G. David Felt

Interesting news for the Auto Industry. PSA and FCA is NOT a merger of equals. PSA gets 6 of the 11 board seats and the CEO and Chairman has the tie-breaker vote, so FCA will only get 5 seats showing the advantage goes to PSA. Firstly it seems that where heavy PSA/FCA auto's overlap, a consolidation will happen first this year with death of brands as PSA focuses on pushing their brands over FCA brands. Thoughts are Italy will loose it's last little bit of auto industry manufacturing. As stated in the story, FCA has been a money loosing company in Europe especially the wasted Billions on attempting to rebuild the Alfa product line and the ancient Maserati brand. Both needs billions more invested and especially in Hybrid / EV tech. Current tech they have is already a decade plus behind the Germans, Asians and Americans. Interesting is that Italy has 1.5 million auto building capacity, but currently builds less than 200,000 auto's a year for global consumption. Even before the Pandemic, FCA has all factories on rolling short-term layoffs due to lack of any real demand for Italian auto's. PSA has already announced that 50% of engineering sites across Europe will close. Also PSA review shows an excessive glut of auto manufacturing in Europe and as such will need to close many plants, but no details have come out yet. Engineering of US based full size trucks, SUV and mid size SUV's which do not sell well or at all in Europe and other global markets will keep the Auburn Hills site going. Yet all Compact and subcompact auto's will move to PSA platforms as well as any cars they choose to continue to sell under the Dodge/Chrysler name plates. Seems leaks are coming out as PSA reviews what they need to do to bring their brands to the US and what of FCA needs to be killed off and the first on the list is the DEATH of Chrysler. Cannot blame them as it was starved of product, never really given updates except the MiniVan and as such, slow death into the grave. Stellantis has the following major problems, excessive production plants and excessive overlap of models in Europe, weak sales in the Asian rim where now global auto sales make up 45% especially in China and old products for some American label brands in North America. Cuts likely as Fiat Chrysler-PSA tie-up nears approval (apnews.com) For Mario Kart fans, taking a Tour of Tokyo dressed up as your favorite character was a dream come true, but seems the days could be limited if the continued legal law suites go Nintendo's way which seems it is going. Surprise, Surprise: Judge Rules Real-Life Mario Kart Tour Violated Nintendo’s IP (thedrive.com) Would be kind of cool to drive around the streets like in the game.

Dolls

I have no problem with junk yards that do serve the local community for used parts. My issue is as I stated, the VAST amount of steel just sitting out on land across America rotting and in most of those cases, they did not drain the fluids so as time takes a toll and they rust out and then dump their toxic fluids onto the earth that causes other problems for both animals and humans. We have all seen people that just junk up their property as they are too lazy it would seem to properly dispose of their auto. While not as many as you, I have only owned American Auto company auto's and as far as I have been able to tell only assembled in the US.

Muppet Sing Along

Prune Juice

10 years ago I was lucky enough to be invited to do a very rare form of travel. Private rail car from Chicago to Seattle. I found on the days that it was a very relaxing and fun way to travel. I also discovered the thousands of auto's, tractors and trucks parked out in fields in Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota and Montana. The amount of steel left out rotting was very surprising to me and while I did think of all the cool auto's, tractors and trucks that could be restored, I also thought how dirty it was of all this steel rusting out in fields and why is it not recycled? I get that some have a passion for saving everything, but everything has a life and eventually comes to an end. As such, we could so clean up America and reduce having to rip up mother earth but just recycling the millions of tons of steel left sitting around. Yes, I acknowledge that this will get me down votes, but I truly believe as stewards of the earth, we have a responsibility to do our best to keep it clean and agree with @oldshurst442 that eventually if someone does not come along that wants an older auto, then we move to the next phase of recycling it to get it back into use as new products. This does not mean we have to get ride of everything and I have great respect for those like @balthazar who has space and desire over years to work on his passion of bringing back an old auto to life. Yet, not everyone is willing to do that and society moves forward. So ENJOY the restored, projects auto's that people have and keep, but also lets realize the need to keep our planet clean and recycle for the future of our kids, grand kids and the rest of our Multi-Cultural Society. IMHO Wishing everyone here a GREAT START to 2021!

February 14th ?

Silly Man, I posted about this that GM was telling dealers they had to increase order percentage to 40% of the Elevation package near the top of this thread.

In the story they show the rusted out floor pans, frame rot, extensive rust holes throughout the body. At this point, unless you have hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend on rebuilding / buying new replacement parts, just not worth it.

Had not seen this commercial since I do not watch TV and so it was cool to see. I do understand the anger people who love restoring auto's would have about crushing an oldie truck, but have to say after reading the story, It really was not worth saving IMHO. Jeep Bought His Awesome 1963 Gladiator And Then Crushed It For A TV Commercial. Here's His Story (jalopnik.com)

Laughing on reading this purchase of a 2007 BMW and the hell of 7 months of ownership before he took a major loss and dumped the supposedly luxury BMW Driving machine. I Bought a Twin-Turbo BMW and All I Got to Drive Was Dad's Pizza Van (thedrive.com) Very cool read on GM first attempt at a V8 Powered FWD Van. The 1955 GMC L'Universelle Was a Front-Wheel-Drive V8 Van Ahead of Its Time (thedrive.com) For those wanting to start a new old classic car parts business, one company All Classic Motors, Velva North Dakota has $2 million in new parts for Fords of the last 30 years for sale. You can buy the whole 40,000 lot of parts for $675,000 or buy pieces as they sell it on ebay. There's a Warehouse Full of $2M in New Old Stock Classic Ford Parts for Sale on eBay (thedrive.com)

Thanks, yes 180,000 auto's in Q4 while looking at the Model 3/Y stuff and looking at the heating issues I messed that up, corrected. Thanks for the Catch Balthazar.

@regfootball The years I have had GoodYear, for the most part all weather served me well till I wore them out and upped for better tires. I fully expect these to give you a decent life for what they are. My biggest complaint with GoodYear tires is the noise they make on cement roads and especially in cement parking garages where they scream bloody murder. Such a noisy tire. So my question for you as you guys drive the auto over 2021 is how do they do with noise?

Additional EV News: Toyota has anounced their new e-TNGA platform that both Subaru and Toyota will use to build EV suv's for global sales. In the coming months the first Toyota Concept focused on Europe and China first will be revealed with America at a later date. Seems this new platform will be used for EV and fuel cell auto's. The e-TNGA platform will support front, Rear and 4WD versions of EVs depending on market demands. Charged EVs | Toyota announces new EV platform, revamped version of fuel cell-powered Mirai - Charged EVs In the World of VW, seems the board has voted to back the CEO's Diess's ambitious electrification plans that will see VW change to a pure EV auto company globally at a record pace. Previously the plan was to stop all ICE auto production by 2030. This board certification of the CEO's plans does not include a stop date for ICE production, but does clearly state that all future ICE R&D will be stopped after the current work in progress and by 2024 all R&D at VW will be EV focused only for VW, Audi and Porsche. Charged EVs | VW board backs CEO Diess’s ambitious electrification plans - Charged EVs Final News is the enhancement of heating and cooling for comfort of EV's passengers. As stated in the post about Tesla Heating issues, heating takes considerable power. Engineering specialist IAV has teamed up with Louisenthal a company that makes banknote substrates, security papers and security foils to use their foils in a way to increase the heating of an EV while reducing the energy consumed. QUOTE: At the heart of the heating concept is a thin, cost-effective and easy-to-process foil from Louisenthal. The SmartMesh foil has a mesh of conductive tracks on its surface. The foil is integrated into the doors, center console and roof lining. On applying the operating voltage, it warms up and radiates heat into the passenger compartment. The heating foil is transparent, which means it can be combined with ambient lighting or LED design elements. The foils are integrated into the vehicle alongside the standard heating system. the total amount of energy required for heating the passenger compartment can be reduced by up to 20 percent as a result of the foil’s radiant heat. This can increase the vehicle’s range by up to 6 percent. One would think that as the auto industry perfects their heat pumps that both Tesla is now using, Rivian and GM are going to use and word has been circulating that Ford is working on a Heat Pump for the F-150 and will then change the Mustang Mach-E over to a heat pump from the existing heating and cooling setup, we will see continued simplification of the over all power train system and more energy efficiency.

EV News update for the start of the Year. Seems Tesls Model S refresh has been caught out in the wild. Maybe to Tesla fans they see a difference, but to me, seems more of the same old BLAH style. Tesla delivered a Record 180,000 autos in Q4 just missing their goal of 500,000 auto's delivered for 2020. Numbers for the number folks. Tesla (TSLA) delivers record of 180,000 cars in Q4, barely missing goal of 500,000 cars in 2020 - Electrek For those that have any knowledge of AC versus Heat pumps. In the commercial world, heat pumps are far superior to AC units but do cost more. The benefits is a better balance of Humidity control with cooling as well as heating for a far more comfortable house living. Now with auto's, the history has been to use a traditional power sucking electric heat system or the heat system based on the cooling system of the ICE power train. Course with EVs, you need a pure electrical heating system. Even the best ceramic core heating systems still use a ton of electricity. As such, heat pumps are far more efficient than the current heating systems EVs have been using and Tesla changed this for 2021 model 3 and Model Y auto's. As such, the Tesla Designed heat pumps have FAILED in a MAJOR way for COLD CLIMATE areas such as Quebec, NE of America, Alaska. Seems that the Heat Pumps designed and testing in California work great till you get freezing or below temps and then fail to work. As the story states in Quebec Canada, the Tesla Service centers are giving 2021 Model 3 and Y owners 2020 long term loaners as they stock pile the 2021 models in for warranty repair till Tesla has a proper fix. Tesla owners of brand-new Model 3 and Y cars plagued with heating issues in dead of winter - Electrek

These two prices is their Launch Edition prices. Basic prices have not changed. Base R1T starts at $67,500 Base R1S starts at $70,000 still.

Awesome Job @bobo Thank you for such an outstanding writeup!

Interesting that GMC is instructing the dealers to order 40% now of the Terrain with the Elevation package which makes the CUV blacked out. Good pics and info explaining the difference between the trim levels. https://gmauthority.com/blog/2020/12/gm-raises-gmc-terrain-elevation-edition-order-suggestion/ @A Horse With No Name Due to having done this myself, the drive across Canada is awesome. I will also say that I have now spent a total of three weeks just exploring Banf National Park and still want to spend more time exploring. So much beauty to see. Very cool to drive up to the north pole circle and enjoy 24hrs of daylight.

Keeping you in my thoughts as you heal Drew. As my family eats Korean New Years soup, we send out positive thought and wishes for a better 2021 for all.

Forgot to post this last night after gassing up, but it seems moon caps are coming back. I have seen them on plenty of autos this month including this Subaru.

Wishing you a speedy recovery Drew and glad to hear you and Albert are safe. Guess it is time for that bathroom remodel you been postponing. Not trying to make lite of the incident, but only trying to be lite of the crazy terrible year 2020 has been. Glad to hear your safe and can mend into the new year. Wishing Albert and You a much better 2021. If there is anything any of us can do please let us know. Wishing you all the best for a speedy recovery.

Yes the Kirkland GMC/Buick Dealership is still there. These cars were cool in their own way for sure. Happy New Years to you and everyone else here looking for a better 2021.

Last day of 2020 and running a few errands found this. A bit rough but still running.

Lovely, simply, lovely. https://www.instagram.com/p/CJeEFVkJLdx/?igshid=p3jtei9jhjyy

BFF