Fast Cars

I'm still wondering what decent Electric Vehicle (EV) I'll be able to buy to replace my 2006 Prius before too long.

I have long been hoping that an EV would be my next car.  My dreams became hopes when I learned of the Tesla Roadster about 10 years ago.  Previously, we had been told that EV's with ranges up to 300 miles might require decades of technological development.  Now it's clear that was Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt probably spread by major automakers and their oil company owners and friends.

Tesla was in my hopes for a long time.  The Model S looked beautiful.  But it was way too big for my very small garage (which just fits the Prius--68 inches wide--neatly, and almost no more room to squeeze in anything wider).

Then the promised Tesla Model 3 sounded like it would be the car for me.  I put a deposit on one.  But when details emerged, they were wrong in 3 very important ways.  First, it is 10 inches wider than my Prius which already is hard to get into the garage.  Second, I don't like and fear for the safety aspects of the missing displays and controls in front of the driver, since all the controls and displays have been moved to a center tablet device.  Third, the rear window is very high, making for poor rear visibility.  I canceled my deposit.

The Chevy Bolt is small enough.  But by many reports, it has one key defect: uncomfortable thin seats.  I'm a bit overweight and demand thick comfortable seats.   I added my name to a letter to GM complaining about this.  Some were hoping for the Buick version of the Bolt to fix this issue.  But Buick has put off marketing EV's for several years, and now it looks like the best EV's from GM will be from Cadillac. Well, that's nice, but I'm not sure I can wait that long.  I'd also be very interested in an EV from Toyota.  But Toyota has been waging war on EV's by dissing the technology and promoting and making Hydrogen Cars instead for quite awhile, finally giving in to EV's only recently, and Toyota EV's may now be several years off, and I probably can't wait that long either.  Toyota is just another automaker with ties to oil companies, and the oil companies desperately want to hold on to the "filling station" model from which their business derives.  Hydrogen would do that, and that's the key reason why this impossible and useless technology was pushed for so long.  Elon Musk was right that an outsider was needed to challenge this corrupt industry and its years of misinformation.

I had been hoping to replace my Prius with an EV before my it was 10 years old.  Now it's 12, going on 13, and it looks like I may have to keep it running as long as possible until SOMEBODY introduces a suitable EV.

The Nissan Leaf, even in 2019, still has insufficient range.  Range must be higher than 200 miles to feel comfortable traveling to nearby cities.  Also many have noted that the air cooling in the Leaf batteries isn't as good as other automakers.  They use air cooling, and there have been issues in Arizona.  Sadly, Nissan didn't change this in 2019 when moving to more industry-standard batteries.  They added another fan to their air cooling system.

Now it's looking like Hyundai/Kia may be coming to the rescue with a number of EV's.  They have the Kia Niro and the Hyundai Kona.  Those sound good and one or one of those might fit my garage. Hyundai/Kia have established a record of satisfaction and reliability second ONLY to Toyota.  Plus they still give a good warranty.  (Width of both is 71 inches.  I might be able to deal with that.)

Unlikely source Car and Driver Magazine...gasp I used to subscribe to them once despite their being a global heating shill--but I like their critical style...shares my enthusiasm for the Hyundai Kona.

I miss the glamour and coolness and many features and aspects of the Tesla for sure.  (I don't miss the minimalism, which curiously don't apply to the ever featuring software.)  But one thing I don't particularly miss is one thing that stands out in the minds of many people.  The speed and incredibly quick acceleration.  In my opinion, that is overrated, unnecessary, and dangerous.  It seemed juvenile and jerky for Musk to develop and emphasize that so much.

It has always seemed to me that incredibly fast cars are inherently dangerous, and "high horsepower" is an unnecessary waste.  So, it shocked me when I started reading reviews in Consumer Reports that seemed to think it was highly desireable to have fast acceleration, which I'd define as reaching 60 mph in less than 10 seconds (with Tesla pushing for less than half of that).  I still think this was a sell-out on their part.  Where is the research that shows faster cars are safer in actual driving histories???  I'd bet insurance companies see it differently.

It seems to me that if everyone had slower accelerating cars, we'd all adjust to it, and all be safer overall.  The problem is not that some cars aren't fast enough, the problem is that some cars are too much faster than others.

Long used to the slower sorts of cars, I have somewhat feared getting behind the pedals of a Tesla.  When I'm in a pinch that needs acceleration, my impulse is to floor it and then concentrate on the movements.  These would probably be the wrong instincts for a fast car.

So, among other things, I hope Tesla and it's success don't kick off a new round in the "horsepower wars."  We were fine with cars with "sufficient" power, or even "adequate."

I think acceleration should be limited, say, to something like 0-60mph in 6 seconds.