Hmmm ... maybe their "fall" loosely correlates with when they started building them right here in the "good ole U.S.A."?I believe Toyota has fallen far from where they stood in regards to quality. The Toyota of today is not the same company it was in the '90s.
To me, quality starts with the "Major Mechanicals": Engine and Transmission. If you can't do that right, then forget it! Stuff like windshield or glass leaks, loose mirrors, trim issues ... yeah ... that's annoying, but it's not going to leave you stranded somewhere, or cost you thousands of dollars in repairs outside warranty.a lot of members are starting to see recurring issues with their vehicles that shouldn't be happening. Examples - roof leaks through roof rail attachments, shaking side mirrors, distorting/melting exterior trim... etc. How can anyone say these are signs of high quality?
EVs will have a whole different set of issues. For example, the Ford Mustang Mach-E still has a radiator and a liquid cooled system that needs servicing religiously every 30K miles. That can easily leak.That's why I say ... bring on the EVs and "solid state" engines. No more bad piston rings, no more broken lifters, no more failed gaskets buried deep inside the engine that cost thousands to replace (and then worry that the repair work was done properly). GM seems to see it the same way. I think they've had it with all the callbacks and lawsuits...
I've owned a couple of RAV4's. Compared to the Equinox? Noisier, used more gas, cheesier interior.See link below for all new EV Equinox and Blazer.
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GM Announces Chevy Blazer EV at CES 2022
Today, Chevrolet announced that electrified versions of the Blazer & Equinox will arrive in 2023! https://media.chevrolet.com/media/us/en/chevrolet/home.detail.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2022/jan/ces/0105-2024-equinox.html CHEVROLET PREVIEWS EQUINOX EV Equinox EV builds on Chevy’s commitment...www.chevyblazer.org
"No more ICE vehicles" is what GM is saying right now, but if they even get to that point, I wouldn't be surprised if they just ended up bringing back ICE vehicles a short time later anyway, but with sky-high MSRPs, and a boatload of buyers willing to pay anything to not drive an EV!The future is BEV's, not hybrids and certainly not ICE's. No more fossil fueled vehicles will likely be developed.
It's not just tree huggers that are buying EVs, in fact I don't even think it's half the buyers. Some folks are just tired of getting ripped off every time they take their car in for service and other motivators. My wife had me order a Tesla because of the technology, it's like a smartphone on wheels for geeky people. EVs are also becoming fashion. If your friends and neighbors get one you will get one. The same thing happened with the SUV craze, most folks didn't need one they got one because their friends did and were willing to pay more than they ever thought a vehicle would cost to keep up with the Jones'. The ability to say "Oh, did gas prices go up?,.. I didn't notice" is also nice.It really would be foolish to completely eliminate ICE across the industry. If it does eventually happen it will be decades, not years. I see advantages and disadvantages to BEVs but I'm open minded and believe one might be in my future once the options and infrastructure improve. At the same time I have watched documentaries on cobalt and lithium mining. How the tree huggers think that is any better than pulling oil out of the ground escapes me.
I bought a new 21 Bolt because I needed a car and was actually the cheapest new car I could find. Paid only $20k for it. I really enjoyed it. Cost only $0.013 a mile for charging. Certainly saved me quite a bit of money over filling my previous car with gas at $0.09 a mile. Unfortunately there is a minorIt's not just tree huggers that are buying EVs, in fact I don't even think it's half the buyers. Some folks are just tired of getting ripped off every time they take their car in for service and other motivators. My wife had me order a Tesla because of the technology, it's like a smartphone on wheels for geeky people. EVs are also becoming fashion. If your friends and neighbors get one you will get one. The same thing happened with the SUV craze, most folks didn't need one they got one because their friends did and were willing to pay more than they ever thought a vehicle would cost to keep up with the Jones'. The ability to say "Oh, did gas prices go up?,.. I didn't notice" is also nice.
And as Paul Harvey used to say. . . "This is the rest of the story ! ".Here is the issue I have......I have no problems with EV's...However the basic infrastructure of a persons home may not even meet the requirements for say a 2 car EV family. Most breaker panels only have so many slots to put in these 40AMP service breakers....sure you can get a whole new breaker box...but how many people are going to do that. Where I live, with the cost of housing out of control here in Ontario, a 1800 square foot detached home is going for a million dollars everywhere in the Greater Toronto area.....now with that, you have multiple families or generations of people living there just to survive the crazy prices/rent, Every single driveway on my street has minimum 3 to 4 cars in it.
Lets say they all get EV's
I shudder to think of what your hydro bill would be monthly, if your electrical service could even handle it...
It might work for a couple, or a single person right now with ONE EV car, but trying having an entire family with EV's in the driveway. Not going to happen, you would have extension cords running all over the place.
Jason
FWIW, I had to have my home upgraded from 100 amp service to 200 amp service. About four years ago it cost just under $6,000 US, including replacing the meter box, replacing the breaker box with a larger one and all new breakers, the city permits and inspection, and required trenching about 100 feet to replace the underground wiring from the house to the transformer in the back yard.2022RSGUY said:I shudder to think of what your hydro bill would be monthly, if your electrical service could even handle it...
FWIW, I had to have my home upgraded from 100 amp service to 200 amp service. About four years ago it cost just under $6,000 US, including replacing the meter box, replacing the breaker box with a larger one and all new breakers, the city permits and inspection, and required trenching about 100 feet to replace the underground wiring from the house to the transformer in the back yard.
If we had overhead wiring the power company would have covered that cost.
If the next owner has an EV they're all set.![]()
Yup! We're just gonna end up being slaves to the Electric Companies instead of the Oil Companies. Heck, maybe the Oil Companies will buy the Electric Companies!
The other part that concerns me greatly is the cost of electricity. It is already too high where I live due to a previous governments push for "green" energy. I can see future governments using the excuse of needing to upgrade the infrastructure for EVs to give them the green light to increase rates significantly down the road. This will make any potential savings from going EV shrink or even disappear.
It's going to be the opposite, unfortunately. Proprietary tools to read the special codes as are needed for my Hyundai Sonata Hybrid, specially-trained techs at dealers, neighborhood garages that cannot work on the drivetrain, special vendor-specific test equipment, etc.Colt Hero said:But if all we get out of it is simplification of the automobile, ease of maintenance, and a lot less mystery involving repairs, then I think it'll still be a big win in the end.
When we had our famous power outage here in Texas there was no power at gas stations and stores so I didn't have a use for my car. I was lucky enough to have a natural gas line to my home and that was still working so I was able to run the fireplace and cooktop burners to keep from freezing. My central heat is gas also but without power it didn't work. What I really needed was a home battery or a vehicle like the Ford F-150 lighting that could run my house just to run the HVAC system. I really hope that doesn't happen again.It's going to be the opposite, unfortunately. Proprietary tools to read the special codes as are needed for my Hyundai Sonata Hybrid, specially-trained techs at dealers, neighborhood garages that cannot work on the drivetrain, special vendor-specific test equipment, etc.
EV's still need transmissions and all of the rest of the same running gear. The engines will become motors but the electronic controls will add the complexity removed by lessening the moving parts. The vehicles will become more susceptible to electronic and radio interference resulting in more unexplainable and unduplicatable "glitches".
And we'll still have power failures in major storms but no 5 gallon gas cans to get us through.
What does "too high" mean to you?Silversn95 said:The other part that concerns me greatly is the cost of electricity. It is already too high where I live due to a previous governments push for "green" energy. I can see future governments using the excuse of needing to upgrade the infrastructure for EVs to give them the green light to increase rates significantly down the road. This will make any potential savings from going EV shrink or even disappear.