Drew Dowdell

Sherwin Williams, when bought from an actual SW store and not a Big Box, is supposed to be some of the best quality paint around. The price reflects that.

Damn… Robert has Sherwin-Williams money…

Well, we’ve definitely hijacked @Robert Hall’s post with way more mower information than he needs. Robert, have any inside pics yet?

I shoulda bought the Honda. I think that feature for feature, the Craftsman (which from memory, was Toro built) was the same. One key thing I need is an OHV engine because they have more powerful oil pumps. I have steep hills, and the old-style flat-head motors would eat themselves because their little oil pumps would starve if they were on the slope for too long. Way back when I bought the Craftsman (actually from Sears, so that gives you an idea of the age), OHV pushmowers were relatively rare. Only high-end models and most of the Hondas had them. The thing about the Honda was that it was a push mower that weighed damn near as much as an Accord. I was mowing the lawns at my rentals at the time, and lifting it into the CR-V or CTS would have been a bitch. I still got the craftsman base on price, though.

That's by the book time.... as gas mowers age, they tend to get crankier. Maybe it is different for other brands, but the maintenance parts for my Tecumseh-powered Craftsman were always stupidly expensive. $20 for an air filter, plus shipping, $8 for a spark plug, plus shipping. $45 for a wheel that split. control cables snapping. Nothing was ever local, and I'd need to wait 7-10 days to get it. Same for my gas snow blower. The gas power tool experience has poisoned my One thing not obvious about the EGO is just how light and compact it is. It folds up and has two handles that you can carry it with while folded if you need to load it into a car. It goes into the Toronado trunk no problem. When I store it for the winter, I can stand it upright and slide it behind the furnace.

It depends on how much of your own maintenance you do and how much you're willing to pay for someone else to maintain it if not. In my case, time being such a big issue, I don't want to have to mess around with a cranky gas mower or have to load it on a trailer once or twice a year to pay $150-$200 for the lawn equipment company to maintain it. I'd rather spend my afternoons doing things I enjoy. Dropping in a few batteries saves me time. I bill my side-hustle clients at $120 an hour. That makes it easy math.

I think, like vehicles, Americans tend to overbuy on lawn equipment. I went from a big, single blade, walk behind... big torque, rear drive, bagger/mulcher, and it was such a headache towards the end of its life. For a couple seasons I used my father-in-laws ooooooold Black-n-Decker corded electric. It was a basic as could be. I could only do my front yard and my upper rear yard, but it did it without fuss every year. Parts were non-existant. I hit a stone and couldn't buy a new blade, but it still ran, just a little buzzy. The worst was that about once per season, I'd eat an extension cord. Eventually, it melted the control handle, but for a mower that was probably 25+ years old and free, I wasn't mad for the extra few seasons I got out it. I knew after that, I'd never go back to gas, so I got the EGO. That can do my lower back yard too, which is mostly wooded. It does fine. The only thing I'd change about it would be the wheels, which don't have a lot of grip.

I have the EGO also and I really like it. The extra cost over a gas equivalent is worth it just from the lack of having to do all the gas engine maintenance. Every spring was a fight with my gas mower plus $40 - $70 in parts for whatever broke.

I’m a different life, yeah. Right now, time is my enemy.

For a driveway that long is hire a snow service. Heck even for mowing the lawn I’d hire a service

You're within riding range of me! I'll bring the hot dogs!

Well, yeah. But one of the talking points of the F.U.D. anti-EV crowd is that they take too long to charge and some people live in apartment buildings. The charging speed aspect attacks that talking point. If you don't need those speeds, that's fine, and it's probably better for your vehicle anyway. Those speeds are meant for people who are on long road trips or who don't have access to charging at home.

Tesla started that already, but not at the percentages you mentioned. I'm not good at keeping track of Tesla battery model numbers, but one of the more recent versions allowed Tesla to cut a significant chunk of weight from the Model 3's battery. Tesla could have stuffed more battery in the Model 3, but they decided to keep the range but lighten the battery instead. Good move in my opinion. That said, your overall point is correct and there is still further to go.

We're looking at the Digital Green with white/green interior. Limited AWD trim.

Albert has been liking the Ioniq 6.

It's been a while. I tried it out in a Polestar 2... and it was absolutely not done cooking. Alert windows would pop up behind primary windows and would be unclickable. But the other issue is that I avoid Google products because they invade privacy. When you use Google, you aren't using their products, you are the product, because they will sell every scrap of information they collect on you that they can. Go to the ice cream shop with your kids every Friday at 7? Google will sell that information to Baskin Robins and ColdStone so you get coupons. Now, I know other companies do the same, but Google is by-far the most nefarious. Unfortunately, due to my line of work, I can't avoid Google entirely... but I don't want it installed in my car.

I like the Celesiq and everything from the Ioniq 6 down. The front face of the i7 is its downfall, but the side profile is handsome. The ID.7 I'm not sold on yet from the side. It looks like they were trying to design a wagon and then a manager came in and said, "Actung! This is going to be sold in Amerika! Du kannst nicht!"

The height above the ground matters, not fakery visuals like that blackout panel. The overall height of the vehicle doesn't look that tall either.

How is it an suv? How is that anything more than a hatchback with big wheels? There are 2-door Imprezas that are more SUV than that...

This is all new. Previous Edge/Nautilus was on a conglomeration of Mazda6/Fusion parts on a platform called CD4 and earier than that CD3. Explorer platform was D3 and goes back to the old Volvo P1 platform that was under the S80. D3 and CD3 are inter-related variants and share a lot of parts.

At a guess, they wouldn't have been able to shrink the platform for Nautilus enough to make it distinct from the Aviator.

It's on a greatly enlarged Escape/BroncoSport/Maverick platform rather than the cut-down version of the old Explorer platform. But given its size, there is no direct Ford counterpart. It has a 114.2" wheelbase compared to the Escapes' 107.5", overall length is 193" v. 180.5", and wheel track is 65" v 62". It's actually larger than the old Nautilus which was 112.2" wb and 190" in length, 64" wheel track. It's about 200 lbs lighter at 4,349 lbs v. 4,545 lbs when comparing AWD to AWD models. The old FWD with 2.0T was as low as 4,165. It's much easier to add strength without adding a lot of weight to an already light platform than it is to take weight out of a larger heavy platform. The hybrid with all that low end torque should move along briskly

Apparently, it has "added lightness", so with that in mind, it probably plays with the mid-pack Lexus RX (and looks better too). They made the steering wheel like that to give the best view of that coast-to-coast dash. They wanted to prevent blocking the view.

Yeah, as a 2022.... and it's currently *checks watch* 2023. The 2024 Envista and Encore GX come out next month.

The old Encore got canned a month or two ago. Any new ones you see are just leftover. I've been pretty disappointed in the latest Buick offerings. Only the Enclave and Envision feel like what they should be. Friend of mine just got a brand new Envision Avenir and it's really nice.