Ford Mach-e: Smell the gas!

[Sirfun]

This crap is so bad. Ford has a major recall on half of all the Mach-E's ever built, the problem was that their controller is junk. It can overheat, and brick the vehicle. This started in early June. The last I heard Ford is saying they can sell customers a Mach-E it just can't be released to the customers by dealers until they've had a software fix installed. I went to the Mach -E Forum and this is crazy. Apparently Ford came out with a software fix that keeps the vehicle from bricking itself and puts the vehicle into some kind of limp mode, so they don't have to tow it to the dealer. But the faulty controller is the problem. Owners on that forum are pissed!

Others are correct this article has nothing to do with vehicle sales. They're trying to pump the Ford stock!!!

 

[Crissa]

Tesla had a recall like this in the early Model S. If you run motors really hard, you heat things up. They can only go on so long before they need to throttle back.

Recalls happen, especially to new models. Tesla has their fair share.

-Crissa

 

[CyberGus]

I keep hearing that "Tesla is destroying the competition, the Big Three will be bankrupt in 5 years". I simultaneously hear "everyone is unfairly pumping up legacy automakers!" If they're all about to go under, what does it matter?

I know three things are true:

1. The age of the EV is upon us
2. Tesla outshines the competition on execution
3. Collapse of the domestic automakers would be a disaster

so I'm OK with the legacy companies getting a break. For now, anyway.

 

[firsttruck]

I keep hearing that "Tesla is destroying the competition, the Big Three will be bankrupt in 5 years". I simultaneously hear "everyone is unfairly pumping up legacy automakers!" If they're all about to go under, what does it matter?
....

It matters because

1. legacy auto OEM CEOs and other top executives will earn huge bonuses and then bail with huge platinum parachutes.

2. The in the know large institutional investors (ie BlackRock, etc) will sell at a high pumped up share price before the crash.

3. Instititional investments by worker pension funds and retail investors will get stuck ( lose big) because they are being lied to.

 

[Dusty]

For me, it highlights why I doubted the rickety old horse people who disliked Tesla kept trotting out:

"You'll see, when the OEMs start building EVs they're going to crush Tesla. Because, they've been doing it for 100 years, and they know how to build cars!"

yeah. ok.

I want to add, I'd have to be smoking some wild-ass dope to think that the CT won't have growing pains.

 

[CyberGus]

I want to add, I'd have to be smoking some wild-ass dope to think that the CT won't have growing pains.

 

[nomadmusk]

I'm pretty surprised you all unanimously hate this, I expected more gearheads with all the DIY talk, but I've come to expect this in Tesla communities.

I've been excited for it since it was rumored. I was raised in a garage building hotrods; 1930-1980s restored cars. I love the smell of gas, and honestly since I sneezed out 85% of my sense of smell (cat related), it's 1 of the 4 last good scents I still get to enjoy. Even though I'm a body fabricator and not a tuner I understand where they are coming from completely.

They're not talking about acceleration and motor delay, that debate was settled, "performance" can have just as much to do with the feel of each unique engine roaring, shifting, and an all around pedal engagement just as much as what electric motors are best at. There's a reason people love taking raptors, hellcats and supe up basic cars like my shitty civic, you caused that, it's the same reason people choose manual over automatic. Car heads won't have that level of tuning engagement with an ev for a couple of generations, since their not electricians and you'd lose your 8 yr warranty fast. I'm sure track mode solves a bit of the lack of customization and drift on a Tesla, but there is definitely a reason it's referred to as a giant RC car. They aren't comparing them with bland daily drivers like a stock Toyota Camry. Low riders and hot rodders often make the engine response time even worse to make a specific idling sound and power curve. And if stanced and ricers have taught us anything, there will be non-EV bikers and Tokyo Drift gangs for some decades to come, gas prices be damned.

I love driving Teslas, but EVs aren't the end all be all. That's like arguing AWD is the best because it's the fastest, some people enjoy throwing RWD around the track. One car is like marine grade high powered electrical lines and the other is raw lightning. Both are good and I plan to make a 1930s Ford coupe with some crazy engine that has half the regulations for the track. Not to win, but to enjoy the vehicle's unique driving characteristics. Go watch some car reviewers talk about why they love their favorite track car, and rent a nice one on Turo for the weekend.

Since I'll own the CT and an EUC, I won't have much reason to smell gasoline except when I'm near it topping up my backup diesel heater every few months. Feel free to send me your ill conceived fragrance bottles, but I'll probably just keep an old air freshener with some gas splashed on it ?.

Cars are a culture, it isn't about being the quote unquote "best" for most of us. Check out donut media for my favorite carhead historian on YouTube.

 

[Crissa]

Yeah, I can tune my Zero with my phone. It's just not the same...

..But I have far more control over my Zero's motion and motor than I do even my manual Mazda.

-Crissa

 

[nomadmusk]

Yeah, I can tune my Zero with my phone. It's just not the same...

..But I have far more control over my Zero's motion and motor than I do even my manual Mazda.

-Crissa

Sliders are great for people that can't work on vehicles, but you have control set within the parameters of your manufacturer.

You'd basically be arguing that sliders, with 5 sets of 10 levels on your phones music equalizer can come up with more combinations, than plugging in any set of speakers, amplifiers, and subwoofers in existence into your Soundsystem. Those sliders are mostly an illusion of customization. Is there some, sure, but no where near as much as actually swapping out parts. The thousands of moving parts in ice vehicles, for example. Each one can change things drastically, and the cost is maintenance. Which is why regular people became mechanics, and specialized in tuning and maintaining their personal car to their tastes hence car culture. It's not there yet for PEV and it will be a few decades like I said. Short of unplugged performance the customization isn't much more then what ricers do to change the cosmetics of their vehicles.

 

[Crissa]

Changing your fuel-air mixture is just playing with sliders inherent in the engine.

But because it's electric, I have more control over its power than I do an engine, which I have to keep spinning and then feather the clutch... instead of just modulating the mode and twisting the wrist. Indirect vs direct control.

-Crissa

 

[charliemagpie]

It matters because

1. legacy auto OEM CEOs and other top executives will earn huge bonuses and then bail with huge platinum parachutes.

2. The in the know large institutional investors (ie BlackRock, etc) will sell at a high pumped up share price before the crash.

3. Instititional investments by worker pension funds and retail investors will get stuck ( lose big) because they are being lied to.

This is so right. Big boys will continue to squeeze money out of these companies. Profit by supplying them with goods and services.. Drain them like a lemon.
In the meantime, even as we speak, organized unscrupulous institutions will each underhandedly sacrifice 5% of their funds… and it will all go under the carpet.

Then, with grand plans still afoot, executives change to people who will comparatively earn a fraction of their predecessors yet will salivate on tripling their previous pay. It will take a year or two, long enough to legally separate the past with enough space and time.

 

[nomadmusk]

Except the minor performance bump and railroaded tuning of electric motorcycles haven't saved them from obscurity. You explain the process as if it's a bad thing to use more of your body to control the vehicle. As I told you before, people choose manual over automatic regularly, because automatic is by definition less engaging. E-motorcycles will most likely be phased out by light duty e-bicycles, razer styled scooters, and EUCs leaving ice motorcycles to bridge the gap between those and car EVs for a couple decades more. The latest electric unicycle goes 55 mph and 40 -75 miles, and weighs 77 lbs.

Instant torque is great, but that's just your 0-60. Racing isn't the only category, and self-throttling your moto below OEM potential is what the throttle is for. Sliders reducing total performance is a redundancy. Tuning is about bringing your vehicles above or outside the potential designed by the OEM, speed off the line is one aspect of performance. There's lowering the original weight, shifting the center of gravity, changing the stance the vehicle sits in, and to alter the sound produced. Tesla's track mode is just to allow the vehicle to drift and monitor brake heat (which doesn't work with upgrades), otherwise you have to go full dyno mode and shut off more features then necessary. My point is as much as a difference 1% makes on a slider,vit's not much tuning, physically working on your vehicle and sound is a big part of motorcycle tuning culture.

Unless you plan on significantly reducing software accuracy, increasing your voltage, and using your own bms you can't just pop in another brands battery chemistry or motor like you can with it's ice counterpart. Ev software locks you into the predetermined restrictions designed by your OEM until obsolescence. When hobbyist vehicle mechanics transition to electricians and arent relegated to expensive custom shops, people will pine for gas aromas of yesteryear, install silly boombox ice modifications, and tweak the garaged ice for a track day for nostalgia. What's wrong with that? There are other cars besides Teslas people enjoy, and in ways electric can't. This thread has been the kind of circle jerking that turns ppl off the Tesla community.

 

[Crissa]

Sorry, most two-wheeled conveyances sold aren't manual anymore. And the price of transmissions drop, more and more people choose automatic. Most also choose scooter/moped, even.

Electric motorcycles are gaining on ICE in performance. BMW and Harley (Livewire) have more models out now than ever before. There are new brands coming in. Ducati and Triumph unveiled their new electrics on tracks this year.

E-bikes don't go 60mph. They can't replace a motorcycle.

And you say 'more of your body'? No. I literally have more control over my motorcycle than someone with an engine they have to keep spinning. I use just as much 'of my body' to control it, shifting it around corners. Putting my knees into it, my shoulders, my butt. And I can do that without baby-sitting an engine, I'm focused completely on the movement of my motorcycle. Direct input.

?

Yeah, there will always be petrol-heads. Just like there's a club for steam engines.

-Crissa

 

[jerhenderson]

Quite seriously, there is a long standing problem in Australia where the young (insert politically correct term for the indigenous people) sniff gasoline to the point of intoxication.

I'm sure it's not just indigenous youth. it's an addictive chemical to many.

 

[jerhenderson]

They also like the kerosene vintage and often steal it from airports from planes that tend not to have key lockable fuel caps. Quite sad but such is bush life sometimes for lack of any other activities.

.... or a coping mechanism for generational trauma due to colonialism and systemic racism.