The Unpopular Opinions Thread

[LeGOATski]

8 minutes ago, Mr Info said:

My feedback. I did plenty of trips from central VA to WNY in my Tesla. Only 2 quick stops en route every 3 hrs which just allowed enuf time to pee and get a quick snack. No issues with long trips…at least on east coast.

i understand the manual tranny like but EVs blow away any muscle car off a stop or on a highway…at least any that I raced.

Oh, you're a street racer?! Lol

[LeGOATski]

3 minutes ago, DrW said:

 

This is not quite true. For $101,000 you can get an Audi or for nearly double the price a Porsche with a 2-speed manual transmission.

https://www.motorbiscuit.com/electric-vehicles-manual-transmissions/

That's not quite a real shifter... 

 

But the fact that they want to try to simulate a shifter just proves my point. That electric vehicles suck balls.

[Mr Info]

6 minutes ago, DrW said:

 

This is not quite true. For $101,000 you can get an Audi or for nearly double the price a Porsche with a 2-speed manual transmission.

https://www.motorbiscuit.com/electric-vehicles-manual-transmissions/

I do not understand this. I get the infatuation with a manual tranny as I had a 6 speed until this year. But power goes right to the wheels in an EV which is why it can beat any manual tranny as there is no tranny in an EV and no delay in shifting gears. You can shift gears more quickly in a manual than an automatic but it’s certainly not faster than immediate power to the wheels in an EV. I guess some buyer must really enjoy shifting those 2 gears.

[DrW]

8 minutes ago, Mr Info said:

I do not understand this. I get the infatuation with a manual tranny as I had a 6 speed until this year. But power goes right to the wheels in an EV which is why it can beat any manual tranny as there is no tranny in an EV and no delay in shifting gears. You can shift gears more quickly in a manual than an automatic but it’s certainly not faster than immediate power to the wheels in an EV. I guess some buyer must really enjoy shifting those 2 gears.

 

I know. I just googled it and it surprised me too. Apparently, some EV drivers want to have to do something with their hands. My first car way back in Germany was actually a "super beetle" with a 1500 cc engine and a 2-speed transmission.

Edited July 2, 2022 by DrW

[Logic]

2 hours ago, LeGOATski said:

https://www.12news.com/article/news/local/water-wars/golf-courses-water-shortage-arizona-verify/75-7d259b51-beb6-4047-91ae-c5b244e18708

 

Thanks for the link.

I'm well aware that getting rid of golf courses wouldn't solve the Colorado River water shortage.

Golf courses are still dumb and wasteful of resources. I stand by that. 

[Augie]

4 hours ago, Mr Info said:

That’s outstanding that you retired so young.

My .02. I could have retired but I love what I do. However, I am no longer employed by anyone. I am a consultant and only take consulting contracts that are interesting. I am compensated well so that’s an added benefit.
I will line up some volunteering activities when my wife is ready to retire. She runs her own business.

 

The bold is the key. The first half of my working life I worked in a regular office/banking environment. It was fine….but it was “just a job”. The second half I followed a passion and was self-employed. I felt like the luckiest guy in the world and I loved almost every day (hey, nothing is perfect!). 

 

Life and 2008 happened, and we ended up moving to Atlanta for my wife’s work leaving my old life behind. I tried some things here, but nothing I loved and I retired in my mid-50’s. The people who had “just a job” like I had early would be jealous. The people who LOVE what they do would understand the sense of loss. 

 

It wasn’t until my wife started working at home due to Covid that I realized how much she LOVES what she does. I hear her all day long, and I’m happy for her. All this time I thought she was “working” and sacrificing for the family, but it truly makes her happy. Her job that she loves pays far, FAR more than my job that I loved. Case closed. I’m stuck in Atlanta for now, but one day when our son and grandkids move away, we’ll be able to follow them and nobody will be able to tell us we can’t. 

 

The wife is in wealth management. There are numerous studies and real life cases where people sell their business for huge sums, like $100 million or more. They think they “won” and hit the big time. It doesn’t take long before many of them wake up wondering why they sold their baby. What is the reason for getting up every day? You can only golf or travel so much. One guy went back out, bought an undervalued company and did it again……he sold a second business making another $100 million. Best of both worlds!

 

Obviously long-winded here because it strikes a nerve. Maybe it’s not strictly unpopular, but I’d rather be happy than rich. 

[RaoulDuke79]

Fireworks suck. They scare my dog, keep me awake and I find random ***** in my yard and on my roof. If you live in a residential neighborhood stick to sparklers and snakes.

[Poleshifter]

On 7/2/2022 at 12:24 PM, Augie said:

Obviously long-winded here because it strikes a nerve. Maybe it’s not strictly unpopular, but I’d rather be happy than rich. 

I'm glad you told us what your wife's job was, since she loved it so much.

 

If you can find work that you love doing, that's one of the secrets to a happy life.

 

[Augie]

39 minutes ago, Poleshifter said:

I'm glad you told us what your wife's job was, since she loved it so much.

 

If you can find work that you love doing, that's one of the secrets to a happy life.

 

 

Strangely, I was much happier “having to do something” I enjoyed more than not having to do anything at all. Total freedom is nice, but as a self employed individual I had enough control to suit me. 

 

Being good at what you do is rewarding all by itself. And if you love it? WINNER!!! 

[Another Fan]

The Music City Miracle was harder to get over then 13 seconds

 

Even in the heat, driving without using the A/C on in the car is preferred.  Keeps the muscles looser and not as much stress on the engine 

 

 

Wings are okay imo.  It's hardly ever a food I order on its own.  Boneless can even be preferred with me at times because of using a fork and knife 

[Miyagi-Do Karate]

On 6/29/2022 at 10:20 PM, Rico said:

One more for today, I’ll post it here cause I don’t really like crapping on the guy BUT:

I see many misguided posters claim that Barry Sanders is the most dominant player ever. Most exciting? OK. Most fun-to-watch? I’ll buy that. Most dominant player ever? Absolutely NOT. The most dominant player, more than any other, will be able to make his team a winner…. a BIG winner. And he never came close there. Not saying it was his fault or anything, it just is what it is. He looked dominant at times, but THE most dominant? PLEASE.

I respect that. But I am in the other camp. I actually go further— Barry Sanders was the best professional athlete I have ever seen play. Just mind-blowing talent.

[4merper4mer]

On 7/4/2022 at 10:07 AM, Miyagi-Do Karate said:

I respect that. But I am in the other camp. I actually go further— Barry Sanders was the best professional athlete I have ever seen play. Just mind-blowing talent.

Sanders is on the list.  For well rounded talent, last 50 years, it has to be Bo Jackson.

 

On another topic, my unpopular opinion is that cheese sucks.  It adds a little something to a recipe here and there but overall if cheese disappears, the world will be no worse off.

[Gugny]

5 minutes ago, 4merper4mer said:

Sanders is on the list.  For well rounded talent, last 50 years, it has to be Bo Jackson.

 

On another topic, my unpopular opinion is that cheese sucks.  It adds a little something to a recipe here and there but overall if cheese disappears, the world will be no worse off.

 

@Chef Jim

[ExiledInIllinois]

Good read about EVs AND the infrastructure needed to replace the internal combustion engine:

 

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/The-Inconvenient-Truth-About-Electric-Vehicles.html

 

"...Electricity appears to be easy to handle sending it through wires. But it is the small scale that makes it look cheap. Scaling it up takes a pound of metal for so many electron-miles. Twice as much distance means twice as much metal. Twice as many amps means twice as much metal. Converting the transportation system into an electrical based system would require scaling up the amount of metal and electrical infrastructure by factors of hundreds or thousands. Where are all those lines going to go? They destroy environments. Where is that much natural gas going to come from for the electrical generators? There is very little natural gas in existence when using it for a large-scale purpose. Natural gas must be used with solar and wind energy, because only it can be turned on and off easily for backup.  ..."

 

"...One of the overwhelming facts about electric transportation is the chicken and egg phenomenon. Supposedly, a lot of electric vehicles will create an incentive to create a lot of expensive infrastructure. There are a lot of reasons why none of the goals can be met for such an infrastructure. The basic problem is that electricity will never be appropriate for such demanding use as general transportation, which means there will never be enough chickens or eggs to balance the demand. It's like trying to improve a backpack to such an extent that it will replace a pickup truck. The limitations of muscle metabolism are like the limitations of electrical energy. ..."

 

 

2 hours ago, Bad Things said:

FOX News is one of the worst things to happen to America during the last few decades.

 

 

Agree.  It started with hate radio first. 

[LeGOATski]

6 hours ago, ExiledInIllinois said:

Good read about EVs AND the infrastructure needed to replace the internal combustion engine:

 

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/The-Inconvenient-Truth-About-Electric-Vehicles.html

 

"...Electricity appears to be easy to handle sending it through wires. But it is the small scale that makes it look cheap. Scaling it up takes a pound of metal for so many electron-miles. Twice as much distance means twice as much metal. Twice as many amps means twice as much metal. Converting the transportation system into an electrical based system would require scaling up the amount of metal and electrical infrastructure by factors of hundreds or thousands. Where are all those lines going to go? They destroy environments. Where is that much natural gas going to come from for the electrical generators? There is very little natural gas in existence when using it for a large-scale purpose. Natural gas must be used with solar and wind energy, because only it can be turned on and off easily for backup.  ..."

 

"...One of the overwhelming facts about electric transportation is the chicken and egg phenomenon. Supposedly, a lot of electric vehicles will create an incentive to create a lot of expensive infrastructure. There are a lot of reasons why none of the goals can be met for such an infrastructure. The basic problem is that electricity will never be appropriate for such demanding use as general transportation, which means there will never be enough chickens or eggs to balance the demand. It's like trying to improve a backpack to such an extent that it will replace a pickup truck. The limitations of muscle metabolism are like the limitations of electrical energy. ..."

 

 

Agree.  It started with hate radio first. 

yeah, let me know when I can easily drive cross-country in a fully electric vehicle

[Mr Info]

56 minutes ago, LeGOATski said:

yeah, let me know when I can easily drive cross-country in a fully electric vehicle

I live in central VA and just used the ABRP app to plan a trip to LA. 
it will take 46 hr and 38 min. It would take 22 supercharges to drive the 2700 miles. I am using a Tesla and it appears there are adequate superchargers along the way. I have driven it all over the east coast with no issues. I usually stop after 3-4 hrs of driving to go to the restroom, get a coffee & snack, & stretch the legs. Supercharge is done in 20-25 mins which is about the right amt of time for a brief stop.

Though I would consider another EV manufacturer for my next car, it would have to use Tesla’s supercharger network. I am not going to wait hrs to get a charge to move on when on a long distance trip.
I am in a fortunate location which is perfect for an EV. There are 8 free level 2 chargers within 2/3 blocks of my house. I never pay to charge my EV except when on a long drive and use a supercharger. I just drive to one of the local chargers & plug in and walk home. Walk back a few hours later and drive home. All the free EV miles (I do not even plug in at home) helps with ROI in the EV. I realize everyone else is not in this same situation. But a year ago there were only 2 free level 2 chargers within 2/3 blocks of my house but now there are 8. EV infrastructure is occurring.

Edited July 14, 2022 by Mr Info

[LeGOATski]

8 minutes ago, Mr Info said:

I live in central VA and just used the ABRP app to plan a trip to LA. 
it will take 46 hr and 38 min. I am using a Tesla and it appears there are adequate superchargers along the way. I have driven it all over the east coast with no issues.

Though I would consider another EV manufacturer for my next car, it would have to use Tesla’s supercharger network. I am not going to wait hrs to get a charge to move on when on a long distance trip.
I am in a fortunate location which is perfect for an EV. There are 8 free level 2 chargers within 2/3 blocks of my house. I never pay to charge my EV except when on a long drive and use a supercharger. I just drive to one of the local chargers & plug in and walk home. Walk back a few hours later and drive home. 

I assume that 46+ hours includes charge time?

 

and how much does the supercharger cost to charge?

[Mr Info]

5 minutes ago, LeGOATski said:

I assume that 46+ hours includes charge time?

 

and how much does the supercharger cost to charge?

Yes, that would include 6 hrs of charge time. I have used the ABRP app previously and I have found it to be conservative in its planning approach on recharging. I expect that I can prob lower the supercharging stops by 3-4 which would decrease the total recharge time to a bit over 5 hrs.

I have not taken a long trip in a while and gas prices have increased. But the last trip I took my calculations for supercharging was about 1/2 to 2/3 the cost of gas for the same miles in a 25-30 mpg ICE vehicle.

 

[LeGOATski]

3 minutes ago, Mr Info said:

Yes, that would include 6 hrs of charge time. I have used the ABRP app previously and I have found it to be conservative in its planning approach on recharging. I expect that I can prob lower the supercharging stops by 3-4 which would decrease the total recharge time to a bit over 5 hrs.

I have not taken a long trip in a while and gas prices have increased. But the last trip I took my calculations for supercharging was about 1/2 to 2/3 the cost of gas for the same miles in a 25-30 mpg ICE vehicle.

 

Google maps says 38-39 hours from Richmond to LA. Usually a very conservative estimate, as well. Seems like a huge waste of time at a charging station and/or altering your route. The savings may be worth it to some.

 

This is also dependent on owning a Tesla, right? I can't roll up to a Supercharger in a Chevy Volt, can I?

[Mr Info]

7 minutes ago, LeGOATski said:

Google maps says 38-39 hours from Richmond to LA. Usually a very conservative estimate, as well. Seems like a huge waste of time at a charging station and/or altering your route. The savings may be worth it to some.

Yes, google maps uses speed limits when calculating drive time. But it also doesn’t use fuel stops in its time calculation. But I am no longer doing a 48 hr cross country meth run by car. 
When I drive by ICE, there was one fuel stop for a drive from VA to WNY. That was about a 20 min stop. In the EV, there are now 2 stops of 20 min. That is an increase of 20 mins in an EV vs ICE for the 500 mi trip and I am fine with that.