I wonder if it would make financial sense to offer the "skeleton" of the car for sale and let design studios integrate all the pieces.
A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen
681–690 of 1001 posts
Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen
#682I put down a deposit for one.
An EV that's designed to be user-serviceable, has modular upgrades, and isn't full of surveillance technology? This checks all the boxes for me. Can't wait to play with it.
Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen
#683Earlier quoted context omitted.
Driving with your lights off at dusk or dark gets you (rightfully) pulled over by law enforcement in CA. It's well-correllated with driving under the influence. I'm a huge fan of many car safety regulations, but this isn't one. (Sign me up for car-hiding-in-blind-spot notification lights on side mirrors, though, those are great)
That doesn't make any sense. Eliminatung DUI is not a matter of detection, and automatic light sensors save lives.
It could make sense. We don't know the numbers.
Let's say net X lives are saved each year because of automatic lights turning on.
Let's say net Y lives would be saved each year without automatic lights, via more effective detection of drunk drivers and stopping them before they kill someone.
Is X > Y? We don't know.
> Eliminatung DUI is not a matter of detection
There are a lot of avenues to decrease DUI, among which one is effective detection combined with enforcement.
Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen
#684Earlier quoted context omitted.
Automotive industry is one of the biggest scams on planet earth. One of my favorite cases recently is how Suzuki Jimny is banned in Europe and US because of emission standards allegedly, so the little Jimny is emitting 146g/km but somehow there is no problem to buy a G-Class that is emitting 358g/km oh and surprise surprise Mercedes are going to release a smaller more affordable G-Class [1]. [1] - https://www.motortr…
The Jimny or similar Suzuki models would not be offered for sale in the U.S. because it’s basically the latest iteration of the Samuri, which died there after Consumer Reports falsely claimed that it was dangerously prone to rollover.
I had rented a barebones Jimny last month when I was in Auckland for the week. Not saying it was prone to roll. But holy hell was it feeling like I could roll that bad boy on some curvy gravel roads. I also loved it.
Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen
#685>The rather extreme omission of any kind of media system in the car is jarring, but it, too, has secondary benefits. >“Seventy percent of repeat warranty claims are based on infotainment currently because there’s so much tech in the car that it’s created a very unstable environment in the vehicle,” Snyder says. I'm totally cool with them not having an infotainment screen or even a stereo itself. But speaker managemen…
There is a video going around showing Slate’s answer is an optional, removable Bluetooth speaker. It looked similar to a JBL. There’s a bracket to mount it on the dash.
Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen
#686Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is why it's so hard for companies to introduce stripped-down or small models of anything: People will tell you how much they want it, but as soon as they see it they realize they actually miss something from the models that are already out there. It happens with small phones (iPhone mini) to laptops and cars. There are comments throughout this thread claiming that everyone would be buying small sedans if not for…
I'm grateful they don't make truly stripped down models of cars anymore, because those were always what would end up in the rental car inventory. Every time I'd rent a car, it felt like I was taking a step back in time. Now all rental cars actually have some reasonable set of features, without you having to pay for any up-sells.
You should try renting in New Zealand. It literally is a step back in time, lots of companies mostly rent very old (20 years plus) Japanese models. So cheap though.
Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen
#687Earlier quoted context omitted.
To be honest most of those accessories are actually incredibly cheap at manufacturing time and several have a direct impact on safety (e.g. ensuring people don't drive around with lights off). The cost usually comes as companies use them for pricing tiers where they market them as suggested extras to ratchet up profits.
Driving with your lights off at dusk or dark gets you (rightfully) pulled over by law enforcement in CA. It's well-correllated with driving under the influence. I'm a huge fan of many car safety regulations, but this isn't one. (Sign me up for car-hiding-in-blind-spot notification lights on side mirrors, though, those are great)
I don't understand what you're saying here - you think it's good to have your lights turned on - but you don't want them to automatically turn on?
Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen
#688Its a cool car, but forgive me for not getting Lucy-Footballed again by an electric car startup claiming to be able to "change the game" while never actually getting any cars sold.
Not to mention that it's actually more like a $30,000 vehicle because the headline is pre-pricing in rebates.
Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen
#689Earlier quoted context omitted.
Electric vehicle tax credits are non-refundable tax credits meaning you can't get a credit for more than you owe. [1][2] Which means no one is getting your tax dollars to buy vehicles (though there may be some infrastructure or manufacturing grants for companies). [1] https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/IF12600 [2] https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/tax-credits-for-individuals-wha...
That's not really true. If the taxes someone would otherwise pay are going to their electric vehicle instead, somebody else has to make up the difference. So yes, other people are getting my tax dollars to buy electric vehicles. It just takes two steps rather than one, if you want to look at it that way.
Is the standard deduction giving people your tax dollars? Anyone who itemizes?
What if someone declines a promotion and thus doesn't increase their income and pay more taxes? Is that also taking your tax dollars?
Sure, yes, if the government doesn't follow PAYGO[1] (which they almost never do) and offset tax expenditures (tax incentives) with reduced direct spending and government debt increases then maybe, some day, some portion of your tax dollars may get indirectly spent on this.
But how do we really know? Do we know what other secondary effects will come from these tax incentives?
If electric cars catch on maybe the government will get more revenue somewhere else (there are North American manufacturing requirements to qualify after all) or have to spend less revenue on something else (surely burning oil must have some effect).
Or maybe the person getting the electric vehicle then uses it to make more money and pay more taxes than they would have before (unlikely but possible).
But, directly, they're getting back their own money. The real issue with the credit is that it disproportionately favors people who already make a lot of money (but taxes also disproportionately tax people who make more money so maybe that's fair).
Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen
#690Earlier quoted context omitted.
Driving with your lights off at dusk or dark gets you (rightfully) pulled over by law enforcement in CA. It's well-correllated with driving under the influence. I'm a huge fan of many car safety regulations, but this isn't one. (Sign me up for car-hiding-in-blind-spot notification lights on side mirrors, though, those are great)
I don't understand what you're saying here - you think it's good to have your lights turned on - but you don't want them to automatically turn on?
I think they mean that it gives a clear signal to LEOs that the person driving is likely distracted/unfit.