Electric Porsche!

There was a movie about this sicko who treated one as though she was a real woman. He insisted she was alive. Totally bonkers. So his family and then the whole town played along. They told him he could not keep a woman locked up all the time; she needed to have a social life. They took the thing to parties and to church and to governmental functions. I think they elected her to the city council and took her to the council meetings. Pretty soon he never saw her because she had more of a life than he did. So he said she was sick, and then he said she had died, and he wailed and mourned and had a proper funeral and had the thing buried in a proper coffin at the local cemetery.

I'd have sent it back to the store for a refund.

If I ever buy a robot woman I don't want any bugs, ironed or otherwise. Dead flat scorched bugs may not be as bad as live ones, but I still don't want them. But if they ever do make a robot with personality, she'll probably refuse to have anything to do with me.

*****

For all the rest, yes, the world is an amazing place. But loneliness still hurts.

 

I have an etiquette question about the dance classes: Do I bring the steel-toes shoes for her to wear? And how do I know what size to get when I don't know before going what size my eventual dance partner wears?

 

I think you basically hit the nail on the head!

 

UPDATE: I had a long phone conversation with Paul, during which I raised, and we discussed, all my concerns:

1. The shoddy way the A/C condensers & their fans were fastened in front.

He expressed surprise. He said that the straps he used were extremely strong, and are used in race cars, and he could not imagine how they had broken. He insisted that the fans were originally held in place with plastic clips, and that his straps were stronger. He had nothing to say about the fact that the rims or frames of the fans had been cut off.

But he agreed to pay for the work to put all of this right.

2. The loose lug nuts on one wheel and loose transmission mounting, including one bolt not tightened at all.

Again, he was surprised, and said he would strengthen his procedures for checking such things in future.

He agreed to pay for the work of fixing this as well.

3. The missing underbody panels.

Again, he expressed surprise. He wondered if they could have been removed en route, but I said I thought this was vanishingly unlikely, and he agreed to replace them. He said he would either find my panels, if they are still in his shop, or get others used, and ship them to me. I insisted that if he gets used ones, they must be in perfect condition, because my car was impeccably cared for, and anything less would not be acceptable.

4. The controller. Our contract specified a 1,000-amp controller. He substituted a 500-amp Curtis controller when the Logisystems controllers were having problems. I found a guy locally willing to sell me and install a 2K Zilla. I asked Paul to pay for half of that, since it's twice the size of the one we contracted. I also do not believe that a 1,000-amp controller would have given the car the promised performance.

Paul replied that our contract was not for a Zilla, which is a lot more expensive than a Logisystems for the same amperage. He offered instead to either send me a Logisystems 1000-amp controller or send me the money one would cost, in return for the return of the Curtis. I had to agree that our contract was for a 1000-amp controller, not a Zilla, and I accepted his offer to send me the money a Logisystems controller would cost. I'll pay the balance myself for the 2K Zilla, which is a lot more, but a lot better, than what the car would have had under our contract.

5. The contract promised "approx. 125 miles range." I extrapolate 80 miles range to dead empty driving gently, based on my wh used. 125 miles of range would require half again more batteries than I have. Installing these batteries would require removing the back seats, and while I'd be willing to lose the back seats, the job appears daunting. So I asked Paul to refund me half of what I paid him for batteries in compensation for the failure to achieve the promised range.

He replied that this was the first late model (i.e. heavier than 1970's-era) Porsche to ever get LiFePO4 batteries, and was therefore "experimental" and the contract had mentioned only an approximate range, not a promised range. I replied that as the builder, he had made representations to me on both range and acceleration, and that the actual car did not come anywhere close to either. I said that as the builder, he should have known what the car would do, or else told me clearly that he did not really know, because I would not have paid what I did for the car if he had told me that the range would be "something between 80 and 125 miles." I also reminded him here that I had told him very clearly that one of the big reasons I paid extra for a late-model donor car, rather than saving money by selecting an older one, was that I wanted the safety features: air bags, ABS, and stability control. He never told me that I would lose the ABS and stability control in the conversion. I am quite sure that he simply didn't know. But he never told me that he had never conveed a late-model Porsche before. All his prior experience was with older cars. So he was not entirely open with me. And as a result I entered into a project that I would not have, at that price, had I known that there were so many unknowns.

He said that he could not refund me the money I was asking for batteries/range.

The phone call was getting long, both of us had other things to do, and we agreed to end the phone call without having yet resolved the issue of batteries and range. I made it clear that I was not satisfied, but that I was willing to put off further discussion until a later time.

I paid him $36,000 for the battery pack. I asked him for $18,000 back, due to failure to achieve the promised range. I now believe that he charged me far more than the pack was actually worth, but at the time of the contract, I was paying for range, not for a set number of batteries. Therefore I feel he owes me $18,000. He says he does not because we agreed what I'd pay for batteries, and the 125 miles range was an approximation, not a promise. I feel that 80 miles is not "approximately" 125.

So this issue remains unresolved.

All in all, I would describe the conversation as strained but cordial. We ended by agreeing that we share a committment to electric vehicles, and we'd both like to find amicable solutions and remain friends. He agreed to pay for fixing the mechanical issues and we agreed about the controller. Only the battery/range issue remains unresolved.

The Zilla should get put in next month, and I'll report on the results.

 

I guess it depends on how you do the math. This $36K battery pack provides 80 miles, so it would take another $18K of batteries to provide 120 miles, which would be "approximately" 125. I think you are saying that $36K was supposed to get 125 miles but he only gave me 80 miles, which corresponds to $24K worth of batteries. I contend that my way of doing the math is the more correct, because it is based on the actual ability of the batteries and what it would actually cost in batteries to provide the range promised. Your method supposes that $36K of batteries would provide 125 miles of range, and he only gave me $24K worth of batteries, so he owes me the other $12K.

If he accepted your analysis, he would be admitting that he overcharged me for batteries. My method, he is only admitting that he miscalculated how far one could go on $36K worth of batteries.

But I do see what you are saying.

 

I'm not even going to think about attorneys until I've gotten the Zilla in and the underbody panels on and done some testing, and then see what agreement Paul and I can reach. The contract itself is very simple, and the car as delivered bears no resemblance, except outward appearance, to the car in the contract.

It's also worth noting that in the world of EVs, since GM crushed the EV-1, no EV has ever come close to the range promised by the manufacturer. This is unacceptable. In production gasoline cars, including hybrids, where the EPA does the testing and requires manufacturers to use its numbers, there is an excuse: It's the government's fault. But in the world of conversion cars, there is no EPA involvement and it is absolutely unacceptable for companies to make inflated range promises. From the Tesla to the Zenn and the Xebra, real-world driving does not bear out the claims. If builders had to pay a monetary fine for failure to achieve claimed range, perhaps we could get realistic numbers.

Let the maker drive the car however he likes, but with an independent observer present, and then publish the range he achieves and the conditions under which it was achieved, including wind, elevation difference, and a speed profile. Then if the vehicle is intended to be freeway capable, include figures for freeway driving.

 

So there's a new development on the personals ad: Now I'm getting emails (from the same ad) asking me to contact them via yahoo Messenger or MSN Messenger. I have neither service and have no intention of it. I don't like instant messaging. They promise me that if I contact them via instant message (they give me a user name to contact) they'll give me their cell phone number.

I know this is a scam, because if they were legit they'd be willing to correspond via regular email, but I cannot figure out what the scam is.

And several of them have set me a "free" pass to what appears to be a web cam site. Of course the site demands a credit card, while assuring me I won't be charged (yeah, right: I'm still not in the market for a bridge or a piece of Florida swamp land). Of course it's a give-away when you get three emails simultaneously, with identical text, even down to the user name and "free" pass, all from different emails. Do they lack the basic English literacy to compose their own text? And why would three different people send me the same user name? If I did fall for the scam, they would not all get the payoff.

Anyway, I mostly just cannot figure out why they're all suddenly asking me to contact them via IM.

*****

And on another subject, since the C d'A UU shuts up shop for the summer, today I went to the Spokane UU, where I mentioned my electric Porsche to several people. Only the men had any interest in it, and after the service I showed it to a bunch of them. Not one woman showed the slightest interest.

But the music there is really good. Our congregation in C d'A is tiny, and our choir ranges from 2 to 5 or 6 people, none of whom sings all that well, but the Spokane UU has a fabulous choir. If anybody reading this is in Spokane, and open-minded enough to visit a church that lets people think for themselves, the Spokane UU is worth attending for the music alone.