Ford Mustang Mach-E review: The people’s pony goes electric
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If you're using your car's center console controls under such inappropriate circumstances that the only thing that's preventing you from having an accident is that the controls are physical instead of virtual, I think it's time for you to reevaluate your driving habits.
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That one is understandable. They might cause interference with the microchip inside you (from the COVID-19 vaccines) and then THEY wouldn't be able to track you and that would be REALLY BAD.
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Do iPhone users "continually" complain about battery life, though? I know dozens of people who have iPhones, and in my experience, complaints about battery life are rare.
A few people I know don't bother to charge their iPhones until they only have a few percent battery power left, so they are frequently running out of power, but that would still happen to them even if the battery was 10 times the size.
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Are there going to be any small, affordable, sporty 2-door electric coupes anytime soon?
I'd be interested in something like a Miata, or a Toyota 86, or a Porsche Cayman (although it's obviously less affordable).
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No doubt, but that's a very small percentage of people from what I've seen on various car-centric platforms. The idea that people who are anti-touchscreen or anti-yoke or whatever need to get with the times is more along the lines of what I was referring to. We all have our fuzzy lines of discomfort with the new and different and unless someone is clearly being disingenuous, I don't see voicing that discomfort as a bad thing.
Then again I don't have to interact with internet comments for a living, so that may be a luxury not everyone has.
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FTA:
I once visited the factory when these damned things wore the Mustang badge:
A pretty low period for all.
My first car was a used '84 Mustang. The nicest thing I can say about that car was that it tried hard to function properly. It was even nice enough to wait until I pulled into the mechanic's parking lot before having the entire back end drop out.
This was with less than 50K miles on it, BTW. Bad times indeed.I ended up trading it in for a '92 Escort and was far happier with that car. And honestly, I didn't notice a lot of power difference when I switched over, which should tell you a lot.
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Sometimes I think a computer AI could populate half the comments after a car-related article on Ars.
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I know someone who drove one (can't remember the model). It had decent performance and he drove it like he stole it.
I was always fond of the Opel Gt, which was kinda-sorta a poor man's Ferrari or C3 Vette. With no rear access to the storage (everything had to be loaded between the seats) they weren't very practical, however, and their performance did not match their looks.
You might have had a lemon. I've owned VWs from '56 to '70 models and they were certainly as reliable as any American hulk. Nothing like today's cars overall, but relatively easy to repair as required.
Getting back to the article's main topic, my father had a '67 red convertible V-8 Mustang, undoubtedly for his own mid-life requirements (although he also raced MGs). It was before my driving days but I spent many hours in the back seat bouncing along for the thrills (no seatbelts, of course). And to echo many other comments in this thread the new electric 'Mustang' has no lineage whatsoever to that car. The fact that Ford couldn't come up with a new model name points to a thorough lack of imagination, or marketing cynicism, or both.
(I'm not knocking the Mach-E itself as a vehicle - just the name-grab.)
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U-turn, I agree, unless the total turning range fits into 1/2 turn lock to lock; requires a hugely variable-ratio steering setup to make that work in a car that needs to deal with real roads. Parking space is a little grayer: if you turn around and look out the back window like DMV requires in a driving test, you almost naturally will revert to one hand - a problem in certain old cars I have driven where there was no power steering and you NEEDED 2 hands to steer at low speeds. But then cars that can park themselves have been around for longer than Tesla...
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Nope, and as long as batteries remain heavy and expensive there won't be.
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But we're not talking about other sites, we're talking about Arsians.
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Chemical Tribe
Ars Legatus Legionis
Well, if you are a typical EV charging around 50-70kw, it won't be that big of a deal.
Tesla charging at 250kw? Well, they seem to think they can get away with it. However, Bjorn noticed that the newer Tesla's with LG batteries didn't go over 200kw for charging, even when it was preheated. Could have been cold, or something else. That still is pretty damn fast. If I can get 150 reliably and at longer times that's all that I need.
After x amount of super charging time Tesla's will no longer charger over a certain rate. It will take a long time to reach in normal operation though with the 3 and later vehicles.
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The cost of batteries is certainly moving in the right direction - too slow for our liking but still better than the alternative.
What are the prospects of battery weight (well, energy density) improving for vehicles these days? I don't know what the trend line has been. Flat-ish? Slow drop? Faster?
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What if a Tesla Model 3 were scaled down to be Cayman-sized?
It would weigh less just by way of being smaller. Then the battery capacity could presumably be reduced because the car weighs less. And a smaller battery weighs less and costs less.
Seriously, if Tesla scaled the Model 3 down to be Cayman-sized, what kind of weight and price would people be looking at?
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What happened to the Tesla Roadster II, or whatever it's called? I haven't heard anything since the original teaser video.
That should provide some data on battery weight (although it might cost a couple hundred-K and have a range of only two football fields).
That should provide some data on battery weight (although it might cost a couple hundred-K and have a range of only two football fields).
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You'd probably have to halve the pack size, which means carrying about 40kWh.
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A Cayman is ~175 inches long. A Tesla Model 3 is 185 inches long.
Why would you have to halve the pack size? A Model 3's battery pack isn't 20 inches long.
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If it’s built into the car as the upcoming 4680 and structural then you may get slightly higher capacity
I guess these will debut this year
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My main point of concern with the yoke wheel is that I don't see how you could do a grip-and-slide with it. I find that an important technique for turning smoothly. And, of course, the fact that a wheel just makes sense as a shape for something you turn.
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Well, there was also this minor car called the VW Beetle, which had a front trunk starting 1938
Plenty of other models had rear engines & front trunks in the 1940s & 1950s, like the Renault 4CV and Dauphine, NSU Prinz etc.
I'm pretty sure the term is a specific coinage by someone at Tesla.
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Because otherwise you're carrying around 800-1000lbs of battery. Which kind of defeats the point of making a small, nimble sports car.
The answer is that right now, batteries do not have the sufficient energy and power density at a sufficient price to make affordable little two seaters. Or even Boxster-priced sports cars. If they did, someone would be building one.
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I wouldn't be surprised if the new Roadster is relatively lightweight by modern standards (though probably not Miata light). A Model 3 SR+ weighs only 100 lb more than a BMW 330i, for example. To be fair modern BMWs are porkers in addition to Teslas being very lightweight for EVs.
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From 2010
Comparison: 2010 Tesla Roadster Sport vs 2011 Porsche Boxster Spyder
https://www.motortrend.com/cars/porsche ... omparison/
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How do you back up into a parking space ?
1. Drive car slowly at 5mph past parking space
2. Wait for "P" symbol to show up
3. Start auto parking sequence.
4. Exit car when it completes parking.....10 min later
do a 3-point turn or a u-turn with one hand ?
That will be an upcoming in-depth review by you on the new Model S Plaid+ whenever you get a chance to drive it
Edit:
I'm actually surprised that the "yoke" was deemed legal in the Netherlands & the U.K
So maybe its better to wait & see how it pans out
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The thing I find most puzzling in the cars that have a large centralized touchscreen, is that apparently none of them have a tilt-&-swivel mount.
I've never seen an LCD in a car that doesn't have serious glare/reflection readability issues in multiple circumstances (maybe because I live in a country with 340 sunny days a year), so it would eb helpful to eb able to adjust screen position to compensate. It can't be the expense -- even mid-priced consumer digital cameras have it.
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The original Tesla Roadster from 2008 weighs almost exactly as much as the Porsche Cayman does today. Surely in 2021 somebody could make a car with similar characteristics to the original Roadster for less money?
But whatever, my question was, what would a scaled-down Model 3 look like in terms of weight and price?
That is to say, make a two-seat, two-door Model 3 with reduced cargo storage and a big enough battery for the thing to go ~250 miles.
How much does that weigh? How much does that cost?
I would assume that such a car would weigh... what... 400 pounds less than a regular Model 3? And cost... what... $4000 less (at least to manufacture)?
So you'd be looking at a small car that weighs ~3300 lbs and costs around $34,000? That doesn't seem too bad at all.
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I'd expect the upcoming Model 2 to be smaller & have a structural pack & a single piece casting.
I would expect a Gen II of the 2170 since Panasonic already managed to squeeze more range out of the 18530 cells.
The higher end cars will all move eventually to the 4680 form factor & have a 400+ mile range
The lower end will have starting range of 300 miles & this will will give Tesla much better leverage against the competition.
At this point the unknown factor is how many 4680 packs can they make in a given quarter, because the semi & the roadster are also in line waiting for those.
I would expect a Gen II of the 2170 since Panasonic already managed to squeeze more range out of the 18530 cells.
The higher end cars will all move eventually to the 4680 form factor & have a 400+ mile range
The lower end will have starting range of 300 miles & this will will give Tesla much better leverage against the competition.
At this point the unknown factor is how many 4680 packs can they make in a given quarter, because the semi & the roadster are also in line waiting for those.
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The current SR+ version of the Model 3 weighs 3550 lbs, costs $38K and has an EPA range of 263 miles.
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True for anything like 250mi of range, but for more casual driving, this MX-5 conversion by UK shop Zero EV is interesting as an indication of what's possible.
Same weight, weight distribution & performance as the original, same acceleration on a 26kWh pack, ~100mi range. A 40kWh pack would still be reasonable weight, and 150mi range would be enough for many people.
I actually expect there will be production cars like this in ~2 years -- there aren't any yet because the BEV market in general is still too small.
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Oh, even better. I don't know what I googled that gave me 3700 lbs.
Is there a world where making a significantly smaller Model 3 doesn't result in a weight savings of at least 400 lbs.?
So it seems like a small Model 3 could easily weigh 3150 lbs. or possibly less. That's much less than e.g. a Porsche 911, a Corvette C8, a Toyota Supra, etc. Seems like a very reasonable weight for a small sporty vehicle.
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Another factor to consider is how profitable the endeavor would be--Two door roadsters are a favorite of enthusiasts, but they aren't exactly hot sellers compared to crossovers or even sedans. The Miata is the best selling two-seater sports car in history, and they only move 20,000 or so per year. Hard to justify the expenditure to bring something that low-volume to production when you're trying to get a foothold in a rapidly expanding market.
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And what is your subject expertise that you think you can be condescending to my view points? I can concede I was wrong about the power consumption of the screen based being a drain on all the other replies, but an all touchscreen system for even basic vehicle controls is not safer than knobs and buttons of most cars on the road today. I don't have to take my eyes off the road to change the volume (not everyone is blessed enough to own a vehicle with steering wheel controls), to change the temperature, change fan speed, turn on the rear window defroster, etc.
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I read your comment, and was like, "This dude is totally over-reacting" and then I saw the picture! Bahahaha!! I really, truly, seriously, can't believe someone actually got a paycheck to come up with that design. They could have gotten a better design simply by running a design contest for a bunch of 6th graders. And you wouldn't need more than three or four kids in the contest to come up with something less glaringly ugly than that sheet-pan duct-taped to the dashboard look.
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You're inventing a problem. With automatic climate control, how often are you fidgeting with the temperature and fan speed?
And if you need to use the controls, can't you wait until you're stopped at a light or something?
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