Interesting. That couldn’t be further from my experience. My Benzes were horrible, costing me thousands and thousands in engine repairs. I loved them and they were the best drivers I have ever owned but they weren’t reliable at all. My Jags were better but not by that much. They had such style though that I could see myself going back there someday. My one Audi which I owned in my 20s was rock solid. My one VW which I own now has been perfect and cheap to maintain.
Surprised the jaguar came in at 5. I guess they solved their long history of electrical problems.
I’m also surprised about jaguar. And land rover. Also I’m surprised how well Mercedes benz did.
It is a little confusing. Renault did not do well but nissan did and renault owns nissan.
It’s getting hard to keep track of who owns what. I miss the old days when youn could work on your own engine.
Definitely. I’m surprised fiat did well. Lots of surprises. The only ones that didn’t surprise me was how well Japan did, how average South Korea did and how poor bmw did. I’m not surprised Ford did well either. Everything else surprised me. Of course, there are other parts to the car than the engine. I have no idea how long my car will last.
Last week my maintenance required light went on, on Saturday. I didnt drive pretty much all day on sunday. I remembered sunday at like 7. My air compressor died in the middle of pumping. So I took 5 quarters out of the quarter jar. It cost 6 quarters to use the gas station air. So that didn’t work. There was a swipe card but that didnt work. So the next day on the way home I picked up an air compressor. This was monday before getting groceries. Then I forgot to put air in. So I put air in on Tuesday after getting out of work and drove home. The light didnt go away. I used my obd scanner and there were no error codes. Wednesday morning I decided to retighten my gas cap. Eventually the light just went away. 5 days total. Not sure why but it seems okay now.
It was the horseshoe light. The back left tire was 28 psi. It should be 33. So it might have been that but I put on almost 50 miles after I put air in before the light went off. Probably 15 after the gas cap got tightened. Who knows.
I regard the check engine light as more of a nuisance than anything else. Auto parts places here will scan your car and turn off the light for free. When it first became a thing mechanics would charge you. My truck is so old now (1995) it has the first iteration of obd. I went to a parts store here, an independent one, and the sent me to this old mechanic that saved his. He became my go to mechanic. Honest and fair priced and does everything.
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Good thing we chickened out.
Bloomberg: After $5 Billion in Losses, China’s NIO Battles for Survival.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-22/after-5-billion-in-losses-china-s-tesla-battles-for-survival
I need them to survive. They are taking a hard hit today. Down .27 to $2.78.
Michele’s main man, Jeff Bezos is buying 100000 rivian electric vans. I wonder if they will buy rivian outright.
There will be a new plant in Huntsville, Alabama that will make 300000 toyotas and mazdas per year. It will create 4000 jobs. I’m not sure why toyota would do this. I get why they are making them in the USA. Just not working with Mazda.
It’s kind of funny that Tesla, chevy and ford are all making electric cars. The Japanese companies are not making electric cars and Americans don’t care about electric cars. So Tesla, Chevy and ford will sell in europe and china and Japan will sell in USA. I wonder if we’ll have more toyota and Honda plants than GMC in the USA soon.
Americans could have electric cars legislated soon. Things could change fast.
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NIO’s earnings call went worse than expected. They are down .65 to $2.07. I expect them to fall another .20 before the day is over but we will see.
I agree Reg. I already purchased a level 2 charger. I’m not sure that will be a waste. I doubt it. There might be a lot more superchargers around in 10 years, but I commute 26 miles each way, and hopefully it will be cheaper to charge at home. I have not gotten an electrician yet. I suppose I will pull a permit. It’s only 75 dollars for the permit and it should be one of the easier inspections.
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Good moves. Electric-car-ready will be a significant feature when it comes time to sell your house imho.
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I don’t think I’ve seen a comparison of cost per mile of gas v. electric.
tl;dr
Gas: 15.9 cents per mile (assuming $3.50/gal)
Electric: 3.3 cents per mile (assuming 10 cents/kwh)
Note: this is just energy cost. Electric vehicles are also much cheaper to operate and maintain, until their batteries die at which point they are absurdly expensive.
Yes, I found it. An electric would make sense for me as I usually take short trips. Unfortunately, I’m too old and broke to buy one now.
I wouldn’t buy a new car unless I really needed one these days. I fully expect self-driving taxis to take over the transportation world. Click a few times on your phone and a self-driving electric Uber silently rolls up quicker than it would take you to walk to your parking spot, takes you where you’re going, bills your card a couple of dollars, and moves on to the next trip.
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I should also add, once cars don’t have drivers, there’s no reason they shouldn’t have comfy chairs that fold into sofas or beds, fold out desks that let you work on your laptop if you choose, televisions and possibly washrooms. You might arrive from rush hour traffic more rested than when you left. Then again, when cars have no drivers, there won’t be any more rush hour. Or traffic.
Also imagine the dramatic effect it will have on cities to have almost no parking infrastructure (and almost no parked cars!). It will free up vast amounts of space for better uses. Buildings will suddenly have several floors of empty (formerly parking) space that can can be repurposed. Traffic lights will also disappear, of course, but only after the last human drivers are retired.