The Car Thread ... !

[Anonymous Freak]

Anyway, I think they (Ford, GM, etc) are foolish not to embrace the supercharging network and adopt a single charging interface.

They have a single charging interface - other than Nissan. (And even Nissan is switching, their next-generation EV will use the standard.)

CCS is the standard now for everything but Tesla. (Nissan's Leaf still uses the older CHAdeMO, but they're the last holdout in North America.)

And while the various charging networks out there are wildly variable in quality, having competition means prices stay low. If Tesla Superchargers were the only one out there, Tesla could set prices however they want. I will like it when two-way-data-transfer over CCS becomes standard. Right now, Tesla has the advantage that the car identifies itself to the charger, so you can put your billing information in the car, and just plug-and-go. CCS doesn't support this, so the charger unit has no way of identifying your car, so the charger unit has to handle billing itself (either with a credit card reader, RFID card linked to an account, or smartphone app.)

Personally, I think all DC quick chargers should accept credit cards, and the various chains should all work to support each other's RFID cards. It's annoying carrying three RFID cards and STILL having some that I need a separate app for.

(I own two EVs, and have a third I'll be picking up in a week.)

 

[44267547]

I just think it's funny that you say this, while at the same time posting about your MG and all the issues you have been having fixing it up.

Your points are valid.

.....And if you read back further into this thread, you’ll see how it’s nothing but a constant barrage of making repairs for a broken down British car that runs into more problems every time he drives it, yet he takes no time and/or pride to invest into the paint that looks like someone rubbed 60-grit sand paper all over it. But hey, lets point out why EV’s are a bad choice! (<—Thats sarcasm others use, as I actually support EV’s.)

I’m not trolling here, I’m just pointing out that I think it’s interesting how somebody wants to talk about things that cost money over the course of time with ICE, yet EV’s have been proven to be a better financial investment long-term with savings of fuel and maintenance.

 

[44267547]

Also,

We got pounded with snow, [16+ inches]. I went to the storage unit just to make sure the Roof hadn’t collapsed in and it notice the battery tender on the Scat Pack was extremely hot, (like uncomfortable to the touch hot), so unplugged it. And I’m glad that I found that, cause it could’ve started a fire or something else related, but I don’t know why it was getting so hot. So I discarded it and I’ll just purchase a new one. But my question/concern is, hopefully they didn’t do any damage to the actual battery itself with the tender being so hot. (The vehicle started fine.

The other tenders when I checked on them, we’re perfectly normal. Anyways, it’s something I’ll monitor and I’ll purchase a different brand to see if that makes a difference as well. I thought about reaching out to the manufacture and seeing what they might believe had caused that.

 

[bunnspecial]

.....And if you read back further into this thread, you’ll see how it’s nothing but a constant barrage of making repairs for a broken down British car that runs into more problems every time he drives it, yet he takes no time and/or pride to invest into the paint that looks like someone rubbed 60-grit sand paper all over it. But hey, lets point out why EV’s are a bad choice! (<—Thats sarcasm others use, as I actually support EV’s.)

1. You are exaggerating how many problems I have.

2. I don't know why you refer to the car as "broken down"-rather I take pride in having it run the best it can and guess what, I happen to really enjoy doing my own work on my car

3. It's a 30 year old respray that, just as would have originally been done, it lacks any clear coat. If you think it looks like someone rubbed 60 grit sandpaper over it, you are either intentionally being obtuse or you don't actually know what paint looks like after you rub 60 grit sandpaper over it. The paint has spots where it's less than perfect. Most of it looks good-as good as you'd expect a quality 30 year old paint job to look.

You have made it clear many times in this thread that you have no interest in doing your own mechanical work on your cars, and instead take pride in detailing. I respect your detailing skill, and your work is phenomenal. For some of us, that's not where our priorities lie. Yes, my car could stand a respray, but I'm not doing it unless I can actually do it right, and aside from that now I don't even have a shop I'd trust with it. Paint without a clear coat will never have the wet-shine look that modern paint is capable of. I don't want a clear coat on it-it's original now.

Respectfully also, you have talked several times in this thread about your intent to go to B-J and buy a classic muscle car. If you actually intend to drive it, I suspect a couple of things will happen. First of all, you will realize just how unreliable ALL old cars, not just British cars, are. Second, you will quickly realize the need to actually do your own work on it, and virtually everything you need to do on a classic car involves turning wrenches in some way or another. Third, if you end up with something overcammed like far too many muscle cars out there are, and then drove my car, you'd appreciate just how easily it starts and how nicely it idles.

I'm sorry if my posts in this thread about my car that I enjoy posting about bother you, as I detect a tone of irritation in your post("constant barrage"). If that's the case, well all I can say is this is "the car thread" and not the "New car purchases, announcements, and detailing ONLY thread." Even if you don't enjoy my talking about my car, the comments both publicly and privately I get show that plenty of people do. So, I'm sorry that my posts do seem to bother you. This isn't the first time you've said something along these lines, as you've admitted in the past to not reading some of the more technical things I take a lot of time to research and post about. Unless the moderators block me from posting in this thread, respectfully, I will continue to do so.

 

[cyb3rdud3]

One correction @bunnspecial if I may. British cars, especially of that era are very unreliable 🤣 They really are. Fantastic styling wise but oh so badly made. As you alluded yourself, if the tea lady and her trolly was five minutes late they would go on a strike. Great inventors but manufacturing laughing stock of Europe.

 

[bunnspecial]

One correction @bunnspecial if I may. British cars, especially of that era are very unreliable 🤣 They really are. Fantastic styling wise but oh so badly made. As you alluded yourself, if the tea lady and her trolly was five minutes late they would go on a strike. Great inventors but manufacturing laughing stock of Europe.

Yes, worse than other cars of that age for sure, and very primitive especially compared to German cars of the same age.

With that said, bear in mind that I had a Marina for a while. MGBs are a better quality car in basically every conceivable way than Marinas, which are just bad. There's an anecdote I've heard from the Marina assembly line, and not sure where I heard/read it that a batch of cars coming out of the factory pulled BADLY on braking. As you may know, the 1.3L Marinas had 4 wheel drums and the 1.8L ones used front disks. Apparently, this particular back of cars was a result of one side of the assembly line installing disk brakes and the other side installing drum brakes.

AFAIK, Abingdon never had a strike, but of course they just did the final assembly of the cars and were at the mercy of other not-so-reliable plants to supply most of the parts.

I will say too-the electrical system gets a lot of flack in British cars, and for good reason. The MG is extremely simple, and again that works in its favor and makes it easy to troubleshoot. My Marina had a lot that just didn't work(I never was able to get it titled in Kentucky because of the number of things that would have made it fail a safety inspection) and was a nightmare to troubleshoot. Still, though, a lot of the ills come down to bad grounds, which affected all cars then. It's just that American cars would start to develop them after a few years rather than being delivered with them from the factory . K-Jetronic and L-Jetronic are amazing systems, especially for their time, but for all the flack SU carburetors get I'd much rather deal with an SU issue than a K-Jetronic issue.

 

[cyb3rdud3]

Yes, worse than other cars of that age for sure, and very primitive especially compared to German cars of the same age.

With that said, bear in mind that I had a Marina for a while. MGBs are a better quality car in basically every conceivable way than Marinas, which are just bad. There's an anecdote I've heard from the Marina assembly line, and not sure where I heard/read it that a batch of cars coming out of the factory pulled BADLY on braking. As you may know, the 1.3L Marinas had 4 wheel drums and the 1.8L ones used front disks. Apparently, this particular back of cars was a result of one side of the assembly line installing disk brakes and the other side installing drum brakes.

AFAIK, Abingdon never had a strike, but of course they just did the final assembly of the cars and were at the mercy of other not-so-reliable plants to supply most of the parts.

I will say too-the electrical system gets a lot of flack in British cars, and for good reason. The MG is extremely simple, and again that works in its favor and makes it easy to troubleshoot. My Marina had a lot that just didn't work(I never was able to get it titled in Kentucky because of the number of things that would have made it fail a safety inspection) and was a nightmare to troubleshoot. Still, though, a lot of the ills come down to bad grounds, which affected all cars then. It's just that American cars would start to develop them after a few years rather than being delivered with them from the factory . K-Jetronic and L-Jetronic are amazing systems, especially for their time, but for all the flack SU carburetors get I'd much rather deal with an SU issue than a K-Jetronic issue.

Hehehe my dad has an orange Allegro Estate, basically a Marina with 'styling' 🤣 You aren't joking, that car from brand new had to be taken away again as it wouldn't start. When he finally had enough he got a BMW 528i (e28) instead...And never looked back...

I've never worked on a K-Jetronic or L-Jetronic system; I have on a Digifant and that isn't bad actually. Well not with a bit of help from a Bentley manual 👍

 

[MagicBoy]

Hmm, not quite. The Allegro was an Austin and FWD, the Marina a Morris and RWD. Probably shared doorhandles and an A-series block and that was it. Took until the mid 80s until a cohesive product range started to appear for BL/Rover group.

 

[jeyf]

just a guess: you need a Tesla compatible battery to use their quick charge station

adapter cable / box
there is a business opportunity here!
someone will be developing a converter box from say Tesla -> Ford Mustang.
💥💥💥🔥🔥🚘🔥🔥🔥💥💥💥

 

[bunnspecial]

no time and/or pride to invest into the paint that looks like someone rubbed 60-grit sand paper all over i

Sorry, but this comment continues to eat me up since I honestly think you're making a lot of assumptions either out of pure ignorance or attempting to be inflammatory.

1. How can you judge the paint on my car when you haven't see it in person?

2. How many classic car paint jobs have you personally viewed? If one desires originality, the slick/glossy/wet look of a modern clear coated car is NOT correct or proper. What is correct or proper is a nice enamel with a good coat of wax. Even though my paint is old, I do just that(well, I haven't waxed recently since it wasn't in my possession for most of 2020). The surface prep was good when it was painted with quality paint. The areas under the hood I leave alone because they are original paint.

If you had actually looked at very many properly maintained or restored classic cars, something which your comments through this thread leave me in serious doubt of, you would be more aware of this.

3. I have steadily been accumulating ORIGINAL parts to replace crummy reproductions that were on the car when I bought it. As of now, I am waiting for my "turn" to send a set of original bumpers to be straightened and rechromed. Why am I going to that effort, which will cost me a lot more than a modern reproduction? Because the reproductions look like crap-they're thin metal and the shape/fit is wrong on them.

4. It's frankly insulting to imply that I take no "pride" in the appearance of my car, and you are out of line in making that comment.

You're entitled to your opinion on my car, but I'm also entitled to explain why your opinion is wrong, and to be honest I'm frustrated with your tone in this post and frankly the tone you've shown to me through this thread in regard to my car.

 

[cyb3rdud3]

Hmm, not quite. The Allegro was an Austin and FWD, the Marina a Morris and RWD. Probably shared doorhandles and an A-series block and that was it. Took until the mid 80s until a cohesive product range started to appear for BL/Rover group.

Don’t want to turn this into a pissing context but I think you’ll find that in many markets the Marina was sold as an Austin Marina It like the Allegro came out of the Austin-Morris division. It’s all the same thing, nothing special either way, and both just as terrible as it can be 🤣 The bad old British Leyland days.

 

[jeyf]

... 🤣 The bad old British Leyland days.

sounds like a managment issue

 

[MagicBoy]

Don’t want to turn this into a pissing context but I think you’ll find that in many markets the Marina was sold as an Austin Marina It like the Allegro came out of the Austin-Morris division. It’s all the same thing, nothing special either way, and both just as terrible as it can be 🤣 The bad old British Leyland days.

Your comment was that the Allegro was "basically a Marina with styling" - it's demonstrably false. One is FWD using hydragas suspension, the other is RWD and has running gear from the Middle Ages.

sounds like a managment issue

Not half. The other half was industrial unrest.

Go check the Youtubes for Clarkson's Car Years. There's a programme on the demise of the British car industry that pretty much nails it.

 

[cyb3rdud3]

Your comment was that the Allegro was "basically a Marina with styling" - it's demonstrably false. One is FWD using hydragas suspension, the other is RWD and has running gear from the Middle Ages.

Oh so you do want a pissing contest 🤣 You seem to read a lot into me saying "basically a Marina with styling" without checking what I ever meant by that. You then went in one where because one is a Morris and the other is an Austin it isn't true; well that was disproven but you don't seem to acknowledge that somehow.

But yes one is RWD and the FWD; I'm sure there are many other changes. Both look equally drab with the Allegro even worse, done up like letting a toddler access your makeup bag. Just as bad as each other, and undesirable hence basically a Marina with styling.

sounds like a managment issue

Not half. The other half was industrial unrest.

Go check the Youtubes for Clarkson's Car Years. There's a programme on the demise of the British car industry that pretty much nails it.

More like the perfect storm of a Labour government which created this mess, then nationalised it 💁, rampant lunatic unions, and seriously mediocre products that nobody wanted (well except for my dad 🤣). And the competition was strong, producing great cars. Labour and Unions, no surprise it went so bad. Some of those dinosaurs are still around sadly...

 

[MagicBoy]

Oh so you do want a pissing contest 🤣 You seem to read a lot into me saying "basically a Marina with styling" without checking what I ever meant by that.

Not really. I took it at face value. Feel free to edit the post.

 

[cyb3rdud3]

LOL Typical, still no acknowledgement of you calling it wrong twice 🤣 Despite me giving you a warning to not go there you couldn’t resist. Typical, funny how I saw that coming a mile away.

 

[cyb3rdud3]

And in other news; Tesla is making it very hard for me to keep disliking them. I mean first they sort the looks with the plaid version and other dechromed versions. But now, much more significant they are accepting crypto currency according to their SEC filing and investing themselves. Damn the reactions on the markets to that is such that many can buy a Plaid + or the new roadster and still be better off than we were yesterday.

I got to give it to them, they keep pushing the boundaries.

 

[JohnR]

And while the various charging networks out there are wildly variable in quality, having competition means prices stay low. If Tesla Superchargers were the only one out there, Tesla could set prices however they want.

You do realize that the charging rates are set by the electric companies in each state, right?

 

[Anonymous Freak]

You do realize that the charging rates are set by the electric companies in each state, right?

No they aren't. They're set by the charging network providers. Electrify America has different rates than Blink which has different rates from ChargePoint, which has different rates from Tesla.

The underlying electricity may have a cost set by the electric companies - but the charging companies can charge whatever they want, including charging nothing.

Just like gas stations - just because crude oil is $58 a gallon doesn't mean every gas station is the same price, even same brands a few blocks apart or different brands across the street from each other. (Although there is a *LOT* more to gasoline prices than I can go in to quickly.)

For example, near me, I see prices (for stations that charge) between 11 cents per kilowatt-hour and 59 cents per kilowatt-hour, plus some "flat fee plus per-kwh" with different rates, and some that are per-minute instead of per kilowatt-hour (screwing slower-charging vehicles,) and some that are a flat rate no matter how much energy you use.

 

[cyb3rdud3]

From a competition point of view, and starting with Tesla when there was no competition, free charging for live was an interesting move

 

[Apple fanboy]

Trouble with charging prices is whatever they are now, there is no guarantee what they might be in the future. Now I know the same is true of petrol, but it’s more like those streaming services. They hook you in with a free trial or low price, then the price creeps up.

 

[cyb3rdud3]

I think it is fair enough to charge more for fast charges, but the majority of charging stations out there that aren't Tesla are just too slow or inoperable. To charge extra for that is not a good enough service in my opinion.

 

[Nütztjanix]

I think most things we buy today won’t be working 60 years in the future. I think most cars will be melted down long before that!
Would you use your MG as a daily driver? No not in this day an age. But as a project that you enjoy working on (well mostly!), then long may your ownership continue.

I could use my (to the day) 30 year old car as a daily driver without any problems. I just don't want to, as I'm really fed up with other people disrespecting my property (banging their doors in my car on parking lots etc.). So I just use it when I can have an eye on it.
My point is, it's not finicky at all. Just Sunday I had a lot of fun with it plowing through the ~30 cm of snow we got. It does handle it better than most modern cars with all their electronics I met.

[…]

I'm sorry if my posts in this thread about my car that I enjoy posting about bother you, as I detect a tone of irritation in your post("constant barrage"). If that's the case, well all I can say is this is "the car thread" and not the "New car purchases, announcements, and detailing ONLY thread." Even if you don't enjoy my talking about my car, the comments both publicly and privately I get show that plenty of people do. So, I'm sorry that my posts do seem to bother you. This isn't the first time you've said something along these lines, as you've admitted in the past to not reading some of the more technical things I take a lot of time to research and post about. Unless the moderators block me from posting in this thread, respectfully, I will continue to do so.

Please, don't quit posting in here. I absolutely enjoy reading your stories. I have a soft spot for old cars, and I do think that most of them are more reliable in the long run than anything made today.

 

[cyb3rdud3]

I could use my (to the day) 30 year old car as a daily driver without any problems. I just don't want to, as I'm really fed up with other people disrespecting my property (banging their doors in my car on parking lots etc.). So I just use it when I can have an eye on it.
My point is, it's not finicky at all. Just Sunday I had a lot of fun with it plowing through the ~30 cm of snow we got. It does handle it better than most modern cars with all their electronics I met.


Please, don't quit posting in here. I absolutely enjoy reading your stories. I have a soft spot for old cars, and I do think that most of them are more reliable in the long run than anything made today.

I also like older cars, I like the direct connection you can have with them when they are setup correctly.

But I couldn't agree with comments like 'It does handle it better than most modern cars with all their electronics I met'. I do think it is wise to maintain some objectivity and perspective. A car being modern isn't the issue, and where you can switch them off power reducing electronics aren't the issue either (yes Toyota Prius I'm specifically pointing at you here). Driving through snow is a combination between the driver and having the right tyres. Tyres didn't used to be so wide as they are as standard nowadays; narrower tyres are much better in both snow and rain. And on the flip side of that, try take an E30 M3 EVO through the snow and now take a 2021 M2 Competition and you can see how much better modern cars with their electronics are

 

[jeyf]

most peeps, their mother tought them how to drive
and
right up front i will say me too on this.

My area had like half a dozen local race tracks. all gone now but for a small fee you could do your fastest / best fun driving out for an afternoon in a safe environment. Auto X is an even more safe environment. I never got very good at this.

some cars as oem are further away from being track ready but there are shops that really can $etup a vehicle to its full potential. A proper car or sportbike can far exceed the human ability. It is really wild to put on a helmet and passenger with someone who is significantly faster than you.


The daily driver grocery getter, you are going from point a->b:
too much luxury, you dont get any love
too fast, worry about tire wear or clearance
good in snow, you'r a red neck