Volkswagen Ponders Golf R-400 and A Van for the U.S.

This looks so freakin great.  

Well kids, today's lesson is: Just buy the effing tool you need. Last weekend I took the R1100RS out on the longest ride I've been on with it. A total of 5 hours of wandering. Even with 109k miles on it, this bike just loves to chew up highway. The engine runs superbly.  I was really trying to burn off gas that's been in the tank a little long for comfort, but even with 5 hours of riding, I have more than half a tank left! No issues on the trip except I noticed that the right fork was leaking oil.  These are telelever forks that don't actually have any suspension components in them. The shock and spring are mounted on a cantilever platform between the forks.  Essentially, all the forks do is slide up and down and keep the wheel aligned. When I got back from the trip, I ordered a set of fork seals and picked up fork oil. Watched a few videos on the process and decided I was set. ALL of the videos suggested that I could get the oil seal out with a flat head screwdriver. Both my Haynes manual and the BMW service manual I have said to use an oil seal remover tool. You can see where this is going. I effed with that oil seal for a good hour with a flat head, some long needle nose pliers, even some plastic bodywork tools I have before I gave up and drove to Harbor Freight.  Harbor Freight has an Oil Seal Removal tool for $7.99.  I got that and a few other things that I decided I might need to try also. Got home and with the tool I had the oil seal out in 15 seconds. . I replaced the seals, topped it off with some fresh fork oil, and had it back together faster than the time I spent just trying to get the damn seal out. So, moral of the story is: Just buy the damn tool.

Based on the pictures, it would appear what went into the EV9 has been pushed out to the other EVs in Hyundai and Genesis based on the pictures. If so, then a decent set of physical switches for the most common features and a very user-friendly thought-out interface imho. I like this new updated design much better than generation 1. I am very excited to see what comes of the next 18 months. Seems to be a weird assortment of some companies are investing in the U.S. to ensure market share gain and production with minimal tariff affect like the 21 billion Kia/Hyundai/Genesis are investing and then others are cancelling plants like Ford and GM. Then you have the Europeans that have come out and stated they will have a Tariff line cost on each auto now with no changes in production as I think they are figuring 47 could be gone soon based on recent video of him and his leg dragging, slurring of speech and freezing in talking and someone else will have common sense to set fair trade negotiations and balance the craziness out.

My main question is if they improved the center console.  I really like the Ioniq 6, but the center console of the interior was such a huge miss in terms of material quality and construction that it killed the car for me. It was odd that given the level of quality in the rest of the interior that one of the most touched items in the car outside of the steering wheel was an obvious afterthought to the design team.

Interesting read, I have to agree that the writer hits a number of solid points as to why the whole Tariff mess actually will help EVs as ICE dies. Why EV-hating Trump has accidentally driven the final nail in the coffin of gas cars Interesting read and I can see dealerships ripping up current unsigned contracts to reap bigger profits on autos on the lot now before the more expensive ones show up. US consumers rush to buy big-ticket items before Trump's tariffs kick in