G. David Felt

Car options in a year will be reduced by one less option. VW has decided to kill the Passat as it is being replaced by the ID.4 EV CUV. Seems VW believes the market is dying for cars as everyone wants trucks or SUV/CUVs. Volkswagen Passat Receives Date of Execution; VW Shifts Production Power Away From Lame Sedan (thetruthaboutcars.com) Poor BMW ICE, getting sat on by a Porsche EV. Porsche Taycan Driveway Crash Is Everything Wrong With High-Power Electric Cars (jalopnik.com)

Talk about a Face only a Mother Could Love. The first review of the all new 2021 BMW M440i coupe and the car is just UGLY IMHO. No Style, Nothing exciting to look at, almost makes one want to puke. 2021 BMW M440i is one long-faced coupe - Roadshow (cnet.com) If ya love Baja racing, then the Bronco R model that raced and finished, but still after two years did not win is cool. Truly pushing the boundaries of racing rigs. Ford Bronco R redeems itself, finishes the 2020 Baja 1000 - Roadshow (cnet.com)

Update from Lordstown Motors as they have secured Good Year Tires as the official tire of Lordstown Endurance Pickup Truck. Video of them testing at their E&D site.

Mustang Worlds Fair is a cool read and pictures on the Ford company web site. Mustang World's Fair (ford.com)

Seems new EV auto companies are popping up like daisy's. Latest is a EV startup that began in 2018 and has not shown anything other than their web site. Hercules Electric Vehicles Home - Hercules Electric Vehicles (herculesev.com) Hercules Alpha pickup seems to be taking tech spec's from both GM and Rivian. Their current web site states: Bold designs, luxurious materials, elegant displays, and unsurpassed features with exemplary attention to detail provide a truly luxurious in-cab experience. 1000 HP 4-motor drive system 300+ miles EV range 0-60 MPH in 4 seconds Top Speed 120 MPH Advanced torque-vectoring AWD Superior Handling DC Fast Charge Standard Zero radius turning 12,500 Trailering Weight 2,500 lb. Payload 10,400 lb. GVWR So you have a tank turn like Rivian, horsepower and torque like Hummer by GMC. They are taking reservations at $500 a pop for their Hercules Founders edition, but no info on what that is due to it being password protected. Why bring this vaporware up you might ask? That would be due to the supposedly leaked talks Nissan is in with them to use their tech to offer a full size EV pickup. According to the story on Green Car Report, the Hercules truck that looks like a Nissan Titan would be using parts from Nissan to speed up development and manufacturing of their EV truck and in turn supply Nissan with a full size EV Titan. We are living in interesting times for sure. Report: Nissan and Detroit startup Hercules could pair up for electric truck (greencarreports.com)

Anatomy

Must be market differences as my GMC dealership by me has the 1500 Sierra all around 70K. Yes Denalis, trying to find anything below a Denali package seems to not exist here where I live, did find a couple lower end models in the high 50K's north in the rural areas. I still think Rivian pricing is competitive for what you get and the tech. Lower cost units will come after the launch edition along with higher priced models. I like it, you have the vertical headlights and then the day time running strip across the front. Very visible and safe I would say.

While I love to travel, I have to say, this video makes me think twice about visiting eastern European countries. Talk about using up a life or two of his 9 lives. A very Cool Restoration video.

GM attempted during bankruptcy to thin their low volume small Cadillac dealerships by offering $100,000 to walk away from being a dealership. No one really took them up on the offer. Today GM is offering 880 small / low volume dealerships anywhere from $300,000 to $500,000 to dealerships that are not willing to join them in moving the Cadillac brand to an all EV product line, service EVs and offer charging as well as remodel to the grand new vision that GM has for Cadillac. Since there is room to negotiate the amount paid, it would seem that many of these small dealerships that move a few Cadillacs a month might actually take GM up on their offer to pocket up to half a million dollars and stop being a Cadillac dealership. A solid way to step away from the EV plan for those wary of the future and investment it will require. Original story was here: EV-wary dealers offered upward of $500,000 to drop Cadillac (autonews.com) (SUBSCRIPTION REQUIRED) Free read here: GM offers to pay dealers to drop Cadillac brand in switch to EVs | Autoblog Takata, the AIRBAG company that made faulty cheap airbags and keeps giving has ended up in another massive auto recall. GM will recall nearly 6 million 2007 to 2014 trucks to replace 100 million airbag inflators at an estimated cost of $1.2 Billion dollars. Full size Trucks and SUVs are being covered here. Unlike Honda, Ford and BMW that had deaths associated to the fatal hardware, GM has not had a single case to date, but the NHTSA is not taking any chance on additional American Deaths and issued this morning a mandatory recall to replace the parts. GM Recalling Nearly 6 Million Vehicles Over Eternal Takata Scandal (thetruthaboutcars.com)

Just configurated up my R1S. This color reminds me of the GM Teal on my Suburban but far more blue.

Just went through the Configurator. Love the Forest Green exterior color and the Forest Edge interior. Some nice interior color options.

Totally doable considering the millions of $50,000 to $100,000 trucks GM, Ford and Ram sell. 200,000 sold a year should be easy.

The Suburban tanks are out and about playing in the snow here in Washington.

This is awesome, always like it when they point out their own errors or false stuff that gearheads know would not be possible, but it does play for a good laugh.

Most people are not aware that Braking in your auto could change starting January 1st 2021 when a no copper law goes into effect for California and Washington state in regards to brake pads. As such a R&D storm has been going on to find a suitable replacement. Copper is toxic to both humans and animals and as such, the west coast had back in 2014 passed laws giving till 2021 to replace it to meet clean water quality standards. This was led by San Francisco that was failing their water quality tests due to the high copper concentrations from brake pad dust. I had forgotten about this till I came across this updated story here: How the New Copper Ban Is Affecting High-Performance Car Brakes (thedrive.com) Yes they focus on high performance auto's as Europe also pushes to ban copper in break pads, but it will be interesting to see how this plays out. Seems JLR is defending what it sees as a theft of intellectual property by the VW company. To quote the story: The vehicles in question include the Porsche Cayenne; Lamborghini Urus; Audi Q8, Q7, Q5, A6 Allroad and E-Tron; and VW’s Tiguan. Seems that VW tried to get this dismissed, but the US court system found sufficient evidence to allow the trial to move forward to the court room. JLR says that VW can remove the illegal AWD traction control option systems from their auto's to continue to sell them in the US. Who knew that the ability to select Snow, Mud, Rain, Sand, etc. modes in an SUV was patented to just one company. Jaguar Land Rover Sues to Ban VW Group's SUV Imports to America (thedrive.com)

Seems the first 6 months of production for Rivian which will cover the Launch Edition of the R1T truck has sold out with their reservation holders. This is from June 1st 2021 to Dec 31st 2021. I wonder how many this will be? Rivian has said they will ramp up to 100,000 models of each R1T and R1S per year and higher if needed. Be interesting to see how many they deliver by the end of the 2021 calendar year. I suspect the R1S will be even more successful.

Interesting that in the interview with Business Insider and a comparison to Tesla Cyber truck that a base 4x4 model of Lordstown EV truck starts at $52,500 and you can choose between a Standard Endurance 5.5 or Long Endurance 6.5 ft bed. https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/hereaposs-how-lordstown-motorsapos-new-endurance-electric-pickup-truck-compares-to-teslaaposs-cybertruck/slidelist/76798420.cms#slideid=76798498 I am willing to bet that Ford will offer a couple sizes in beds also as people like you and me want the 6.5ft bed over the shorter 5.5 bed. RJ, CEO of Rivian has stated that once the R1T and R1S are in full Production they are going to consider additional bed lengths for those that need a bigger bed. Current for the R1t is just 4.6 ft long which is fine for weekend haulers from Home Depot of most stuff, but fails for standard lumber. Options I think will come in the next few years for EV trucks with various bed lengths. Be interesting to see what Chevrolet offers since they have moved up the full size Silverado pickup to 2024 and are on record saying that buyers will have just as many options in configurations as traditional ICE trucks have had.

Toxic

Deadly Habit

Productive weekend with planting my Garlic. 252 individual seeds planted of 7 kinds, 4 hard neck and 3 soft neck.

Cigar

Iced charge spots is just selfish BS of those doing it. Wonder how they would feel if EVs blocked the gas/diesel fueling spots. Amazes me when people cannot be considerate of others and just get along. THANK YOU @balthazar I truly appreciate your time and effort in letting us know about the Charging infrastructure by you. Yes, they do have a ways to go to properly have it available for all. I do find it odd that the gov web site says these are the publicly available charge sites and then details and actual checking shows they are not. Frustrating for sure.

Cheer Leaders

Yup always will be a need for oil, just one less thing that has to rely on burning it while using it for all the other materials in the auto.

Been a very productive day. Started at 4am with some work to get done before the holidays. Then went off at 6am to Costco to get Thanksgiving stuff. Since we are in lock down till December 14th, took the early hours to get everything and my wife and I will start cooking everything early Thursday but then package it up and deliver it to the doorstep of our parents, grand parents, and kids that live in their own house. Full meal plus desserts. Once T-Day dinner is delivered, will return home to have a quiet dinner with the wife, wine and movies. I always used to drive everyone that wanted to go to the midnight Black friday sales after we rested, but this year, I do not have to do it, so Wine Away my evening! ? Back to today, got the Holiday lights up on the house for the wife to have it festive. Blew the yard and picked up all the leaves, so it is all clean. Gonna go eat lunch and then out to the garden area as it is Garlic Planting time. Have a great day everyone!