G. David Felt

Water Buffalo

? The tan seatbelts with the faded maroon seats, buckling plastic dash and fake plastic wood with the Maroon when new, now brown carpet and the falling apart drivers door panel along with all the pine sented trees that would tell me it has a water leak mildew problem. Plus who the hell would put a blue dash with blue plastic piller pieces with a maroon seat and carpet. ? Plus is that an oldsmobile steering wheel I see?

Be interesting to see which power trains if any get AWD.

Lioness

Chinese knock off of the Mercedes version? Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz BIG TIME! ?

Yet additional perspective is that some auto lines, specifically Cadillac is well known for their Vertical Tailights and Headlights and the Chevrolet headlights on the 2021 Escalade is just TERRIBLE and says Cheap to me. They should have stayed with the vertical headlights complementing the Vertical Tail Lights.

I am not, Body side molding such as what was on my 1994 Suburban which I removed are for lazy people who have no respect for other's auto's IMHO. Respect others auto's and expect the same for yours. Even with that said, I can say that my SS has gotten a few door dings and I have spent the money to have the door ding specialists remove them to keep her perfect. Part of auto ownership and the nice clean look it gives the auto when you look down the side. Over all I am glad the ugly rubber ribs down the middle of the side are gone. They did not help the look or flow of an auto. Like @oldshurst442 said, if ya got a new auto or your a bit OCD like me, then you park out far away from the lazy people who do not respect others auto's and ding them.

Yes you can get a less powerful FWD ICE version.

Seems a Tornado hit the Borgwarner manufacture plant and as such it is expected that when production resumes at Ford, Toyota and Ram plants, the trucks are going to have delays due to getting parts, specifically the transfer cases built by Borgwarner. https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a32239493/borgwarner-plant-damaged-tornado/ To Quote: A tornado that hit a BorgWarner factory in Seneca, South Carolina, on April 13 could have repercussions for future truck production by Ford, Ram, and Toyota. The plant makes the transfer cases for four-wheel-drive versions of the F-150 and Super Duty, Ram pickup, and Toyota Tundra, as well as Ford SUVs and utility vehicles. The automakers aren't producing the vehicles now, with the earliest resumption of work at the factories set for early May. GM seems to be hitting it big for their Buick MPV van in China. Seems an Avenir version for the chauffeur segment as well as a new disability model. https://media.gm.com/media/cn/en/gm/home.detail.html/content/Pages/news/cn/en/2020/Apr/0423_Buick-GL8-MPV-Portfolio.html

WOW, Mercedes-Benz a company building and bringing you over priced hard plastic interior under the AMG name at a $74,000 price for what is a cheap ass CLA auto. CLA-45 should be a hard pass for anyone when you can get a superior Cadillac V for less. https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/reviews/2020-mercedes-benz-amg-cla-45-4matic-coupe-review/ ? Pebble Beach this year is Canceled due to the curent Pandemic. https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/2020-pebble-beach-concours-canceled-coronavirus/

As mentioned in another thread about how Toyota should just make the Hybrid their top of the line auto. Seems that with the Geneva auto show being shutdown due to the current pandemic, we are only now seeing this happen as the Toyota Yaris CUV Crossover is now their top of the line version in that model and you get Hybrid power with AWD if you want. https://www.motor1.com/news/414278/2021-toyota-yaris-cross-revealed/ https://motorsport.tv/4e1e2a22-e22c-4e00-9074-a6747408a9f7

A story that @balthazar will like I think. The life of owning a 55 year old Ford Dump Truck. https://www.thedrive.com/news/33102/ive-already-been-humbled-by-my-55-year-old-ford-dump-truck Pretty cool, as they got plenty of use out of it and will now have to deal with a small fix, but should be back on the road soon I think.

Police Chase is a Police chase even when the Idiot drives a SmartFourTwo. https://www.thedrive.com/news/33121/you-can-run-from-the-cops-in-a-smart-car-if-you-just-believe-in-yourself Additional news video feeds in the story at the link above. What a moron. Is Hyundai the New Value reliability leader that will replace Toyota? Some seem to think so and with the popularity of the Kia Telluride and Hyundai Palisade, it would seem that the Kia/Hyundai products are replacing what Toyota had built it reputation on back in the 80's and 90's and now have lost with the know issues Toyota has on Truck Frames, to eletrical issues and other quality problems. After all they replaced GM as the worlds largest auto company and seem to have inherited the loss of quality with it. https://www.thedrive.com/new-cars/33092/2020-kia-telluride-review-making-you-rethink-toyota-ownership-for-good https://www.thedrive.com/new-cars/32815/2020-hyundai-palisade-review-the-new-value-benchmark

Seems with the current Coronavirus pandemic, GM has decided to shutdown the Maven division. No more ride sharing / auto sharing now. https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1127900_gm-uses-social-distancing-to-shut-down-maven-car-sharing-unit Shell has joined BP in announcing that as a global company they will plan to be carbon neutral by 2050 as Shell moves to offer more Rapid charging and other carbon neutral services over oil. Oil will still be a large part of Shell much like BP has stated but will shift the focus to other products that need oil over Auto's. https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1127847_energy-giant-shell-joins-bp-in-aim-to-be-net-zero-emissions-by-2050 Daimler has joined Volvo in moving to produce Hydrogen Fuel Cell Semi Class 8 trucks first over EV Semi's. The market for long haul semi's trucks will continue to remain strong and shows the need to deliver the longer range that Hydrogen Fuel Cell Semi's can offer over current battery technology Semi trucks. https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1127897_daimler-and-volvo-trucks-will-jointly-make-hydrogen-fuel-cells-for-commercial-vehicles

While not unexpected that the price would go higher by as much as $7,700 over the current 2020 model. I am surprised to see that AWD is an option on the Platinum model now rather than standard. So expect to pay $3,000 more if you want AWD on an Escalade. ? As I have stated in other Cadillac threads, Cadillac should be the best of AWD Luxury auto's and leave the damn 2WD be it FWD or RWD to Buick, GMC and Chevrolet. https://www.carsdirect.com/automotive-news/2021-cadillac-escalade-prices-increasing-substantially To quote the write up on the price increases, it seems Escalade is going to be the most expensive Luxury SUV considerably over the Lincoln, Mercedes or BMW. QUOTE: At over $107,000, the range-topping Escalade will be considerably pricier than the 2020 Lincoln Navigator L Black Label ($101,630). On paper, it'll also be more expensive than both the 2020 Mercedes-Benz GLS 580 ($99,795) and 2020 BMW X7 M50i ($100,595) before factoring in the cost of options. Love what I see in the Interior of the 2021 Escalade. The Exterior to me is a Failure. Not impressed with the front end which is too much of a knock off of the Chevrolet line. Should have kept the vertical headlights on the front.

Happy Post Earth Day. Have to say that the benefits of the pandemic with making more people work from home has been awesome. Cleaner air, less noise, more life/work balance. I truly do not see any reason for things to go back to the old way of doing work for many. Less congested cities too. Course a surplus in office space could happen. I have to agree with the bullet points made about diversity, time and people that working remotely allows. https://www.autoblog.com/2020/04/22/earth-day-working-from-home-commuting-coronavirus/ This story has a picture of crossing the Evergreen Floating Bridge and how clear it is and the Olympic mountains showing. Amazing as it is usually packed and now so open.

For the most part, I DO NOT miss most 80's auto's. Such a sad part of auto history.

Juiced HyperScorpion Moped bike is finally shipping. Top speed of 30 mph, range of 75 miles. Sales Price is $2,899 Pretty cool quiet clean transportation. https://electrek.co/2020/04/23/juiced-hyperscorpion-30-mph-performance-electric-moped/ Volvo is cutting their R&D budget for ICE auto's but leaving R&D in tact for EVs. https://electrek.co/2020/04/22/volvo-cuts-rd-and-design-tweaks-but-will-leave-ev-budget-intact/

News Alert News Alert News Alert FORD has Built the all new Mustang Cobra Jet 1400 EV - 1,400HP, 1,100 lb-ft of Torque and an 8 second Quarter mile at more than 170 mph. https://electrek.co/2020/04/23/ford-mustang-cobra-jet-1400-electric/ To Quote the Story: The project serves as a testbed and demonstration of Ford’s latest work with electric vehicles. Dave Pericak, Global Director of Ford Icons, said: Mark Rushbrook, Global Director of Ford Performance Motorsports, added:

Considering that the Rav4 Hybrid has more torque, more speed off the line and returns 40MPG, better MPG than the ICE only. I see no reason for Toyota to not make the Hybrid a Standard top line feature on every model and have a gutless 4 banger as entry and turbo 4 as mid range.

A Quiet Revolution is coming! Hummer by GMC

Alert Alert Alert - News Story says the Hyundai Prophecy Concept sedan is going into production. I will believe it when I see it, but the executive in charge of the Hyundai design center says so. https://www.thedrive.com/news/33111/it-is-foretold-that-the-stunning-hyundai-prophecy-concept-is-going-into-production According to this story, seems Hyundai continued to produce auto's for the US and now our parts are full of them. Does this mean a heavy discount is coming on new auto's? https://jalopnik.com/hyundai-didnt-stop-making-cars-and-now-u-s-ports-are-f-1842998994 Car Trivia, 65 questions that stumped experts. Can you answer them? https://jalopnik.com/try-answering-these-car-trivia-questions-that-stumped-6-1842999825

I have one one side of my front yard Emerald Green Arborvitae but they just grow way too slow. The ones I planted in 1999 when I bought the place are finally hitting about 10 to 12 feet for a decent natural wall from the messy neighbor. I researched and went with the Lelands as they top out around 30 feet and can like the Arborvitae be trimmed to create a natural fence. They do make a nice year round green belt for a private yard. I actually hate maples and pretty much any deciduous tree as you have the mess in the fall of falling leaves and an ugly grey tree through winter plus a ton of pollen in the spring.

@Robert Hallthis is what the front side of my driveway looks like where I bbn planted Leland Cyprus trees as they can be trimmed to make a natural wall of privacy. also it makes it easy with my EGO edge and extension attachment to keep them trimmed back from the power lines.

I can understand, grew up with a family of labs and they all died 1 after another roughly 9 to 12 months apart. It was a hard 5 years till they were all gone. Sounds great for the backyard. I also am working on a remodel plan for the back yard, have started to change the garden area, have another area that will go pavers with a fire pit and have been lining out the backyard with Leland Cyprus trees to make a natural tall private green belt.