G. David Felt

Seems South Korea has decided to hit VW hard for Diesel gate and ban 80 auto's from sale in South Korea. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/03/business/international/south-korea-volkswagen-emissions.html https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/audi-porsche-vw-emissions-south-korea/ As such, Audi, Porsche and VW are being hit hard for the Emissions cheating. These stories come from a release from the Korean Herald. http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20190820000719#cb Seems Tesla Giga Factory 3 is in debug phase for entering full production soon this coming fall. https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-gigafactory-3-model-3-production-debugging-phase-video/

The Drive is saying that Lexus has confirmed they will not build a car to compete with Tesla but instead go the route of a small Urban Hatchback for inner city owners / drivers. I get a total Smart Car vibe on this 2 door 2 person auto and think it will be a FAIL for them. https://www.thedrive.com/news/29522/lexus-to-build-small-urban-hatchback-instead-of-tesla-fighter-for-its-first-ev-report Want a station wagon but cannot afford the RS6 or E63 latest MB wagon, go CPO, E63 low miles over 500HP can be had for around 40K, big bargains in the CPO for E63 auto's. https://jalopnik.com/a-reminder-that-you-can-get-another-german-wagon-with-o-1837474912 BMW is following MB with LED backlit grills now. https://jalopnik.com/were-really-doing-this-arent-we-1837473276 France spent 5.2 million euros to build a 1K solar road for testing and it was a complete failure. https://jalopnik.com/turns-out-a-road-made-of-solar-panels-was-in-fact-a-b-1837472544 Lots of interesting stuff today in the auto industry.

More Cool News, As many have stated here about EV's, variety of assortment styles is what is holding back EV adoption and AAA latest survey of their members show 20% will go pure EV on their next vehicle purchase to reduce maintenance and increase ease of fueling by fueling at home. Now with that said a much larger survey of people across the US has brought up the following reasons that people have not moved to EV yet. https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1124659_survey-range-cost-infrastructure-sum-up-why-shoppers-avoid-evs Have to say that the VW ID Buggy would be a blast to have in sunny states and places with off road parks especially sand dunes. https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1124600_first-drive-review-vw-id-buggy-electric-car-meb-platform EV Fun!

Next wave of cool AUTO News: Ford is going down 3 paths of EV strategy one of which is with Rivian for an Electrified F150. This is all part of the committed push to have 40 EVs on the market Globally by 2022 at a committed cost of $11.5 Billion dollars invested with their own EV strategy for Americas for cars and CUVs. EV platform with VW for European markets and the Pickups / Full size SUVs cobuilt with Rivian. VW MEB platform for Fords small FWD EVs for Europe with a goal of 600,000 EVs over 6 years starting in 2023. Ford Developed body for F150 and Full Size SUV, built by Rivian at their Illinois factory for global market. Fords own EV platform for cars / cuvs for Americas market and export. https://chargedevs.com/newswire/fords-collaboration-with-rivian-is-just-one-of-three-paths-to-electrification/ Madrid Spain has put in place a permanent BAN on all private auto's and requirement to use carbon free mass transit. So do not expect to find auto's for rent or running around Madrid Spain any more. Mass transit is your friend on their electrified transit system. https://chargedevs.com/newswire/madrid-private-car-ban-is-here-to-stay/ In 2018 BMW stareted a Wireless charging option in Germany. Now in 2020, BMW will bring their wireless charging system for EVs to America. https://chargedevs.com/newswire/bmw-to-bring-wireless-charging-pilot-program-to-us/ Are you Battery Surge ready? EVs are expected to be as much as 1/3rd cheaper than ICE auto's within the next 3 years due to massive online coming battery production and solid state. Batteries make up 1/3rd of the cost of an EV, but with this massive push for battery production, costs are expected to drop massively. https://chargedevs.com/newswire/ev-battery-production-are-you-ready-for-the-surge/ Battery pack with thermal management that is 40% smaller than todays battery packs. Yup, not only is cost going to go down, but seems size as well by as much as 40% due to efficiency in packaging as well as battery design / building. https://chargedevs.com/newswire/mahles-new-battery-housing-delivers-same-power-from-40-smaller-batteries/ Get Ready for the Next Auto Revolution and it will be a massive charged one!

Some interesting news in the auto world today: Ford Mustang inspired Mach E is caught in public. https://www.autoblog.com/2019/08/21/ford-mach-e-electric-crossover-mustang-inspired-spied/#slide-2163283 Looks like it will be coupe inspired CUV. Heavy cover, but be interesting. Chevrolet BOLT will have a 259 mile battery pack for the 2020 model year along with new colors and hi-def cameras. Here is hoping that the colors also apply to the inside and that black and white dash. https://www.autoblog.com/2019/08/22/2020-chevy-bolt-ev-range-increase/ The other is a first review of the Lincoln Aviator Hybrid. Seems to be a focus on performance over efficiency with the power it has. 494HP / 630 lb-ft of torque. Crazy cool. https://www.autoblog.com/2019/08/22/2020-lincoln-aviator-hybrid-grand-touring-first-drive/

#1 complaint about the Bolt is the interior. People point to the dash color and the interior seat / over all color choices. Clearly it sells as one of the best EV's, but GM is NOT listening to the buyers who would buy if there were better colors available.

Buick could with China as well as Cadillac. Bigger question is will GM invest the needed updates / quality of materials to achieve it?

Will say that until I got my new head unit in the SS and backup camera, I never really thought of needing a backup camera, but since having it, I have used it in places where I know I would not be in as tight as I can now with it. Love the backup camera for garage parking in the city.

Awesome, will help bring the change that much faster to an EV road.

So true, the average is 1 to 2 people per Bolt, Lyft, Uber ride. The number of large rides is usually covered by a van type of service. Some interesting info on Lyft. https://expandedramblings.com/index.php/lyft-statistics/ https://expandedramblings.com/index.php/uber-statistics/

Interesting, looks wide and low. Guess it is an EV car? Wonder what the battery pack size will be and the performance of the power train. FWD/AWD/RWD, so many questions and so little info at this time. Excitement!

Interesting story of most and least loyal auto customers. https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/car-brands-with-the-most-and-least-loyal-customers/ss-AAFu5bz?li=BBnb7Kz#image=3 Least Loyal Customers: #10 - Volvo 33.3% are loyal #9 - Infiniti 32.1% are loyal #8 - Mitsubishi 30.2% are loyal #7 - Mini 29.1% are loyal #6 - Buick 28.3% are loyal #5 - Jaguar 20.6% are loyal #4 - Dodge 16.8% are loyal #3 - Fiat 16.5% are loyal #2 - Chrysler 14.4% are loyal #1 - Smart 14.3% are loyal Most Loyal Customers: #10 - Hyundai 44.8% are loyal #9 - Nissan 45.8% are loyal #8 - Lexus 47.6% are loyal #7 - Chevrolet 49% are loyal #6 - Kia 49.4% are loyal #5 - Ford 54% are loyal #4 - Ram 56.2% are loyal #3 - Honda 57.7% are loyal #2 - Toyota 59.5% are loyal #1 - Subaru 62.5% are loyal What do you all think of this list? Sound off on if you agree or not and why.

This is one thing I understand that some like a lowered truck, but if you do it, then why not remove the side steps and that front dam as it now looks like it would get hung up on parking lot speed bumps. Missed taking a photo, but saw a new ranger next to a new Gladiator next to a 1 to 2 year old Colorado and have to say, the Ford just does not hold up next to the Jeep or GM mid size pickups. Yes, GM needs to update that interior now, but the exterior looks way better than the ford.

Some interesting news on Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-manufacturing-automation/north-american-companies-boost-spending-on-industrial-robots-study-idUSKCN1VA12C Seems a 19% increase in robots ordered over last year to automate assembly production in the US rather than hire manual labor and costs have come down for the Robots. Interesting quote is that as Robot sales increased, unemployment went down, but when sales went down for robots, unemployment went up. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-autos-emissions-trump/trump-attacks-ford-motor-for-not-backing-fuel-economy-rollback-idUSKCN1VB1QQ As Ford has backed California CARB over the Feds for fuel efficiency standards, the president has attacked today Ford for not being American and too politically correct as well as Honda, BMW and Volkswagen who all signed on to back CARB over the EPA standard. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-daimler-china-foton-truck-exclusive/exclusive-daimler-to-make-mercedes-benz-branded-heavy-trucks-in-china-sources-idUSKCN1VC05T Seems Daimler will go full steam ahead next year as they start full scale production of heavy duty commercial trucks in China for the Chinese market and possibly other markets. Daimler expects China to become their number 1 heavy duty truck manufacturing market. Diamler sold 100,000 trucks last year in China, not all produced locally. With 3 plants now, Diamler will be able to produce 160,000 trucks a year and will be looking to expand production in a market that is hitting 1 million heavy duty truck sales a year.

GMC needs to bring back the Syclone AWD. As @ccap41 stated above, not a hard thing to do, just will GMC do it?

I think this is more representative:

So my Chevrolet Trailblazer SS came with the Bose head unit and Bose amp with Bose Speakers. Last summer the XM satellite stopped working and as much as I tried to work with XM to get them to hard reset the signal to my head unit it just stopped working. So I canceled my service. Low and behold, the next morning the preview XM station started working again and then later in the day stopped, so no radio anywhere via XM for me. This spring the rear speakers started to on and off have a electronic buzz and wine and it would come and go, so I figure my speakers were dying. Over the weekend, I came out from running an errand and turned the auto on, got in to go and all I had even though the volume was at zero, a screech from the rear speakers. So I stopped by Car Toys here and they took a look and told me my capacitors were dying in the Bose system, common issue and seems to play out on the web as I am at 157,000 miles on the SS and it seems to be when the audio system dies. I looked online for a new head unit, $1,500, new amp $400 plus tax and shipping, I was looking at 2K for the same thing and not even new. Both were refurb as there seems to not be any new units left. So back to Car Toys https://www.cartoys.com/ and I ended up with a Head unit and backup camera. Head Unit is Pioneer AVH-2550NEX 6.8 Inch DVD Receiver with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Backup Camera is Quinn Acoustics QC670 Automotive License Plate Frame Rearview Backup Camera with Night Vision Have to say that the large touch screen is really nice, Android Auto rocks and the backup camera is great for tight parking in garages in the city or places where your normal shoulder checks and mirrors cannot help. System sounds great as I still have the bose speakers, but over all cannot be happy and was only $1,400 including the connection harness that allows all the normal GM steering wheel controls to work. YEA! Just realized the picture is fuzzy of the Head unit, will take an updated clear picture when I get home tonight.

For $148,000 you can buy yourself a fully loaded Rubicon Gladiator converted into a Hellcat swapped Gladiator pickup. https://www.thedrive.com/news/29509/is-this-dealerships-707-hp-hellcat-swapped-2020-jeep-gladiator-really-worth-148k

Love it, big bright and I can run over all the slow assholes in the left lane. Plus it has a nice unique humm. For sure not quiet. Should be big enough for me to drive comfy!

I thought the BOLTs running around San Francisco still had a human in them? Or are you talking someplace else?

I love the BOLT, but am very disappointed in GM lack of offering diverse interiors on that auto especially with the number of customers saying they did not like the Black and White dash that is default for all the black, grey or black n grey interiors. They should have offered better colors and interior options from the begining.

Yea, logic seems to be missing in many places of the world stage from GM HQ to DC and elsewhere. Just crazy. Good read on trade: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/savingandinvesting/cramer-trump-should-heed-home-depots-warnings-about-the-consumer-and-make-a-trade-deal/ar-AAG59yo?li=BBnb7Kz

Do we really want Johnny Cab Robo Taxi's running around the city?

OK, Yup I am WRONG, your right it is a station wagon as I look at it again. But hate the Coupe backside of it. This is what I grew up in as a proper station wagon: Custom Cruiser Delta 98 with the rear facing 3rd seat. Roomy, comfy and a true road cruiser.