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Blake Noble

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Everything posted by Blake Noble

  1. Fixed your post for you. You're welcome. The H2 is absolutely the reason why Hummer failed. Just because it was initially met with favorable sales — and may have even given some buyers what they thought they wanted initially — does not mean it wasn't responsible for severely damaging the image of the brand in the bigger picture. (See also: Chevy Citation.) Not unlike Jeep, Hummer was a brand that built its image around its military heritage and a reputation for building off-road vehicles that were quality, tough, and maybe even a little innovative. They were also recognized for being flashy and expensive; not because they were exactly luxurious, but because of their no-expense-spared, military-grade engineering and design. The model responsible for that creating image was obviously the original civilian-spec AM General Hummer, that would be known as the H1 when GM came into the picture (along with its mil-spec M998 relatives). (To say the civilian-spec Hummer/H1 was the exotic or "Ferrari" of the off-road world in the 90s really wouldn't be wrong.) When GM launched the H2, the public likely wasn't expecting any addition to the Hummer lineup to be lavishly luxurious, or even comfortable, but they certainly were expecting it to be exceptional off-road and look tough doing it. That's the image the H1 helped build for the brand, remember. The H2, then, would prove to be a textbook example of "appearances only running skin deep." While the H2 may have worn styling inspired by the H1, under the skin it was hardly anything like its forebearer, thanks in part to GM basing the design heavily on its full-sized truck and SUV platform. It might have been more capable off-road than the Tahoe it was derived from, sure. But what isn't, really? A Tahoe is not and has not been a number one choice for anyone in the off-roading community, as far as I can tell. It didn't take long for the world to eventually wise up and realize what the H2 actually was — a big, dumb SUV with a chintzy interior, stupid price tag and offensive fuel economy that proved to be borderline, if not completely cumbersome off-road (depending on where you were taking it). It didn't live up to what the brand promised and it not only cast an ugly shadow down on the models it built that were actually OK, like the H3, but also cast one back on the H1. And, yes, H2 was pretty cumbersome off-road because of its size and design. Off-road, the H1 (obviously) and even the smaller H3 would humiliate it. The H1 was designed to maintain a low center of gravity while offering superior approach and departure angles and 16 inches of ground clearance. The fact the H2's design borrowed so heavily from the GM truck parts bin meant that this quality would never be replicated. The H3 trounced the H2 off-road by just being plain-old smaller, and it also offered the same amount of ground clearance or better. (It should be said, the final design for H3's chassis also had far less in common with the GM mid-size trucks it had sprung from, especially when compared to the H2 and it's relationship to GM's full-sized truck designs.) Looking at the bigger picture, GM was better off making the Hummer line-up the H1 (and limiting production to 1,000 units annually until it was totally unprofitable to certify it), the H3 and a production version of the HX concept. They also would have been better off selling Hummer models through GMC dealerships from the very beginning, instead of investing and wasting money setting up standalone lots.
  2. Well, the ads around here are certainly getting... interesting.
  3. Hello everyone. Don’t mind me. Just felt like I should step in here and point out that the owner of an FCA product (that has had, according to NHTSA, six recalls including one that could cause the vehicle to stall out) is making fun of another automaker for quality issues.
  4. Wait... hold up. Hold up a moment there. Your Jeepiat uses a synthetic motor oil, OK sure. But do you think that synthetic motor oils are somehow totally completely free of petroleum and fossil fuels? Because, if so, have I got some news for you! Most synthetic motor oils, like conventional oils, are still derived from crude oil. And that's no assumption, either. Per Mobil Oil's own website: Conventional and synthetic oils both "begin in the ground," in other words, as crude petroleum. The known exception to the rule would be Pennzoil's synthetic oils (branded as Pennzoil Platinum), which instead begin in the ground as natural gas. But you don't have to take my word on that. I'll let the folks who run NAPA Auto Parts's website lay some of their good-old know-how on ya: Like petroleum, natural gas, as I'm sure you already knew, is a fossil fuel. The U.S. Energy Information Administration's own website states: Of course, once again, a Tesla does not use or require fossil fuels — petroleum, natural gas, etc. — to operate. So, before you go switching your motor oil to Pennzoil Platinum in a valiant effort to prove me wrong, the point still stands that you're still spending more on gas and oil changes than the Tesla driver is spending using the grid to recharge his car. He's coming out ahead there and you aren't. Simple fact. Moving on, depending on the model, it takes 60 to 75 minutes — or one hour to one hour and fifteen minutes — to recharge a Tesla to 100 percent at a Tesla charging station. I would think the charging station is somewhat analogous to a gasoline-powered car stopping at a filling station. (From here on out, feel free to Google this post to death fact checking it because I'm only going to spoon-feed quotes and links sparingly.) And, sure, OK, it takes about 5 minutes or so, max, to completely refuel an average gasoline-powered car from empty. But that's just the time it takes to refuel, i.e. getting the gas out of the pump and into your tank. If, to pay for the fuel, you have to stand in line for 5 to 10 minutes behind someone who's also standing behind some moron trying to use SNAP benefits to buy a carton of cigarettes, that time suddenly grows from 5 to about 10. If you spend any modicum of time in the bathroom, add on another 5 to 10 minutes. If you stop to browse the soda pop coolers and potato chip racks, there's another 5 to 10 minutes tacked on. If you forgo the snacks and instead wander into the Wendy's next door, that wait goes up a little more. Get the point? You're choosing to conveniently ignore the convenience store part of the equation when it comes to stopping at a gas station. And those convenience stores, like all retail chains, are constantly figuring out ways to get you to come inside and buy something. I mean you don't think they're actually making substantial money on that gas, do you? And, if their own studies are to be believed, foot traffic is all the time increasing. And sure, you can pay at the pump and avoid going inside. But that isn't always the case 100 percent of the time. And, personally, I always choose to go inside or to the cashier to avoid any potential holds or fees on my card, and to decrease the chance of someone stealing my card information by manipulating the card reader on the pump. Also, I should mention the obvious that you can choose to recharge a Tesla while you're doing jack-all sleeping in bed at night. See, what a smart Tesla owner might choose to do is recharge the car to 100 percent or "full" as they sleep and then choose to "top" the battery off at at charging station or point once they reach a certain percentage. This is like leaving home with a full tank and choosing to add some gas once you reach a quarter tank or a half a tank. I mean, you don't refuel when you get totally bone-dry on gas, do you? Why should an electric car be any different in this regard? Answer: It isn't. So that hour wait time from earlier? That decreases substantially. Also, I could choose to stretch the post out even more and start doing some math on the time it takes to earn one gallon of gas, which would average you 27.5 miles of range in your Fiat, versus the time it takes the Tesla driver to earn the amount of charge needed to drive the same distance. I have a hunch you'd loose there, too. But, at this point, this post is far too long, too factual and too controlled to be a rebuttal to a post where someone responded to maths and facts by basically resorting to calling the poster a $h!ty millennial.
  5. Wait, wait, wait. “I haven’t had to plug it in yet at 37k miles.” What? So energy and resource usage is an indicator of “poor quality” now? Welllll then... In 37,000 miles, you have had at least 7 oil changes and used 38.5 quarts of oil (provided 5,000 mile intervals and the capacity of the engine’s lubrication system, which is 5.5 quarts). You’ve also burned through roughly 99 full tanks of gas (provided an average mpg of 27.5 and the size of the tank, which holds 13.5 gallons). So much petroleum use! Not to mention you’ve spent roughly $3,000 on fuel costs (at a cost of about $30 per fill-up, taking into consideration the size of the tank and the national average cost of fuel, which is $2.28 a gallon right now) and about $350 on oil changes alone (provided a cost of $49.95 per change, which is what Mopar service departments have charged me personally in the past). A Tesla costs a little over $10 to charge up completely, if you were wondering. The extended range models have a range of 310 miles. I’ll be fair and say that is a short distance less than your little four-wheel drive Fiat. But, even if the Tesla owner has to charge up about 119 times to your 99 fill-ups in a 37,000 mile period, he’s still spending less than half on electricity than the $3,000 you spend on fuel. Oh, and he’s never spent one red cent on oil because Teslas lack that need. NOW, with that all said, many a Tesla buyer/owner has spent upwards of $100,000 and never encountered a single issue you’ve mentioned. Nice to hear you’re working with your limited budget, though! That’s a good thing, really, considering how much money you’re spending on petroleum and petroleum-based products.
  6. Throwing stones from your glass Fiat, I see...
  7. Does a handkerchief come standard in the glovebox with these trucks? A roll of paper towels, at least? Because this truck is gonna drool more than a St. Bernard if it insists on angrily gritting its teeth like that.
  8. lol is that really apples to oranges? deaths (out of the 124 total) caused by driver error in gm ignition switch recall: 0 deaths caused by driver error in toyota's unintended acceleration issue almost ten years ago: probably all of them
  9. how much pot do you have to smoke, how much acid do you have to drop, and how many mushrooms do you have to eat before "network" syncs up with twisted sister? you might want to check into your local emergency room
  10. deaths caused by gm's ignition switches: 124 deaths caused by hyundai's engines: 0 hmmmm....
  11. you are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. there are no nations. there are no peoples. there are no russians. there are no arabs. there are no third worlds. there is no west. there is only one holistic system of systems; one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting interwoven, interacting, multi-variate, multi-national dominion of dollars. petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, reichmarks, rins, rubles, pounds, and shekels. it is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. that is the natural order of things today. that is the atomic and sub-atomic and galactic structure of things today! am I getting through to you, mr. oldshurst442? you get out your laptop, or your smartphone, or your tablet, fire up your keyboard fingers, log into this forum board and screech about america and canada and democracy. there is no america. there is no canada. there is no democracy. there is only GM and ford and FCA and VW, BMW, nissan, and toyota. those are the nations of the world today. what do you think the russians talk about in their councils of state - karl marx? they get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, minimax solutions, and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments, just like we do. we no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, mr. oldshurst442. the world is a collage of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable by-laws of business. the world is a business, mr. oldshurst442; it has been since man crawled out of the slime. and our children will live, mr. oldshurst442, to see that perfect world in which there's no war or famine, oppression or brutality - one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock - all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused...
  12. if you find that you must flatulate in a used bookstore, and luck should also have it you’re strolling through the horror section, think quick and grab the nearest copy of stephen king’s “the stand.” (if it’s the “complete and uncut” edition, even better. you’ll get why soon.) making sure to act innocently as possible, proceed to drop mr. king’s magnum opus on the floor in time as you break wind. the noise of the 1,153 page novel hitting the floor should be loud enough to disguise the noise of even your worst boomer. as a bonus, if your flatulence should be the result of a bountiful meal of cheap Chinese buffet food or some over cooked loaded curly fries from Arby’s, the accompanying after-smell should teach your fellow shoppers/readers the true meaning of horror.
  13. this is the 2023 refresh. no one tell GM i hacked their files to get this. i remember what nasa did to that one dude from the uk who got that flying saucer .jpg
  14. rumor has it GM wanted to go with this design but was afraid of being seen as too conservative as with previous redesigns
  15. It could always be worse. Like, way worse. Like, he could have rented a Malibu.
  16. when you finally make a post that actually acknowledges the bigger picture, maybe it won’t get deleted. also, for the record, everyone who is anyone knows that, if you want a classic casual sit down experience and salad bar induced diarrhea, you sit your ass down at big boy. or shoney’s.
  17. This review is comparing a $40,000 quasi-crossover with an interior crafted out of recycled Cavalier parts bin pieces to a $70,000 luxury fastback sedan. I SHIGGY. THIS IS QUALITY JOURNALISM. GET THIS MAN A JOB WITH DOUG DEMURO ON AUTOTRADER DOT COM SLASH OVERSTEER.
  18. Lock the door? What if you want the whole world to see what you're capable of?
  19. Lol Maytag? More like Gaytag amiright lolol
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