The only time I’ve ever tried to buy gas at Costco, it was an even longer line than that, and we left the line and filled the tank of the rental car elsewhere and nearly missed our flight, due to the time we wasted by pulling into that Costco line.
I do drive past some gas stations in my regular driving, but I don’t go anyplace that has pumps just sitting there.
Anyway, it never bothered me that I had to buy gas until I went a few years without needing to do it. Now, I realize what a nuisance it is.
Ah, that would be a drag. When they replaced the tanks and only had half the pumps operating for a period of maybe 2-3 weeks it was like that at my Costco. But now that the new tanks are in I rarely have to wait for more than the cars already fueling at Costco.
Not really any different from non-Costco gas stations.
I accidentally quoted this in an unrelated post. I meant to give this a moderation note. Whiskey, please don’t insult other posters. If you think he’s being inappropriately selective in his quoting, you can say that, but don’t accuse him of dishonesty.
There are actually (at least) two components to cold weather battery issues. The first is warming the battery to efficient operating temp at the start of the trip. This is why EVs suggest leaving your car plugged in on cold nights.
The second is extra heating needs for the occupants (windshield/backglass and maybe mirrors for defrosting). ICE simply use their waste heat to warm the cabin/windshield. Other cold weather range issues like snowy roads affect ICE vehicles as well as EVs.
It’s probably relevant that our legs are nearly the same length, so we only adjust the mirrors, not the seats. But they sell cars that remember a couple of different seating positions and adjust based on the key you are carrying, so I’m sure we aren’t the only couple who share cars based on how we plan to use the car, and not just his&hers.
I mean, usually the only difference in our use was how far we’d be driving, but sometimes it was about ease of parking (the non electric car was larger, and harder to park in the city) or about hauling stuff (ditto, or, well, the reverse I guess.)
Hmm, my mom is considerably shorter than my dad, but she had the seat as far forward as it would go, so it wasn’t difficult to reset it every time. And she had to set the seat back to get in & out anyway, so it was no extra work to adjust the seat due to sharing the car.
It was more an issue if someone left something in a car and the next day the other spouse had the car and the item was temporarily unavailable. Like if my mom had a book in the hatchback so she’d have something to read in the waiting room at the doctor’s office. But then she left it in the car and the next day it was raining so my dad took to hatchback to work and the book along with it. Not the end of the world, but an annoyance you don’t have if you’re fairly purely doing your car / my car rather than our cars.
The flip side is that it forced them to do a better job of keeping their crap out of the cars.
Honda, seemingly late to the EV game, announces a 2024 EV model that has some cross engineering with GM. I have read more than one article on the webs, and the details are sparse. Different sources have stated different levels of contribution between GM and Honda. For the record, I am a Honda fanboy and a GM hater, so I am somewhat ambivalent here. I guess I have 3 years to pontificate about it.
Good question. They got where they are by being better than their peers. Honda has invested in developing hydrogen electric vehicles, where the rest of the world seem content with batteries instead. Honda has a self imposed 2040 deadline for electrification, which is 5 years later than everybody else that has announced a date.
Toyota has a lineup of several vehicles that are quite old, technologically speaking. Land Cruiser, 4Runner, Sequoia, Lexus GX, and Lexus LX are all on old platforms. They are big, old engines.
They have transmissions with a low number of gears. The world has moved on past them to smaller, turbocharged engines with 10 speed transmissions. If you want new-tech, you must buy a Highlander or Rav4.
I am sure they both have analysts and forecasters. I doubt that they will be as short sighted as Kodak. It seems that their measured approach to EVs has been to bide their time and not make early mistakes.
A little late to the game with this but both the Tesla Model X and Model Y have over 41" of headroom. Not trying to say that either of those fit anyone’s needs but just showing that there are bigger EVs on the market. However, I don’t know how comfortable the Tesla seats would be for a very tall person. My experience is that I’m held nicely in the seats but that might translate to the seat feeling too small for someone 6’5".
My opinion is that Toyota and Honda are waiting to see what the infrastructure looks like before going all in on EVs. They both offer EV option overseas in Europe and Japan but there seems to be a better charging standard then in the US. The US car market is weird because what we buy/want is not necessarily what we need/serves us best so they may be playing it safe by waiting until we figure out what we’ll actually buy.
However, I recall an article about the CEO of Toyota who recently stated that the hype over EVs is overstated. So there might be a little Kodak going on.
The Model X looks pretty cool. I like it but it starts at $84,690 before adding for paint, or other options like interior color and seating options. It is a price point beyond the reach of most consumers. The model Y starts at 48,690, but it is not as big. It is just under the size of a Rav4.
I have an older Rav4 in my personal fleet, so I make comparisons to that. Generally, a Rav4 would be the smallest size car I would ever buy.
According to Google, the RAV4 has 39.5" of headroom while the Model X and Y are both over 41". 41.7" and 41" respectively. The Model X is definitely bigger than a RAV4 but looking at the other dimensions of the Model Y, it looks like the Model Y has more head and leg room but narrower seats than the RAV4.
The Model X is cool but it is pricey. I really like the falcon wings personally.
There’s the Honda Clarity. Does that not come in full electric? It comes in fuel cell and plug in hybrid/electric. The hybrid has a decent all-electric range.
I don’t think they sold the fuel-cell version, but I’m pretty sure they sold the plug-in hybrid version. I considered buying one, and while I didn’t like it, I think they would have told me if it hadn’t actually been for sale.
My takes on the big 3 Japanese makers (by no means expert analysis): Nissan has languished after the Leaf for too long, but is starting to come on line with a more modern approach with the 2022 Ariya. Honda has slow rolled BEV’s, keeping fuel cells as part of development of alternative fuels. Toyota’s leadership appears to be very reluctant to ditch ICE (comments by Toyoda are quite against BEVs), and that might have them playing catchup for years.