Here's what happens to vehicles as they leave an assembly plant.
1. Vehicle goes on a rail car.
2. Rail car gets transported to the depot nearest a dealership that can handle offloading.
3. Vehicle gets places on a car carrier.
4. Car carrier transports vehicle to dealership.
5. Vehicle is sold to customer.
There's a huge cost savings that can be injected between step 1 and 2 with upfitting a vehicle with after-production upgrades. Most of the auto-makers engage in a program called ship-thru. Vehicles come out of the plant and are transported to a nearby company capable of upfitting the vehicle with equipment. That vehicle is then returned back to the assembly plant where it's loaded on the vehicles. A number of dealerships will order trucks and vans and have them upfitted by an upfitter prior to being shipped by rail to the dealership. This is a value added service that is cheaper for the end customer because instead of dealing with individual pricing he gets to deal with the bulk pricing that the dealership gets to command as well as needed to avoid any additional and further costs in gas, transportation, and time.
The amount of "upfits" provided for a Tesla are, to my knowledge, currently exactly 0. The number of options that are available on their single model are exceptionally small.
Car sales direct to consumer are entirely a localized business all around the US, and for good reason! Car dealers are often active in their communities (mine are) and understand the unique needs of customers within a given region, making them better salesmen. They can reduce costs for both Honda and the consumer by ordering in bulk from the factory, which maximizes efficiency from the plant.
This would be true for large manufacturers of vehicles that have several models, as regional tastes should be considered when dealing with a large inventory and/or model selection. Telsa is a boutique manufacturer. They currently have exactly 1 model that has a handful of options. Most if not all are built to order. There's a rather large gulf between these two situations. While there will be 2 in the near future, and possibly 3 a while after that, they're not going to approach the size and model lineup of any of the major manufacturers anytime soon.
Tesla is an American company, so they have to go by American terminology. "Wagon" is shorthand for "station wagon", which is passe in America unfortunately. "Estate" has no meaning in America as far as cars go; an "estate" is all your belongings when you die, or it's a big mansion a rich person lives in. And WTF is "shooting brake", some kind of in-joke?
The definition's changed a bit, but has settled currently on "2 door wagon" in North American parlance.
Have you looked at the pictures that have been released? Some would say that the X *is* a hatchback. Bigger than a golf, granted, but still the design is firmly in the hatch territory. They call it an SUV because the nomenclature of "station wagon" has huge negative implications, and hatchback is codespeak for "cheap car that's almost a station wagon" in the US. [url]http://www.teslamotors.com/modelx[/url]. The third row will be unusable of you're of normal adult height due to the roofline.
How well would a Truecrypt container with two-fish and a strong passphrase work in this situation?
If it's for backup, use keyfiles from a source that won't go away. The Library of Congress website has LOTS of media files that have a LOW possibility of disappearing. Keep a copy on a fob, and verify the source occasionally.
Seagate drives are terrible drives now. I've had three of there external drives not last more then a year.
Agree, I bought 3 2TB Seagates for my home server a few years back...2 of them failed within a year. Yet another brand name I used to trust, now shot to shit.
I can't speak to the consumer stuff, but I've been getting nearline drives for $work's Synology boxen (we have 3, 2 407s and a 1513) and they've been very reliable. Of course the drives cost as you'd expect too... I think I gave nearly 200 each when buying... first for 1TB about 4 years ago, and 2TB early last year. Small sample (13 drives in total), but I think an indication that not ALL of their stuff is garbage, as Murphy rules this shop; I had SATA cables become problematic on one of the NAS. That threw me for a loop when the drive passes Spinright but the NAS complains about it failing 10 minutes after starting a rebuild.
"Everyone lies, even when it's to their detriment. Shame (among others) is a very powerful emotion."
It has nothing to do with shame (which is usually an emotion associated with children and/or people going through puberty).
It has to do with the risk of the doctor saying "well its your own fault then, find another doctor."
I'm in my 50's, retired, and I use drugs - I have ever since I retired. I'm going to enjoy my retirement. I've been honest with my doc - once I knew he would just accept my drug use and still treat me.
Sooooo.. Fear (of losing your doc) would be included in that "among others" clause, yes?
Also, to say that shame is relegated exclusively to children and adolescents is IMO absurd.
I'm talking about the piston sleeves wearing in to an oval shape, leading to piston slap.
Usually starts happening around 200,000k.
I guess its what happens to boxer engines?
This is news to me, but I'm not really heavily involved with the turbo crowd. Have a ref I can dig through?
You've obviously never owned a turbo charged Subaru.
Poorly designed head gaskets are poorly designed. SixStar has solved this problem. Rumor is that the latest generation of head gaskets from Subaru also resolve it.
I've never had an engine fail due to piston ring wear.
Seems to me this may be an idea looking for a problem.
You may not have, but you've seen the signs: Blue smoke out the exhaust pipe is rings or valve guides. In places where there's no inspection, you see this frequently enough that it's annoying.
I highly doubt Ford is using Al for anything in the driveline of a truck to begin with, where did you hear that? All they're talking about right now is exterior body panels, and some of the subframes and bracing in the chassis. Even the main frame rails (much less the drivetrain) will still be steel:P
Cylinder heads have been AL on a lot of vehicles for a very long time now. This indicates that the entire engine used in the Ecoboost powered F150s is AL.
I think the aluminum is just the cheap way to increase the fuel economuy. The basic problem with a truck is the aerodynamics and the engine. The aerodynamics are always going to suck, and there is little that can be done about that. The engine, OTOH, can be adjusted.
Right now most trucks are powered assuming that they are going to be carrying a significant load, and that consumers are going to be expect a good performance with that load. The result of this, and the reason many like trucks, is that when they are not loaded they are overpowered and therefore can achieve a great speed. That many people buy trucks for speed and not load is indicated by the number of automatics that are sold.
This need not be the case. We had an old Toyota pickup and it was a four cylinder 100 horse power r siries engine. When loaded it was slow, but like most people I did not drive it loaded all the time. But it was a working truck. We had a big chevy truck as well for work around the farm. Fords engines are not inefficient, at around 50 horsepower per cylinder. The point is that most people are driving around in a six cylinder truck wasting gas when what they need is 4 cylinder. It can be significant. In they city my six cylinder car get 16 MPG while my 4 cylinder car, just a fast, gets over 20.
That old Toyota was also significantly lighter/smaller than most full size pickups are today. The tiny truck went out of vogue in the US for reasons unknown to me. The smallest thing I know of on the market in the US truck-wise currently is the Nissan Frontier, and it's not exactly small.
Weight is the bane of almost everything performance wise, and everything efficiency wise. Less weight means less power required to change velocity. This could (not necessarily should or will) translate into smaller engines, and lighter running gear and brakes, which will also cause more weight loss.
I think Porsche might want to argue against your quote about "being handled in a gentle manner" with the Al engine block on their GT3. It's been their most successful racing car engine for years and is bulletproof as far as those things go. In no way will the truck engine exceed the strains of a racing engine designed to run at high compression at 5-8.4K for hours on end. As far as strain - the truck has an automatic transmission which is easier on the engine, and puts out less HP and torque perdisplacement, lower compression, etc.
Of course there will be a few problems as there always are with something new, but to blame in on AL will be foolish. Hell, they even have had Al DIESEL engine blocks for a while.
I would posit that the mass and volume required to keep an explosion inside of a combustion chamber is significantly higher than what a body panel will be made from.
Users were warned not to take bids on Nazi items from people in France, Germany, Austria or Italy because of laws in those countries. Users with French- or German-language Web browsers also were blocked from searching for Nazi-related items, eBay spokesman Kevin Pursglove said
No... these electric vehicles were destroyed because they were awful. They were slow as hell, and/or had crap range. And they took a half day or so to recharge.
Tesla has succeeded because they have good/ok performance, and ok range. The charging time and availability is still an issue, but that's something the buyers can deal with.
I can't speak to the RAV4 or the Ranger, but all reports of the EV1 were that it was acceptably quick and had nearly 100 miles range if you were kind to the accelerator. The EV1 was destroyed because someone at GM didn't want it around anymore.
As an Oregonian I can say right away, this is a partisan biased post. It isn't the big bad Government floating this idea to take yer moneys. Rather, we have lots and lots of more efficient vehicles, and there is a strong cultural push to move away from Big Oil. So we want to have our tax structure set up so that it is ready for that; if everybody bought a hybrid today, next year almost no road repairs would get done, because we wouldn't have the tax revenue. And with the same number of miles driven, there would be the exact same need for revenue. So if we can succeed in tying those related things together, then we'll have a forwards-looking tax code.
You're pushing for a "forward-looking" tax code that removes an incentive to buy fuel-efficient vehicles, along with adding more otherwise unnecessary equipment and administrative costs. This is fine if you don't care about the environment -- both for the loss in fuel efficiency and the unnecessary parts -- and want extra bureaucracy, but I think it's stupid.
At what point does it stop being "forward-looking" and start becoming "reality"? At some point, fuel mileage is going to improve to the point to where collection at the pump will become infeasible. I think the contention is that laying the groundwork for that time NOW is better than "Oh crap, we can't repair that bridge because we didn't sell enough fuel and spent the rest on mass transit!"
Why not charge more for the people who drive low riders and ricers? The ones who always complain when they bend a rim or lose their exhaust in a pothole. Its because of them that we even have to pave the damned roads.
Offroading or potholed asphalt works fine if you're willing to drive considerably slower everywhere. You're not doing 40, much less 70, over heavily potholed roads, and even less offroad unless you've bought yourself something like a Raptor or better. Getting much better than 25mpg in something that's built to take the level of abuse that high speed cruising over completely unprepared or poorly maintained roads isn't currently in the market.
Slashdot Mirror
It does happen.
Here's what happens to vehicles as they leave an assembly plant.
1. Vehicle goes on a rail car. 2. Rail car gets transported to the depot nearest a dealership that can handle offloading. 3. Vehicle gets places on a car carrier. 4. Car carrier transports vehicle to dealership. 5. Vehicle is sold to customer.
There's a huge cost savings that can be injected between step 1 and 2 with upfitting a vehicle with after-production upgrades. Most of the auto-makers engage in a program called ship-thru. Vehicles come out of the plant and are transported to a nearby company capable of upfitting the vehicle with equipment. That vehicle is then returned back to the assembly plant where it's loaded on the vehicles. A number of dealerships will order trucks and vans and have them upfitted by an upfitter prior to being shipped by rail to the dealership. This is a value added service that is cheaper for the end customer because instead of dealing with individual pricing he gets to deal with the bulk pricing that the dealership gets to command as well as needed to avoid any additional and further costs in gas, transportation, and time.
The amount of "upfits" provided for a Tesla are, to my knowledge, currently exactly 0. The number of options that are available on their single model are exceptionally small.
Car sales direct to consumer are entirely a localized business all around the US, and for good reason! Car dealers are often active in their communities (mine are) and understand the unique needs of customers within a given region, making them better salesmen. They can reduce costs for both Honda and the consumer by ordering in bulk from the factory, which maximizes efficiency from the plant.
This would be true for large manufacturers of vehicles that have several models, as regional tastes should be considered when dealing with a large inventory and/or model selection. Telsa is a boutique manufacturer. They currently have exactly 1 model that has a handful of options. Most if not all are built to order. There's a rather large gulf between these two situations. While there will be 2 in the near future, and possibly 3 a while after that, they're not going to approach the size and model lineup of any of the major manufacturers anytime soon.
The X is not a hatchback in any way shape or form and certainly not with that gull-wing.
Then may I get an understanding of what your definition of "hatchback" is?
Tesla is an American company, so they have to go by American terminology. "Wagon" is shorthand for "station wagon", which is passe in America unfortunately. "Estate" has no meaning in America as far as cars go; an "estate" is all your belongings when you die, or it's a big mansion a rich person lives in. And WTF is "shooting brake", some kind of in-joke?
The definition's changed a bit, but has settled currently on "2 door wagon" in North American parlance.
Have you looked at the pictures that have been released? Some would say that the X *is* a hatchback. Bigger than a golf, granted, but still the design is firmly in the hatch territory. They call it an SUV because the nomenclature of "station wagon" has huge negative implications, and hatchback is codespeak for "cheap car that's almost a station wagon" in the US. [url]http://www.teslamotors.com/modelx[/url]. The third row will be unusable of you're of normal adult height due to the roofline.
How well would a Truecrypt container with two-fish and a strong passphrase work in this situation?
If it's for backup, use keyfiles from a source that won't go away. The Library of Congress website has LOTS of media files that have a LOW possibility of disappearing. Keep a copy on a fob, and verify the source occasionally.
Seagate drives are terrible drives now. I've had three of there external drives not last more then a year.
Agree, I bought 3 2TB Seagates for my home server a few years back...2 of them failed within a year. Yet another brand name I used to trust, now shot to shit.
I can't speak to the consumer stuff, but I've been getting nearline drives for $work's Synology boxen (we have 3, 2 407s and a 1513) and they've been very reliable. Of course the drives cost as you'd expect too... I think I gave nearly 200 each when buying... first for 1TB about 4 years ago, and 2TB early last year. Small sample (13 drives in total), but I think an indication that not ALL of their stuff is garbage, as Murphy rules this shop; I had SATA cables become problematic on one of the NAS. That threw me for a loop when the drive passes Spinright but the NAS complains about it failing 10 minutes after starting a rebuild.
"Everyone lies, even when it's to their detriment. Shame (among others) is a very powerful emotion."
It has nothing to do with shame (which is usually an emotion associated with children and/or people going through puberty).
It has to do with the risk of the doctor saying "well its your own fault then, find another doctor."
I'm in my 50's, retired, and I use drugs - I have ever since I retired. I'm going to enjoy my retirement. I've been honest with my doc - once I knew he would just accept my drug use and still treat me.
Sooooo.. Fear (of losing your doc) would be included in that "among others" clause, yes?
Also, to say that shame is relegated exclusively to children and adolescents is IMO absurd.
is why they just didn't use YETI as their company acronym and be done with it?
Patients don't lie. They just don't have a medical professional's understanding of what is and isn't important.
I have a bridge I'd like to sell you...
Everyone lies, even when it's to their detriment. Shame (among others) is a very powerful emotion.
I'm talking about the piston sleeves wearing in to an oval shape, leading to piston slap. Usually starts happening around 200,000k. I guess its what happens to boxer engines?
This is news to me, but I'm not really heavily involved with the turbo crowd. Have a ref I can dig through?
You've obviously never owned a turbo charged Subaru.
Poorly designed head gaskets are poorly designed. SixStar has solved this problem. Rumor is that the latest generation of head gaskets from Subaru also resolve it.
I've never had an engine fail due to piston ring wear.
Seems to me this may be an idea looking for a problem.
You may not have, but you've seen the signs: Blue smoke out the exhaust pipe is rings or valve guides. In places where there's no inspection, you see this frequently enough that it's annoying.
I highly doubt Ford is using Al for anything in the driveline of a truck to begin with, where did you hear that? All they're talking about right now is exterior body panels, and some of the subframes and bracing in the chassis. Even the main frame rails (much less the drivetrain) will still be steel :P
Cylinder heads have been AL on a lot of vehicles for a very long time now. This indicates that the entire engine used in the Ecoboost powered F150s is AL.
I think the aluminum is just the cheap way to increase the fuel economuy. The basic problem with a truck is the aerodynamics and the engine. The aerodynamics are always going to suck, and there is little that can be done about that. The engine, OTOH, can be adjusted.
Right now most trucks are powered assuming that they are going to be carrying a significant load, and that consumers are going to be expect a good performance with that load. The result of this, and the reason many like trucks, is that when they are not loaded they are overpowered and therefore can achieve a great speed. That many people buy trucks for speed and not load is indicated by the number of automatics that are sold.
This need not be the case. We had an old Toyota pickup and it was a four cylinder 100 horse power r siries engine. When loaded it was slow, but like most people I did not drive it loaded all the time. But it was a working truck. We had a big chevy truck as well for work around the farm. Fords engines are not inefficient, at around 50 horsepower per cylinder. The point is that most people are driving around in a six cylinder truck wasting gas when what they need is 4 cylinder. It can be significant. In they city my six cylinder car get 16 MPG while my 4 cylinder car, just a fast, gets over 20.
That old Toyota was also significantly lighter/smaller than most full size pickups are today. The tiny truck went out of vogue in the US for reasons unknown to me. The smallest thing I know of on the market in the US truck-wise currently is the Nissan Frontier, and it's not exactly small.
Weight is the bane of almost everything performance wise, and everything efficiency wise. Less weight means less power required to change velocity. This could (not necessarily should or will) translate into smaller engines, and lighter running gear and brakes, which will also cause more weight loss.
I wonder when I can get an aluminum Mustang so I can polish it like a P-51.
Sweet.
Have something a little more interesting.
Mazda Miata hoods...
And boot/deck lids.
I think Porsche might want to argue against your quote about "being handled in a gentle manner" with the Al engine block on their GT3. It's been their most successful racing car engine for years and is bulletproof as far as those things go. In no way will the truck engine exceed the strains of a racing engine designed to run at high compression at 5-8.4K for hours on end. As far as strain - the truck has an automatic transmission which is easier on the engine, and puts out less HP and torque perdisplacement, lower compression, etc.
Of course there will be a few problems as there always are with something new, but to blame in on AL will be foolish. Hell, they even have had Al DIESEL engine blocks for a while.
I would posit that the mass and volume required to keep an explosion inside of a combustion chamber is significantly higher than what a body panel will be made from.
...and there won't even be neither turkey nor booze, over here in Europe *g
(emphasis mine) At least, I hope for you there aren't any grammar-Nazis over there...
No, the eurozone has effectively expunged "Nazi" from their vernacular, if the media is to be believed
Source
Money quote:
Users were warned not to take bids on Nazi items from people in France, Germany, Austria or Italy because of laws in those countries. Users with French- or German-language Web browsers also were blocked from searching for Nazi-related items, eBay spokesman Kevin Pursglove said
No... these electric vehicles were destroyed because they were awful. They were slow as hell, and/or had crap range. And they took a half day or so to recharge.
Tesla has succeeded because they have good/ok performance, and ok range. The charging time and availability is still an issue, but that's something the buyers can deal with.
I can't speak to the RAV4 or the Ranger, but all reports of the EV1 were that it was acceptably quick and had nearly 100 miles range if you were kind to the accelerator. The EV1 was destroyed because someone at GM didn't want it around anymore.
Now if only the IPV6 community would see the parallels between IA64 and AMD64...
I wouldn't imagine it would be that difficult given what some people have been doing with these plus an arduino or Raspberry Pi.
It's good to have an old pre OBD2 car...
You're pushing for a "forward-looking" tax code that removes an incentive to buy fuel-efficient vehicles, along with adding more otherwise unnecessary equipment and administrative costs. This is fine if you don't care about the environment -- both for the loss in fuel efficiency and the unnecessary parts -- and want extra bureaucracy, but I think it's stupid.
At what point does it stop being "forward-looking" and start becoming "reality"? At some point, fuel mileage is going to improve to the point to where collection at the pump will become infeasible. I think the contention is that laying the groundwork for that time NOW is better than "Oh crap, we can't repair that bridge because we didn't sell enough fuel and spent the rest on mass transit!"
cover the cost of road maintenance
But I drive an SUV. I don't need roads.
Why not charge more for the people who drive low riders and ricers? The ones who always complain when they bend a rim or lose their exhaust in a pothole. Its because of them that we even have to pave the damned roads.
Offroading or potholed asphalt works fine if you're willing to drive considerably slower everywhere. You're not doing 40, much less 70, over heavily potholed roads, and even less offroad unless you've bought yourself something like a Raptor or better. Getting much better than 25mpg in something that's built to take the level of abuse that high speed cruising over completely unprepared or poorly maintained roads isn't currently in the market.
I'm not certain how this is any better from a privacy standpoint than a device in the vehicle...