Cars We Drive!

[patrick_b]

I came across this gem recently. Clearly dating myself but any of you guys remember MotorWeek on the PBS station?



The specs are a riot:

0-60: 9.7 sec
1/4 mi: 17.2 sec at 74mph
Displacement's been bored out 65cc's to 1.78L which translates to 90HP!! 22% more than a standard Rabbit and 10% more torque.
Also, no A/C.

Surely I've posted this before. My first cars.

 

[Jr Mouse]

I guess that makes sense. 5-ish years from ‘21 to ‘26 or whatever for a development lifecycle seems about right for a platform-shared vehicle. I wonder if they bought the brand name specifically with the vision to resurrect it as an EV that was already in development…

On the opposite side, one of the big OEM’s needs to buy Lucid. Their cars are probably the best EV out there short of Rimac, and they can never stay capitalized. Feels to me like a way to buy yourself into a market leadership position

Plans could have changed but last I heard they were developing their own EV tech and didn’t want to use VW leftovers.

 

[jbarwick]

I came across this gem recently. Clearly dating myself but any of you guys remember MotorWeek on the PBS station?



The specs are a riot:

0-60: 9.7 sec
1/4 mi: 17.2 sec at 74mph
Displacement's been bored out 65cc's to 1.78L which translates to 90HP!! 22% more than a standard Rabbit and 10% more torque.
Also, no A/C.

Surely I've posted this before. My first cars.

View attachment 2270213

At some point I was looking at older GTIs and thought the early ones would be fun to pick up. I then remembered the reason I got rid of my 2012 GTI was because I was scared as hell of trucks on back rounds hitting me and an 80s car vs. huge truck would have left me dead.

I love the round headlight Mk IIs more than the square lamps on the Mk I.

 

[HRoi]

Lookitchu Richie riches who could afford GTI’s as a first car

 

[Jr Mouse]

As much as I love the design of the Rivian R3 I think Scout has Rivian beat. Backed by VW and a plug in hybrid option will go a long way to drive sales.

 

[Roikins]

I guess that makes sense. 5-ish years from ‘21 to ‘26 or whatever for a development lifecycle seems about right for a platform-shared vehicle. I wonder if they bought the brand name specifically with the vision to resurrect it as an EV that was already in development…

On the opposite side, one of the big OEM’s needs to buy Lucid. Their cars are probably the best EV out there short of Rimac, and they can never stay capitalized. Feels to me like a way to buy yourself into a market leadership position

Problem is if one of the big OEMs buys Lucid, in 3 years it will no longer be one of the best EVs. 🤣

 

[jbarwick]

Do we trust that VW knows what they are doing with EVs? I mean the Electric Bus would have been amazing but they gave it like 200 miles of range. The ID.4 was ok when I test drove it but again low range.

Maybe I am also missing how they will make the jump into trucks and off-roader types with their portfolio.

 

[sugarbutch]

VW has invested substantially in Rivian, so it seems likely that they will cross-pollinate. Also, isn’t the Scout a range-extended EV, not a plug-in hybrid? This is like the i3, not a Prius.

 

[otc]

Yeah, it looks to me like it says they have a generator to charge the battery. That has some range extension/emergency fueling pros, but it is different in theory than something like a Prius Prime.

But also...I'm not putting down even $100 to "reserve" a car that probably won't be sold to me until 2028...

 

[Jr Mouse]

I’m not an expert on these hybrids but it seems to me that being able to put gas in your car to keep the battery going is a nice feature. On a long trip you might be traveling in areas that EV stations are hard to find.

The investments the government has made in building out the charging network will help, but it’s going to take time.

 

[Jr Mouse]

Yeah, it looks to me like it says they have a generator to charge the battery. That has some range extension/emergency fueling pros, but it is different in theory than something like a Prius Prime.

But also...I'm not putting down even $100 to "reserve" a car that probably won't be sold to me until 2028...

Yeah. Tesla kind of killed the preorder business for these cars. How many people put down 1k for the roadster? I'm not sure it's ever coming out.

 

[sugarbutch]

I’m not an expert on these hybrids but it seems to me that being able to put gas in your car to keep the battery going is a nice feature. On a long trip you might be traveling in areas that EV stations are hard to find.

The investments the government has made in building out the charging network will help, but it’s going to take time.

Almost no one will need the range extender, but it will ease their range anxiety. IMO, carting around an engine and a tank of gas rather undermines the simplicity of EVs, but it is still progress.

 

[Jr Mouse]

Almost no one will need the range extender, but it will ease their range anxiety. IMO, carting around an engine and a tank of gas rather undermines the simplicity of EVs, but it is still progress.

I agree but until fast charging becomes the norm and widespread I can understand the appeal. If you are taking a long road trip and don’t have access to fast charging It can add a lot of travel time.

 

[Texasmade]

Yeah. Tesla kind of killed the preorder business for these cars. How many people put down 1k for the roadster? I'm not sure it's ever coming out.

lol, $1k is way off the mark. It was $5k with an additional $45k due within 10 days

 

[Jr Mouse]

The G-Wagon is great and so are EV Suvs but this doesn’t appeal to me at all. It's an identity problem like the Mustang EV crossover.