BTW, I did't realize the escalade was going to be 2 mode.

I'm realy excited to see another player in the hybrid market. I hope GM can do well. I loved what I saw at the auto show. Now just get your people to impliment it right And try to put it in something smaller so we can afford it

bring back the metro with 2mode

 

This is the link to the site I referenced earlier. Click on "Understanding the Prius" and then click on "The Internal Combustion Engine". I can't provide a link directly to this page for some reason.

 

I Hope it does come out, it will be the hottest thing on a streets.

 

Ed Begley Jr's gonna love this.

 

Absolutely, not everyone is gonna driving the priuses, that's why I Praise cadillac for making this decision.

 

This escalade hybrid will have the new meaning of the word enviourment

and the best looking SUV since the invention of the muscle car.

 

I too hate the fatc that everybody seems to want a truck now also. But I have a seperate reason for my hatred. I am in construction, and do need a truck for personal reasons. I drive my TCH when I am going to the office (I am a project manager, so I spend 80% of my time in the office) and drive the truck to the job site. The main reason I drive the truck to the job site is for clearance, since I am driving over broken concrete, thru rutts made by concrete trucks, and tru fields that are muddy. The TCH would just not be up to the tasks in those conditions. Now a HH or a escalade hybrid would work in those conditions I bet. I can't get the HH since I own a boat that weighs 5500 pounds on the trailer. Thee HH would end up spitting the electric motors on the pavements if I tried to pull it. So that leaves me with the option of the joke GM calls the BAS or a 2-mode escalade if that is what they are putting in there. Oh yea, Dodge is now selling the BAS in their trucks to select buyers, but I can't get that yet.

So, I have a 3/4 ton diesel truck to pull the boat around and go to the construction site.

Now back to my hatred of people overbuying the trucks. Since I am one of the people that actually has a legitamate need for a "truck type vehicle" I am penalized with super high prices by those that just want one. If people would not flock to the trucks so much, they would not be priced so unreasonably. That is my biggest gripe. To get a decent 4X4 3/4 ton diesel truck, you are spending over $45,000 and that is with cloth seats. That is rediculous, and the main reason I am still in my '02 Ford instead of a newer cleaner diesel.

 

"If people would not flock to the trucks so much, they would not be priced so unreasonably."

The profit margin would fall, but because of smaller production runs, the final retail cost would almost certainly rise.

 

There's a big difference between 1/2 ton pick-ups and 3/4 ton pick-ups. Typically they aren't even manufactured in the same plants. In some cases they are manufactured in the same plants, but on different assembly lines. They may look the same, but under the skin they are dramatically different creatures.

The reason 3/4 ton trucks cost so much has little or nothing to do with truck popularity, since most casual truck users buy 1/2 ton pick-ups and SUVs based on 1/2 ton truck frames. It's because of all the additional structure, strength and capability built into 3/4 ton (heavy duty frames). Also, for most truck makers, today's diesels that meet today's regulations cost a lot more to manufacture than a similarly capable petrol engine. Option price for diesel powertrains vary, but they tend to START at $5,000 additional and up. Doesn't matter whether you've good spartan cloth or plush leather interior. When you check the "diesel" box, you just added a lot to the price. As diesels get cleaner through the addition of more after-treatment, they will undergo another level shift in cost and pricing.

The guy that's buying the 1/2 ton is probably helping keep the cost of your pick-up DOWN because the cost of the design and the EXPENSIVE dies used to shape the similar fenders, hoods, tailgates, door shells, bed panels and such cost substantially LESS when the cost of purchasing the dies is spread over a million plus units a year as opposed to the hundred thousand or so Heavy Duties that any manufacturer my sell in a given year.

Peace,

Martin

 

You should come on down here to Texas and tell me that the average Joe is not buying 3/4 and 1 ton trucks.

I think a bunch of people started buying the deisel trucks for the novelty, and there is a nitch market segment that is buying them for their performance and upgradeability.

Either way the Tahoe 2-mode looks very interesting. Do you know if the ability to tow decent loads (around 9,000 pounds) will be affected by the hybrid system being implimented?