G. David Felt

Um, not a fan boy, have had and still own other brands including my 1999 Dodge Durango. Toyota even in their so called full size Sequoia just reeks of cheapness and I honestly do not fit comfortably in it and no one can sit behind me unlike my Escalade which is a requirement. Yes, I get that many people buy what they like, but if you also think of the comfort of others then Toyota would never be on the list as it does not fit large Americans at all comfortably. The interiors are cheapness on par with GM though lately GM interiors have been improving vastly over Toyota. I could go on but that is just the start of where I would avoid Toyota on top of their hate for BEVs and wanting to push for unsustainable Hydrogen auto's.

I would take the Cadillac in the background over anything Toyota has especially right now.

This is from the Audi California Design Studio. Audi has built more of their concept cars and crossovers than Mercedes-Benz has. Your last statement sentence is a truth about MB. I do agree with you that the car looks cool. Kinda think the rear end reminds me of a Pontiac sports car.

Sure as hell not the Lemming Leader Toyota! ?

Audi today is celebrating the Celebration of Progress: the Audi skysphere concept unveiled today. A redefined Grand Touring BEV. For many, even on the Cheers and Gears forum we have discussed the future of two door cars and weather or not we will see them continue to die off. Some have even said styling has been lost to appliance trucks and SUVs/CUVs. Audi today is challenging that with the Skysphere battery electric concept. Audi says this is the first member of a family of all new concept vehicles, a spectacular roadster. Audi skysphere concept is the name of the electric-powered, two-door convertible whose lines lead directly to the Audi design of tomorrow. Progressive Luxury is what Audi believes they will represent as the 21st century auto's of desire. The skysphere comes with two driving modes, Grand Touring and Sports mode. Grand Touring is a take back to the 1930's tuned for long drives on country roads. Sports mode gives an aggressive tune with tight handling and a more commanding and connected presence for the driver. Being that the Skysphere will be shown off with more details at the Pebble Beach Golf Course show, it is understandable that the front end has a rather large FRUNK. How large, large enough to handle two full size fully loaded golf bags. The Skysphere has a modifiable wheelbase that in touring mode is 201 inches long and it shrinks to 191 inches long in Sports mode. The weight distribution of this BEV is a 40/60 front to back ratio. The car will go 0 to 62 mph in 4 seconds and has 623HP with a curb weight of 3,968 lbs. Battery pack is good for 310 miles. The interior is a 21st touch of luxury. Many more images & Videos can be viewed here: Audi skysphere concept (2021) | Audi MediaCenter (audi-mediacenter.com) The future is freedom to enjoy what one wants in the auto of their choice and for Audi, that starts with the Skysphere. 1109003_amtv-content1080p-web.mp4 View full article

Another UGLY reason to AVOID Tesla! Clearly Musk and the Management team has no Honor as they delay to next quarter and for some into next year that placed their orders early, paid their deposit and just cause now the Tesla S starts $10K higher, they are shipping to the newer reservation holders who are willing to pay the $10K more over early reservation holders who are not having to pay it. Tesla apologizes for new Model S delays, but some worrying things are going on - Electrek

I am liking this, as such I signed up to be a beta tester. Anyone else want to beta test with me? Wearable Air Purifier - Razer Zephyr

Seems while Rivian due to supply issues of parts had to delay delivery of R1T till September, has moved forward with a local buyers event to allow people who have an R1T on order to test drive the R1T at this local event.

Probably the only Lambo that I ever really liked, the Countach. It turned 50 years old this year and now according to a story in The Truth About Cars, seems it will come back for a modern limited run but as a 21st Century modern take on the Countach. Lamborghini Media Center : Lamborghini Countach LP 500 turns 50 years old on March 11, 2021 Lamborghini Countach Returning for Limited Run - The Truth About Cars

This is WAY TOO FUNNY! Small Block Chevy Station Wagon versus top of the line DOHC McLaren 765LT and some gets stomped pretty bad!

Awesome Car, AWESOME MOVIE!

@A Horse With No Name @ccap41 Seems the first pictures of Ranger Hybrids in what is being an assumed FX4 off road package due to hiding of the suspension was caught in Southern European Hot weather testing. Ford has clearly stated they will take their product line Hybrid and then pure EV to meet the stringent European emission requirements and so makes sense they would be testing a Hybrid first in Europe. I suspect it will come out here shortly after going on sale in Europe as I bet a high mileage Ranger especially if it can be had in 4x4/AWD form will be desirable. 2023 Ford Ranger PHEV Prototypes Spied Touring Southern Europe (motor1.com) Seems Old is New with a 21st century twist. Harley Davidson has brought back the bikes of the 70's but with electric assist propulsion. Harley-Davidson is now building incredible looking custom electric bicycles (electrek.co)

Seems the Truth is finally coming out and the fact that Tesla will be very late to the Truck segment. According to this writeup, seems Musk is saying that to build the Cyber truck now in Texas it would have a purchase price of $1,000,000 million dollars plus. $1,000,000 MILLION DOLLARS PLUS The cost of Stainless steel, the required 4680 battery cells, bullet/smash proof glass, the ability to tow and haul as he has stated, the over all cost would still make it a million dollar truck. As such, I suspect what will end up being the real CyberTruck if they stay with the name and design, will not have all the stuff they built it with. Musk Says Cybertruck Would Cost $1-Million A Piece If Built Now (insideevs.com) Also it is interesting that this story says the Cyber Truck now has over 1 million reservations and yet while Musk has implied they have 7 figures of reservations, there is no real facts on this. My gut tells me that Ford, GM and Rivian are going to eat Tesla lunch!

Very cool tech in regards to new trailers that assist with going the distant for BEVs. Towing with an EV: Are electric trailers the future? (greencarreports.com) Exciting to see that attitudes are changing in regards to BEV ownership as sales have still gone up even with chip shortages. US EV sales have been record-breaking so far in 2021, despite supply chain issues (greencarreports.com) Interesting is that what is driving this is not Tesla, but the Ford Mach-e, VW ID.4, and Chevrolet Bolt EUV.

Would be a lovely car with a new paintjob. If that was shiny with clear coat it would probably look amazing.

Totally agree that it sucks you can get a fully loaded Maverick Hybrid but it is FWD only and if you want AWD, you have to go backwards to ICE only. Really sucks as I think they could sell a ton of AWD Hybrids especially in the Lariat version. Sorry Chris, have to agree to disagree my friend. I think this is a solid 3 base hit. Home Run would be Hybrid with AWD and the Trailering package.

Kicking this off as I saw a brand new Cadillac Escalade sport edition all Matte Black. I suspect a custom paint job as I do not see Matte paint on the option list of the web site. New purchase from my local Cadillac dealership I go too. Plenty of blah appliance auto's today, but one consistent observation, so much body damage on 1 and 2 year old auto's from corners of the bumpers crushed in to side swipes. Very weird especially as I saw a number of subcompacts from Honda Fit to Mini with this kind of damage today as I ran to Costco.

Breaking news, Seems with the chip shortage, Ford is allowing people to delete the Auto Start-Stop feature so they can get their trucks sooner. 2021 Ford F-150 Can Be Built Without Start-Stop Under New Plan (fordauthority.com) F-150 Buyers Can Remove Start-Stop To Get Trucks Sooner - CarsDirect New Ford F-150s to be offered without start-stop feature to conserve chips - Page 1 - AR15.COM Seems trucks with reduced electronic tech is becoming a more common feature now that the plan is to allow the option to be removed. GM is also removing the Auto Start-Stop for the rest of the calendar year from their trucks and SUVs/CUVs to continue production as it helps reduce chip use and continues to get out built auto's. GM to build some pickups, SUVs without start-stop feature | Automotive News (autonews.com) GM Building Some Pickups And SUVs Without Start-Stop As Chip Shortage Continues | Carscoops GM removes start/stop from full-size trucks and SUVs with V8 engines (autoblog.com)

Ford month of July saw Mach-e sales grow 15.8 percent, second largest in the electric SUV segment and sales taking off for the F-150 Hybrid, Bronco and a 23 percent climb in accessory sales as Ford continues it's conquest rate over Tesla and others. Yet even as sales have climbed among a electric chip shortage, Ford has moved forward with offering employee buyouts to re-align the jobs and business model along a new path. First off Ford Motor Co. has started a voluntary buyout to employees in the U.S. as they plan to cut 1,000 positions as they reconfigure for growth. The Ford+ growth plan was released / divulged at its Capital Markets Day investor even in May. This is the start of the company diving into further digital services and electric vehicle development. This buyout includes 6 months of salary and 6 months of health care as ford focuses on delivering products that contribute profit to the bottom line and are desired by global customers. This comes as Ford raises 2021 profit outlook. Ford CEO Jim Farley stated in the Quarterly results that Ford has decided to move away from Dealerships stock piling 100's of auto's especially those that have less customer demand and requiring discounts to move them at the end of the year to make a sale. Ford is focusing on dealership inventories of no more than at most 50 to 60 days if not less as Ford wants demo units and will work with dealerships to move customers to an order-based system giving the customer truly what they want rather than what some purchasing manager creates for the lot inventory. Farley stated they are wasting money on incentives and with chip shortages, Ford like all other OEMs is focusing on higher-margin products as Q2 of 2021 has shown with an average revenue of $5,000 per vehicle which added $1.5 billion to the operating profits of Ford. Ford sees an easing of chips which will allow them to stock pile critical components and has moved to dual-sourcing along with design interchangeability for better ease of moving internal components between product lines. Ford is estimating a 30% increase in global sales at it's dealerships for the second half of the year contributing to an estimated increase in operating profits by $3.5 billion with full operating profits for the year to be between $9 and $10 billion. The chip shortage did cut production by about 700,000 units in Q2, yet Ford is very optimistic about the second half especially since the Ford Mach-e is on double digit growth with the bulk of the purchases custom orders. This along with Ford's six figures of F-150 Lighting Electric truck reservations now is showing that people would rather pick what they want on an auto and wait than just pull from a dealership inventory. This build-to-order is proving out with the large backlog of Bronco orders and the growing log of Maverick pickup orders. The increase in sales, profitability and an overall shift by consumers to build-to-order is allowing Ford to plan and focus company free cash flow which is estimated to be between $4 and $5 billion for 2021 directed towards acquisitions, battery production, connectivity software and accessories for life style use by Ford Customers. A very popular add on by Ford Ranger customers is the Tent / Canopy solution allowing people during this pandemic to get out and away from people to live life further embracing the build-to-order model. This profitable quarter along with a shift away from incentive and heavy stock on dealership lots has been taken very positively by the stock market as Ford stock had a 3% gain in after hours trading almost reaching $15 a share. The rest of this year is looking good as Ford continues to product the Bronco, Bronco Sport fulfilling pre-sales, the unibody compact pickup Maverick rumbles into the market as both a Hybrid and ICE with BEV on the horizon. Mach-e sales continue to conquest Tesla sales and continues to grow the backlog of orders and in the spring the F-150 Lightning comes to market already in high demand with over 120,000 reserved so far. This would imply that like Tesla and Rivian, Ford future lays in a build-to-order model moving forward as Ford transitions away from ICE to a BEV portfolio. Ford offers buyouts to salaried workers in effort to shed 1,000 jobs | Automotive News (autonews.com) Ford Mustang Mach-E Sales Grew 15.8 Percent in July, Second Largest In Electric SUV Segment; New Vehicle Launches of F-150 Hybrid, Bronco, Mustang Mach-E Expand Ford’s Competitive Conquest Rate; Ford Accessory Business Climbs 23 percent, On Track To Post New Record | Ford Media Center July Sales (ford.com) Ford raises 2021 profit outlook, eyes shift to build-to-order | Reuters Ford says reservations for F-150 Lightning electric pickup top 120,000 (cnbc.com) View full article

Still think if people want a convertible down the road of future BEV, they will get made on the 4 door auto's. I personally like the T top thing over the Convertible thing.

@surreal1272 Here on the west coast we have a chain called Car Toys. Car Audio & Video, GPS Navigation, Car Speakers/Amplifiers - Car Toys They carry lots of these types of OEM compatible head units. They did my Trailblazer making it look great. Yes, mine was easier than those with big screens now, but still very good assortment of 3rd party audio systems. @regfootball Here is what they carry for your auto as upgrades. 8 Head units, 2 with video and 26 types of speakers. Fitguide - Vehicle Selector (cartoys.com) @Drew Dowdell Here is what they had for your 2013 LTZ Avalanche. I would have to agree to disagree with you that the second one looks very modern 21st century and a nice upgrade over the OEM unit that was in that same space and looked dated. Car Toys has lots of options for your Lucerne. Since I did not know the year, I just plugged in the last year it was made.

Nope, wrong, I can see a market for a proper 4 door convertible since they were liked in the past. Being BEV, they will be roomy and far more useful than convertibles of the past. Not a convertible, but clearly a desirable open air auto!