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America’s Cars Are Getting Faster and More Efficient

bloomberg.com

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Re: America’s Cars Are Getting Faster and More Efficient

#501

Post by fps »

chrisseaton wrote: post #396
stupidhn wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Either we're damaging our cars or you're wasting money and oil. The latter. Most manufacturers recommend 10,000 miles now, some as high as 15,000 (Jaguar, known for being unreliable): https://www.edmunds.com/car-news/tips-advice/stop-changing-y... Being as how manufacturers have to cover the warranty issues that could be related to lack of oil changes, I go with what they recommend.

I think the UK we don't even have the same 'lube shops' that you do. The dealerships change your oil at the yearly service. It's a whole industry that you have that seems to be entirely redundant!

dealerships in the US are nicknamed "stealerships." People typically don't go to the dealership for service once the warranty is up, if at all. The dealerships in my area charge as much as 4x the cost of independent shops for maintenance: $120 for an oil change at the local toyota dealership vs. $30 at the garage 1/4 mile down the road. The dealership is also more likely to find non-existent problems with wear parts like brakes, belts, filters, suspension, etc to upsell you or push you to the sales department.

Re: America’s Cars Are Getting Faster and More Efficient

#502

Post by jacquesm »

DanBC wrote: post #500
jacquesm wrote: post #498

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1) I don't smoke 2) You can get cancer from many other things than cigarettes.

Most lung cancer is caused by cigarettes. Many cancers have a "lifestyle" component. This does not mean that every single case of cancer is caused by something the person did. It does mean that we need to give people better information. Some lifestyle factors are much stronger than others. Smoking causes a lot of cancer. Alcohol causes less. http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/lung-cancer/ris... > Smoking to…

I'm objecting to the general statement that 'cancers are avoidable'. Some cancers are, not all cancers are and there are plenty of people that ended up with lung cancer that never smoked so even that isn't a guarantee.

Re: America’s Cars Are Getting Faster and More Efficient

#503

Post by darksim905 »

MertsA wrote: post #456
LeifCarrotson wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you talking about? Here's the official maintenance interval for the Bolt: http://i.imgur.com/gU4FfdY.png It calls for tire rotations every 7,500 miles - not a lot you can do about that, and I suspect tire wear will be worse in a torque-happy EV. Skipping them will only reduce your traction, which I suppose could damage you and your car. And of course you have "required services" like brake pads when those we…

To be fair, I didn't know that the coolant in a Bolt is supposed to be good for 150,000 miles, that's a good bit longer than I figured. I was thinking closer to 90,000 miles, but you're right, the lower service temperature and also less metal surface area will make it last longer in an EV. But in an ICE, exhaust and oil should not be getting into the coolant at all. If it is, any long life coolant is going to need to…

I think you're confusing service interval items that are "check/verify" with "need to do". I'm almost positive you don't need to check or change anything that extensively on a manual transmission VW.

Also, we figured out a long time ago that sealed transmissions are okay, but it all boils down to how you drive the vehicle. Yeah, if you treat the car like shit, or you get the transmission checked (if this is even possible these days), if it's low then there's something wrong & you'll need to add fluid, or drain & fill. Otherwise? You don't touch it & it's fine. Volkswagens last a solid 200-300k miles before you actually need to do something major, but that's subjective.

Yes, there's all these wonderful suspension components, but I imagine with Tesla vehicles, those components are most likely heavier duty than a regular vehicle, given all the fucking obnoxious batteries. They also probably wear a lot differently & components will fail differently than they will & at different rates compared to a traditional ICE vehicle.

Re: America’s Cars Are Getting Faster and More Efficient

#504

Post by darksim905 »

alistairSH wrote: post #395
chrisseaton wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the UK people are told to change their oil once a year or 10k miles. If you do it every 3k miles in the US, which of us is doing it wrong? Either we're damaging our cars or you're wasting money and oil. They're the same cars doing the same distance, and parts of the US are similar climates.

3,000 mile oil changes hasn't been a standard recommendation in the US for at least a decade, probably longer. These days, most (all?) cars have an idiot light that pops on every 5-10k miles, based on usage patterns. Some have a more robust algorithm than others. Either way, in my experience, my last 3-4 cars (Jeep, Lexus, Volvo, VW) have all gone about 8k miles between services, as indicated by the light.

The 'idiot light' is not based on miles, but on how much oil is actually in the engine. There's a sensor in there that if it touches air, essentially, the light goes on. You can trip this on certain VWs if you turn very sharply & you are low enough on oil.

Compare this to GM/Chevy vehicles where this is a 'solved problem' with their on board DICT computer, it measurements the containment (via resistance? electricity?) in the oil & tells you the 'health' or 'life' of the oil until you need to change it. This leads to a lot more reasonable oil change intervals in line with Mobile's testing over the years: 5k, 7k or 10k change intervals are common.

BMW is one of the few brands that recommends once a season, or 10k, because they know what oil is capable of, in so far as they've removed dip-sticks entirely (retarded decision, but hey). However, most dealerships & shops? They still want that sweet money on that 3k oil change. 5k has become the 'open secret' standard, though.

Re: America’s Cars Are Getting Faster and More Efficient

#505

Post by darksim905 »

exprA wrote: post #400
stupidhn wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Either we're damaging our cars or you're wasting money and oil. The latter. Most manufacturers recommend 10,000 miles now, some as high as 15,000 (Jaguar, known for being unreliable): https://www.edmunds.com/car-news/tips-advice/stop-changing-y... Being as how manufacturers have to cover the warranty issues that could be related to lack of oil changes, I go with what they recommend.

I guess I'm at the other end of spectrum by simply following what the manufacturer proposes: I change my oil along with the filter every 18,000 miles, and so far, after 100,000 miles (and then some) have not had any issues. (My car is rather cheap, or in EV sense practically free, so I'm not all too concerned, either.) The engine does not consume too much oil, either, so a single 4L bottle – about a gallon I think –…

What vehicle do you drive that you can get away with 18k mile oil changes? And are we discussing actual gas or that diesel crap?

Re: America’s Cars Are Getting Faster and More Efficient

#506

Post by darksim905 »

dragontamer wrote: post #448
adrianN wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt that there are many drivers who can outperform a modern automatic transmission.

I disagree. As eeks points out, fully automatic transmissions are kind of awful at making decisions. I have a case when I was driving into work this morning. I got stuck behind a funeral procession going 35 MPH on a 65 MPH interstate highway (Uggghhhhh) I look to my left-mirror, and I see a spot I can feasibly make, I just gotta time it right to get "into" the flow of traffic. So what do I do? I drop to 2nd gear (The…

Automatic transmissions are better & smarter than you. you may have to drive a little differently if you're driving an automatic in the scenario you described, but saying that it doesn't ''know'' what you wanted to do means either your transmission is virgin & hasn't learned your habits, or, had a different driver for several years & is shifting at the wrong points. This 'ready to go' thing is all hogwash manual elitism.

Re: America’s Cars Are Getting Faster and More Efficient

#507

Post by darksim905 »

mastre_ wrote: post #488
mikeash wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I own a Tesla S85 and recently had a Cadillac ATS rental for a few days. It was an interesting contrast, since the official 0-60 times of the two cars are almost the same, yet the Cadillac felt like an absolute slug by comparison. I think a lot of it is that there's a great deal of lag in traditional drivetrains, and we rarely do 0-60 in actual real-life driving. More typically we're doing 0-30 or 30-40 or 55-65. Onc…

I recently completed a day of high performance driving school where we ran M3s and M4s the whole day (these were all equipped w/ DCT, the Competition Package, and Carbon Ceramic brakes). There is so much more to actual high performance driving than acceleration numbers. You may say "oh yea, cornering!" and while that's certainly delving deeper into it, there's a _lot_ more than just that (and many, many things go int…

Not to be a jerk, but how much does such an outing cost? :\

Re: America’s Cars Are Getting Faster and More Efficient

#508

Post by darksim905 »

Shivetya wrote: post #35
drewg123 wrote: post #11

I'm not sure that I believe their assertion that cars have gotten lighter. Perhaps the real land-yacht monstrosities have been weeded out (and replaced with SUVs). But it seems like comfort and safety concerns, coupled with more power and better fuel economy have been causing equivalent cars to become heavier (and more expensive) over time. As an example, one of my first cars was an 84 VW GTI. It weighed ~2000lbs. Tr…

Well F150s dropped a couple of hundred pounds go to aluminum. The Chevy Volt; I own the second generation; is three hundred pounds lighter. Now if you go back twenty plus years or more before the age of crush points and advanced passenger safety systems both passive and active, yeah you can find your lighter weight cars. Cars which won't handle a head on with a car two sizes smaller. Weight is one reason why manufact…

Do you like the 2nd gen volt? :0

Re: America’s Cars Are Getting Faster and More Efficient

#509

Post by wayn3 »

darksim905 wrote: post #505
exprA wrote: post #400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess I'm at the other end of spectrum by simply following what the manufacturer proposes: I change my oil along with the filter every 18,000 miles, and so far, after 100,000 miles (and then some) have not had any issues. (My car is rather cheap, or in EV sense practically free, so I'm not all too concerned, either.) The engine does not consume too much oil, either, so a single 4L bottle – about a gallon I think –…

What vehicle do you drive that you can get away with 18k mile oil changes? And are we discussing actual gas or that diesel crap?

thats a pretty standard recommendation from practically all german car manufacturers - to change oil roughly every 30-35k kilometers - which is about 18k miles.

Re: America’s Cars Are Getting Faster and More Efficient

#510

Post by valuearb »

jacquesm wrote: post #502
DanBC wrote: post #500

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most lung cancer is caused by cigarettes. Many cancers have a "lifestyle" component. This does not mean that every single case of cancer is caused by something the person did. It does mean that we need to give people better information. Some lifestyle factors are much stronger than others. Smoking causes a lot of cancer. Alcohol causes less. http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/lung-cancer/ris... > Smoking to…

I'm objecting to the general statement that 'cancers are avoidable'. Some cancers are, not all cancers are and there are plenty of people that ended up with lung cancer that never smoked so even that isn't a guarantee.

I used the word "some".
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