> Where I live pretty much all new houses are being built with granite counter tops and hardwood floors. Whether that's a good thing is a whole other topic ...

When land and labor (and fees leveraged by the city, state, etc.) are extremely expensive, the additional cost for these "luxury" items is very low by comparison. The buyers for these homes are buying everything new and it makes little sense to save $10k or so on such a visible amenity that is expensive to retrofit afterwards, on a home that costs $500k.

It is the same reason why crank windows are gone from cars. They aren't really status symbols.

And when my kitchen had to get rebuilt after a fire, I got neither. There are better synthetics for countertops and good tile is generally better for the floors. Maybe new houses are being built with granite and hardwood floors but they're not necessarily the best choices. I've known lots of people who had issues with granite (and my contractor agreed) and my hardwood was pretty beaten up even before the fire though I still have plenty of very old hardwood flooring in other less-trafficked areas of the house.

Like car colors, new house design decisions tend to be driven a lot by various current fashions because they're the low risk for purchasing reasons whether by developers or perceived resale by buyers.

Personally, I didn't care. My new color schemes are muted but not neutral. And my kitchen/dining room choices were, I think, practical for the most part.

>It is the same reason why crank windows are gone from cars. They aren't really status symbols.

That has more to do with automotive engineering being tightly coupled to academic engineering and the latter having gone through a "people are idiots, rob them of the ability to put force on anything at every opportunity" phase.

A Tesla Model 3, dual motor has a 0 to 60 speed of 4.3 seconds. My F-150 lightening extended range can do that it 3.8 seconds.

Tesla Model3 dual is 4.03 seconds, not 4.3 while the F-150 lightning standard range is 4.2.

The F-150 extended range is 3.8 as you state, but then the Tesla Model 3 performance comes in at 2.8.

https://www.0-60specs.com/tesla/model-3-0-60-times

https://www.fordoffeasterville.com/blogs/4896/ford-lightning...

Both are absurd and entirely unnecessary for vehicles not on a race track. Tesla's great trick was replacing BMW as the car your neighborhood prick who wants to look upscale buys by default.

> race track

I presume that F150 ain't getting round the corners very quickly.

I reckon optimising for straight line speed is a strange goal.

Right, there's no form of racing that is a straight line, is there.

Regardless, optimizing a pick up for 0-60 time is a strange goal, unless you have some express desire to launch 2x4s a great distance in a complicated way.

Optimizing for it? Probably not. But side effect of it's ability to tow 10,000 pounds that also makes it hella fun to drive? Absolutely.

You are dangerously close to initiating a new sport.

Someday, commentators filling air time on ESPN's "Need to Yeet" may bring up this comment as "the Casual Remark That Started it All".

This has to be sarcasm, right?

Faster than electric:

https://wikipedia.org/wiki/JATO_Rocket_Car

I was sad to see it discontinued. I hope the slate truck is gonna be good when it's released, cause I dig their emphasis on customization and repairability.

Me too, it's such a fantastic truck. Built like a tank, huge battery and insanely fast charging for a 400V architecture. The only thing that sucks about it is it's a bit bouncy, and the software can be stupid. But I love it.

We bought it mostly because we wanted an EV for power backup for the house. We get ice storms in the winter and it can knock out power for days, and we need to be able to keep almost 1,000 gallons of aquariums running during them. The F150 extended range has that in spades and was cheaper than the equivalent power wall system.

It's basically a whole house backup generator that we can happen to drive around.

The fascinating thing for me was that they actually had trouble selling it ( and thus the production stop and fairly aggressive incentives to sell the remaining ones off ). I really do enjoy mine and I swear I was not a truck person.

it’s pretty much useless for anything you would actually use a truck for

like cybertruck? :)

yes, those aren’t selling either

Yeah I didn’t get one to do “truck stuff”. I pay people to do truck stuff for me, and use my “not a truck” truck for shuttling my family around. Never saw any R1T or F150 lightning or god forbid, Hummer EV truck owners do truck stuff either.

You know how I know you're not an F150 lightning owner?

It's as capable, if not more so, than your standard F150 at truck duties in everything except towing. And it's a bit of a mixed bag there, it can tow way more than a standard f150, but it cuts the range to 1/3 so you have to charge pretty often. Still, 100 miles towing 10,000 pounds is nothing to sneeze at.

I mean, there is a part of me that is kinda ok lightning being one of those 'if you know, you know' kinda cars. It is still kinda weird reading this, because it does not seem to be an isolated opinion. My extended family member voiced something similar.

I owned one, and I'd say it's as capable in truck duties as a crew-cab short-bed F-150, which is to say, not very much. Can't fit a full sheet of drywall in the bed, etc. The short-bed crew-cab F-150 is by day a carpool vehicle with room for everyone's toolboxes and by night a family minivan that can hold everyone's sports bags. That was perfect for me, I knew what I was getting, but even the gasser short-beds are pretty useless as trucks.

i can’t imagine any situation where 100 miles of towing would be useful

f150 power boost is superior, has all the features you mention but you can use gasoline to keep your generator going

Why would I want to lug around an engine everywhere I go? I'd only need it like once or twice a year.

As for the generator aspect, with its 135 kWh battery pack, I can power the aquariums for weeks and weeks.

The frunk on the F150-Lightning has not been praised enough. It's a really great truck, but having that giant storage space that locks makes it so much better than anything else out there if that's what you need.

You'd think they'd emphasize the singe cab at least a little since the frunk does the job most people use the second row for.

Lightning was crew cab only.

I know. I think that's dumb. At least offer extended if not single.

>A Tesla will out accelerate all but the most niche cars now.

Claims presented without evidence. My slightly modified Subaru Wagon from '05 "out-accelerated" base Teslas - dead even in 1st gear, started pulling once the shift to 2nd happened. (Most) EVs cannot shift gears to get torque multiplication, so they start fast, but fall off as speeds get higher. My Kia gas car will outrun all but the model 3 performance - which the average person is NOT driving. Neither of those cars are "niche".

> My slightly modified Subaru Wagon from '05 "out-accelerated" base Teslas - dead even in 1st gear, started pulling once the shift to 2nd happened.

Slightly modified is doing some heavy lifting there. No 2005 Subaru wagon in stock config is anywhere close to beating a Model 3.

> (Most) EVs cannot shift gears to get torque multiplication, so they start fast, but fall off as speeds get higher.

Pretty much irrelevant, because they’re still blisteringly fast up to 60 which is where most of the acceleration happens in day to day. Nobody really cares about 60-80 or 60-100.

> My Kia gas car will outrun all but the model 3 performance - which the average person is NOT driving.

What Kia is that? Even the stinger GT (which is definitely a niche car) is slower than a regular dual motor model 3.

Another reason it's irrelevant is you just don't need the accel. Flooring a Tesla is fun once or twice, but if you floor it every chance you get I don't want to be your passenger. It's neither comfortable nor safe.

Good for safety and smiles though

'05 Legacy GT - turbo motor from the STI. With a tune, it was 300+ HP. MULTIPLE runs against Tesla model 3s from a stop - I won most of them.

'19 Stinger GT AWD. jb4 (piggyback) - dual model 3 couldn't pass me on track (he had more experience than I did) - he cornered a little better due to low center-of-mass, I pulled on him in the straights. Repeatedly.

> '05 Legacy GT - turbo motor from the STI. With a tune, it was 300+ HP. MULTIPLE runs against Tesla model 3s from a stop - I won most of them.

I'd believe it. I wouldn't call adding 20%+ horsepower to a car 'slightly' modifying it though. The original point still stands that your niche car (a performance version of the Subaru Legacy, with a tune on top of it) still barely manages to go toe-to-toe with a stock Model 3. If you left it stock, it would definitely be slower.

> '19 Stinger GT AWD. jb4 (piggyback) - dual model 3 couldn't pass me on track (he had more experience than I did) - he cornered a little better due to low center-of-mass, I pulled on him in the straights. Repeatedly.

So, you're proving my point? Stinger GT is already a niche car. You then threw a tune on it, which is even more niche. Compare it to a performance model 3 if you want to be fair in that case. I guarantee there's more performance model 3 owners than there are Stinger GT owners.

EV motors can rev insanely high, so they don't need to shift gears, while most gas engines are limited to 6-7k RPM from factory. Thus the gassers need gears that essentially torque divide to reduce RPMs. You are very confused.

This doesn't make any sense. You can do a < 5 second 0-60 in your Subaru or Kia?

I’m guessing your ‘slightly modified Subaru’ is an ‘05 Impreza STi (276 HP stock) with a chip and higher boost? That is a niche car.

It’s not particularly noteworthy that the road version a vehicle used by Subaru’s WRC team can keep up with a Tesla if you modify the ECU and add more boost.

Comments like this are pretty useless unless you bring numbers.

A Tesla is a poorly built expensive semi-luxury car.

The first Teslas were poorly built expensive semi-luxury cars.

The current Model 3 and Model Y are properly built competitively priced cars with many luxury features (such as huge trunks, rear climate control, all wheel drive, etc) and gadgets (Netflix on huge touchscreen, self-driving, etc).

They are still out of reach as new to a lot of people. Let's call that premium market instead of luxury.