Stick a Fork in the US Auto Industry

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In the last five or so minutes of this video about a used Bentley the guy bought, he makes some really good points about what makes the car feel so much better than a modern car. It's not the electronics or the safety features (which are better on modern cars), it's that things like the switches aren't flimsy, and not only can you feel a click when you flip them, but you can hear it, too. It's like what made the original iPod such a success when other MP3 players couldn't get much traction. You know the click wheel on that iPod? Apple put in a tiny speaker to make the clicking sound when you used it. Because they knew that it would impress the user. Reportedly, when the folks at MS bought one to reverse engineer it and see how to make one of their own, they found the speaker and realized that Apple had just completely outclassed anything they might have done.



If you watch the video, you get a pretty interesting look at how Bentleys were built. A lot of it is absurdly over-the-top. Like the suspension system, with its rebuildable shocks. As he says, it's not that this car is better made (a used Honda that costs as much as he paid the Bentley would be far more reliable and have less ludicrous service requirements), it's just that the design is better thought out than that on most cars.

The Next Big Thing (that may or may not amount to anything at all) is the Slate Truck. The big drawback that I see is a lack of towing power. The real concern I have for the whole concept is that there's supposedly unmet demand for a small pickup. The Ford Maverick seems to be selling pretty well, but the profit margin can't be all that great compared to the bigger trucks. Saying there's unmet demand for small pickups makes me think of my days in college when I worked in radio and the kids always said they wanted to hear jazz on the radio. So, a local dentist opened a jazz station. He went broke within two years. The upshot being what people SAY they want and what they REALLY want aren't always the same.

There are, however, large segments of the US population who simply cannot afford to buy a new vehicle, and the cheapest pickup for sale in the US is the Maverick, at $30K. If this thing can retail for $27K, it comes in under the Maverick, and is electric, while the Maverick isn't.

As long as the tax credit lasts they're aiming for sub $20k. I like the idea of total customization and how much towing would you do with it (or a Maverick for that matter) anyway? It looks to me like you could do almost of the work with it that you could do with a Maverick at a substantially lower cost.

And this guy says it's faster than a Mustang Mach-E.

Honda Prologue And Acura ZDX Are Outselling Their General Motors Cousins

Apparently, you can pick up a used Polestar cheap, with a warranty.

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Okay, finally did it. Pulled the trigger on an Ioniq 5. Almost got the 6, but the trunk openings are so small, it made the Corolla openings look large, especially the one between the trunk and back seat, but even the main trunk opening is so small, I'm not sure I could have put a 15 gallon planter bag in the trunk. (Also, WTF, the 6 is 8" longer than the 5.) So the 5 it was. Between Hyundai's incentives, the tax credit on a lease, the Costco member discount ($2750) and my car's value, I'm paying only $114/month for the next 3 years (would have been $60-something, but I opted for the wear and tear insurance becasuse I'm bad about hubcap scraping, and I don't know for sure I'll buy it, because of the improvements in battery tech). I think I'll be net saving that much in fuel alone, so this is overall a win. My insurance did go up, but only by $13.33/month, which is about a third of what I expected.

'The Cars Are Actually Better': Rivian CEO Says China's EV Prices Shouldn't Be Legacy Automakers' Biggest Concern

Reminds me very much of what some folks were saying about Japanese cars in the late 70s/early 80s.

How Chinese EV tech is reshaping global auto design

Kia may have finally cracked how to build a modular vehicle. The prices quoted for the EV van in this video are comparable to your standard ICE van prices. ($~35K starting)

Tiny Dacia Hipster Concept Aims To Reinvent The People's Car

I can not see a Dacia without thinking of James May.

6 weeks later update:

The Good: Climate control; it’s surprisingly well insulated and the automatic defogger and air switcher are great. I rarely need to turn on the A/C, and when I do it’s really effective. Speaking of A/C, the range. Turns out the range estimate includes a fair bit of A/C use, and more than I find myself using. As a result, I’m getting more like 365 miles/charge rather than 310 advertised. The fast charging is real nice too. Got a 60 amp circuit for charging at the full 11.5 kW AC in the garage (so even a few minutes is worth plugging in for to get a few miles of charge), and at a 350 kW DC AC fast charger, it’s back up to 80% in 15 minutes. Still not as fast as pumping gas, but getting there. One thing I didn’t realize is that there are a lot of public L2 charging stations that are very cheap, under half the price of fast chargers per kWh, and 30-40% less than charging at home (until I get solar). Useful for Costco and IKEA trips. Speaking of, cargo room. It’s not deceptively large like the Corolla, it’s pretty much exactly as roomy as it looks like. And it’s a good amount. For being only an inch longer than the Corolla, the extra space is nice.

The meh: performance outside of Sport mode. It doesn’t have the zip of a lighter EV like the Bolt, at least in Normal mode, although it does treat hills like flats, more or less. Highway Driving Assist II. It’s not as good as Comma overall, and a great deal more annoying, although it does take sharper curves a touch better and doesn’t make me initiate the lane change with the wheel. Soon as I get my Comma fixed, I’m going to reinstall it. RWD; this is my first time regularly driving a RWD vehicle and I don’t especially like it. I’ll get used to it eventually, hopefully. Smarts: remote features work pretty well. 3rd party charging payment in the app works surprisingly well. Digital key is okay. Nothing really stands out. The physical key fob is huge. Oh, but the remote features don’t work if the car doesn’t have a cell connection. Regeneration from downhills; it’s weirdly aggressive at keeping your speed down. You *can* coast, just not very fast, often well under the speed limit. Maybe a different braking setting would fix this.

The bad: charging control. I haven’t figured out how to get it to start charging ignoring the schedule, or to get it to stop charging, except via the app. This feels like it should be a physical button somewhere in the cab or next to the charge port. The turning circle; not sure why they couldn’t have made it turn more sharply. The vehicle is an inch longer than the Corolla and 4” wider. Why must the turning circle be 3 feet wider? U-turns feel sketchy now and I don’t like it.

The ugly: the brakes in reverse. WTAF??They’re terrible. Feels like the worst ABS ever. Mushy, then jerky, then mushy again. Maybe that’s just the inertia of a heavier vehicle? I don’t know. I don’t like it at all. Have you ever had a driving nightmare where the brakes weren’t working right? It’s a lot like that. The shifter stalk; it’s a spring-loaded dial on a stalk with P as a button on the end. But what really pulls it down from meh to ugly is that D is at the top, and R is at the bottom. 6 weeks in and I’m still twisting it to the gear I’m already in instead of switching to the other direction at least once a day (it’s a spring loaded dial, so it doesn’t stay there). Also for some reason, you’re not allowed to shift out of N without pressing the brake pedal. Like, you can shift into it, but not out, even if you’re not moving. This is profoundly annoying when backing out onto a hill and heading down. It’s labeled D-N-R, but it’s really D-N-no change-N-R, always springing back to no change.

Speaking of the 6 and problems...

Kia EV6 Owners Are Fixing Its Lousy Bass With A Simple Rewiring

I'm driving my ICE into the ground. Mine is six years old now and normally I'd be thinking what's next? But with only 44,000 miles (American Kilometers) it's got more life in it than expected.

Of course, that may change when my kids start driving in 3-4 years. Maybe I'll buy them the Slate truck.

Pop-Up Ads Are Appearing On Stellantis Infotainment Screens Again

Side note but holy shit, your kids are teens now?!

10 and 12.
You know what that means? It means you’re old. (I haven’t aged).

I finally saw one of those absurdly expensive VW EV Microbuses in the wild today. It didn't look bad, but I still can't see how anyone can rationalize paying the kind of money VW is asking for.

you have 'on the verge of teenagers'............. your aging IS ABOUT TO BEGIN!!!!!

If this makes it into production, everyone responsible should be killed. Single round to the back of the head.



https://www.carscoops.com/2025/12/t...st-radical-steering-wheel-yet-for-production/

Yeah I checked one out because we have a great use case for it, but it is a good $10k+ more expensive than it should be. Range is too small for the price.

Figures Chrysler would be the one to come up with a design choice worse than anything Tesla can think of

And, they're gone.

Volkswagen’s Microbus-Style EV Will Not Come Back in 2026

Pricing a throwback to the days when the VW mini bus represented cheap transportation for hippies like a luxury vehicle didn't work? Who'da thunk it?

i had a VW bus beat that thing to death. i got it because i owned a MGB prior and i wanted something i could actually go out an drive without having to work on it every time to get it or keep it running