just rented a 4Runner for the trip. Biggest issue we had with it is that it does not have the space in the back our Lexus has for sleeping, so we had to find a hotel / motel every night. Otherwise, perfect highway vehicle and great off-road (don't tell the rental company).
     
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  13. Voodoo

    Voodoo An American hero

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    I meant because you quoted wrong, if you look at your message your response was part of the quote you tagged from HCP. Clearly you are a drunk!
     
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  14. Voodoo

    Voodoo An American hero

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  15. SharpesTriumph

    SharpesTriumph Well-Known Member

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    Thanks. Well, it appears you don't rely on CCS charging at all though.

    Road trips is a requirement for me to own a vehicle, I'd never want a vehicle to be limited to only around town, or feel I need to rent something because I can't fill it up. When first owning a Tesla I assumed I'd always want to have one ICE vehicle for trips. After doing that 1200 mile drive in under 24 hours while charging; I just don't have any concern of having to rely on it. That's why I'm trading in my BMW x5 next week and getting a second Tesla.

    Staying at airbnb or campground I can fill up for free. Yes CCS vehicles could do that too, but I question if they can make it from my house to a thousand miles away. I'm sure decades from now every one of these EV vehicles will, but in the next few years? I just don't know if I could own something so limited.
     
  16. andalusian

    andalusian Season - Restarted

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    It's not that I can't fill it, it's that I need to be limited to a limited route to charge it, which is true for either Tesla or any other EV that can't use Tesla's network. I have no need for a car that can't go off-road for road-trips, which, I guess, that if I need a road-trip vehicle that is also an EV, it sounds like it's a Rivian at this point in time.
     
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  17. SharpesTriumph

    SharpesTriumph Well-Known Member

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    Oh, ok..... sounds like your "road" trips are "road and off-road" trips.
     
  18. HailBlazers

    HailBlazers RipCity

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    Yeah I would never road trip an EV. Kinda defeats the freedom.
     
  19. andalusian

    andalusian Season - Restarted

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    Well, I have done it because I didn't have to rent a car in new England, but at this point, for me at least, an ev is the perfect daily, but a subpar road trip vehicle
     
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  20. SharpesTriumph

    SharpesTriumph Well-Known Member

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    In 10-20 years with level 3 chargers everywhere it'll be fine. Also vehicles will be charging faster, such as 800volt Hyunadi ionic5 that can suck up 350kw charging. That and frequent chargers will turn it into a few 5 minute stops if you are pressed for time. Or if you want a longer lunch break let it charge to 100%. There'll be more options than gas, you can charge overnight at campgrounds or any house. I see a lot more electrical outlets than gas stations.

    But right now its a slight inconvenience with a Tesla; yes gas road trips are easier. Overall with autopilot I enjoy road tripping in a Tesla much more than ICE; but maybe at somepoint for a trip my preference will change.

    I wouldn't touch non Teslas for road trips right now though. From what I've experienced and researched CCS charging is a joke. Europe and China are 5-10+ years ahead of the US.
     
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