It’s nice not having to ever worry about car stuff. I just have to worry about this high horse instead.
Damn, you let your horse smoke weed?
Is the horse doing alright? Like … how high is it?
It’ll probably be fine, just don’t let it eat too many ding dongs.
EV + solar panels on my house == free charging. i am so happy with this combo.
God, I really wish Subaru would just make their own EVs in-house instead of slapping their logo on a bunch of Toyotas
Not just that, but a Toyota that is the most “eh, good enough” EV there is.
Have a bz4x because we got a very, very good deal on it. Do not recommend unless you also get a very, very good deal. It’s aggressively OKish.
How they gonna put a boxer engine in an EV though?
They would lose that beautiful 60/40 weight distribution and their target audience would not allow that.
there are ev crate engines, is that close enough?
No, Subaru is known for literally two things: Their AWD system and their boxer engines.
Now you can obviously make a great AWD system with electric motors (a better one in fact), but it won’t have the beautiful boxer rumble.
And yes I know one of the reasons for using a boxer over an inline or V engine is the lower center of gravity which EVs are even better at, but again, they will lose their soul along with the boxer engine. Once they go EV, they have no real advantage over any of the other Japanese brands.
it was a pun
Ohhh right, BOXer and crate, I didn’t even catch that
New battery is cheap. Subaru headgaskets are not.
I’ve known plenty of people with Subarus and none have had head gasket issues. I think the problem is exaggerated because it’s memed.
It’s specific engines and they haven’t built those engines in a long time. I’d be more vary of their diesels splitting crankshafts.
In reality the eventual EV battery replacement cost is several times that of the head gasket job anyway.
EV battery replacements are one big cost in the future. The hundred little things to keep an ICE going over the years add up to a lot more than that.
For early EVs, where the battery life is “relatively short” (think 100K miles), yes. But ICE engine life up until about the late 80s was around that, too. Now it’s more like 200K miles before a major engine repair costs more than it’s worth doing. EV batteries are getting to around the same 200K mile threshold, and while the battery replacement will be expensive, it’ll be the same “not wortht the cost, time to buy a new car” that a comparable ICE car would be.
They do not. I’ve kept several old ICEs running for years with barely any significant ICE-related costs (I STILL haven’t replaced a single timing chain, turbo, or injector, but obviously I’ve done oil changes and timing belts). Maybe 1k for maintenance and repairs per year if I’m unlucky and get a lemon. Oh and I gravitate towards aging German executive and luxury cars lol
But the battery on an Audi E-Tron is something like 60 or 70 grand. 20k used. The cars are under 30k now and they’re not even out of warranty yet. Nobody’s going to be replacing any of those batteries out of warranty, all those cars will be landfill.
In comparison, if we’re doing used parts, 20k gets you a lightly used engine AND modern 8-speed auto transmission AND a professional to fit them and for some models you still have enough left over to spend 10k on cocaine and hookers.
The Audi is at the far high end of that cost. Not surprising for the German brand. Hyundai IONIQ 5 (one of the most popular EVs outside of Tesla) are closer to $10k. Even the Volkswagen ID.4 is looking closer to $25k.
Count up literally everything. Oil changes. New spark plugs. Coolant flushes. Transmission flushes. EVs using regen braking tend to put less wear on the brakes, and hybrids were already looking at brakes being on there for the life of the car, so add brake changes, too. Even if you do your own work, you should be counting a reasonable hourly rate in there for your time. A huge amount of maintenance just plain goes away with EVs.
If you don’t believe me, find a PDF of an owner’s manual for the the recommended maintenance schedule on an EV and compare it to ICE. Dealerships are doing that, and they do not like the results at all. Takes a whole lot business away from them. In fact, some of the stuff listed almost feels like it was stuck in there just so dealers would have something for their mechanics to do.
The maintenance schedule on my bz4x wants to bring it in every 5000 miles to check that all the nuts are torqued down and the tires haven’t fallen off.
Add on to that EV batteries in real use are lasting a lot longer than expected. This is maybe not surprising. Lab testing is done by charging and discharging many times sequentially and extrapolating those results. If anything, that’s much harsher than real world conditions.
Thanks for that diagram of shot zones on planes that returned to the bunker. Got an argument to make? Are you suggesting that my friends would cease to be my friends if their head gaskets blew? I don’t get the relation. Since I have an equally good chance of meeting someone with a Subaru that has a good head gasket vs a bad one, I don’t see any selection bias. What I’m suggesting is that there is selection bias on the internet. No one makes a post about how well their Subarus head gaskets are working— they only post on the internet when there is a problem.
I think his plane has chicken pox
Mhmm, because no one gets rid of cars because they’re too expensive to repair and everyone feels the need to mention to you all the repairs their car had before they got it.
Idk what to tell you, they are all still driving their Subarus after many years. Some of them WRXs. I like cars, so when someone has a Subaru, I do ask them about any problems they have had because I’m curious. So far, no head gasket failures. Maybe some of them had cars that previously had head gasket failures and were repaired before they purchased the vehicles. That’s not so likely, as folks don’t tend to sell their vehicles after doing expensive mechanical work like a head gasket change. Plus, if they’re replacing a faulty head gasket for the exact same Subaru head gasket, why have the head gaskets in their cars not blown again? They’re just putting in the same shitty gasket design, right?
Anecdotally, I have a Baja. Replaced the head gaskets two years ago this past summer. Then past March, I thought the HGs failed again. Waited until summer, bought a cheap Outback to drive around in the meanwhile, then threw a canopy up (I don’t have a garage). Pulled the engine and discovered the threads in the aluminum block had failed for one of the head bolts. Drilled it out, threaded it, and popped a steel insert in (Time-Sert kit).
I’ve owned enough Subarus over the years to love the boxer engines. Won’t touch a transverse mounted engine, personally. They’re always a pain to work on. Having a bed available, small though it may be, fits my lifestyle perfectly. Until another mfg puts out a small “ute” EV, I’m gonna keep wrenching on the Baja for as long as I can.
We Baja people are a special kind of crazy, though, and are definitely a niche market. I’m not keeping my hopes up.
You should look into the specialist forums on the topic if you’d like to see the real(ish) numbers. The tldr is it’s around a 15-20% premature failure rate for certain engines from before 2002.
Brand reputations are built off those twenty year old events, and it was a problem for a decade. In Suburu’s case it was noticable precisely because it was reliable enough that the owners would keep it for twenty years and then say things like “ran like dream except for that one time…”
That’s great. I understand that the real premature failure rate is higher but only for certain engines. The idea that one could then go and apply it to all Subarus is what I’m talking about. We’re not talking about an old model of WRXs that had that problem, we’re talking about all Subarus.
My Subaru spun a rod bearing, which is apparently also a well-known problem.
Sorry about that. My Mazdaspeed3 has been running with no problems since 2013 despite all the concerns about VVT/timing chain problems and bad turbo seals you see all over the internet. Another Chevy of mine I once had was rife with problems even though I did all the proper maintenance.
The gas is almost the cheapest thing. Insurance, maintenance, tires, etc
Yes, but an EV also needs insurance, maintenance, and tires. OP’s post is pointing out a distinction between EVs and ICE vehicles.
EV’s need even less maintenance since they don’t need oil changes
Thanks, genius.
Wow, such an appropriate response to my comment
/s if it wasn’t obvious enough
You know what “EV” doesn’t need insurance, and has vastly cheaper maintenance and tires? An E-bike!
E-bikes are the real “EVs,” outselling electric cars by a wide margin for several years now.
I mean folks buy more bicycles than e-bikes a year, and they are even cheaper to maintain. I don’t see your point when a majority of people’s needs would not be served in the US with e-bikes. Perhaps in other communities that don’t require as much car dependence, sure.
Yeah, was thinking more the “2 cars” vs 1. And $70/month to have backup transport may be worth it if it’s paid off. But yes, the EV would be cheaper to run.
The EV is definitely a money improvement. A new battery and the Subaru will sell for a pretty penny, though.
I’m not against them, but I wonder how EVs will hold up in the long haul. Like in 20 years will there even be a feasible used market or will the batteries and motors be to shitty without a crazy expensive replacements to keep them practical?
And then there’s the scrapping process for batteries too. Can batteries be refurbished, scrapped or recycled in a way that most regions can do it?
Like LEDs I know they CAN be built to last a long time, but I know companies often don’t
page 9 goes into battery reuse and recycle <3
American Petroleum Institute… and the page is 404
EV batteries last a very long time when implemented right. Post-2015, and on cars not named the Nissan Leaf, batteries can last 10+ years and well over 200,000 miles. A Hyundai recently went in for a battery at 389,000 miles… all of which were not well maintained miles, as in, overnight to 100 percent, fast charge, drain to empty, etc. Hyundai bought the battery for Science reasons.
As for recycling, a company recently developed a system to turn used ev batteries into grid storage by literally plugging them into a special adapting charging controller.
This is in addition to recycling the batteries.
389k miles isn’t really a lot, but at least it’s better than 200k I guess. The issue is they’re still super expensive. Once your EV is old enough to be out of battery warranty, a new battery will cost twice the residual value of the vehicle and a used one will cost as much as the value of the vehicle :/
Yeah these batteries are like 95% recyclable
