Drew Dowdell

What's funny is that I can fit my skis transversely in the trunk of my Toronado. Those look like some old-style long jump skis in the ad.

There is a huge, Grand Canyon sized divide, between marketing to people who think they want a "lifestyle vehicle" and people who actually do that stuff. Most of these lifestyle vehicles are marketed to suburban and city dwellers who's biggest lifestyle outdoors is walking a groomed rail-trail for a mile or two on Saturdays with their $10 coffee in hand before going to brunch at 10:30 downtown. They don't need a Land Rover Defender to do that, but Land Rover markets to them that they do. It is a vanity purchase, nothing more.

It's for people who buy an REI subscription, puffy jacket, and leave their ski rack on the roof of their FWD CVT Pathfinder year-round, even though they only "go to the cabin" twice a year. Oversized, front-wheel drive luxury coupes can be "lifestyle vehicles" too. China's economy is in deep doo doo and could potentially exacerbate the emerging banking crisis here. There is the potential even that inaction here could push China over a cliff and create a causality loop.

Not in any appreciable numbers. About the same number as those who buy a new 4-Runner to off-road or camp in and actually do it. The truck could be a useful parts delivery vehicle or a campus landscaping vehicle. I don't see it as anything close to a mass market machine. The people who want vanity off-roaders will buy something that looks more capable of going off-road even if they never actually do it.

A hotel shuttle curiosity at best. It's about as "lifestyle vehicle" as a Chevy Lumina APV with about 1/4 of the personality.

While the number of models offered is increasing in percentage, there are still some significant bottlenecks in the supply of EVs such that nationally, sales are still only around 6%. Until these new battery plants come online, I think that supply will remain constrained. Genesis, for example, only sells its EVs in a handful of states so far.

The electric booster idea is primo! I love the tail-end views. It reminds me of the tail car from the famous Hiawatha luxury train. But if I'm spending 6 figures, I don't want it to look like I just bought the furniture from a hospital cafeteria last remodeled in 1987

I have a love/hate relationship with it. I love to drive, but all the idiots out there ruin it for me. I would much rather everyone else be using autonomous driving. Let them march along like lemmings and I'll finally get to enjoy driving again. But then when I need to go on a long trip, I'll switch it on while I'm eating my burger.

Ok look... it goes faster than 35mph

Rivian has their hands in Jeff Bezo's pockets. They'll make it or Amazon will just buy them outright.

As long as i can get super cruise and the 400 mile battery in the trailboss, I think that’s the one I’ll go for.

I changed the title to add "EV"... because Kia is definitely not the first to market a full-size SUV. But that said, they've already missed the boat on the EV criteria as well. The Rivian R1S is on sale now and can carry 7 passengers. There's also a solid possibility there will be a production Traverse EV (or equivalent vehicle) debuting in the next 10 months.

And it’s stupid that manufacturers, not just Nissan, do stuff like this. Lincoln dropped AWD in the Nautilus for the final 2 years of production. Chrysler/Dodge dropped AWD in V8 Models of the LX cars after 2015. GM dropped AWD in the diesel Equinox/Terrain for its final years. Doing that doesn’t increase sales.

Most vehicles don't need the cooling capacity provided by gaping mouths we see on vehicles today. Trucks and SUVs that can tow, sure. But If you notice all the SUVs/CUVs with sub-5,000 lbs tow ratings with these massive grilles, most of the grille is false. (Explorer, Traverse, Acadia, etc.). Aurora got all the cooling needed for a DOHC V8 just from the scoop at the bottom of the car. There's no way a tiny 1.5T in a GMC Terrain needs this much grille real estate to keep cool.

If I hit the Powerball, I'm totally doing an Aurora EV conversion in black like the one above.

The slight difference on this one, that was not so much a grille insert, that was a styling homage to the Toronado of the day and years prior. It's a dropped header panel and wide, thin grille opening that traces roots to the Toronado from 73 - 92, which itself harkens back to the Cord. That Calais was envisioned to be a semi-luxury compact to compete with the import onslaught from Acura, Lexus, and Infiniti. It was Roger Smith's wisdom of "make sure there's a cheap version so we sell a lot of them" that ruined the prestige.

Sure, but so do the Teslas The Teslas are just marginally smaller. I'm not saying that we should build to the same exact specifications a 1998 Integra.... just that grille-less design can be much more attractive than what Tesla is doing. The only one I like styling-wise is the S, and that would be only if I couldn't pick from any other brand.

Regarding Tesla's blandness. They are trying to get away from some of the traditional elements and decorations we have on cars, but somehow they still fall short. There is some excellent grille-less design out there. Styling 25 years ahead of its time. Imagine if this came out with an electric powertrain in 2023! Oldsmobile would have been lauded as a trendsetter. Ditto You want a sports coupe? We've got your sports coupes. If someone buys a car based on looks, I don't think there will be a lot of demand for abandoning the hood-cabin or hood-cabin-boot design. You'll get a few people buying an appliance that the i3-Bolt-Leaf shaped vehicles will be fine for, but the rest of us (who aren't buying crossovers) want the traditional 2 or 3-box design. If you build it that way, you tend to want a "face" on the car, even if an open grille isn't necessary. Four cars with grille-less design and they have more styling personality than every production Tesla made... combined.

I‘m leaving the pics in the article unfixed for now. The company that makes this software is using this post to diagnose the underlying problem that caused this to happen. I have an open ticket with them.

We lost a bunch of posts due to a database crash this afternoon. Sorry... I'm trying to keep this site together at the moment.

Gettin muddy but still time for a beauty shot!

The reason they were zippy with 90 horsepower was that they were made of paper they were so light. Get in an accident, and they wouldn't bother extracting you. They'd just send the whole wreck to the junkyard and have you turned into a cube of steel and bury you that way. Say what you will about the Encore and the Sonic on which it was based, they are incredibly safe vehicles. The whole platform was one of the safest GM ever built. But that's why the Encore, shorter than any of the cars you listed, clocks in at 3,358 lbs .. probably 1,300 lbs more than most of those cars.

It's a much deeper philosophical debate, but I side with @oldshurst442 on this one. People are too caught up in the rat race of just trying to keep their heads above water financially in this economy (everything since 1980, not just the last few years).

There's nothing fun about driving most of the time anymore.... that's probably why. What's the point of some high-powered coupe when you're just going to be stuck behind some semi-truck or a dolt in a Corolla in the left lane with their blinker on? I have gotten pretty aggressive of late of high-beaming people who park in the left lane at slow speeds. The driving skills have really dropped, especially since covid started.

Largely why we upgraded from the Encore to the 300C. We needed the space for hauling his elderly parents around and the Encore couldn't cut it in that department. I am glad we went back to a sedan. Ironically, we didn't take any hit in fuel economy. We got 17ish/30ish in the Encore and we get 17ish/30ish in the 300C. Still, the size of the Encore was a nice convenience for zipping around the city.