AD #2881 – Tesla Suing Rivian; Bentley Makes 3D Wood Door Inserts; TuSimple Taking Autonomous Trucking Nationwide
July 24th, 2020 at 11:59am
Listen to “AD #2881 – Tesla Suing Rivian; Bentley Makes 3D Wood Door Inserts; TuSimple Taking Autonomous Trucking Nationwide” on Spreaker.
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Runtime: 11:04
0:07 U.S. New Car Sales Looking Stronger
0:50 Is Tesla Going to Make a Van?
1:38 Tesla Suing Rivian Over Trade Secrets
2:46 Bentley Makes 3D Wood Door Inserts
3:33 More Manuals Disappear
4:11 Enthusiasts Seem to Love Paddle Shifters
4:58 How GM Defense Won Its New Army Contract
7:35 Local Motors Expanding Use of Autonomous Shuttles
8:10 Daimler Struggles But Sees Signs of Recovery
9:07 TuSimple Wants to Take Autonomous Trucking Nationwide
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This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.
U.S. NEW CAR SALES LOOKING STRONGER
Sales of new cars in the U.S. are looking stronger. Wards Intelligence reports that the SAAR, or the annualized rate, for July suggests that sales could come in at 14.1 million vehicles for the year. That would be a million units higher than the SAAR was in June and nearly 2 million higher than it was in May. Wards forecasts that automakers will sell nearly 1.2 million vehicles this month, compared to 1.4 million a year ago. But because there’s an extra selling day in July this year, on a daily selling rate basis the market is down nearly 18%.
IS TESLA GOING TO MAKE A VAN?
Say, is Tesla going to make a van? Sure sounds that way. On an earnings call this week Elon Musk said Tesla will build a “higher capacity passenger vehicle”. That sure sounds like a van to us. Earlier reports suggest it could be a van that would be used by the Boring Company for transporting people in underground tunnels. Musk also confirmed that Tesla is going to come out with a compact vehicle, meaning it would be smaller than the Model 3 or Y. That sure puts Tesla on track to becoming a full line manufacturer. It will have 8 different models, including three passenger sedans, two crossovers, a pickup, a semi and a sports car.
TESLA SUES RIVIAN OVER TRADE SECRETS
Speaking of Tesla, it’s sueing Rivian. Tesla claims that Rivian poached some of its employees and encouraged them to share intellectual property with it. It’s not clear yet what secrets Tesla thinks Rivian stole, but, of course, Rivian completely denies the charges. Of Rivian’s roughly 2,300 employees, Tesla claims 178 are its former employees. BTW, Rivian also stole a good chunk of designers from the Jeep studio.
BENTLEY MAKES 3D WOOD DOOR INSERTS FOR FLYING SPUR
Diamond stitching on leather seats and door panels has long been a sign of luxury, but with so many automakers using it, it’s not so unique anymore. And since true luxury bands are all about uniqueness, Bentley came up with a new way to use the diamond pattern. It’s now making wood inserts for the rear doors on the Flying Spur that are carved with a 3D diamond pattern. The inserts are made from a single piece of wood, which is either American Walnut or Cherry that is first machined with a multi-axis router and then finished by hand. Bentley pioneered the look on a concept vehicle in 2015 and said that it was so well received that it decided to bring it to a production model.
MORE MANUALS DISAPPEAR
I think it’s safe to say we all love manual transmissions here and while they generate a lot of buzz in the media, manuals make up a very small percentage of the overall market. And now we’re seeing two more casualties; the Jeep Compass is dropping its manual, which is not a big surprise. But Genesis is dropping it on the G70, and that one is a bit shocking. Genesis had bragged that the G70 manual would really appeal to enthusiasts. But with a very low take rate, even Genesis decided to throw in the towel.
ENTHUSIASTS SEEM TO LOVE PADDLE SHIFTERS
Wow, were we stunned by how many of you responded to our story about paddle shifters. And we were not only stunned by the amount of comments you left, but also by how many of you actually use paddle shifters. The most common scenarios you reported for using the paddles were for downshifting when coming down a big hill, or from those times when you need to zip through traffic. Of course we probably shouldn’t have been surprised at all by your response. We know that most Autoline viewers are true enthusiasts.
HOW GM DEFENSE WON ITS NEW ARMY CONTRACT
On Autoline After Hours yesterday we had Mark Dickens, the chief engineer of GM Defense on the program. He told us about the ISV or Infantry Squad Vehicle that they just developed for the U.S. Army and how they won the contract to make it.
Mark Dickens, Chief Engineer, GM Denfense
It’s was, I want to say, a year and a half ago that we read about the program in FedBiz at the time as to the look for, the need for a 9-passenger vehicle that’s unarmored, that can carry soldiers in and out of battle fast. And we were working at the same time or I had responsibility for the ZR2 Colorado and the ZR2 Bison and also the Benson desert race program. And we saw the requirements and thought, wow, what a direct fit of all of these parts and pieces that are commercial, off-the-shelf parts and put together a proposal. We had, essentially from the time we started to actually delivering our bid sample to the Army for testing was 18 weeks. And that’s from putting pencils to the ground. And as you see pictures of the vehicle, the body to the seating arrangement, there’s nothing Colorado ZR2 about that. So, the team pulled off a big win there and delivered our bid sample, our first prototype to the Amry. And they evaluated I want to say maybe 5 or 6 manufacturers at that time and then we were selected as one of three companies to go forward with a prototype. And in the prototype phase they asked for two vehicles that were production representative and we delivered two vehicles to them and those went through an entire battery of testing; soldier touch points, feedback from soldiers. And I will say, really excitingly, that the Army has put a huge emphasis on the soldier’s feedback on these. I mean price is important but they’re making certain that they get products in the soldier’s hands that are going to keep them safe, get them in and out of battle fast. Those reviews and all that evaluation went really well for us. We put in our bid package for price and how we would deliver the vehicles and just a couple of weeks ago we were selected to be the sole source for production.
Mark Dickens is a true gearhead and racer, and if you’d like to learn more about what he had to say about the ISV you can watch that entire episode right now on our website or YouTube channel.
LOCAL MOTORS EXPANDS USE FOR AUTONOMOUS SHUTTLE
It’s been a while since we’ve reported anything about Local Motors. You’ll remember that’s the company that 3D prints its vehicles, notably the electric, autonomous shuttle, called Ollie. Well, Local Motors teamed up with Beep, a mobility provider out of Florida. Local will provide Beep with its Ollie 2.0, which will be deployed in geo-fenced, fixed-route environments. The two companies will also work to expand the usable area for vehicles like Ollie. But no word yet when we’ll see them out in the real world.
DAIMLER STRUGGLES BUT SEES SIGNS OF RECOVERY
Daimler was struggling before the pandemic which only added to its woes. Daimler reported it sold just under 542,000 passenger cars and commercial vehicles for the second quarter, a 34% drop from a year ago. It generated just over 30 billion euros in revenue, which is about 30% less. It posted an adjusted EBIT of a negative 708 million euros and it recorded a net loss of 1.9 billion euros. Daimler says it’s seeing signs of economic recovery and if that continues and there are not any other major COVID outbreaks in its key markets, it expects to make an operating profit this year. However, Bloomberg reports it could end up cutting as many as 20,000 jobs, and maybe as much as 30,000.
| Daimler Q2, 2020 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Sales | 541,800 | -34% |
| Revenue | €30.2 Billion | -29% |
| Adjusted EBIT | -€708 Million | €2.45 Billion |
| Net Loss | -€1.9 Billion | -€1.2 Billion |
TUSIMPLE MAKES PLANS FOR NATIONWIDE AUTONOMOUS TRUCKING
Are autonomous vehicles years away from reality? That’s what a lot of people think. But TuSimple, a startup developing Level 4 autonomous technology for semi-trucks, already has trucks on the road, shipping freight in Arizona and Texas, operating on both highways and surface streets. For now the trucks have a safety driver on board, but next year it plans to do a demo without a driver and by 2024 it plans to take its operations nationwide. It recently signed a deal with Navistar to develop autonomous trucks, which will arrive in 2024 and can be purchased through Navistar’s sales network. And it’s working with Penske Truck Leasing for maintenance and roadside assistance. Since the trucks won’t have drivers, Penske will rely on connectivity to monitor the vehicles and use the data collected to determine why a truck went to a service center or why it broke down on the road. Penske wants to better understand what the differences are between repairing autonomous trucks and regular ones. This will be critical because TuSimple plans to operate its trucks 24/7. So there you go, autonomy is already here.
But that’s it for today, thanks for watching and have a great weekend.
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Comments (56)
July 24th, 2020 at 12:10 pm
It seemed obvious that it made no financial sense to have manuals in “regular” cars. As a marketing cost it could be justified I guess.
I have paddles in my GTI but never use them. I simple put the DSG in Sport mode when I want to go a little faster.
July 24th, 2020 at 12:19 pm
I actually saw a manual transmission Renegade at a dealer, probably the first year of production. It had the Fiat 1.4 turbo. They no longer sell manual Renegades in the U.S., but probably sell a high percentage manuals in the other places they sell them, like their “home country” of Italy.
July 24th, 2020 at 12:23 pm
Truth be told, Tesla alumni are everywhere. What they really need to be asking themselves is why they have such high turnover.
July 24th, 2020 at 12:25 pm
So, Tesla is not happy that Rivian hired some Tesla employees. How many GM, Ford, FCA, Toyota, Nissan, or Honda employees did Tesla hire? Elon, get over it.
July 24th, 2020 at 12:33 pm
John, I would not equate paddle shifters with enthusiasts. The most compelling argument for paddle shifters on everyday (non-track) vehicles was for downhill engine braking… not quite usage condition exclusive to enthusiasts. And with today’s engines being so efficient with low friction, engine braking is not what it used to be 40+ years ago.
July 24th, 2020 at 12:51 pm
I thought Tesla was the company that said they would make all their technology available to the public to encourage EV adaptation.
Tesla making a van just as you guys are running stories on how Covid has affected mass transit and ride sharing. Might not be a good move.
More manuals disappear making it the best theft deterrent out there..
Hey can TuSimple mandate their trucks to the right lane only? Which also makes me wonder will autonomous trucks go with the flow of traffic or maintain the speed limit no matter what?
July 24th, 2020 at 12:52 pm
Tesla named 4 employees and another 25 will be named so that leaves about 150 who did not divulge secrets then Tesla still has to win the lawsuit or settle out of court
July 24th, 2020 at 12:53 pm
6 Cont better yet I would like to see the cops reaction the first time they pull over a truck with no driver..
July 24th, 2020 at 12:53 pm
If an employee of Company A is not under a contract, and decides to work for Company B, how was that employee “stolen”? The Silicon Valley is famous for people bouncing from company to company, with the incentive usually being better pay. Not really sure on what Elon Musk is basing his accusations about employee theft.
July 24th, 2020 at 12:59 pm
John: Assuming Teslas lawsuit is about product development and not process. I would think things like Munro and associates report available to the public will make it difficult to prove any information gained was by ex-employees or simply buying the $10 report on a complete breakdown of a Tesla.
Guess we may need more information on the specific details Tesla is suing over.
July 24th, 2020 at 1:02 pm
9 Has Happened within the original big three in the Detroit area for years.. Many people have worked for more than one of the major manufacturers and competing suppliers.
Most require a non-competitive agreement be signed upon employment.
July 24th, 2020 at 1:21 pm
“Musk also confirmed that Tesla is going to come out with a compact vehicle, meaning it would be smaller than the Model 3 or Y”
I always advocated for that, and the natural name would be the Model Z, but I bet the losers at Nissan would sue (if Nissan is still alive then)
July 24th, 2020 at 1:23 pm
4 No, this is clearly not what they are suing Rivian about. Maybe youy should take a course in reading comprehension and/or HONESTY
July 24th, 2020 at 1:25 pm
The main reason paddle shifters are in so many vehicles, is that with today’s electrically controlled transmissions, it is very cheap to do, and is a useful sales gimmick. Most people use them rarely, or not at all, but as others mentioned, they are useful to downshift for engine braking on downhill. With today’s very tall gearing, engine braking is almost nonexistent in top gear. The transmission automatically downshifts if gaining speed down hill when using cruise control with my Corvette, and I suspect with most current cars with automatics. The main time I use the paddles on my is if I want to downshift one or two gears when using quite a bit of throttle, without downshifting 3 or 4 gears as it might do in drive.
July 24th, 2020 at 1:25 pm
U.S. NEW CAR SALES LOOKING STRONGER
Once more I am vindicated. How many times did I explain, with tears in my eyes (foguratively) that sales will go UP post-CV??
July 24th, 2020 at 1:28 pm
Will there be a report on the record number of defaults on car loans?
July 24th, 2020 at 1:34 pm
Larry, Sales will definitely go up post-CV! Of course, that is 2 years from now, but hey, go ahead and take a victory lap now. You might not be alive in 2 years when your prediction comes true.
July 24th, 2020 at 2:02 pm
@13 – “Honesty”!?!? “Reading comprehension”!?!? Let’s see. Tesla is suing because they believe their IP was compromised when its employees went to work for Rivian. But you see no hypocrisy when Tesla hired employees from other auto companies, which may have compromised the IP of those companies. Are you subscribing to the theory that only Tesla has IP? “Honesty”!?!? “Reading comprehension”!?!?
July 24th, 2020 at 2:08 pm
To Claim someone “stole” someone else would imply ownership. If a company offers somebody a better package than they currently have then I see no problem. Besides every company worth anything has the employees that are “in the know” sign non-compete clauses that prevent them from going to a competitor ad doing what tesla is accusing these people of. If the employee violates the clause that is who they go after not the hiring company.
July 24th, 2020 at 2:10 pm
Larry, in case you didn’t “comprehend“ Kevin’s point… we aren’t “post-CV” yet.
July 24th, 2020 at 2:17 pm
5, Drew, less friction engines have little to do with reduced engine braking; it is a matter of compression that creates the braking force. Probably more to your explanation is the smaller pistons and the reduction of number of cylinders that newer cars have reduces absolute engine braking which may allude to what you are saying (unless that is what you meant).
July 24th, 2020 at 2:22 pm
Chuck, great clarification. Thanks.
July 24th, 2020 at 2:22 pm
21. The big difference in engine braking, compare to cars of years ago, is that current cars have much taller gearing.
20. Yeah, definitely not “post-CV.”
https://ig.ft.com/coronavirus-chart/?areas=swe&areas=usa&areas=bra&areas=chl&areas=bel&areas=esp&areasRegional=usny&areasRegional=usfl&areasRegional=ustx&areasRegional=usaz&areasRegional=usnj&areasRegional=usca&cumulative=0&logScale=1&perMillion=1&values=cases
July 24th, 2020 at 2:26 pm
…and CV death rates aren’t looking so good in the US, and some other countries.
https://ig.ft.com/coronavirus-chart/?areas=swe&areas=usa&areas=bra&areas=chl&areas=bel&areas=esp&areasRegional=usny&areasRegional=usfl&areasRegional=ustx&areasRegional=usaz&areasRegional=usnj&areasRegional=usca&cumulative=0&logScale=1&perMillion=1&values=deaths
July 24th, 2020 at 3:19 pm
24 Don’t be fooled by the numbers as they have already came out and stated they were testing folks and even if you died in a car crash if you had Covid they was being counted toward the covid numbers.. Also after the WH demanded to be copied on CDC data they back tracked and came forward saying the 90k reported in Florida was only like 12k. Also many people who were scheduled to get tested that never did get tested receive results stating they tested positive. So seems like the numbers are being purposely inflated.
But hey only 4 more months and it will mysteriously drop in Nov..
July 24th, 2020 at 4:03 pm
The numbers FT and Johns-Hopkins report are as good as are available. If anything, the reported numbers for Florida would be low, given who is running things there. If all of the Florida car crash deaths were reported as Covid deaths, which they are not, it wouldn’t make much difference, with ~5600 Covid deaths since they started in March, and 800 car crash deaths for the entire year, so far.
July 24th, 2020 at 4:29 pm
Remember “Martin Tripp” who decided to become a source for “Business Insider” and last reports lives in Hungary. But he was not the only former employee that violated their employment agreement.
Elon pointed out Wednesday that Tesla’s greatest accomplishment is how to build a Gigafactory. For example, parts arrive in a trailer docked adjacent to the assembly line. These parts go directly from trailer onto the cars being built.
It isn’t the EV car technology as Munro (and others) tear them apart as quickly as possible. It is the factory technology that remains proprietary because Tesla builds theirs at a lower cost than their ‘honorable competition.’
July 24th, 2020 at 5:06 pm
27. Tesla uses about 7 times as many employees in their Fremont plant per car built as Honda uses in their Marysville, OH assembly plant, but Tesla must do a huge amount of work in-house, that suppliers do for Honda.
July 24th, 2020 at 6:02 pm
25). Lambo, you have always seemed to have common sense, but you have to be out of your mind to believe anything that comes from the president or his puppets is anywhere near the truth.
Look around you; almost every state is getting worse and none better. Boy…. I can’t believe this one!
July 24th, 2020 at 7:02 pm
Just as people learned not to drink water from Pontiac, Mi., it is also more detrimental to drink from the Trump fountain or risk suffering the worse of fates called “Larryschizophrenia!”
A fate worse than death they say
July 24th, 2020 at 8:37 pm
29 Trump has been the least corrupt (LOOK AT BOTH CLINTONS AND BIDEN!!!) AND most honest (to the EXTREME) of ANY recent president, but I did not expect the clueless an uninformed and really confused likes of YOU to have a clue, you even confused FLINT with PONTIAC in your latest silly post, you have no clue what carbon credits are, and yet you post and post silly Debbie Downer.
Silly, the liars and the cheats are the CORRUPT PROFESSIONAL POLITICIANS IN YOU CONGRESS. NOT THE OUTSIDERS! GET A CLUE AT LONG LAST!!!!!
July 24th, 2020 at 8:40 pm
29 con’d you have SOME NERVE to doubt the honesty of Trump when the Corrupt leaders of your UAW are doing TIME and have stolen $55,000 in TRAVEL EXPENSES ALONE from YOU clueless sheep who vcoted for them. And don’t let me start with unions and their TIES TO THE MOB for decades, and all the crimes they are doing to silence their internal opposition. Corrupt to the BONE, just like 99% of the CORRUPT DETROIT DEM POLS, like that DEM MAYOR Kilpatrick, remember??? Who rots in Jail and should do TEN TIMES the time he was sentenced?
IF this is not the pot calling the kettle black!!!!
July 24th, 2020 at 9:07 pm
31. Are you trying to be funny? You’re not funny. Trump lies more in a week, than most previous presidents have in 8 years, and is destroying about everything the U.S. stands for, or stood for. Isn’t it great, how he wishes luck to his friend, a sex trafficker of little girls, while he sends unidentified federal thugs to detain peaceful people in Oregon without even telling them what they are being accused of.
I don’t disagree that there is, and has long been corruption in unions, long before even Jimmy Hoffa.
Yes, cwolf stated the wrong city in Michigan, like you have never mis-stated anything here.
July 25th, 2020 at 6:45 am
F1 news: all four races in the America’s have been cancelled (U.S. Mexico, Brazil and Canada) but others in Europe have been added, notably Imola and the Nürburgring. Also speculation of maybe one Asian GP but the schedule is still in flux. It is still nice to see that a season will be held, and with the variety, may not be bad at all (considering).
July 25th, 2020 at 8:01 am
34. Thanks for the info. I understand cancelling U.S., Brazil, and probably Mexico, but why Canada? Maybe the cost of bringing the equipment that far for only one race, without spectators? Valtteri Bottas might have liked the rest of the season to be cancelled after two races.
July 25th, 2020 at 1:43 pm
Can we keep the damned politics out of here, please? I’d like to have at least one refuge from the run-up to the election insanity.
I’m developing a theory that Dunning-Kruger is sort of silo’d. For example, my daughter was a Wharton MBA, World Bank debt analyst, member of MENSA, and remarkably devoid of common sense. D-K isn’t blanket state unless you get below a certain level of overall intelligence.
July 25th, 2020 at 4:08 pm
This doesn’t have much to do with Daimler’s bad quarter, but aren’t they diluting the brand, at least in the U.S., but selling overpriced, very mediocre smallish sedans like CLA and A-Class, and even the GLA CUV? It seems that, even more than most brands, M-B seems to have widely varying “goodness,” for the price, depending on the specific model.
July 25th, 2020 at 5:04 pm
It seems both the German goliaths have too many models (BMW as well); maybe they are just seeing what models may stick or somehow found an economy of scale by producing and sharing all their offerings globally. They have been making the more pedestrian models along their pretigist models in Europe for quite a while. I’m guessing that some of the cars, non utilities, will start to be canceled as we see on our shores especially when they start offering more electrics.
July 25th, 2020 at 6:35 pm
38. Something that’s annoyed me for years about both M-B and BMW, is that they don’t sell some of their mainstream products globally, specifically the wagons. About 12 years ago, I rented a manual transmission, diesel C-Class wagon in Europe, and if they’d sold that car in the US, I probably would have bought one. Neither M-B nor BMW has sold even gas automatic wagons in the U.S. for years, except with 4wd. Now, BMW doesn’t even sell those, and M-B is turning the E-Class wagon into a very expensive Subaru Outback for the U.S. market. Maybe it will sell well, but it seems to me, that people who want lifted 4wd things buy CUVs/SUVs, and those of us who like wagons don’t want a lift kit, plastic body cladding, and for many, don’t want 4wd.
I suppose the CLA is sold a lot of places, but I remember reading that it was made mainly for the U.S. market, as was the A-Class sedan. There are A-Class and B-Class hatchbacks that sell well in Europe, but would be too frumpy looking to sell in the U.S., at the price they would need to sell for.
I don’t know who the “coupe” versions of some of the BMW and M-B CUVs are made for. They don’t sell well in the U.S., and I looked up some sales figures for Europe a while back, and they don’t sell well there either. Maybe they are popular in the middle east. I didn’t try to find any sales figures for that.
July 25th, 2020 at 6:49 pm
The “coupe” CUVs are so expensive, that maybe they make more for the company, even at the low volume they sell at.
July 25th, 2020 at 8:03 pm
There was an auction on NBC at 3 PM today which I watched. Not a single bargain shown. RIdiculously overpriced “old” cars, some elegant and beautiful European ones, and lots of worthless muscle cars, one went for $3.5 million (some fancy old Mustang who won a race)
There were two old ROllses, nothing special, 60s SIlver Cloud 3s, restored, one went for $350k (I can get a similar one for $60k from cars.com) the other belonged to that lecher actor Tony Curtis, was a convertible, and went for $650k. A black Ferrari from the Letterman collection went for $1.3 mill. An almost new Porsche 911 Speedster (not even Turbo) went for $320k or so (was a 2019).
Most Ferraris had ricidulously low miles despite some being 20 years old and had just 500 miles. WHat a horrible waste of a car that should be DRIVEN.
So much for “cheap used cars”, New Hyundai Buyers!
July 25th, 2020 at 8:32 pm
I know only one person who has actually owned a Ferrari, a Testarossa, I think 1988. He bought it new, and sold it a few years ago, with 20-some K miles, about a thousand miles a year. That is probably about median mileage for those cars, but some of them actually get driven quite a bit. A while back, I read an article about the Testarossa collector market, and there are a number of them out there with “delivery mileage.” Why would anyone buy a car like that, and not want to drive it?
July 26th, 2020 at 5:25 am
I more or less agree that a car bought should be a car driven, but when it comes to some exotics and some people, a car takes on the persona of ‘jewelry’ and function can take a back seat. And while automobiles primarily exist for transportation, lest we not forget they also can be hobby, investment or just eye candy (or any combination thereof). I’ll agree that some very rich buyers/collectors are artificially inflating the market and it can become a bit tedious, automobiles aren’t inclusive in this behavior and other flamboyant behavior also can irk the common man.
July 26th, 2020 at 7:32 am
Cars bought new are rarely a good investment, regardless of how they are taken care of. A Testarossa cost ~$180K in 1989, and according to a June, 2019 AW article, one in concours condition with 8K miles had just sold for $110K at auction. I’m wondering if the people who bought them and never drove them held the price down, by increasing to supply of those cars, that cost near $400K in today’s money. Testarossa and later versions with different names had the same model run as C4 Corvette, 1984-1996. About 10,000 were built, a lot for an expensive exotic like that.
I remember when 1976 Eldorado convertibles were billed as the “last convertible ever,” and people bought them, never drove them, and expected to get rich on them as an investment after a few years. It didn’t turn out that way, because there were too many “new old stock” Eldorado convertibles.
I
July 26th, 2020 at 8:55 am
13
Larry D, I think it’s time you evaluate yourself. Are you like this in real life. If you are I would get some help. You are by far the most egotistical person I’ve ever seen blogging. You think nothing about throwing insults to anyone you see fit. Get some help.
July 26th, 2020 at 12:00 pm
I have a few friends who buy mid-level restorations of older Euro/British cars. Often, the purchase price is lower than the money put into them at that stage. It only takes a little more money to take the car to the next level while still making them affordable to the next buyer, yet a good profit.
I’m a big advocate of keeping things original.
July 26th, 2020 at 12:15 pm
46. I now wish I’d kept my ’89 Caravan a little more original. When it was almost new, I removed the “turbo” tape stripes on the side, so it would be more of a “sleeper.” I now wish I’d left them on.
July 27th, 2020 at 8:43 am
26 You can believe whatever data you want to believe and I would just caution you on its origins. I do not want to get political and did not mention Covid data in support of any political position. Just saying my wife and daughter are nurses along with about 3 other family members in other states. My wife worked as a travel nurse and has many friends all over the country. Just saying the information I tend to believe is first hand from people that actually work in the hospitals and are not seeing the spike that is being presented to the public. The testing data is flawed and the cases are flawed simple because the hospitals are getting federal money based on positive cases. (Take away the money the cases will drop). Also many places are not taking into account if a person gets multiple tests. So if a person tests positive and takes 4 more tests to see when they test neg. Its counted as 5 positive tests. Even though its the same individual. Also the mortality rate is inline with the same percentage as the common flu making it not anymore dangerous and any other flu. So are the numbers being manipulated because its just being handled by incompetent people or for political reasons. I don’t know and don’t care. I just know what I hear from actual people who work in the hospitals and see this everyday and its not as its being presented.. Do what you want with that information. Better yet feel free to ask someone that works in your local hospital for their opinion on the deaths not testing as that is completely messed up..
July 27th, 2020 at 8:57 am
“VW CEO praises Musk over Tesla’s earnings and value potential”
https://europe.autonews.com/automakers/vw-ceo-praises-musk-over-teslas-earnings-and-value-potential?utm_source=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20200727&utm_content=article3-headline
This from VW, the only company so far that MAY (small chance though) be able to make a BEV that (with a little help from protectionist and tariff-happy Europe) may challenge the undisputed No 1, TESLA.
In other news, Joe and Cwolf still believe the earth is flat.
July 27th, 2020 at 9:04 am
Yesterday I saw an interesting recent episode of MW. There appears to be yet another Merc Crossover, smaller than the GLK, the GLB. (there was already some creature called the GLA). The GLB looks big and can have three rows, and got excellent MPG for this kind of box, even better than the Subaru Outback 2020 they tested next, a real mixed MPG of close to 28!
The GLB looks far more serious than the GLA, and looks much bigger than it really is, probably. Nice exterior lines too, and a price of $37k which these days gets you a lousy Kia. So I predict it will do great.
In other news they had interviews with many BEV owners, mostly Tesla 3 owners, some were car persons and some not, each mentioned one great advantage of them, many cited the far better performance than any car they ever owned, others the maintenance-free cheap operation, etc.
Then there was this cop from Hayatsville MD who has a Bolt police car, despite the Bolt being a compliance BEV, it is still fairly quick off the line and can catch bad guys around town faster than one would think, AND its silent operation, said the happy cop, allows him to get close to the criminal punks without their noticing.
Plus the profile of the nerdy Bolt would not rise the alarm when it is behind you and you are doing 100 MPH on the interstate, and expect the cop car to be a Flintstone-mobile Crown VIc or a far Ford SUV. or at best a Dodge Charger.
July 27th, 2020 at 9:14 am
I could read the whole article in 49, but if some of you could not, here is the main story:
“Volkswagen Group’s CEO again praised Tesla’s Elon Musk, this time for showing it’s possible to profit off electric cars even in the midst of a global pandemic.
Tesla and VW group’s Porsche sports-car division will be among the few automakers who navigate the market turmoil caused by COVID-19 without suffering a quarterly loss, CEO Herbert Diess said on LinkedIn.
“Elon Musk delivers results that many have deemed impossible,” Diess wrote…”
Analyze that, Flat Earth Joe and Cwolf.
July 27th, 2020 at 9:35 am
50. CR has tested the GLB, and liked it fairly well. It got 2 mpg better mileage than the Outback in their testing, but needs premium, while the Subaru uses regular. From a practical standpoint, the Outback makes a lot more sense. It is roomier, and costs ~$10K less than the GLB, base price, but the GLB is a big improvement over the GLA.
Now that most of the Crown Vics are gone, the Charger is what screams “cop car” to me, but I need to get used to watching for Ford SUVs when I’m speeding, which is most of the time if conditions are good.
July 27th, 2020 at 9:42 am
Speaking of Bolts and GLBs, in CR’s tests, the Bolt and GLB tied in 0-60 acceleration at 6.8 seconds, but the Bolt was much quicker in 45-65 “passing” acceleration, 3.5 seconds, vs 4.8. I guess it takes a little while for the transmission to downshift, and the turbo to spool up.
July 27th, 2020 at 11:23 am
26 & 29
https://vm.tiktok.com/JY9R43T/
July 27th, 2020 at 11:39 am
54. Can’t you please keep your conspiracy theories about covid cases to yourself, or go to twitter or tik tok to spread them. Thanks.
July 27th, 2020 at 12:58 pm
55 Kit its not a conspiracy it was a link to an actual news report that was posted on TikTok. But again go through life with your eyes closed.