Features : Need/Want/Don't

[Art Vandelay]

Crank windows...smh. The last new car I had with crankers was my '86 CRXsi (and every car before that).

There's nothing better on a perfect day then hitting all four down buttons simultaneously and letting the world in. Or at the end of the drive being able to raise them all. Who wants to walk around to all four doors...TWICE...per drive?

Trust me, I definitely don't miss crank windows, I was really just curious because I don't recall seeing any in a very long time. And I hear you on opening the windows in the nice weather. The hot summer is my preferred season and first thing I do when I get in the car on a summer day is open all four windows and the moonroof. A few years ago my Mother In Law was in my car and had the windows down as usual and she said "Doesn't your A/C work?" My answer was "I don't know, I have never used it." And that's the truth!

 

[MarcusBrody]

Actually I think you get crank windows in absolute base model Jeep Wranglers. I know you did in the JK generation but I think it's still true in the current JLs according to a quick Google.

Edit: Just confirmed on the Jeep website. Wranglers come with manual windows.

 

[Woody_Finch]

Want: manual windows
Need: Bluetooth
Don't: giant center console display

None of my vehicles have built-in bluetooth, but they're all equipped with bluetooth. You can get very inexpensive gadgets that plug into your cigarette lighter that connect to your phone and transmit the signal to your FM radio. When I start my truck, it automatically syncs with my phone. I'm just mentioning this because a lack of factory bluetooth doesn't have to be show-stopper in any vehicle...you can easily equip a classic car with bluetooth for about $20.

 

[bwoodcock]

I see people posting about engines, and if this thing is not yet in showrooms, it's way too late to be thinking about engines. If Ford is still selling anything that burns fuel in two or three years, it'll be too late to matter, and entirely wasted effort. It's hard for me to imagine anyone wanting to deal with the lack of power, and the fragility, anymore, no matter how stuck-in-the-20th-century they are.

I'd like torque vectoring, at the very least. The skid-steer mode on the Rivian looks like a lot of fun, and if you're already getting something small to make it easy to get in and out of small places, being able to turn in place rather than having to deal with a turning radius is that much more attractive.

110V AC outlets off the traction pack are great for power tools.

 

[TrkNv]

I see people posting about engines, and if this thing is not yet in showrooms, it's way too late to be thinking about engines. If Ford is still selling anything that burns fuel in two or three years, it'll be too late to matter, and entirely wasted effort. It's hard for me to imagine anyone wanting to deal with the lack of power, and the fragility, anymore, no matter how stuck-in-the-20th-century they are.

I'd like torque vectoring, at the very least. The skid-steer mode on the Rivian looks like a lot of fun, and if you're already getting something small to make it easy to get in and out of small places, being able to turn in place rather than having to deal with a turning radius is that much more attractive.

110V AC outlets off the traction pack are great for power tools.

Not all of us have a 100K budget...

 

[Woody_Finch]

Not all of us have a 100K budget...

Totally true. I wouldn't for a moment consider something like the Rivian based on price alone. That being said, I do think in a few years it won't make sense to buy an ICE vehicle as battery technology advances, the charging network matures, and vehicles with good ranges become far cheaper.

 

[Tennessee]

Want a small modern truck. If I wanted a small basic truck, I'd get a little old truck and fix it up.

Need all-wheel drive due to a long steep driveway.

Want real world gas mileage in the 30 mile per gallon range. Want active cruise control. Want any safety features to be adjustable. Want a 5-ft bed, but that is going to be really hard to get in this market. (It's galling that Cub cadet mini trucks have 4x8 beds with drop sides.) Want an extended cab with jump seats. If I have to settle for a crew cab, I want seats that fold up out of the way. Want to get all this for $25,000 or less.

 

[Old Ranchero]

I see people posting about engines, and if this thing is not yet in showrooms, it's way too late to be thinking about engines. If Ford is still selling anything that burns fuel in two or three years, it'll be too late to matter, and entirely wasted effort. It's hard for me to imagine anyone wanting to deal with the lack of power, and the fragility, anymore, no matter how stuck-in-the-20th-century they are.

I'd like torque vectoring, at the very least. The skid-steer mode on the Rivian looks like a lot of fun, and if you're already getting something small to make it easy to get in and out of small places, being able to turn in place rather than having to deal with a turning radius is that much more attractive.

110V AC outlets off the traction pack are great for power tools.

anyone who thinks internal combustion engines are going away anytime soon are dreaming or have their head in the sand about realities of what powers economies and everyday life. There's enough oil/gas reserves in the ground to last at least 100 years- even 200 by some estimates. Leave out electric cars and battery technology for a minute. Do you have any idea how crops are planted, nurtured, harvested, packaged, and sent to market? There are NO rechargeable crop dusters, tractors, combines, balers, etc. in existence- not even on the drawing board- so if we want food they stay for at least 10 more years. You like emergency vehicles like ambulances, fire engines, tow trucks? Same deal. What replaces heavy duty brush rigs, firefighting planes and helicopters? Search and rescue: planes, boats, helicopters, jeeps, ATVs? Air travel? Military: ships, tanks, jets, helicopters, drones, etc. Ever looked at a construction site? Nope, no battery powered options there either. Backup generators for Server farms (the cloud, etc), emergency communications, hospitals, cell towers all require diesel, natural gas, etc. Doesn't matter how many states have mandates for not selling ICE vehicles by some arbitrary date or how many car companies play the game of "ending" ICE powered vehicles by a certain date- it flat out can't happen with only 2% EV sales market share and no alternatives to power human existence into the future. Misguided politicians love to legislate things out of existence by penalizing us with higher and higher costs, and say "they" will just have to invent something else to replace it... how often has that resulted in a successful, lower cost, painless transition?
/rant off

 

[Woody_Finch]

I wouldn't say internal combustion engines are going to completely disappear. But many of the examples you gave will indeed transition to battery power in the next generation. Like tractors--there's a lot of development right now to make that happen, including at big implement companies like John Deere, Kubota, and others. But those niche cases aside, there will be a quick move to EVs in personal vehicles. And it's not a political thing...people are just going to want them because of their performance, the cost of ownership, and the ability to never top for gas again. As a guy who has to fill up twice a week, I like the idea of have a full "tank" every morning when I climb into the car.

 

[rtcraft89]

Revised for me:

Need: A reveal from Ford

Want: Details/Specs/Etc.

Don’t: To wait any longer.

 

[theek]

There is a small company in Bellevue WA that's designing sealed micro-reactors for cargo ships.

 

[Old Ranchero]

I wouldn't say internal combustion engines are going to completely disappear. But many of the examples you gave will indeed transition to battery power in the next generation. Like tractors--there's a lot of development right now to make that happen, including at big implement companies like John Deere, Kubota, and others. But those niche cases aside, there will be a quick move to EVs in personal vehicles. And it's not a political thing...people are just going to want them because of their performance, the cost of ownership, and the ability to never top for gas again. As a guy who has to fill up twice a week, I like the idea of have a full "tank" every morning when I climb into the car.

how long has development been going on for the EV semi truck fleet now- 10+ years? Some really big players there including Volvo, Tesla and others. Yet not close to ready for prime time. Think about what Pilot truck stops look like right now with multiple lanes for semis, that can fill and go, then try to imagine that with charging EV anything with 10s of thousands going across country any given moment. Until EV charging on a trip is as effortless and quick as a gas pump- I just don't see mass adoption by the public for many years-IF then. If the gov't takes away our options and forces us into EV's we will be at mercy of constant price hikes and market manipulation by owners of charging stations. BTW: anyone know what it currently costs to recharge at a commercial station when you are on the road and can't charge overnight at home? If you don't think there's a political element to the change, think back to "cash for clunkers" when it turns out poor people can't afford the newest technology so gov't decides to subsidize purchases for poor people with taxpayer $ to make it "fair". We've been down this path before...

 

[bwoodcock]

Not all of us have a 100K budget...

Use more words... Are you agreeing, or disagreeing, with anything I said?

 

[bwoodcock]

anyone who thinks internal combustion engines are going away anytime soon are dreaming

Dude, you can keep your religion to yourself. I just want a smaller truck, and it's been fifteen years since I was willing to put up with the fragility and weak-ass performance of a fuel-burning engine. I need a truck, not a garage queen. No way in hell I'm going back to the 1980s.

And it's not even worth trying to address each of the things you said, because, in so far as I can see, they're ALL factually incorrect. You've got something stuck in your head from forty years ago, and you're repeating it without looking around at the actual world. I remember the 1980s, it was crap. The air was dirty, people had to care about politics in the middle east, and stuff broke all the time. I'm a grownup now, I don't have the time to put up with all that brokenness. And I have kids, and I'm not willing to take out loans and leave them to pay them back.

You do understand that the rest of us are having to subsidize each of your old gasoline clunkers by $5k/year each, to keep them on the road, right? And that's just the $6.2 trillion/year cash cost of the gasoline subsidies, it doesn't include any of the environmental remediation. If you had to pay those costs yourself, would you still be indulging in this vanity project? If so, why?

 

[TrkNv]

Dude, you can keep your religion to yourself. I just want a smaller truck, and it's been fifteen years since I was willing to put up with the fragility and weak-ass performance of a fuel-burning engine. I need a truck, not a garage queen. No way in hell I'm going back to the 1980s.

And it's not even worth trying to address each of the things you said, because, in so far as I can see, they're ALL factually incorrect. You've got something stuck in your head from forty years ago, and you're repeating it without looking around at the actual world. I remember the 1980s, it was crap. The air was dirty, people had to care about politics in the middle east, and stuff broke all the time. I'm a grownup now, I don't have the time to put up with all that brokenness. And I have kids, and I'm not willing to take out loans and leave them to pay them back.

You do understand that the rest of us are having to subsidize each of your old gasoline clunkers by $5k/year each, to keep them on the road, right? And that's just the $6.2 trillion/year cash cost of the gasoline subsidies, it doesn't include any of the environmental remediation. If you had to pay those costs yourself, would you still be indulging in this vanity project? If so, why?

who is preaching their religion now? Blocked.