Drew Dowdell

God it's ugly.

I agree that it doesn't matter... but I disagree that BOF can't ride well or inherently rides better/worse than unibody. Both can ride well, both can ride like crap. It's all the other stuff that goes into it that makes the difference. The 2011 Pathfinder was a truck based vehicle with some respectable off-roading chops. The 2012 was a Mommymobile that Nissan built for soccer moms. You might as well compare a Wrangler to a new Pathfinder. The old Trailblazers rode better than the new Traverse. That's probably a more apt comparison.

Not that I dislike the El-Dogs you posted @Robert Hall and @oldshurst442 But this was one of the last gasps of the Cadillac styling department until the CT6 came about. (With some minor brainstem activity for the '03 CTS)

Never rode in a 2011. But I can tell you that a 2022 Wagoneer rides like Town Car to the point that Albert hated driving it because it was too mushy.

They'll all be shaped like a Tylenol. I never really understood why DeSoto didn't sell, they were pretty good looking. Dodges of the era were painfully ugly. Plymouth was "beneath" it. It was probably something dumb like the Chrysler Windsor being roughly the same price and at least that sat in the same dealership with the Imperial.

The Rivian (and remarkably similar Ultium) platforms are kinda a hybrid of the two. The batteries on these are structural. A ladder frame is just a perimeter frame with extra cross members for strength. And no one will be putting leaf springs in new EVs these days, if nothing else they won't have the room under the chassis. No, I've been out of the industry rotation since Covid started.

Unibody v. BOF ride quality comes down more around what the manufacturer does beyond that decision. My BOF Avalanche rides fantastic on the highway, most of the Ram pickups and Magnaride equipped Denalis do too. The F-150 rides terrible unless there is one version out there with an active suspension that I haven't driven yet. The Ford Mach-E rides like crap if you don't get the active suspension. The Telsa Model 3, which is unibody, rides like a Conestoga wagon. You may be thinking of the really old tech stuff, but even then the Town Car v. DTS, the Town Car rode better, but the DTS handled better. Part of the reason was that the DTS was so stiff for its time that Cadillac had trouble dialing out the road imperfections. All of the last generation GM G-Bodies have that issue.

Ultium is body on frame. It's just now the frame is stuffed full of batteries.

More power in something like this is just unnecessary.

The Atlas I-6 was a modern (for the time) engine that was bolted to non-modern stuff. It was incredibly smooth and loved to rev, it really got its power higher up in the RPM band, which isn't ideal for a heavy SUV, but compared to what we have today with DOHC V6es it was fine. But then GM stuck a 4-speed automatic behind it so it always felt like it was screaming or lugging. In typical GM fashion, they canceled it right when it had the potential to flourish... the new 6-speed autos were coming out, direct Injection was being introduced to the mainstream, and turbo technology was entering a renaissance phase. An Atlas I-6 with DI and a Turbo would have beaten Ford to the punch with Ecoboost and probably been a better performer to boot. Heck, even a turbo I-5 would have been great for the re-return of the Colorado/Canyon or as 1-2 matchup against the Ford 2.7EB and 3.5EB. Both the I5 and I6 would probably have been de-bored a bit in turbo applications but it still would have been a great matchup.

GM marketing is so dumb.

Just one of the many extras you get as a member of C&G!

They probably had to scramble as they lost their main supplier when JC Whitney went under.

Bollinger never ever could have made it. This group collectively could have built a better vehicle. ——————-———— And the children were nestled, All snug in their beds, While visions of premium fuel danced in their heads,

A-Effing-Men! The RAV4 is the current lowest common denominator. It's not that it's a great car in any particular measure (thought the hybrid model does have excellent performance and efficiency, but is also quite expensive and dealers are marking it up). They aren't very comfortable, they don't handle well. The interior is meh. As low as the bar is, the CR-V is a much nicer and more comfortable vehicle all around, but it gets outsold by the Toyota. People are just buying refrigerators.

The Ford v GM question is going to come down the the EV platform. GM appears to have the edge here (pun intended) because their Ultium system looks significantly more flexible and scaleable

That assumes no other products in the pipeline and also assumes production for only the US.

Once ever, at 15 mph basically around the block of my hotel. It's not like I was on the highway with no helmet, or even up to suburban speeds. Edit: The picture I think you are referring to we did wear helmets, we just had them off for the picture. We put them back on even for the 100 yard ride onto the ferry. The only time I did ride without a helmet that I described above, I didn't take a pic.

Sure, we all take risks, but you still wear your seatbelt don’t you? i don’t agree with the squeamishness surrounding the mRNA vaccines, but whatever, there’s the J&J vaccine too that doesn’t use the mRNA tech.

Because a childrens hospital filled with pediatric ICU Covid patients shows that the young can still have pretty severe Covid issues even if they ultimately survive. and I already made my point about the difference between surviving and recovering.

Neither of those are pediatric? Long Covid is a real thing. Yes you may survive a Covid infection but that doesn’t mean you won’t have long term complications from it. Surviving Covid and recovering from Covid are two different statistics. My friends in Colorado who used to go hiking in the mountains and got Covid very early on still gets winded on a flight of steps. Is a life of gasping for breath, or having random neurological problems something you can live with?

Congrats on the fleet Cory, always nice to see you pop in

Sorry I missed posting this yesterday. Happy birthday ?????

Companies can work on two things at once especially when they get IPOs as large as Rivian has. Rivian is intentionally throttling production out of Normal because they learned from Teslas failures when starting up production. Rivian also has a big fat 500,000 vehicle contract to build vans for Amazon they need to start getting working on.

Cop fleet is not cheap like rental fleet is. And most governments aside from the Feds and States don’t have the buying power to get any significant discount. So the municipality I work for pays roughly $50k for a cop version of an Explorer ST before it goes to the outfitters. Those old numbers you’re looking at were also when those vehicles were a lot less expensive. Lincoln struggled to get sales back then because their vehicles were so low effort. The Aviator today is much more bespoke for Lincoln than the old one which was just a hood and tailgate swap.