Factory Closed Down?

[RLCarter]

Google Translate ain’t got no Big Words to Little Words button, so go easy on me 

[Hank]

24 minutes ago, jetdriven said:

Missile, have you driven or ridden in a Tesla car?  Because seeing is believing, the build quality and features make my BMW 335i feel like a Chevy Citation. Theyre really just that much better.

theyve put more innovation into their products than any other carmaker. Theyre literally a couple generations ahead. And the self-driving autopilot saves lives.

Let me know when you can drive your Tesla 1000 miles, topping off one time in less than 10 minutes, with multiple locations to select from.

In the meantime, I'll be driving my ICE car to the airport, then flying my ICE Mooney to my destination, where I will use another ICE car for "the last mile."

[Missile=Awesome]

34 minutes ago, jetdriven said:

Missile, have you driven or ridden in a Tesla car?  Because seeing is believing, the build quality and features make my BMW 335i feel like a Chevy Citation. Theyre really just that much better.

theyve put more innovation into their products than any other carmaker. Theyre literally a couple generations ahead. And the self-driving autopilot saves lives.

 

 

Yes.

[gsxrpilot]

There won't be an ICE semi-truck on the road 50 years from now or before my kids retire. The trucking industry will be all electric and without human drivers. It's coming and coming fast. 

[mike_elliott]

36 minutes ago, Missile=Awesome said:

Mike, I get that you are a Tesla fan boy.  Nothing wrong with that.  How many quarters has Tesla made a profit in the history of the company?  Is there a shortage of oil/fuel in the next 100 years that I am unaware of?  Hating on Big three to me is a little like what ChinoGuy rolls.  What is the point?

Yea, I am, no question of that. I am not hating on the former big 3, just pointing out the errors of their ways that left them in this position. No real point other than we all hate change, and sometimes that is to our detriment. Like I said, I have raced Porsches, drove for Datsun, bought many new Detroit cars and did so without "hate". I believe in flexibility, which is what I expouse here. "thats the way we have always done it" is the death of many companies. Tesla's profit history hasnt dated back to 1910 like some has for sure. This is a game of what are you doing for me today, not what you did in 1980, however. Worked for Ford back in the day when he disrupted the horse industry, and is working for Tesla today.

They have had a good run. Hopefully the little 3 can reinvent themselves and we all win, I know their survival depends on it.

36 minutes ago, Missile=Awesome said:

Why has thread creep entered into electric cars?  Is Tesla making electric engines for aircraft?  This thread was about the direction of Mooney the manufacturer and has crept into Cirrus and now Tesla.  I get Cirrus.  Tesla, not so much...

Agreed. 

36 minutes ago, Missile=Awesome said:

My questions are legitimate.  I am NOT attacking you.  It appeared to me that YOU were attacking the U.S. auto industry.  It is clear that electric cars are viable and getting better.  That is great.  Our Mooney aircraft operate on ICE.  It appears that you disagree with ICE engines and want electric to replace them.  I do not.  The market will pick who wins, unless the government chooses for us.  If we care about the environment why aren’t diesel semis operating on Natural Gas?

Why hasn’t a lead alternative been certified?

And I really am not attacking the US auto industry. Tesla after all, is a US auto maker also. We sometimes tend to forget that or ignore that. In fact, until they opened the China plant, he was the only manufacture that was exclusively US. Now, like the FIat owned Chrysler, Ford and GM, they are global in scale.

I do care about the environment and walk the walk, and in no way am dissin big oil. THey, like the auto industry, might have to reinvent themselves to meet with the future going forward. The amount of energy in a gal of desiel is hard to argue with.

BTW I am also a LEED certified AP who gets sustainable energy plans and systems, but I digress. I have no idea why a lead alternative hasnt been certified yet. Bringing this back to Mooney, dont be surprised at what you might see come from them soon...

[salty]

Just now, gsxrpilot said:

There won't be an ICE semi-truck on the road 50 years from now or before my kids retire. The trucking industry will be all electric and without human drivers. It's coming and coming fast. 

I'd put money against this if we weren't both going to be dead by then.

[Missile=Awesome]

5 minutes ago, gsxrpilot said:

There won't be an ICE semi-truck on the road 50 years from now or before my kids retire. The trucking industry will be all electric and without human drivers. It's coming and coming fast. 

Glad to be dead and buried.  For this to occur there needs to be 100% self driving cars.  I don’t want to live in that world.  More likely there will be added lanes on interstates with a dedicated self driving autonomous lane.  A “hub” where a driver will take over and finish the transport to the destination on congested two lane roads.  Will they be ALL electric?  Not sure why that would be necessary or advantageous.

[Missile=Awesome]

1 hour ago, mike_elliott said:

You must be thinking of Trevor Milton of Nikola  Heck, Tesla might make more profit selling satin "shorts" than GM this quarter

Soooo, about that “profit”....

[mike_elliott]

Ok, lets bet on this quarter...Ill buy your drinks at the next Mooney Summit if GM or Ford or Chryslers profit is more than Teslas q2. Or heck, Q3, We know they didnt beat them q1.

Heck, Ill buy your drinks at the Summit anyway

an interesting charting site you can get free cash flow, long term debt, profit etc from for all of them (and many other companies)

hypercharts.co

[1001001]

1 hour ago, jetdriven said:

Missile, have you driven or ridden in a Tesla car?  Because seeing is believing, the build quality and features make my BMW 335i feel like a Chevy Citation. Theyre really just that much better.

theyve put more innovation into their products than any other carmaker. Theyre literally a couple generations ahead. And the self-driving autopilot saves lives.

 

 

I have ridden in my boss's Tesla.  Frankly, I'm not too impressed with cars in general, and I didn't think it was any better than my BMW 1-er in fitment and quality.  Sure it has plenty of torque and it can go fast and accelerate very quickly, but it's way more than is legal or safe to use on most highways, and my car can more than double the interstate speed limit.  His Tesla gets maybe 200-250 miles on  a charge, I can go over 400 on a tank.  He paid more than 3x for his Tesla what I paid for my car, brand new.  It has a nice shiny screen to watch movies on while letting the Autopilot deliver one to the scene of the accident.

As for the environmental benefits of using electricity as the source of power, I used to work in the generation business and I know a thing or two about how it gets generated and the overall environmental impact.  Not terribly impressed with the supposed benefits, even before considering the impact of battery production and its long supply chain.

As far as I can tell, Teslas at this point make nice bragging toys, and they perform quite well, but certainly not enough to justify the price tag.

[Andy95W]

Just MHO, but I admit I am completely blown away by Tesla technology and innovation.  10 years ago when nobody could get electric cars to go 100 miles, Tesla figured out how to do 300 miles- in a high performance, luxury car at that.  Amazing.

But when it came time for me to buy a new car, I bought an Audi.  I can buy a lot of dead dinosaurs for the $60,000 difference in price.

[chriscalandro]

I actually bought a Hyundai, who is actually making really great cars filled with modern tech for a really great price point. 
 

for 29k I got lane centering, a HUD (which Tesla doesn’t have) heated and cooled seats, pano sunroof, and 10 year 100k warranty, and “smaht pahk”. I have every feature I wanted in the Tesla, plus some, for half the price, and without range anxiety. 
 

To tie it in with the discussion, Hyundai is a relatively new company in the us and is currently taking a large chunk of the market because of innovation rather than their brand name. 

[Missile=Awesome]

Competition is great.  Lead.  Follow or get out of the way...

I wonder if Ford will sell any Bronco’s?

Cars are kinda yesterday news.

SUV’s are THE thing outside of NY City and LA.

It’s about seats for butts and stuff in U.S.

Are Pick me up trucks going out of style?

Not so much where I live in flyover county.

Now if I was sitting in traffic commuting for an hour every morning in stop and go traffic.

Give me a Tesla with Uber screen for movie and or Aps...

I would never live in that hell.

Enjoy.

[AUWDE]

I do not have much input on the Tesla thread portion of this post. But I would like to thank you guys for the encouraging words on Mooney airplanes. I am continuing my pursuit of putting one in my own hanger. 

In regards to the Tesla information it is very entertaining to read. 

[mike_elliott]

11 minutes ago, Missile=Awesome said:

Competition is great.  Lead.  Follow or get out of the way...

Agreed

 

11 minutes ago, Missile=Awesome said:

Cars are kinda yesterday news.

Agreed

 

11 minutes ago, Missile=Awesome said:

I wonder if Ford will sell any Bronco’s?

Depends if OJ can buy another knife or not

 

11 minutes ago, Missile=Awesome said:

SUV’s are THE thing outside of NY City and LA

Agreed

11 minutes ago, Missile=Awesome said:

Are Pick me up trucks going out of style?

Not a chance in the near future, but they will be going electric. I used to live in Flyover Indiana, where the PU is king. There are a lot of jacked up PU trucks in Pinellas Co Fl where I live now. I guess they need the ground clearance for the dead armadillos like they do in Dallas 

 

11 minutes ago, Missile=Awesome said:

It’s about seats for butts and stuff in U.S

Agreed

11 minutes ago, Missile=Awesome said:

Now if I was sitting in traffic commuting for an hour every morning in stop and go traffic

NO DONT DO IT  I did the 45 minute drive to my office for about 10 years and changed up that program after I realized what a waste of energy and time it was.

11 minutes ago, Missile=Awesome said:

Give me a Tesla with Uber screen for movie and or Aps.

Ah...a convert

Dont forget the "fart" toy

 

 

[gsxrpilot]

Tesla's of today don't have to be for everyone. But for what they are designed to do, they are very nice. It's pretty common to have two cars in most families. We have three cars and two drivers. Having a Tesla or another electric car as one of them could be quite convenient. I have one on order, but might or might not take delivery. I'm still waiting to see what the economy does in the next 6 months and what happens with my employment. Not all my cars excel at the same tasks. This last weekend driving over Imogene pass in SW Colorado, the BMW M3 would have been useless, but the 4Runner was perfect. Getting my wife back and forth to work 7 miles each way, summer and winter in Denver, the Tesla Model Y sounds like a perfect solution to me. Of course she could do it in a much cheaper car... but come on... this is a forum full of people who own private airplanes... 

And from friends of mine who own Tesla's, once you have one, you start using it more and more for more types of travel and next thing you know the car with the ICE under the hood is up for sale.

The day Amazon decides it's cheaper to use electric automated trucks, the trucking industry as we know it will be gone. And they are working that direction very quickly with unlimited funds at their disposal.

One of my customers is AAA. Somedays I think they're still trying to figure out why no one is stopping by for the little TripTix books they put together. Think of Kodak, Xerox, TomTom and Magellan. And now technology is able to replicate its self and improve its self. So hang on, the rocket has been lit, and there's no un-lighting it.

[mike_elliott]

1 minute ago, gsxrpilot said:

Tesla's of today don't have to be for everyone. But for what they are designed to do, they are very nice. It's pretty common to have two cars in most families. We have three cars and two drivers. Having a Tesla or another electric car as one of them could be quite convenient. I have one on order, but might or might not take delivery. I'm still waiting to see what the economy does in the next 6 months and what happens with my employment. Not all my cars excel at the same tasks. This last weekend driving over Imogene pass in SW Colorado, the BMW M3 would have been useless, but the 4Runner was perfect. Getting my wife back and forth to work 7 miles each way, summer and winter in Denver, the Tesla Model Y sounds like a perfect solution to me. Of course she could do it in a much cheaper car... but come on... this is a forum full of people who own private airplanes... 

And from friends of mine who own Tesla's, once you have one, you start using it more and more for more types of travel and next thing you know the car with the ICE under the hood is up for sale.

The day Amazon decides it's cheaper to use electric automated trucks, the trucking industry as we know it will be gone. And they are working that direction very quickly with unlimited funds at their disposal.

One of my customers is AAA. Somedays I think they're still trying to figure out why no one is stopping by for the little TripTix books they put together. Think of Kodak, Xerox, TomTom and Magellan. And now technology is able to replicate its self and improve its self. So hang on, the rocket has been lit, and there's no un-lighting it.

Cybertruck? I might order one of those to replace that butt ugly Prius for my wife. Alice would look good in a PU truck!

[Hank]

8 minutes ago, Missile=Awesome said:

Competition is great.  Lead.  Follow or get out of the way...

I wonder if Ford will sell any Bronco’s?

Cars are kinda yesterday news.

SUV’s are THE thing outside of NY City and LA.

I will never buy an SUV. I haul stuff in the back of my truck. Need firewood? Not good in an SUV, but doable. Need gravel for the driveway? No SUV will do that. Ditto with mulch for the flowers, dirt for the flower bed, yard trimmings [bushes cut back, tree branches that fall from storms] that need to go away. SUVs are just cars built on truck frames, with truck performance and truck mileage. I much prefer my little Altima at 35+ mpg back and forth to work [the whole reason I bought the car!]--it even has a respectable-sized trunk.

Don't want the car to ever control where I go. Not a big fan of the automation on my Tacoma--it's really hard to get close enough to pass with the cruise control set to it's default "following" setting, even on the closest it's too far back and won't accelerate good when I press the gas. Don't even get me started on the headlights--I like them to turn on and off as needed, but Toyota also takes away control of the bright-dim switch, meaning the bright lights go dim when I turn off the rural highway onto the unlit, dark sideroad that I live on [why?????], and to get them back to bright I have to move the headlight switch from Auto past Parking Lights to Headlights before they go back to bright . . . . And on-coming traffic? Sometimes it recognizes them and goes dim, sometimes it doesn't and my moving the switch does nothing!

So no, you can keep your automation and self-driving car. I don't want any part of driverless vehicles and certainly not pilotless aircraft!

[gsxrpilot]

Just now, Hank said:

Don't want the car to ever control where I go. Not a big fan of the automation on my Tacoma--it's really hard to get close enough to pass with the cruise control set to it's default "following" setting, even on the closest it's too far back and won't accelerate good when I press the gas. Don't even get me started on the headlights--I like them to turn on and off as needed, but Toyota also takes away control of the bright-dim switch, meaning the bright lights go dim when I turn off the rural highway onto the unlit, dark sideroad that I live on [why?????], and to get them back to bright I have to move the headlight switch from Auto past Parking Lights to Headlights before they go back to bright . . . . And on-coming traffic? Sometimes it recognizes them and goes dim, sometimes it doesn't and my moving the switch does nothing!

Just as soon as society comes to the consensus that self-driving cars are safer, this kind of reckless, tom-foolery will be prohibited. 

[Hank]

Just now, gsxrpilot said:

Just as soon as society comes to the consensus that self-driving cars are safer, this kind of reckless, tom-foolery will be prohibited. 

Sure, we'll all just motor comfortably along behind the slowest car in front of us. The Toyota has three settings, the closest one is approx. 4 seconds behind the slowpoke. In Driver's Ed, I was taught that 2 seconds back is a good following position. Either way, you can't pass from even 2 seconds back . . . . .

[RLCarter]

@Hank I’m a truck guy as well, about the closest I’ve ever came to owning a car for my use is an El Camino in 1980, everything before and after has been trucks & motorcycles

[Hank]

Just now, RLCarter said:

@Hank I’m a truck guy as well, about the closest I’ve ever came to owning a car for my use is an El Camino in 1980, everything before and after has been trucks & motorcycles

I like 'em both. Have no use for SUVs--they do mediocre service as cars, due to the truck frame; and they do really bad service as trucks because the cargo space is one with the passenger cabin, and carpeted--who wants to haul horse manure to fertilize their garden in the back of their luxury behemoth SUV?  Throw it in the truck, drive home and unload, hose out the bed!

[gsxrpilot]

Just now, Hank said:

Sure, we'll all just motor comfortably along behind the slowest car in front of us. The Toyota has three settings, the closest one is approx. 4 seconds behind the slowpoke. In Driver's Ed, I was taught that 2 seconds back is a good following position. Either way, you can't pass from even 2 seconds back . . . . .

Yeah, my 4Runner doesn't have the automation (2014), but it can hardly pass anything. I love driving it on the dirt all over the mountains out here, but on the highway or especially two lane roads, it's hopeless.

Of course the only vehicle that needs less room to make a pass on a two lane road than a Tesla, is a sport bike, like the GSXR1000 I used to ride. 

[hammdo]

27 minutes ago, Hank said:

I will never buy an SUV. I haul stuff in the back of my truck. Need firewood? Not good in an SUV, but doable. Need gravel for the driveway? No SUV will do that. Ditto with mulch for the flowers, dirt for the flower bed, yard trimmings [bushes cut back, tree branches that fall from storms] that need to go away. SUVs are just cars built on truck frames, with truck performance and truck mileage.

SUV with a trailer/hitch ;o)?

I’ve done that vs pick up — needed suv with 8 seats — trailer helped for hauling...

-Don

[Missile=Awesome]

Freedom to choose what you want to drive. Where and when?  Priceless