Car Advice?

[turf3]

I would only be slightly curious about an EV as a purely luxury item to drive in the city, (thinking of TESLA). Would not even consider driving one on any sort of OTR trip whatsoever..
Too many issues still with EV's, to be anywhere close to replacing gas/diesel vehicles. Pray that you don't ever have to replace the battery, or put out a fire in one...
Not to mention, at most charging stations, the electricity provided is still being generated from dependable sources of coal, and natural gas power grids~

The argument about electricity being generated form coal, oil, and natural gas, is one of those kind of true things where SCALE matters.

The ability to control emissions and operate at peak efficiency is far far higher in a fixed installation of massive size with a large staff of maintenance personnel, engineers, and compliance officers, than in hundreds of thousands of small internal combustion engines each one with its own uncontrolled maintenance schedule, and each one of which runs from 650 to 6500 rpm under conditions of wildly varying load and ambient conditions. By contrast, every operating parameter of those big fossil fuel fired generators is tightly controlled.

Even with the inevitable losses in long distance high voltage transmission lines, you'll find the total efficiency of use of fossil fuels used in modern power plants is quite a bit higher than burning petroleum products directly in the car.

That said, there are still many use cases where the ICE car is a better choice. Long distance travel in areas of limited charging infrastructure is one of them.

 

[Nedmundo]

The argument about electricity being generated form coal, oil, and natural gas, is one of those kind of true things where SCALE matters.

The ability to control emissions and operate at peak efficiency is far far higher in a fixed installation of massive size with a large staff of maintenance personnel, engineers, and compliance officers, than in hundreds of thousands of small internal combustion engines each one with its own uncontrolled maintenance schedule, and each one of which runs from 650 to 6500 rpm under conditions of wildly varying load and ambient conditions. By contrast, every operating parameter of those big fossil fuel fired generators is tightly controlled.

Even with the inevitable losses in long distance high voltage transmission lines, you'll find the total efficiency of use of fossil fuels used in modern power plants is quite a bit higher than burning petroleum products directly in the car.

That said, there are still many use cases where the ICE car is a better choice. Long distance travel in areas of limited charging infrastructure is one of them.

Yep. Even if an EV gets its juice from a coal-fired power plant, it's still more energy efficient than an ICE car.

Electric vehicles use half the energy of gas-powered vehicles » Yale Climate Connections

They’re just much more efficient.

yaleclimateconnections.org

 

[Plain Old Barry]

FWIW, My 6 year old Silverado needed a $7000 transmission replacement at 66k, and still has the sketchy AFM lifters that may or may not destroy the engine. My neighbor's Mini Cooper burned their garage down 4 years ago.

I get EV's still have a way to go, but let's not pretend IC doesn't have it's problems. I love cars and help on two circle track race crews, I'm not greenie.

Here's the Mini Cooper, not EV or Hybrid, straight IC, doing it's dirty work:

 

[Mike N]

C'mon people now, smile on your brother, everybody get together, try and love one another right now...
I use the Metrinch system (below) which can accommodate BOTH Metric and Inch sizes, Simultaneously!
For ex. - The 3/8" socket is marked "3/8 & 10mm".
Welcome to the 21st century.
IMFO, of course.
Thx.

View attachment 7296536

Neat gift for the homeowner who doesn't do much wrenching, no way those tools would ever hold up in an industrial environment.

 

[turf3]

Well, 3/8" = 9.525 mm. Now if you're going to have a 10 mm socket, it's probably got to have 0.5 mm or so of clearance, so it ends up 10.5 across the flats. How well do you think a hex 10.5 across the flats is going to work on a nut that's less than 9.53 mm, probably more like 9.4 or so?

Terrible idea. DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT.

 

[Mike N]

Well, 3/8" = 9.525 mm. Now if you're going to have a 10 mm socket, it's probably got to have 0.5 mm or so of clearance, so it ends up 10.5 across the flats. How well do you think a hex 10.5 across the flats is going to work on a nut that's less than 9.53 mm, probably more like 9.4 or so?

Terrible idea. DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT.

Throw some corrosion into the mix and those tools will most certainly leave you with skinned knuckles, rounded fasteners and endless frustration.

There's so many options for low cost tools that are decent quality for the weekend warrior and even mild professional use. Kobalt (Lowes), Husky (Home Depot) and the Icon line from Horrible Freight all offer a great bang for the buck. No need for the average guy to need Snap On, MAC etc... while that stuff is nice, it's very pricey.

 

[Gaolee]

Yep. Even if an EV gets its juice from a coal-fired power plant, it's still more energy efficient than an ICE car.

Electric vehicles use half the energy of gas-powered vehicles » Yale Climate Connections

They’re just much more efficient.

yaleclimateconnections.org

Think about transmission losses on the power grid vs. transmission losses posed by hauling liquid fuel by tanker truck and train. The grid is an efficient pipeline to pretty much wherever you need it. Hauling liquid fuel has pumping losses, transportation losses, and losses from driving to the gas station, even if that last one isn't very big for some people. Digging into it deeper, there's also extraction and refining losses. It's endless. Electric power generation has some of that if it is fossil fuel generation, especially coal. Natural gas is piped in, so you get drilling and pumping losses. That's a whole lot less than the losses associated with extracting, refining, and distributing liquid fuel.

Sure, there are problems with windmills, solar cells, and dams. Nuclear plants have obvious problems. But, there's no way an ICE car can hold a candle to electric as an efficient use of energy. I sure love my ICE motor propelled machinery, but I'm also fully aware that it is hardly the ideal use of energy these days.

 

[Mike N]

But, there's no way an ICE car can hold a candle to electric as an efficient use of energy. I sure love my ICE motor propelled machinery, but I'm also fully aware that it is hardly the ideal use of energy these days.

An EV may be more efficient, but to me there's no substitute for the brute force and ignorance of a big inch V8 under the hood.

 

[Major Seven]

An EV may be more efficient, but to me there's no substitute for the brute force and ignorance of a big inch V8 under the hood.

For that matter, cars themselves are inefficient when you can take busses.
But having fun driving is inefficient. Curvy roads are inefficient. Burning rubber is inefficient.
Human existence is inefficient, so they must be eliminated.
Where do you stop?

 

[RavenousPoe]

For that matter, cars themselves are inefficient when you can take busses.
But having fun driving is inefficient. Curvy roads are inefficient. Burning rubber is inefficient.
Human existence is inefficient, so they must be eliminated.
Where do you stop?

Not everyone lives in an environment where bus travel is possible.
Perhaps we consider stopping at the point where we are harming the planet that enabled our, and many others, life. It can't happen overnight, but every change counts. We industrialized and swung too far in the other direction, and should now be trying to find a happy and efficient medium between enjoying the fruits of modern life/technology without actively killing the home to so many more species than just humans.

 

[Plain Old Barry]

An EV may be more efficient, but to me there's no substitute for the brute force and ignorance of a big inch V8 under the hood.

I love V8's and work on a few asphalt modifieds running around New England short tracks. Have you ever thrashed an F150 Lightning? I've rented a few and the brute force is certainly there.

 

[Mike N]

I love V8's and work on a few asphalt modifieds running around New England short tracks. Have you ever thrashed an F150 Lightning? I've rented a few and the brute force is certainly there.

Haven't had a chance to drive a Lightning. The majority of the stuff I've thrashed was GM based.

I hung around a few circle track teams way back when and it was equivalent to Friday night fights where a race occasionally broke out..... the competition was fierce at those tracks.

I was on a drag racing team that won a Best Engineered award at an IHRA National Event, we won back to back season championships in the now defunct NSCA Outlaw Street class and we got a bunch of TV and magazine coverage.

Fun times.

 

[BigBoneRed]

Human existence is inefficient, so they must be eliminated.
Where do you stop?

They CAN'T stop... "YOU WILL EAT ZE BUGS"

 

[Dr. Cheese]

Now my wife needs a car too. A two $2K repair turned into such an expensive job that the mechanic just gave it back to us to trade in. This is no fun.

 

[BigBoneRed]

Maybe for the best, if the mechanic was just being honest with you. He could just as easily have taken your money, knowing that the repairs
may not hold up very long.. and it certainly isn't fun, I know. We've been getting by with one car since the floods in 2017. We lost 2 cars, and have managed to replace only one of them..
Keep persisting, you will be able to find something reliable for both of you.

 

[Mike N]

Maybe for the best, if the mechanic was just being honest with you. He could just as easily have taken your money, knowing that the repairs
may not hold up very long.. and it certainly isn't fun, I know. We've been getting by with one car since the floods in 2017. We lost 2 cars, and have managed to replace only one of them..
Keep persisting, you will be able to find something reliable for both of you.

Mechanic here with 40+ years experience and I was always upfront with my customers.

Depending on how long they wanted to keep a car, I would advise on repairs that were necessary versus ones that could wait until another day or the next owner.

The clueless upper management team hated me because I was honest...... to them every car that rolled through the door was a "wallet on wheels" and I don't play that game.

Quite honestly with labor rates being $200/hr and the obscene parts markup, I don't know how people afford to take their cars to a big name shop.

 

[BigBoneRed]

Good to know.. were you at a dealership? I spent 15 years at Toyota..
Problem is, there are more than a few shops out there still looking to take advantage of someone, when/if they can.
So when, and if, you find a good one, count your blessings and hang on to 'em~

 

[Mike N]

Good to know.. were you at a dealership? I spent 15 years at Toyota..
Problem is, there are more than a few shops out there still looking to take advantage of someone, when/if they can.
So when, and if, you find a good one, count your blessings and hang on to 'em~

I spent 36 years at a corporate chain shop and we were company owned, not a franchise.

Other that transmissions, we did pretty much everything else..... engine repair, brakes, steering/suspension, driveability etc....

Rusty brake line replacements became a specialty for me, most guys didn't want to touch them and I didn't care.

My buddy tried to get me to join him at a Ford dealership and I said no thanks. Low labor times were one thing in the outside world, no way I was getting stuck doing warranty work under Ford's SLTS.

 

[Mike N]

Problem is, there are more than a few shops out there still looking to take advantage of someone, when/if they can.

Quoting you again to add that there's a bunch of shops run by clueless people looking for nothing more than upsells.

My philosophy was to address the customer's initial concern and once that was handled we can plant the seeds of an upsell....... however the guys in the leather chair with some piece of paper saw it differently than I did, even though those guys had never stepped foot into a shop.

When the new regime rolled into where I worked, they were having a huge push on preventative maintenance (PM) services and they tried instituting a new "process" where the Service Advisor (read: counter jockey) would do a 360 walk around as they wrote up the RO. And during this walk around, they'd check mileage, tire depth and other easily seen things..... now when the "Advisor" came back into the office, they'd try to hit the customer up for additional services even though the car hasn't even been brought in yet.

It would go something like this......

BigBoneRed.... Hi, I have a 10am appointment for a rattling sound.

Advisor..... let me go get the mileage, VIN and plate number off of you car......

Advisor returns..... Oh, Mr. BBR, your car has 90,000 miles on it and the manufacturer recommends spark plugs, coolant flush, air and cabin filters at 90k..... can I add any of those services to your ticket??

Mike N's method was like this.....

Hi, Mr. BBR, I understand you have a rattle noise and that's why your here today.... Let's get the car up in the air and see what's going on.

..... later, I'd be on the phone calling you and reporting that we found the rattle was a loose heat shield above the muffler and we can re secure it for X dollars....... by the way, while we had the vehicle on the lift we noticed that your tires could use a rotation, the mileage you're at there's suggested services, etc...... nothing that needs to be done today but something to consider for future visits.

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

Quoting you again to add that there's a bunch of shops run by clueless people looking for nothing more than upsells.

My philosophy was to address the customer's initial concern and once that was handled we can plant the seeds of an upsell....... however the guys in the leather chair with some piece of paper saw it differently than I did, even though those guys had never stepped foot into a shop.

When the new regime rolled into where I worked, they were having a huge push on preventative maintenance (PM) services and they tried instituting a new "process" where the Service Advisor (read: counter jockey) would do a 360 walk around as they wrote up the RO. And during this walk around, they'd check mileage, tire depth and other easily seen things..... now when the "Advisor" came back into the office, they'd try to hit the customer up for additional services even though the car hasn't even been brought in yet.

It would go something like this......

BigBoneRed.... Hi, I have a 10am appointment for a rattling sound.

Advisor..... let me go get the mileage, VIN and plate number off of you car......

Advisor returns..... Oh, Mr. BBR, your car has 90,000 miles on it and the manufacturer recommends spark plugs, coolant flush, air and cabin filters at 90k..... can I add any of those services to your ticket??

Mike N's method was like this.....

Hi, Mr. BBR, I understand you have a rattle noise and that's why your here today.... Let's get the car up in the air and see what's going on.

..... later, I'd be on the phone calling you and reporting that we found the rattle was a loose heat shield above the muffler and we can re secure it for X dollars....... by the way, while we had the vehicle on the lift we noticed that your tires could use a rotation, the mileage you're at there's suggested services, etc...... nothing that needs to be done today but something to consider for future visits.

You could have worked at the shop I’ve been going to for the last 30+ years. Totally how they do it. Plus, the owner will talk your ear off about life stuff every time. Nothing to do with cars.