Leaderboard

Oh I LOVE to engage in politics and talk politics. It is difficult for me to follow my own rule here. But there are other places on the internet for that and I would rather we keep this a friendly place. Politics can, especially of late, ruin relationships and friendships. I've left car clubs over politics and the general bad behavior associated with older white straight men of a particular political party. For a time, I considered shutting down C&G because every thread devolved into an "I love EVs"/"You're a dumb liberal if you do" fight and it really killed my love for this hobby. It has been difficult for me to return to it.

In this latest war with Canada (we'd been bros since like 1813), this American is taking the Canadian's side. That's all I've got to say on it.

Talking, in general, about politics is not taboo. Talking politics where politics are not wanting to be talked about, is taboo. Nobody is going to specific group pages (Corvette, Mustang, Dallas Cowboys, Montreal Canadians, Dale Earnhardt Jr) groups and wanting to talk politics. Go to political pages that are dedicated to talking that stuff. There are sooooo many pages/sites available if you want to talk politics. Talk politics with people who want to talk politics. That seems fair, right? Personally, I don't want to be talking about the new Silverado EV's multiple trims and battery sizes and have somebody cram some political garbage into the comment section.

On mine, there is a box on the lower right marked 'PARTS CONTENT INFORMATION'.

Just not good enough at being a motor vehicle period...just hideous, shoddily built chod..

They should have made a "GTI" version of this a decade ago. It seemed like an easy cash cow for them. Charge an extra 5-10k for parts already paid for?!? I love the idea of this.

9 times out of 10, whenever someone has to say the above, it is because it is (in fact) ugly. No amount of "seeing it in person" changes the bad angles on the back of the EV4. There is no design cohesion back there when you look at the rest of the car. It is just a mess and I will stand by that, whether seen here or in person.

I wonder why they gave this model less range (and I'm guessing smaller battery) than the upcoming Solterra, even though it is clearly a larger model?

Had a relaxing weekend at the lake, albeit still a bit cold... highs only in the low 40s. But sunny in the afternoons, great sunsets. Saturday night about 8pm...last pic is the 'pink' moon at about 9pm Sat. Crazy spring weather..70 and sunny at home yesterday afternoon, 43 and rain today. Got to wash the Caddy, it got a lot of mud on it on one backroad near the lake where they were logging.

Yes, it was a deal ... booked almost a year ago. Ends at Civitavecchia (port for Rome) Will put up photos of stops along the way.

My Saturday evening ... ... sailing out under the Tampa Bay Bridge to sea ... Before After

Another piece I turned from scrap, wanted jsut the lid to have featured grain as to not overwhelm the piece... A bowl my friend Sean Hunter turned out of sycamore, similar spaulting and insect damage. Looks much better in person... Natural defects in the black locust vase on the left, I turned that one last week.... A beetle in Mexico city, I want to go back badly. Mexico City, when is the last time you saw a rust free Gladiator just out in traffic? Mexican Beer is the bomb... Nothing rusts in Mexico City, and vintage iron is everywhere.

Wait for retroactive tariffs, ICE will be by to reposes a large part of your car and send it back across the border/across the ocean. I can't navigate to that portion of the window sticker.

The BYD Han interior does look really good. Shame the outside looks like a 2-generations-ago Civic.

You’re thinking in purely North American terms. China and Middle East still have decent sedan sales. It costs Genesis next to nothing to put a couple of these on a boat to the US with some GV80s. The boat is already headed that direction anyway. As for coupes and convertibles, these are just concepts for now, but as platform flexibility increases with the move to EV, I think we will see he return of lower volume body styles like these.

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.

Old school...

Don't Ford and GM already have factories in those countries, partially, for that reason though? We both know Ford and GM have factories in China already. I'm sure almost all of those vehicles stay domestic to China, and they'd be avoiding and tariff situation. I can't imagine China is importing any Ford or GM vehicle that's built in the US. I think anybody with a REAL brain knew there would be a big spike up front followed by no real truck buyers wanting one of those things. Putting the hatred for Elon aside, they're just not good enough TRUCKS. No truck buyer wants something like that.

April 1st. The 1 day each year that we are reminded of what we are the other 364.

One of the best scenes in all of television. Everyone should watch it and remember the moral at the end.

Fair enough but certain folks need to actually listen in regards to things like politics instead of doing whatever the hell they want and then later, claim that they are somehow a victim or that they were "bullied". There is a place for political talk and it is not on a car forum (unless it is directly related to the industry, of course).

Thank you, much appreciated. Apparently, because I don't agree with somebody, I'm now a bully. I don't think he understands what the word "bully" means. If he does, he may not remember his own actions of "downvoting" others to get under their skin. …that sounds like the actions of a bully more so than disagreeing with an opinion...

But on the topic of politics. I have a tariff story I want to work on that is bound to get hyper political about how the tariffs are about to kill off one whole segment of cars. Do we think we can handle it without getting nasty with each other?

I really like this mission style table, I may try to build it later this year.

I must be in the minority, but Taco Bell never had this effect on me. I can just eat it.

Hopefully the electric motors keep people out of the turbo-boost a lot. It sounds like it really benefits highway mileage. These are heavy and I'm sure the boost plus electric are utilized hard to get this thing moving.

I noticed that too, but I think for the target market, it's fine. Tariffs aside (it will be built in S. Korea), It will be cheaper than the Model-3 by a lot. It's an EV for people who mostly charge at home and it will charge as fast as a base Model-3 on the road. Kia/Hyundai already show better charging curves than Tesla on Tesla chargers, so I expect it to be the same here.

70's Ford out in traffic, zero rust. Fresh food everywhere... Old American iron still in daily use on Oaxaca, Mexico. Pardon me please if I posted any of these before. Last pic for a bit, I absolutely love ceramic and wood vessels of every sort, museums in Mexico are the bomb.

Speaking of origin of parts, reading the window sticker 26% of the parts on my Cadillac came from China, 22% from Mexico, 38% from the US/Canada.

I believe the orange pieces are indications of high voltage cables, so beware of them. Haha

They are everywhere in Mexico

No one cares about that amount of horsepower in this class. These are chauffeur driven vehicles. Up until electrics came around, most were trundling around with 2.0T 4-cylinders or diesels. While Genesis is still relatively new to us in the the U.S., they've made such strides on interior quality that I'd put them up against MB dollar for dollar. The nicest of the Chinese EVs sedans, the NIO ET7 is a pretty good looking car though I kinda think it looks like a Model-3 had it's way with a Buick Envista. It would do really well in the US up against the Teslas, but it is still not playing in the luxury ballpark with Genesis (or Benz or Audi) when it comes to design and materials. Low end EQE Sedan rival? Sure. G90 rival? No.

While I really like Panera's concept and vibe, their portion control is, literally, for the birds.

Seems Hyundai had a record setting period of auto sales. Hyundai Motor America Reports Record-Breaking March 2025 and Q1 Sales - Hyundai Newsroom GM had a good quarter too. https://pressroom.gm.com/gmbx/us/en/pressroom/home/news.detail.html/Pages/news/us/en/2025/apr/0401-gmsales.html

Hopefully to the crusher/shredder.

Well..... no. BYD's battery tech has limitations with distribution. Getting 1000kWh charging is difficult anywhere, especially here in North America where we are built out for 110v service. Functionally, the BYD batteries don't change the equation because most people don't charge at public chargers AND because getting 1000kWh chargers is going to be a big lift. Heck, getting 350kWh chargers is often asking a lot. That said, if BYD comes to the US, they will be right on par with Porsche / Hyundai / Kia / Genesis for having the fastest charging cars on the fastest chargers we have available. The real breakthrough will be if Toyota can make their solid-state batteries work because they accept a charge faster than the existing technology while using the same existing charging infrastructure. Where an EValanche might have a peak charge rate of 350kWh, the charge curve starts and ends much lower than that, which lengthens total charge time. With solid state batteries, the charge curve is more like a flat line. You start at 350kw (or whatever the rating) and you end at 350kw. That's what makes charging solid-state batteries so much faster even if you're using the same DC fast charger. If Toyota can really make it work, they can 1-Up BYD by simply saying, "Well ours don't need special chargers to get that charging speed"

One can hope At this point it is a done deal, I want to retire elsewhere and never see this country ever again. Politics is a waste of time because Trump and current policies are what and who a large percentage of America really is. So I vote keep the politics out. I love Maya, and agree I plan on keeping my paid off truck. Maybe I can make it to retirement, and retire somewhere that I don't need a car. That is sort of my hope at the moment.

Sensible ... and efficient

This thing looks really cute. Clearly the EV successor to the Soul. If they price it right, they'll sell a ton of them.

WOW, California now has 48% more chargers than gas pumps. California Just Crossed an EV Milestone. Here's How

The upcoming quarterly report of Tesla is going to be interesting and I suspect major drop in sales. Edmonds is reporting registrations across the U.S. has dropped big time. The bad news continues for Elon Musk: Tesla users are switching to other car manufacturers at record levels

yeah, I got the e-mail about it because I'm a reservation holder. I technically need to cancel that. Albert decided he didn't like the R2.

What place is this, I do not recognize it other than European style.

Taco Bell is sort of in last place when it comes to Mexican for me. All their stuff has that almost uniform taste, just like McDonald's and BK. Out West, Del Taco and El Pollo Loco are better options in my book.

Was searching for an oil filter for my motorcycle and checking the fitment list, it also fits the BMW i3. Both of these share parts.

I know. Their presence in the PNW almost borders on conformity. I've got a great flip-off story between Bellingham and Burlington on I-5. I was with a friend coming back from VanCity. I wouldn't relay here it without the visuals and enough detail. We laughed our asses off. This was the late '90s. That was a good decade.

Allegiant is out of Las Vegas as a headquarters. They have a weird route system that is good for people who can use those point to point routes. They also use secondary airports, like Clearwater-St. Pete instead of Tampa. I've never flown on them nor on Frontier. I flew on Spirit once and it was fine. My Big 3 rankings are: 1 United 2 Delta - American (tie) American has been coming up with decent domestic one-way fare numbers, so they're up from 3. I was on MIA-LAX on their big 777-300. It was a good flight and full. The cabin crew was all middle-aged guys. I've never seen that before, especially on a big plane. They gave out those delicious Biscoff cookies. One of the attendants was a super sassy Black guy. I later asked him for some more of those cookies. He told me they didn't have anymore. Later, I went to the back galley and another Miami-based flight attendant - he seemed like a Cuban guy - looked in a few bins and gave me a couple of those cookies. The Black guy was showy and hilarious, but obviously not the best he should be for that job. Whenever I have asked for an extra snack pack or two on ANY airline, they always give them to me!