why don’t you drive an EV?

A 2013 Dodge Charger R/T. It's my daily driver even though I've been WFH for years and not daily driving at all. Eats luggage, stuff, road miles, and gasoline in roughly equal massive amounts (seriously, a bass head/cab, an AC30 amp, two guitars, pedals, us with all our crap and on the road for a week) Apart from the time last year when an animal got up into the engine bay and ate all the wiring it's been as reliable as a miner's donkey and has never, ever stranded me. Went on a totally awesome road trip out to Nebraska for the solar eclipse and back through Montana and full bore through Nevada like I was goddamn Kowalski and Challenger incarnate - only I was trying to get to that awesome gourmet gas station in Lee Vining before it closed (I made it). I love how it's an amalgamation of every car I've ever owned: various Detroit iron of the 70s, a pickup truck, several BMWs, a boring unstoppable Ford of the 2000s. I'm angry that it's associated with DodgeBros and the police because it's been really fun to drive and ability to carry a LOT of stuff has been a huge plus.

The last time I filled the tank it cost $82. If it was a van, it would have Frazetta art of dinosaurs gazing haplessly at the arriving meteor.

Car #2 is a 2009 Aston Martin V8 Vantage I inherited from my mom. (*insert requisite waaah, I inherited a supercar from my parents here*) Equal parts unpleasant, iconoclastic, and awesome. Sometimes it's fun to drive and every road is flat but most of the time around here in LA, the awful transmission is fighting you, some asshole in a Tesla or a Corvette wants to drag race, there's some nasty interior reflections from the light-colored interior that makes it hard to see. My mom believed that it was eventually going to be worth a lot of money someday but she would have been completely unprepared for a world where not just internal combustion, but driving itself would be obsolete.

A couple weeks ago I was up on Angeles Crest Highway to take pictures of the AM in prep for selling and met a guy who had a McLaren 570 who was also getting ready to sell it - he had a full crew with a drone pilot, separate camera truck. He was in line for an all-out Mach-E GT Performance and that he was done with gas. Worth noting that the camera crew was using an ID 4.

Take it to the people who have learned how to live thread ;)

sick, i saw the eclipse in wyoming, it was incredible

there was 360 degree dusk all the animals went silent and a guy nearby yelled holy shit

you should sell the aston martin on bringatrailer

you should sell it on [gesticulating wildly] doug demuros auction website for cool cars from the modern era

This might not make sense, but do they sell analog EVs? Cars with actual needles on the speedometers?

I saw one model where you could cycle through half a dozen dashboard backgrounds each time you got into the the car and I was all NO NO NO NO. It's bad enough when they do this at Dairy Queen.

I saw the eclipse in Missouri. Whole day felt like a night scene from a cowboy movie.

https://i.imgur.com/VSf7mcx.jpg

can barely find a gas car with analog dials these days (not actually true but kind of true)

one of my cars has a voltmeter its cool

tell us about your cars

jay leno ovah heah

its a 1989 black toyota mr2 that used to be owned by a lady who worked for the department of defense, and had a garfield sticker in the back window according to the flipper i bought it from (unfortunately he removed it)

nice, i think you should get another garfield sticker for it

yeah it's still got the paw prints... i might

the most important EV in the U.S. will be the success or failure of the Ford F150 EV, because ultimately you're going to have to convince the "Suburban guys who drive giant pickups for literally no reason" demographic for EVs to be mainstream

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, November 29, 2021 2:38 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

early days but looks like a hit

Reservations for the F-150 Lightning are now closed. Order banks open next month. https://t.co/AR0cIdFOcW

— Michael Martinez (@MikeMartinez_AN) December 8, 2021

although not clear they've won the "Suburban guys who drive giant pickups for literally no reason" demo yet: "Farley says 70 percent of Lightning reservation holders are new to Ford and to pickups."

thats wild who are these people that suddenly want a full size pickup now that its electric

the mach-e is also appealing to a non-mustang crowd - EVs are expanding the traditional customer base for a lot of models

a mustang is not whole a category of vehicle, nor is the mach-e really a mustang tbh

it’s literally called the mustang mach-e

oh in that case

and no that’s true mustangs are not a “category” they’re an old-school ford muscle car brand that suddenly has a lot of new fans

brand

ok well first i said it was a car model and you didn’t like that, what should we call it

“mustang is a feeling”

basically thats what ford is saying now, i mean the mustang was always a ford model, which was a muscle car, although tbf it was a lil more brandy than most models it has its own logo etc, and now its also a fast crossover, and probably other things too in the future if the mach-e does well, ford does appear to be shifting mustang from a model to a brand, but i mean is the thing weve called mustang for the last ~70 years really expanding its traditional customer base or has ford just changed the definition of mustang, and is that comparable to people who have never owned a full sized pickup, a very distinct type of vehicle with very loyal owners, wanting one now that its electric, and even more importantly who are these weirdos and whats going through their weird heads

btw was talking to a friend of mine who is a carpenter and ford truck owner the other day and he was stoked on the fact that you can run tools off the lightnings battery and thinks he will prob get one in a couple years if they turn out to be good

fwiw i think people probably saw all the positive media the lightning was getting and just wanted it, not sure if thats more or less weird than some other as yet undiscovered thought process, i personally would be thinking about the rivian even tho it has weird headlights, getting a mid sized pickup is normal

rivian is not mid sized what is wrong with this country

is this for hauling around your massive clothes dryers?

I've also heard that being able to plug tools and TVs and whatever into the pick-up truck's power outlets is a big attraction.

And when folks see that they can fill the space under the hood with ice.... and tailgate facing forward.... that's the shutupandtakemymoney point.

is this for hauling around your massive clothes dryers?

― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Thursday, December 9, 2021 7:22 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

yes

And when folks see that they can fill the space under the hood with ice.... and tailgate facing forward.... that's the shutupandtakemymoney point.

― pplains, Thursday, December 9, 2021 7:54 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

have you seen this with the rivian where it has this storage compartment that you can sit on the door

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Qc64gMpReOU/maxresdefault.jpg

also you can get a stove that lives in there and slides out

https://i.imgur.com/LhJkrBh.png

does it not have seats on the inside?

we dont need that anymore

All this time we've been stupidly cooking with things that aren't also trucks

I want a small truck but haven't bought one because of the gas/emissions. Will likely get a smaller electric truck when they are proven to be good. I will use it to haul recycling to the dumpster at the office because these truck nuts ship in very large boxes.

sufjan until then u may be interested in the ford maverick when it comes out, its a hybrid truck that gets ~37mpg if i recall and the starting price is p affordable for a new truck

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocHFC03Wmbw

when the electric tacoma comes out that will be the true "truck for liberals"

"keep honking, im reloading (my npr podcast, the app is messing up)"

lmao

new ev dropped

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRUvz1QPueA

crazy how many ev startups there are out there now, putting out wacky new cars, pretty cool

i would never buy any of them, but i respect the fact that they exist

I've also heard that being able to plug tools and TVs and whatever into the pick-up truck's power outlets is a big attraction.

I think for some folks that were affected by widespread freeze/power infrastructure collapse earlier this year, being able to power your house from your truck was a big deal.
https://www.thedrive.com/news/39319/ford-f-150-hybrid-owners-in-texas-are-using-trucks-to-power-their-homes

ford does appear to be shifting mustang from a model to a brand, but i mean is the thing weve called mustang for the last ~70 years really expanding its traditional customer base or has ford just changed the definition of mustang

"Mustang as a brand" already happened - it's the only car Ford makes now, all the others are trucks and SUV/crossovers. BTW, the first Mustang came out in 1964 - 57 years ago.

ok lol

Mustang's not been a thing in the UK afaik, until the mach-e.

(although i do have an American garage by me that has a couple of imports on the forecourt)

mustang is in the usa one of the absolute automative icons so to speak