General Automotive Thread

I’m guessing with Holden going to be gone by next year until GM does a miracle, peeps are gonna have to get their cars imported.

Donut Media made a list of new car innovations (with a few hot takes mixed in):

here's a very informative video from Donut Media about the world's fastest Dodge Demon:

From InsideEVs: COVID-19 Forcing Dealers To Follow Tesla's Sales Model: Buyers Like It

In a truly ironic turn of events, the fact that auto dealers are prohibited from having customers inside their showrooms is forcing many of them to adopt a more online sales experience that is strongly reminiscent of how Tesla has been doing things for years. Customers can browse for cars online, schedule test drives (the requested car will be prepared for their arrival so there's no fuss), purchase, and even complete most of the paperwork.

What makes this so bitter is that one of the most prevalent arguments that dealer associations have made against direct and/or online sales is the "customer experience" they bring to the car-buying process. According to dealers, people love going to showrooms, sitting in chairs for hours, haggling over pricing, getting upsold, and having to complete forests of paperwork.

Maybe a certain, highly masochistic group does in fact enjoy this, but certainly nobody I've ever talked to. Indeed, customer satisfaction with the direct/online model seems to be quite high.

I've had both positive and negative experiences with dealers, but I'll be brutally honest: if I can order my next car by going to a website, then have it delivered to my front door while my old car is driven away, I'll take that any day of the week, month, year, or century, global pandemics notwithstanding.

Edited by Fighteer on Apr 19th 2020 at 11:22:34 AM

CNBC: Ford projects adjusted pretax loss of $5 billion in the second quarter

On total Q1 2020 revenue of 34.3 billion USD, Ford reported a pretax loss of 2 billion and net cash flow of -2.2 billion. It expects to lose 5 billion during the second quarter. Yeesh. With 35 billion in cash on hand, the company could survive through the end of the year if it had no production.

A lot of this is due to coronavirus-related shutdowns, of course.

Edited by Fighteer on Apr 28th 2020 at 6:52:44 AM

something i completely missed, Motor Trend has released their World's Greatest Drag Race 9:

the Senna takes off like a fucking rocket

No Tesla Model S? For shame, guys.

didn't come out that year, it's related to their Best Driver's Car competition and is filmed in the summer, so any car released the previous year or after it is filmed is excluded. IIRC, they did have a Model S in one of their previous World's Greatest Drag Race videos

here is a compilation of all of the World's Greatest Drag Race:

one comment compiled all of the results:

an Up To Speed from Donut Media that i recommend you to watch:

CleanTechnica: SEC: BMW Violated Anti-Fraud Provisions While Raising $18 Billion From Investors

BMW AG has been fined $18 million by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission for sharing inaccurate and misleading information about BMW's U.S. sales figures to entice investors to supply it with capital. The activities occurred between 2015 and 2019 and relied on accounting tricks: basically, withholding the reporting of car sales to backfill disappointing months.

Let's say, for illustration purposes, that BMW went over its sales goals in January 2015. It intentionally failed to report those surplus sales, instead shifting them to March 2015 when its figures were lower than expected. In so doing, it materially misrepresented its sales (in both months). BMW is also accused by the SEC of adjusting the dates of its reporting periods to make some periods seem better than they were.

BMW admits no fault, and the fine, while substantial, is a slap on the wrist considering how much money the company got out of the activities. The SEC praised BMW for its cooperation and the polite fiction is that these were "accidental" — the company did not realize it was doing anything wrong. Sure. Like how I didn't realize the shed I broke into was on my neighbor's property despite bypassing a fence, an alarm system, a guard dog, and copious signs...

Edited by Fighteer on Sep 27th 2020 at 8:18:19 AM

SSC just destroyed the top speed record for street legal cars, at 331.15 mph (532.93 km/h):

it did the run both ways, hitting 301.07 mph (484.53 km/h) on his first run the aforementioned speed the other way for an average speed of 316.11 mph (508.73 km/h)

and, according to this article here, he could've gone even faster if it weren't for the crosswinds

according to Engineering Explained, the theoretical top speed of the Koenigsegg Jesko Absolut is 332 mph, which matches the simulations done by Koenigsegg

and, according to this article, the Tuatara still has more to give, i think SSC has got this record in the bag

When I think about fast animals to name a car after, I do not think of a Tuatara.

great article from Road & Track:

Cheap Fun Cars Are Dying Because Young People Can't Afford Them

Or heck, a Tesla. My wife keeps going on about how we can't afford a "new" car. Between mortgage, credit card debt, and expenses, she's not wrong, and we're pretty comfortably toward the high end of middle class.

Honestly, though, the modding scene will always be niche and get more so as cars evolve from mechanical devices into software devices.

Edited by Fighteer on Nov 22nd 2020 at 9:29:55 AM

From Twitter: GM is reportedly offering Cadillac dealers payouts of up to $500,000 to take a hike if they don't feel like converting to electric sales and installing charging hardware as it pushes to convert the brand to all-electric by 2030.

Traditional auto dealers are not fond of electric vehicles in part because they don't know how to sell them and in part because the service requirements are so much lower that they can't make money off of them. The requirement in most states to sell cars through dealers has hampered the transition to all-electric and GM is finally starting to do something about it. If they won't play, it'll pay them to drop the brand.

Donut Media posted a video on how COVID-19 has affected the roads of the US:

Ars Technica: Aftermarket truck mods pollute as much as 9 million extra pickups

You know about coal rolling, that uniquely American (although I hear it happens in other countries as well) practice of installing equipment on a pickup truck that lets you alter the fuel-air mixture manually, belching out clouds of black, sooty exhaust to confound anyone whom you don't like? Well, it turns out that it and other aftermarket mods that defeat or alter pollution controls cause... a lot of pollution. Who knew?

The U.S. EPA has released a study showing that the practice is more prevalent than previously realized, with up to 550,000 medium-duty trucks having completely removed emissions controls from their vehicles. The study omits light-duty trucks and doesn't count "partial" emissions mods, so it's likely even worse. Combined, these trucks account for more pollution than was released by the infamous Volkswagen "Dieselgate" scandal, wherein VW lied about how much pollution its diesel cars emitted. That resulted in a $16 billion settlement.

To be clear, coal-rolling isn't the primary motive for tampering with emissions equipment: it supposedly results in superior fuel economy and/or engine power. It is also really prevalent in states like North Dakota and Texas that have laxer regulations.

We can build clean cars, we can demand better emissions and efficiency standards from manufacturers all we want, but if we don't stop people from intentionally defeating those standards, we're losing progress.

Electrek: Toyota’s greenwashing leads to record $180m fine for emissions lies

The U.S. Department of Justice will fine Toyota $180 million for failure to comply with the Clean Air Act's reporting requirements between 2005 and 2015. The Japanese automaker delayed mandatory emissions defect reporting and failed to file other reports entirely, such as on emissions recalls. The fine amounts to approximately $10 for every vehicle Toyota sold in the U.S. during the period in question.

I want to applaud the "record fine" but it's hard to when it amounts to a slap on the wrist for a company of Toyota's size. It's been one of the staunchest resisters of emissions and fuel efficiency standards and is one of the only major automakers to have refused to even consider full electrification, instead putting out hybrids that still run on gasoline.

I remember when Toyota was considered a model of Japanese efficiency and innovation at a time when American automakers were churning out garbage. Now it's the biggest automaker in the world by volume and it's turned into the thing it fought against.

(Cross-posted with the electric vehicles thread)

Teslarati: Audi is halting its development of new internal combustion engines

In a recent interview with German media, Audi CEO Markus Duesmann said that the company will cease developing internal combustion engines in response to new European regulations. It will continue to sell its existing technology, but the writing is on the wall for Audi IC vehicles.

Interesting... just as Porsche develops synthetic fuel for synthetic ICE, and Hyundai / Toyota developing hydrogen vehicles.

Synthetic fuels may make petrol heads happy but they've got the same problem as regular gasoline in terms of overall efficiency. You lose energy making them and you lose energy burning them. Hydrogen isn't happening for passenger vehicles either. The infrastructure to separate, condense, and store it is just too expensive. It will probably be used for trucking and other heavy machinery in which battery weight becomes a major factor, but nothing else.

It's better to take all the electricity you spend on those fuels and put it directly into the cars. Nearly all passenger vehicles will be fully electric in the long term. Hyundai and Toyota are going down a dead end unless they intend to stop making cars and fall back on trucks. I don't know what Porsche is smoking, but its battery-electric Taycan is selling well enough so it needs to settle down and give up the dream.

Edited by Fighteer on Mar 17th 2021 at 11:05:22 AM

I feel I should point out that hydrogen is already in limited use. Primarily for forklifts and other vehicles that might be operating largely or exclusively in an indoor environment where you don't want to be emitting combustion by-products that could accumulate.

Though as far as refuelling goes I believe they mostly do that by having detachable and swappable tanks. Not neccisarily practical for road vehicles.

There are less than fifty hydrogen fueling stations in the U.S. as I recall. Meanwhile there are over fifty thousand EV fast chargers and every single home and business has an electrical outlet. For the cost of one hydrogen pump you can build 20 chargers. In terms of infrastructure penetration it's not even close enough to have a debate over how close it is.