G. David Felt

G. David Felt - Staff Writer Alternative Energy - www.cheersandgears.com Longest Running Ride! Credit.com did a story on the 14 longest running vehicles on the road. This is based on the simple research of what autos are on the road still based on age and how many miles they have. End result came down to buying a truck or SUV is a solid investment for long life use with a few exceptions. As the research found out, the top 14 autos ended up being those that were over 200,000 miles and exclusivly made by General Motors, Ford and Toyota. Seems no one else in the US has auto's with high miles still on the road registered and running. The story goes on to say that the top seven autos, all SUVs are driven an average of 14,407 miles per year. 14% more than the average vehicle in the US. These results came from analysing 13 million used cars sold in 2016 that covered the years 1981 to 2016. 14 Longest running Autos with more than 200,000 miles 13th - GMC Sierra 1500 2% of all autos 12th - Ford F150 2.1% of all autos 11th - Chevrolet Silverado 1500 2.2% of all autos 10th - Tie Honda Odyssey 2.3% of all autos 10th - Tie Honda Accord 2.3% of all autos 9th - Toyota Tacoma 2.5% of all autos 8th - Toyota Avalon 2.6% of all autos 7th - GMC Yukon 3% of all autos 6th - Chevrolet Tahoe 3.5% of all autos 5th - GMC Yukon XL 4.2% of all autos 4th - Toyota 4Runner 4.7% of all autos 3rd - Chevrolet Suburban 4.8% of all autos 2nd - Toyota Sequoia 5.6% of all autos 1st - Ford Expedition 5.7% of all autos credit.com story Interesting is that on their blog site for blog.iseecars.com they covered the longest lasting vehicles for the top 10 and came up with almost the same list. Top 10 Trucks / SUVs They also broke out for cars and luxury with some interesting findings: Top 10 Cars Top 5 Luxury

My notice is that the cement parking blocks seem to be much higher than the cars now since the introduction of air dams and as such, people are pulling into parking spots and ripping off or heavily damaging their front bumper area. Then you have an ugly look. Most cars now cannot pull into the parking space till the tires hit the parking block due to the air dam If you do, many end up with this type of ugly look. Yet others end up having the lower section just ripped off.

G. David Felt - Staff Writer Alternative Energy - www.cheersandgears.com China’s Influence on GM, EVs, and Others! We saw just at the end of 2016 Toyota saying they would build a team to focus on EVs. This being a complete reversal of their pledge in 2013 to focus on Hydrogen as the practical alternative to traditional ICE autos. Toyota will have a long range EV auto out on the market for the 2020 auto year. Being that 2019 is when you're 2020 autos will start selling, this puts Toyota 4 years behind GM's Chevrolet BOLT EV. What would cause this change to happen? China is what has happened. China started to push the global auto industry by stating that 8 percent of auto sales in 2018 be each vendor has to be EV or plug-in hybrid. 10 percent is the number for 2019 and 12 percent in 2020. Toyota one would think should be fine with their Prius line of Hybrids until you realize that China has stated all hybrids such as the Prius, Volt and others built outside of China are considered ICE autos. Currently the only Hybrid being built in China that is a legal hybrid is the Cadillac CT6 plugin hybrid. Toyota is planning to start selling a plugin hybrid in China in 2018 as a 2019 model. So we are seeing that Toyota is being forced to get over their EV allergy and come up with a real plan to have a global EV on the market in 2019 as a 2020 model year. Daimler has a large EV roll out planned for the global market by 2021. VW has stated they will have multiple EVs rolled out around 2019 through 2021. So has BMW, Audi, etc. So where does that leave GM? What is GMs strategy now that China is flexing their muscle and setting some big standards for an auto company to play in their backyard? We have the Cadillac CT6 plugin hybrid. Chevrolet BOLT EV able to be exported to China. GM announced that they will start building a China market Chevrolet Volt as they start to push the Chevrolet brand in China next year. GM has also announced a Buick Velite 5 Hybrid for the Chinese market starting at 265,800 yuan or about $38,600 US. This will have a 72 mile pure electric mode before the generator kicks in giving it a 480 mile range. EVs in China are exempt from sales tax and license plate quotas. According to Fox Business news, Buick sold 1 million autos in China for calendar year 2016 rising to the number two auto brand sold behind Volkswagen. They also go onto say that Chevrolet has been selling legacy models only up till now and GM has announced 20 new models for China by 2020 the first being a China version of the Chevrolet Equinox. GM says China is demanding the same models they have in the US and as such, China and the US will be more aligned to have identical models. GMs China business is stated to have produced $2 billion in income last year. China clearly helping GM to sell 10 million cars in 2016 globally. How important is the China Market to GM? In the Month of January Cadillac sold 10,298 autos in the US. Cadillac sold 18,000 in China for the month of January. Clearly China will continue to take on a bigger and bigger role in GM’s ongoing growth. So where does that leave GM in regards to EVs, auto production, etc.? Reuters points to a story they did back in January 2016 where CEO Mary Barra stated that they could build the dies used to stamp the auto parts in china for 20 to 40 percent less than in Europe or the US. Dies will start to be built and shipped out worldwide from China. Clearly this would tend to show that GM will be affected by the China market more and more. So this brings me back to my original question of what is GMs plan for their EV strategy. We have seen and heard so much about the competition and yet with GM this seems to be a black hole. Knowing that GM sold about 1.5 million auto’s last year in China and now for next year 10 percent will have to be EV / Plugin Hybrids, that means 150,000 of these auto’s. For Volkswagen, this is an even bigger number since they are number 1 in the market and have no EV or hybrid that I am aware of. All Auto companies who do not have a specific plugin hybrid built in china or EV to import into China is going to find selling auto’s to be very difficult. References Reuters story AP story Fox Business Story CNN Money Story Motley Fool Story Reuters 2016 story

I agree and that is why so many of us loved @ocnblu truck when he took off the stupid airdam and recovered that nice clean ground clearance.

Seems I forgot in my Pizza Excitement to post the link to the 10 crazy pies to try! http://en.rocketnews24.com/2013/10/27/10-crazy-pizzas-from-japan/ Check em out and comment if you would try them or eat them.

Yes the SUV do already fit over the parking blocks, but they have destroyed the fronts of so many cars.

China's own EPA version of EV sales per year starting in 2019 are going to force all companies to invest in EVs. Trump is not going to have any affect on companies move towards EV as the rest of the world is moving forward. The US will need to follow.

Why is it that when you need a cop, you can never find one, yet a couple cops get shot by bad guys doing their job and every branch of every service shows up. Seattle Police, TSA, ATF, Federal, County, etc. Then they stand around socializing Yes 3 teens probably strung out on drugs rob a 7-11 that is in a federal building and boom. The world has imploded. So crazy yesterday as this took place 1 block up from work. Lucky I had customer briefings all day till 6pm so by the time I was ready to go home everything was back to normal.

Would rather have a higher floor and ground clearance. Tired of all the auto's being built close to the road to minimize wind drag due to MPG needs. I am totally happy with my teen mpg on my suv's. Yes it would be great to have higher mpg, but not at a loss of what an SUV is supposed to do.

Cool Info, too bad we had such sucky cars in the 80's for the most part.

So by word of mouth they will dump the Diesels on the market and call it good. Good offers if you can find one that meets your needs. Wonder where the bulk of the diesels are?

Interesting

I get the point your going for, but he wanted a socialist system of equality for all even though he himself and his family did not live that way. Totally agree with him destroying the country.

Ugh, Kinda expected after that rot hole stole the oil companies production facilities. I am surprised this has not happened sooner as that country will eventually implode. Socialism like communism does not work. China is not a pure communism, but a mix of capitalism with communism.

@Drew Dowdell How does it compare to the Cadillac XTS?

I know I am showing my age, but for those that remember the Chevy Luv Truck of the mid to late 70's. A common thing was for us to pull the Isuzu 4 banger and install a small block V8. Totally made that truck Grease Lighting! I agree with @regfootball GM has just not had the time or priority to see what it would take to cram the Turbo V6 into the auto.

If you click the link and go to their site and read all about it, they rip the auto back down to the frame and rebuild it to support the power and torque and make it a hell of an off road auto. Kinda like the Hummer HX concept that I still think should be brought out as a GMC SUV.

Life Time Warranties are cool, but everything wears out and I can see this bankrupting a company. In regards to sharing an auto. No thanks too many pigs that have a I do not care attitude. I like my auto's like new and am a bit OCD about them. Interesting is how Porsche style like that CUV is in the above story.

G. David Felt - Staff Writer Alternative Energy - www.cheersandgears.com Jeep Wrangler on Steroids - Rhino XT Hellcat! The company, US Specialty Vehicles which has built many a trick auto for movies as well as building special lines to sell to the public just outdid FCA. In 2015 this company showed off this Rhino XT version which is available for sale with the V6 powertrain on their web site. For the latest Fast and Furious movie, they went out of this world crazy and built this unit with the Hellcat engine. Now the company has informed the public that they too can order up the Rhino XT Hellcat edition and have what has been seen on the silver screen. Yet if a 707 HP wrangler is too much for you and the base V6 is not enough you can always opt for their Supercharger Package on the V6. This takes you from the basic 285 HP by adding roughly 1/3 more power to motivate those 35" tires. The V6 edition starts at $80,735. They also have the Sport edition and the premium edition packages.

Was a weird little CUV. It will sell on price alone I bet and then fad into history. Plus I bet they need to keep production going till they get the others up to speed. Makes sense as they grow their CUV fleet of Auto's. I wonder if VW will use the assembly line to then build their EV's once they have them ready for production. Then just shift the Tiguan Limited production to make EV production.

Appears to mimic the Bolt in being s FWD EV powered partial skateboard platform. Interesting that the battery is so much smaller in comparison to the BOLT or Leaf.

Hello McFly, did you forget to use the pass through on the rear seat and have it stick straight out the back? @ccap41 Dude I thought you lived in the 21st century suburbs not in the rednecks of the 19th suburbs? JK, but that is freaking funny and WTF post of the day!

Very Cool Yes my son does not like the external style or internal layout of the Dodge Durango. My daughter has one and loves it. My son has narrowed his choices to Jeep GC or Ford Explorer Sport edition. For the GC he is vacillating if he wants to do diesel or stay hemi. Back on topic, Cruze Diesel rocks!

I love to test drive auto's all kinds and yes I will roll myself up into sub compacts and compacts to see what they are like. True, at my size, most auto's are always going to be north of 50K and closer to 100K. Will say that I was impressed with the Ford Explorer Sport that we did a family test drive on as my son is considering it as a replacement for his Jeep Patriot. We also test drove the Explorer XLT, not impressed with that. Would be hard pressed to recommend it as the dash interface is terrible compared to the much better dash interface you get with the sport version. Yes another 50K SUV.

Plenty of ICE auto's that I am impressed with. V series from Cadillac. M series from BMW, AMG series from MB, REAL skylines when I was in college in Japan. Corvettes, plenty of ICE auto's over the last 40 years. Toyota & Honda have nothing that is inspiring, roomy or desirable to me. I was carpooling with my coworker last night home in his new TRD Tacoma. He loves it but compared to the GM twins, you have a ok comfy seat in a sea of hard plastics and some soft touch plastics, but much to really go wow about. Course, this was just my thinking. as he loves his truck. To each their own. Have you gone out yet and actually driven a Bolt yet to give a real assessment of the auto?