Over the last couple of years, I daily visit the Seeking Alpha TSLA Analysis and News page.
Tesla specializes in electric cars and they lose money. OK, they claimed to make money in some quarters of last year, but they lost money overall in year 2019. If they made any money, it was either because of regulatory credits paid to them by other automakers for CO2 indulgences or because of their non-GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting and Practices?) way of reporting profit.
The “legacy” automakers don’t like to lose money, and certainly their investors, institutional or retail, punish their stock price when the lose money when they cannot help it. There currently isn’t a path for them to make money on electric cars until they are forced by government mandates. So they have plans to make electric cars, they make electric cars, but they don’t sell very many.
The “legacy” automakers, by the way, not only includes the Evil American makers but outfits like Toyota. Do you think Toyota is Evil and Stupid and doesn’t know how to make a reliable car to save themselves?
The Tesla Model 3 was supposed to be revolutionary, disruptive and game changing. Not only was the car very different than everything else, so was its factory. It was supposed to be made in a highly automated factory that Elon Musk characterized as an Alien Dreadnought, some kind of UFO-level technology where cars would be made at a high rate with a minimum of human labor. For some reason, the Alien Dreadnought didn’t work and they reverted to human labor, a lot of it, multiples of the employees per car sold than the legacy automakers. They don’t come close to producing as many cars in their Fremont, CA factory as when GM was running it with Toyota’s guidance to build Corollas and Chevy Nova/Prizm Corolla clones.
Tesla has stayed afloat by selling high-end option-laden versions of the Model 3 north of 50K. They have also stayed afloat by expanding their market internationally as US sales have stagnated.
The “hype” the article warns about is not general hype about electric cars and global warming/climate change/climate emergency/Green New Deal. The hype is that the legacy automakers are going to compete with the disruptive greatness that is Tesla as the leading EV maker. The greatness of Tesla’s EV is they hype many of us are thinking.
It is like the adage about teaching an elephant to dance. You don’t worry whether the elephant will perform for the Joffrey or the Bolshoi or is even competitive on Dancing with the Stars. The amazing thing is seeing this huge, ungainly creature dancing at all, so you don’t worry about it winning approval from high-brow dance critics or even persons enjoying low-brow entertainment.
It is really amazing what Tesla has accomplished with lithium battery technology with their Model S, X and 3 models, especially in comparison with the glorified golf carts of the GM EV-1 era when California was seriously thinking of forcing everyone to drive electric cars. If we are judging the dancing elephant on style points, there remains a serious question whether electric cars, even the vaunted Tesla, can meet motorists’ needs, especially in cold climates outside of Florida and California. There is a question about their usage of a number of scarce resources and whether they are a real solution to the CO2 problem, even if you believe that to be serious, or even if you believe CO2 to be series, but whether forcing everyone into electric cars is a good use of money that could have a greater effect direct elsewhere.
But the article? You didn’t read it, Rand, did you?
I read it. It said the legacy carmakers are, in essence, playing at producing and selling electric vehicles while Tesla is serious about it. Imagine my surprise.
Agree that what Tesla has managed to do to-date is quite impressive. It builds a good car and its vehicles are getting better way faster than those from legacy makers, however powered. The same seems to be true of Tesla’s factories.
There are several snowy-in-winter states with EV sales percentages above the national average for all states – some of them well above, including Oregon, Washington and Minnesota.
EV sales everywhere in the U.S. are growing very fast from admittedly small bases, but the average year-over-year sales increase in a state is north of 80%. Here in bellwether CA, every 20th vehicle sold was an EV in 2017. In 2018 it was every 13th vehicle. 2019 numbers aren’t available yet but it wouldn’t surprise me if EV’s are now above the 10% mark in annual sales here. With the national average being about one new vehicle in 75 being an EV, there is obviously a lot of upside sales potential.
I would certainly buy a Tesla if I could, but I can’t afford any sort of new car and drive very little anymore.
For the record, I don’t worry at all about CO2 nor do I put any credence in the claims of climate alarmists. I’m just in favor of disrupting sleepy and hidebound industries.
Tesla hasn’t yet had quite the effect in autos that SpaceX has had in space launch, but it punches well above its weight and is packing on the pounds at a prodigious rate. In another decade or less Tesla could well be among the top ten car producers worldwide.
I bought a 5 year old Nissan Leaf, and have been very happy with it as a second car. I live in Hawaii, so there isn’t really a place that I could go that is outside of a modern car’s range, but since this one is so old we only use it in town (max range is about 70 miles, then island’s max driving distance is maybe about that).
In Hawaii, it makes a lot of sense. Gas is crazy expensive, and you can easily get free energy (solar). But that doesn’t mean I should want to force electric vehicles on Minnesotans!
I live in a rural area, and tend to drive very long distances fairly often, often on rural roads. For me, electric just makes no sense, even if the vehicles didn’t cost more.
Speaking of vehicles, I have a problem; the older of my two vehicles (both are SUVs; I need 4×4 and high clearance out here) is heading for 200k miles, and is starting to have too many problems. I’m going to have to get a new vehicle. The problem; from what I can see, the market is infested with “connected” vehicles, and an appalling lack of full size spares (and worse, no place to put a full size if you buy one).
“Connected” is a deal killer for me; no way in hell. Same with no ability to carry a spare. Would anyone know a search term I can use to find non-connected vehicles to look at (or ones that can be ordered without all the electronic garbage?) So far, a few quick attempts at searching haven’t proven helpful.
If you want to buy a non-connected vehicle, buy a used one. Seriously, that’s your option. Even the entry-level stuff like a Chevy Sonic comes with OnStar.
My objection to full EVs is this: I live in Dallas. Let’s say I want to drive to Green Bay for some reason. How much longer will it take me on an all-electric vehicle vs a gas vehicle? Tesla’s superchargers aren’t everywhere.
Note that the people who want us all living in apartment towers in cities and traveling by mass transit don’t see this as a problem.
It’s looking more and more like I’ll have to go used.
Onstar… they got caught tracking vehicles and collecting all sorts of data (in other words, you have an onboard spy) on vehicles where the customer had explicitly ended the onstar “service” and had it shut off. That at least proved the point that the only way to make a vehicle safe is to remove the cellular transceiver (or, just cut its power).
Your objections to EVs are the same as mine in that regard; I do a lot of long driving trips in the western US and Canada, and I tend to avoid cities. So, charging would be a major issue for me. Even if there is a fast charge station, that quick fill-up just became a half hour, and that’s assuming there’s one vacant. If there’s three cars in front of you, your fast fill-up just became an hour and a half or more.
Or, on a recent drive from Arizona up to Oregon, I did my usual and took back roads. From near Reno heading north, there was one, just one, gas station (in Gerlach, Nevada) for about 400 miles on my route (a hundred miles of which wasn’t even paved). An EV would not have been possible to use, let alone practical.
Yeah, the fascists who want to force us all into cities and mass transit are an ongoing concern of mine. It’s one of many reasons I won’t go with a connected car; they can be turned off or otherwise limited remotely, and the government might just decide to do so.
What problems does it have, that cannot be repaired for less money than a year’s payments on a new one?
Everyone around here is computer savvy, and since OBD-II, a car is essentially a computer that you can plug into another computer to find out what is wrong. There are even Internet “car clubs” (Camry owner’s club, Taurus owner’s club) where you can search or post repair questions. The computer will tell you what part it is, but then the fun begins getting your hands in there, but still, there are many repairs you can do yourself.
It’s got, amongst other things, a slightly bent and cracked frame, a failing transmission (chewed metal seen when I changed the tranny fluid, and growing amounts of play), an engine that needs total rebuilding, brakes same, and a total rewire job. Radiator, cooling system, heater core, basically everything under the hood should be rebuilt or replaced. Even the alternator is a clunker I salvaged off a wreck two years ago. And worse, some parts are near impossible to get. The interior is pretty shot as well. My mechanic (who would be doing the work) advised me to junk it. (I mainly use it for heavy offroading, so you can imagine the wear and tear.)
I do a lot of my own repairs, but I just don’t have the time to do a total vehicle rebuild (and frankly, that would be beyond my skill level, too). I do have an OBDII scanner, and it’s handy, but it does not always tell you what’s wrong. I don’t mind the physical stuff usually (Unless it’s brake drum springs. I HATE doing those! Took me two days the last time I rebuilt the rear brakes), even fairly big jobs like putting new rings and seals in an engine, but these days I have my mechanic do the really time-consuming stuff, which is basically anything worse than rebuilding the brakes or replacing a radiator.
Buying used is an option, though. Actually, given the money I’d save, I could buy used and then have a heck of a lot done to the vehicle. (I’m not interested in a car loan whether I go new or used, which gives me options in that regard). I usually do buy used, one to two years old (to avoid the dreaded new car depreciation). However, it’s looking to me like I’ll have to go older than that this time, to avoid all the “connected” aspects and integrated computerized “infotainment” systems.
My other option is to buy new, then on day 1 rip out the cellular transceiver/infotainment stuff. However, I really don’t want to buy new and then have to take off the dashboard and start ripping stuff out, plus on some vehicles it looks like I wouldn’t even have that option.
I have a 1996 Taurus with 225,000 miles. It is leaking air (stupid alloy wheels don’t seal well anymore) radiator fluid (at least one hose is leaking, but it is in the crotch of the intake manifold and nigh impossible to remove without cutting if off, which I shall do when I get to it, and it is using oil.
The engine starts and runs great and the transmission shifts fine, but it has a spark knock, which someone from the Engines Research Lab at the U who studied this kind of thing explains is the result of oil ingestion — he explained oil is “anti-octane” and one drop of oil can trigger a knock.
It only seems to knock when cold and when I am going around a curve. My theory is that the intake manifold oil film that forms on startup sloshes to where the engine ingests it.
The fuel trip, long and short, is in the low single digits. My scan software says that it is showing a pending P0100 MAF code with a raft of pending Ford specific codes I don’t have the software to translate. There is no check engine light, but the fuel economy is a good 10 percent below what I was getting when the car was much newer.
I have replaced the PCV, the engine doesn’t seem to be blowing by much when lifting the oil cap or the dipstick. It shows 19 inches of manifold vacuum at idle. I haven’t checked the compression — this is a pain on a transverse front-drive V6 to get at the back spark plugs.
I guess it starts and runs, and the interior remains in good shape, so what’s the problem? Maybe the mild loss in fuel economy is age, but maybe there is a fix? When mine starts to shift badly, I will take your mechanic’s advice and consign it to an auto salvage yard.
Musk’s business case closes as a unit when you include Tesla, solar, batteries, and Hyperlink. I bet he knows that.
I live in the sticks and, in addition to a pickup, I have a 2018 Subaru CrossTrek Premium 5-door with 8.9in ground clearance and all wheel drive with X-mode, that gets 600 miles unrefueled on a 16.9 gallon gas tank that takes 5 minutes or so to fill, and cost $25K cash. It’ll be a while before EVs get there.
Does your Subaru have a full-size spare – or at least a wheel bay capable of holding one?
The reason I ask is a Subaru was one of my options. I was considering buying it in Canada because they seem to have full size spares more often than US cars, plus there’s less of the connected crap to rip out (still some, though). However, if it doesn’t have a full size (or that can be made full size) spare tire bay, that’s a deal-killer for me.
Thanks!
Our Forester has a donut spare, but I believe it’s possible to get a full-size spare in the wheel well with some mods. It’s a few years old, though, so who knows about the new ones.
Arizona CJ, I see where a 2007 Nissan Frontier was recently in the news for still running at 1 million miles. You might see if a 4WD module has sufficient ground clearance for your needs.
I looked it up – 8.6 inches, stock. That’s about the same as my two present SUVs, before I fixed the problem my adding a few inches via a lift kit (pretty easy to do). I also see that the Frontier has fairly large wheel wells, so could take offroad-capable tires.)
Thank you VERY much for this; that’s now on my list!
As I approach retirement, I’ve thought about getting a small “city car” for daily running around and keeping one of our existing cars as the one for carrying larger stuff and road trips. It currently doesn’t make financial sense to buy any of the new EVs as a city car. For a fraction of the price, I could buy something like a Honda Fit. The savings in purchase price alone could buy several thousand gallons of gas and that would take me a long, long distance. If we downsize to only one car due to age or health issues, it might make sense to get a city car for trips to the doctor, grocery store, etc. We’d likely be past the point of road trips by then.
The CrossTrek came with standard 18″ wheels and the usual dinky spare. However, you can remove the inserts in the spare tire well and then the 18″ will fit. If you get the 19″ off-road package, which raises the skid plate clearance to 9.9″, you’ll need to get an UltraSwing combo spare-tire mount and bicycle rack, which attaches to the tow-bar mount behind the rear bumper. There’s also a tire mount thingy you can get for the roof rack, if you absolutely have to have the tow bar in place.
As far as I can tell, it’s impossible to get stuck in this car short of hanging it up on a boulder with all four wheels off the ground. I also have an Impreza, bought for $19K, which is sporty with a manual transmission and the standard AWD, but you wouldn’t want to go off road in it other than in an emergency. I did drive over a frozen plough ridge last year. There’s no skid plate, so the oil pan made a mighty sizzle, but no harm done.
Or you can just buy one of the bigger Subarus. None of them are expensive.
Thank you!
I’d looked at Forrester and Outback a little while back, but I was told I could not get a new one without the “connected” stuff, so I’d have needed to remove the infotainment system (which that’s part of, and is kaput if I just cut the transceiver). I was also told, by a Subaru salesman, that the 2020 models can’t fit a full spare, but maybe he thought I’d want to keep the inserts and storage bay? But, in Canada, they do have full size spares, or so I’ve read.
So, I’m looking into getting one in Canada, where they don’t have the Subaru Connect (or whatever it’s called) so it’s not installed – at least, as near as I can tell. I’m going to look into this – if it works, this looks like a good choice. From what I read, I’ll still have to add needed stuff like temp gauges, dipsticks, etc, but that’s true of most anything these days.
I’;d definitely want skid plates, but I’ve never bought a vehicle with them on; far too many these days are fiberglass or plastic. I saved a lot of $$ and made my own skid plates for my SUVs out of 1/4 inch steel plate.
I wouldn’t be doing serious offroading in a subaru (though I’d still add skid plates, just in case) but it’d be nice to have a car-like comfortable vehicle for long road trips, but that can handle snow, ice, and occasional dirt roads and mud.
Thank you for the info!
I’ve got 17 and 18 models, which don’t have Connect (and I didn’t buy the Eyesight package). To connect, the Info thingy has to have Bluetooth access to a cell phone. I never did that as I don’t use my phones that much and less and less since I retired. I recent;y dumped my smart phones and picked up a TracFone flippy, which is phone enough these days. I only got the TracFone because the day after I dumped Verizon I got a flat tire in my truck and couldn’t call AAA. I had to lay in the mud and change it myself. Geezerdom has its drawbacks.
A TracFone flippy? Do they still sell a feature phone or is that one of those new-fangled “smart phones” that I don’t have a clue how to use?
The basic TracFone ($15-20, depending on where you buy it) is a flip phone that resembles the typical phones of 15+ years ago, no touchscreen and real buttons (similar to, but less elegant looking than the original Motorola Razr of yesteryear). It’s supposed to be locked to Alcatel (in my area, using T-mobile), but all that means is the chip is pre-installed. You can take it out and put in a different one if necessary (or take it out and put it in some other phone). People buy minutes cards, for example 90-day cards with 60 minutes on them for $20, but if you buy the time at the TracFone website, you get 180 minutes for $20. If you sign up for auto renew, you get 180 minutes non-expiring every 90 days for $15. And the funniest bit: the TracFone flippy is a full featured smart phone in disguise if you want. Although you’d need mighty good eyesight to browse the web on a 2″ screen!
Over the last couple of years, I daily visit the Seeking Alpha TSLA Analysis and News page.
Tesla specializes in electric cars and they lose money. OK, they claimed to make money in some quarters of last year, but they lost money overall in year 2019. If they made any money, it was either because of regulatory credits paid to them by other automakers for CO2 indulgences or because of their non-GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting and Practices?) way of reporting profit.
The “legacy” automakers don’t like to lose money, and certainly their investors, institutional or retail, punish their stock price when the lose money when they cannot help it. There currently isn’t a path for them to make money on electric cars until they are forced by government mandates. So they have plans to make electric cars, they make electric cars, but they don’t sell very many.
The “legacy” automakers, by the way, not only includes the Evil American makers but outfits like Toyota. Do you think Toyota is Evil and Stupid and doesn’t know how to make a reliable car to save themselves?
The Tesla Model 3 was supposed to be revolutionary, disruptive and game changing. Not only was the car very different than everything else, so was its factory. It was supposed to be made in a highly automated factory that Elon Musk characterized as an Alien Dreadnought, some kind of UFO-level technology where cars would be made at a high rate with a minimum of human labor. For some reason, the Alien Dreadnought didn’t work and they reverted to human labor, a lot of it, multiples of the employees per car sold than the legacy automakers. They don’t come close to producing as many cars in their Fremont, CA factory as when GM was running it with Toyota’s guidance to build Corollas and Chevy Nova/Prizm Corolla clones.
Tesla has stayed afloat by selling high-end option-laden versions of the Model 3 north of 50K. They have also stayed afloat by expanding their market internationally as US sales have stagnated.
The “hype” the article warns about is not general hype about electric cars and global warming/climate change/climate emergency/Green New Deal. The hype is that the legacy automakers are going to compete with the disruptive greatness that is Tesla as the leading EV maker. The greatness of Tesla’s EV is they hype many of us are thinking.
It is like the adage about teaching an elephant to dance. You don’t worry whether the elephant will perform for the Joffrey or the Bolshoi or is even competitive on Dancing with the Stars. The amazing thing is seeing this huge, ungainly creature dancing at all, so you don’t worry about it winning approval from high-brow dance critics or even persons enjoying low-brow entertainment.
It is really amazing what Tesla has accomplished with lithium battery technology with their Model S, X and 3 models, especially in comparison with the glorified golf carts of the GM EV-1 era when California was seriously thinking of forcing everyone to drive electric cars. If we are judging the dancing elephant on style points, there remains a serious question whether electric cars, even the vaunted Tesla, can meet motorists’ needs, especially in cold climates outside of Florida and California. There is a question about their usage of a number of scarce resources and whether they are a real solution to the CO2 problem, even if you believe that to be serious, or even if you believe CO2 to be series, but whether forcing everyone into electric cars is a good use of money that could have a greater effect direct elsewhere.
But the article? You didn’t read it, Rand, did you?
I read it. It said the legacy carmakers are, in essence, playing at producing and selling electric vehicles while Tesla is serious about it. Imagine my surprise.
Agree that what Tesla has managed to do to-date is quite impressive. It builds a good car and its vehicles are getting better way faster than those from legacy makers, however powered. The same seems to be true of Tesla’s factories.
There are several snowy-in-winter states with EV sales percentages above the national average for all states – some of them well above, including Oregon, Washington and Minnesota.
EV sales everywhere in the U.S. are growing very fast from admittedly small bases, but the average year-over-year sales increase in a state is north of 80%. Here in bellwether CA, every 20th vehicle sold was an EV in 2017. In 2018 it was every 13th vehicle. 2019 numbers aren’t available yet but it wouldn’t surprise me if EV’s are now above the 10% mark in annual sales here. With the national average being about one new vehicle in 75 being an EV, there is obviously a lot of upside sales potential.
I would certainly buy a Tesla if I could, but I can’t afford any sort of new car and drive very little anymore.
For the record, I don’t worry at all about CO2 nor do I put any credence in the claims of climate alarmists. I’m just in favor of disrupting sleepy and hidebound industries.
Tesla hasn’t yet had quite the effect in autos that SpaceX has had in space launch, but it punches well above its weight and is packing on the pounds at a prodigious rate. In another decade or less Tesla could well be among the top ten car producers worldwide.
I bought a 5 year old Nissan Leaf, and have been very happy with it as a second car. I live in Hawaii, so there isn’t really a place that I could go that is outside of a modern car’s range, but since this one is so old we only use it in town (max range is about 70 miles, then island’s max driving distance is maybe about that).
In Hawaii, it makes a lot of sense. Gas is crazy expensive, and you can easily get free energy (solar). But that doesn’t mean I should want to force electric vehicles on Minnesotans!
I live in a rural area, and tend to drive very long distances fairly often, often on rural roads. For me, electric just makes no sense, even if the vehicles didn’t cost more.
Speaking of vehicles, I have a problem; the older of my two vehicles (both are SUVs; I need 4×4 and high clearance out here) is heading for 200k miles, and is starting to have too many problems. I’m going to have to get a new vehicle. The problem; from what I can see, the market is infested with “connected” vehicles, and an appalling lack of full size spares (and worse, no place to put a full size if you buy one).
“Connected” is a deal killer for me; no way in hell. Same with no ability to carry a spare. Would anyone know a search term I can use to find non-connected vehicles to look at (or ones that can be ordered without all the electronic garbage?) So far, a few quick attempts at searching haven’t proven helpful.
If you want to buy a non-connected vehicle, buy a used one. Seriously, that’s your option. Even the entry-level stuff like a Chevy Sonic comes with OnStar.
My objection to full EVs is this: I live in Dallas. Let’s say I want to drive to Green Bay for some reason. How much longer will it take me on an all-electric vehicle vs a gas vehicle? Tesla’s superchargers aren’t everywhere.
Note that the people who want us all living in apartment towers in cities and traveling by mass transit don’t see this as a problem.
It’s looking more and more like I’ll have to go used.
Onstar… they got caught tracking vehicles and collecting all sorts of data (in other words, you have an onboard spy) on vehicles where the customer had explicitly ended the onstar “service” and had it shut off. That at least proved the point that the only way to make a vehicle safe is to remove the cellular transceiver (or, just cut its power).
Your objections to EVs are the same as mine in that regard; I do a lot of long driving trips in the western US and Canada, and I tend to avoid cities. So, charging would be a major issue for me. Even if there is a fast charge station, that quick fill-up just became a half hour, and that’s assuming there’s one vacant. If there’s three cars in front of you, your fast fill-up just became an hour and a half or more.
Or, on a recent drive from Arizona up to Oregon, I did my usual and took back roads. From near Reno heading north, there was one, just one, gas station (in Gerlach, Nevada) for about 400 miles on my route (a hundred miles of which wasn’t even paved). An EV would not have been possible to use, let alone practical.
Yeah, the fascists who want to force us all into cities and mass transit are an ongoing concern of mine. It’s one of many reasons I won’t go with a connected car; they can be turned off or otherwise limited remotely, and the government might just decide to do so.
What problems does it have, that cannot be repaired for less money than a year’s payments on a new one?
Everyone around here is computer savvy, and since OBD-II, a car is essentially a computer that you can plug into another computer to find out what is wrong. There are even Internet “car clubs” (Camry owner’s club, Taurus owner’s club) where you can search or post repair questions. The computer will tell you what part it is, but then the fun begins getting your hands in there, but still, there are many repairs you can do yourself.
It’s got, amongst other things, a slightly bent and cracked frame, a failing transmission (chewed metal seen when I changed the tranny fluid, and growing amounts of play), an engine that needs total rebuilding, brakes same, and a total rewire job. Radiator, cooling system, heater core, basically everything under the hood should be rebuilt or replaced. Even the alternator is a clunker I salvaged off a wreck two years ago. And worse, some parts are near impossible to get. The interior is pretty shot as well. My mechanic (who would be doing the work) advised me to junk it. (I mainly use it for heavy offroading, so you can imagine the wear and tear.)
I do a lot of my own repairs, but I just don’t have the time to do a total vehicle rebuild (and frankly, that would be beyond my skill level, too). I do have an OBDII scanner, and it’s handy, but it does not always tell you what’s wrong. I don’t mind the physical stuff usually (Unless it’s brake drum springs. I HATE doing those! Took me two days the last time I rebuilt the rear brakes), even fairly big jobs like putting new rings and seals in an engine, but these days I have my mechanic do the really time-consuming stuff, which is basically anything worse than rebuilding the brakes or replacing a radiator.
Buying used is an option, though. Actually, given the money I’d save, I could buy used and then have a heck of a lot done to the vehicle. (I’m not interested in a car loan whether I go new or used, which gives me options in that regard). I usually do buy used, one to two years old (to avoid the dreaded new car depreciation). However, it’s looking to me like I’ll have to go older than that this time, to avoid all the “connected” aspects and integrated computerized “infotainment” systems.
My other option is to buy new, then on day 1 rip out the cellular transceiver/infotainment stuff. However, I really don’t want to buy new and then have to take off the dashboard and start ripping stuff out, plus on some vehicles it looks like I wouldn’t even have that option.
I have a 1996 Taurus with 225,000 miles. It is leaking air (stupid alloy wheels don’t seal well anymore) radiator fluid (at least one hose is leaking, but it is in the crotch of the intake manifold and nigh impossible to remove without cutting if off, which I shall do when I get to it, and it is using oil.
The engine starts and runs great and the transmission shifts fine, but it has a spark knock, which someone from the Engines Research Lab at the U who studied this kind of thing explains is the result of oil ingestion — he explained oil is “anti-octane” and one drop of oil can trigger a knock.
It only seems to knock when cold and when I am going around a curve. My theory is that the intake manifold oil film that forms on startup sloshes to where the engine ingests it.
The fuel trip, long and short, is in the low single digits. My scan software says that it is showing a pending P0100 MAF code with a raft of pending Ford specific codes I don’t have the software to translate. There is no check engine light, but the fuel economy is a good 10 percent below what I was getting when the car was much newer.
I have replaced the PCV, the engine doesn’t seem to be blowing by much when lifting the oil cap or the dipstick. It shows 19 inches of manifold vacuum at idle. I haven’t checked the compression — this is a pain on a transverse front-drive V6 to get at the back spark plugs.
I guess it starts and runs, and the interior remains in good shape, so what’s the problem? Maybe the mild loss in fuel economy is age, but maybe there is a fix? When mine starts to shift badly, I will take your mechanic’s advice and consign it to an auto salvage yard.
Musk’s business case closes as a unit when you include Tesla, solar, batteries, and Hyperlink. I bet he knows that.
I live in the sticks and, in addition to a pickup, I have a 2018 Subaru CrossTrek Premium 5-door with 8.9in ground clearance and all wheel drive with X-mode, that gets 600 miles unrefueled on a 16.9 gallon gas tank that takes 5 minutes or so to fill, and cost $25K cash. It’ll be a while before EVs get there.
Does your Subaru have a full-size spare – or at least a wheel bay capable of holding one?
The reason I ask is a Subaru was one of my options. I was considering buying it in Canada because they seem to have full size spares more often than US cars, plus there’s less of the connected crap to rip out (still some, though). However, if it doesn’t have a full size (or that can be made full size) spare tire bay, that’s a deal-killer for me.
Thanks!
Our Forester has a donut spare, but I believe it’s possible to get a full-size spare in the wheel well with some mods. It’s a few years old, though, so who knows about the new ones.
Arizona CJ, I see where a 2007 Nissan Frontier was recently in the news for still running at 1 million miles. You might see if a 4WD module has sufficient ground clearance for your needs.
I looked it up – 8.6 inches, stock. That’s about the same as my two present SUVs, before I fixed the problem my adding a few inches via a lift kit (pretty easy to do). I also see that the Frontier has fairly large wheel wells, so could take offroad-capable tires.)
Thank you VERY much for this; that’s now on my list!
As I approach retirement, I’ve thought about getting a small “city car” for daily running around and keeping one of our existing cars as the one for carrying larger stuff and road trips. It currently doesn’t make financial sense to buy any of the new EVs as a city car. For a fraction of the price, I could buy something like a Honda Fit. The savings in purchase price alone could buy several thousand gallons of gas and that would take me a long, long distance. If we downsize to only one car due to age or health issues, it might make sense to get a city car for trips to the doctor, grocery store, etc. We’d likely be past the point of road trips by then.
The CrossTrek came with standard 18″ wheels and the usual dinky spare. However, you can remove the inserts in the spare tire well and then the 18″ will fit. If you get the 19″ off-road package, which raises the skid plate clearance to 9.9″, you’ll need to get an UltraSwing combo spare-tire mount and bicycle rack, which attaches to the tow-bar mount behind the rear bumper. There’s also a tire mount thingy you can get for the roof rack, if you absolutely have to have the tow bar in place.
As far as I can tell, it’s impossible to get stuck in this car short of hanging it up on a boulder with all four wheels off the ground. I also have an Impreza, bought for $19K, which is sporty with a manual transmission and the standard AWD, but you wouldn’t want to go off road in it other than in an emergency. I did drive over a frozen plough ridge last year. There’s no skid plate, so the oil pan made a mighty sizzle, but no harm done.
Or you can just buy one of the bigger Subarus. None of them are expensive.
Thank you!
I’d looked at Forrester and Outback a little while back, but I was told I could not get a new one without the “connected” stuff, so I’d have needed to remove the infotainment system (which that’s part of, and is kaput if I just cut the transceiver). I was also told, by a Subaru salesman, that the 2020 models can’t fit a full spare, but maybe he thought I’d want to keep the inserts and storage bay? But, in Canada, they do have full size spares, or so I’ve read.
So, I’m looking into getting one in Canada, where they don’t have the Subaru Connect (or whatever it’s called) so it’s not installed – at least, as near as I can tell. I’m going to look into this – if it works, this looks like a good choice. From what I read, I’ll still have to add needed stuff like temp gauges, dipsticks, etc, but that’s true of most anything these days.
I’;d definitely want skid plates, but I’ve never bought a vehicle with them on; far too many these days are fiberglass or plastic. I saved a lot of $$ and made my own skid plates for my SUVs out of 1/4 inch steel plate.
I wouldn’t be doing serious offroading in a subaru (though I’d still add skid plates, just in case) but it’d be nice to have a car-like comfortable vehicle for long road trips, but that can handle snow, ice, and occasional dirt roads and mud.
Thank you for the info!
I’ve got 17 and 18 models, which don’t have Connect (and I didn’t buy the Eyesight package). To connect, the Info thingy has to have Bluetooth access to a cell phone. I never did that as I don’t use my phones that much and less and less since I retired. I recent;y dumped my smart phones and picked up a TracFone flippy, which is phone enough these days. I only got the TracFone because the day after I dumped Verizon I got a flat tire in my truck and couldn’t call AAA. I had to lay in the mud and change it myself. Geezerdom has its drawbacks.
A TracFone flippy? Do they still sell a feature phone or is that one of those new-fangled “smart phones” that I don’t have a clue how to use?
The basic TracFone ($15-20, depending on where you buy it) is a flip phone that resembles the typical phones of 15+ years ago, no touchscreen and real buttons (similar to, but less elegant looking than the original Motorola Razr of yesteryear). It’s supposed to be locked to Alcatel (in my area, using T-mobile), but all that means is the chip is pre-installed. You can take it out and put in a different one if necessary (or take it out and put it in some other phone). People buy minutes cards, for example 90-day cards with 60 minutes on them for $20, but if you buy the time at the TracFone website, you get 180 minutes for $20. If you sign up for auto renew, you get 180 minutes non-expiring every 90 days for $15. And the funniest bit: the TracFone flippy is a full featured smart phone in disguise if you want. Although you’d need mighty good eyesight to browse the web on a 2″ screen!