TIP: Don’t forget about any deposit made via credit card to reserve a sought-after vehicle. We did. Received a call today to inform us that we were getting a refund of the deposit as we had overpaid for the vehicle.
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I would love a Kona EV. I hope she really enjoys it.
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Something I remembered about driving from Texas to Arizona in mid August was seeing several of those car trailer trucks (double decker type) with dozens of wrecked and random vehicles. They were probably totalled by the the insurance company, but someone is fixing them up and selling them. Why else would anybody put cars like that on a truck trailer on a long distance drive when they should be going to the junk yard/ demolition yard. So, beware, those cars will be in the used car market.
I kind of like Toyotas better, they have been doing the hybrid thing for a long time. Also my previous car was a Honda Odyssey, the transmission went out at 77k miles so I wasn’t very happy about that. People think Hondas are great but there are some bad ones too.
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Wall Street Journal article (behind a paywall):
Ford Steps Into the Chips Business with US based GlobalFoundries, Inc.
Also, heated seats for 2022 Chevy trucks are the latest victim of the chip shortage.
Some versions of “hard-to-get-vehicles” may be available, but often do not have turbocharged engines and are, therefore, under-powered. This can be serious issue when driving on highways.
Has anyone heard that cryptocurrency is affecting the chip shortage? Apparently cryptocurrency uses chips and they are willing to pay more and therefore siphoning off other industries such as automobiles
From what I know (admittedly minimal), crypto currency miners are using high end chips such as NVIDIA graphics chips. An interview with an Intel exec that I read said one issue for the car manufacturers is that they are using really old types of chips that the semiconductor manufacturers don’t normally make. They do that because they have a history with them and know them to be reliable. The Intel exec was pushing the car companies to move to more modern chips so that they don’t have to spin up a special production line just for the chips used in cars.
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Cryptocurrency mining uses the latest generations of GPUs, mostly made by Nvidia, but so are AI/machine learning and data mining applications. They, along with the latest Apple products and other ARM-based smartphones, are made in either 7nm or 5nm fabrication facilities. There are only a few of them around the world because they’re incredibly expensive to build. Chips used in automobiles are mostly made in much older 28nm facilities. To make these chips in the newest facilities would make them much more and unnecessarily costly.
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What new vehicles that people buy for personal use in the US today are “under-powered”? Lack of a turbocharger on the engine does not necessarily mean that the vehicle is “under-powered”.
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A salvage yard some distance from the insurance auction lot may want the wrecked cars for their parts.
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One example, but if you have a bunch of 4-cylinder (or even 6-cylinders) engines lying around the factory, but lack the turbochargers and all the related equipment to fit them on said 4-cylinder engines, that have been designed for those engines, then those 4-cylinder “naturally aspirated” engines alone sans turbocharger (turbo-charged engines typically will have lower compression for the turbo = lower HP) will likely be severely under-powered.
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I would expect the Kona EV to be very similar to the Kia Niro EV which Consumer Reports ranked “well above average reliability.”
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Lots of new vehicles are sluggish & uninspired.
For example: Consumer Reports writes that regarding the 2021 Buick Encore subcompact SUV:
“On the downside, the Encore’s little 1.4 liter turbocharged four-cylinder and six speed automatic transmission combine to deliver plodding acceleration and unimpressive fuel economy.”
Subaru Forester: CR complains about acceleration & noisy engine.
Subaru Outback without the turbo “feels strained under stress”.
Mazda CX30’s “acceleration feels tepid.”
Jeep Compass’ engine was found to be “unrefined and sluggish.”
These are just a few examples. Even car salespersons complain about weak engines & sluggishness.
Regarding those “underpowered trucks”, the slowest one (Chevrolet Colorado diesel) does 0-60 in 9.1 seconds. But that is not exactly slow, even on the freeway on-ramp metering light drag strip. Even loaded with stuff or a trailer, it is not likely to be slower than how most drivers actually accelerate on freeway on-ramps.
Thanks so much. She test drove the Kia and the Hyundai. They made her a better deal with the Hyundai with a higher trade in. I think the Kia was $12,000 more than the Hyundai. The Kia was getting into Volvo territory and if she wanted to pay that much, she might as well buy a Volvo.
What my daughter found when she was looking and she was only looking at EVs, that it was harder to find a car with all of the newest safety features. And she was adamant that it have all the safety features. Lane assist and braking, parking assist.
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I can appreciate your opinion, but the definition of “slow” is relative to the individual driver.
Having been a car enthusiast since my adolescence, I truly believe most car enthusiasts would say a 0-60 time of 9.1 seconds is SLOW. I/we own a couple of Toyota hybrids which would probably run about the same 0-60 time, maybe a tick slower. And I feel they’re both underwhelming in terms of speed.
For frame of reference, the fastest street legal cars on the planet are now in the 2-3 second 0-60 range.
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Sure I think 9s is slow, but judging from the majority of drivers I see on the road who are terrified to use more than 1” of their gas pedal’s travel, I suspect they’d think 9s is blazing fast. When I’m merging on the freeway behind someone, it’s usually a good minute or two to get from 30 to 70 mph, never mind 9 seconds.
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Ford Dealers appear to have vehicles available some of which receive small ($500) discounts or rebates.
Yes, and those drivers who buy fast vehicles and drive them like overloaded VW Buses on freeway on-ramps increase traffic congestion as they try to merge into traffic at a speed 25mph slower than the right lane.