• Changing RCF's index page, please click on "Forums" to access the forums.

Car Advice

Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Everyone talking about electric cars has never tried to diagnose a faulty sensor. You all don't realize how common it can be to have a dirty sensor throwing codes all around the car. God forbid they try to chase a phantom draw in the system.

I forgot about electrical gremlins. Just thinking about a electric car with all that technology that has taken 10 years of weather and a drain gets plugged to allow water into it, is giving me anxiety already. I can't imagine the headache that will cause.

Will it even start and run? Or will owners get stuck with being told to scrap a car after a mechanic pulls a part half the car to try to find where there is a bad contact or corroded harness and they find nothing?
 
Do you guys honestly believe that besides the charging/battery/motor circuit, the electrical components inside a modern electric vehicle are drastically different from a modern luxury vehicle? What about where that luxury vehicle will be in a few years?
 
Do you guys honestly believe that besides the charging/battery/motor circuit, the electrical components inside a modern electric vehicle are drastically different from a modern luxury vehicle? What about where that luxury vehicle will be in a few years?
Do you honestly believe that electric cars are going to not suffer from the same electrical issues that plague all modern cars?
 
Do you guys honestly believe that besides the charging/battery/motor circuit, the electrical components inside a modern electric vehicle are drastically different from a modern luxury vehicle?

It's more interconnected at least on a Tesla. Like on tesla you can use the pedals and steering wheel to play a video game on the screen.

Maybe the legacy car manufacturers will try to keep each part of the car separate so they can isolate problems easier. It doesn't seem Tesla is going down that path though.
 
You used it as a reason to distinguish ownership of an electric vehicle as being worse.

You're increasing the amount of electronics and electrical systems in the vehicle. And to the best of my knowledge when it comes to Telsa, incorporating systems that shouldn't have any reason to communicate with each other.

I drive a 25 year old vehicle because even with the electrical systems in it, I can still diagnose it. I won't buy another a vehicle made after 2010 specifically because I'm not dealing with shit engineering leading to electrical problems.

I'm not even going to get into the charging station debate, the lack of conformity between the manufacturers etc.

The last electric gremlin I chased in my Blazer took out my power seats, power locks, and mirrors. Did I mention it melted the fuse block in the dash because the circuit breaker controlling it got too hot? Even knowing where the most likely cause of it was, it still didn't correct the problem, as there was a secondary wire damaged within the door. Want to know the great thing about it all? I could still drive the vehicle until I fixed the problem. I doubt I'd get the same luxury with an electric car.

That was 14 hours of work to change out a total of 7 wires. And that was knowing what I was doing and getting into. Most shops don't even like dealing with electrical problems. Overcomplicating them isn't going to make that change.
 
You used it as a reason to distinguish ownership of an electric vehicle as being worse.

I don't think me or @Man Called X are saying electric cars are worse but are countering the point that @KI4MVP keeps saying that Telsas and electric cars are going to be so trouble free. I think the reality of car ownership is more complex than alot of people are willing to admit. The financial situations of owners and how people decide to move on from a car isn't simply if the car is running or not. Little things can add up to someone deciding to scrap a car that runs perfectly fine. I don't think electric cars cure these little problems like the door doesn't work right or the window are stuck or the interior is beat up.

Certain people crave the lastest technology. Everyone loves an upgrade if it's a bigger screen or different interior. There is a hierarchy to a life of a car and the owners of it. I just don't think that changes much with an electric car vs a gas car.
 
Last edited:
There are a lot of Teslas in the Bay Area. When there is a stretch without rain and then there's a thunderstorm, you see a lot of tow trucks coming out to service Teslas. The problem will get better eventually, but X is completely in the right to point out the added issues with electric cars.
 
There are a lot of Teslas in the Bay Area. When there is a stretch without rain and then there's a thunderstorm, you see a lot of tow trucks coming out to service Teslas. The problem will get better eventually, but X is completely in the right to point out the added issues with electric cars.

Living in good ol' Tuscarawas County, there's 2 Tesla charging stations but both are 20+ miles away. The J1772 stations, even closer to 30+ miles away, and from reports, most don't even work.

Technically, there isn't even a charging station in the whole county.
 
Last edited:
What if you can buy an electric car knowing that in 10 years, you'll get a replacement battery that has twice the capacity, twice the charging rate, and twice the lifespan of a current battery? From that perspective, future technology is very relevant to the investment you're making today.

But you don't know that. You believe it.

What if this future battery is too big to fit in your car? Or it requires a cooling system that can't be retrofitted? Or it is some crazy voltage to optimize life?

What if Tesla decides that they don't want to offer retro-upgrades because its better business to push people into buying new?

What if none of that comes to pass but you don't want to fork out 5 grand for a car that has rusted body panels and underbody?

Despite this rant, I do think electric cars are great, but there is this utopian worldview around electric cars that is going to leave a lot of people disappointed.
 
But you don't know that. You believe it.

What if this future battery is too big to fit in your car? Or it requires a cooling system that can't be retrofitted? Or it is some crazy voltage to optimize life?

What if Tesla decides that they don't want to offer retro-upgrades because its better business to push people into buying new?

What if none of that comes to pass but you don't want to fork out 5 grand for a car that has rusted body panels and underbody?

Despite this rant, I do think electric cars are great, but there is this utopian worldview around electric cars that is going to leave a lot of people disappointed.

Fair point that corporate greed may make battery upgrades unnecessarily difficult or impossible. I do think there's good reason to believe that the technology itself will improve dramatically over the next decade or so. There's just an extraordinary amount of research going on, and many candidate materials that have not yet been fully optimized.
 
On the plus side, there aren't explosions going on inside and electric motor, so they are expected to last many times longer.
 
On the plus side, there aren't explosions going on inside and electric motor, so they are expected to last many times longer.
Just have to wait for the Chinese knockoff batteries for the explosions. :chuckle:
 
On the plus side, there aren't explosions going on inside and electric motor, so they are expected to last many times longer.

A car rarely is scraped because of the engine though. Same thing goes for the transmission. Just everything else about the car becomes unbearable to keep driving it or it just doesn't make sense to keep dumping money into it.

Like the radio stops working, you don't have AC, the windows or heat don't work, etc. My dad drives cars to the ground and he gave up on cars because of just so many things just stopped working and the ride was just terrible because the suspension was shot. The engines could have probably been used for twice as many miles as they had on them.
 

Rubber Rim Job Podcast Video

Episode 3-13: "Backup Bash Brothers"

Rubber Rim Job Podcast Spotify

Episode 3:11: "Clipping Bucks."
Top