General vehicle thread

[hatidua]

my next vehicle(s) will probably be my last vehicles.

That's where I'm at. We currently have two 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee's. Both run fine, one has 250,000 miles on it, the other is nearly 200K. Both are on their original transmission. We've owned both vehicles since they were new. If I can get a couple more years out of these, I doubt there will be a vehicle purchase after whatever replaces the Jeeps assuming the replacement for the Jeeps lasts equally long. I don't have the "I want a new car every three years" gene.

[Great-Kazoo]

That's where I'm at. We currently have two 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee's. Both run fine, one has 250,000 miles on it, the other is nearly 200K. Both are on their original transmission. We've owned both vehicles since they were new. If I can get a couple more years out of these, I doubt there will be a vehicle purchase after whatever replaces the Jeeps assuming the replacement for the Jeeps lasts equally long. I don't have the "I want a new car every three years" gene.

2 -08's and an 02. We'll run them in to the ground. Hopefully find an under 100K used to replace them with.

[cstone]

2003 Toyota Sequoia 165,000 miles
2008 Toyota Yaris 120,000 miles
2006 Ford F250 5.4L gas engine 260,000 miles

The Sequoia and F250 combined cost me less than $10k and with regular maintenance and avoiding someone hitting them, I expect they will last me another 5 or more years. The Yaris is the only manual transmission in group and I bought it new as a commuter car. My daughter learned to drive the stick and it is now her car. I will eventually sign it over to her. It is a fun car to drive and should last another 10 years.

I used to work on cars. I never made the transition into electronic cars and eventually lost my ability/interest in fixing cars, although I do my own fluid changes. Some maintenance is easy, and some things are hard. Like most things, I often decide to exchange money for time. The mechanic I normally use is much faster than I could ever be when it comes to most things. I tell myself that I could be faster if I had a lift and $40k in tools, but I am kidding myself. He would still be faster than me: 1. Because he is more competent in this area. 2. He enjoys it more than I do.

I keep reading that by 2030, more than half of the passenger cars on the road will be electric/hybrid. I can't say that I believe this but I can't say that it won't happen either. Since I probably only have another 25 years of regular driving left in my life (after 80, I will probably limit myself to milk runs or leisure cruising) my next vehicle(s) will probably be my last vehicles.

And just like that, within the span of four months, I only have one of the three vehicles listed above.

My daughter got the Yaris when we left Colorado and the F250 was stolen from the work parking lot while I was on my last work trip. It was recovered two days after I left the state and then promptly totaled by my insurance company. I got a bit more than I paid for it, so no complaints, but I never thought I would be this young and down to only one car. I am currently looking at used Prius (Prii?) now that I am back to regular driving in the east coast megolopolis. Of course I don't really need a second car yet as we still haven't found a house, so not having some place to park one vehicle makes it much easier not parking a second vehicle.

Life can be quite unpredictable sometimes. I probably should buy a Tesla and then all will be revealed to me.

[Aloha_Shooter]

I probably should buy a Tesla and then all will be revealed to me.

You would certainly fit in better with the cool kids in the Unfree State.

[cstone]

Imagine an EV that was as modular/repairable as the desktop computers nobody wants anymore. Unplug, unscrew, replace. Common component architecture that would allow manufacturers to compete on speed and reliability without focusing on proprietary technology. Open source software upgrades to tune your vehicle to your desires.

When the engineers get past the battery capacity and charging issues, EVs will definitely be better than internal combustion engine vehicles.

I still wonder why someone hasn't scaled down the diesel electric technology to make vehicles that could run for days without needing to be plugged in.

[Jer]

Imagine an EV that was as modular/repairable as the desktop computers nobody wants anymore. Unplug, unscrew, replace. Common component architecture that would allow manufacturers to compete on speed and reliability without focusing on proprietary technology. Open source software upgrades to tune your vehicle to your desires.

When the engineers get past the battery capacity and charging issues, EVs will definitely be better than internal combustion engine vehicles.

I still wonder why someone hasn't scaled down the diesel electric technology to make vehicles that could run for days without needing to be plugged in.

That's kind of the way EVs are in a way. They don't have anywhere near the number of moving parts or even parts in general and most all can be replaced by a mobile technician out in the field. I know with the Tesla they have the technology to drop out an entire battery pack and replace it with a new and fully charged on in like 5min time. They were testing it in CA as an alternative to those not waiting to wait the half hour it would take to charge up at a Supercharger.

We're already past a lot of the capacity and charging issues. This year Tesla is doubling their network of Superchargers. They also doubled it over the last two years so now they're going to quadruple production in a single year. They also announced a significant speed increase in how quickly they charge and most are guestimating that 2x the current speed would be pretty benign to the batteries. That's the one of the limitations that engineers are working to get over because all of these cars coming out are claiming some astronomical charge rates but the question then become long-term battery degradation. For me, I'm fine with 80% in 10min or so (this will likely be the rate any week now) if it also means the batteries are going 500,000 before a noticeable amount of battery degradation occurs.

You get it! I could still fix a PC from 1990 if it came my way, relatively quickly. I wouldn't, of course, but if the growing industry develops that way, it would be a blessing. Sadly, our modern culture is a wizz-bang hedonistic one, so I'm hazarding a guess each company will forever be super proprietary and worse, like apple, won't even be backwards compatible with their own crap. I think mechanics eventually may overtake dentists on the suicide rate.

It's one area I wouldn't be opposed to minor regulation: Standardization of connectors and inter-interoperability with right to repair, which is the other huge issue that EV's will have. (You will probably HAVE to have any software issue resolved at the dealer, nowhere else, due to that crap)

Speaking to your point of standardization, Tesla has secured hundreds of patents and they have opened most all of them up to anyone who wants to use them. They have also claimed that any manufacturer is free to use their Supercharger network but for some reason NONE of the competition is willing to use any of them. They're content to crank out problematic vehicles that will cause headaches for customers and engineer their own proprietary charge system so they can milk the same customer long-term who wishes to use their charging network.

[cstone]

Please, no government solutions. Non-profit corporations that have been founded by companies in the industry to develop standards. Example-Universal Serial Bus Implementers Forum https://www.usb.org/about

Some people want sports cars and others want work trucks. Some people want gaming computers and others just want to surf the Internet. I don't think the engineering portion of the problem is the tough part.

Apple hasn't publicly admitted it but everyone in the industry has noted that Apple products have increasingly been less DIY friendly over the past ten years. Many of the web sites that focus on opening products and providing information on repair and upgrades have given up on new Apple products because they clearly are not meant to be touched by anyone other than the folks at the Genius Bar.

[ray1970]

When the ICar comes out I?ll buy one for seamlessly integrating with my phone.

[Erni]

@cstone. Fellow Yaris owner here. 2007 auto 130k and now my son is driving it to school until we figure out a car. Fantastic car from a maintanace point of view. Quick enough too. Only 2 complaints: interior noise, and the soft steel rims thst the base comes with. Swapped to some light alloy wheels when I needed new tires and it feels smoother and faster.
I think the Yaris is highly underated due to the "Echo" past and the low price point. If course the interior noise might have something to do with it too...

[ray1970]

So, how often do you guys clean the inside of your windshield?

I was driving in the dark in the rain in rush hour traffic yesterday. Visibility that was already impeded by these conditions was made worse by the haze on the inside of my windshield.

Pretty sure I just cleaned that sucker like five or six years ago.