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posted by martyb on Thursday November 26 2015, @09:03PM   Printer-friendly
from the charge-more dept.

Matt Richtel writes in The New York Times that one big reason there are only about 330,000 electric vehicles on the road is that car dealers show little enthusiasm for putting consumers into electric cars. Industry insiders say that electric vehicles do not offer dealers the same profits as gas-powered cars, they take more time to sell because of the explaining required, and electric vehicles may require less maintenance, undermining the biggest source of dealer profits — their service departments. Some electric car buyers have said they felt as if they were the ones doing the selling.

Chelsea Dell made an appointment to test-drive a used Volt but when she arrived, she said, a salesman told her that the car hadn't been washed, and that he had instead readied a less expensive, gas-powered car. "I was ready to pull the trigger, and they were trying to muscle me into a Chevy Sonic," says Dell. "The thing I was baffled at was that the Volt was a lot more expensive." Marc Deutsch, Nissan's business development manager for electric vehicles says some salespeople just can't rationalize the time it takes to sell the cars. A salesperson "can sell two gas burners in less than it takes to sell a Leaf," Deutsch says. "It's a lot of work for a little pay."

Jared Allen says that service is crucial to dealer profits and that dealers didn't want to push consumers into electric cars that might make them less inclined to return for service. Maybe that helps explains the experience of Robert Kast, who last year leased a Volkswagen e-Golf from a local dealer. He said the salesman offered him a $15-per-month maintenance package that included service for oil changes, belt repair and water pumps. "I said: 'You know it doesn't have any of those things,'" Mr. Kast recalled. He said the salesman excused himself to go confirm this with his manager. Of the whole experience, Mr. Kast, 61, said: "I knew a whole lot more about the car than anyone in the building."

"Until selling a plug-in electric car is as quick and easy as selling any other vehicle that nets the dealer the same profit, many dealers will avoid them, for very logical and understandable reasons," says John Voelker. "That means that the appropriate question should be directed to makers of electric cars: What are you doing to make selling electric cars as profitable and painless for your dealers as selling gasoline or diesel vehicles?"


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  • (Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 26 2015, @09:05PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 26 2015, @09:05PM (#268422)

    java multicore has wait() and notify(), which can replace a car sales person. i like turkey.

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 26 2015, @09:08PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 26 2015, @09:08PM (#268423)

      replace a car sales person

      I believe that's what Java people call 'garbage collection'.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 26 2015, @09:45PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 26 2015, @09:45PM (#268433)

      Bacon wrapped turkey.

  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 26 2015, @09:14PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 26 2015, @09:14PM (#268424)

    I expect there is no solution. I bet we end up with people buying electric cars online and just taking delivery from a glorified freight terminal. The last car I bought I didn't even test drive and that was in 2008. I might be leading-edge on apathy but I think for most people a car is a car. As long as its got the right basic specs and looks good enough in the buyer's opinion it doesn't really matter any more. There will always be a minority who need to obsess about some minor feature that requires hands-on evaluation, but for most people all cars are compromises anyway so all you need to know you can find out online.

    I wouldn't want to be an auto mechanic in 10 years.

    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Nerdfest on Thursday November 26 2015, @10:20PM

      by Nerdfest (80) on Thursday November 26 2015, @10:20PM (#268442)

      If they keep this stupidity up, I would think that it's the inevitable outcome. They're trying the same "we don't need to adapt" course of action attempted by record companies, TV networks, and buggy-whip manufacturers. They've even bought some legislation in some places.

      The business will change whether they do or not.

    • (Score: 1) by Knowledge Troll on Friday November 27 2015, @01:01AM

      by Knowledge Troll (5948) on Friday November 27 2015, @01:01AM (#268468) Homepage Journal

      The last car I bought I didn't even test drive

      Seats, steering feel, and brake feel are pretty high on my priority list. Hell when I bought my new truck during the test drive we went for a ride through a parking lot to see how well it handles curbs. Later we got it into 4 wheel drive to make sure that system was good too. I would never drop more than 10 grand on a machine with out making sure I really liked it first.

      I sold a previous car to a girl who didn't feel the need to test drive it. She started filling out the paperwork and I asked her if she wanted to test drive it first: no interest at all. I wasn't ripping her off but what a leap of faith on her part.

      • (Score: 2) by frojack on Friday November 27 2015, @03:16AM

        by frojack (1554) on Friday November 27 2015, @03:16AM (#268498) Journal

        If you've driven one of the exact same model before, and checked out the Carfax, its often not necessary to drive it! Especially if your state has provisions for return within x days or hours. (California contract cancelation, also in other states). My brother buys cars this way. Buys one, drives it for a month, then finds the exact same model for his wife. If by private sale he checks maintenance records and Carfax, but I've never seen him drive the second one.

        But I don't discount the possibility that she was too trusting.

        --
        No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
        • (Score: 1) by Knowledge Troll on Friday November 27 2015, @04:03AM

          by Knowledge Troll (5948) on Friday November 27 2015, @04:03AM (#268516) Homepage Journal

          But I don't discount the possibility that she was too trusting.

          Well it isn't a binary thing and it isn't all about getting ripped off. I hadn't considered consumer protection laws that allow return of a vehicle after sale and I don't know what those look like in my state. You can certainly not test drive a car before you purchase it and the likelihood of being ripped off is probably pretty low. That doesn't mean you can't save yourself some hassle if things go wrong that do not involve being ripped off but that can be caught easily with a bit of testing.

          For instance if I rent a car I want to make sure it stops properly. As soon as I can do this safely after delivery of the vehicle I will hit highway speed and perform a panic stop while paying attention to any pulling to one side that happens. Pulling indicates unequal braking action and is a mechanical problem with the car - slight pulling is annoying, heavy pulling is dangerous. If you have to stop in an emergency and you have a vehicle that pulls really bad you will want to know about it before you jam on the brakes and slam into the car next to you instead of stopping straight. This maters.

          I wouldn't buy a car with out testing it as thoroughly as I would test a rental. If you are considering purchasing a new car and some manufacturing defects may exist (which is always true) or a used car then why would you not want to validate the product you are spending money on before you actually take ownership of it? If the factory has a mistake during manufacture or the owner is not aware or does not want to tell you about a problem and you catch it before you take delivery of the car you will save yourself a lot of hassle on either a return or repair once you do catch it.

          If you jump in a car that is or has been maintained by others and don't do stuff like check the brakes that is a problem. Buying a car with out test driving it is certainly an order of operations error.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @03:45AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @03:45AM (#268506)

        > Seats, steering feel, and brake feel are pretty high on my priority list

        I've driven a lot of company cars over the last two decades. All kinds of makes and models. What I learned is that after about a week of regular driving you acclimate to the vehicle and you don't even notice the differences. If I were buying a used car, I would totally want to check that stuff out - not to see if it "fit" me but to see if it was damaged. But a new car? None of them are bad enough to be problematic for a healthy person in the average range of heights and weights.

        Cars are standardized enough nowadays that whatever quirkiness there might be simply won't rise to the level of being a deal-breaker, because no manufacturer wants to build a car with an obvious reason to lose a sale.

    • (Score: 2) by Nuke on Friday November 27 2015, @11:56AM

      by Nuke (3162) on Friday November 27 2015, @11:56AM (#268622)

      The last car I bought I didn't even test drive and that was in 2008. I might be leading-edge on apathy but I think for most people a car is a car.

      Until you and they discover the problems when they do drive it. Like poor visiblity from the driver's seat, inability to lower the rear seats for more luggage space, noise. You are posing as a practical no-nonsense guy, but these are practical considerations. Test driving is not just about weighing up the bling.

      Like I test drove a car who's engine raced up the revs every time I changed gear, leading to jerky changes. I commented to the salesman (riding with me) that the throttle cable seemed to be sticking, but he said it was a design feature - supposed to make gear changes smoother FFS!

      Also on that test drive, the engine cut out every time you stopped, even at a traffic light that was turning green, and restarted when you put your foot on the clutch to move again. Nearly gave me heart attack, especially when you are in the middle of the road waiting to turn across oncoming traffic. It was supposed to be a "green" feature! No thanks, I will decide if and when to switch off the engine.

      You only discover these things with a test drive.

      • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @01:45PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @01:45PM (#268651)

        That auto-stop/start feature is on many new cars today, and it's going to be on most of them soon. Some cars allow an owner to turn it off, but many don't. LIke many questionable new features, we need to get used to it as it won't go away due to emissions and efficiency standards the manufacturers have to meet.

        • (Score: 2) by VLM on Friday November 27 2015, @01:54PM

          by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Friday November 27 2015, @01:54PM (#268658)

          Also most importantly it increases wear and tear on the engine, reducing engine and battery lifespan, theoretically increasing manufacturer profits. I think that makes it awesome. My next car will be electric and I can't wait! The more they F up gas cars, the better for electric. I think they should add sand injectors to put sand in the lubricating oil to "save the planet".

      • (Score: 2) by VLM on Friday November 27 2015, @01:52PM

        by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Friday November 27 2015, @01:52PM (#268657)

        You only discover these things with a test drive.

        When was the internet invented? I bought the same car as a coworker, its not like anything about it surprised me. I did test drive it anyway for the hell of it, but I certainly didn't learn anything from it.

        I spend a lot of my life at the far end of the spectrum, if I need a 0.1 uF decoupling capacitor I live out of parametric search and data sheets, rarely do I fly to China and physically touch and test caps fresh off the assembly line. Admittedly if I was buying 10 million worth of them it would probably scale, but it certainly doesn't scale at "normal" order sizes.

        My new car wasn't exactly like my old car. The center of gravity is WAY higher which took some time to get used to, the wheel feels different, but its all a big "whatever", in a year its hard to remember the difference in feeling exactly.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 28 2015, @01:02AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 28 2015, @01:02AM (#268916)

        Like I test drove a car who's engine raced up the revs every time I changed gear, leading to jerky changes. I commented to the salesman (riding with me) that the throttle cable seemed to be sticking, but he said it was a design feature - supposed to make gear changes smoother FFS!

        Yes it is called auto rev matching, it is a feature that is trickling down from the high end sports cars like porsche. But what does porsche know about transmissions?

        But the very fact that you are buying a stick shift makes you an outlier, less than 7% of cars sold nowadays are stick. Most people don't even think about gear changes any more.

  • (Score: 2) by Snotnose on Thursday November 26 2015, @09:29PM

    by Snotnose (1623) on Thursday November 26 2015, @09:29PM (#268430)

    I say, just shocking.

    --
    Why shouldn't we judge a book by it's cover? It's got the author, title, and a summary of what the book's about.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 26 2015, @09:35PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 26 2015, @09:35PM (#268431)

    Do they have their own *AA?

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @03:50AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @03:50AM (#268509)

      > Do they have their own *AA?

      That's only for toy cars.
      Human-sized electric cars do not run on double-A batteries.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 26 2015, @10:15PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 26 2015, @10:15PM (#268439)

    Salesmen don't understand electric cars. They need to educate themselves so they know what lies to tell.

    • (Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Thursday November 26 2015, @10:27PM

      by fido_dogstoyevsky (131) <axehandleNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Thursday November 26 2015, @10:27PM (#268445)

      Salesmen don't understand cars. They need to educate themselves so they know what lies to tell.

      Ftfy.

      --
      It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @02:33AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @02:33AM (#268488)

      Salesmen don't understand ordinary cars either. I've run into a number of car salesmen who didn't know what they were selling.

      • (Score: 2) by davester666 on Friday November 27 2015, @07:51AM

        by davester666 (155) on Friday November 27 2015, @07:51AM (#268564)

        You just need enough charisma to smooth out the lies.

  • (Score: 2) by Username on Thursday November 26 2015, @10:16PM

    by Username (4557) on Thursday November 26 2015, @10:16PM (#268440)

    I see they chose the word "May," which makes sense since most cars share the same parts, bulbs, rotors, windows, hubs, constant velocity joints, etc. Just because it’s electric doesn’t mean there is less maintenance, it’s just a different kind of maintenance. Like the motor needing to be rewound, or replacing bad cells in the battery.

    If they do not have belts, then it must have gears, which would need to be oiled. Heat is the main killer of electric motors, and bearings. I do not see how metal on metal parts do not have some kind of oil or grease. If they do not have a water pump, how do they keep the motor and batteries from over heating? Are Volts air cooled and just shutoff after a certain temp like computers? Seems like a waste just to vent the heat outside when it’s cold out.

    I have a feeling most people think there is less maintenance because they treat anything electrical as a disposable device. The manufacturers most likely picked up on this as well, and designed them not to be maintained, hoping the rich will just buy another one once a proprietary part goes out. It doesn’t help that people buy electric cars and treat them that way either.

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Snow on Thursday November 26 2015, @10:37PM

      by Snow (1601) on Thursday November 26 2015, @10:37PM (#268448) Journal

      Teslas don't have gears. It's direct drive, so the motor is connected directly to the wheels. No need for clutches or 'torque converters'. Just, I guess, a differential. Those typically require service every 60k kms.

      Motors wouldn't be rewound on site, but rather replaced with a refurbished model.

      I believe that electric cars do have an oil system, but it would be much, much smaller than what you have on a ICE. Plus, that oil would not be picking contaminants from combustion (and not be subjected to the same pressures and temperatures) so I've heard that the oil could last as long as 100k kms.

      Cooling is a small problem that is easily solved. Air cooling might be sufficient, but a small water loop with radiator is simple and requires very little maintenance. I suppose you could pump that into the car for cabin heat, but most people want the car warm quickly, so it would probably make more sense (and be cheaper) to steal energy from the batteries and use an electric heater at the cost of some range.

      • (Score: 2) by mhajicek on Thursday November 26 2015, @11:30PM

        by mhajicek (51) on Thursday November 26 2015, @11:30PM (#268452)

        With a motor on each wheel there's no differential. There's at least an order of magnitude fewer moving parts, and the remaining moving parts endure nowhere near the heat and pressure. There is no need for an oil system; when's the last time you lubed your wheel bearings?

        --
        The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
        • (Score: 2) by Snow on Thursday November 26 2015, @11:49PM

          by Snow (1601) on Thursday November 26 2015, @11:49PM (#268456) Journal

          I am not aware of any (mass produced) EVs that have one motor per wheel. Teslas have an open rear diff that uses brakes to help with traction.

          If you get the AWD variant, there is a separate front motor (so no center diff) and I presume a similar open diff setup. The center diff is simulated with software.

          Wheel bearings are comparatively cheap, and I have had bearings fail.

          Apperantly Teslas need to have the gearbox oil changed every 15 years... which is odd because they are direct drive, so what exactly does the gearbox do? The best I can gather is that it has gears, but only one 'gear' (ie., it's always in first gear).

          • (Score: 4, Informative) by Knowledge Troll on Friday November 27 2015, @01:08AM

            by Knowledge Troll (5948) on Friday November 27 2015, @01:08AM (#268471) Homepage Journal

            They had 2 gears before but the transmissions kept breaking under the intense amount of torque. After enough attempts at fixing the problem the Roadster was updated to lock the transmission into a single gear through software then with a new part that had only a single gear. The RPM of a motor is important for electrical efficiency: instead of a power band like a traditional engine they gain and lose efficiency as their rotational speed. I'm not sure what happened with the Roadster on a single gear but I presume top speed or efficiency lost to some degree.

            The simple single gear transmission is required to keep the motor in the efficient zone during most expected operation. Electric cars absolutely have a benefit from transmission just not in the exact same way that internal combustion engines do so you can get away with out them much easier.

          • (Score: 2) by bziman on Friday November 27 2015, @01:16AM

            by bziman (3577) on Friday November 27 2015, @01:16AM (#268474)

            which is odd because they are direct drive, so what exactly does the gearbox do? The best I can gather is that it has gears, but only one 'gear' (ie., it's always in first gear).

            I couldn't say for sure about Tesla, but my sports car has gears at the drive axle, so even when you're in 5th gear (overdrive on my transmission has a gear ratio of 0.68), there's still a 3.27:1 gear ratio at the axle. Which works out with the wheels doing about 750 rpm when the motor is doing around 1700 rpm at 60 mph. Since electric motors tend to run at much higher RPM than a gasoline motor, they would almost have to have some sort of gearing at the axle to step down the RPM to what the wheels need, even without a transmission.

        • (Score: 2) by M. Baranczak on Friday November 27 2015, @01:08AM

          by M. Baranczak (1673) on Friday November 27 2015, @01:08AM (#268470)
          The problem with having a motor right in the hub is that it increases the unsprung weight, which degrades the ride quality and handling.
          • (Score: 2) by frojack on Friday November 27 2015, @02:50AM

            by frojack (1554) on Friday November 27 2015, @02:50AM (#268490) Journal

            Which is exactly why Tesla avoided motors in wheels.
            There are some military experimental trucks with electric motors in each wheel, but the shake the motors so violently that they have more maintenance problems.

            --
            No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @06:24AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @06:24AM (#268537)

      You are writing from a position of ignorance. When GM EV1 drivers took their EV1s in for dealer maintenance, it was washer fluid top up and tire rotation. That's it. Sure, at *some* point, there would be battery work/replacement and maybe the odd motor would develop a fault, by *may* require less maintenance? Seriously?

  • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday November 26 2015, @10:57PM

    by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Thursday November 26 2015, @10:57PM (#268451)

    "That means that the appropriate question should be directed to makers of electric cars: What are you doing to make selling electric cars as profitable and painless for your dealers as selling gasoline or diesel vehicles?"

    The only reason you'd ask that question is if you've already decided that dealers are essential to the process of selling electric cars, and I'm not sure that's true.
    Apparently the dealers don't want to sell them, but people seem to want to buy them, so guess who gets what they want there?

    • (Score: 2) by Non Sequor on Friday November 27 2015, @12:47AM

      by Non Sequor (1005) on Friday November 27 2015, @12:47AM (#268467) Journal

      If you want to sell millions of cars, if nothing else, you need someone to maintain lots to park them in, with security, before they make their way to the customers. It's very hard to imagine a setup where that "someone" isn't a dealer.

      --
      Write your congressman. Tell him he sucks.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @03:22AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @03:22AM (#268500)

      As they say, ymmv:

      + I was curious about the little smart electric and stopped at the dealer one Saturday with my GF. It's attached to a Mercedes-Benz store, but seems to operate separately. The gal in the smart store said a few positive things and gave us the keys to the demonstrator, which she also used to commute to work. Her only request was to bring it back before 4pm so she could drive it home at the end of her shift. I got the feeling that M-B needs to sell enough smarts (gas and electric) to balance out all the big guzzlers they sell, otherwise they will be paying fines for not meeting CAFE rules?

      + While waiting for service on my 2001 Saturn, I walked up front to see the Chevy* new cars. Salesman I talked to loved his own Volt, was happy to recommend it. He had owned the Volt for two or three years and was getting ready to trade it in for one of the new (second generation) Volts.

      * This Chevy/GM dealer employs a former Saturn service writer and also some former Saturn dealer mechanics. They have generally done good work over the last 11 years that I've had the car.

  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 26 2015, @11:44PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 26 2015, @11:44PM (#268454)

    A tire manufacturer once made a tire line that was lasting over 100k miles. They stopped making them because they weren't getting return customers, and instead made a shittier tire with a prorated warranty to get the customer in more often. Cars used to be cheap to repair, so they were kept longer. Now it's they're expensive to repair so people buy new cars more often. Electronics used to last longer, now they barely last beyond whatever warranty it has. They only thing lasting longer are people, and with programs like Obamacare it's getting too costly for that too.

    • (Score: 1, Troll) by Knowledge Troll on Friday November 27 2015, @01:21AM

      by Knowledge Troll (5948) on Friday November 27 2015, @01:21AM (#268475) Homepage Journal

      Electronics used to last longer

      Hrm really? I've had the opposite experience but I carefully select my gear. If I don't research something I wont spend much money on it and will treat it as disposable so I won't get disappointed. Typically I'll know really quickly if the thing is going to meet my needs and if it doesn't I'll just throw it away; if it is cheap and meets my needs I don't recall any failures of the hardware. When I'm ready to invest in a piece of equipment I certainly won't be buying anything I think won't last. It leads to fun conversations like this at stores:

      salesman> How how are you doing? Those are nice speakers aren't they?
      me> Yeah they are but I can't hear them with you talking. I'm also going to listen to more of them then I'll let you know if I want to buy anything.

      [20 minutes later]
      me> I'll take these ones here in a pair please.
      salesman> Good choice, would you like the extended warranty?
      me> Nope.
      salesman> Why not, it protects you.
      me> Nope.
      salesman> It is in your interest.
      me> Nope.
      salesman> But if anything goes wrong we will replace it with out a question. I personally know for a fact that the surrounds on these units will fall apart after 3 years and have to be replaced.
      me> Buddy if I thought these speakers were going to rot apart in 3 years I'd never buy them. How about you shut up or I'll find another person I like better.

      Its been about 15 years now and the speakers are as good as the day I bought them. Repeat for just about any other piece of gear I elect to buy in a store.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by darkfeline on Friday November 27 2015, @12:10AM

    by darkfeline (1030) on Friday November 27 2015, @12:10AM (#268459) Homepage

    I wonder when the illusion will break that we simply don't have enough jobs for everyone?

    The car salesmen's jobs are not needed and strictly busywork in order to maintain the illusion that our current economic model works in an essentially post-scarcity world. With the advent of computers and the Internet, almost all "middlemen" were rendered obsolete.

    Rule of thumb: if one person produces more than what one person needs, there will need to be a busywork job to fill in that scarcity gap if everyone were to need a job.

    --
    Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
  • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday November 27 2015, @12:45AM

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Friday November 27 2015, @12:45AM (#268465) Homepage Journal

    In 1984 I asked this question of Ralph Wolf, a fellow Caltech student. He recommended either a Toyota Corona or a Datsun B-210.

    (Corona != Corolla)

    In 1986 I bought a well-loved 1977 Corona wagon for $1,500. My only real gripe turned out to be that there was a hydraulic fluid leak into the clutch bell housing, with the result that I had to replace the worn-out clutch plate twice. Had I been on top of that leak I'd still be driving that car.

    Modern cars often require special tools, also the require parts that are not commonly carried by auto parts stores. I once had to replace a suspension component for my Ford that required a week to order from a distributor.

    Can you recommend a car that could be repaired by a well-equipped home mechanic?

    --
    Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @01:31AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @01:31AM (#268479)

      You'd have to look pre 1975. Todays cars are overpriced POS's and darn near DRM'd.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @04:49AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @04:49AM (#268526)

      Can you recommend a car that could be repaired by a well-equipped home mechanic?

      I recall from a recent post of yours that you're living under a highway overpass [soylentnews.org] Where do you keep your equipment? Or are just completely full of shit?

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @05:17AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @05:17AM (#268531)

    I do IT and have been with our company for 15+ years.
    There's only one thing for me to say here. Technology will win. It *always* wins. Ignore everything else - government, law, vested interests by oil conglomerates. F all of that noise. Technology wins. It has to.
    I mentioned a few years ago to a general manager of a Nissan franchise "Get ready to lose money on Leafs because all you're going to sell is tires and warranty work (a fresh model of any vehicle always has quite a fair share of warranty fixes)." He said "Oh. I hadn't thought about that." - there's nothing to break, almost.
    A side note: Service IS the most profitable part of a dealership. Learn to fix your own vehicle and save, youtube is a fantastic resource. Also, car dealerships aren't bad entities to avoid. I started thinking salespeople were scum. They're not. They mostly come from other walks of life looking for an opportunity. Now F&I.... Slit my wrists and call me Shirley. [scum|douche]. Bags.

    I WISH WE COULD SELL TESLAS IN THIS STATE because they're awesome (Even if it doesn't help my company! It makes sense! I see a lot of them driving around though)

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @09:01AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @09:01AM (#268588)

    Chelsea Dell made an appointment to test-drive a used Volt but when she arrived, she said, a salesman told her that the car hadn't been washed, and that he had instead readied a less expensive, gas-powered car.

    Take the car for a test drive. When you come back, tell the salesman:

    - It's way too noisy.
    - It smells really bad.
    - The acceleration is crap.
    - I drove by a test center, and had them measure the pollution. Very high compared to the other cars I've been looking at.
    - It would be way too expensive to drive, as it doesn't connect to the free chargers we have at work.
    - Of the three cars I've test driven so far, this one has been the worst in every way.

    By this time, the sales speech is hopefully reduced to "b-b-b-b-but...", as you turn around and walk out the door.

  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @12:37PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @12:37PM (#268630)

    only about 330,000 electric vehicles on the road

    There are over 1 million. Oh, you meant in the USA only? Would have been nice to say so....

  • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday November 27 2015, @01:58PM

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Friday November 27 2015, @01:58PM (#268659) Journal

    I read an article a couple days ago that adds another interesting wrinkle to this: BMW is building out a supercharger network of their own that's free to use for BMW i3 owners. Of course that makes their EV more attractive to buyers if the so-called range anxiety is mitigated. So in essence the manufacturer is working against the car dealerships if they rely on ICEs breaking down and needing lots of maintenance.

    --
    Washington DC delenda est.