WRITING IS ON THE WALL

[DogBone_384]

1 hour ago, slonezp said:

Have you broke even or made a profit

My break even was almost 5 years. All monies paid on SRECs are now profit.

 

I had my electrician install the panels.

[CountryboyinDC]

On 5/21/2021 at 8:22 PM, haggard said:

It also appears to be "game over" for manual transmissions, because for an average driver, an auto transmission might be able to eek out slightly better fuel economy

Say it ain't so.  Guess I'll have to keep my truck another 13 years.  I honestly don't know why they put synchronized gears in these thing.  If you can't double clutch, what business do you have operating a horseless carriage anyway?

 

I live in an area (DC metro region), and the electric vehicle seems viable for most people.  You see a lot of Teslas, Leafs, and plug-in Priuses.  They're expensive, and we've known for a while that their production/maintenance/disposal isn't exactly easy on Mother Earth.  But with CAFE standards driving development, we're likely to see their prevalence grow.  Learning how to fix these things might be a good career for a young person starting out....

[TnRiver46]

53 minutes ago, CountryboyinDC said:

Say it ain't so.  Guess I'll have to keep my truck another 13 years.  I honestly don't know why they put synchronized gears in these thing.  If you can't double clutch, what business do you have operating a horseless carriage anyway?

 

I live in an area (DC metro region), and the electric vehicle seems viable for most people.  You see a lot of Teslas, Leafs, and plug-in Priuses.  They're expensive, and we've known for a while that their production/maintenance/disposal isn't exactly easy on Mother Earth.  But with CAFE standards driving development, we're likely to see their prevalence grow.  Learning how to fix these things might be a good career for a young person starting out....

Mine looks exactly like that but not clean 

[A-Jay]

The stick shift will never come back.

Makes it too hard to text and drive . . . 

#4onthefloor #3onthetree

A-Jay

[MN Fisher]

4 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

The stick shift will never come back.

Makes it too hard to text and drive . . . 

#4onthefloor #3onthetree

A-Jay

I miss my old WT-1500 for that very reason - 5-speed w/overdrive on the floor

[Harold Scoggins]

On 5/21/2021 at 3:45 PM, jbsoonerfan said:

Not looking forward to responding to car fires where an EV is involved.

 

 

Speaking of fires, my Silverado is packing...

[TnRiver46]

41 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

The stick shift will never come back.

Makes it too hard to text and drive . . . 

#4onthefloor #3onthetree

A-Jay

Haha! I’ll never have an automatic, I’m too far gone. You can still get new vehicles with stick shift 

[slonezp]

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

Haha! I’ll never have an automatic, I’m too far gone. You can still get new vehicles with stick shift 

Last stick shift I had was a '99 Dodge. The best thing about it was downshifting going down hills with the boat in tow. The modern automatic transmissions are fantastic. For towing, I'll stick with the new automatics. Were I to buy a performance car, I'd get a stick.

[CountryboyinDC]

16 minutes ago, slonezp said:

The best thing about it was downshifting going down hills with the boat in tow.

The best part is I don't have to worry about anybody stealing it.  Even at the garages they can't drive it.  I went to get an inspection in January, and the mechanic stalled 3 times trying to get it up on the rack.

Growing up, about every farmer had a #4onthefloor, and a fifth (or quart, or half) under the seat.  Probably caused as many accidents as texting.  There's a guy that I volunteer with that got a car with a manual for his daughter to circumvent her texting while driving.  She figured out how to steer with her knees so she could still use her phone...until she hit a Jersey barrier on the beltway.  People are going to figure out how to wreck a car.

3 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Mine looks exactly like that but not clean 

Your shift pattern has reverse to the right, mine's to the left (it's the G56, yours may be the NVG 6 speed).  I will say you have impeccable taste in old pickup trucks.

[TnRiver46]

2 hours ago, CountryboyinDC said:

The best part is I don't have to worry about anybody stealing it.  Even at the garages they can't drive it.  I went to get an inspection in January, and the mechanic stalled 3 times trying to get it up on the rack.

Growing up, about every farmer had a #4onthefloor, and a fifth (or quart, or half) under the seat.  Probably caused as many accidents as texting.  There's a guy that I volunteer with that got a car with a manual for his daughter to circumvent her texting while driving.  She figured out how to steer with her knees so she could still use her phone...until she hit a Jersey barrier on the beltway.  People are going to figure out how to wreck a car.

Your shift pattern has reverse to the right, mine's to the left (it's the G56, yours may be the NVG 6 speed).  I will say you have impeccable taste in old pickup trucks.

I’m not sure what ive got but it’s sounds like you already know! Haha. I do know it’s a 4.7L v8

[E-rude dude]

You will be completely surprised by turbo engines.

I fought it for awhile to. Refused to buy one. Then my Tundra threw a main bearing.

I looked at a F150 2.7L turbo regular cab because that’s  what fit my budget. Honestly I reluctantly bought it thinking I would hate it.

Wow what an engine. In 3 years my mpg is 18.4 average. That includes towing. That’s 6 mpg more than my Tundra. I can also burn off the tires in almost every gear. Not that I do that ?

The only thing missing is the v8 growl. Eh I don’t miss that so much.

[Deephaven]

Outside of range and the time it takes to refill there are almost no downsides to electric.  Those two will be overcome and when they are the ICE will pretty much go away.  Yes, I love the sound of a real engine but I also like torque at 0 rpm.

[gim]

58 minutes ago, Deephaven said:

Outside of range and the time it takes to refill there are almost no downsides to electric.  Those two will be overcome

I agree.  Eventually technology will become more widely available, more affordable, and more efficient.  I don't think that day is tomorrow, but it will be in the future.

 

Just think of how advanced marine electronics have become recently as an example.

[roadwarrior]

1 hour ago, Deephaven said:

Outside of range and the time it takes to refill there are almost no downsides to electric.  

 

Cost?

[Bird]

Where I live I'm not sure an electric car even exists or maybe I'm not sure what I'm looking at. Lol

From a selfish perspective, I'm hoping for petroleum for quite awhile as i recently purchased a Superduty with an old school big block push rod engine.....7.3 gas.

[TnRiver46]

1 hour ago, gimruis said:

I agree.  Eventually technology will become more widely available, more affordable, and more efficient.  I don't think that day is tomorrow, but it will be in the future.

 

Just think of how advanced marine electronics have become recently as an example.

The problem is people are getting dumber not smarter. I see technological advances diminishing from my perspective. I had a 1985 pickup truck that got 30 miles to the gallon, its only gotten worse since then 

 

as I posted earlier, we are supposed to be flying around like the Jetsons by 2021. Instead we have worse MPG

 

marine electronics? Heck we still have no idea what’s underwater. It takes weeks to find deceased people in the water that are way larger than fish. These recent developments you think are so awesome? The transducer looks forward instead of down or sideways. Does that really sound futuristic ??? They could see torpedoes approaching ships 60 years ago, maybe longer 

 

i seriously think technological advances are diminishing since about the time the internet came along.....

[MN Fisher]

22 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

I had a 1985 pickup truck that got 30 miles to the gallon, its only gotten worse since then 

Ya - my 1998 Chevy WT-1500 (it'd be a 1500HD now) was rated at 27mph highway. A trip to MA I actually got 27.5mpg going out empty. Dropped quite a bit coming back as I was helping someone move from MA to MN. Back of the truck was stuffed...couldn't even close the topper window...and his car was towed behind on a 2-wheel dolly...also stuffed.

[Deephaven]

4 hours ago, roadwarrior said:

 

Cost?

Real cost is valid, but after subsidies that is often an advantage of electric cars atm.  In particular if you have a particular performance metric to hit.  Works on either extremes.  As long as the range is enough for what you need the budget ones are really cheap per mile and if you are like me and only shopping for sub 4 second to 60 cars the electrics become a bargain.  Of course when the range/refill time metric gets better the costs will as well.

[CountryboyinDC]

2 hours ago, Deephaven said:

Real cost is valid, but after subsidies that is often an advantage of electric cars

I've never considered a full on electric car, but I did consider a hybrid when I bought our last car (Highlander).  I took the amount of estimated fuel savings at $4/gal gas (trying to give the hybrid an advantage) at 10,000 miles per year over 10 years (when most hybrid batteries need replacement) assuming identical values at the end of 10 years.  The cost savings of the internal combustion engine was right at 3 grand, by my estimates.  I don't need to go 0-60 in 3 seconds, but a Tesla would probably be a relatively cheap way to go about it.  And a Leaf (about the cheapest plug in I can think of) retails around $35k, plus you're probably doing some significant wiring work in your house. A Sentra equipped about the same is maybe 22 grand.  I think I can financially give the advantage to the petroleum burner, unless the credits are over $10k.

[MT204]

Something that many have not figured into the electric vehicle is that right now most are being subsidized by the government.

Currently that would be around a $7500.00 tax credit which is paid for by all of use. 

In our small town one can drive down to city hall and use on of 6 charging ports.......for free! Yep paid for by the tax payers.

Then we have the elephant in the corner of what happens if all the gas powered vehicles are taken of the road as in what, who or how is the road tax going to be made up?

I just filled my truck yesterday and it was 25 gallons times .55 cents per gallon, $13.75 in road tax.

Just remember as that electric vehicle goes zooming by they are most likely not pay any road tax!

[throttleplate]

10 hours ago, Deephaven said:

Outside of range and the time it takes to refill there are almost no downsides to electric.  Those two will be overcome and when they are the ICE will pretty much go away.  Yes, I love the sound of a real engine but I also like torque at 0 rpm.

downsides just to name a couple, what about people whom live in apartment buildings whom only have a lot to park in how will they charge their cars? cold weather sucks the life out of the batteries sittin in a lot all nite with no warm garage.

 

The environmental damage to mine the lithium,

Approximately 500,000 gallons are used to produce one tonne of lithium. In Chile's Salar de Atacama, mining activities consume 65% of the area's water.Dec 2, 2020.

 

People are becoming woke, what a word ha, about the battery factories and the mining in the usa for lithium about how it will drain their water table and pollute whats left if any water. Everything thats sounds good has an equal badside if not worse.

 

[Deephaven]

Add the words "as a consumer" to my sentence.  Although it is obviously a fact if you don't have a place to charge it then it doesn't make sense for you.

[throttleplate]

5 hours ago, Deephaven said:

Add the words "as a consumer" to my sentence.  Although it is obviously a fact if you don't have a place to charge it then it doesn't make sense for you.

 

Well with no place to charge then they wont be sellng many electric vehicles.

 

The car companies and the govt are hiding the facts about the environmental damage making and disposing of batteries and keeping the coal plants open to create the juice to charge them.

 

So are you ok with the carmakers and the govt hiding the truth from the public about how damaging the electric vehicle is to the environment?

[Michigander]

On 5/23/2021 at 4:38 PM, A-Jay said:

The stick shift will never come back.

Makes it too hard to text and drive . . . 

#4onthefloor #3onthetree

A-Jay

That's fine by me. I just want to shift to go mode and be done with it. Transmissions are even good enough for painless mountain towing nowadays which was my only minor opinion holdout.

[TnRiver46]

11 minutes ago, Michigander said:

That's fine by me. I just want to shift to go mode and be done with it

My brother calls that steering, not driving .....

 

he just got a brand new stick shift car