L1's Garage

[mutation666]

Can confirm

[driftinganomaly]

It does not compare to the rides that you guys are posting, but I happily bought a Hybrid AWD Maverick a few weeks ago. I miss the Tacomas that I have had years ago, but it is far more practical than the Pontiac Vibe that I have been driving for many years. I think that this is the right set of compromises for me currently.

[alwaysFlOoReD]

This is something that I would be in if I could afford it. The 4x4 version…
Maybe in 10 years…lol

[GoldenAngel1997]

[twin_savage]

@twin_savage

I wonder if we’ll get to a point were the shipping companies refuse to transport brand-new EVs

Well that didn’t take too long:

Matson Suspends Electric Vehicle Shipments Over Battery Fire Concerns | StacheD Training Discusses

[GoldenAngel1997]

Why Americans Stopped Buying Convertibles

[MisteryAngel]

Anybody seen the new Mazda CX5 already?

Pretty good looking car however they went away from physical buttons,
for climate control etc and putting everything in a touch screen which is a huge miss.
Also there won´t be a manual option anymore.

[Zszywany]

@MisteryAngel

they went away from physical buttons,
for climate control etc and putting everything in a touch screen

That is awful. I know automotive projects go on for 2-5 years before SOP but man is this a downer. They should have kept buttons. But what do I know. I’m not the target, I’m a used car buyer and will be for the foreseeable future .

[MisteryAngel]

Well me2 i can´t afford a new car of course.
And used cars are currently really expensive.

currently saved a bit of money to replace my 22yr old Volvo S60.
However under 10K euro there is not that much good to be found,
that is less than 10 years old and has a reasonable mileage.
Especially not if it has to be something like a suv or wagon that has a bit of towing capacity.
i mean 15 to 20K for a 10 / 12 yr old Toyota Rav4 for example is just what the average market is right now which is just crazy.

[GoldenAngel1997]

Haven’t- I was expecting the CX5 to be quietly pulled, after CX50 being out a lil’ while

@MisteryAngel

they went away from physical buttons,

[MisteryAngel]

Yeah everything is put into large screens now days which is just garbage.
This is pretty much the trend with pretty much every car.

[Sedanxio]

I just hate having to scroll through menus before finding even the most basic function🤢

[GoldenAngel1997]

You are being summoned, for “distracted driving”
'Cause I need to scroll through, HOW many pages- to change the HVAC settings!?!!

[Token]

Gee, i wonder what they do

[stin187]

Well they certainly don’t have a firm grasp of OSINT whatever their profession is …

[daveMeister]

“OPSEC is my passion”

[mutation666]

The Truth About Electric Towing

Honestly was not wrong saw some F150 towing video forever ago, but this one was done very well. Kinda cool that Chevy beat Rivian when doing shit towing

[GoldenAngel1997]

Put a V8 innit
-Bob Lutz

[PhaseLockedLoop]

The next build in matte pearlescent two tone

2024 LEADER 725 with Carbon Aero Seat Post

No Gears, No Brakes, No Problems

[mattlach]

@mattlach

I used to be a car guy, but I just don’t care for any modern vehicles, and I don’t have the time (or budget) to fix up any classics.

1997 Mercury Sable LS.
This was my college beater. Green and oval. Not only was the exterior green, but mine had a green interior as well. It did the job, but was not particularly inspiring. The 200hp DOHC V6 had some decent get up and go, but the slushbox was awful. It got me through college, at which point I bought my first “real” car.

(Not my car or my picture)

2001 Saab 9-5 Aero (with 5 Spd Manual)
My first “real” car.

It was 3 years old, with about 30k miles on it. I got a good deal on it because it sat on the lot a while, because no one was buying manuals. I loved this thing. I did some mild tuning (rebuilt uprated Mitsubishi TD04 turbo, downpipes, catback, + BSR software, and it could move. I got in trouble a lot.

…at some point it was totaled when I was t-boned in an intersection by a Honda Pilot that didn’t stop. The Saab did so well in that collision, that I decided to get another one.

2004 Saab 9-5 Aero (with 5 spd manual)
The replacement.

Prettier exterior, but GM ownership was starting to take a toll on the interior, so it was a mixed bag.

I got a surprise the first time I gunned it. It lit up the front end like crazy. Turns out the previous owner had modified it a bit as well. Not as much as my first one, but there was at least a Nordic software tune in it.

During this time period I was following the tragic slow death of Saab. For a while I had hoped that the GM Sale to Spyker would save the brand, but in the end they ran out of cash before hitting breakeven, and shut down.

I did my part though. I bought one of their newly designed cars during this period.

2011 Saab 9-5 Turbo 4 Premium (with Tech Package and 6 Spd Manual)

To this day the only new car I’ve ever bought, and one of the best cars I’ve ever owned.

The tech package included a heads up display projected on the windshield which was really cool in 2011.

I was even able to run it on E85, which was pretty cool, and I did it as often as I could (though I only ever found one gas station that sold the stuff near me)

I got a software tune for it, but otherwise left it as is. The software tune really transformed the little 2L I4. No idea how much power I was making, but it was no slouch, especially when running on E85.

I sadly only kept this one for a couple of years after the bankruptcy. A car-wash ruined the chrome strip and light bar assembly on the trunk lid, and when I went to the dealer to get a replacement, they told me I lucked out. I got one of the last 3 in the world.

Mechanical parts were pretty widely available (due to them essentially just buying from the Bosch, and the likeparts bin for engine management and using many GM parts for things like wiper motors, etc. The engine and transmission were also GM parts at this point.) but body parts were going to be scarce.

I got a little spooked and decided to sell.

I had a bit of an identity crisis now though. I had been a “Saab Guy” for so long, I didn’t know what to do with Saab no longer around. I had also really liked driving a car with a manual transmission, and they were getting really difficult to find around me, at least in cars I liked.

In the end I just needed a car, so I bought a…

2009 Volvo S80 T6 (AWD)

Compared to my Saabs the handling was truck-like, fuel economy was poor, and it had an automatic transmission. And it was beige…

(Well, Volvo called it “Oyster Grey Metallic” which makes it sound better, but it was still the ugliest color of any car I’ve ever owned.)

The car did have a few redeeming qualities though. The thing was idiot proof. The AWD system was great. Point the steering wheel in the direction you want to go and gun it. It doesn’t matter what the surface is like, it’s going to go where you want it to go.

That, and the straight six turbo, did move it at a decent pace.

A side benefit of this car was that a late 2000’s beige Volvo is completely invisible to police. There were times when I should have gotten speeding tickets and I just didn’t.

Two things happened during my ownership of this Volvo. I bought a 65" plasma TV, and found I couldn’t fit it in the trunk. I was just barely able to slide it in by removing it from the packaging in the parking lot.

Then a bit later, I went on an IKEA shopping trip, and had a hell of a time fitting what I needed for the house in it. I started to think I needed something bigger. But I was not ready for a truck. Or for an SUV. As a proud car guy I still hated all things truck and SUV.

So I bought a used older Volvo wagon to have a s a secondary hauler:

2000 Volvo V70 (base model)

Having always been a “one car at a time” guy, I now had two.

It’s not fast, but the base model (168hp Straight 5) is ok. I don’t feel like I am going to die trying to merge onto a busy freeway.

But I can now haul stuff. People used to talk about half ton pickup trucks. Well my manual says I have a half ton Volvo wagon. Last year during a project, I brought home 32 80lb bags of concrete from Home Depot in the back of this thing. (in multiple trips, of course, 8 at a time.)

I had a loaner Volvo XC90 from the dealership once (while servicing a later car) and that large SUV couldn’t fit as much in the back as I can with this wagon when the seats are folded down:

(not my picture)

The beige Sedan was starting to need replacement. I still haven’t found myself in the car world and struggled with this purchase. I guess I’m a “Volvo guy” now? But I like the older ones. The rugged and dependable tanks. Not the new “luxury” models.

The Volvo I used to like is pretty much what only Subaru is now, and I just couldn’t bring myself to buy a Subaru.

So I bought another Volvo.

2017 Volvo S90 T6 (Momentum Plus with Polestar Factory Tune)

I got a decent deal on an off-lease model with only 16k miles on the odometer. I don’t usually buy first year models, but 2017 was the last model year of the S90 we in the U.S. got shipped that was made in Sweden. Starting in 2018 the U.S. got the stretched wheel base model made in China. (Europe continues to get the shorter wheel base made in Sweden)

I test drove one of the longer wheelbase models, and while it was only a difference of a few inches, it really felt different, large and bulky. So I opted - against my better judgment - to go with the first model year.

It’s a very pretty car. It took me years to get over the fact that I thought it looked too obnoxious driving around in it. After all, I was used to the opposite-of-flashy, older beige sedan.

It is a very paradoxical car. Despite its tiny 2.0L I4 (tied as the smallest engine I’ve ever owned in a car), the fact that it is heavy, and has AWD (which usually adds in drivetrain losses) through the miracle of twin charging (both a turbo and a supercharger) and the fact that it has a ridiculous 8 speed automatic transmission that shifts pretty fast, this thing is also the fastest car I’ve ever owned (stock)

I bought it in late summer 2019. Then in early 2020 the world shut down. I’ve been working hybrid (but mostly from home) ever since. For many local errands I’ve been driving the old green wagon (which I still own) meaning that 6 years later, I still only have about 45k miles on the thing.

I don’t know how long I want to keep it though. With all the fancy aspects of its design (twin charged engine, AWD, air suspension, active suspension, road following headlights, etc. etc.) I just know it is going to be impossibly expensive to maintain once things start breaking.

But yeah. TLDR. There’s my car story if anyone cares.

Welp.

Looks like we have inadvertently gone and become an electric family.

So, back in 2022 some idiot ran into my better halfs old gen2 Prius.

She loved that thing and was very sad to see it go, but even she admitted that it had seen better days, and it was probably due for replacement.

She has always been a car gal (she used to - just like me - drive manuals back in the day and misses them) but her mother is over 80 years old now, so she decided she needed a vehicle her mom could get in and out of more easily, so she decided to look at midsize unibody SUV’s.

Long story short, in late 2022 replacement cars were still scarce and expensive due to pandemic shortages, so she wound up with a 2022 VW Tiguan “pandemic car” with some missing features due to the supply chain issues.

She thought it was OK, but she didn’t exactly “love” it. It was a car she had to buy, not one she really wanted.

So when she was in the dealership for service a few weeks ago, and they offered to buy it from her for a surprisingly good price, she decided maybe she should at least look at vehicles she liked better.

And then they hit her with the absolutely amazing lease deals available for their ID4’s right now due to their weak demand, and it became to much to resist.

Traditionally I would have advised against leasing cars, but with the fewer miles we drive today vs. in the past, and the uncertain value retention on BEV’s due to how fast the technology is improving, combined with the absolutely ridiculous lease deals VW was offering (3 year, 12k miles for an ID4 Pro S AWD with the optional 82kWh larger battery, for $390 per month) it became a difficult offer to pass up on.

So, as of about a week ago she drives an ID4 BEV:

I did my manly duty and set out to take care of her charging needs.

It was a rough week of level 1 charging, 8-15 hours a night while I ordered a Grizzl-E 40A Level 2 Charger able to charge at about 10kW, and started wiring it up for the install:

(Bear with me. My PVC conduit bending skills for the box offset are at a novice level )

And then something weird happened.

I rode in her new car as a passenger a few times, and drove it a couple of times, and realized that I actually liked it…

Before I knew it I found myself researching BEV cars for myself.

I wasn’t really doing it seriously, until I found out how much they were going to offer me for my Volvo S90.

I am not an SUV guy though, so I was looking at sedans. Between pricing and other issues, including availability post tariffs, pricing and things like that, I wound up choosing between the 2025 Audi A6 E-Tron Quattro, and the BMW i5 xDrive40, and for various reasons I eventually landed on the Audi, in part because of Audi’s incentives being very good, just like Volkswagen’s.

So now I drive an Audi A6 E-Tron Quattro…

I would have chosen almost any other color than black. I’ve had a black car before, and they are nearly impossible to keep clean looking. And they get very hot in the summer.

But it is what it is.

I am going to miss my Volvo S90. That thing was beautiful. But now I will have no fuel costs at all for a year due to the included unlimited Electrify America charging promotion, and then after that I’ll only have to pay for power.

I have to say, both the ID.4 and the A6 E-Tron drive beautifully. They are excellent vehicles.

I’m not crazy about their always connected spyware, but I am going through just about every setting and disabling everything I can.

The car is cranky with me for disabling the ChatGPT enabled “Audi Assistant” but I’m never going to use that crap anyway. I also disabled location for the integrated routing GPS app to limit spying.

The only reason to keep that enabled is if you want to precondition the battery for rapid charging by telling it you are driving to a charging station, but I guess I can turn it on, and then disable it again immediately after.

Anyway, I still have the 25 year old Volvo Wagon, and I’ll keep it as long as I can, but I guess we are a two BEV household now.