Is there a something-one-one number for an emergency podcast? I know 911 is real emergencies, 411 is information (I think that’s still there?), 611 is some kind of phone service line, and, damn, I never realized this, but 211 is a community service line, 311 is municipal government, 511 is traffic information, 711 is TDD services if you have hearing issues, and 811 is a public utility location line. Wow! I had no idea. Public-good stuff like this that is just quietly doing its thing, day after day, like most municipal water systems and national parks and that kind of thing make me feel more patriotic than any parade of tanks ever could.
Wait, what the hell was I talking about? Oh yeah, an emergency podcast! Which can’t have an X11 number because, look, they’re all taken! But we did one anyway, because the leak of the upcoming Slate EV pickup truck’s pricing, hidden in the metadata of their website, is just too good not to do an emergency podcast about. [Ed note: Couldn’t we do 1-1-1? – MH]
The price, $24,950, is certainly good, and does undercut Ford’s (expected) $30,000-ish price for their upcoming EV truck, the one we spotted testing the other day. But is it cheap enough? David and I discuss that in this hastily-slapped-together episode of our non-award-winning Carbage Time podcast.
You can see it here, right here:
David and I discuss the Slate pricing leak, and the Slate itself in the podcast, wondering if it actually is cheap enough? That’s the video podcast, if you prefer audio:
Oh, and to listen to more podcasts episode you can go to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or you can use the RSS feed and point your favorite Podcast player at it.
I feel like coming in at $19,999 would have made it all but a guaranteed hit; at nearly $25,000, it’s still among the cheapest EVs you can get in America, period, but I’m not sure it’s as guaranteed a slam dunk. After all, the upcoming Ford EV truck is only $5,000 more and has more creature comforts and, significantly, a double-cab. Single cab trucks haven’t sold well in America for decades. But maybe this will be different enough?
Oh, and then we had to discuss this:
View this post on Instagram
So, Slate felt like they had to remind the world how to get in the back seat of a two-door car or truck. Okay, fine, can’t hurt to show that it’s not so hard. But then they somehow managed to step on their own genitalia in how they showed it!
First off, they picked some parkour athlete as the person to demonstrate how to get in the back. Basically a freaking gymnast. That’s always been the joke about getting into the back seat of a small two-door, that you have to be a gymnast to do it! They couldn’t have picked a worse person to show this. This should have been someone in their mid-80s who was in a walker moments before getting into the back seat, not a lithe athlete who can probably wriggle through a mail slot without spilling his drink! Come on, Slate!
And then there’s the other big issue: moving that seat to get access to the rear requires two steps! First, a lever to slide the seat forward, then one to tilt the back forward. This is the same tech as in my 1973 VW Beetle. Two-door cars have had one lever that slides the seat forward and tilts the back for decades. Look, here’s what the Fiat 500 does:
Look at that; you pull one little strap at the top of the seatback and the whole thing slides forward and tilts. It’s actually not a big deal to get in the back! Slate couldn’t have sourced seats that did this? Once again, come on, Slate!
All that said, I’m still excited by the upcoming Slate. I think there is a market for people who genuinely want a vehicle with less electronics, no stupid subscription services or “features” that steal all your data and invade your privacy and all that. And wind-up windows, too. I think there’s people who would just appreciate that, period, because they just make sense, and always have.
So I don’t think a $30,000 Ford EV truck is necessarily going to compete with a $25,000 Slate EV truck entirely. I think both will have their niches. There’s still so much we don’t know, but my hope is that the eventual winner will be the buyers, who will have more affordable EV vehicle options to choose from, and ones that, hopefully, will actually be kind of cool.
Even if the back seat is just for gymnasts.
Top photo: Slate
Guys, nobody is using this backseat to transport large adults on a daily basis. This is an occasional use backseat/backseat for children. The only reason you really need a large backseat with kids is for rear-facing car seats which… ends at 2. I’m past that stage in life, so I really don’t care how enormous the back seat area is anymore. Might that be an issue when they’re teens? Sure, but that will motivate them to get their asses their own license, lol.
(This whole post is a massive tangent, but when people ask why kids often aren’t interested in getting their own license, maybe it’s because we consider their comfort a priority? Seriously, there’s a lot of kids I know who are being chauffeured in resplendent luxury by Jeeves (parent). Let’s stuff ’em into the back of a Slate instead.)
Maybe I’m the only person in history to feel this way, but I fucking loved climbing in and out of the backseat of 2-doors as a kid. Loved it. It gave the backseat the vibes of a hideaway, or a reading nook, or whatever place you’d go and hide. Only in the absolute tiniest of coupes was it difficult to do.
Technically you do not need to stop rear facing by 2 years old but by when they max out the convertible car seat in rear facing mode which can be as long as 4+ years, as it’s still considered safer to rear face them until they no longer fit rather than on an arbitrary schedule for forward facing.
We had a ceremony for both kids when they turned 2. The turning of the car seat. Very fun.
While I understand rear facing is safer, and it’s fine that other people do it for longer, we were lucky enough that our kids were oddly large for their age (both were weird 99th percentile freaks at 2, and leveled out later). Also, my daughter had a tendency to vomit when rear facing soooooo yeah, we were turning that sucker around the moment it was legal.
YMMV.
Wow never knew there was places that put a legal limit on rear facing. ours went front facing at like 14 months, booster at 2.5 and no carseat at all on their 5th birthday.
Yeah, NY is rear facing until 2, and full car seat with 5 point harness until 4. Which is fine and I ultimately agreed and complied with. Some people take it to the max though with the standards, extending the rear facing phase. There was no way in hell we were doing that lol. Rear facing is a nightmare for everyone.
Not sure when your kid was kid, but these standards have also increased exponentially over the last 5-10 years.
One of them just turned six, so last year this happened, someone in the legislature tried to change it to booster until 4’8″ or ~100lbs or something rediculous like that but luckily it never made it out of committee.
I equate the back seats in this to being barely better than the jump-seats that used to exist in early extended cab trucks.
I mean, it looks a lot better than jump seats to me. I once crammed myself into an extended cab Tacoma jump seat and that was sort of a nightmare. It seems to me like I could fit back there comfortable enough for short trips. And kids would fit just fine.
This of course will be a lot easier to confirm when it’s actual available to see in the flesh.
@reoindustries blocked me on x for asking if it was AI slop, and how they were going to deal with the EPA footprint rules for pickup trucks.
Why would they care about footprint rules? That just sets fuel economy requirements based on track x wheelbase and any EV exceeds CAFE by 2 to 3X.
Also CAFE fines don’t exist at the moment
See also: Telo.
Telo is an interesting proposition. An expensive vehicle that is physically small. Curious if there is a market for that product. Historically there has not been in the USA.
Waiting for the first official production delay from Telo. Just this week they said they found a partner to build the body in white. Zero chance they hit a 2026 start of production if they just inked a deal with someone to build the BIW.
Telo sounds super innovative, and the tech (primarily charging speed) sounds really impressive for the price. But I still question if they’ll ever actually make it to market.
They are another Canoo
Allegedly they switched to LFP on the base range possibly on the extended range too. I hoped it would have been at least under $23k but figured under $25k. Still for fleets it’s almost a no brainer. They can get a kind of panel van probably under $30k. I could see them reducing the price in a year or two to under $23k. Especially if they can get cheaper locally produced LFP.
Does the $25K include A/C or cruise?
Yes, both.
Parkordians
And stop comparing same priced ICE and EV vehicles. It’s a toaster oven and a microwave. They accomplish similar things, but aren’t typically cross shopped.
Difference is, I’m far from rich but I own a toaster oven AND a microwave
And an oven oven and a stove top and an air fryer and a grill.
I agree with some sentiments form the emergency broadcast, it could be a pretty good little fleet vehicle. The 2 seats and the topper to keep stuff more secure in the back like a work van would. I also see it as an EV enthusiast vehicle but those that also like the idea of a stripped back EV. I love tech heavy vehicles but this thing is really interesting as well at the other end of the spectrum. No integrated tech, just your phone running the show. I could see 3d printing something for an iPad mini in there as an option.
Slate is selling a separate holder for tablets as well in addition to phone but I am sure you could also 3D print one easily.
Parkour dude’s knees occupied the space that the formerly-in-place front seat would have occupied if they hadn’t cut the video before moving the seat back.
Oh, the slam into your passengers legs , then adjust the seat in two actions instead of one design ? The extra time for that isn’t so bad. Saving the time lost to discussing whether you are passive aggressive by blaming it on the car, would you do that to your mother? ( she would sit in the front seat, where your mother is now) , and the associate couples therapist sessions is a win. Two handles for two movements thank you very much. It’s got hand crank windows, and you are talking about two handles?
How about wind wings? Can we have some wind wings?
Slate for the win because its not a lame ridiculous crew cab.
One of us ! When there is only one of us !
three
four
Many commenters here have an awful lot of faith in Slate’s ability to make a trouble free drivetrain that won’t need warranty work right out of the gate, something big OEMs with more EV experience still have trouble with. I don’t know if I wish I had that much faith in people and organizations or if I’m glad I at least learned something from my negative experiences and observances.
I find your lack of faith disturbing. Oh yeah, there will be problems. What I respect (not Bozos) is the team’s mission statement of User Serviceable. I freely admit no insider, or even EV centric knowledge. They aren’t re-inventing copper smelting to make their own wires.
No, but they’re engineering their own platform, establishing manufacturing processes, training people, and developing QA. Making stuff is a lot harder than people credit. Serviceable is great, but it doesn’t mean they won’t have issues or owners shouldn’t need a warranty to cover their servicing on a new vehicle.
We aren’t arguing. I just want more Uhmpa on the “simplify, then add lightness”.
You mean, instead of taking it in for warranty service, I get to do it myself? Do they mail me parts? Sign me the fuck up!
I assume Amazon trucks will deliver your warranty parts.
But my view is self warranty will be as popular as self checkout at the grocery store.
In other news, tort lawyers are already preparing briefs for when random wrenchers get into 400 volt systems.
Electric drivetrains are becoming a pretty solved commodity at this point, once China’s manufacturing centers took over production. Plus it being user serviceable makes those of us who are more comfortable soldering than rebuilding a carburetor really happy. Mod, fix, extend – this is the first EV available in the States that is made for guys like Autopian readers.
They’re engineering their own platform, establishing manufacturing processes, training people, and developing QA. Making stuff is a lot harder than people credit. Serviceable is great, but mostly for owner #3. It doesn’t mean they won’t have issues or owners shouldn’t need a warranty to cover their servicing on a nearly new vehicle or that people are going to even want to service something brand new, particularly when there are other options. There are plenty of used cars for cheaper that fit that role. They need to sell these to a lot more people than Autopians or other potential tinkerers.
Serviceable is great, but mostly for owner #3 which makes it a selling point for #2 which makes it a buying point for #2 thus also a selling point for #1 unless they don’t mind getting hit with a sledgehammer of depreciation.
That’s only sort of true for some brands and, as the industry moves away from serviceability, for all the complaining a few people do about it, what sells to the great majority of people who actually buy new cars isn’t serviceability. Fewer people work on cars and not only has the knowledge of how to do so gotten rarer, but the very idea of repairing stuff gets further pushed to the peripheral of a population raised on disposability. Most people buying new aren’t considering how tough it will be for a mechanic to service long after they’ve traded the car in. If serviceability was a major point with initial buyers, cars would be more serviceable (and the German car industry would be long gone).
Well I do care about serviceability and if any second owner wants my money that’s what it’s going to take to get my attention. If not I’m sure they can get scrap value for their unrepairable POS at the recycling center.
So do I, but people like us are a very small portion of buyers of new cars. People like us are bigger among used buyers, but car companies build with owner #1 in mind and we’re shrinking even there. I don’t even think most people would know how to tell if something was serviceable or how to find out, but it doesn’t matter, because it doesn’t even cross their minds. It used to be different when people had the mindset of DIY maintenance or at least had that as a concern for paying someone else, but society has been reprogrammed for decades to be drawn toward flashy disposability and, as the economy speeds off in different vertical directions, those with the money to buy have plenty of money to not worry about maintenance costs or replacement while those who can scrape up from the bottom to just squeak into the market thanks to obscene loan terms are more concerned with thinking they’re convincing others that they’re on the upward trajectory arrow than more sensible financial concerns thanks to more social conditioning equating ones value to wealth status and obscuring (or monetizing) paths to inner peace because true inner peace isn’t profitable to enough people and, further, it doesn’t indebt one to a machine built to serve the few wendigos at the top. Helping this are longer warranties that (theoretically) cover the major defects and cars that tend to go longer between issues out of warranty (even if they cost more when they do fail).
Saying all that, this kind of vehicle should be attractive to me, but it isn’t because it’s a form factor I have no interest in, the range is too short, the price doesn’t seem good value against used cars, and some of the simplification is performative rather than meaningful, a choice that makes me question the entire product.
The good news is with proper DIY maintenance a modernish used car can last for many decades while providing most of the useful features of more modern cars but without the less useful features of modern cars. I have found parts for my cars to be cheap and readily available. It helps to buy a mass market car or a car based on a mass market car.
At this point I’m finding MPG, older safety standards, paint and interior color fade to be the weakest links. And sometimes I just want something newer and shinier. So I looked into what it would cost just to insure a newer car. I found 10+ years is the sweet spot. Once the car is 10 years old my quotes were shockingly similar (~400/year) regardless of whether I was quoting a 1987 Yugo, a 2004 Civic, a 1998 Mercedes, a 2014 Porsche 911 or a 2015 Corvette. Any newer than that though and it starts ramping up fast. That, higher fees, taxes, high purchase costs, depreciation, the aforementioned hostility to DIY and the insane cost to repair even minor damage are all very good reasons to hang onto our older cars even if they aren’t quite as safe nor get the fuel economy of more modern cars, that is as long as they aren’t THAT far off modern cars. One should for example probably trade up on that 1987 Yugo.
I saw a white Yugo a couple days ago! It’s been a lot of years since I’d see one and I think I annoyed the people behind me because I slowed down to get a good look. Appeared to be in great shape on the outside, which I imagine it would be to still be around.
EV drive trains are mostly a commodity at this point. Most of the bits and pieces are made by somebody else and put together. Every automaker has as much a chance to be successful with an EV as they do to experience failure with one. Quality of service is going to be quite a lot less about how established the automaker is.
And those parts are going into their own engineered platform, they’re establishing manufacturing processes, training people, and developing QA. Every part of those has room for error including simple things like connectors that disengage with vibration that didn’t show up during testing and can cause greater issues than mere loss of transfer. Making stuff is a lot harder than people credit. Serviceable is great, but it doesn’t mean they won’t have issues or owners shouldn’t need a warranty to cover their servicing on a new vehicle. Established makers have had issues with EV drivetrains and quality of service is very dependent on actual service availability. They don’t have dealerships or even a solid association with a specific logistics and service chain. These are going to be a headache for most local mechanics who will likely choose to avoid them. From what I saw of their associated various approved mechanics, they don’t seem to have matching parts logistics, so parts cost, availability, and wait times are going to be worse. Who’s training these mechanics to a common standard? How much experience are these mechanics going to actually get on something that’s unlikely to take the country by storm? Some places might end up with a solid customer base, but outside those areas, servicing will likely be highly hit or miss.
Doesn’t really change what I said. Everything you mentioned is probably true. And not unique to new or existing automakers.
And assuming those pieces are put together correctly by the supplier, those pieces have to be put together with other pieces from other suppliers and in house production to make a fully working machine. Even established automakers have recalls with their supplier components and new automakers have less experience in dealing with such things and they don’t know what they don’t know. Experience absolutely matters. These aren’t Lego kits and even assuming the drivetrains were made by Santa’s most gifted elves, cars are made up of a lot more than that. Have you ever built anything? If so, did you build another one like it after? The second build goes better because of things you learned the first time around and that goes for simple projects, never mind cars and all the systems and parts from the major components to the small things like interior trim that doesn’t squeak or rattle or fall off with temperature extremes, rough road use, UV exposure, etc. The history of manufacturing is filled with countless examples of new players stumbling over things the established competition has institutional experience enough to avoid. I noticed in the test drive video with DT that daylight could be seen where the rear panel of the vehicle met the roof. Good thing it’s serviceable, I suppose—that will come in handy if Slate disappears overnight and I’m sure the average person who has to ask for help to put together an IKEA nightstand will be thankful for the opportunity to fix their brand new car. Maybe they could ask the guy at Home Depot which caulking they recommend. The Maverick sold 155k units last year, a record for a car that had already been considered a hit to the point where other industry players are looking to jump in. Ford’s sales were with the market nearly to itself selling a vehicle that far more people want. Slate needs to hit at least 2/3 of that per year to be profitable, which means they need to sell to a lot more people than there are weirdos overexcited by the idea of crank windows and working on a brand new car like it’s an old beater (and most of those won’t actually buy a new Slate). They’re coming in late to a smaller BEV market, facing segment competition—including a Ford BEV pickup—with an unpopular 2-door, RWD configuration and missing features people have considered basic for decades before they consider the hassle of owning a car from a start up with no dealerships and a barely accountable service network.
It seems likes its everything but the drivetrains that seem to cause the real issues for a lot of car makers. Maybe the simplified version will be a benefit to them? You are right though, the service barrier is tough.
I’ve had the Toyota version of this truck for the past 20 years: a 1994 2 door, single cab, manual, 2wd, 4cyl Pickup with no power steering, roll-up windows, cloth bench seat and no radio. It sucks and I hate it. That’s not entirely true, I actually love it for what it is and I affectionately refer to it as my little red tractor. However, it is unbelievably difficult to live with on a daily basis. Based on my experience with a similarly basic truck, I can’t imagine that many people will intentionally choose to buy one of these at any price. Don’t get me wrong, I think they’re cool and I’m glad they exist, but they seem more like a toy than a competitor to the $30k Ford truck.
Where do you live?
Want to sell it?
Actually I just got the use of a Ford Ranger in a complicated barter arrangement where a friend gave someone a 24 foot sailboat, and got a Ranger in return that he didn’t need, but had wrecked a couple cars I gave him. Or something like that.
So I’m really looking for something really impractical, like an MG TC.
Dude! an MG TC is as useful as a second left nut. I scraped the kit car replica after going thru it, and finding it truly suicidal. Research showed the originals equally so. Unless you plan to only use it as historical racing with flimsy brethren, you’re gonna die with that shit.
The impracticality is sort of the point. Also where I am moving, and at my age, anything safer than a bike is fine.
The childhood family car was a TD, and my sister and I sat on little wicker chairs wedged between the seats and the gas tank and I’m still here, and my sister is too.
A TF with a Volvo engine and a disk brake swap would be more useful as transportation so that’s a possibility.
Speaking of bikes, a 2cv with a BMW boxer engine swap looks like great fun as well.
Somewhere, out there is a Lotus 7 with your name on it…
I have a bunch of tubing, plans, and a welder, but life keeps having alternate plans.
Life happens
Doesn’t it have a double DIN hole in the dash? If so it’s not difficult to put in a modern aftermarket head unit and speakers that’d be way better than stock Also whatever seat covers float your boat.
That’s less than 18 000 Obama Dollars!
Fiat ! (not the company)
Ok
Its cost in ounces of gold is about half what it would be in Biden Gold, a or a quarter of Obama gold.
When Trump took office the first time gold was only $1204 , now it’s yo-yoing in the mid 4k
Pretty flat in the Biden administration though.
Print More ! What could go wrong, while pissing on dependable allies, that justified the US dollar standard.
We should have stayed on the gold standard.
Spot gold data if anyone wants the actual numbers.
When Obama enters office Jan 19, 2009 it was $820/oz
Beginning of obama’s 2nd term Jan 19, 2013 $1650/oz
Jan 19, 2017 $1200/oz
Jan 19, 2020* $1550/oz *avoids pandemic messing with data
($1850 for 2021 if needed)
Jan 19, 2025 $2700/oz.
Jan 19, 2026 $4764/oz
Now $4694/oz
It actually looks like it was way mostly flatish under Obama not Biden (Obama 8 years only a 50% increase, in Biden 4 years 52% increase.)
Yes, a little more granular that I thought was necessary..
This chart is interesting
https://www.voronoiapp.com/economy/Gold-Prices-Surged-During-Recent-Presidencies–2265
Flattish is not how I would describe the Obama administration.
If you take the position that the price of gold is primarily an indicator of how much the economy sucks, multiplied by how scared people are, Obama preformed miracles with the economy.
That makes sense, if you only look at the beginning and the end you miss the peaks and dips in the middle of a term and Obama definitely had a peak in there but ended well enough.
Gold is not just an investment, it is a useful metal in consumer electronics and battery terminals. With consumer electronic use exploding worldwide in the last decade gold has been in higher demand than ever and will only increase. How many gold mines are operating and their production can also effect it but alot of the increases here are on the demand side.
The last year of G W Bush, everyone thought the world was coming to an end. Somehow Obama turned things around. It’s quite remarkable really.
Yes, if civilization collapses, the value of gold as an industrial metal will collapse too.
Unlike Bitcoin, at least you can make dental prothesis from gold.
The bottom left hatchback looking thing, I like it.
Can we have it in Europe, please? 🙂
“The blank Slate will be $24,950*
excludes tax, tags, delivery, and government charges”Oh, That’s reassuring ! F all could that entail?
I LOVE the idea of an EV that embraces open source, user serviceable architecture, that the end user controls access, and doesn’t rely on expiring data share B.S. Hope demand is strong enough to encourage others.
Probably just a fineprint catchall for other non-tax government disposal fees for tires, battery, A/C, etc. that some localities levy.
Seriously, it’s a nothing burger.
Buy a new vehicle in my state, and you have to pay $10 for a state inspection of your brand new vehicle.
Concerned it could hide tariff costs on imported supplies.
Does this really have a warranty? Where do you service it? I can’t imagine many local mechanics wanting to deal with Slate to warranty something for their customer and they probably wouldn’t want to touch some weirdo EV with its own parts that can only be ordered from Slate in the first place. What other OEM dealer is going to work on it? A specialist? They have to sell enough of them in an local area first. Do they compensate the untrained owner who will DIY any warranty issue and what will their denial rate be? Are they going to expect owners or local mechanics to ship back bad parts? This really effectively seems like the ’80s beaters we bought in high school for $500-750. While this doesn’t come with rust and the smell of a previous owner, it’s also $25k+.
Pretty sure electric motors, controllers, batteries, BMS, can be rock solid if not enshitified by needless software.
Even making a big assumption that the drivetrain will be trouble free from a brand new maker, a car is made up of a lot of systems that need to work together properly. Big companies making cars for decades have recalls all the time and they had them when they made them as relatively simple as this thing is.
I take my Prius to an independent mechanic that gets his parts mostly from the NAPA store across the street.
There isn’t much to break on these , or at least that’s the selling proposition.
Right, that’s a car from an established builder that’s common as dirt and that’s where they get their parts from such established companies. They can order parts from them for multiple cars for multiple customers several times a day. Slate parts are not going to be in NAPA or anyone else’s inventory for a while nor in quantities for fast turnaround. Not many mechanics are going to want to deal with ordering from Slate and waiting to get those parts. They’re not likely going to want to potentially have to return parts to get credit for the warranty, either. Many also don’t want to deal with the high voltage systems of EVs. Around here, mechanics seem perpetually busy and they choose their jobs. Anything that’s annoying gets pushed down the list or refused. That’s how you get junk like VWs often ending up with marque specialists—nobody else wants to deal with them—but a specialist requires enough local cars needing work to sustain that business.
I’m sure the bearings, tires, brake pads, and wiper blades are from the same suppliers as everyone else uses.
Also, Amazon is really good at delivering Toyota parts I am sure that they can deliver Slate parts.
Amazon is probably the world leader in dealing with returns, and lots of places have one hour delivery.
Just hope that don’t deliver by drone and drop a wheel on your head.
Amazon is a good point. I stupidly didn’t even think about that association. That could save a good bit of the headache, especially if they can issue warranty pay prior to product return (if necessary).
While bearings and stuff may be standard parts, body and suspension parts aren’t going to be OTS. Being a plastic body, I wouldn’t be surprised if they have issues with that in particular or corrosion issues where stuff gets trapped against metal underneath. There’s a lot of room for problems and, if they arise, how patient will owners be? I don’t see this as being one of those class-spanning cars that will attract a broad range of incomes, so it’s aimed at people who might have this as an only vehicle that they can’t afford to be down much and/or for whom $25k+ is simply a good chunk of money they don’t want to risk on a new manufacturer. How many people outside of car circles have even heard of Slate? That’s another limitation. If and when a Normal does hear of this, will it be appealing enough against mainstream new and used competitors? I don’t think to too many, but it needs to sell to a lot of Normals to survive unless investors just want to keep throwing money at it regardless of profitability and lack of likelihood of such. With the way the world seems backwards nowadays, I suppose the latter isn’t out of the question at all, but I’m still going to question that as a business model.
On the other hand, I was using a well-rated local mechanic who was happy to take my business for oil changes on my Prius, but as soon as I brought him something more complicated it was “we don’t mess around with hybrids”.
Never mind that I was trying to confirm that my head gasket went bad. Had nothing to do with the hybrid system. A mechanic transported from 1960 could do it. Now I am going to guy who is far less conveniently located.
They’ve partnered with a independent service group, RepairPal, that MIGHT have qualified techs near you, or maybe one day they will, once they get trained up…
https://repairpal.com/
Personally I’m not encouraged. I think going with a single national service company like Firestone or PepBoys would have been a safer play.
I had never heard of Repair Pal, but it looks like random approved establishments which will be of variable quality, so people will have to search out who local works on them and hope they’re good. Who’s training them? I agree, a single established player like Pep Boys would have been a better plan—national coverage, customers only have to know one or two well-known names, they could more readily train techs centrally or something, and they could use them for part logistics.
Oh god, just have the three stooges come. The reputation of Manny, Moe, and Jack would scare anyone away.
Hey Moe !
Besides their drawbacks as a personal/family car, 2-door cars are categorically ineligible for Uber and Lyft. Not that a 150-mile range is enough for practical hacking.
Are any crew cab pickups eligible? I’ve never seen one.
Actually I would love an Uber or Lyft with a pickup in NYC. You have no idea what a hassle it is taking an office chair on the subway.
IDK about rideshare, but in Vegas we have tons of Maverick Hybrid taxis with hard tonneau covers.
Wish they had those in NYC for when you find an Eames chair on the sidewalk.
Sometimes I think people put out $5000 chairs on the street just to see how resourceful New Yorkers are
Three weeks later, you’ll read a diary entry about it in the NYT sunday edition.
When I had a 1976 Ford F100 in Manhattan, I would get calls all the time from friends who had found stuff on the street.
I helped a friend with a chest of drawers she found on the street on the lower east side. It wasn’t particularly great but she had just moved and needed a dresser and a landlord was emptying an apartment after an elderly tenant had died.
Later she discovered about $10,000 taped to the undersides of the drawers.
Freakin’ old people.
After my MIL died, FIL found $20,000 that her crazy ass had put in a plastic bag in the bottom of a trash can.
Whoa, did you ever see any armoire thieves? Ha ha
KRAMER: Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. What are you doing?
BOB: What does it look like we’re doing? We’re taking this.
KRAMER: You can’t take this. This belongs to a friend of mine.
BOB: Look, you wanna get hurt?
KRAMER: Huh?
BOB: I don’t think you wanna get hurt. Because if you wanna get hurt I can
hurt you. Now, just back off.
RAY: Bob.
BOB: Just pick it up.
KRAMER: What is this, huh?
BOB: You have some kind of problem here? What is it you not understanding?
We taking the armoire and that’s all there is to it. Okay?
Yeah, they are, at least in my area. I’ve gotten a couple F-150s.
I’ve seen a Ram 1500 Big Horn with an uber sign drop someone off in front of my work.
I can’t see how a fullsize pickup is a profitable rideshare car.
It is someone burning the value of an asset to scratch up some short term cash to pay bills.
EDIT: Many people driving for Uber aren’t actually making any money after expenses.
Yeah, I have friends who delivery drive and they’ll say they made $x amount in an evening. Honestly it doesn’t seem worth the little money they make doing that gig. Everyone seems to forget that cars are depreciating assets. Even if they don’t break down there’s consumables to factor in. You’ll be going through those a lot faster and running into high mileage concerns sooner, such as the need for a timing belt service or replacing worn out bushings in the suspension. Ignore those things (many do) and things will pile up, and the car will cost more to fix than it’s worth.
One of my friends who does this has a 2016 BMW 3 series with over 130k on the clock. I hope for her sake it holds together.
Yes, most people I talk to don’t consider all their expenses when saying how much the “made” driving for a day. Some don’t even factor in gas – they look at the gross amount that uber said they earned.
Haven’t you heard, the Musketeers with their 2 seat gull wing gold buggy have run Uber and Lyft out of business. But in the goodness of their hearts they have hired the unemployed drivers as gardeners and maids.
“We’re still under NDA” – a coder somewhere got fired today. Here’s hoping it was an AI
The will probably sell these to the same weirdos who bought completely base model no options single-cab Ford Rangers and whatnot. If said weirdos can get past it being electric. I think they could have sold a lot more if they just offered it with a 2.0l n/a four with a 5/6spd bought in from whomever still makes such a thing. Or better still, buy in the base Prius hybrid drivetrain. I’m sure Toyota would sell them a couple tens of thousands of them for a decent price.
But I have a VERY hard time seeing $25K as any kind of bargain for this hairshirt when I paid $20.5K for my mother’s Soul a few years ago that has back doors, power everything, a decent infotainment system, most of the sundry active safety mod cons, and zero range anxiety. And you don’t have to pay extra to make sure your crap doesn’t get wet in the rain. From an automaker with a track record of being around to honor thier warranty, if also one where recently that warranty has been more than a bit too needed. But that is pretty much all of them today.
there’s a lot of nonsense here in your post but calling people buying single cab Rangers weirdos is peak asshole
seems like not a great look for an automotive website, dunce. congrats on your mom’s soul
I don’t get the hostility for 2 door pickups. If you want to haul stuff, and there is parking involved, 2 doors make more sense. If you’re a tradesman, the last thing you need is extra doors and the difficulty parking.
I don’t have a problem with the idea of four door pickups, I do gave a problem with people driving to the grocery store in trucks that are longer than a Bugatti Royle https://www.secret-classics.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/bugattit41royale-01.jpg
Terrible at being trucks, terrible at being cars, and generally unsafe.
The only reason the manufacturers love them is that they’ve got huge margins because trucks are cheap to make with lower standards.
“I don’t get the hostility for 2 door pickups. If you want to haul stuff, and there is parking involved, 2 doors make more sense. If you’re a tradesman, the last thing you need is extra doors and the difficulty parking”
I don’t get it either. The 30-40 yo two door, 2WD base pickup is the de facto vehicle of yard care businesses wherever rust hasn’t eliminated such vehicles.
Not where I am, simply because the lawn guys are not A guy, they are a crew of at least 4-5, and so a crew cab truck makes perfect sense to transport them. But certainly a one-man show doesn’t need anything. They swarm in and cut and edge my lawn in less than five minutes. Two guys on zero-turns, three running string trimmers. For $30. Not worth my sweat to DIY at that price.
Also, that guy read my comment completely wrong – I have nothing at all against single-cab pickups – that is my preference for them. But universally, everybody I have ever known who bought truly hairshirt vehicles *new* has been an oddball sort of person. “Yeah, I am going to spend the money to buy new, but I like sweating my balls off on vinyl upholstery with no A/C and and I want no creature comforts at all in the thing.” Or a cheapskate delivery business owner who doesn’t care that the employees suffer. But those are the nichest of niche buyers, which is why that sort of thing no longer exists in the market. Even work trucks have a minimum level of creature comforts today. And ultimately, it’s more expensive today to make them with and without those basics than to just make them all the same.
Sure if you’re hauling 4-5 a crew cab makes sense. You can hook up a trailer for what won’t fit in the bed. But if you’re a crew of one you can ditch the trailer.
My BIL is a crew of one. He did have a diesel F350 for a while but that’s because he was really into DIY biodiesel at the time and that was the diesel truck he could afford. His dream was for a Corvair ramp side. He claimed the supply of those had dried up because of the insane demand for them by all the lawn guys. So if Slate can offer a ramp side they’ll get attention from the lawn guys out here.
I give Slate kudos for making their trucklet properly low to the ground. The height of modern trucks makes them pretty useless for actually using the bed.
I’d still rather just tow a trailer. Leave the cargo deck behind when you aren’t using it, and you can use the tow vehicle as more than just a work vehicle. And it can be something a lot more fun than a truck, if all you are pulling around is a lawn mower and some string trimmers and whatnot. My little BMW tows my trailer around like it’s not even there, even with 1000lbs+ of flooring loaded onto it. Using it to pick up all the solid core interior doors for my house on Saturday, that’s a pretty good load too.
I completely agree. I certainly have no hostility against 2dr pickups – it’s how most of them should be, IMHO.
I have no hostility towards single cab pickups – I generally prefer them. But as a rule, the people who bought hairshirt spec, zero option vehicles *new* (as opposed to buying something better equipped used for the same or less money) tend to be more than a bit odd (or businesses who hate thier employees). It’s a very niche market, and why for the most part they don’t exist anymore (along with manufacturing efficiency, profit margins, etc).
And you can fuck right off.
you seem salty for saying such silly things
I love you
No farmer drives a crew cab.
These days they probably do. No other choice in too many cases.
I, too, paid $16k for a brand-new full-featured car “just a few years ago”, but I did it knowing it was the end of an era the automakers (whose collective motto seems to be “We’re All ‘Premium’ Now”) were trying to get away from as fast as possible.
I’ve never had any interest in hairshirt cars. Today even the most basic of cars are equipped like the luxury cars of my youth in terms of creature comforts. Except this one, and I think that is going to be a problem at the price they are charging.
The reality is that with modern production methods and costs, it’s actually cheaper to just make them all basically the same in terms of hardware like power bits and bobs. And the hairshirt market has been incredibly niche for decades. There is just no reason to buy the pauper-spec when you can just buy a mildly used decently equipped one for the same or less money, most of the time. So they are no longer produced.
“hairshirt cars”
another idiot comment
I don’t seem to be the idiot in this conversation.
Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is The Autopian!
https://youtu.be/3jHzmMHxQy4
He’s mad I told him I love him
Is this “hairshirt car” thing a crossover into “what is a sports car?” Notwithstanding the whole “hairdresser’s car” thing,
Interestingly, Leica camera built their brand on the “hairshirt” model of having as few features as possible and selling durability.. then of course they became a Veblen good.
The w123 Mercedes was sort of like that, and pre Ford Volvos.
High quality low feature cars do indeed seem to be pretty scarce.
Probably because the unit cost of all the feature crap is probably less than the cost of inventory tracking low feature versions, and the difficulty of pretending that the features are actually worth more if there was a car available without them. ey, no food fights this is The Autopian!
Is this “hairshirt car” thing a crossover into “what is a sports car?”
Interestingly, Leica camera built their brand on the “hair shirt” model of having as few features as possible and selling durability.. then of course they became a Veblen good.
The w123 Mercedes was sort of like that, and pre Ford Volvos.
High quality low feature cars do indeed seem to be pretty scarce.
Probably because the unit cost of all the feature crap is probably less than the cost of inventory tracking low feature versions, and the difficulty of pretending that the features are actually worth more if there was a car available without them.
That Mercedes w123 240D and 300Ds were considered luxury cars in the US is a *hilarious* triumph of marketing. In the rest of the world, they were just really well built taxis – basically a German Checker. They weren’t cheap, but they weren’t really luxury car priced either (at least not until you dipped into the extensive option list and specified a big six cylinder gas engine). Same with Volvo 240s. They were never, ever luxury cars, just well-made cars. Mercedes were at least REALLY expensive in the US, so there is the luxury essence of that.
Historically most sportscars were hairshirt cars of course – but mostly because if it wasn’t necessary to go faster, it wasn’t there. But of course 40+ years ago were simpler times when only the fanciest of cars had things like power windows and locks and A/C, so most ordinary cars were pretty limited in thier amenities. If you got an automatic and a radio you were styling, and A/C was hugely expensive (IIRC an $800 option on our ’82 Subaru, a huge percentage of the price of the car). My grandparent’s ’85 Olds 98 was about as loaded as cars got in those days (and it cost $20K+ in ’84) – but a mid-trim KIA Soul with leather has more amenities than that land barge did. More horsepower too. My Mom’s base Soul only lacks leather and a power driver’s seat to be comparably equipped – but it has all the modern active safety stuff too. And that 98 didn’t even have ABS! Wasn’t even an option in ’85.
And yes, the big reason practically all cars have those basic “luxury” features is because today it costs more to offer the thing without those features (designing, manufacturing, inventorying, and ordering two versions adds up to real money) than to just make them all the same. It’s really the exception at this point to have those things as options. Base Wranglers and the basest of base work trucks? I know the Wrangler was the LAST vehicle you could buy in the US without A/C, but I don’t think that is the case anymore.
The w123 was pretty economical if you kept it for 300,000 miles.
Basically, a German Crown Vic with better fuel economy.
I guess my Prius is taxi spec in a lot of the world, I just wish the plastic bits didn’t fall off.
At the price they cost in the US, not really. And any w123 that has gone 300K has had a metric shit-ton of money spent on it to get it there. BTDT.
The fuel economy is nothing to get excited about either. Given you drive them absolutely foot to the floor at all times, 25mpg is about it – and diesel is bloody expensive these days. I would love to have another nice w123, but it would be a 250E or 280E, not another diesel. They are MUCH nicer to drive than a Crown Brick though, even as slow as they are.
The W123 and 240 were from a time when having a car that could be counted on to start when the key was turned was it’s own kind of luxury.
And yet they didn’t. Both were durable cars (for the day), neither was particularly reliable by modern standards – especially with the ministrations of the typical US mechanic of the day. Diesel or fuel injection was practically the stuff of spaceships back then. A basic Chevy was a better bet if you just wanted a car that worked absent having a specialist nearby. Owned both, the Volvo in multiple.
I wonder how someone from the 1970s would react to a mass market car from the future that could get 50+ mpg and go 200k+ on only one change of spark plugs, 20 oil changes and two tire swaps yet offer what was at the time near supercar performance and luxury car levels of NHV.
They’d probably freak out that it was Japanese.
The Japanese aren’t special anymore. Any car from almost any maker with a basic level of tech will last just as long. N52 engine’d BMWs like mine routinely go 300-400K with basic maintenance. High performance nonsense is commesurately shorter lived and more expensive – TANSTAAFL.
It’s a lot easier to last when the maintainence schedule is followed to the letter and its my understanding for a BMW to last the schedule MUST be respected. Is that the case? Because I know a Japanese car can make it to 300-400k with a rigorous schedule of neglect. Can a N52 powered BMW go that distance while being abused like a Corolla?
FWIW I did a 850 mi radius CL search for 2004-2015 BMWs with 300-400k miles and not a single BMW showed. This search includes all of California so I’m pretty sure there should be plenty of BMWs in that search area. One Mercedes. A few VWs.
When I did the same for Toyota, Subaru, Nissan and Honda several cars of each make popped up.
That is worth very little. Those Japanese cars sold in quantities of 15-20:1 of BMWs. BMW’s all-time sales record in the US was last year, at ~390K for all models. In the era of my cars, Toyota alone sold that many of EACH of just the Corolla and Camry. BMW barely sold 100K e8x and e9x cars a year combined. And half of them were the turbo motors that definitely do NOT generally make it to 300K. Very different kettle of fish.
I also find it BS that people can neglect even Corollas for that long. Any car with 300K on it has not been neglected. Or at least it wasn’t neglected for MOST of it’s life. Are they somewhat MORE tolerant of abuse, sure. But I don’t think there is much in it. Any car will last until you stop spending money on fixing it.
Sample bias perhaps. Even still I’d expect to see a handful for sale if they are indeed that reliable.
Why? If you have a car with that many miles, it’s not worth anything, so you keep it until you run it completely into the ground.
Why does anyone get rid of an otherwise perfectly usable car?
I suppose there are plenty of 300-400k Toyota/Honda/Subaru and Nissan owners we could ask.
Dozens.
In walks Weirdo.
800.jpg (800×800)
They do usually look like that, though the beard is usually gray, not blond. LOL.
LOL! I can see that.
The 1 step forward and tilt seat is probably another option you pay for. Remember they want to make the most basic truck.
Maybe it should have been a gas truck.
If they can sell enough of the EV trucks a next logical step would be licensing a combustion powertrain, something they can get relatively cheap. They’d probably have to get it from someone who doesn’t make or plan to make a competing small truck. Maybe the Prius’ powertrain? Toyota isn’t shy about selling their tech to other companies.
Or if they want to go even simpler a Slate pickup with Mazda’s 2.5 Skyactive and a geared transmission would basically be a rebirth of the four banger small Ranger/B-series of yesteryear. As far as I know Mazda hasn’t shown any real interest in getting back into the truck market.
They would be stuck supporting gas engines for decades, and would expose themselves to a whole other regulatory system, have to hire staff etc.
Also. I imagine there is not any structure for a gas engine, tank, etc in this design.
That said, Horse would my candidate for powertrain supply.
But, I really don’t think Amazon wants to sell anything that they have to service much.
Car dealers make money servicing cars, and auto companies make some money selling parts but I think if they could avoid making and keeping the parts in inventory it would be more profitable for the manufacturers.
It’s adorable that people think EVs won’t require service and repairs. I have literally NEVER had to have any of the oily bits of any of my cars touched by a dealer (and other than my 40 yo Spitfire, no mechanics at all). But there are lots and lots and lots of things that can and DO break on cars that are unrelated to the propulsion method. If nothing else, the added road hugging weight of EVs makes them hell on suspension components. Brake pads will last a long time due to regen, but rotors rust, calipers can seize from disuse. Window regulators don’t care what the motor is, nor do A/C systems (in fact, I think it’s a safe bet that A/C is what I have spent the MOST on for repairs in the past 40 years). And especially these days, electronic modules can and will fail. Wiring will fail. And not everything can be fixed with an “OTA” update.
EVs just need repair in new, exciting ways in addition to many of the old boring ones. Not needing most of the piddly bit of scheduled maintenance that modern ICE cars need is not much of advantage. Anybody selling a vehicle without a GOOD service organization in place is doomed.
I would think that if you don’t already have the sunk cost of making and supporting gas engines, transmissions, emissions controls and all that you would be an idiot to take that on of you thought that that it was going to become obsolete.
Amazon can afford to lose money on this for a while, they have the worlds best logistics system for getting parts where they need to be, the literally own the IT infrastructure that their competitors use,
If they can’t be tie Amazon of trucks, I think being the IKEA of trucks is well within reach.
They have taken the least risk possible, yet they have the most robust infrastructure.
I don’t think they are going to have a problem.
Making EVs is a way to getting around having franchise dealers.
Actually just starting a new car company without an existing dealer network will do.
Part of the problem is that selling EVs doesn’t really fit the parts and services business model of new car dealers., so all the profit would have to come from sales, which just raises prices.
no
I think that when the base Maverick had the hybrid drivetrain for cheap it was pretty much perfect. I would have preferred two doors with occasional use jumpseats and a more useful bed length. But a base Maverick was not as base as this.
The price has gone up *considerably* since it’s introduction. I don’t really blame Ford for that – seems like it’s been far more of a hit than they originally anticipated, so why not charge what the market will bear?
Gotta look into the miles per kilowatt-hour comparing the slate to the new Ford (which I think will be quite different between the two trucklets) and also compare the 0 60 time which I believe Ford is claiming to be quite quite good, but in the slate, not so much.
Another yet to be considered EEV driving feature is one-pedal regen braking. It’s one of those things that make driving an EV quite engaging. Depending on how Slate and Ford implement it (or fail to), you may wind up thinking the Ford EV truck is actually way cooler to drive.
From what I read, Ford is all-in with the best and latest tech for the electric motor and battery designs. Skunk-works worthy stuff. I think SLATE’s engineering might be best described as “economy”.
Cutting edge tech from *Ford* sounds like a recipe for being best friends with the service advisor at your local dealership. But at least you will likely HAVE a local dealership to attempt to fix the thing.
As for one-pedal driving, the appeal is more than a little bit lost on me, so I hope the hell that is an option that can be shut off if it exists at all. I want to control the regen with the other pedal, thanks.
I’ve had 3 EVs. (well, 2 Bolts, one Ioniq 6). Once you go one-pedal, you won’t go back. Think of one-pedal as the smoothest downshifting into turns you’ve ever done. Very similar feel.
Most days I don’t ever touch the brake pedal (i-pedal mode). Brakes will last forever, and you convert the heat of braking into kWh back into the battery. Very efficient. For the record, one-pedal braking will also automatically trigger your brake lights and it pairs well with auto-hold braking when stopped.
Our Mav has a “brake coach” – and without one-pedal, it’s a bit of challenge to score 100% (all regen, no friction). I usually drive in the “L” mode to get as much regen as I can back into the hybrid’s battery.
…and yes you can turn it off if it’s not your thing. Personally, I’d not spend money on an EV without full one-pedal. To GM’s and Hyundai’s credit, both seem to have it dialed in just about perfect for the cars (23 Bolts, 24 Ioniq 6).
B mode in my hybrid triggers the brake lights when lifting.
I have had to learnt to drive part throttle instead of lifting completely. It still feels a bit odd.
I’m not so sure I’d want one-pedal; I coast a decent amount and don’t want to be fighting the accelerator the entire time. My brakes already last forever so that’s not a need.
Try it. There’s a sweet spot between acceleration and braking where you’re just coasting. Done right, the pedal is quite easy to modulate.
Or, I could just release my foot entirely.
I get what you’re saying, but you can’t expect 100% of people to want or need high regen.
I’ve tried it and it’s not for me. I’d rather just finess the brake pedal to get the braking I want (which under most circumstances would be maximizing regen).
On a Ioniq 5, I seem to like level 1 or 2 the most. Three was a bit aggressive, and iPedal just felt silly. I don’t like the feeling of letting off the gas to mean a lot of braking, other than a manual manual vehicle, but a manual vehicle gives me additional control with a clutch. Condensing it all down to one pedal just felt… wrong.
I’ve driven a bunch of EVs, and hated it every time. To each thier own.
I have never found it remotely difficult to manage regen vs. friction braking in hybrids using the brake pedal, so I see reason it should be any different in an EV. When I relax my foot, I want the damned thing to coast, not start braking.
Driving an EV is not the same as rowing your own gears and hitting redline just for fun, but I say it’s different, not bad. Room for both in my auto world.
Personally I love the responsiveness of instant torque, the quiet ride, and the high efficiency/low maintenance. A good EV makes a great Grand Touring and with cruise / adaptive raise, a very relaxing ride.
I guess it all depends on the EV and your expectations.
To be clear, I am fine with EVs in general. I just don’t have a use case for owning one. I drive too far to be bothered with the charging nonsense when I am driving far, and not enough otherwise to care. Gas could be $15/gal and it wouldn’t effect me enough to matter. I mostly just find them extremely boring, given acceleration, thier one big party trick, doesn’t interest me much.
But I don’t like one pedal driving at all, and I really, truly, absolutely loath the user interfaces of every single one I have ever driven. Which is enough to keep me from buying one, or any other screens, screens, screens and more screens modern car. Too many cars remain in minty fresh low-mileage used form of the types I like for me to bother with modern bullshit. And as a bonus, they are usually cheaper. I can buy this stripper spec little hairshirt of a pickup for $25K, or I could buy another minty fresh low miles Mercedes E350 wagon for the same price. That is NOT a hard decision for me at all.
I’d never recommend an EV for anyone if they can’t charge at home every night. Even if you can, if most trips are beyond the daily charge range, then an EV probably isn’t going to work well.
Even if it does, there’s no argument that the user screens have run amok these days, but honestly there’s not much difference between the screens and crap in my 25 Maverick and my 24 Ioniq. Still too much on the screen(s) and not enough physical buttons. Not awful, but still too much. It’s not just an EV problem.
What I can say is the EV depreciation makes them THE bargain used car buys. Expect to pay about 1/2 the original MSRP for a gently used, low milage, still in warranty 2 yr old EV. The depreciation sucks if you paid list, but it’s great if you’re in the (gently used) market. The great EV lease return wave is due to peak late summer this year (timed with the wave of leases that occurred before the tax credit died).
We’re lucky we’ve a fleet of vehicles in our driveway to pick from so we’re able to use the right tool for the job. Our Ioniq 6 limit AWD sedan EV gets almost all of the duty as it’s our around town choice, but we have the Maverick AWD Lariat hybrid trucklet for truck/hauling/towing duty and it’s also our road trip vehicle of choice since we don’t want to mess with level-3 public charging, and I’ve a proper 5-speed NA Miata for when I want to scratch the topless sportscar itch.
When we got our first EV (23 Bolt EUV Premier), we thought it would be our 2nd choice car, Within a week it became our go-to primary vehicle for almost every trip. Charging at home every night with a 50 amp 220 circuit for about 1/4 the cost of gas was the ticket. Wife especially liked never having to go to a gas station again.
EV’s aren’t for everyone, but they sure work well if you can charge ’em up enough for your travels while you sleep… a simple 120v outlet will work for most.
I agree with every one of your points. And I still have absolutely zero use case for owning an EV. 1/4 of the almost nothing I spend on gas isn’t enough money saved to bother with. But if I had a commute, it MIGHT make sense to own a cheap EV to do it in if I could stand driving the thing. On the other hand, where I live it’s a minimum $1200/yr just to register and insure an additional car. And one more to maintain and deal with. Nah, I’d still drive something I actually LIKE driving, just like I did when I had a 30mi/day commute. I commuted in my Spitfire most nice days Easter to Thanksgiving for a decade. And 30 years ago, my definition of nice was a lot broader than it is today. I’m old and spoiled these days.
I can barely stand driving ANY modern cars. My rental du jour is a KIA K4 (not much to choose from at DCA Monday), which is about as innocuous as modern cars get, and I still find the thing hateful and can’t wait to give it back to Hertz tomorrow. It has buttons for the HVAC – but they are STUPID in how they work (and it’s not auto HVAC so you actually need to fiddle with them). It has an annoyingly busy screen for the instrument panel too. The screen is ridiculous for no reason other than being able to advertise “look how big our screen is!”. It doesn’t do Google Maps any better than just using my phone. Blech. $24K+ with delivery for this thing. There ain’t no universe I would buy something like this when I can buy something like my mint condition low miles ’11 BMW 128i for $10K less. $10K pays for a TON of maintenance and repairs. And gas.
I hear ya! If they make the hole big enough, they can bury me behind the wheel of my Miata. Can’t beat the basics for the joy of driving.
I plan to be buried in my RWD, 6spd stick BMW wagon. No screens, no BS. Utterly irreplaceable on the market at this point. And a delight to drive.
I do love Miatas (and loved my Fiata), but I sadly don’t fit in them. The Fiata had to go due to the literal pain, much as I loved driving it. Leave out all the modern comfort and safety and I fit in a car 1/3rd smaller (my Spitfire) just fine. But I fully understand why that’s a bridge too far for most.
X11 would be perfect, conjuring the legendary Chevy Citation X-11.
Seconded. Another car that should’ve had the option of more doors since a 5-door hatchback X-11 would’ve been plug-and-play for Chevrolet, a mere matter of putting trim package A onto body B.
No matter what happens with this little trucklet, you kids are killing it these days with these stories and details
Emergency podcast? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha…Thanks for the laugh!
Emergency #? Reminds me of IT Crowd:
Singers: 0118 999 881 999 119 7253
Old woman: Hello? I’ve had a bit of a tumble.
(The scene cuts back to the IT Department.)
Moss: Well, that’s easy to remember. (sings the tune) 0118 999 881 999 119 7253
Roy: I wonder why they didn’t just keep it as it was! How hard is it to remember 911?
Moss: You mean 999?
Roy: I mean 999, yeah!
Moss: That’s the American one, you berk!
The RSS feed link is a link to the player embedded above it. Does anyone know the actual RSS link to the podcast?
On the actual article, I have no idea. I don’t like the idea of all of the connected services that are in vehicles these days. I would like a better EV roadtrip vehicle than my Bolt, but won’t consider another Chevy due to their ‘just pay for another phone service forever to keep using the services in our cars’ switch they’ve done recently. The punctum of the Slate, for me, is an EV that’s designed the opposite of what everyone else is doing. Would I prefer it was a wagon versus a pickup? Yes, yes I would. A van would also be preferable (to me). But I do appreciate that you may pay (seemingly) extra to not be a money making part of the product cycle by just driving places where they can sell your location and show you ads for the privilege.
That said, I don’t buy new cars and have actively avoided pickups despite their ubiquity in this nation in which I live. I am excited to see them in the wild, though.
Same here, although the slate is the first four wheel vehicle I’m tempted to buy new.
If they made one that looked like a first generation Scion xB, I would buy it in a heartbeat. Sort of close to tell the truth
Since there aren’t any more x11 numbers, you could make it a NEIN-1-1 call.