Trouble Maker

I can't even make this shit up... I'm livid right now.

Awesome, good luck! I hadn't heard of GMs next iteration yet, but from a quick read looks like level 2 hands off in (almost) all situations.... or all scenes but not situations? Not sure what the lingo is up in Detroit. https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a32601018/gm-ultra-cruise-super-cruise-city-streets/ But yeah, I know you can't say any details.

I wanted to keep the focus on ideas for next vehicle and not what's wrong with the Jeep. And not that anyone here ever owes anyone an explanation. But if I owe anyone here an explanation it would be you since I know how it feels to pour yourself into a product. It's been a great car, exactly what I wanted... but... Since I got it in December it's been in the shop 3 times for diesel emissions systems related issues; 1 recall and 2 other fixes. Luckily most of it's been covered under recalls or by (class action court ordered) extended warranty. But, it's just too much for my liking, and this last time it was in the shop too long and finally I had to cover $4xx of what I felt should have been covered. It now has a new DOC/DPF, DEF line, injector and pump, 1 of the EGTs, EGR cooler (recall). I think this would have been $4-5k if not covered under warranty. Am I dumb to get rid of a used car with coverage one of the major systems that seems to have issues, to get a different used car with no coverage but I think should be better? What happens when another system fails that's not covered (air sus, there are possible a few electrical issues that are common problems)? To top it off when I got it back from the EGR recall I go to poke around under the hood to check out the fix and one of the sound deadeners and engine cover is missing, 1st trip back to the dealership post fix. After this time I get home and notice a loud gurgling. Quickly realize the coolant reservoir is boiling, had spit out some coolant. The cap wasn't tightened down fully, just lightly put on. Luckily our house isn't far from the dealer so it only got slightly over normal temp. Need to go back again today so the can 'top off and bleed to make sure no air got into the system'. I'm not even sure why they would have been in the coolant system for DOC/DPF, EGT and EGR injector and lines. Did they do the test drives like this? Even driving it home last night I was wondering if I should keep it. I think it's exactly what I wanted out of a vehicle and anything else I get won't drive as nice (body-on-frame and coil sus VS air sus on unibody) and be more expensive. To be fair, I'm not laying all of the blame for this system on FCA (or is this VM Motori's part?). Everyone seems to have varying levels of issues with the new diesel emissions systems. Which seem to be too complicated for anyone to figure out how to do with high reliability, at least not in an economic way. The emissions systems mandates on diesels now are really strict, specific and seem overbearing. This is coming from someone who would rather sell this than do an emissions systems delete kit. Congrats on the new job! Where did you go (GM?), what will you be doing?

The GX might be the right choice on paper value/features VS price, but I keep coming back to the rolldown rear window on the 4Runner winning me over. I was going to get in touch with you if I decided to go the FJ route, but since I'm leaning towards 4Runner/GX, maybe no need. I imagine you can sell and get in maybe an even newer GX with the FJs prices right now. Throw a few $$$$ at it and get something much newer/lower mileage. But also the FJ will probably lose near zero value from here on out.

It's an FCA vehicle.

Recall for Bolt battery expanded to all years with a stop sale issued. https://www.engadget.com/gm-expands-fire-risk-recall-all-chevy-bolt-115934063.html

Not really a 'what would you buy' but looking for alternatives that I haven't considered or found yet. What's off the beaten path that's not come across my radar, Xterra, some Subaru? What else should I look at? The Jeep has everything I want, but done with it and going to sell for other reasons, that's another story for another thread/day. Something along the lines of the 4Runner or Lexus GX. Different size or type is OK. FJ would be awesome, just about perfect, but you can't get full time 4WD w/Auto and IMHO they are overpriced even considering the current inflated market. You can get a newer and lower mileage 4Runner or GX for similar prices, so I think those make more sense. Must have: History of high reliability. Full time 4WD/AWD with off-road capability. Space inside for outdoor gear, recover gear, etc. So an SUV is probably best. Trucks would be OK, but they are both longer and have less room inside and I don't see a high need for a truck bed for what I'm looking for. High Want: Deep aftermarket support. Medium Want: ACC, but probably not getting there in my budge e.g. To get it in the GX you need to go to 2018 and the 4Runner 2020 and those are over budget. Budget: 20-30k, can stretch higher but would really like to stick to closer to mid 20s. The 4Runner Limited seems like the winner, full time 4WD w/A-Trac, center locker w/low gear, but loses rear locker, KDSS compared to Trail/TRD. Center low lock and A-Trac is probably enough for what I want to do, and if needed front and rear lockers can be added later. GX seems great too, full time 4WD w/center lockable independent from hi/low, A-Trac and I think they have rear locker and KDSS too. The front end post 2014 seems like a garbage design choice for off-roading, but gotta have that spindle grill. I'm still heavily leaning towards SUVs, but the Colorado ZR2 seems tempting. Unclear what '4WD Auto' is; real time system or some simpler auto center locker. It's also over-budget since it just came out in 17'.

I'm going to drive one of my 20xx cars through a scene and wear these glasses while acting like a time traveler and turn the movie into a sci-fi romance. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Futuristic-Cyclops-Sunglasses-Robocop-Retro-Party-Shield-Visor-Glasses/137702776 The idea will be I'm coming back to make sure they don't end up together up because their child creates a technology that will end the world in the future, but in the end their love endures. This will also open doors for sequels for other ways to try and stop this from happening between 1969 and on August 29, 1997 when the world as we know it ends.

I can't strongly argue either of those points, especially the second one. I'm not sure I agree completely with the first half, but other than cheap prices I don't think there's an otherwise strong reason to buy the Leaf regardless. Again, this is true for the 2017-19 and you can't buy them (from Chevy) anyway and 90%+ are at Chevy dealerships, so it's a moot point. The 2020+ are a different battery with a different chemistry from a different plant so they should be fine. It seems like NHTSA has not identified them as an issue so we aren't just taking Chevy's word on this point. My overall point was that blanket statements aren't fair when it might be a few years of either car that's caused a bad reputation and beyond that they are fine. This seems like they case with both of these cars. I don't think an EV is the right car here anyway, and we had a PHEV and want an EV.

We were going to buy one around November/December but as soon as we got serious they issued the first recall with no fix but a temporary 'patch' to not fully charge or deplete and park outside. This was for current owners but any that Chevy had they would not/could not sell. They released a SW fix a month or two ago, and a few weeks ago said 'Opps, it didn't work' and issued another recall with an upcoming fix. Some are catching on fire, not good! So now we are going on something like 8-9 months of 2 recalls. AFAIK this only applies to 2017-19 as they used LG Chem batteries from a specific factory/chemistry. The 2020+ is a different battery. I guess now now they are going to try to somehow narrow down which specific batteries/cells had the issue and just fix/replace those. Basically it seems like Chevy is trying to do anything they can to not just replace the batteries. https://my.chevrolet.com/how-to-support/safety/boltevrecall https://www.google.com/search?q=bolt+battery+recall From what I understand Hyundai was using the same batteries from the same factory and issued a recall to replace all of them. IIRC they said it was going to cost them nearly $1 billion and their stock dropped 5% when the announced the recall and approximate cost. In Q2 2021 alone GM spent $800 million on the above recall that didn't fix the issue. It'll be a pricey fix if Chevy has to replace all of those Bolt batteries. https://www.google.com/search?q=hyundai+ev+battery+recall I think I remember reading something about a class action already starting, I can't imagine one won't happen and some settlement will happen with $ to Bolt owners once this is all finished.

Seems like a blanket statement. As I said above, I believe only the first few years of Leaf's had the battery degredatoin issues and gave it a bad wrap. But if you know of other issues, I'm all ears. The Bolt's are under a second recall for the batteries. It does seems to be a huge mess. Seemingly it's only an issue with a specific battery from a specific plant they used from 2017-2019. Once they actually figure out the issue and fix it may be fine, but only time will tell. It's not confidence inspiring that they had a fix that didn't actually fix it and had to do a second recall just a few months later. In the mean time it will be hard to impossible to buy one anyway, as Chevy can't/won't sell them. 2020's and up should be fine, they use a different battery from a different plant.

Highway miles in the winter will not be anywhere near the rated range, but if his commute is only 100 miles it's probably fine. This is true of any EV. Thought I'm honestly not sure an EV is the right car for a 1 car household. What happens when he can't charge up or needs to run some errands? It could be limiting at some point. He'll also need to install a faster charger wherever he lives, which could be on one end easy, in the middle expensive, and on the far end impossible (apartment?). Even if he has a house, he could find a situation where he's on the more expensive end of a charger install. Spending multiple thousands on an EV charger install is the wrong direction economically for what this is trying to accomplish. The leaf's also got a bad wrap because the few early year one's had poor battery cooling and they had batter degradation issues. They also had lower range to begin with. So lower range + de-rated battery + winter + highway = very low miles compared to rated. As you said, the newer ones have higher range and as far as I've read don't seem to have the same battery degradation issues. I believe they went to a more robust (water VS air) cooling system for the batteries.

People: Oh my god, news is so sensationalist, you can't believe anything they say. Same people: Look at this sensationalist news article that I only read the headline of that enforces my biases so it must be true.

Someone decided before the auction it was worth even more than that.

I have a 2013 Jeep Grand Cherokee. Sell the Jeep, pay off the truck. /thread

Install prices are probably through the roof right now so it might have tipped to an unfordable economic situation since I last looked into it too. But if I pay out of pocket*1 and install myself*2 then the payoff is easily there. I don't want to deal with installing it on our roof, so I'm waiting to build the garage and will do them there. *1: and ignore lost opportunity cost for that money *2: and ignore the cost of my time ... neither of which anyone should do, but it seems in human nature to do so anyway.

Thanks Joe! If the price is right (payoff VS traditional), seems like a no brainer if you can finance it through the house cost. What about adding solar too? Maybe both also depend on realistically how long you plan to stay in the house and how much value they add. e.g. payoff is 20 years, but they add $xxk value to the house and you'll sell at 15 years so you'll 'make' money even thought you didn't hit the payoff date.

He did.

IDK Flickr at all, but is there an album link you can share? I want to share this with someone that's not on here and easiest way seems like sending them the text and an album link.

Hey, this dude 'test' EVs, don't come at him with those kinds of facts.

That might be the last one without rusted out rockers that exist. Nice clean pickup. I don't think you can go wrong with Kosei K1s out just about anything and they are nice and light. I think Enkei RPF1 and PF01s look nice on that type of car too. But, after typing that, I'm seeing I might have a wheel type.

With our 1st gen Volt only on the weekends did we have issues with how fast our 120vac 15 amp charged. That was an overall range issues VS charge rate, not a charge rate vs usage. The bigger battery will give more buffer for when you use faster than you can charge. With the Volt we usually had excess time to charge on the weekdays and not enough during the weekend day. But other times most people even on 'slow' charging will probably be able to charge more than they use. And the 'default' on Volt's is 8amps from a recall due to a fire; someone with shoddy wiring had a fire charging at 12amps. After that they had a software recall and you can then opt into 12amps EVERY time you turn the car off. I guess it all depends on how much you drive, how long you can charge at home overnight. But also having the HEV as backup, it didn't really matter if we ran out of juice. Also, 3mph seems a tad low for 120vac @ 15(really 12) amps. https://clippercreek.com/charging-times-chart/ Even at 3mph if your car sits at home on average only 12 hours per day you can get 13kmi of charging pre year in. But if it's closer to 5mph, that's closer to 22kmi/year. But when you run into that unaverage days or week where you are at home less, driving more, yeah, you might have a problem. I think real usage on a day to day basis does highlight the need for charging infrastructure where people are at on a daily basis, shopping, grocery, work, etc. We are getting there. I'm not trying to discount what you are saying too much, as I said there were definitely times where faster charging would have meant more EV usage. Times when charging at places other than home would have meant more EV usage. If/when we get a full EV, hopefully soon, we'll install (slight) faster charging; we can only do 240VAC@15amps for now with the current wiring that goes to our detached garage.

Didn't VAG have to pump a bunch of $ into some new charging network as part of their penance for diesel gate. Was it Charge America? Is that what Porsche as part of the VAG catalogue is using? Edit: It's Electrify America. https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a36956207/volkswagen-seeking-investor-electrify-america/ Edit 2: Yup, they (Porsche) is using Electrify America network. https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/28/porsche-taycan-owners-will-get-three-years-free-charging-at-hundreds-of-electrify-america-stations/ Pretty brilliant way for VAG to turn part of what's supposed to be a penalty for them into some lemonade.

I'm not saying your dad was wrong, but he was wrong. It was probably much closer to $200/year, at least on order of magnitude. Volt usable battery = 14kWh Range = 54mi kWh/mile=14/54=0.259kWh/mi Cost of electrics in NY=$0.199/kWh Cost/mi=.0264kWh/mi*$0.199/kWh=$0.0516/mi Miles for $200... $200/$0.052/mi=3876mi 3876mi/30days=129mi/day 129mi/day/54mi/charge=2.4 charges/day or 33.5kWh The Volt only has a 3.6kW charge in it, so it would have to be on the charger about 10 hours/day. And they he would have to drive it 129mi/day split in between 3 different drives. So, 50miles first thing in the morning, charge for 4 hours, drive another 30 miles at lunch, charge for another 2 hours, drive another 50 miles, charge another 4 hours (overnight). Every Single Day. If he did that every day for years, good for him. I'm not trying to give you or indirectly your dad too much grief. But people read about $200 electric bills from EV charging on the net take it as facts and will repeat it as part of why EVs are so terrible and will never work. The wife had a Volt (2013? w/38mi range on EV) for 2+ years and with a 12 mile each way commute it was just about perfect. I don't think or electric bill went up enough to really notice, maybe $20/month give or take.