Drew Dowdell
-
Posts
55,280 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
481
Content Type
Forums
Articles
Gallery
Events
Store
Collections
Everything posted by Drew Dowdell
-
From the album: 2021 Mercedes-AMG GLB 35
-
Industry News: NHTSA Testing Mirrorless Cars
Drew Dowdell replied to Drew Dowdell's topic in Industry News
A lot of expensive tech to what benefit? Mirrors work -
gah, I hate those sites that make you click next for every vehicle. They're nothing but spammy spam ad sites.
-
Industry News: NHTSA Testing Mirrorless Cars
Drew Dowdell replied to Drew Dowdell's topic in Industry News
But... they still have the pods on the side of the car... I'm not sure how much of an advancement it is. -
The Porsche Taycan, which is due to be officially revealed next week, got some track time with a reporter from Autocar. The Taycan will be Porsche's offering to compete with the Tesla Model S, and like the Model S will come in a variety of flavors. No matter which Taycan chosen, it will come with a 90 kWh battery pack capable of recharging up to 60 miles of range in just 4 minutes and free high speed charging for the first 3 years. On the faster of the Taycan flavors, there will be an overboost option that will hold for two and a half seconds that boost the horsepower to "well over" 700 hp and over 750 lb-ft of torque. That power will rocket the Taycan from 0-62 mph somewhere under 3 seconds. For those who miss the sounds of a car, the Taycan will offer something new. It will electronically enhance the sound of the electric motors' whine and pump it into the cabin. Base price for the Taycan will be around the $75,000 mark, but expect the model with the overboost to be substantially more. View full article
-
The Porsche Taycan, which is due to be officially revealed next week, got some track time with a reporter from Autocar. The Taycan will be Porsche's offering to compete with the Tesla Model S, and like the Model S will come in a variety of flavors. No matter which Taycan chosen, it will come with a 90 kWh battery pack capable of recharging up to 60 miles of range in just 4 minutes and free high speed charging for the first 3 years. On the faster of the Taycan flavors, there will be an overboost option that will hold for two and a half seconds that boost the horsepower to "well over" 700 hp and over 750 lb-ft of torque. That power will rocket the Taycan from 0-62 mph somewhere under 3 seconds. For those who miss the sounds of a car, the Taycan will offer something new. It will electronically enhance the sound of the electric motors' whine and pump it into the cabin. Base price for the Taycan will be around the $75,000 mark, but expect the model with the overboost to be substantially more. -
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has begun testing vehicles that have cameras in place of real mirrors. The request to test such devices goes back to March of 2014 when the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers along with Tesla filed a petition with the NHTSA to get approval to install based rear or side vision cameras and screens in their vehicles. Daimler filed a similar petition in 2015 for their heavy duty trucks. Japan and Europe have already approved the technology. The first car with cameras replacing the side mirrors was the Lexus ES sold in Japan, followed by the Audi e-tron in Europe back in December. Both vehicles are sold in the U.S. with standard mirrors instead of the cameras. Honda's coming Honda e will have the technology standard when it goes on sale in Europe later this year. Mirrorless systems are an area where the legislation has not yet caught up with the technology according to Mark Dahncke of Audi. View full article
-
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has begun testing vehicles that have cameras in place of real mirrors. The request to test such devices goes back to March of 2014 when the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers along with Tesla filed a petition with the NHTSA to get approval to install based rear or side vision cameras and screens in their vehicles. Daimler filed a similar petition in 2015 for their heavy duty trucks. Japan and Europe have already approved the technology. The first car with cameras replacing the side mirrors was the Lexus ES sold in Japan, followed by the Audi e-tron in Europe back in December. Both vehicles are sold in the U.S. with standard mirrors instead of the cameras. Honda's coming Honda e will have the technology standard when it goes on sale in Europe later this year. Mirrorless systems are an area where the legislation has not yet caught up with the technology according to Mark Dahncke of Audi. -
Kia Niro EV, if it had the Bolt's range.
-
I do think some of those safety features should be standard. I had a really near miss on Rt 1 in NJ after leaving @balthazar's place on Monday. Two Toyota Minivans stopped in the middle of Rt 1 but no traffic around them. The Encore handled the swerve well.
-
Toyota News: Toyota and Suzuki Form A New Alliance
Drew Dowdell replied to Drew Dowdell's topic in Toyota
It seems like Toyota doesn't want to build smaller cars themselves anymore (smaller than Corolla). They're currently outsourcing some of that to Mazda, but perhaps that will go to Suzuki for the next generation. The Swift would have made a good Yaris. Also, Suzuki does really well with small engines. Not that Toyota can't, but perhaps they don't see the ROI on doing it themselves when they can get a perfectly good small engine from a partner like Suzuki or Mazda. -
Land Rover News: Land Rover Defender Leaks Out
Drew Dowdell replied to Drew Dowdell's topic in Land Rover
I don't see the military buying this independent suspension or not. It looks like a more capable puff cruiser than anything else. Nothing like the old Defender. This is more their Grand Cherokee than their Wrangler.- 6 replies
-
- 2
-
-
-
- defender
- land rover
- (and 1 more)
-
LOL there's a difference between limited production and standard production and you know it.
-
Toyota and Suzuki have announce plans to formalize a technology alliance. Suzuki will purchase approximately $454 million of Toyota stock while Toyota will acquire approximately $908 million in Suzuki shares for a 4.94 percent stake in the company. The two companies will share technology and platforms. Toyota will provide technology for electrification while Suzuki will provide platforms for small vehicles. Both companies will collaborate in the area of autonomous driving technology. The two companies already have an agreement where Toyota will provide Suzuki badged variants of the RAV-4 and Corolla Estate for the European market, while a Suzuki model will be built at Toyota's Derbyshire plant in the UK. Toyota will get Suzuki's new compact vehicle engines for the Euro market, while both will co-develop hybrid vehicles for the Indian market. From the sounds of it, none of the technology swap will be seen here in the U.S., but it does make us wonder about the small car agreement that Toyota has with Mazda to build the Toyota Yaris. View full article
-
Toyota and Suzuki have announce plans to formalize a technology alliance. Suzuki will purchase approximately $454 million of Toyota stock while Toyota will acquire approximately $908 million in Suzuki shares for a 4.94 percent stake in the company. The two companies will share technology and platforms. Toyota will provide technology for electrification while Suzuki will provide platforms for small vehicles. Both companies will collaborate in the area of autonomous driving technology. The two companies already have an agreement where Toyota will provide Suzuki badged variants of the RAV-4 and Corolla Estate for the European market, while a Suzuki model will be built at Toyota's Derbyshire plant in the UK. Toyota will get Suzuki's new compact vehicle engines for the Euro market, while both will co-develop hybrid vehicles for the Indian market. From the sounds of it, none of the technology swap will be seen here in the U.S., but it does make us wonder about the small car agreement that Toyota has with Mazda to build the Toyota Yaris. -
This is just the first car for them. The Polestar 2 will overlap the Model 3/S in price range. It's also a limited run vehicle, so "won't sell" is a red herring.
-
I think any unpopularity of the Bolt rests entirely with its looks. It's a great little scamp otherwise.
-
I might have an offer coming on my rental property. Also, thanks again @balthazar for the oil filters. I'm going to do an oil change as soon as the ground dries out a bit.
-
Polestar has opened their factory in Chengdu, China to begin production of the Polestar 1. The factory was designed to achieve a Gold status LEED certification. The Polestar 1 is a luxury hybrid coupe that boasts over 600 horsepower and 1,000 nm (738 lb-ft) of torque and an electric only range of 93 miles. It is a limited production run of 500 vehicles per year and most of the early allocations are sold out. One other announcement came with the factory press release. Polestar has filed for and received their World Manufacturing Identifier, basically their character in the VIN that identifies them. This means that Polestar manufactured vehicles will not have a Volvo VIN but a Polestar VIN instead. Polestar will still apply their performance technology know-how to higher performance Volvos. View full article
-
Polestar has opened their factory in Chengdu, China to begin production of the Polestar 1. The factory was designed to achieve a Gold status LEED certification. The Polestar 1 is a luxury hybrid coupe that boasts over 600 horsepower and 1,000 nm (738 lb-ft) of torque and an electric only range of 93 miles. It is a limited production run of 500 vehicles per year and most of the early allocations are sold out. One other announcement came with the factory press release. Polestar has filed for and received their World Manufacturing Identifier, basically their character in the VIN that identifies them. This means that Polestar manufactured vehicles will not have a Volvo VIN but a Polestar VIN instead. Polestar will still apply their performance technology know-how to higher performance Volvos. -
That's partially because the next generation Colorado platform has been pushed way back. They're just going to refresh the current one and run it another 5-7 years.
-
The Land Rover Defender leaked out via an Instagram post from the set of a 007 movie, spotted without camouflage and clearly back from some mudding around. The Defender was supposed to debut at the Frankfurt International Auto Show next month. The previous Defender stopped production in 2016 after a 67 year run. Emissions and safety regulations eventually forced it out of the markets. The new Defender retains a boxy shape, but is now much more modern in appearence. The headlights have a hooded look in place of the previously circular units. The Defender will initially be offered in a five passenger configuration, but eventually will also get a shorter length model to compete more directly with the Jeep Wrangler. Those wanting a larger version will be happy too as an 8-passenger version is also planned. Power will come from a range of turbo 4-cylinders, turbo 6-cylinder, a plug-in hybrid, and even a 6-cylinder diesel. One thing the Defender will not have is are solid axles, moving instead to a fully independent suspension. The Defender will likely end up in the US market as a 2021 model sometime in late 2020. View full article
-
The Land Rover Defender leaked out via an Instagram post from the set of a 007 movie, spotted without camouflage and clearly back from some mudding around. The Defender was supposed to debut at the Frankfurt International Auto Show next month. The previous Defender stopped production in 2016 after a 67 year run. Emissions and safety regulations eventually forced it out of the markets. The new Defender retains a boxy shape, but is now much more modern in appearence. The headlights have a hooded look in place of the previously circular units. The Defender will initially be offered in a five passenger configuration, but eventually will also get a shorter length model to compete more directly with the Jeep Wrangler. Those wanting a larger version will be happy too as an 8-passenger version is also planned. Power will come from a range of turbo 4-cylinders, turbo 6-cylinder, a plug-in hybrid, and even a 6-cylinder diesel. One thing the Defender will not have is are solid axles, moving instead to a fully independent suspension. The Defender will likely end up in the US market as a 2021 model sometime in late 2020. -
I don't know about you, but I don't go there to hang out. That said, my Buick dealers have fully staffed cafes and nice lounge areas.
-
?
