The hybrid ticking time bomb

[Isaac Zachary]

Originally Posted by Piotrsko

But you keep comparing apples and watermelons (which is my point).

A 2 bar prius is like a $500 beater that needs a head gasket. It works, kinda, but you are limited in all kinds ways like range, reliability, cost to repair. Pretty sure you wouldn't take either on a trip across the US in a snowstorm, but I wouldn't bet money on that anymore. Also pretty sure you won't make the 197 recharge miles in a 2 bar but that isn't the point either. BTW: how many kids do you know that have the ability and tools to do a head gasket?

If that's all you can get, you make it work as good as you can, if that best is still inadequate...... I guess you're screwed. Seems to be a lot of screwed people nowadays.

When I got my Prius it made it about a mile and then went into neutral, coasted to the curb, and I could not get it to start after that because the HV battery died. A car that won't move isn't going to get you anywhere. It only started working after I changed out the dead module.

All my siblings and I all knew how to change a head gasket before we were of the age to drive. My sister rebuilt her 1973 Malibu's engine when she was 16 years old. My wife's and my first car together was a 1993 Mazda that needed a head gasket and radiator when we bought it. After replacing those and the battery, we drove that car clear down to Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico and back without a problem. We took the $600 VW Golf on a 1,200 mile round trip 14 times.

[Ecky]

At this time, vehicles in that category practically don't exist. Cheap Nissans have ticking time bomb CVT transmissions that are more expensive and difficult than a Prius battery to replace. Older Hyundais often have engine problems. Hondas and Toyotas simply never go below $3000 anymore unless they're actually broken, because of their perceived reliability. American automakers have abandoned the segment entirely.

The issue is the same with housing. New single family homes are simply not built with 1000sq ft. Market forces make it such that contractors only find it worthwhile to build mid- to high-end homes, for reasons i haven't taken the time to fully understand.

I suppose what people do, is share, either housing or a vehicle. My sister makes 6 figures as a software engineer. She's married, and has a stay at home husband with their high-needs toddler. Up until very recently, she chose to have a roommate in their downstairs bedroom, even with a salary like she has.

I'd like to say that eventually market forces will correct this, but I'm not actually certain the free market has any interest in correcting so that the bottom earners in society have it easier.

[redpoint5]

An MD in our neighborhood rents a room in their house. Between her and her husband, they are probably making somewhere around $300k.

I've had roommates from 2010-1017. Always contemplating roommates in this large house.

[Isaac Zachary]

That's a good point Ecky.

Back before the automobile and in it's early days only the rich rode around in a carriage, horse drawn, then horse-less. Then we had the middle class who could afford a cheaper version of what the rich had. Well, maybe the middle class is disapearing or something.

I thought this was interesting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztHZj6QNlkM

Not that I'm an economic expert and can verify everything said in the video, but the general idea that vehicles are expensive I think still holds water.

When I had the Leaf I tried trading it with others when I needed to drive long distances. It didn't always work out though.

House sharing would be an interesting option, but not necessarily practical in every situation. Where I live we actually have too many people in the place for just the imediate family, according to the county's guidelines (should have 150sqft or more per person, not less). There can also be some legality issues having even extended family memebers in a house with minor children these days even if everyone has their own private bedroom.

[freebeard]

Originally Posted by Isaac Zachary

Of course another thing to factor in is inflation.

My first car, a bullet-nose Studebaker was $100, my last one [in the thumbnail] was $1000. So I have felt that pain.

Originally Posted by Ecky

The issue is the same with housing. New single family homes are simply not built with 1000sq ft. Market forces make it such that contractors only find it worthwhile to build mid- to high-end homes, for reasons i haven't taken the time to fully understand.

It's a story as old as Edison's cast concrete houses and Bucky Fuller's Stockade Block building system -- any substantial improvement would devalue the existing housing stock. And there are powerful forces arrayed against that.

It's structured such that the escape valve is 'tiny houses'.

I gave it my best shot on 2022-12-26:

Mud Bubbles
I've said for some time now that we will live in Mud Bubbles and we will like it. Now, today, Kirsten Dirksen posted this:

I rented rooms in the house in this picture. I had a Vietnam Veteran tunnel rat move out to make room for an exotic dancer. Possibly my worst mistake.

[redpoint5]

The tunnel rat, or the dancer?

My sister's room was the space at the top of the stairs large enough to fit a crib. She slept in the crib until 5 because she was short and could fit there.

I availed myself to nature at my parents today out of habit and preference even though they have 2 bathrooms now (3 if you count the toilet sitting directly over the septic tank). Redneck by nurture.

If Isaac were my neighbor, he'd have an ICEmobile at his disposal any time. I'd make extra keys, so if you see it parked, you can drive it. I'm always thinking that an EV isn't a limitation in distance that can be traveled, but an opportunity to swap vehicles with someone neighborly.

[Isaac Zachary]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

The tunnel rat, or the dancer?

My sister's room was the space at the top of the stairs large enough to fit a crib. She slept in the crib until 5 because she was short and could fit there.

I availed myself to nature at my parents today out of habit and preference even though they have 2 bathrooms now (3 if you count the toilet sitting directly over the septic tank). Redneck by nurture.

If Isaac were my neighbor, he'd have an ICEmobile at his disposal any time. I'd make extra keys, so if you see it parked, you can drive it. I'm always thinking that an EV isn't a limitation in distance that can be traveled, but an opportunity to swap vehicles with someone neighborly.

Awww! Thank you!

My dad hated driving my Leaf for some reason I could never figure out.

[freebeard]

Not keeping the tunnel rat around to give me a second opinion about how it was all going down.

...way down.

[redpoint5]

Women are both weapons of mass destruction, and mass creation. I've fallen prey to basic instinct much longer than I'd like to admit. Never a negative experience though, thank god.

Of course, I'm being very presumptuous that the exotic dancer was of the female variety.

The innuendo maintains the intrigue though.

[freebeard]

Of course, I'm being very presumptuous that the exotic dancer was of the female variety.

Of course, you're under society's pressure to question your assumptions. Stand firm.

Her family were Macedonian. There exists a bust of Cleopatra VII Philopator, the Queen of the Nile, from a villa in Rome.


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleopatra

She had a big, honking nose just like that.