Wow, it's raining here too.

It is time for winter tyres i guess.
I better get going.

My car is in the shop now, thankfully my car doesn't needs new tires .

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Mike, how many winters do you get out of your winter set of tyres?

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Dark and with a chilly damp.

And will our aurora be brighter than today's sun?!

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Winning on a road trip Tuesday as I get ready to leave.

But I'll have a coffee 1st.

Cheers.

I applied for a car loan on a red 2019 Ford Eco Sport SUV at Mojave Ford a local dealer, it's the next lowest priced vehicle that they have @ $17,495.00, it has 60,400 miles on the odometer, the interior is black cloth. My credit score is 583 and my income is $1,559 a month max in 2024. It has a 1.0L 3 cylinder engine.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Good luck getting a affordable payment.

Martin:

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Good luck getting a affordable payment.

Martin:

They called me and said $1,559 a month is not enough income, so no financing, there is no public transport here outside my door, not even dial a ride anymore and I can't walk 2.5 miles to a bus stop in a desert that comes thru the area 4 times a day.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Well that the road trip of this Tuesday done and a few drivers revivers had at the pub so now I reckon it's time for a spinal reset.

Vic why don't you just drop a grand on an old mechanically ok basic RWD big old 6cyl clunker with a decent body instead?

You may pay more for fuel, but parts and servicing costs are so much cheaper and easier to get than those small cars and you're no small person, even I still stick with a '95 Falcon after over 2 decades (not to mention the previous 1's) just for that reason as well as the comfort for 4 good sized human beings with enough decent power to cope.

It's always nice to think about a new car, but reality along with necessity makes it much more different story to that. ;-)

[edit] Well the spinal reset is out of the question as the fuel station down on the oval is doing big business with those choppers today.

Cheers.

I'm looking at a few cars at Carmax who I am pre-qualified with, the lowest price there is either $11,998 or $12,998 with an automatic transmission, earlier I found a car for $10,998 but it's a 5 speed and I can't drive one, it might also make my arthritic right shoulder joint hurt. And Carmax might deliver, maybe as the closest Carmax dealer is 99 miles from here, the local places won't touch me.

a Gray 2014 Ford Fusion S @ $11,998, FREE shipping, $255-$288 a month for 72 months, 120K,
a White 2012 Ford Focus SEL @ $11,998, FREE shipping, $273-$309/mo for 66 months, 100K miles, and
a White 2015 Ford Focus SE @ $11,599, $99 shipping, $267-$295/mo for 66 months, 126K miles
(the 2015 might be gone as it’s on the move and not to Palmdale),
a Silver 2013 Chevy Volt @ $12,998, Free shipping, $288-$324/mo for 66 months, 103K miles,
a Black 2013 Chevy Volt @ $12,998, Free shipping, $285-$321/mo for 66 months, 99K miles,
A Gray 2017 Chevy Volt @ $17,998, $341-$370/mo for 78 months, 73K miles.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

As yet another chopper takes off I reckon that I might give Dog an early dinner and hopefully it won't be too much longer before the refueling station closes for the day.

Then I'll grab that spinal reset, though I may miss a bit of the 1st half of tonight's ICC World Cup match.

At least my veggies are well watered so I don't have to worry about them as yet.

[edit] And another chopper comes in to refuel.

Cheers.

Buying a used EV car is a gamble imho. I have seen a few that I wanted. My biggest concern is ease of changing and the condition of the battery pack. I live in a apartment so charging is already a challenging option. And if the battery pack needed replacement… I know I don’t have that kind of extra income sitting around at present.

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EV cars are just another way to ripp people off imho.
Way too expensive.

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With each crime and every kindness we birth our future.

Well it's much quieter now without 3 choppers an hour coming in to refuel, but they do have the number of fires down to 17 in our area which are all in inaccessible terrain and between them and the rain there hasn't been anymore of that annoying smoke around here for the last 3 days.

Anyhow, back to the cricket.

Cheers.

The biggest problem and still is with EV cars is the charging infrastructure. And charge time. Thats why petrol cars outpaced EV’s in the early beginning. Petrol was just easier to install and a few minutes to top off the tank.

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EVs?... IMMHO: Very much a question of your location, use case, and your particular lifestyle.

At the moment, we still have a supply shortage of EVs and so their price is still priced for the 'upper' market.

Commercial use for them is a no brainer. All the delivery vans in this area are all all-electric.

The costs/pricing trend is quickly moving over to swapping to an EV for me, likely sooner rather than for the previously expected lifespan of my present transport...



Meanwhile...

Out under the stars and surprisingly not cold!

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Winning on a very dull Hump Day morning while enjoying a coffee.

Cheers.

The biggest problem and still is with EV cars is the charging infrastructure. And charge time. Thats why petrol cars outpaced EV’s in the early beginning. Petrol was just easier to install and a few minutes to top off the tank.

Most if not almost all EV makers for the US as of 2025 are switching to NACS(Lucid is now onboard) or J3400, NACS/J3400 is the new standard and was originally designed by Tesla. Solid state batteries will fix that, then it'll take about 5-10 mins to charge a car fully, and depending on the size and state of charge of the battery one could do that today unless the system can only charge with ac power instead of dc like in the VOLT, the BOLT can do ac/dc charging unlike it's cousin the VOLT.


NACS AC/DC connector (center), shown between SAE J1772 (left) and Type 2 (right) AC connectors. Non-NACS DC connectors are larger.

A solid-state battery is a battery technology that uses solid electrodes and a solid electrolyte, instead of the liquid or polymer gel electrolytes found in lithium-ion or lithium polymer batteries. Materials proposed for use as solid electrolytes in solid-state batteries include ceramics (e.g., oxides, sulfides, phosphates), and solid polymers.

Lucid's electric vehicles will be able to plug into over 15,000 Tesla Superchargers in North America starting in 2025. The automaker is the latest entry in the growing list of companies pledging to support the North American Charging Standard (NACS), also known as the Tesla charging standard. Lucid will give customers access to a NACS adapter for its current vehicles, which are equipped with the Combined Charging System (CCS), in 2025. The company intends to start building NACS ports into its EVs within the same year, as well, so that newer models no longer need to use adapters.

Ford was the first automaker to announce this year that it was going to give its customers access to Superchargers after the White House convinced Tesla to share its charging network with vehicles from other companies. In the months after that, Mercedes, Volvo, Polestar, Honda, Toyota (and Lexus), BMW, Hyundai and Subaru revealed that they will also give their customers access to NACS adapters and will ultimately incorporate the standard into their vehicles over the next two years.

I'm waiting for the Clean Cars 4 All program to get back to me on availability here, currently my car is not repairable.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

Well my veggies certainly havn't needed any watering so far this month and probably wont for yet another week as the forecast for rain and storms continues to extend (I just hope that none get too wet), but it looks like I'll have to wait a bit longer yet before I start my capsicums off.

My 1st crop of carrots and cos lettuce in the huge wicking tub are are now sprouting and its water reservoir certainly doesn't need topping up, but I do have to rebuild a couple of my smaller unused wicking tubs when the things dry out for the capsicums anyway (though I do have until the end of the month to get those going).

Anyhow I might head back outside to enjoy this bit of sunshine that's about ATM.

Cheers.

Bugs Bunny likes his carrots.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's