Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

au1994

benjaminh said:

corvette said:

When road tripping an EV, the optimum strategy as I understand it is to start the trip with 100% charge. You then plan to stop at the furthest reliable fast charger you can comfortably reach and recharge there, targeting no more than 80% charge, and stop charging once it has enough charge to make it the next reliable fast charger on the route (plus some buffer).

One of the things that's going to keep me from going EV for quite a while is range. The least expensive $50k Model 3 standard range plus has a theoretical range of 270 miles, but in this real-world driving in Winter at 75 mph the range going from 100% to 0 on your battery was about 200 miles. But since fully charging and uncharging your battery shortens its life, few people are going to do that. If you instead went from 90% to 10% that preserves your battery but takes off 20%, which would mean that now your EV with a theoretical range of 270 miles is down to a real-world of about 160 miles. Right now I regularly drive between Louisville and Columbus, which is a distance of 220 miles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EdOx9a4RGg&t=78s

https://www.drivingelectric.com/your-questions-answered/96/electric-car-battery-life-how-preserve-your-battery

"How to prolong your electric car battery’s life
1. Don’t overcharge it: constantly topping up your electric car to keep it fully charged can actually damage it. Laptops, for example, lose battery capacity if they're plugged in all the time. It's better to let the capacity run down to 10 or 20%, then recharge to around 80%."

Car and Driver found that maintenance costs on their long-term Model 3 were not far from gas cars once you include tire replacements at 30k rather than 50k. At the end of 3 years the battery of their long-term tester had lost 7% of its range.

https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a30209598/2019-tesla-model-3-reliability-maintenance/

"The Model 3 has minimal scheduled service. However, one regional requirement that applies to us is lubricating the oft-dormant brake calipers every year or 12,500 miles in areas where roads are salted during winter. Those three lubes each cost oil-change money, totaling $306. But our car's minuscule brake wear over 40,000 miles suggests the pads should last well past 100,000 miles. The Model 3's all-season Michelin tires, on the other hand, were used up after just 30,000 miles, partially because the Tesla version of this tire has less tread depth, probably for a slight boost in efficiency and range. A new set was $1157....Like a cellphone battery, the lithium-ion packs that power today's EVs lose their ability to hold energy over time. The big questions are how much and how quickly. Two things that accelerate the falloff are lots of fast-charging and charging all the way to 100 percent, both of which we did quite often. Using third-party software called TeslaFi, we could nerd out on all kinds of data about our car's driving and charging, as well as monitor its battery loss. At the 20,000-mile halfway point of our test, our car showed about a 6 percent loss, or a 19-mile range reduction."

Thats all fine and dandy in theory but I think I am like most other EV or PHEV owners and I charge it up, run it to 0 most of the time, lather rinse repeat. It also goes on the charger when I’m done with it for the day and stays plugged in until I use it the next day. Most of the time when I unplug for the next use, its already been charged for a couple of hours at least.

qbrozen

Our Mach E experiment through Dec-Jan showed me either (1) the range is way underrated or (2) the cold weather doesn’t affect it nearly as much as it did our first-gen Leaf. I was seeing 160-170 miles of range, and I drove it like I stole it. If I actually tried, I could probably have approached 200

Michaell

benjaminh said:

Michaell said:

I guess we'll find out in a few months, though I think our use case will be just fine for an EV - 25 mile commute per day, minimum 3 days a week (up to 6 days a week in the summer). Can probably get away with recharging just once a week.

If longer road trips are required, we take the Subaru or rent a car, as necessary. At $50 every week or two for gas, we can save $1000/year on fueling costs.

I think your future VW ID.4 is a bargain. With the $7500 tax credit the price is similar to a RAV4 or CR-V, and then on top of that you get free charging for 3 years from VW.

Not entirely free, as I understand it.

3 years, yes. But, only 30 minutes free at Electrify America stations. If you get the full 125 KWh charge rate, that should give you a decent amount of range (VW figures about 70 miles with 10 minutes with a DC fast charger)

Michaell

Michaell said:

benjaminh said:

Michaell said:

I guess we'll find out in a few months, though I think our use case will be just fine for an EV - 25 mile commute per day, minimum 3 days a week (up to 6 days a week in the summer). Can probably get away with recharging just once a week.

If longer road trips are required, we take the Subaru or rent a car, as necessary. At $50 every week or two for gas, we can save $1000/year on fueling costs.

I think your future VW ID.4 is a bargain. With the $7500 tax credit the price is similar to a RAV4 or CR-V, and then on top of that you get free charging for 3 years from VW.

Not entirely free, as I understand it.

3 years, yes. But, only 30 minutes free at Electrify America stations. If you get the full 125 KWh charge rate, that should give you a decent amount of range (VW figures about 70 miles with 10 minutes with a DC fast charger)

And, there is a $2500 state tax credit here in Colorado. Why do you think @breld and wife are into EVs and PHEVs so much?

stickguy

Local might be most use, but most people can’t fork out $40-50k for a spare car local runabout. And want their expensive fancy car for road trips.

A plug in hybrid though, that would work great for us. If I had to replace the RDX now I would try for something like a RAV prime.

Michaell

stickguy said:

Local might be most use, but most people can’t fork out $40-50k for a spare car local runabout. And want their expensive fancy car for road trips.

A plug in hybrid though, that would work great for us. If I had to replace the RDX now I would try for something like a RAV prime.

In my searches, I found a RAV4 Prime being sold for MSRP in Show Low, AZ.

ab348

stickguy said:

Local might be most use, but most people can’t fork out $40-50k for a spare car local runabout. And want their expensive fancy car for road trips.

I suspect most people do very few road trips though. If one comes up, rent.

stickguy

People say that but to me it’s a poor substitute. First it’s expensive. And we like having our own car. Got all our stuff in it already, we know and like it, etc. and don’t have to hassle getting to the rental place. Plus can go on our own schedule.

But as always to each their own, and YMMV.

oldfarmer50

stickguy said:

Local might be most use, but most people can’t fork out $40-50k for a spare car local runabout. And want their expensive fancy car for road trips.

A plug in hybrid though, that would work great for us. If I had to replace the RDX now I would try for something like a RAV prime.

That’s a good point. For short local trips I take my old cars when I can because if they break down I’m not far from home. I save the good cars for long trips. If I spend EV money on a car I wouldn’t want to be restricted to local trips.

Michaell

Our new EV is as much a business investment as it is a personal vehicle. I doubt we would become an EV only household - I'm still holding out for some sort of fun vehicle down the road.

benjaminh

It's a very long way off, but supposedly by 2035 almost all of the new cars sold in California will be EVs.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/13/climate/california-electric-vehicles.html

"By Lisa Friedman
April 13, 2022
WASHINGTON — California on Wednesday made public an aggressive plan to mandate a steady increase in the sale of electric and zero-emissions vehicles, the first step in enacting a first-in-the-nation goal of banning new gasoline-powered cars by 2035. Under the proposed rule, issued by the California Air Resources Board, the state will require 35 percent of new passenger vehicles sold in the state by 2026 to be powered by batteries or hydrogen. Less than a decade later, the state expects 100 percent of all new car sales to be free of the fossil fuel emissions chiefly responsible for warming the planet. It would mark a big leap. Currently, 12.4 percent of new vehicles sold in California are zero-emissions, according to the board.

If the board finalizes the plan in August, it could set the bar for the nation’s automobile industry. California is the largest auto market in the United States and the 10th largest in the world. In addition, 15 other states — including New York, Massachusetts and North Carolina — have previously followed California’s moves regarding tailpipe emissions and may adopt similar proposals....Mr. Biden signed an executive order last year calling for the government to try to ensure that half of all vehicles sold in the United States be electric by 2030."

graphicguy

28firefighter said:

Putting aside feelings on the brand, the idea of even talking to a salesperson anymore has completely soured me since buying my wife's Tesla. 3 clicks and I was done - my only human interaction was with the person delivering the car.

True....particularly in today's environment. Having dealt with some of the domestic brand sales people/managers, they're setting back car sales 25 years....ADM....mop and Glo.....bait and switch.....etc.

For decades, the car sales biz tried to climb to respectability. In 18 short months, it's been torn down to the most base levels I've ever seen since I've been buying cars.

stickguy

Some of the Maverick stories are horrible. One thing hustling people walking in off the street, but some dealers are flat out robbing people who ordered and waited 9 months or more.

Thankfully my dealer did none of that.

tjc78

@qbrozen said:
162k miles. It won’t be pretty, I’m sure.

BTW, pics of volvo finally. Dealer had it back to us same day. Changed the evap purge valve and line.

Well you know I love it! Is it the Pearl white or regular white can’t tell on my phone.

My wife’s XC is the regular white and my S60 is the pearl white. I never told my wife and she has never noticed. She thinks it is the same exact color as mine.

Have you driven it since it was fixed? I think you’ll like the T6 it moves along quite well. I drove my wife to work the other morning and on the way back I got a little frisky in mine and it creeps up fast.

tjc78

@stickguy said:
Some of the Maverick stories are horrible. One thing hustling people walking in off the street, but some dealers are flat out robbing people who ordered and waited 9 months or more.

Thankfully my dealer did none of that.

I feel like it is really desperate times for car dealers. Regardless of profits I think many dealers just aren’t used to the reduced volume.

tjc78

So my Mother’s lease on her RAV is up at the end of year. I haven’t run any numbers yet but I’m sure
I can’t get her into a new one for what she is paying now ($350/ month MSRP was 31 ish). I want her to buy it since it will have less than 15k miles but she wants a new one (maybe a Venza).

I know it’s not the safest option but I’ll probably just have her roll forward any positive equity as a CCR to keep the payment a bit lower. Not sure even doing that I’ll get into a modestly equipped Venza for under $400.

jmonroe1

graphicguy said:

28firefighter said:

Putting aside feelings on the brand, the idea of even talking to a salesperson anymore has completely soured me since buying my wife's Tesla. 3 clicks and I was done - my only human interaction was with the person delivering the car.

True....particularly in today's environment. Having dealt with some of the domestic brand sales people/managers, they're setting back car sales 25 years....ADM....mop and Glo.....bait and switch.....etc.

For decades, the car sales biz tried to climb to respectability. In 18 short months, it's been torn down to the most base levels I've ever seen since I've been buying cars.

Don’t blame them too much. It’s impossible to change your DNA.

jmonroe

Michaell

tjc78 said:

So my Mother’s lease on her RAV is up at the end of year. I haven’t run any numbers yet but I’m sure

I can’t get her into a new one for what she is paying now ($350/ month MSRP was 31 ish). I want her to buy it since it will have less than 15k miles but she wants a new one (maybe a Venza).

I know it’s not the safest option but I’ll probably just have her roll forward any positive equity as a CCR to keep the payment a bit lower. Not sure even doing that I’ll get into a modestly equipped Venza for under $400.

What trim level Venza? My sister has her eyes on the XLE trim.

qbrozen

tjc78 said:

Well you know I love it! Is it the Pearl white or regular white can’t tell on my phone.

My wife’s XC is the regular white and my S60 is the pearl white. I never told my wife and she has never noticed. She thinks it is the same exact color as mine.

Have you driven it since it was fixed? I think you’ll like the T6 it moves along quite well. I drove my wife to work the other morning and on the way back I got a little frisky in mine and it creeps up fast.

Window sticker states "Crystal White Metallic."
I got to ride in the passenger seat today when wife picked me up from Benz dealer. It is definitely a smooth highway missile. She says "i love it!" which is quite high praise from her.

Speaking of the benz dealer ... that place is simply too pretentious for me. The fact that it takes contact with 4 people for me to drop it off for service tells me the bill will be way too high. She made a point to tell me that diagnosing the problems will be $175 ea. So $525 just to find out what might be wrong with the TPMS, moonroof, and tailgate. This is why I try to avoid dealership service depts as much as I possibly can.

au1994

qbrozen said:

tjc78 said:

Well you know I love it! Is it the Pearl white or regular white can’t tell on my phone.

My wife’s XC is the regular white and my S60 is the pearl white. I never told my wife and she has never noticed. She thinks it is the same exact color as mine.

Have you driven it since it was fixed? I think you’ll like the T6 it moves along quite well. I drove my wife to work the other morning and on the way back I got a little frisky in mine and it creeps up fast.

Window sticker states "Crystal White Metallic."
I got to ride in the passenger seat today when wife picked me up from Benz dealer. It is definitely a smooth highway missile. She says "i love it!" which is quite high praise from her.

Speaking of the benz dealer ... that place is simply too pretentious for me. The fact that it takes contact with 4 people for me to drop it off for service tells me the bill will be way too high. She made a point to tell me that diagnosing the problems will be $175 ea. So $525 just to find out what might be wrong with the TPMS, moonroof, and tailgate. This is why I try to avoid dealership service depts as much as I possibly can.

Me too! 1700 to replace the muffler on the 4xe, including parts. Riiiight…

I hope you are still able to flip the ML for a profit. Seems like you’ve sunk a tidy sum into it in the pasty year.

henryn

qbrozen said:

tjc78 said:

Well you know I love it! Is it the Pearl white or regular white can’t tell on my phone.

My wife’s XC is the regular white and my S60 is the pearl white. I never told my wife and she has never noticed. She thinks it is the same exact color as mine.

Have you driven it since it was fixed? I think you’ll like the T6 it moves along quite well. I drove my wife to work the other morning and on the way back I got a little frisky in mine and it creeps up fast.

Window sticker states "Crystal White Metallic."
I got to ride in the passenger seat today when wife picked me up from Benz dealer. It is definitely a smooth highway missile. She says "i love it!" which is quite high praise from her.

Speaking of the benz dealer ... that place is simply too pretentious for me. The fact that it takes contact with 4 people for me to drop it off for service tells me the bill will be way too high. She made a point to tell me that diagnosing the problems will be $175 ea. So $525 just to find out what might be wrong with the TPMS, moonroof, and tailgate. This is why I try to avoid dealership service depts as much as I possibly can.

There are service departments and then there are service departments. The domestic brands don’t tend to rip you off that badly, but there are instances. My favorite story on a BMW service department:

A woman I know, retired school administrator, moved from New Jersey to Texas to be near her only son. She leased a 3 series BMW right before the move, as “my only expense will be the lease payment”. Shortly after arriving in Houston, she drove into some standing water and the car flooded out. Houston is infamous for street flooding, which she was apparently not used to. She swore up and down the water was only 6 inches deep, and “a BMW should be able to drive through a few inches of water”.

She called the BMW dealership thinking this would be under warranty. Why she thought that, I have no idea, but she definitely believed it. The dealer sent a wrecker, got the car running again, and presented her with a bill for a little over $1,500. I tried explaining to her that this was an insurance problem, not a warranty problem, but she had $1,000 deductible on the insurance, so that didn’t make her happy.

As an example of a better experience with a service department, about 7 or 8 years ago I needed new brakes on a GMC pickup. I was overwhelmed at work, and just didn’t have the time, so I ran it into the local Firestone shop. They screwed it up, royally, and I nearly got killed. After two retries on their part, I took the truck into the Chevy dealer. They diagnosed the problem (no charge for the diagnosis), fixed it in one morning, and charged a fair price. After I picked up the truck, I went by the local donut shop and picked up 2 dozen donuts for that service department.

sda

@qbrozen said:
Window sticker states "Crystal White Metallic."
I got to ride in the passenger seat today when wife picked me up from Benz dealer. It is definitely a smooth highway missile. She says "i love it!" which is quite high praise from her.

Speaking of the benz dealer ... that place is simply too pretentious for me. The fact that it takes contact with 4 people for me to drop it off for service tells me the bill will be way too high. She made a point to tell me that diagnosing the problems will be $175 ea. So $525 just to find out what might be wrong with the TPMS, moonroof, and tailgate. This is why I try to avoid dealership service depts as much as I possibly can.

Wow and ouch! Hopefully they can resolve without much involvement.

tjc78

@qbrozen said:
Window sticker states "Crystal White Metallic."
I got to ride in the passenger seat today when wife picked me up from Benz dealer. It is definitely a smooth highway missile. She says "i love it!" which is quite high praise from her.

Speaking of the benz dealer ... that place is simply too pretentious for me. The fact that it takes contact with 4 people for me to drop it off for service tells me the bill will be way too high. She made a point to tell me that diagnosing the problems will be $175 ea. So $525 just to find out what might be wrong with the TPMS, moonroof, and tailgate. This is why I try to avoid dealership service depts as much as I possibly can.

Yeah the crystal is the pearl. I couldn’t remember the name.

tjc78

@Michaell said:
What trim level Venza? My sister has her eyes on the XLE trim.

Probably an LE, but that doesn’t have heated seats. Big jump in price to the XLE and it doesn’t look like you can add the heated seats to the LE which is a bummer.

Michaell

tjc78 said:

@Michaell said:

What trim level Venza? My sister has her eyes on the XLE trim.

Probably an LE, but that doesn’t have heated seats. Big jump in price to the XLE and it doesn’t look like you can add the heated seats to the LE which is a bummer.

Yeah, I don't think my sister could be happy with the LE.

Her husband is balking at the idea of the Venza, in general. He'd prefer they get a Lexus, but that is way more expensive.

tjc78

@Michaell said:
Yeah, I don't think my sister could be happy with the LE.

Her husband is balking at the idea of the Venza, in general. He'd prefer they get a Lexus, but that is way more expensive.

Her RAV is an XLE but the Venza LE is very similarly equipped minus the heated seats. She would be happy with it. I could probably have the dealer add them fairly inexpensively if it was a deal breaker.

We will see. She also mentioned the Corolla Cross but I think that will be too small for her. If she was going to that size I’d rather her get the Kona.

Michaell

tjc78 said:

@Michaell said:

Yeah, I don't think my sister could be happy with the LE.

Her husband is balking at the idea of the Venza, in general. He'd prefer they get a Lexus, but that is way more expensive.

Her RAV is an XLE but the Venza LE is very similarly equipped minus the heated seats. She would be happy with it. I could probably have the dealer add them fairly inexpensively if it was a deal breaker.

We will see. She also mentioned the Corolla Cross but I think that will be too small for her. If she was going to that size I’d rather her get the Kona.

The Kona with the 1.6T engine is a hoot to drive. Very well equipped, too.

I was looking at them before the price madness broke out - local dealer was offering almost $5K off MSRP at the time.

jmonroe1

qbrozen said:

tjc78 said:

Well you know I love it! Is it the Pearl white or regular white can’t tell on my phone.

My wife’s XC is the regular white and my S60 is the pearl white. I never told my wife and she has never noticed. She thinks it is the same exact color as mine.

Have you driven it since it was fixed? I think you’ll like the T6 it moves along quite well. I drove my wife to work the other morning and on the way back I got a little frisky in mine and it creeps up fast.

Window sticker states "Crystal White Metallic."
I got to ride in the passenger seat today when wife picked me up from Benz dealer. It is definitely a smooth highway missile. She says "i love it!" which is quite high praise from her.

Speaking of the benz dealer ... that place is simply too pretentious for me. The fact that it takes contact with 4 people for me to drop it off for service tells me the bill will be way too high. She made a point to tell me that diagnosing the problems will be $175 ea. So $525 just to find out what might be wrong with the TPMS, moonroof, and tailgate. This is why I try to avoid dealership service depts as much as I possibly can.

————————————————

Do like the other Benz owners do, keep reminding yourself it’s not so bad and a lot of folks would love to have a three pointed star emblem on their hood.

jmonroe

andres3

benjaminh said:

corvette said:

When road tripping an EV, the optimum strategy as I understand it is to start the trip with 100% charge. You then plan to stop at the furthest reliable fast charger you can comfortably reach and recharge there, targeting no more than 80% charge, and stop charging once it has enough charge to make it the next reliable fast charger on the route (plus some buffer).

One of the things that's going to keep me from going EV for quite a while is range. The least expensive $50k Model 3 standard range plus has a theoretical range of 270 miles, but in this real-world driving in Winter at 75 mph the range going from 100% to 0 on your battery was about 200 miles. But since fully charging and uncharging your battery shortens its life, few people are going to do that. If you instead went from 90% to 10% that preserves your battery but takes off 20%, which would mean that now your EV with a theoretical range of 270 miles is down to a real-world of about 160 miles. Right now I regularly drive between Louisville and Columbus, which is a distance of 220 miles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EdOx9a4RGg&t=78s

https://www.drivingelectric.com/your-questions-answered/96/electric-car-battery-life-how-preserve-your-battery

"How to prolong your electric car battery’s life
1. Don’t overcharge it: constantly topping up your electric car to keep it fully charged can actually damage it. Laptops, for example, lose battery capacity if they're plugged in all the time. It's better to let the capacity run down to 10 or 20%, then recharge to around 80%."

Car and Driver found that maintenance costs on their long-term Model 3 were not far from gas cars once you include tire replacements at 30k rather than 50k. At the end of 3 years the battery of their long-term tester had lost 7% of its range.

https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a30209598/2019-tesla-model-3-reliability-maintenance/

"The Model 3 has minimal scheduled service. However, one regional requirement that applies to us is lubricating the oft-dormant brake calipers every year or 12,500 miles in areas where roads are salted during winter. Those three lubes each cost oil-change money, totaling $306. But our car's minuscule brake wear over 40,000 miles suggests the pads should last well past 100,000 miles. The Model 3's all-season Michelin tires, on the other hand, were used up after just 30,000 miles, partially because the Tesla version of this tire has less tread depth, probably for a slight boost in efficiency and range. A new set was $1157....Like a cellphone battery, the lithium-ion packs that power today's EVs lose their ability to hold energy over time. The big questions are how much and how quickly. Two things that accelerate the falloff are lots of fast-charging and charging all the way to 100 percent, both of which we did quite often. Using third-party software called TeslaFi, we could nerd out on all kinds of data about our car's driving and charging, as well as monitor its battery loss. At the 20,000-mile halfway point of our test, our car showed about a 6 percent loss, or a 19-mile range reduction."

"... partially because the Tesla version of this tire has less tread depth, probably for a slight boost in efficiency and range"

If this is true this is one reason that San Luis Obispo 101 crash happened in the rain in that Tesla video you posted recently. Penny wise and pound foolish for a "lesser" driver.

henryn

qbrozen said:

tjc78 said:

Well you know I love it! Is it the Pearl white or regular white can’t tell on my phone.

My wife’s XC is the regular white and my S60 is the pearl white. I never told my wife and she has never noticed. She thinks it is the same exact color as mine.

Have you driven it since it was fixed? I think you’ll like the T6 it moves along quite well. I drove my wife to work the other morning and on the way back I got a little frisky in mine and it creeps up fast.

Window sticker states "Crystal White Metallic."
I got to ride in the passenger seat today when wife picked me up from Benz dealer. It is definitely a smooth highway missile. She says "i love it!" which is quite high praise from her.

Speaking of the benz dealer ... that place is simply too pretentious for me. The fact that it takes contact with 4 people for me to drop it off for service tells me the bill will be way too high. She made a point to tell me that diagnosing the problems will be $175 ea. So $525 just to find out what might be wrong with the TPMS, moonroof, and tailgate. This is why I try to avoid dealership service depts as much as I possibly can.

Some further thoughts on the $175 / $525 at the Benz dealer. That $175 is probably for one flat rate hour. Or who knows, with MB it might be 0.5 hours. And the thing is, diagnosing an electrical gremlin can easily take one hour or longer. This sounds like a lose / lose proposition, for you and the dealer. I have read a number of articles and online discussions around the theme that modern automobiles are so complex, contain so many electronics, that after a certain point in their life they will be scrapped due to electrical problems.

If the moonroof and tailgate can be operated manually, the best solution might be to ignore the electrical gremlins. I am presently ignoring gremlins in the TPMS system on my F150.

andres3

I was watching YouTube videos about the new Acura TLX (S Type) and Integra and based on these videos, I fear for Acura's future.

Of course, some guys can't help but be UBER positive as if their chance of getting free new car loaners rides on being as positive as possible.

EXAMPLE Integra videos::

OOOHHHH LOOK, the front doors have aluminum sill plates....Acura spared no expense.

But...... When opening the rear doors no mention of a total LACK of a sill plate, not even a black plastic one for goodness' sake!!!

But apparently it has everything the Civic Si lacks.

The 10-speed auto got panned pretty hard in the TLX Type S. They tried to be positive, but one guy said they should have just sourced a ZF (or even better, a DSG/PDK). The general consensus was the car was slower than it should be given the engine.

andres3

stickguy said:

People say that but to me it’s a poor substitute. First it’s expensive. And we like having our own car. Got all our stuff in it already, we know and like it, etc. and don’t have to hassle getting to the rental place. Plus can go on our own schedule.

But as always to each their own, and YMMV.

I agree. Unless you have a "hook up" to get 1/2 off or something, it's expensive, and makes the "time wastage" inconvenience more unbearable. Get a hot deal and it's much more tolerable.

xwesx

benjaminh said:

corvette said:

When road tripping an EV, the optimum strategy as I understand it is to start the trip with 100% charge. You then plan to stop at the furthest reliable fast charger you can comfortably reach and recharge there, targeting no more than 80% charge, and stop charging once it has enough charge to make it the next reliable fast charger on the route (plus some buffer).

Loss of 25% economy during the winter sounds pretty standard, regardless of fuel type. If it is particularly cold up here, we will see losses in the 40% range versus the warm months, but that's on the extreme end.

For me, the loss over time factor is more significant (as well as the ongoing range issues). If I could get to a situation where I can see 400 miles of "real world" range on a road trip, I wouldn't mind an hour or two stop for recharging while I did the same in a different way. I just wouldn't want to be in a situation where I'm only spending half of my "driving time" actually driving. a 400-mile range means I could make one stop a mid-day fueling and the next could be end of day.

oldfarmer50

benjaminh said:

It's a very long way off, but supposedly by 2035 almost all of the new cars sold in California will be EVs.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/13/climate/california-electric-vehicles.html

"By Lisa Friedman
April 13, 2022
WASHINGTON — California on Wednesday made public an aggressive plan to mandate a steady increase in the sale of electric and zero-emissions vehicles, the first step in enacting a first-in-the-nation goal of banning new gasoline-powered cars by 2035. Under the proposed rule, issued by the California Air Resources Board, the state will require 35 percent of new passenger vehicles sold in the state by 2026 to be powered by batteries or hydrogen. Less than a decade later, the state expects 100 percent of all new car sales to be free of the fossil fuel emissions chiefly responsible for warming the planet. It would mark a big leap. Currently, 12.4 percent of new vehicles sold in California are zero-emissions, according to the board.

If the board finalizes the plan in August, it could set the bar for the nation’s automobile industry. California is the largest auto market in the United States and the 10th largest in the world. In addition, 15 other states — including New York, Massachusetts and North Carolina — have previously followed California’s moves regarding tailpipe emissions and may adopt similar proposals....Mr. Biden signed an executive order last year calling for the government to try to ensure that half of all vehicles sold in the United States be electric by 2030."

Interesting, don’t they already have rolling blackouts in CA? What happens when they plug in a couple million more EVs?

xwesx

So, spring time is finally making its way here in earnest, and I figured it was time to put the "summer" rubber onto the cars again. We ended up making this a family affair, with my son swapping out the units for the Forester and my daughter swapping them out for the Crosstrek.

On the Forester, we went from this:



To this:




The Crosstrek is a little more boring since the summer and winter wheels are both stock units for this model year. The original Yokohama Geolandar G95s are definitely on their last season, being at a tread depth of 6/32".

qbrozen

henryn said:

If the moonroof and tailgate can be operated manually, the best solution might be to ignore the electrical gremlins. I am presently ignoring gremlins in the TPMS system on my F150.

I agree on the tailgate, and that's what I'll do if their fix is too expensive. But when the heck is the last year you saw a manual moonroof? lol

Michaell

I was just investigating the possibility of obtaining a set of winter wheels and tires for the VW when it finally arrives.

Stock wheel size is 19", and the tires are staggered in size:

F: 235/55-19
R: 255/50-19

Poking around on Tire Rack and I found some 18" wheels and tires.

Posted my question onto an ID.4 owners group on FB, and the first response was from a guy in Quebec, who told me that his dealer said they had to keep the 19" wheels, so they would fit around the brakes.

Which is interesting, as the ID.4 has rear drum brakes (apparently, they are better at regenerating battery power).

oldfarmer50

qbrozen said:

tjc78 said:

Well you know I love it! Is it the Pearl white or regular white can’t tell on my phone.

My wife’s XC is the regular white and my S60 is the pearl white. I never told my wife and she has never noticed. She thinks it is the same exact color as mine.

Have you driven it since it was fixed? I think you’ll like the T6 it moves along quite well. I drove my wife to work the other morning and on the way back I got a little frisky in mine and it creeps up fast.

Window sticker states "Crystal White Metallic."
I got to ride in the passenger seat today when wife picked me up from Benz dealer. It is definitely a smooth highway missile. She says "i love it!" which is quite high praise from her.

Speaking of the benz dealer ... that place is simply too pretentious for me. The fact that it takes contact with 4 people for me to drop it off for service tells me the bill will be way too high. She made a point to tell me that diagnosing the problems will be $175 ea. So $525 just to find out what might be wrong with the TPMS, moonroof, and tailgate. This is why I try to avoid dealership service depts as much as I possibly can.

The Hyundai dealer wanted $150 to diagnose a stuck shifter that threw a code for the transmission control module. $2000 to replace it. Local transmission shop fixed it for 1/4 the price.

I’ll only got to a dealer for warranty stuff.

ab348

tjc78 said:

Her RAV is an XLE but the Venza LE is very similarly equipped minus the heated seats. She would be happy with it. I could probably have the dealer add them fairly inexpensively if it was a deal breaker.

We will see. She also mentioned the Corolla Cross but I think that will be too small for her. If she was going to that size I’d rather her get the Kona.

Funnily enough, I saw one of each on the roads here this week. I think it might have been the first Cross I've seen. This one was a LE model and with the smaller wheels and zero chrome outside it looked very plain. The Venza was also a LE I believe but had some bright trim and looked better, though I think it too could have used a set of larger wheels.

ab348

xwesx said:

So, spring time is finally making its way here in earnest, and I figured it was time to put the "summer" rubber onto the cars again. We ended up making this a family affair, with my son swapping out the units for the Forester and my daughter swapping them out for the Crosstrek.

Funny how on the Forester the summer wheels look like a set of winter wheels, and vice versa.

xwesx

Michaell said:

I was just investigating the possibility of obtaining a set of winter wheels and tires for the VW when it finally arrives.

Stock wheel size is 19", and the tires are staggered in size:

F: 235/55-19
R: 255/50-19

Poking around on Tire Rack and I found some 18" wheels and tires.

Posted my question onto an ID.4 owners group on FB, and the first response was from a guy in Quebec, who told me that his dealer said they had to keep the 19" wheels, so they would fit around the brakes.

Which is interesting, as the ID.4 has rear drum brakes (apparently, they are better at regenerating battery power).

I think that's likely wrong. Tirerack suggests wheels that are 18x8 with a 28mm offset will fit just fine. And, they tend to be pretty conservative with their alternative sizes (example: They don't have any 15" options for the Forester, even though those wheels will fit fine). Tire size for this is 235/60R18 (non-staggered).

xwesx

ab348 said:

xwesx said:

So, spring time is finally making its way here in earnest, and I figured it was time to put the "summer" rubber onto the cars again. We ended up making this a family affair, with my son swapping out the units for the Forester and my daughter swapping them out for the Crosstrek.

Funny how on the Forester the summer wheels look like a set of winter wheels, and vice versa.

Yeah, but I'm generally pretty cheap, so the stock wheels are going to get used for something! At the time, I needed a new set of winter tires for the car and had already decided to retire the old wheels I used for that purpose. So, I was able to delay purchasing a replacement wheel set for a year by swapping the 17" stock wheels from summer to winter duty.

explorerx4

A friend of mine used Tirerack's service where they will come you and mount the wheels/tires.

tifighter

Michaell said:

Posted my question onto an ID.4 owners group on FB, and the first response was from a guy in Quebec, who told me that his dealer said they had to keep the 19" wheels, so they would fit around the brakes.

No one told this guy then-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUEMKaLi3Eg

oldfarmer50

xwesx said:

So, spring time is finally making its way here in earnest, and I figured it was time to put the "summer" rubber onto the cars again. We ended up making this a family affair, with my son swapping out the units for the Forester and my daughter swapping them out for the Crosstrek.

On the Forester, we went from this:



To this:




The Crosstrek is a little more boring since the summer and winter wheels are both stock units for this model year. The original Yokohama Geolandar G95s are definitely on their last season, being at a tread depth of 6/32".

That’s the way to get some cheap mechanics.

Michaell

tifighter said:

Michaell said:

Posted my question onto an ID.4 owners group on FB, and the first response was from a guy in Quebec, who told me that his dealer said they had to keep the 19" wheels, so they would fit around the brakes.

No one told this guy then-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUEMKaLi3Eg

That’s pretty much what I’m looking for. Not sure I need that aggressive of tread design, just something to handle the snow and cold weather a little better.

Thanks for posting this!

jmonroe1

oldfarmer50 said:

xwesx said:

So, spring time is finally making its way here in earnest, and I figured it was time to put the "summer" rubber onto the cars again. We ended up making this a family affair, with my son swapping out the units for the Forester and my daughter swapping them out for the Crosstrek.

On the Forester, we went from this:



To this:




The Crosstrek is a little more boring since the summer and winter wheels are both stock units for this model year. The original Yokohama Geolandar G95s are definitely on their last season, being at a tread depth of 6/32".

That’s the way to get some cheap mechanics.

————————————————

A couple years ago I got to talking to a young female mechanic (a few months out of a car mechanic school) at the auto parts counter. She was really excited about her new career. She referred to herself as a “mechaness”. Maybe she’ll make more bucks that way. Oh and BTW she was a real looker too.

jmonroe

explorerx4

@jmonroe1,
Have you ever watch Chickanic?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93tpABBgUGc

sda

xwesx said:

benjaminh said:

corvette said:

When road tripping an EV, the optimum strategy as I understand it is to start the trip with 100% charge. You then plan to stop at the furthest reliable fast charger you can comfortably reach and recharge there, targeting no more than 80% charge, and stop charging once it has enough charge to make it the next reliable fast charger on the route (plus some buffer).

Loss of 25% economy during the winter sounds pretty standard, regardless of fuel type. If it is particularly cold up here, we will see losses in the 40% range versus the warm months, but that's on the extreme end.

For me, the loss over time factor is more significant (as well as the ongoing range issues). If I could get to a situation where I can see 400 miles of "real world" range on a road trip, I wouldn't mind an hour or two stop for recharging while I did the same in a different way. I just wouldn't want to be in a situation where I'm only spending half of my "driving time" actually driving. a 400-mile range means I could make one stop a mid-day fueling and the next could be end of day.

Assuming there isn’t a line for the charging station and it actually works.

jmonroe1

explorerx4 said:

@jmonroe1,
Have you ever watch Chickanic?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93tpABBgUGc

————————————————

Nope, never saw her before.

What did we do before the internet? Well, I employed the old school method of just connecting wires until something worked or I ran out of fuses. When I got to that point I was forced to look at the schematic.

jmonroe