[quote="Chip McClure".[/quote]
What does the Mustang have to do with this convo?

I don't think this comment will age well.[/quote]

The Mustang would be considered a niche airplane under your definition . It had a low production on its own assembly line and doesn’t have a type rating that is usable on other Citations. The reason you call Piaggios “ niche” is you don’t know a lot about them and disparage anything you can’t make a buck on in my opinion.

What does the Mustang have to do with this convo?

I don't think this comment will age well.[/quote]

The Mustang would be considered a niche airplane under your definition . It had a low production on its own assembly line and doesn’t have a type rating that is usable on other Citations. The reason you call Piaggios “ niche” is you don’t know a lot about them and disparage anything you can’t make a buck on in my opinion.[/quote]

What in the world are you talking about?

The Mustang is a bit of a niche market, but it is a very sustainable fleet. Low production? They produced over 450 of them in 10 years! And it was replaced with the M2… and it’s a Citation.

To compare the Mustang to the Piaggio is counterproductive, it’s making the Piaggio look bad. There’s a lot of other aircraft that you could have chosen.

I have only said nice things and true things about the Piaggio, you’re just defensive.

I disparage anything I can’t make a buck on? Where do you get that? First of all we don’t sell airplanes, so I don’t make a buck on anything. We get paid to buy airplanes for people, I buy what people want me to buy. We don’t do Piaggios because in ten years of business I have only had two prospective clients who wanted to buy one.

I didn’t make the Piaggio a niche market, Avanti did that. It isn’t the airplane’s fault, it’s the company’s fault. They’ve been a train wreck since day one. I think a lot of it is where they are based.

So, the Piaggio is 100% a niche airplane, it just is. That isn’t an insult, if you took it as one, I’m sorry.

What does the Mustang have to do with this convo?

I don't think this comment will age well.

Mark,

I have no issue with the airplane or its capabilities.

I never said the Mustang was a better airplane.

If you want to argue about the capabilities of a Piaggio, you’ll have to find someone who doesn’t like it and pick a fight with them.

Now, your inability to properly quote… we may have words over that.

I need to go to quoting school for sure .

It's not the EVs I hate. It's the government mandating the marketplace and telling me "you'll get an EV and like it or you'll have nothing" that I hate.

I could live quite easily with one EV, and there's a good chance when our Volvo hybrid dies that I will, but there is zero chance I could for my pickup truck and how I use it and I don't want to.

You should move to the Live Free or Die state. Oh, wait….

You should move to the Live Free or Die state. Oh, wait….

That Tesla must not have even been half charged when you left Orlando to go see the launch. You can’t just run it till E and then look for the next exit for a gas station like you do a gas car. But a car with 300 mile range and a 200 mile trip should be a no-brainer every day. If it was halfway charged up when you picked it up, a good strategy is supercharge it there or stop at someplace just outside of the airport and give it a 15 minute splash. Then you have the round-trip range to get back to the airport and not worry about it. It’s like forgetting to iron your uniform until 10 minutes before the van and then you find out the iron doesn’t work.

That Tesla must not have even been half charged when you left Orlando to go see the launch. You can’t just run it till E and then look for the next exit for a gas station like you do a gas car. But a car with 300 mile range and a 200 mile trip should be a no-brainer every day. If it was halfway charged up when you picked it up, a good strategy is supercharge it there or stop at someplace just outside of the airport and give it a 15 minute splash. Then you have the round-trip range to get back to the airport and not worry about it. It’s like forgetting to iron your uniform until 10 minutes before the van and then you find out the iron doesn’t work.

Hertz figured this out the hard way.

In theory, a fleet of rental EVs makes sense. There are a lot of renters who won't drive 100 mikes total, like airport to a business meeting. My car rentals are almost always local airport to site and back, hardly can put a gallon in the car.

So an EV given to them fully charged makes sense, then return it, hertz tops it off, then everybody is happy.

But no, Hertz tried to treat EVs like gas cars and make renters return it charged or be dinged a huge penalty for not doing so.

This had predictable results, angry renters who didn't know how to find or operate chargers, and they and got frustrated with the penalties, or renters who avoided the car altogether.

So the EV rental program was a fiasco.

It would have been a success if Hertz simply took them back at any charge level and they topped it off for the next customer, *and* they made it clear that the ideal renter is someone using for less than, say, 200 miles total. Then the EV would be awesome and a lot nicer than having to gas up a rental.

But no, they tried to apply gas car thinking to EVs and that just doesn't work. They are losing more money on selling the cars than all the free charging they would have done otherwise. Penny wise, pound foolish.

Mike C.

Thankfully I have never worn a uniform in my life.

I don't remember the charge level when we picked it up, my plan was to charge it while we were in Cocoa, to be clear we didn't go over and watch the launch and come back. We were there to see a friend launch and spent a couple of days hanging with her husband and some other friends. We were focused on friendship and cocktails not charging cars.

Did I mention this was a rental and I was not experienced in planning for such things. I think when you own one you figure out real quick how to keep from getting in a bind.

15 minutes further away is 30 minutes out of the way. Another 30 waiting, plus a 15 minute charge.

Out of curiosity I looked and they did build a new Supercharger station on the Cape / Cocoa side of the Intercoastal, so problem solved!

I’m sure they had a lot of people like me thinking they were good because of all of the marked destination chargers that are actually for hotel guest only.

You do realize that EVs are the only true multi-fuel vehicle and that there are orders of magnitude more electrical outlets than there are gas stations? My car can run on hydro, nuclear, natural gas, coal, oil, you name it.

As for the Avanti. I looked hard at them. They are better than a Citation in a lot of ways. My wife preferred the cabin and the optics of having a "propeller plane." Being local to IJS helped a lot. But there are still concerns about parts and the longevity of the company. Just now we are waiting to see if the new owners will continue to build and support the civilian version or if they will go purely military. I'm not at your level where I can afford to lose most of my investment if the company changes direction. Textron has its challenges but they are doing a great job supporting these old birds. Now when it comes to P&W not so much, but we're doing our best.

See my post in babble talk:

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