All things motor vehicles

@2much, I agree 100% for me.

I'll be ready for an electric car when there's no more gasoline.

Just a guess, but I'd think a substantial part of the EV owners buy new and trade before the warranty period ends. Either that, or they lease. Either way, they aren't concerned with the inevitable battery pack replacement charge. Some tell themselves they will ALWAYS have a car payment.

Still, I'd expect them to take a bath on the EV resale value for the reason mentioned, but who knows. With an ICE vehicle, in most cases the car is probably disposable as well if the engine blew, depending on mileage.

While there is less maintenance and things to go wrong (in theory), horror stories of repair costs still seem scary.

With battery-powered EVs, there's a difference between incurring repair costs and the inevitable cost to replace the battery pack, which has a finite life that can't really be extended by periodic maintenance.. Think of the battery pack as a balloon payment on a mortgage and you're not far off. One of the big problems with EVs is the consumer financing structure, the financing is set up to be similar to ICE vehicles, but that structure is really inappropriate for EVs when you have an inevitable $15-18k cost to replace the battery pack in about 10 years.

Seems like all of the hoopla has died down about EVs for a while now. While sales are probably still thriving, the increases in electric bills (at least by us) have made EVs much less of a consideration for a lot of people. I know that I was considering one, but without solar panels to offset the increased electric usage, it is more unlikely that I personally would consider one now.

While there is less maintenance and things to go wrong (in theory), horror stories of repair costs still seem scary. It's probably an understatement to say that politics has played some part in the push to go electric ;-)

For my 16th birthday my boyfriend got me a 66 Chevelle I still have it. It’s actually in my profile pictures. I drove it all the way through high school and college. It was replaced in 2016 with the car I currently drive now. Yes that’s right. I’ve had two cars since 16 years old. I think it’s a shame people waste so much money flip-flopping cars when they last so long if you take care of them.

I had a mk1 miata that I actually liked better than '12, other than the power hard top.

Just felt more like a sports car to me.

Who needs trunk space when I can carry 15’ ladders when the top is down?

Owner of a ‘91 and ‘19 Miata

That's one thing I like about my Miata.

The hardtop folds like a clamshell and I don't lose any trunk space.

Not that there is much trunk space to begin with...

I was there when the XLR first came out and got to beat the crap out of some demos at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with driving instructors from Bob Bondurant. That was fun.

Not much room in that car and you lose most of the trunk when the top goes down.

I'm looking at replacing my DTS with a Caddy that has the same engine, except this is a RWD vehicle and the Northstar engine is NOT transverse mounted. That solves a few design problems and it's highly unlikely I'll be driving this in snow. I do have to say though that I miss the fun of drifting around corners in a RWD vehicle in the snow.

This is a Cadillac XLR and is a 2-seater with a hardtop convertible. I'm guessing that this has the double overhead cam performance engine because it's rated at 320 hp, vs the 300 hp that my DTS pushes.

It should be a reasonably fast and fun alternative to my DTS. It's smaller and lighter than my DTS with slightly more power, and the DTS has ample power as it is. For 99.9% of the time it is either only me or me and the Mrs. If I need to handle more passengers I have the GMC Acadia Denali for that. Though I'm going backwards a few years, it actually has 6K less miles than my DTS currently has on it.

This "should" solve the most annoying part of the oil leak problem with these engines. It may still leak a little oil, but it won't be dripping it onto the exhaust causing that burnt oil smell.

The car in this case seems to just be a hook to pull people in and discuss his politics. Conflict in general tends to attract attention, and more attention = more clicks = more money from advertisers that support his channel.

Perhaps he gets more clicks by making claims than actually proving them?

I have little doubt that if he went to a magazine like Car and Driver and offered to let them put his car through it's paces and verify his claims that they happily would have. Someone like C&D probably have access to test tracks for this purpose.

For someone who is supposedly so creative, you'd think he would have came up with the same idea himself. As mentioned, his claims would be a LOT more legit coming from an independant source vs being self-verified.

He spent a lot of time, effort and money to make a point, but then did little to verify he actually had a legit point. The fact that it was more about the point than the car was disappointing, to say the least.

I watched a couple of his videos. That dude loves to hear himself talk.

Like most YouTube influencers he's working the algorithm for maximum cash extraction.

He did claim this was a mix of city and highway. The fact that he only did this average for 18 miles of driving is odd. The car has a 5 gal gas (diesal) tank, so you'd think he's at least to a mix over a tank of fuel.

I'm not sure he actually jumped through the hoop of getting this thing road legal, so unsure where he actually drove this thing to make this calculation. That could be the reason for the short distance.

“As I recall, he made this 104 mpg claim after driving only 18 miles."

Coasting downhill in neutral.

lol

~Scamp

"As I recall, he made this 104 mpg claim after driving only 18 miles."

Your mileage may vary.

Some of the other videos aren't as political, but it would have been a LOT better if he had his mileage claims verified by other than himself. As I recall, he made this 104 mpg claim after driving only 18 miles. The guy obviously has an axe to grind and with politics injected, it's hard to tell if it's a legitimate axe grinding.

That particular video you linked had nothing to do with the car. A couple of shots "proving" it has the performance he claims, but no verification.

The claims have no face validity. The highest mpg for a non-hybrid production car is 78 MPG. And they certainly didn't do 0-60 in 4.61 seconds in a Passat...

The point of the video seemed to be calling Buttigieg an idiot.

I would watch another of his videos, but I'm sure it would be more of the same...

hotluvrs - Yes, he made a cool car, but in at least the video I linked to and another of his videos I watched, he talks as much or more about the politics of why we don't have a car like that than about the car itself.

At least when Elio of Elio Motors talked about his vehicle, it was more about the vehicle. In both cases, neither are going to make it into production. Elio is trying again with an electric version of his, but he lost a lot of cred with his non-refundable deposits for the gas version. I'm not interested in his electric version. Even if I was, I certainly wouldn't be sending him any money after his first attempt.

As for the Omega car, Putsch did it to prove a point. He made his point, and he has no plans to try to move towards production.

I’m not saying that Mr Putsch isn’t right, but I am saying that I can’t listen to him for more than three minutes. I’ve never been good at being lectured to.

Yeah, it did look tight. In another video he said the steering wheel and pedals adjust rather than the seat, but they obviously didn't go back far enough.

Cool car but does that thing come with a shoe horn? I think I'd need one to get in it. In another video, it looks like his knees are in his chest as he's driving.

"Link?" - There are a few different links for this, but the one I watched specifically was -

ww w.youtube. com/watch?v=e8jH1LIDHqk

I think others probably have more about the car and less or nothing about politics, which I'll likely watch when I have more time. Very interesting privately built concept car though.