Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations (Archived)

[Deleted User]

If electric were to replace high test hydrocarbon fuel in professional racing, I think it would have to include the ability to charge on the go. It would be possible to electrify the race course so the cars drew amps as they drove. No refueling required.

The motors aren't the restriction. Those are already proven and it's just a matter of sizing them appropriately for their intended purpose, and possibly adding a transmission. It's the power storage that's the problem. Solve that riddle and become a multi-billionaire...or the person who steals your idea.

[Deleted User]

suydam said:

29 mile range is not very much. The thing about electric range is its unevenness. If you’re on the freeway it’s much less. Having driven a Volt for 2 years now, 50 mile range is the lowest I’d consider if the goal is to never use gas around town. Although we routinely travel 12-15 miles and back, it uses more than the actual miles because over half is on the freeway.

The Volt is a great car. Enough electric capacity for most people, and then a backup ICE that doesn't compromise performance. I personally think the engineering is brilliant. The ability to run full electric, or have the wheels driven by ICE, or a portion of the wheel torque coming from ICE, is just amazing. Plus is uses two electric motors that can also decouple for more efficiency depending on the scenario. AND the battery pack is liquid cooled/warmed to prevent degradation. GM really knocked it out of the park with that drivetrain, and the sad part is almost know one knows how advanced it truly is.

ab348

We have Black Friday sales here in Canada now even though Thanksgiving for us was 6 weeks ago. I splurged and bought myself a new vacuum cleaner. I decided to get a corded Dyson before they stopped making them. It will displace my 10 year-old Dyson which has developed a few cracks in the housing (repaired somewhat with Gorilla tape) but which otherwise has served me well. It will be relegated to basement duty.

I have in my Amazon cart (but not yet ordered) a TCL 55" 4K Roku TV. The model I wanted is out of stock there so I am going to hold off for a few days to see if that changes before placing the order. It will make me sad to replace my 10 year old Panasonic plasma which has always worked great but I notice the screen is starting to get a bit dim. There may actually be an aftermarket for it as I gather some folks are buying plasmas used.

ab348

A compilation of crashes so far this year at the Nurburgring is below, entertaining if somewhat painful to watch. My initial reaction was that it doesn't seem very safe. My second reaction was that there as here, there are a lot of bad drivers. And my third reaction was that a 911 or a Corvette won't make a bad driver any better than being in an econobox doing this, but instead just lets them have bigger, more expensive crashes. A few of these cars were expensive write-offs I suspect, and I doubt insurance would cover racing damage.

https://youtu.be/BmoEIyw1HFU

[Deleted User]

abacomike said:

@tyguy

Was reading, with interest, your decision, as a family, to purchase a new Tesla Model S.  How happy I am for you guys.  That has recently, in the past couple of years, caught my eye in terms of styling and performance.  Unfortunately, I have no place near me to charge it.  So I stayed with a gasoline engine.

If, I the future, I can find a way of charging it, I would definitely consider one.  I wish you lots of driving enjoyment.

Thanks Mike! It's great to see you posting and hopefully doing well in Florida. I've made a handful of quick trips to Florida in the last few years for the maritime industry, but I've never had any time for non-business stuff while I'm there. My Miami trips always take me to the ports and it's all business, and then I go home as quick as possible for the next set of priorities.

It's great to hear your grandson landed a scholarship and is getting a good education, albeit in an awfully cold spot. We're still in Colorado but our winters are a bit more mild that Nebraska. Tell him to endure to the end and keep the end goal in mind. It'll be worth it.

We're pretty excited about the Tesla even though there's a bit of risk involved with a new manufacturer, particularly one trying to shake up the industry. No dealer network, full electric, auto driving, supplying their own batteries, virtually no buttons inside the car, etc... They're breaking a lot of new ground and surly some of those things won't work out. Being a Tesla owner requires a bit of patience as they work through the inevitable glitches, and I'm going in with exactly that attitude.

oldfarmer50

snakeweasel said:

abacomike said:

@tyguy

Was reading, with interest, your decision, as a family, to purchase a new Tesla Model S.  How happy I am for you guys.  That has recently, in the past couple of years, caught my eye in terms of styling and performance.  Unfortunately, I have no place near me to charge it.  So I stayed with a gasoline engine.

If, I the future, I can find a way of charging it, I would definitely consider one.  I wish you lots of driving enjoyment.

I would be interested in one also but the price point makes it a bit beyond our reach (you can donate to www.buysnakeweaselatesla.com). I am however eyeing a Hyundai Ioniq plug in hybrid, with a 29 mile electric range I could be on pure electric drive most days. 

29 miles? How about a Mitsu Mivec 48 miles or a Nissan Leaf 70 miles? What’s the price comparo?

suydam

Neither of them are PHEVs.

Michaell

suydam said:

Neither of them are PHEVs.

The Honda Clarity does close to 50 miles on electricity, before the ICE kicks in.

Mr_Shiftright

If you're a bad driver with 200 HP, you're going to be really awful with 400 HP.

abacomike

@tyguy

As you know, Miami and the Port of Miami are quite a distance from where I live - about 45 miles.  I have a friend who is going to the Canary Islands next month with his wife and I volunteered to drive him to Miami International Airport from North Boca Raton.  It’s about 53 miles.  Luckily it is early afternoon so I don’t have to worry about traffic.

Would love to see you - dinner on me - anywhere! 

snakeweasel

suydam said:

abacomike said:

@tyguy

Was reading, with interest, your decision, as a family, to purchase a new Tesla Model S.  How happy I am for you guys.  That has recently, in the past couple of years, caught my eye in terms of styling and performance.  Unfortunately, I have no place near me to charge it.  So I stayed with a gasoline engine.

If, I the future, I can find a way of charging it, I would definitely consider one.  I wish you lots of driving enjoyment.

I would be interested in one also but the price point makes it a bit beyond our reach (you can donate to www.buysnakeweaselatesla.com). I am however eyeing a Hyundai Ioniq plug in hybrid, with a 29 mile electric range I could be on pure electric drive most days. 

29 mile range is not very much. The thing about electric range is its unevenness. If you’re on the freeway it’s much less. Having driven a Volt for 2 years now, 50 mile range is the lowest I’d consider if the goal is to never use gas around town. Although we routinely travel 12-15 miles and back, it uses more than the actual miles because over half is on the freeway.

But 29 miles is plenty for a hybrid, afterwards you have the ICE to take over and it's a regular hybrid. As for me with a 12 mile one way commute 29 miles is plenty for an electric range. Beyond that the ICE would rarely kick in.

snakeweasel

oldfarmer50 said:

abacomike said:

@tyguy

Was reading, with interest, your decision, as a family, to purchase a new Tesla Model S.  How happy I am for you guys.  That has recently, in the past couple of years, caught my eye in terms of styling and performance.  Unfortunately, I have no place near me to charge it.  So I stayed with a gasoline engine.

If, I the future, I can find a way of charging it, I would definitely consider one.  I wish you lots of driving enjoyment.

I would be interested in one also but the price point makes it a bit beyond our reach (you can donate to www.buysnakeweaselatesla.com). I am however eyeing a Hyundai Ioniq plug in hybrid, with a 29 mile electric range I could be on pure electric drive most days. 

29 miles? How about a Mitsu Mivec 48 miles or a Nissan Leaf 70 miles? What’s the price comparo?

Because neither one of those are hybrids, remember we are discussing hybrids.

oldfarmer50

ab348 said:

We have Black Friday sales here in Canada now even though Thanksgiving for us was 6 weeks ago. I splurged and bought myself a new vacuum cleaner. I decided to get a corded Dyson before they stopped making them. It will displace my 10 year-old Dyson which has developed a few cracks in the housing (repaired somewhat with Gorilla tape) but which otherwise has served me well. It will be relegated to basement duty.

I have in my Amazon cart (but not yet ordered) a TCL 55" 4K Roku TV. The model I wanted is out of stock there so I am going to hold off for a few days to see if that changes before placing the order. It will make me sad to replace my 10 year old Panasonic plasma which has always worked great but I notice the screen is starting to get a bit dim. There may actually be an aftermarket for it as I gather some folks are buying plasmas used.

Aren’t Canadians worried about becoming Americanized by adopting our crazed commercial behavior? Or does the lure of a $99 big screen TV top national identity?

Personally, I wonder how you even let driver100 back over the border after gets hooked on wandering around Walmart looking for discounts on pickle ball supplies.🙀

oldfarmer50

tyguy said:

abacomike said:

@tyguy

Was reading, with interest, your decision, as a family, to purchase a new Tesla Model S.  How happy I am for you guys.  That has recently, in the past couple of years, caught my eye in terms of styling and performance.  Unfortunately, I have no place near me to charge it.  So I stayed with a gasoline engine.

If, I the future, I can find a way of charging it, I would definitely consider one.  I wish you lots of driving enjoyment.

Thanks Mike! It's great to see you posting and hopefully doing well in Florida. I've made a handful of quick trips to Florida in the last few years for the maritime industry, but I've never had any time for non-business stuff while I'm there. My Miami trips always take me to the ports and it's all business, and then I go home as quick as possible for the next set of priorities.

It's great to hear your grandson landed a scholarship and is getting a good education, albeit in an awfully cold spot. We're still in Colorado but our winters are a bit more mild that Nebraska. Tell him to endure to the end and keep the end goal in mind. It'll be worth it.

We're pretty excited about the Tesla even though there's a bit of risk involved with a new manufacturer, particularly one trying to shake up the industry. No dealer network, full electric, auto driving, supplying their own batteries, virtually no buttons inside the car, etc... They're breaking a lot of new ground and surly some of those things won't work out. Being a Tesla owner requires a bit of patience as they work through the inevitable glitches, and I'm going in with exactly that attitude.

That’s one thing I wondered about Tesla. In my travels over a wide portion of the north east I’ve only seen one stand alone Tesla store and that was in northern NJ. Maybe I haven’t been looking hard enough. Does Tesla use existing dealerships to sell and service their cars? How available are parts?

driver100

oldfarmer50 said:

ab348 said:

We have Black Friday sales here in Canada now even though Thanksgiving for us was 6 weeks ago. I splurged and bought myself a new vacuum cleaner. I decided to get a corded Dyson before they stopped making them. It will displace my 10 year-old Dyson which has developed a few cracks in the housing (repaired somewhat with Gorilla tape) but which otherwise has served me well. It will be relegated to basement duty.

I have in my Amazon cart (but not yet ordered) a TCL 55" 4K Roku TV. The model I wanted is out of stock there so I am going to hold off for a few days to see if that changes before placing the order. It will make me sad to replace my 10 year old Panasonic plasma which has always worked great but I notice the screen is starting to get a bit dim. There may actually be an aftermarket for it as I gather some folks are buying plasmas used.

Aren’t Canadians worried about becoming Americanized by adopting our crazed commercial behavior? Or does the lure of a $99 big screen TV top national identity?

Personally, I wonder how you even let driver100 back over the border after gets hooked on wandering around Walmart looking for discounts on pickle ball supplies.🙀

The only thing we bought on Black Friday was a set of 4 new tires! I wish I didn't have to, but I had to.

We left our Thanksgiving Day dinner and headed home at about 7 p.m., 15 minute drive.
At the 6 minute mark I blew a front tire.
I was headed for the double left turning lane so I had to make my turn.
I ended up in the right lane and got on Sams parking lot....at least it was lighted and no sales going on.
Who are you going to call on Thanksgiving night....the scam tow truck guys?
The people who had the dinner came out to help. They had an AAA card, and called for a service truck.
It came in 15 minutes, he changed the tire in 20 minutes. I gave him $20, a tow truck would have cost $100s.
The service guy noticed a bulge in my rear tire too!!!
Got home at 8:30, went on line to list tire dealers. I had to be at tennis for 8:30 to 10:30.
Mrs D and I called about 5 indies who had 41/2 stars. Either left a message or wouldn't have stock until Monday.
Tried Sams and Costco, didn't have my size in a premium brand.
Finally got a Goodyear Dealer who could have them in by 3 p.m.(only rated 31/2 stars)
I wanted Michelins and got them...Michelin Pilot Sports A/S 3 PLUS.
Probably paid about $200 more than Costco but they did it today.
Car rides really nice on the new tires.

HERE IS TODAYS LESSON BOYS & GIRLS
I am not usually a big fan of chains like Goodyear or Firestone etc. But, one thing they do have working for them is.....a central warehouse the dealers can order from. That is what made it possible to get these on the same day.

Black Friday Sales....that is the last place I want to be....rather pay $50 more for a new TV than camp out at BB for 4 nights.

oldfarmer50

snakeweasel said:

oldfarmer50 said:

snakeweasel said:

abacomike said:

@tyguy

Was reading, with interest, your decision, as a family, to purchase a new Tesla Model S.  How happy I am for you guys.  That has recently, in the past couple of years, caught my eye in terms of styling and performance.  Unfortunately, I have no place near me to charge it.  So I stayed with a gasoline engine.

If, I the future, I can find a way of charging it, I would definitely consider one.  I wish you lots of driving enjoyment.

I would be interested in one also but the price point makes it a bit beyond our reach (you can donate to www.buysnakeweaselatesla.com). I am however eyeing a Hyundai Ioniq plug in hybrid, with a 29 mile electric range I could be on pure electric drive most days. 

29 miles? How about a Mitsu Mivec 48 miles or a Nissan Leaf 70 miles? What’s the price comparo?

Because neither one of those are hybrids, remember we are discussing hybrids.

Sorry, with all the Tesla discussion I got mixed up.

fintail

Well, when you're led by the "me generation"

It is easier to make quantum leaps when your society is a planned cradle-to-grave repressive totalitarian dictatorship without regulation regarding IP theft, environmental concerns, etc.

cdnpinhead said:

No one in North America engages in such a concept. You have to go to Asia for that sort of thing. It's certainly time to hide and watch, and I can't say I'm sorry to be old enough to not see how it all turns out.

fintail

Already done. Vancouver is Seattle with worse drivers and less medical debt.

oldfarmer50 said:

Aren’t Canadians worried about becoming Americanized by adopting our crazed commercial behavior? Or does the lure of a $99 big screen TV top national identity?

Personally, I wonder how you even let driver100 back over the border after gets hooked on wandering around Walmart looking for discounts on pickle ball supplies.🙀

Mr_Shiftright

fintail said:

Well, when you're led by the "me generation"

It is easier to make quantum leaps when your society is a planned cradle-to-grave repressive totalitarian dictatorship without regulation regarding IP theft, environmental concerns, etc.

cdnpinhead said:

No one in North America engages in such a concept. You have to go to Asia for that sort of thing. It's certainly time to hide and watch, and I can't say I'm sorry to be old enough to not see how it all turns out.

Yes none of that annoying bickering among parties when you're running a dictatorship. You can change course/policy quite efficiently.

driver100

Benevolent dictatorship is best!
But, the leader has to be a really nice guy.
Less waste, less graft, no campaigning, no elections, no chads, no mud slinging........etc..........

driver100

oldfarmer50 said:

ab348 said:

We have Black Friday sales here in Canada now even though Thanksgiving for us was 6 weeks ago. I splurged and bought myself a new vacuum cleaner. I decided to get a corded Dyson before they stopped making them. It will displace my 10 year-old Dyson which has developed a few cracks in the housing (repaired somewhat with Gorilla tape) but which otherwise has served me well. It will be relegated to basement duty.

I have in my Amazon cart (but not yet ordered) a TCL 55" 4K Roku TV. The model I wanted is out of stock there so I am going to hold off for a few days to see if that changes before placing the order. It will make me sad to replace my 10 year old Panasonic plasma which has always worked great but I notice the screen is starting to get a bit dim. There may actually be an aftermarket for it as I gather some folks are buying plasmas used.

Aren’t Canadians worried about becoming Americanized by adopting our crazed commercial behavior? Or does the lure of a $99 big screen TV top national identity?

Personally, I wonder how you even let driver100 back over the border after gets hooked on wandering around Walmart looking for discounts on pickle ball supplies.🙀

Canadians have copied everything, lets face it, if an idea is a money maker capitalists will adopt the idea. Retailers in Canada see that it works so they will do it too. Stores do not open until the next day though, at least in Ontario. In Florida many open at 6 p.m. Thanksgiving Day.
We don't go near stores other than grocery stores unless we really need something. 80% of the stuff we need we buy online usually from amazon these days.
I get little enjoyment from going to stores.....rather shop online except I am getting really tired of cutting up boxes.

[Deleted User]

abacomike said:

@tyguy

As you know, Miami and the Port of Miami are quite a distance from where I live - about 45 miles.  I have a friend who is going to the Canary Islands next month with his wife and I volunteered to drive him to Miami International Airport from North Boca Raton.  It’s about 53 miles.  Luckily it is early afternoon so I don’t have to worry about traffic.

Would love to see you - dinner on me - anywhere! 

That's REALLY generous, Mike, and I'll do my best to make that happen next year. Thank you. My wife and daughter have both commented how much they'd like to see you again. Our family vacation plans for next year are to different spots, but I might be able to make a business trip work to the Miami area. Crossing my fingers.

[Deleted User]

oldfarmer50 said:

That’s one thing I wondered about Tesla. In my travels over a wide portion of the north east I’ve only seen one stand alone Tesla store and that was in northern NJ. Maybe I haven’t been looking hard enough. Does Tesla use existing dealerships to sell and service their cars? How available are parts?

They sure do, but they're different than a typical dealership in that the stores are owned by Tesla. Some locations just have show and demo vehicles, and others have full service centers. They're usually smaller than most dealerships since there are only 5 different models and 2 of those are still upcoming (Model Y and the new Roadster). I think they all have Superchargers, demo vehicles, and show vehicles. Many times they're located in malls, but I'm starting to see more separate buildings with full service centers. In Colorado there are 3, 1 of which houses a service center, and a fourth store is under construction with another service center.

Tesla's direct model is problematic in some states and dealers work hard to keep them out. Not surprisingly the dealers aren't interested in overturning the apple cart, so each state is a different battle. Some states won't allow Tesla to sell vehicles.

[Deleted User]

driver100 said:

The only thing we bought on Black Friday was a set of 4 new tires! I wish I didn't have to, but I had to.

Well that stinks! Sorry to hear about the blowout. My Audi's tires have had the average lifespan of a monarch butterfly and have cost me a small fortune in replacements. A month ago I was 45 minutes shy of wrapping up an 11-hour drive when I hit something on the freeway in Denver, and the tire blew out with a cut sidewall. That was the third such incident in 3 years with this car. Ouch.

When ordering the Tesla we had the option of upgrading to really low profile tires, and after the Audi experience we insisted on sticking with the stock 45 profile tires.

oldfarmer50

Mr_Shiftright said:

If you're a bad driver with 200 HP, you're going to be really awful with 400 HP.

They should really learn how to control a skid.

oldfarmer50

So what’s this with Motor Trend buying the Velocity channel? I’m already getting invitations from MT for some extra special content for 99 cents a month. I hope they’re not going to become like Netflix

Michaell

oldfarmer50 said:

So what’s this with Motor Trend buying the Velocity channel? I’m already getting invitations from MT for some extra special content for 99 cents a month. I hope they’re not going to become like Netflix

I'm not seeing those "offers" yet; I thought it was a simple rebranding.

Guess I was wrong.

28firefighter

Velocity has been a Discovery owned channel for a while. Is Discovery spinning the whole operation off to MT, or did MT just buy naming rights?

Michaell

28firefighter said:

Velocity has been a Discovery owned channel for a while. Is Discovery spinning the whole operation off to MT, or did MT just buy naming rights?

It's a rebrand - no change in ownership, it turns out.

https://deadline.com/2018/04/discovery-rebrands-velocity-motor-trend-network-1202361557/

boomchek

@fintail "Already done. Vancouver is Seattle with worse drivers and less medical debt."



Haha I'm not disagreeing with this.

I took advantage of Black Friday here, but Best Buy had a VIP pre sale the day before with no crowds or lineups. I picked up a Playstation 4 for my son and saved about $120. No lines and no hassles.

Black Friday is a fairly new thing in Canada that retailers started putting on only in the past 2 or 3 years. The only reason it started here is because many Canadians, especially living in cities near the US border would drive south and spend their money in the US.

driver100

tyguy said:

driver100 said:

The only thing we bought on Black Friday was a set of 4 new tires! I wish I didn't have to, but I had to.

Well that stinks! Sorry to hear about the blowout. My Audi's tires have had the average lifespan of a monarch butterfly and have cost me a small fortune in replacements. A month ago I was 45 minutes shy of wrapping up an 11-hour drive when I hit something on the freeway in Denver, and the tire blew out with a cut sidewall. That was the third such incident in 3 years with this car. Ouch.

When ordering the Tesla we had the option of upgrading to really low profile tires, and after the Audi experience we insisted on sticking with the stock 45 profile tires.

Nice to have you back Ty....I know life gets busy, especially when you are still a working guy. Some cars are hard on tires, my wifes 2012 335 had worn out treads at 26k miles. They were early run flats and didn't hold up very well. The C250 had Continentals which didn't have great traction, but the tread was pretty good when the tire had a blow out.
I doubt if the extra low profile tires are going to do much good for the average person. I could have gone that route as well, but, the less time in the tire shop the better.

driver100

While I was getting my new tires I was thinking............how do they rotate tires on these cars?
The fronts are 225/45 and the rears 245/40 s
Do they not bother rotating....good, I always found it was a waste of time and money and the 2 times I did it the tires wore out sooner.
Another thing, in the olden days when you got a flat you just put one ONE new tire, sometimes with a different tread than the other 3, now you often have to replace at least two, and sometimes 4 tires.
Although a RFT may have got us home in this case, it would probably cost a lot more to get 4 RFTs

snakeweasel

oldfarmer50 said:oldfarmer50 said:

abacomike said:

@tyguy

Was reading, with interest, your decision, as a family, to purchase a new Tesla Model S.  How happy I am for you guys.  That has recently, in the past couple of years, caught my eye in terms of styling and performance.  Unfortunately, I have no place near me to charge it.  So I stayed with a gasoline engine.

If, I the future, I can find a way of charging it, I would definitely consider one.  I wish you lots of driving enjoyment.

I would be interested in one also but the price point makes it a bit beyond our reach (you can donate to www.buysnakeweaselatesla.com). I am however eyeing a Hyundai Ioniq plug in hybrid, with a 29 mile electric range I could be on pure electric drive most days. 

29 miles? How about a Mitsu Mivec 48 miles or a Nissan Leaf 70 miles? What’s the price comparo?

Because neither one of those are hybrids, remember we are discussing hybrids.

Sorry, with all the Tesla discussion I got mixed up.

Yeah that's understandable as I was responding to a post about Teslas. I like the ideal of electric  cars but the price point of those with the range I would like is a bit beyond my ability right now. But a plug in hybrid is doable. 

ab348

Michaell said:

28firefighter said:

Velocity has been a Discovery owned channel for a while. Is Discovery spinning the whole operation off to MT, or did MT just buy naming rights?

It's a rebrand - no change in ownership, it turns out.

https://deadline.com/2018/04/discovery-rebrands-velocity-motor-trend-network-1202361557/

Hard to figure. MT had a reputation that was basically trash for decades. Fluff reviews, paid-for COTY awards, etc. Back in the '80s and '90s when I was buying/subscribing to car magazines they were never even a consideration. It was simply a rag. I think they tried to rehabilitate their image over the last few years and maybe they have among the younger set, but I still find it difficult to understand why Discovery would abandon their Velocity brand for this, when all I can think from MT in recent years is the fairly awful Motor Trend TV show that was on some cable channel a few years ago.

Of course visiting the site and seeing what video they are offering to subscribers, there is almost nothing I would pay money for. I would love to meet the producers of these shows who thought that it was a good idea to turn these people into actors or comedians, and also repeat 20% of what you saw pre-commercial break when the commercial ends. The padding of these shows with repetitive editing, manufactured fake drama, lame attempts at being funny, and often unappealing characters/performers has really made Velocity take a sharp turn for the worse of late.

oldfarmer50

tyguy said:

oldfarmer50 said:

That’s one thing I wondered about Tesla. In my travels over a wide portion of the north east I’ve only seen one stand alone Tesla store and that was in northern NJ. Maybe I haven’t been looking hard enough. Does Tesla use existing dealerships to sell and service their cars? How available are parts?

They sure do, but they're different than a typical dealership in that the stores are owned by Tesla. Some locations just have show and demo vehicles, and others have full service centers. They're usually smaller than most dealerships since there are only 5 different models and 2 of those are still upcoming (Model Y and the new Roadster). I think they all have Superchargers, demo vehicles, and show vehicles. Many times they're located in malls, but I'm starting to see more separate buildings with full service centers. In Colorado there are 3, 1 of which houses a service center, and a fourth store is under construction with another service center.

Tesla's direct model is problematic in some states and dealers work hard to keep them out. Not surprisingly the dealers aren't interested in overturning the apple cart, so each state is a different battle. Some states won't allow Tesla to sell vehicles.

I did some research and there are five dealerships in NY but all down near NYC, which I guess makes sense. Upstate there are a couple of “supercharger” stations at local malls. There’s a proposal for the state to allow ten more as long as five are upstate.

The politicians will hold it up until sufficient “contributions” are made,

dino001

While I still have serious doubts about Tesla’s business and am not particularly interested in the product, I think it’s outrageous that some states prohibit direct sale. How does it stand on constitutional level, I don’t know.

oldfarmer50

Michaell said:

28firefighter said:

Velocity has been a Discovery owned channel for a while. Is Discovery spinning the whole operation off to MT, or did MT just buy naming rights?

It's a rebrand - no change in ownership, it turns out.

https://deadline.com/2018/04/discovery-rebrands-velocity-motor-trend-network-1202361557/

That article is confusing to me. Are they leaving the TV unchanged except for the name? I don’t use any kind of mobile content and I’d hate to lose the shows I’ve become a fan of.

I’ve noticed companies and websites actively excluding low technology folks like myself. Everything from Edmunds no longer letting me log on with my “obsolete” IPad to some websites that insist on verifying ID by text only and pretty much telling land line users to drop dead.

Speaking of low tech, I finally got the dishwasher installed and we hate it. Instead of just pushing the ON button you have to program it like a computer.

oldfarmer50

driver100 said:

While I was getting my new tires I was thinking............how do they rotate tires on these cars?
The fronts are 225/45 and the rears 245/40 s
Do they not bother rotating....good, I always found it was a waste of time and money and the 2 times I did it the tires wore out sooner.
Another thing, in the olden days when you got a flat you just put one ONE new tire, sometimes with a different tread than the other 3, now you often have to replace at least two, and sometimes 4 tires.
Although a RFT may have got us home in this case, it would probably cost a lot more to get 4 RFTs

Those staggered tires can only be rotated side to side. I’ve read that replacing three additional tires when one goes bad is because of AWD. Supposedly having tires of slightly different diameters screws up the transfer system. Don’t know if that’s true or hype to sell more tires.

abacomike

Tesla has a store inside the Boca Raton FL Mall that I frequent.  They can’t sell any cars from the store because Boca Raton has an ordinance that prohibits auto franchises and dealerships from establishing inside the city.  You can’t buy a car in Boca Raton because there are no dealerships.  You need to go into North Broward County or Delray Beach to buy a car.  It’s similar to “dry towns” where alcohol cannot be sold - in this case it’s new cars.  Crazy!

bwia

Yesterday, I visited the Airforce One exhibit at National Harbor in Maryland. Listen to the audio 
https://airforceone.oncell.com/en/1-welcome-to-air-force-one-163688.html.

Oops! I can't post the pic here. I will try again.

abacomike

I just read on the Westher Channel App that there is a big snowstorm organizing in the Rockies that is expected to drop heavy snows today and tomorrow from northeastern Colorado through the entire State of Nebraska with the heaviest accumulations occurring between Lincoln and Omaha.  Needless to say, I am somewhat concerned as my grandson is right in the middle of that mess.  They were planning on driving his friend’s car back to Nebraska rather than fly back.  I emailed him that it might not be such a good idea to drive back - he’s a “desert baby” who knows nothing about driving the interstates in blizzard-like conditions.

Just another thing I have to worry about in my golden olden years.  I suggested to him that the delay returning to the Lincoln area a day - the college is aware many of the students will be late returning due to the storm. 

stickguy

they just built a new stand alone Tesla store in Cherry Hill. I have driven buy but not stopped in. Looks pretty big.

Driver you are correct. Don't rotate. I don't think they recommend side to side anyway, and a lot of tires these days are directional so you couldn't do it if you wanted to.

suydam

abacomike said:

I just read on the Westher Channel App that there is a big snowstorm organizing in the Rockies that is expected to drop heavy snows today and tomorrow from northeastern Colorado through the entire State of Nebraska with the heaviest accumulations occurring between Lincoln and Omaha.  Needless to say, I am somewhat concerned as my grandson is right in the middle of that mess.  They were planning on driving his friend’s car back to Nebraska rather than fly back.  I emailed him that it might not be such a good idea to drive back - he’s a “desert baby” who knows nothing about driving the interstates in blizzard-like conditions.

Just another thing I have to worry about in my golden olden years.  I suggested to him that the delay returning to the Lincoln area a day - the college is aware many of the students will be late returning due to the storm. 

This is normal life in Nebraska. He’ll get used to it and he will deal.

oldfarmer50

abacomike said:

I just read on the Westher Channel App that there is a big snowstorm organizing in the Rockies that is expected to drop heavy snows today and tomorrow from northeastern Colorado through the entire State of Nebraska with the heaviest accumulations occurring between Lincoln and Omaha.  Needless to say, I am somewhat concerned as my grandson is right in the middle of that mess.  They were planning on driving his friend’s car back to Nebraska rather than fly back.  I emailed him that it might not be such a good idea to drive back - he’s a “desert baby” who knows nothing about driving the interstates in blizzard-like conditions.

Just another thing I have to worry about in my golden olden years.  I suggested to him that the delay returning to the Lincoln area a day - the college is aware many of the students will be late returning due to the storm. 

At that age kids are invulnerable and love that kind of challenge. It’s us old codgers that worry about busting a hip slipping on the ice. Stuff I took on with glee when I was 19 I wouldn’t think about doing today.

If you want to help you could send him articles about winter driving.

oldfarmer50

stickguy said:

they just built a new stand alone Tesla store in Cherry Hill. I have driven buy but not stopped in. Looks pretty big.

Driver you are correct. Don't rotate. I don't think they recommend side to side anyway, and a lot of tires these days are directional so you couldn't do it if you wanted to.

There’s one in Paramus on rt. 17 too.

graphicguy

Yesterday, I tried my darndest to stay away from shopping areas. But, it’s been awhile since I had fresh milk, eggs, etc. So, I had to get gas anyway, off toe Costco I went.

It was a bit crowded, but not as bad as I though it might be.

After parking my car, I saw a fender bender in the parking area I was walking through. A Camry ran into a Fusion going through a perpendicular cross aisle. Not paying attention an F150 plowed into the rear of the Camry. Both the F150 and Camry had passed me while I was walking to the entrance to Costco.

The common issue between the Camry and the F150? They were being driven by two women (probably between the ages of 40-50, so old enough to know better) who were both texting while driving. Idiots!

Mr_Shiftright

Yeah, but you know how it goes...you start off with Marcus Aurelius and you end up with Caligula.

henryn

oldfarmer50 said:

At that age kids are invulnerable and love that kind of challenge. It’s us old codgers that worry about busting a hip slipping on the ice. Stuff I took on with glee when I was 19 I wouldn’t think about doing today.

When I was 20 years old, in college, I spent my Christmas break in a little town outside of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The town was named Palo, it is the site of an atomic energy plant which was under construction at that time (1970). My family was living there while my father worked on building that plant.

That was only my second real experience with winter driving conditions. But during the 2 weeks I was there, they had a real blizzard. Emergency conditions out on the highways and interstates. My father had a big truck, three quarter ton Ford with 4 wheel drive, studded snow tires, front and rear winches, the whole 9 yards. He volunteered to help with the rescue efforts, and naturally I jumped in. It was an absolute blast, I had a great time. And those people were really happy to see someone after being stuck in their cars for many hours.

imidazol97

abacomike said:

Tesla has a store inside the Boca Raton FL Mall that I frequent.  They can’t sell any cars from the store because Boca Raton has an ordinance that prohibits auto franchises and dealerships from establishing inside the city.  You can’t buy a car in Boca Raton because there are no dealerships.  You need to go into North Broward County or Delray Beach to buy a car.  It’s similar to “dry towns” where alcohol cannot be sold - in this case it’s new cars.  Crazy!

When we have states that allow business to collude with each other on charging various document fees and prep fees, I can't be surprised that the states protect the business model of the dealerships which have purchased and maintained their rights to sell vehicles via their franchise or dealership fee. Having other stores sell in malls and elsewhere would be like having Amazon freely come in and undercut their own local businesses in brick and mortar stores within the states. Oh, wait, the states did that part. But they still protect the dealerships.

I guess it's all in who greases whose palm.

oldfarmer50

graphicguy said:

Yesterday, I tried my darndest to stay away from shopping areas. But, it’s been awhile since I had fresh milk, eggs, etc. So, I had to get gas anyway, off toe Costco I went.

It was a bit crowded, but not as bad as I though it might be.

After parking my car, I saw a fender bender in the parking area I was walking through. A Camry ran into a Fusion going through a perpendicular cross aisle. Not paying attention an F150 plowed into the rear of the Camry. Both the F150 and Camry had passed me while I was walking to the entrance to Costco.

The common issue between the Camry and the F150? They were being driven by two women (probably between the ages of 40-50, so old enough to know better) who were both texting while driving. Idiots!

Funny you mention that. I just ran to the store for a few things and it was as you describe, crazy town. I hate to be sexist but I saw many women in that same age bracket driving very aggressively, no turn signals, backing without looking etc. Didn’t get close enough to determine cell phone use but I’m sure some were on it. At one intersection making a left turn, I was the only one out of six cars that used my directional. To be fair some of the negligent drivers were men and I blame the men in these women’s lives for making them do the shopping while they sat home watching football.