Those were great cars!
Posted on 12/21/2021 1:27:56 PM PST by george76
In Finland, an unhappy Tesla owner decided to blow up his Model S after learning it would need a new expensive battery pack. In the video on YouTube with English subtitles, Tuomas Katainen explains his 2013 Model S was in the shop for more than a month for service. When he heard back from the shop, they told him they couldn’t repair his car, and the only option was to change the entire battery cell.
Katainen said the fix would’ve cost him upwards of €20,000 ($22,500). He told the dealership that was absurd, and he donated the car to a Finnish YouTube channel Pommijätkät, whose name literally translates to ‘Bomb Dudes.’
Instead of fixing the Model S, 30 kg (66 pounds) of dynamite was strapped to the car for one explosive show. Showing his frustration, Katainen even had a doll of Tesla’s founder Elon Musk in the driver’s seat.
Multiple angles of high-definition, slow-motion cameras captured the epic explosion (this time, it wasn’t spontaneous ..
The problem with electric cars utilizing lithium batteries is degradation over time. It’s sort of like a smartphone or laptop — enough charging cycles over the years, and the batteries will begin to hold less charge. The same thing happens with a Tesla or any other electric car.
… and as Katainen found out, the fix becomes so expensive that it’s not even worth putting the car back on the road. Think twice when falling into the ESG trap of buying a fully electric vehicle because in the medium term, if not covered by the automative maker or third party insurer, you might have to shell out an excessive amount of money to replace the battery.
“I’m not sure the hybrid becomes useless when the battery fades.”
It’s not useless, just declining range. I knew a car dealer very well all through his career. You trade, you get slaughtered, and old batteries are like high mileage, it’s a big drop.
When more EVs are on the road, there will be companies that just build replacement batteries. If the EV companies ever really get it together you won’t own a battery, you’ll just pay a usage fee. There will be 4-5 different batteries that fit everything on the road, and you stop at a battery station, have “your” battery switched out in 10 minutes, swipe your card and drive on. The battery you left will be charged and put in another car, etc.
Fred Flintstone’s held up pretty well,the guy could have turned his Tesla into a human powered vehicle and instead of charging it, he could have charged people to drive it.
“a 1005 Ford Focus for $3K? That’s a bargain for a serious antique!”
Only if the numbers match.
I’m a mechanic so I’ve never seen the point of paying a 5 digit price tag. I buy them with 150k and run them until 250k or more. My 01 F150 4x4 still runs and drives nice and tight and it’s approaching 290k. I have a knack myself which is finding well maintained vehicles cheap. Some people sell them real cheap so there’s no chance of someone suing them claiming they got sold a lemon. Got the F150 for $2k and it’s very clean. Got an auto history report and he had bought it from his dad when it was a few years old and had 4,500 miles on it. I’m guessing he didn’t have the credit to buy new so his dad helped him out this way. Clean inside and the driver’s seat isn’t even worn through yet.
Those were great cars!
You can buy a lot of transmissions and entire engines for 22 grand
The original Tesla automobile (the “Roadster”) was built on the chassis of a Lotus Elise sourced from Lotus Motorcars but with Tesla’s electric drivetrain installed. The Roadster & replacement battery were so expensive that assuming the original battery lasted for 125,000 miles, and you paid to replace the battery and then drove it another 125,000 miles, you’d have spent the same as if you had bought five (5) internal combustion Lotus Elises.
So for the same money you could have driven your first Lotus Elise until it hit 50,000 miles, THROWN IT AWAY, bought another of the same, and repeated until you’d owned five Elises (all bought outright with NO trade-in) and driven each 50,000 miles, then chucked ‘em.
That’s why Tesla offers the option to add the prorated cost of the battery you’ll need in the future into your car payments. To lessen the sticker shock when the first battery goes kaput.
And oh by the way, Tesla owners can’t sue Tesla. There’s a clause in the sales contract stating you’ll agree to forego legal action against the company and submit to a court of arbitration. Which has STAY AWAY! written all over it.
“Because even if Trump gets back in in 2025, the lead time to change the product plan is about 3 years.”
The problem with this thinking is that large companies and industries think 10, 20, even 50 years ahead. From now on, this kind of anti-lower and middle class crap foisted upon us by an evil cabal of the 1% and twenty-something kids living in their parents’ basements will ALWAYS be no more than two or four years away with the next election. This is why there will be no more ICE engines designed, and why there will NEVER be another new natural gas or coal fired power plant in this country. It won’t matter if the House and Senate are 80% Republican and there is a Republican president. The damage has been done.
Just think of what it’s done to you sitting on the old battery while you wore it out
Around here it seems no self-respecting mechanic drives other than a Toyota or Honda, with a good 200k on it.
I plan on buying a nice SUV in a year or so and taking REAL GOOD care of it. (Assuming the Moderna vax hasn’t killed me by then of course).
Don’t forget Ford and GM pickups in that category.
That is an intriguing idea.
A coal rolling diesel transplant would be more amusing to enrage the green weenies.
There's a project for an automotive engineer...design an engine that just bolts in where the battery used to be!
“And oh by the way, Tesla owners can’t sue Tesla. There’s a clause in the sales contract stating you’ll agree to forego legal action against the company and submit to a court of arbitration. Which has STAY AWAY! written all over it.”
GM has had its problems with electric, but if I get an electric car, it will be from GM, Ford, or Hyundai/Kia. They know how to build cars, they will figure this out.
Tesla...IDK, they aren’t exactly “new” at this anymore.
Tesla rolling coal.
You win FR for today!
Yeah baby.
Let me know when an EV can be recharged in that same 10 minutes.
There’s a project for an automotive engineer...design an engine that just bolts in where the battery used to be!
What we need are drop-in electric drivetrains and batteries for classic ICE vehicles. Sadly, without some kind of truly amazing improvement in battery power density, that’s a tough ask.
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