Cars We Drive!

[HRoi]

Is this the appropriate thread for more complaining about modern truck design?

I rode in the front seat of a recent GM 2500 series truck the other day and even though I KNOW this is an issue, I was blown away by my inability to see in front of me. It was significantly worse than the F250 (older gen) that I've ridden the same road in. The ******* hood just bulges and you can't see the road in front of you.

Honestly, it made it far shittier for doing "truck stuff". We were going up a crappy narrow dirt/logging access road with some active bike traffic, including kids, that's not open to public cars. The lack of frontal view means you can't actually see the road (or the *edge* of the road!) closest to the truck...which obviously makes it much harder to figure out where to put the wheels to avoid ruts, rocks, children, etc.

Someone (maybe even me) posted a study that suggested that the people most in danger from that front blind spot are your own children.

Waiting for the dealer to confirm whether my batteries are shot, apparently they are running a 4 hour test. Should have car back tomorrow.

In other news, wanted to weigh in on EV ownership after about ~6 months with the EQB. All in all, it has exceeded expectations. The EQB has been what we expected it to be - size is great for our family, easy to park, range is more than fine, etc. I still think it's ugly but not so ugly that it matters. One complaint is that the high-speed charging isn't fast enough but honestly it matters so little. This is in large part because it charges at its maximum speed (100kw) pretty much the whole time I'm plugged into the charger. Some cars may say they charge at 250kw+, but that is a peak rate they barely hit, so overall we only spend a few extra minutes per fast charge plus we are perfectly happy at the 150kw chargers and don't have to seek out the 350s.

The rest of this rant is less about the EQB specifically and more about EVs as a whole.

First - I don't think EVs get enough credit for allowing you to avoid gas stations for daily driving. If we had an ICE as our daily, we would have filled up at least 10-12 times during that span, and each time would be an annoyance. This is exacerbated by where we live and the places we most commonly drive, but it's basically always annoying to have to go out of my way to fill up the car and I don't miss it one bit.

Second - the extra annoyance from charging batteries on road trips doesn't come anywhere close to neutralizing the first benefit. We have a cheat code here since we mostly take the Jeep on road trips, but we also have one of the more extreme usage cases - we probably drove had 20 trips to the mountains (200 miles each way) this winter. We did take the EV on 2 road trips, and I didn't find charging super annoying because it wasn't really out of the way (similar to gas stations). I'm not at the point where I would want to deal with the extra hassle of going EV only given how frequently we need to go to the mountains, but for most people I would guess the benefits of in home charging far outweighs the road trip penalty.

Third - Everyone talks about how EVs are appliances and not as fun as ICE vehicles, but I think they have it backward. Compared to 99%+ of the cars on the road, EV's are more fun. The powertrain benefits, even in a slow EV like mine, is obvious. The linear acceleration and the powertrain smoothness is phenomenal. Sure, it's not a Ferrari V-12, but neither was my clattery Subaru Flat 4 or the vast majority of "premium" cars these days which have direct injection 2L turbo 4s. And, the low center of gravity from the thousand pounds of batteries really does help with handling. Unless you are driving one of the best performing ICE powertrains in a sports car, almost any EV will be more enjoyable to drive. Our EQB is significantly "slower" than our GLC was but feels much faster and the handling is great (fwiw, we were quite happy with the GLC performance and handling).

Obviously EVs aren't for everyone. I'm not quite ready to replace my Jeep with a Rivian, but I'm pretty damn close at this point. I'm mostly here to say that I now think so much of the classic anti-EV arguments about them being clinical appliances is really only applicable if your alternative is a real performance car and even there, I think EVs are pretty competitive. All this talk about EVs being soulless compared to high end sports cars is ridiculous. Cars don't have souls, they have performance characteristics. The holy grail of an ICE engine would more or less be an EV that sounds better. A good friend of mine was firmly in the EVs are soulless appliance camps (he's got a 911 and a 430 in his garage) and recently got a Lucid. His wife was annoyed at him for getting the Lucid but after a week she's mad at him for not getting 2. He's not getting rid of his sports cars but he doesn't talk about his Lucid being soulless.

tl;dr 99%+ of motor vehicles on the road are soulless, and EVs are more fun than almost all of those soulless vehicles. People who are cross-shopping an EV against a Cayman or F8 have plenty of reasons to avoid an EV for now but for your run of the mill enthusiast car (5-series, etc.), the soulless argument is unlikely to be valid.

I agree, it’s just that the internet is still dominated by the enthusiast echo chamber. You know, the people who started their internet careers recommended the e46 m3 to everyone who needed a family, road trip, commuter, off-road, or amphibious assault vehicle.

The MB electric SUv tries at least to look like it’s gas equivalent. The MB electric cars try to look like a 1.3x Prius

Pity the poor (not literally, obviously) GT3 owners in Manhattan.

New York noise-bylaw pilot fines stock Porsche owner $800

Car's owner appealed, and lost, twice—"even in the city that doesn’t sleep, New Yorkers deserve some peace and quiet," says NYC councillor

driving.ca

How high do you have to rev a 997 Carrera S to exceed 90db? The motor redlines at like 7000 so I seriously, seriously doubt that thing was stock

 

[Piobaire]

Nine months into EV-hood with only a 110v charger. It's all good.

The vehicle is fun to drive, ultra smooth (smoother than my old douche mobiles, which is really saying something,) and handles well. Exceedingly quiet. My only two gripes would be is it doesn't sit as high as I would like and is a little smaller than I like.

Agreed not having to tank up is nice but I've had to buy a squeegee.

 

[otc]

Waiting for the dealer to confirm whether my batteries are shot, apparently they are running a 4 hour test. Should have car back tomorrow.

In other news, wanted to weigh in on EV ownership after about ~6 months with the EQB. All in all, it has exceeded expectations. The EQB has been what we expected it to be - size is great for our family, easy to park, range is more than fine, etc. I still think it's ugly but not so ugly that it matters. One complaint is that the high-speed charging isn't fast enough but honestly it matters so little. This is in large part because it charges at its maximum speed (100kw) pretty much the whole time I'm plugged into the charger. Some cars may say they charge at 250kw+, but that is a peak rate they barely hit, so overall we only spend a few extra minutes per fast charge plus we are perfectly happy at the 150kw chargers and don't have to seek out the 350s.

The rest of this rant is less about the EQB specifically and more about EVs as a whole.

First - I don't think EVs get enough credit for allowing you to avoid gas stations for daily driving. If we had an ICE as our daily, we would have filled up at least 10-12 times during that span, and each time would be an annoyance. This is exacerbated by where we live and the places we most commonly drive, but it's basically always annoying to have to go out of my way to fill up the car and I don't miss it one bit.

Second - the extra annoyance from charging batteries on road trips doesn't come anywhere close to neutralizing the first benefit. We have a cheat code here since we mostly take the Jeep on road trips, but we also have one of the more extreme usage cases - we probably drove had 20 trips to the mountains (200 miles each way) this winter. We did take the EV on 2 road trips, and I didn't find charging super annoying because it wasn't really out of the way (similar to gas stations). I'm not at the point where I would want to deal with the extra hassle of going EV only given how frequently we need to go to the mountains, but for most people I would guess the benefits of in home charging far outweighs the road trip penalty.

Third - Everyone talks about how EVs are appliances and not as fun as ICE vehicles, but I think they have it backward. Compared to 99%+ of the cars on the road, EV's are more fun. The powertrain benefits, even in a slow EV like mine, is obvious. The linear acceleration and the powertrain smoothness is phenomenal. Sure, it's not a Ferrari V-12, but neither was my clattery Subaru Flat 4 or the vast majority of "premium" cars these days which have direct injection 2L turbo 4s. And, the low center of gravity from the thousand pounds of batteries really does help with handling. Unless you are driving one of the best performing ICE powertrains in a sports car, almost any EV will be more enjoyable to drive. Our EQB is significantly "slower" than our GLC was but feels much faster and the handling is great (fwiw, we were quite happy with the GLC performance and handling).

Obviously EVs aren't for everyone. I'm not quite ready to replace my Jeep with a Rivian, but I'm pretty damn close at this point. I'm mostly here to say that I now think so much of the classic anti-EV arguments about them being clinical appliances is really only applicable if your alternative is a real performance car and even there, I think EVs are pretty competitive. All this talk about EVs being soulless compared to high end sports cars is ridiculous. Cars don't have souls, they have performance characteristics. The holy grail of an ICE engine would more or less be an EV that sounds better. A good friend of mine was firmly in the EVs are soulless appliance camps (he's got a 911 and a 430 in his garage) and recently got a Lucid. His wife was annoyed at him for getting the Lucid but after a week she's mad at him for not getting 2. He's not getting rid of his sports cars but he doesn't talk about his Lucid being soulless.

tl;dr 99%+ of motor vehicles on the road are soulless, and EVs are more fun than almost all of those soulless vehicles. People who are cross-shopping an EV against a Cayman or F8 have plenty of reasons to avoid an EV for now but for your run of the mill enthusiast car (5-series, etc.), the soulless argument is unlikely to be valid.

Can it make it to Tahoe on one charge? Dunno much about the EQB, but 200mi seems like it should be doable, even on the uphill side.

If so, it seems like the solution is a charger at the ski rental.

 

[Texasmade]

New Porsche 911 will launch on May 28th, 5 pm CEST!

On May 28 at 3 pm Central European Summer Time, we will experience a turning point. That's when Porsche presents the facelift of the 911 - with hybrid

www.elferspot.com

Can't wait for the 992.2 GT3 Touring to be released that I'll never be able to afford.

 

[patrick_b]

In other news, wanted to weigh in on EV ownership after about ~6 months with the EQB. All in all, it has exceeded expectations. The EQB has been what we expected it to be - size is great for our family, easy to park, range is more than fine, etc. I still think it's ugly but not so ugly that it matters. One complaint is that the high-speed charging isn't fast enough but honestly it matters so little. This is in large part because it charges at its maximum speed (100kw) pretty much the whole time I'm plugged into the charger. Some cars may say they charge at 250kw+, but that is a peak rate they barely hit, so overall we only spend a few extra minutes per fast charge plus we are perfectly happy at the 150kw chargers and don't have to seek out the 350s.

Having only used Tesla super chargers for a rental, what's the non Tesla network like? Are they as fast as Tesla's and similar cost? Every now and again I'll see a sad, single charger at a hotel and wonder if guests have to fight for it to charge their EV's overnight.

Pity the poor (not literally, obviously) GT3 owners in Manhattan.

New York noise-bylaw pilot fines stock Porsche owner $800

Car's owner appealed, and lost, twice—"even in the city that doesn’t sleep, New Yorkers deserve some peace and quiet," says NYC councillor

driving.ca

I wonder how easy it is to dispute "sensitive SoundVue microphones and cameras to detect when local noise levels exceed an 85-decibel (dB) threshold"? Has to be a lot of room for error.

Agreed not having to tank up is nice but I've had to buy a squeegee.

I presume you bought one in forged carbon fiber with hand crafted genuine European silicone?

 

[jbarwick]

Our next family hauler will be electric. From a range standpoint, would look at have about 250 at least so we can make it from Nashville to Memphis, 200 miles, without having to stop in the cold. For other trips where stopping would become an annoyance, we have discussed just renting something ICE for the trip.

Just have to get comfortable in assuming the value of the EV will be $0 when we are done and what amount and I ok with spending. Other option is leasing but have never done that.

 

[UnFacconable]

Can it make it to Tahoe on one charge? Dunno much about the EQB, but 200mi seems like it should be doable, even on the uphill side.

If so, it seems like the solution is a charger at the ski rental.

We will find out this summer on a few trips but I'm doubtful that it's even close. The last third of the drive includes ~7k of elevation change plus cold temps in the winter so I'm not sure there is enough margin there.

ABRP says the drive uses about 20% more juice than a flat drive would. And that's without factoring in the temps, although the car has a heat pump so the temps may not make a big difference. That would give me a range of 185 miles and that's rolling in with no reserve. On a flat road, it's pretty spot on with the EPA estimate of ~240. For my particular use case (regular 200 mile drives to the mountains), more range is necessary. Except for that, I'm quite happy with the range we have for all my other usage.

The Jeep is great for Tahoe trips - the kids have captains chairs which recline pretty far so it makes for a comfortable ride. We also regularly have a bunch of stuff to take up and down to the house at the beginning and end of season and it's nice to have the extra space for those trips.

Having only used Tesla super chargers for a rental, what's the non Tesla network like? Are they as fast as Tesla's and similar cost? Every now and again I'll see a sad, single charger at a hotel and wonder if guests have to fight for it to charge their EV's overnight.

The non-Tesla network is ... varied. In Yosemite there were a bunch of Rivian chargers and had no trouble getting one when we wanted to top off for the trip home. Definitely had some range anxiety so we topped off before we got to the park. Since I'm in California, the charger network generally is pretty good but the non-Tesla charging stations tend to have much fewer chargers, they aren't always working and they are generally more likely to be full when you need them. My wife drove up from SoCal after thanksgiving and had to wait a few times to charge while there were Tesla SC's open nearby. We will be able to use the SC's "soon" but Mercedes hasn't said exactly when that will happen. Hopefully by the end of the summer although it's not that big an issue for us (for all the reasons previously stated).

If road trips are a priority in the near-term, I would definitely recommend a Tesla or something that is already on the SC network.

 

[Jr Mouse]

It’s going to be nice when all EV's move over to NACS. Not being on the same standard as the Tesla network was the one thing holding mass EV adoption back. Now that Tesla has opened their standard up with NACS the problem is solved.

 

[venividivicibj]

My only two gripes would be is it doesn't sit as high as I would like and is a little smaller than I like.

Have you thought about a GMC 2500?

 

[otc]

. On a flat road, it's pretty spot on with the EPA estimate of ~240. For my particular use case (regular 200 mile drives to the mountains), more range is necessary. Except for that, I'm quite happy with the range we have for all my other usage.

Hmm, yeah that's a no-go (also would require you to max-charge and nearly max-discharge which is not good for the battery).

Could probably make it on a tesla X or long range Y or 3 and definitely on an S with 400mi range...but I forget that most of the other EV makers haven't pushed for as much max range (which is really not needed for most use cases).

Though if you could make it...you'd get a lot of free charging on the way back down. Was very interesting driving the Tesla in Maui and watching the charge % go UP for miles at a time as you dropped elevation coming down from the high country.

Was a good showcase for the integrated google maps nav and route planning--you could easily see yourself at 30% battery and think "uh oh, I'm not going to make it to my destination," but then you type it in and it says you'll actually arrive there with 40% battery.

 

[sugarbutch]

We go to LA fairly regularly, so a replacement for our remaining ICE car would ideally have 300 mile+ range to enable single-stop road trips. I’m also leery of the non-Tesla charging infrastructure on I-5 during high-demand holiday weekends, but that may be an unfounded concern. All of which is to say I can’t take advantage of the sweet lease deals on the 250-mile cars.

 

[patrick_b]

It’s going to be nice when all EV's move over to NACS. Not being on the same standard as the Tesla network was the one thing holding mass EV adoption back. Now that Tesla has opened their standard up with NACS the problem is solved.

Silly question but when MB, VW, Audi, etc. all switch over to NACS, won’t that put a massive strain on the Tesla SC’s?

I’ve only used them a handful of times but have never had to wait.

 

[Jr Mouse]

Silly question but when MB, VW, Audi, etc. all switch over to NACS, won’t that put a massive strain on the Tesla SC’s?

I’ve only used them a handful of times but have never had to wait.

I am sure for a little while but all the other charging station companies are going to move over to NAC2 too.

Short term pain for long term gain.

 

[Texasmade]

I am sure for a little while but all the other charging station companies are going to move over to NAC2 too.

Short term pain for long term gain.

Only EV I would get if I could afford it.



I actually like this more than the AMG G Wagon.

 

[sugarbutch]

Silly question but when MB, VW, Audi, etc. all switch over to NACS, won’t that put a massive strain on the Tesla SC’s?

I’ve only used them a handful of times but have never had to wait.

It's a particularly relevant since Elon petulantly sacked the Supercharger team. He's apparently rehiring many of them, but he's definitely destabilized the plans of the other carmakers.