211–220 of 432 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
And what do you do if those fires cause other things to burn in the vicinity?
Same thing you do when an ICE car sets a building on fire. Apply water and put it out.
So what is a family with a two car garage supposed to do, park the Bolt a block away? This seems like the kind of thing GM should get wayyyy in front of with a very generous offer to buy back the cars as a trade towards another GM model.
If I had a Bolt, I would have (grudgingly) been ok with parking it outside since I could just park it in the driveway. But I can't park it 50 feet away from another car, since 50 feet from my garage (where my other car is parked) is the street, and I can't prevent anyone else from parking near the car on the street. I'd be pushing for a buyback at this point.
Whether I will try and return the car ... I dunno. The risk is still on the low side, and it's such an inexpensive little car to drive. Drive's pretty nice, too. I don't know what I'd replace it with that wouldn't be much more expensive to both purchase and operate.
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If batteries are easily swappable with minimal tools, then a lot of range concerns go away as well. I think battery ownership and care needs to be decoupled from the vehicle. I also think the federal government should enforce interoperable batteries between vehicle brands.
They are too heavy to swap them by hand
Not to mention, when the battery reaches the end of its normal life cycle. Just goes straight into the recycling pipeline.
My understanding is that GM will replace the battery within 3 years, right? Seems like a good time to buy a cheap electric car at a discount from someone who is (understandably) impatient.
Anecdote: I found out my Ford had one of the Takata airbag inflators that was prone to producing shrapnel. Ford had yet to recall my car but they were offering optional replacements. I called my dealer to schedule one and they said ‘you can get in 6 mos from now when we get the part, very backorded, in the mean time don’t worry it is safe’. A month later they issued a formal recall. I received letter after letter telling me to schedule a replacement immediately. They even left me voicemails about how I might die by bleeding out (very graphic). Sold the car to the dealer shortly thereafter.
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I think this would be true in 90's. It was really bad. Now a days, Ford and the rest make excellent vehicles on all fronts.
I always give them a look - my biggest tell is usually which 10+ year old models do I actually see on the road. That’s a long lead time for sure, but IMO they have to prove it. I looked at the JD power reliability rankings for 2021 and was shocked that Honda is near the bottom now - but GM, Ford, Chrysler etc are all middle or bottom of the pack themselves
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Yep. Moreover, the issue isn't new cars today. You know when you saw that old Chrysler Grand Caravan burning on the side of the road, and you hear the story that the person has been holding it together solely with thoughts and prayers and maybe $500 between tires and oil for the last 7 years of its 19 year life? That's the current inevitability. I'm not worried about someone's 6-month old Bolt or 2-year old Model 3.…
> The issue is when we're eventually talking about a 22-year old Model 3 that's had 13 years of deferred maintenance, is totally clapped out, and is only on the road because someone paid some mechanic off to look the other way during a state vehicle inspection for the past 5 years. Except that the 22 year Model 3 also has a computer inside the battery that should be keeping things in check. Assuming the battery can e…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If batteries are easily swappable with minimal tools, then a lot of range concerns go away as well. I think battery ownership and care needs to be decoupled from the vehicle. I also think the federal government should enforce interoperable batteries between vehicle brands.
They are too heavy to swap them by hand
In practice this would probably mean something like: a vehicle hoist, a suitable lifter, a couple of sockets and a racket handle, and a screwdriver or two.
My understanding is that GM will replace the battery within 3 years, right? Seems like a good time to buy a cheap electric car at a discount from someone who is (understandably) impatient.
I'm assuming a friend's 2019 Bolt lease so I can try electric for a bit without much commitment. Once the replacement happens I can buy it for $21k, which seems like an alright deal on an electric with a fresh battery pack. Then again, that might be kind of high when you consider the subsidies I could get on a new EV. I'll see how the economics of the deal play out in a year when the lease is up.
FWIW, when I leased my Bolt one year ago, I could have bought it outright for $23K. The residual on my car is not much below that. I obviously won't buy it at the end of the lease -- GM just released new Bolts based on essentially the same technology they started using in 2017, which is mediocre by current EV standards; so they will have to continue to be very competitive on price going forward.
Just saying I think you should look carefully at the market when the lease runs out, it may not be economically advantageous to buy it out.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yep. Moreover, the issue isn't new cars today. You know when you saw that old Chrysler Grand Caravan burning on the side of the road, and you hear the story that the person has been holding it together solely with thoughts and prayers and maybe $500 between tires and oil for the last 7 years of its 19 year life? That's the current inevitability. I'm not worried about someone's 6-month old Bolt or 2-year old Model 3.…
> Germany is starting to standardize on towing an electric car away to dunk it in a tank to ultimately handle fires. I suppose if the problem is widespread enough, every city will have a mobile dunk truck at the ready for electric vehicle fires.