Tesla parts are not overpriced. Tesla parts are usually sold somewhere around their actual cost at the service centers. OTA updates are free; OTA upgrades (like acceleration boost, or FSD) are paid.

Exactly. Spectrum (Charter) was charging $100/month for 100/10 service. Got fiber, and pay $80/month for symmetric gigabit. I could have gone with the lowest tier fiber service and had 200/200 for like $40. Cable companies are delusional, and the phone company with their DSL are even more insane for charging what they do for what they provide.

âoeModernâ fabs didnâ(TM)t go 300mm 30 years ago⦠300mm was a pipe dream in 1991. There were a handful of 300mm fabs under construction in 2001, and the early 300mm equipment was still in its infancy and did not eclipse what 200mm equipment could do until well into the late 2000s when immersion litho got reliable. 200mm to 300mm was a rough transition for the industry. A couple of nasty downturns and abrupt order cuts drove many players completely out of business. 200mm isnâ(TM)t the cutting edge, but most things of interest to governments for âoenational securityâ are likely to be produced in âoelegacyâ fabs running 200mm or smaller wafers.

No way, free range tastes better!

pi are square is wrong! pi are round. cornbread are square. -stolen from Mitch Hedberg.

The standards are in place for everything you listed.

Depends on whether or not you are talking about my cubicle at the office, where I do paperwork, or the work space at the customer site, which is actually in a cleanroom.

The cleanroom space is, obviously, cleanroom clean. 5S and all that horseshit.

My desk at the office is chaos to everyone else except me.

VW's patented setup sounds far less ideal than the well understood SCR/DEF setup everyone else uses. 20% of max power to burn out the NOx trap? No way in hell would I want that!

The precise temperature controls you allude to for SCR/DEF is hogwash. You've got quite a bit of leeway to get up to temp before the system starts dosing before throwing codes and going into limp mode (think like over an hour of operation). If you didn't, then all of us in places with 4 real seasons would have diesels that wouldn't go anywhere because DEF freezes at about 18 degrees F. Where I live, we can go months with temps lower than that, and it takes time to thaw the DEF so it'll flow.

DEF consumption is 1-3% of fuel consumption. So figure 1-3 gallons of DEF used for every 100 gallons of diesel; that's for the puny little 2 liters in a VW all the way up to the 13L monsters in a Peterbilt... 1-3% of fuel, like clockwork. How many gallons of DEF would be needed to go the oil change interval on a VW TDi? Not many.

Lastly, on DEF, any fool paying stealership prices deserves to get ripped off. Drive to a truck stop and enjoy ISO rated DEF/AdBlue at $2.70 or so a gallon. My last DEF fill cost me a whopping $16 for my truck at just over 6 gallons in ~8k miles.. A 3.0L diesel truck that gets 24-27 MPG in mixed driving. A 2.0L TDi should be able to go 12k+ miles on 5 gallons considering how much less fuel they burn than my truck does.

Sounds like VW disabled EGR when not on a dyno. I know exactly why they did it.. EGR is pure evil on a diesel engine.

EGR lowers NOx emissions by lowering combustion temperature, but the downside is that they gum up the valve stems in the heads on a diesel due to the soot. Eventually the sooty crap hardens in the intake and then chunks break off and go into the combustion chamber and act like sandpaper or rocks, scoring the cylinder walls, worsening everything.

EGR works well on non-direct injected gasoline engines because they "wash" the soot with fuel before it can cake the valves, but is very hard on diesel engines from a longevity standpoint since no fuel touches the valve stems. EGR lowers power, and increases fuel consumption to lower NOx.

I've got a "small" diesel, in my pickup, and it has DEF (urea) injection on it. VW owners should not fear DEF. I fill the DEF tank on my truck about every oil change, from bulk dispensers at the truck stop, for a whopping $16 every 8k miles. I average about 1500MPG on DEF, and about 24.5 MPG on diesel fuel (full tanks, not pure highway). Pretty good numbers for a 6000 lb 4x4 pickup truck.

"My Tesla was patched last night. No such luck for my Dodge."

Don't have a 1GB USB stick and a web browser to update it yourself?
Take it to the dealer, takes about 20 minutes.
Wait until your USB stick shows up in the mail and do it yourself.

Tesla's Warranty is a bit better than what GM offers, true. However, it is not hugely better excepting the unlimited mileage for the powertrain, and 8 year battery warranty. That said, I've got some concerns with Tesla's battery warranty being that I live in MN.

"In addition, damage resulting from the following activities are not covered under this Battery
Limited Warranty:
â Exposing the vehicle to ambient temperatures above 140ÂF (60ÂC) or below -22ÂF (-30ÂC) for
more than 24 hours at a time;"

That bit scares me. -22 F temps are normal for us in the winter, and I don't heat my garage. Thus, the car would be exposed to such temps for over 24hrs at least once a year. Kind of puts a crimp in my plans to buy a Tesla 3 when it comes out; I can already make the justification to buy a model S based on my driving needs, but I refuse to pay more in car payments than my mortgage.

From Chevy's website:

Warranty Coverage
Bumper-to-Bumper (including tires):
Coverage is for the first 3 years or 36,000 miles, whichever comes first.
Powertrain:
Coverage is for the first 5 years or 100,000 miles, whichever comes first.
Sheet Metal:
Corrosion coverage is for the first 3 years or 36,000 miles, whichever comes first.
Rust-through coverage is for the first 6 years or 100,000 miles, whichever comes first.

From Tesla:

Subject to separate coverage for certain parts and the exclusions and limitations described in this
New Vehicle Limited Warranty, the Basic Vehicle Limited Warranty covers the repair or
replacement necessary to correct defects in the materials or workmanship of any parts
manufactured or supplied by Tesla that occur under normal use for a period of 4 years or 50,000
miles (80,000 km), whichever comes first.

Supplemental Restraint System Limited Warranty
Subject to the exclusions and limitations described in this New Vehicle Limited Warranty, the SRS
Limited Warranty covers the repair or replacement necessary to correct defects in the materials or
workmanship of the vehicleâ(TM)s seat belts or air bag system manufactured or supplied by Tesla that
occur under normal use for a period of 5 years or 60,000 miles (100,000 km), whichever comes
first.

Black Ice is very different from what you southerners get. Trust me on this, you have no idea what black ice is.

"Cities like Birmingham and Atlanta are different. The ground surface temperature is warmer, so any amount of snow generally melts and converts to ice quickly. The people up north don't know/understand this, so they make ignorant comments to feel superior."

No, we have 4 real seasons. 2 of which are exactly like your "winter". Spring and Autumn often have ground temps high enough that snow immediately converts to ice, or ground temps below freezing such that rain instantly freezes to ice. We feel superior because we don't panic, and know that when a winter storm warning is issued by the NWS, you pay attention. Listen up, the NWS knows what they're about, if they issue a watch it is like 50/50, a warning is better taken as gospel.

A little bit of ice and you freak out. Come up to MN and I'll show you something to freak out about. Black ice. Can't see it. Looks like dry pavement. Will cause your vehicle to lose control with the slightest change in direction or speed. Worse by far than normal ice on the roads because there is no indication there is anything wrong until the car/truck gets very loose. If you panic on black ice, you're in the ditch or worse before you can blink.

I'm not nuts, I have a 320HP RWD car and I drive up iced over hills every year in the winter (Cadillac STS). Sure, it's easier in my Yukon with it in 4x4, but no chains needed; FWIW, chains are illegal in MN because they damage the road. Here's a hint, keep some kitty litter in your trunk. Throw it down on ice. Trust me. Rock your vehicle out if you can't get moving; don't just floor it in D. Try to get it rocking back and forth and eventually you'll move.

All season tires are what you need at a minimum. If you run summer tires on pavement below about 45 degrees, you're a complete fool. I suspect that is where the majority of issues came from. Summer tires need HOT pavement to work well. Cold pavement might as well be ice, say nothing about real ice and snow...

Hell, I don't even run winter tires in MN. Good all-seasons are all you need (blizzaks and other dedicated winter tires are the best, but I put on too many miles to use them). That and a brain cell or two.

You guys would really freak out if you ever came across black ice.

"This wasn't black ice. It was a solid sheet of ice, curb to curb, sitting on every paved surface in the area. Without a single grain of salt, sand, or gravel sitting on top. Without a single gap of cleared road surface peeking through. If you've seen conditions like that in Michigan, you guys have the shittiest snow management system in the country, because unlike Georgia, you should be prepared."

Apparently you've never experienced black ice. Regular ice, from curb to curb, I've seen, driven on, and all that good stuff. Even in MN, where we have winter every year, it happens from time to time. See, even though we've got all the equipment, sometimes the rain just up and changes to freezing rain. Had you pretreated the roads, the rain would have washed it away before it started freezing. The key point you southerners fail to grasp is that you've just got to slow down, modulate the throttle, and not be a total moron. Hard to do, I know, but it works.

Black ice, however, looks exactly like dry pavement. No sheen, no indication of it being there except any change of velocity (be it the slightest turn of the wheel, or most insignificant change in speed) causes your vehicle to want to switch front for rear. Black ice is scary shit, but you deal with it the same way as regular ice. SLOW THE FUCK DOWN, avoid any changes in velocity, accelerate and decelerate as though there is an egg under the relevant pedal, LEAVE 3x car lengths OR MORE of space between you and the car in front and don't panic.