[Yontsey]

I will say though, my 2023 GMC has the Google interface and it is really nice. Maps is awesome and the rest of the setup is very well done. It has Google Assistant or whatever it is and I think they are adding Alexa. I wish they would just merge Google Maps and Waze.

[PB PM]

I get the impression GM is looking to move to some kind of subscription service for other apps outside of the standard maps, voice assistant and music, and they've only promised to make those free 8 years. Sounds like a typical money grab.

[Yontsey]

At that point, I would probably move over to Ford.

[PB PM]

Just don't. Got my first oil change today for my Maverick, they put the wrong oil in, at least according to the paperwork. They also jacked up the price of the service by $40 from when I got the service price list last summer. This is the first time I've felt totally ripped off leaving a dealer for service. Some might say it odd, but about half of the dealers in town got bought out last summer by a national used car dealer, so I'm guessing that had something to do with it.

[tomoe]

Wrong oil?

[PB PM]

Yes, there are different ratings for different engines, but they used one not recommended by the manufacturer. They are supposed to put in 0w20, they put in 5w20. They shouldn't screw that up, it’s right on the oil fill cap.

[drewprops]

So the Tacoma tease only revealed a tailgate and news that they'll have a hybrid V6 engine. It's probably going to be a year before anybody can buy one. So I did look at the RAV4s again tonight.

What's that hatchback experience like?


...

[PB PM]

Yeah kind of figured we wouldn't see a hybrid Tacoma before 2025 model year.

As for hatchback life, depends on what you are moving. If you can live with a trunk, you can live with a hatchback, it just has more room usually. Unless you are putting wet, dirt, or tall stuff in there a hatchback SUV is good enough for most things.

[drewprops]

Good golly, MotorTrend is talking a 2025 Toyota 4-Runner. Their rendering looks like an FJ Cruiser had a baby with a Ford Bronco. I can't wait that long, but boy does it sound fun.


...

[PB PM]

What render? All I see is pictures of the current model.

[drewprops]

Ugh. I searched for it on Google and it was from a Photoshop session posted to their Instagram. Complete speculation with no sourcing. Apologies!

[drewprops]

Okay so Tuesdays are the official day that Toyota drops new teasers for the next Tacoma on Instagram.

They are making a meal of these Taco Tuesdays.



Today's photos show off rear disc brakes and the shocks underneath. I don't know enough about shocks to have any idea what it's all about, so I'm off to the blogs.


...

[PB PM]

The marketing department must be working overtime on Fridays to come up with this stuff. So tired of brands doing this crap.

[drewprops]

I would imagine each of the mini-campaigns is planned in advance under the umbrella of a greater campaign.


...

[PB PM]

Chevy announced today that they will stop making the Bolt by the end of 2023 and retool the plant to make EV pickup trucks. In other words, the compact EV isn’t profitable enough even though it is one of the best selling EVs on the market. GM would much rather make units that sell for $80k+, that only the wealthy can buy. So much for an affordable EV for the transition away from fossil fuels.

[turtle]

What is interesting is the government pushing hard here in the US too. So we are going to end up with people being told they can't have a car because they can't afford that is currently out there. I mean, it isn't like they will stop selling gasoline though. So the used car market will have a long market in those regions that are pushing for zero emission vehicles.

[PB PM]

It's the entire western world really. Canada, EU, USA, at some point in the 2030's all new cars must be EVs. I'm sure the theory is that everyone should take transit, then add ever higher carbon pricing/taxes to fossil fuels to make that unaffordable, it's kind of the plan. It's not even remotely realistic for anyone outside of big urban areas, or for anyone who doesn't work in an office.

I know there has been much talk in the car industry about doing away with selling cars and just having leases and subscriptions.

[Matsu]

I'm not sure EVs will happen quite so quickly... I expect the targets to slip a little. Maybe we have a decade+ of gasoline-electric hybrids and EVs co-existing before a switch over.

I think two factors will be in play. What is more profitable for the automaker? This may end up being EV's, especially if the dominant "sales" models center around lease/rent/subscribe. There might just be less stuff to build/fix/maintain compared to an internal combustion model... maybe... right now the batteries are probably still horrendously expensive enough to skew the all-in costs, but may not remain so for long...

Hybrids in some sense combine the worst of both - all the complexity from both propulsion systems, though this could be simplified with all electric drive and re-casting the internal combustion part to the role of generator only... Think gasification of an EV as opposed to electrification of an ICE...

I bring it up because of the second big factor: the "grid".

In its current state, even in large urban areas I'm not sure that it's entirely up to the task of charging 100% of the vehicles on the road, or even 50%, or even 33%... It may not be a generation capacity issue, rather transmission and distribution. Plenty of Toronto's old neighborhoods still have lots of homes with 60 amp service. I read a summary of a KPMG report that says the US (currently) could easily generate enough for 80 million+ vehicles charging overnight. Other sources report an "all electric" national vehicle fleet would need about 25% more generation capacity than is currently available. All doable numbers actually, but major infrastructure tends to be late and over budget. It's 2023, if you tell me this is all ready by 2030, I'm betting against all day long. If you say 2039? OK, the future has to happen some time.

Finally there's simple logistics. While more people live in cities than at any time in the history of North America, plenty of people live in more out of the way and less hospitable climes. I've been to parts of Ontario and Quebec not connected by roadway all 12 months of the year, places that don't plow the road in winter and still allow (or demand) studded tires for nastiest parts of the year, and where you pay attention to the "last fuel stop for xx km". I'm sure engineers can make a fully capable EV for such places, but when we're reaching into some parts of the country, how long before policy makers make their grid fully reliable?

[PB PM]

Originally Posted by Matsu I'm not sure EVs will happen quite so quickly... I expect the targets to slip a little. Maybe we have a decade+ of gasoline-electric hybrids and EVs co-existing before a switch over.

If western countries have any hope of hitting emissions targets from the agreements signed, we cannot let it slip even a little. Most of the big manufactures are on target for the move already.

Personally I think mandating all new vehicles to be hybrids or better yet plug-in hybrids, first would make more sense. That would give time for battery technology to improve while dropping emissions a great deal. Right now what batteries are made of, and assembling them in the required quantities is what is holding EV availability up more than anything else, not to mention how expensive they are. Far to many rare earth materials are required to meet current vehicle demand levels.

[drewprops]

Toyota's big Taco Tuesday Tease was a JBL portable speaker that snaps into the dash.

srsly.




...

[PB PM]

Originally Posted by drewprops Toyota's big Taco Tuesday Tease was a JBL portable speaker that snaps into the dash. srsly. ...

So they are teasing that they are putting a POS BT speaker in the dash. Is that supposed to be a selling point? So when the speaker dies, you have a broken dash? Seriously, who comes up with this stuff? Let's just hope it's one of the BS items that is only on the TRD Pro Limited or whatever the top trim will be.

[drewprops]

When I bought my Honda in 2003 there was a $1200+ option for a DVD-based mapping system.

You could get updates every so many months. We all know THAT device was not kept up to date for more than a decade, due to changes in technology.

So yes.

There's going to be a divot in the dash for a device that couldn't possibly be made available for a decade.

Perhaps aftermarket companies can figure out a use for the port?

What happens if that speaker gets overheated, sitting there on the dash? Could it explode?

...

[Ebby]

Originally Posted by drewprops When I bought my Honda in 2003 there was a $1200+ option for a DVD-based mapping system. You could get updates every so many months. We all know THAT device was not kept up to date for more than a decade, due to changes in technology.

I have that and *cough* still use it. That's still my daily driver. The discs were color coded and burned wrong as an early form of copyright protection. The agreement lasted 10 years so 2014 was the last disc if I recall.

You could dump the firmware file to change the startup image. I had Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and Star Trek stuff back then.

My SO's car just reached 10 years old so the nav system is abandoned. We just upgraded the whole unit with a "hacked" one to get Apple/Android integration. Don't have to rely on propitiatory tech as much now.

10 years seems to be the support limits though. I like to hang on to cars longer than that.

[PB PM]

Originally Posted by drewprops When I bought my Honda in 2003 there was a $1200+ option for a DVD-based mapping system. You could get updates every so many months. We all know THAT device was not kept up to date for more than a decade, due to changes in technology. So yes. There's going to be a divot in the dash for a device that couldn't possibly be made available for a decade. Perhaps aftermarket companies can figure out a use for the port? What happens if that speaker gets overheated, sitting there on the dash? Could it explode? ...

That’s why top level trims with all the bells and whistles are a kick in the teeth. In modern vehicles I would only lease a fully tricked out one, too much tech that goes out of date too fast.

Thankfully for the Tacoma in the Toyotas the JBL systems are only in high end top tier packages with add-on audio upgrades, so for 90% of owners it will be a non-issue. To me that kind of system is a recipe for trouble, too much focus on useless bling in some of these new vehicles rather than substance.

Just give me a choice of interior colour other than stinking black, push button start, AC, homelink, auto-dimming rear view mirror, heated seat/steering wheel, outside mirrors, backup camera, an infotainment system that actually works from the get go, and I’ll be happy. Let CarPlay handle the audio stuff other than vehicle settings and the radio channels. Don’t make me us some android spyware either.

[drewprops]

Originally Posted by Ebby I have that and *cough* still use it. That's still my daily driver. The discs were color coded and burned wrong as an early form of copyright protection. The agreement lasted 10 years so 2014 was the last disc if I recall. You could dump the firmware file to change the startup image. I had Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and Star Trek stuff back then. My SO's car just reached 10 years old so the nav system is abandoned. We just upgraded the whole unit with a "hacked" one to get Apple/Android integration. Don't have to rely on propitiatory tech as much now. 10 years seems to be the support limits though. I like to hang on to cars longer than that.

This is SO COOL to find out how it turned out, so thank you for the insight into the as-lived experience.

...

[Kickaha]

Originally Posted by Matsu I'm sure engineers can make a fully capable EV for such places, but when we're reaching into some parts of the country, how long before policy makers make their grid fully reliable?

Flip the problem around, and it's more tractable. Truly remote regions where vehicular travel is limited are where locally generated electricity wins out.

While it's true that the N American grid is *badly* out of date and under-maintained, most people skip over the point that the gasoline infrastructure is a *massively* fragile system that has about 3 days of resilience to getting the energy to the consumer.

In a worst case scenario, there is no way that someone out in the hinterlands is going to be able to produce refined gasoline, but they damned sure can set up a windmill and trickle charge their vehicle. Perfect? Of course not. But it is *possible*, which is more than we can say for ICE support.

We need to stop thinking about 'the grid' as a purely early 20th century centralized generation and distribution system that mimics petroleum, but instead as a distributed system with endpoint generation where possible or applicable. That is how rural areas become not only fully supported by an EV industry, but in some ways better supported than they were by an ICE based system.

[Matsu]

Kickaha, actually... you. make. a. good. point.

[turtle]

The biggest drawback is the infrastructure costs are directly applied to the end user out on their farm. With gas they pay as they go and the infrastructure cost is included. To generate your own electricity comes with a high up front cost. Many who are truly rural don't likely have the funds to build some form of generation.

That means they are directly reliant on the aged grid. They can't get a buddy to bring them a 5 gallon can of electricity when they run out.

That being said, I do believe there is a ton of validity to your point. The bigger challenge is the lack of charger infrastructure all over like there is the number of gas stations.

Plugin hybrids would be a great bridge to cross the gap to move from gas to electric. I wish my van was a plugin, but the only one that had that as an option was far from my taste or liking. All electric could work for "day to day" in my house, but road-trips would suck with the kids all stuck waiting for the vehicle to charge.

As batteries and charing improve, this will be less and less of a problem.

[drewprops]

Originally Posted by turtle They can't get a buddy to bring them a 5 gallon can of electricity when they run out.

This is ME all over!

Went out of the house today with a phone on 20% because I forgot to charge it overnight.

I *cannot* trust myself to charge a car ahead of time.

..

[PB PM]

Yet you can find a gas station before you run out gas somehow? If you need someone to rescue you with a gas can, you’ve got bigger issues. Tied argument.

Unless you have a 150-200 mile daily commute you won’t need to charge it every day anyway. Most people commute less than 70 miles a day, which means they could go 3-4 days on a single charge. The idea that the grid will be overwhelmed is non-sense.