011 | I Rented a Silverado EV with 750HP β Hereβs What Surprised Me
Cool Cars with Chris: Car Talk, Driving Tips & Auto Life
011 | I Rented a Silverado EV with 750HP β Hereβs What Surprised Me
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Today on Cool Cars with Chris, Courage joins us back after his long road trip up to Sacramento,
where he had a chance to rent a Silverado EV RST with 750 horsepower. You'll hear that story. Plus,
we talk about a little bit behind the scenes of what it's like being a YouTuber creating content.
And of course, what does it actually cost to charge up that Silverado EV? You'll find out
what he actually paid, all that and more on this episode. Let's go.
All right, we are back with another edition of Cool Cars with Chris. And like always, we have
our amazing co-host from up the north, up the 15 Freeway. We have Courage hanging today, buddy.
I'm doing well. Thanks for the intro. I appreciate that. Glad to be on. Always fun.
The famous YouTuber Courage himself. How is your YouTube channel doing, by the way?
It's doing decent. This week has been, I've been a little off on kind of posting schedule. So
I've mainly just been keeping an eye on some of the analytics from some videos I posted last week.
But I got a lot of like some back footage that I'm going through now. And I got to already have
like two or three videos planned. So just working through just the grind, but you know,
I'm having fun with it. And I feel like it's, feel like it's getting some steady growth.
That's great, man. Yeah. I mean, you're doing great with your YouTube channel.
When you do post stuff, do you normally try to post like every week, every other week,
or you just kind of post me have something ready? Usually it's, I do try to have something every
week, but usually for like long form, like my, you know, any videos that are longer than like
four or five minutes, that's like, I try to do that every two weeks. And then sprinkled in
there, I do, you know, I'll have shorts. I'll have a couple of shorts either throughout
the week or like every week, I'll get a short out. So I kind of mix it up with that because
the short content, I can, you know, more quickly build that out and put that together.
The long form content is usually centered around, say like a specific situation.
So I like to take a little bit more time with that, but that's been kind of the cadence
is like a long video every two weeks. And then every week kind of have a short that
kind of goes along with it. Do you use those shorts for Instagram reels too? Like crossover?
I tried doing that initially, but I just felt that like some, I had to adapt them differently for
like each platform, which you know, which is interesting. Like there's only a few as of late
that I've like kind of directly taken, say I've done it for YouTube and then I posted it exactly
the same for Instagram. I just noticed that like the, the type of content that I do with my
YouTube video, my YouTube shorts, which is usually around like a topic, say like a car
company's history or like random facts about, you know, Ferrari or Lamborghini or Chevy and
comparisons and things like that. Or it's just a little more tailored to YouTube the way that I do it.
My Instagram is, is a little bit more of just like kind of highlights, particularly with the,
with the end and like, you know, doing highlight shots and cool little reels and things like that.
You know, I'll probably have some more crossovers as the, as the two kind of platforms grow.
But yeah, it, I kind of make different content for different platforms, if that makes sense.
Yeah, it does make sense. But I'm kind of lazy. So I just make it once and then send it out to
everywhere, everywhere I have an account, just send it out and you all can enjoy, you know,
and it works for some people. I don't, I don't say that like my way is at all correct.
Like it, it works for some people to have that, have that just, you know, yeah,
this is my content and you can find it on these different sources. But yeah, I've
just kind of adopted that I just kind of have this approach for YouTube and then I have this
approach for Instagram and seems like it's kind of working a bit.
I think the audience is much different on YouTube versus Instagram. Maybe they're the same. Maybe
I don't know. And I wonder if the audience is different. Say I'm like a TikTok versus Instagram
account. I don't know. Listen, I'm no expert in this kind of stuff, but I'm just like
winging it as I go and just figuring it out, making something that I think it's fun. Well,
here I'll just put it here and put it there. I own it. It's my content. I can do whatever
I want with it so I can send it out to anywhere I want and anybody can enjoy it no matter where
they're at. I kind of think it like, like, I don't want a certain platform, like say,
some people only post on one platform, right? But what if I don't have that platform?
Say don't have TikTok or whatever. So you're going to deprive me of watching your cool
stuff by keeping it only on TikTok, why don't you share it on Instagram or even YouTube or
whatever. So I don't know, you know,
TikTok's an interesting one though. I've been hearing a lot more buzz about TikTok and
particularly how it's quote unquote, algorithm works. You know, one guy that I know that does
marketing for a big like off-road company. He says that they transitioned to doing TikTok
like about a year ago. And the thing about it is that it's really, it's a lot more
randomly generated in terms of the content that it pushes. And it's actually really
centered around, it's, you know, I think all content is centered around like what's trending.
But TikTok, he was telling me, particularly music is like a big part of TikTok. Like certain songs
will start to just become like the wave on TikTok. And once you kind of clue into like,
what's the trending music and you build things around that, that's, that's how all of a sudden
your content starts just getting pushed out heavily to a lot of different types of people
and kind of helps your overall kind of profile grow. Like I don't know this first hand, but
Instagram does that too. Instagram's got the trending songs. You can look up what's trending
or whatever. And when I put music to stuff on Instagram, I just look at whatever's trending.
I'm like, yeah, sounds cool. I'll use that or whatever. Well, it finds out my like, but
if it's something's trending, it's kind of cool. It's like I'll toss it in there or
whatever. And honestly though, do when I look at my phone, my phone's on silent. So I really
rarely hear any of the songs and stuff that are posted on anything. Unless I like it's a,
once it's like a reel that where someone's talking or something's actually happening,
where I actually got to hear whatever it is, then I guess I'll hear it. But for the most part,
I think most people keep their phone on silent. Do you keep your phone on silent?
Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. Like, and I sometimes I'll do it just because like I've lost my phone
sometimes. And I'm like, man, I wish I just like had taken it off silent. But that's,
that's a really good point. And actually funny thing about that is I started with YouTube,
particularly I started to notice a uptick in like views on my short videos when I started
using captions on my videos. Yeah. Yeah. Because a lot of people and I'm like that too,
where like you say, like sometimes I have my, I won't have my volume on, but I'll watch a reel
and read the captions, but I'm not listening to the audio. And I noticed that once I started
doing that, that I was getting more views because they are this that group of people
that maybe just as when they're watching or whatever, like they're not listening to the
sound, but they can still engage with it because they can read the captions.
That reminds me, I guess they're doing that. The last two reels I made, I put out there,
I did not put any captions out there. I don't think I did. So I just put up so quickly. I just
record them and throw them up so quickly. I don't even think about that kind of stuff. So
it's, it's another like thing you got to think about when you start posting content,
like you have this entire checklist of things. Like first you got to like record
to whatever it is. You're going to record that. And then you got to like think about
well, how's this going to like be? Is it going to be like in this format or that format,
all the different filters you might use or any kind of like audio compression sounds or any kind
of sound stuff you're going to use. Music you're going to choose for whatever you're posting. If
you have music on it and stuff, it can list can go on and on. So I think that it helps
having like a either a mental checklist or just having written down, you know, like
it kind of helps me to like, like know when I do a podcast that I have these check marks
I got to do, especially with clients and their show, which is pretty simple,
but I still kind of the same format, like, like record it, like do some editing on it,
make it sound great, make it all sound perfect. And then the rest of it's like the show notes
and the titling and all that kind of stuff, which for the most part AI handles all that stuff,
because I mean, I was horrible at titling episodes before it was, it was kind of basic
stuff. So, but anyways, you were going to tell me that you had an interesting week,
was it last week or week before that some cool car stories, which you got, man?
Yeah. So it was, it was, I guess you could say we're still in this week, but
the first half of this week I was, I actually had to take a work trip up to Sacramento.
You drive or fly for that? I flew this time. I have taken that drive because I'm from the
Bay Area originally. And so I've taken that drive before in the past, but it was just too
tight of a turnaround to drive up there. So I flew, which luckily with all of the
shutdown and all of the delayed flights, I had a smooth flight there.
That is incredible. That is a hero story in itself, buddy. Absolutely. I am very grateful
that I didn't have to deal with a lot of that situation, but not related to cars actually.
I'm really impressed with the new airport, the new terminal here at San Diego.
Terminal one, it's all done, right? Terminal one is, yeah, it's pretty
much done. And it's gorgeous. Is it better than terminal two?
I've never been. I've never, I've never, I've never been in terminal two because I've always,
I've always flown Southwest and they've always been in terminal one.
That's right. That's right. Yeah. I mean, I flew Hawaiian out of terminal two.
I guess the only two times I've been on terminal two was Hawaiian. I think about,
no, maybe I flew, I did fly in terminal two a couple of times for other things too.
Yeah. Yeah. I haven't experienced terminal two, but yeah, I mean, it fits. I mean,
because I think they're, they're going to now move to terminal two now that they're done
with, with one, I think, but, but it's, it's gorgeous. Like I'm a, I'm a sucker for a lot of
like architecture and like these like cool, like, you know, kind of designs and things that they
incorporate into like, you know, hotels and airports, but they, they did an awesome job.
It was, it was, I was proud of it because I'd fly to other places and like I come back to
San Diego, like San Diego is such a beautiful place. Like why does this airport not represent
that? But it's so small, man. I got one runway. It's really small. It's really,
really hard to fly into San Diego. It's like one of the worst airports of all the airports
we have around here. Well, I guess in the country that pilots like, like say, it's like
very challenging to fly. If you see how the flight path, you're flying in like over like
apartment built, like you're going straight through downtown gas lab. Yeah. Like, like your
wings can like clip buildings, you know, oh my God. I mean, it's, it's cool when you're on it
and you're watching and you're like, you know, seeing your, you know, seeing yourself
come into the airport, like that as a, as a passenger, but I can't imagine the, the
amount of stress you're under as a pilot. Well, they do it time and time again though,
you know, I don't think they've had any accidents, you know, that I know of. I mean,
they had that one back in like the seventies or one that they crashed. I think it was a North Park
area, but that was because a Cessna clipped the airplane. They collided. Oh, they actually had
a collision. Yeah. And then the plane came down. There's a whole, I think it's somewhere
North Park area is where I went through a whole neighborhood. This is like, like,
like the late seventies, early eighties, sometime around then every year on the anniversary,
they always have a thing on the news about it. You know, they always go over there to the,
to the crash site, does that memorial and all that stuff. And they talk about it.
I never even knew about that. Yeah. They talked about it just recently,
whatever they happened, it was, I think it was in April, but anyways, so go on.
Yeah. So, uh, so I, yeah, flew out to Sacramento and plug to Turo. They sponsor people. So
maybe it's potential sponsor, but I, I, ever since I discovered Turo and if you don't
know about Turo is basically like an Airbnb for cars, essentially. So people were written
out their cars the same way they were written out there. They're, you know, they're placing their
house or whatever. Are they only personally owned like cars or could it be like a company
who had a fleet of cars wanting to do that too? They do that now too, which the guy that I
actually rented through, he has, he has a fleet. I guess you can say now he has about
three to four cars hosted on the platform. And so, you know, that, that qualifies as
a fleet for them. And so you do have companies that, you know, actually have transitioned from,
say they were, they knew how like inner workings of like, you know, rental car companies with
with airports worked and they sort of just kept that same idea and moved over to Turo.
But this guy had had a few cars, one car that was, that I thought would be great to make
content around. And because I knew I was going to be doing a bit of driving because
I was actually going to go to the, to Oakland and see some family and things like that.
And so I really would, I really wanted to drive the Charger EV because I know that that car.
Hey, don't get a ticket for having a loud exhaust quote, quote, wink, wink.
I'm telling you, I, I heard one in person recently. I heard one drive by, I was, I was in
San Diego area down by La Jolla area actually. And I heard one drive by and I heard like what
that sounds like. And I was, I was actually pretty blown away at like how loud it is for
something that is completely fake. It's like,
Does it have like that bass like rumble or is it kind of like a higher pitch sound?
No, it really is like a bass rumble. Like if you knew nothing, absolutely nothing about cars,
you would just think that it was a loud like Mopar car driving by.
Does it sound like a V8 or V6?
No, it, like, well, that's the weird thing about it is that it's, it's almost just
noise because it's not, it's, it's not like a, like a traditional engine where you kind of hear
it go up and down the rev range. You, you kind of hear it go like accelerate, but it's really just
like a constant rumble that kind of comes out of the car as it's driving by.
Yeah. I kind of imagine it's like when you're a kid and you put like a, like a playing card
in the back tire of your bicycle. Yeah. And it's like, it does sort of like
increases you increase speed, but not like, not the same way that an engine does.
Okay. So, you know, it was, but I, I mean, I've seen so much content and so, so much, you know,
kind of dislike and, you know, about the, the charger EV and I, I, when I, when it first came
out, I thought the car looked like a charger, which, you know, they, they kept the look
while still evolving it, which I thought was impressive. And I, I mean, we knew that
they were going to try doing an EV and so I, I mean, it has the power, it has like five to
600 horsepower and like even the base model. And I thought that them kind of doing the,
the fake engine noise, to be honest, I thought it was cool. Like I was, you know, it's,
it's not going to replace what a, you know, VA, you know, sounds like, but I thought it was
a cool concept. So I was, did you get to try one? I, so that's where the story gets
interesting is I didn't get to drive it because funny enough, even if it's an EV Dodge,
it was in the shop during the time where I wanted to run.
How ironic is that? So he, he messaged me after I booked it.
What could be the shop for? I don't understand how easy it would be to shop.
Is it for, for like a, for like a software upgrade? I mean, I don't know what else
could it be. The only, the only thing that I can think that it would be in the shop for
is probably something like brakes. Like, cause it's. Oh yeah. They still use brakes and
tires. The brakes and tires, because brakes are just so, I mean, the car is so heavy.
Well, it's probably, it's heavy regardless if it's electric. Those are big cars.
Yeah. So add batteries and I'm sure that car weighs, you know,
5,000 plus pounds or something like that. And so that's the only thing that I can imagine.
I mean, hopefully it's not like software issues or something like that, but.
Yeah. I heard about Dodge and their software issues with their touch screen. I heard
it like always glitches up and has issues and stuff. Maybe that's what it was,
but I don't know. So what car did you end up getting then?
So this is actually going to turn into some content on the channel. So, you know,
anybody who might kind of, you know, tune into both sides of the coin, your, your podcast and
watch any of my videos. This is going to be me going out on a limb for my first, like,
kind of bigger production, non Elantra and content. Okay. But I've never experienced big
trucks before in terms of my size truck or like bigger trucks, bigger, a bit bigger,
in a sense, a bit bigger. And I, he has a kind of EV fleet. And so he had two other cars.
He had the Lyric, the Cadillac Lyric, which, you know, kind of, they're like SUV type,
you know, luxury. It's like the suburban, but the cat a little bit. Is it the same thing?
No, it's, it's about the, it's actually probably a little smaller than the suburban,
but he also had a Silverado EV. So that's same size as my truck. It's a 1500 or whatever.
Yeah. Okay. So yeah, they're, they're probably about the same size, but
I've never experienced like driving a truck like that, you know, in terms of that size
truck. And so I thought it'd be a really interesting experience to like, you know,
obviously feel that kind of truck lifestyle a little bit, experience that for a few days,
but also experience obviously a truck that's got 750 horsepower.
Yeah. So it's all electric. And is it really quiet when you drive the thing real smooth and
quiet? The loudest thing is obviously the, the fake noise that they use to like
learn. It has fake noise and you can actually adjust it in the menus. Like it has like different
ones that you can turn it off completely, but it always plays it outside. Cause it's the whole EV
regulation where because they don't make noise, you hear like the worrying noise like from the
outside, but you hear it really loud on the inside. I was here at Tesla with that whirling
noise and I thought there's some, I thought those things make noise. Those things are
kind of bad engines. Those motors sound horrible. Yeah. No, that's, that's all,
that's all fake noise, but it's really, you know, for the safety of the people, because
you know, you don't, you don't hear an EV creeping up. You might over a kid. Yeah. You might hear
like some tie, like, you know, pebbles and, you know, getting caught in the tires or something,
but you usually don't really hear them as they're approaching. So that's, that's really
the loudest thing that you hear from it. But again, you're talking a truck that weighs
six, 7,000 pounds or something like that. And it has 750 horsepower and all you hear
is that like worrying noise is, is an interesting experience, but I had a chance to try it out.
I, you know, my work meeting was, you know, kind of two days, Tuesday and Wednesday,
in between on Tuesday evening, I actually drove it 90 miles, actually 180 miles,
both ways from Sacramento to Oakland, you know, got a chance to experience supercruise and,
you know, you know, just experience what it's like being on the highway long term with the
truck. And, and overall just, you know, kind of got to, got a little short,
little test drive with it in a sense or a long-term test drive with it.
I wonder if, if their EV truck is based on the regular truck or is it a whole new
platform and chassis? I know the F 150's lightning is completely different versus my truck.
It's, it's a completely different on a different suspension. They use like leaf springs in the
back. They use like, no, they use like some kind of like coil, coil springs in the back
of the EV and, you know, leaf springs and regular trucks mostly use leaf springs in the
back. So I wonder if the suspension is different than the regular truck.
I would err on the side that it is because it's, it's actually on a similar platform as the Hummer EV
and, you know, that, that truck's even more massive than the Silverado EV, just like in width
and, and whatnot. But yeah, I would err on the side of it being like its own platform.
Like, did it have the crew cab or a single cab or what kind of cab configuration was it?
So, because crew cab means it just has like the front and the back seats and like four doors,
like four full doors, big doors, not like, cause I think Chevy had a, like a mini door one. They
had like, it was like a, the front two doors were normal size, but the ones in the back seat were
like kind of like half sized doors. Was it like that or full sized? No, it's so it's full on.
Yeah. It's a full on crew cab that, that shows my, my nature of not knowing a lot about
trucks. But, but yeah, it, it was a full crew cab. I mean, in the back seat is huge.
Oh yeah. You know, so much space in the back seat.
It is. If you, if you're like, if you're coming from something smaller, like when I came from
my other pickup truck into my first F-150, which is like the one I have now, and it had the back
seat, like this is, this is like a freaking limo back here. It's like so much space back here.
So it was really, really, and I was so, it was so hard to like figure out a navigate,
had to park the thing. I'm assuming you always had like parking assist.
All of the cameras.
Yeah. Cameras and all that. My other truck didn't have any of that. It didn't have
a backup camera or sensors. My other F-150, it was the same size as the one I have now.
And so I'd use my mirrors and look over my, you know, over my shoulder and look back,
back, you know, bend the back seat and all that stuff.
I can't even picture what that would be. The amount of anxiety I would have,
you know, obviously this being the first truck experience, but not having all of that tech,
you know, even, even parking next, like just parallel parking and getting close to the curb
is, it was tough and it has a side camera. So it like shows you where your placement is.
Do the automatic parallel parking like some fancy cars do?
I don't know if it did. I didn't get too much into those type of features. It probably does.
And I think the RST version, which is what I have or what I had does like the crab walk feature,
if you've heard about that.
So it's the same one that the Hummer EV does. It's a crab walk.
I think it does. Yeah. I didn't have a chance to kind of dig enough into it to kind of
figure out if it, if that one had that feature, but I have seen videos of it doing that.
And so you could actually kind of use that crab walk feature to kind of help you get into,
get into parking, you know, spots too. But I don't know if it, if any of those models have
like a full parking, like full on like parking assist to get you in the spot. It might,
but I didn't, I didn't use it if it does have that feature.
Well, did you drove for two days you said?
Yeah. So I got, yeah, picked it up Monday evening, kind of late. I did some,
a little bit of driving that evening. Yeah. I drove it, drove it the, you know,
almost 200 miles on Tuesday and then Wednesday did, did a few little things after my work
meeting before the flight. So, you know, it's two and a half days.
Okay. The question I have, and the audience probably has, is how did you charge it?
How long did it take? And is it compatible with like the standard like Tesla charging ports?
Good question. So I, I did have to charge it because when I got back from
sec, when I got back from Oakland, I was on like 20% give or take.
Do that give me anxiety range so bad?
Yeah. I got the range anxiety, like I thought that the range anxiety wouldn't be as much of
a thing with a truck that has actually a 400 mile like range at fully, you know, fully charged.
Yeah, but it's like a gas thing. Dude, it's like, it's like, it's like a high estimate.
Exactly. Yeah. It depends on how you're driving. And, you know, and obviously,
you know, I put my foot down a few times on course you did that. I would have done that.
Had to, had to experience it. And so, you know, you're obviously, you know,
now depleting that a lot more than the EPA rating for its overall kind of, you know,
distance rating, but I did have to charge it the last day. And that was an interesting
experience because I, I went to an EV go spot because I just didn't have any Tesla
superchargers around. I think that he, he included a Tesla adapter.
So I think it does have the capability to charge at like a Tesla supercharger,
but you'll have to like plug in the adapter and then, you know, hook it up and go through all of that.
And so, but the EV go that I went to was like a fast charging EV go that like charges that,
you know, up to 350 kilowatt hours, I believe. Well, you're the, you're the, you know, solar
dude. So what does that mean? I would get roasted too. Because it's just,
it's just the rate that ultimately it can charge up. Like there's just different ratings.
That's, that's pretty much as high as you. You got to pay more for that.
You do. And this is where I was actually pretty surprised because, you know, I, I,
there was a best buyer cross. And so I knew it was going to take about like it,
it actually said to go fully charged. It was actually going to take,
because I got there at 240, 250. And it said it would take until 405 to fully charge all the
way to 100% from 20%. And the, the interesting about that is because I think we talked about
it a while back on the EV podcast was the, they recommend you don't all, you don't charge up to
100% all the time. It's not your car dude. It's not your car. I charge that thing up. Give me a
full tank or full charge. What are you calling it? You, you top off and you try to not sprinkle
a little bit of gas. Yeah. Like I, I'm kind of the same way, but, but I, you know, to charge
up to 80% really only took about like 25 minutes or so. Now you have to set the car
while it's happening or can you leave? No, you can leave. I, I, I hung out for a little bit just
to make sure and kind of look at the rate and see how, you know, see how much, which it didn't,
it, it, it starts out kind of charging and it only does about like 150 to about 200 kilowatt
hours of charge rate. And then as it like starts to the, the conditioners start to come on,
that's when the charge rate starts to get closer to that 350, that maximum charging speed.
But it, so that extra 20% after 80% is what takes the longest because at that point,
I believe is when, when it limits how much charge rate it's going to charge at.
I heard Elon Musk say something about that a long time ago. He was saying about batteries,
how batteries work when they do charge, especially EVs, his Tesla and all that was that he compared
it to an empty parking lot. He says if there's empty parking lot with a few cars in there,
you can whip in there and get a space very easily. But when, when the parking lots fuller
and cars trickle in there, they're circling, circling around trying to find a parking spot.
I guess the electrons or whatever that are filling up the battery kind of do something.
They're like trying to find, yeah, like the, like what sales need more charge and balancing it
all and. Right. So I think when it's empty, it's easier to flood it all up with, with
whatever they do. And then it becomes tighter towards the last like, is it 80% when he's
last 20% 20% 20% is when it starts getting tighter to fill those little spots or whatever,
which does make sense, I guess. So you filled it up and then you brought it back. Now, when you
take the car back, do they have to like check off at what battery percentage it is when you
leave. So when you bring it back, you have to bring it back at the exact same juice level
like you do on a rental car. Yeah. So it's, it's a bit similar. One, one thing I wanted to add
real quick on the charging side of it was the cost, which was, so it was to go from,
yeah, 20% to 80 ish percent was $65. Holy crap. And that blew me away.
Holy crap. I'm like, yes, that's maybe cheaper than it would cost to fill up gasoline.
Okay. So if you were to compare like, okay, so you had to figure out, convert it into gasoline,
for example. So let's just say, if you could, I don't think we can figure this out, but let's just
say we could figure out how many gallons of gas you think that was you put in the tank, even
though it wasn't gallons, it was, you know, electricity, but how many like you compared
to gallons so I can figure out gas price wise. Well, let's do this. What, how, do you know
like the fuel capacity of your truck? Yes, I do. And I have the big daddy tank that came as an extra
add-on to the thing. So my, okay. My other, my older F 150 had a 26 gallon tank. Oh, wow. Shoot.
Same engine. Yeah. What's yours? The new one I have has 36. Oh my goodness. That's crazy.
And I never, ever, ever, ever take it to empty. Never. I've never taken it to empty.
Come close, go to Vegas. I got down to quarter tank and that was close to a regard to like
empty, but I've always had it like at half a tank, I fill up. I just fill up at half a tank.
And at that price that when I fill up half a tank, it depends on the price of gas, of course,
but it could be about $70, $80. Yeah. Well, let's, let's just play, let's play a very
unique scenario that you're one of those like, I know my car type people and you run,
you run yourself down to E pretty much. And then you're like, okay, well, I'm,
I'm just going to go and fill up completely. I did a little calculation, right? Oh, on the side
real quick. Okay. So call it 30, you said 36 gallons. Yes. That's my truck. My truck is 36
gallon. And let's call it maybe I'm being conservative, but probably like what, 560 a gallon
maybe would, no, it's like five bucks a gallon depends you. Let's, okay, let's do that
because it was actually a pretty crazy number when I, I mean, it's probably not going to be
like, come on, man, you know, I mean, I know this. I mean, I think the thing is to, I don't
like, I never felt, it just feels easier on the wallet when you fill it from half.
I know a hundred percent. Yeah. Your, your mind is thinking of it a lot,
even though theoretically the long run, it's all the same really.
But yeah. So let's say equivalent to equivalent. That was 65 bucks. And, and I guess it's
weird too, because it wasn't, it wasn't from E on the, on the chart, the Silverado EV either.
But, you know, let's just call that, that was maybe a hundred bucks. If like you really just,
you know, you were all the way at 2% and you charged all the way to a hundred percent,
you'll tack on another $20, $30. For I calculator right now, which a 36 gallon tank at $5 a gallon,
$180. Yeah, I figured that much. I figured that much. But, but also if, okay,
you said how far of range could that vehicle quote unquote do if it was
all ideal. Yeah. I mean it was ideal situation and it was ideal. I would say 400 miles range.
400. Yep. Okay. My truck, same thing says 600 miles range. Yeah. So I go another 200 miles
in theory. So you gotta figure that out. And you're most likely going to probably get a
lot closer than that in your truck than you will in an EV. Okay. So well, yeah, I mean,
so it's kind of, you know, in the max. Yeah. So it might, it might come pretty close,
maybe, you know, yeah. I mean, I was, that was just super, that was, that blew me away
because I was not expecting that. I was expecting, and it's weird too, because the rate actually
fluctuates as, as the charging rate ramps up. And so initially it was actually projecting. It was
going to be like $5 or $6, $7, $10, something like that. And that was when I left and went
into the store. And so when I came back to screen it, like went to sleep on the,
on the charger. And so I, you know, go on and like, okay, let's see what, what the rates are,
what the capacity is that. And I look and I see it's like around $59. And I'm like, what, like
that was first of all, that escalated quickly. And in two, I was like, okay, well, you know,
obviously this is still maybe saving you a little bit more than you would with gas,
but not a, not a whole lot. It might. And well, yeah, maybe not a lot because they could
add those extra 200 miles that I get on my truck, add those into what it would cost you
to fill up and give yourself an extra 200 miles worth of a charge, which be half a,
half a, half a thing, right? Cause they said it's half a battery because
you say they have 400 miles of range. So half that would be 200 miles,
add the 200 miles to that. So it'd be half of whatever you, whatever full charge would be,
add that on top of the charge. They're probably about 120, 150, maybe I'm guessing.
I mean, I mean, if you want to compare apples to apples here.
Yeah. Yeah. No, you're, you're not really that far off. And, you know, obviously
your source of power is different, you know, you can get into that conversation, but
it was, it was kind of a, an interesting, you know, situation to kind of see that that,
you know, that this, this is an expense. Like, you know, I think a lot of people get in EVs,
you know, because they feel like, you know, going electric is maybe going to save them,
you know, a decent amount versus like having to buy gas and all of that. But, you know,
if you're, if you're really needing to do a long commute, especially in something like this,
you know, obviously consumables or a factor, your tires or brakes, you know, things like that,
but, you know, gas charging is, is, you know, it's not that far off from, you know,
needing to get gas a lot from my, in my opinion, at least range anxiety kicks in once again.
Our good old friend range anxiety, you know, and I think that like I said,
EVs are great. If you have something somewhat small, like a small SUV or like even those
Tesla threes or Tesla with doors, a wing, a swing up and open or whatever,
you get those kinds of cars and they're, you know, fine. You can run around in those and you
relive in the city and stuff. I think last Uber ride I was in, up in LA for the charger game,
we had a Tesla, the guy had, and I was watching that little screen on the dash and it has like
all the different cars going across. I always like silhouettes of cars and people kind of
going across the screen and around you in front of, you know, I thought it was kind of cool
to see that kind of stuff as we drove to the game. But yeah, I mean, I guess if you live
in the city, but I don't know about long distance driving with something like those,
it just takes a lot of planning, you know, I, and to be honest, you know, I think there were
some pros to more so in the sense of, you know, just again, just the space, the comfort, the
comfortability, like, you know, just what they're able to do with an EV platform truck versus a,
you know, versus a standard truck, you know, it's just, it's kind of cool to see that
progress. And he had that frunk, you had the frunk in the front, right? You had the frunk. The
frunk was, was, was definitely cool to have. You got, you got a massive truck bed, which
in that you can, I think you had mentioned how in your truck, you can, you can take those
seats out, drop those seats flat and then, you know, have sort of more storage space in there.
Yeah, I don't know about the Chevy, but I know that with mine, the actual back seat,
just two back seats, just like it's like a, it's not quite split in the middle equally.
It's like a longer section and then like it's like, it's like three, two seats are connected.
They fold up in a bench and another third seat on the side, but all of them can be flipped up
and they lock into place up and it leaves a big flat cargo area in the back. So you can like put
all kinds of stuff back there or whatever you want to do. It works out great. I love it.
I love it so much. It's fantastic. Yeah. Yeah. No, I think it kind of has a similar setup
with that. And, and they also have, you can, I don't know if you fully have to remove the
seats. I imagine you probably do, but you can obviously take the seats out and then you can take
out the, the, the panel basically that separates the bed from the car, the cargo area or the actual,
you know, the inside of the truck. And you can then take that out and the glass and have that
entire space to haul something in. No way. It kind of runs you that little truck that
you used to have. Chevy had one. It was called the Avalanche, I think.
And Chevy, I don't understand why they didn't call this car the Avalanche because if you look at,
if you look at it, it looks just like the old Avalanche in terms of its design. Some of like
the callbacks to like that. We're pillar in the back. Yeah. It was such a missed opportunity
to not call that the Avalanche. I didn't mean to interrupt, but I was like, man,
what's this one called? It's just a Silverado EV. That's, it's, you know, how unique.
Exactly. And their whole thing is like, you know, we, anything that they make EV from their
regular cars, they put a blue E is like the signifier, but man, I thought it was,
and maybe that's why they didn't do the Avalanche. I mean, they could have made
the E at the end, the blue, like, you know, it was, it was such a missed opportunity
because my brother has an Avalanche. He has a, I don't know a year, but early 2000s. And,
you know, you can definitely see the callbacks and you can see that that was a little bit of
an influence of design. So Avalanche, I definitely understood it when it came out. Is it supposed
to be that it's supposed to be a Silverado or is it not a Silverado? Is it supposed to be
an SUV, but it's not really an SUV. Like I was kind of like a weird, you know,
I remember those things came out and the commercial came out for it and they
made a big deal about it. It can transform into like an SUV and a truck, but not really.
I mean, I don't know. I mean, they were making them at the same time, right?
Which one? They still had, they still had a Silverado at the same time with you. Yeah. So,
yeah, I guess they were really, yeah, trying to, trying to kind of blend more.
Avalanche was maybe a little bit more of like an SUV truck combo, whereas like the
Silverado was like a truck pickup truck. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, honest review, opinion,
what do you think of the whole thing all in all as you drove it?
Whole thing. I mean, I thought it was cool at the end of the day, you know, it was just cool
to, I mean, Supercruise is in my opinion, a lot better than my experience with Tesla's self-driving.
So, so, so for those who don't know, what is Supercruise?
So Supercruise is essentially adaptive cruise control, but it's also a step forward where it is
truly hands-off steering and basically, you know, self-driving at that point. And the way that they,
that Chevy is able to actually market it as fully hands-off is because it's only available on mapped
roads that, and it's usually like major interstate highways and other like very well known state
highways that they're able to to actually map. I wonder why that makes a difference.
I just think that the level of potential, you know, issues goes down when they've, when they have,
I guess, when the system knows exactly and has fully mapped out these roads.
But if you look at your maps in your car, like I follow like Apple Maps or whatever,
it shows the exit, it shows like the trees along the exit, it shows like the structures on
the right side or left side. It shows that stuff on any road you drive on.
So I just wondered why they need to have their roads mapped out.
The traffic is going to be different, you know, from today to tomorrow.
That's where the adaptive cruise comes in. So it has adaptive cruise control. So it knows like
when a car is in front of you and like the distance to keep from the car. And then one
caveat is if it knows, because it has ways of sensing when you're in like a construction
zone or if it's a highway that has like deviated because they're doing construction and maybe they've
like shifted lanes over in a different direction, it instantly knows that. And it'll, it'll,
it'll flag you and tell you like, okay, you're, you're no longer in supercruise. You need to
take control because it now doesn't know exactly how the road goes in relation to what it's
already mapped. So there are. Okay, so I do one of the supercruise and the Tesla thing.
I got to know this. Yeah. Can you get pulled over if it's driving for you? And does it do,
does it automatically like pull the car over for car? Cause if you're like,
let's just say you're quote unquote rescuing your eyes while you're in supercruise.
And then the cops like pull you over. Does the car follow instructions or does it keep on
going? And if it does pull you over, you do pull over and say, I wasn't driving it,
the car was driving. Can I get out and take it? Yeah. The way that they've gotten around
that I think is cause supercruise specifically has an eye sensor right above the steering wheel.
And it gives you a little bit of time to, you know, maybe look in another direction or
if you were looking down briefly, like it's not going to instantly kick you out. I felt like
with the, with, with Tesla self drive, like it'll, it'll give you an alert. And if you
don't grab the wheel or like do what you have to do the prompt within like a second or two,
it's like yelling at you. And it'll, if you do that enough times,
it'll just kick you out of self driving for like a certain period of time,
which I thought was ridiculous. But with supercruise, it's always monitoring your eyes.
And so at a certain point, I think it's around five seconds or so. If you're like sustained,
like not looking at the eye sensor and it knows that you're not looking forward,
it'll, it'll kick you out. Okay. So with like sunglasses though?
No, cause I was wearing glasses and, and I, you know, I, I could tell like when it knew
that it has a, it has like a small little indicator on like the screen that shows that
like your eyes are engaged. And when you're not looking at it, it shows that they aren't.
And after a while, like it'll start to flash to tell you like either look or like you're
going to get kicked out of supercruise. Do you remember that story a few years ago?
I remember when Tesla was talking about this whole thing that this guy somehow,
I don't know how he did this, but he was able to like get in the back, get in the back
seat of his car, let it dry for him. Like, I don't know. First you have to get the car going.
So I guess the car's going and then you would climb over the seat or something while it's going.
I mean, I think they got around that too now where they, and I'm, I think that like people
they were doing that was really what sparked a lot more like a lot more nannying of like super,
you know, self-driving and all of like those, those different capabilities.
But now it's like, it's basically like if you, I don't know how you would be smart
enough to trick it by like not, you know, not taking off your seat belt.
Because, you know, one of the big is that these days and warrants you people tough.
Yeah. So like the moment you take your seat belt off in any car, like even in my car now,
like I have, I have steering assist and so it'll steer for you and then you can put on
cruise control. And so you, you know, you're not fully obviously autonomous driving,
but it does steer for you. But the moment you, you unlatch your seat belt,
it kicks you out of that and it dings and does all of the stuff.
So I don't know how you would be able to trick your, trick it to be able to get out of the seat
without undoing your seat belt. If you were just that small enough and slippery enough as a person
to do that, then maybe you could, you know, trick some of these, but
But what's funny though is that my truck, well, at least on the passenger side anyways,
most vehicles have this. It's like they have that driver's that passenger side airbag
and they have sensors built into the seat. My old, my old truck had these that this
built built in. So if you're sitting in the seat with anything heavier than like,
think 70 pounds or something like that, it thinks that somebody's there.
Right. And if nobody's there, it deactivates the airbag because you can crush a kid or whatever
kind of stuff. So I try to fool it and like sit up and stand up. Like I said, I'm sure that
there's, there's always some way to get around it and, and, and test assist. I'm sure they,
I'm sure probably these companies started just hiring people now to like, you know,
how do you just like cybersecurity? Like where they hired, you know, these people to like,
you know, break their security system so that they know how to like avoid it.
That'd be a good job. I think, I think I'd be good for that job. I'm always finding the,
finding the holes in everybody's system at work. Like we're going to do this now.
And so that's going to fail because of this, this, this, this and this.
Yeah. It was just shut up and do it, Chris. Okay.
Do it and prove it wrong. And yeah, that I, well, you know, if things don't work out
with anything else, you, I'm sure like I said, that exists. So they're probably not posting it
very often on, on indeed or anything, but I bet you any money, there's some,
there's some positions that are out there like that. But, but yeah, nonetheless, you know,
back to your original question though, it was, you know, I, I think things like supercruise
just overall the convenience of, you know, getting in an EV and just going, you, you just,
you're not worried about warming up the truck or warming up the car. You just hop in,
you go where you need to go. The thing looked cool. Like I just really, I, I sort of, you just kind
of felt like, you know, it was, it was a cool truck. It was a cool car. You know, just how
elevated it is. You're, you're sitting above everybody. Sure. I was at basically almost
the level of like truckers, like when you try it, it's a little lower. It's not as big,
but you know, you're, but you're up there. And so like there's rarely anything else on
the road that's like as like high up as you are, you know, the, the torque is just, you know,
the very interesting thing about it is because it's so heavy, you do get initial kick the same way
you do with normal EVs, but it tapers off kind of quickly because it's just so much weight
that's being moved, but it's still enough instant torque for you to like any passing
situation that you need to get in with this huge truck, you can normally just do it.
Like you just put your foot down and, and you're, you know, you're away from whatever
situation you were trying to get away from. Does it have any, like my truck, I was thinking
when you said that, but my truck, I've got like six or five different driving modes.
Does having driving modes at all this thing, or is it all standard just drive?
No, so it does. It has like your, you know, your sort of like major drive modes,
like off road, snow, like different things like that, but you actually can make a custom
mode that, that alters your throttle response. And obviously your, your, your amount of like
torque in your motor and how it responds, your steering and then your suspension. And usually
there's like a touring, there's a normal and there's a sport for like those three settings.
And I actually ended up, I didn't realize for a while that I was actually in sport
suspension and I didn't really like how that felt. Was it really tough for something?
It was, there were certain rows that I drove down, like this is way more tough,
way more, you know, bumpy than it needs to be. And when I figured out like that I was in sport,
I was like, okay, let's put suspension and touring. Let's, you know, keep the steering
in middle road. And then obviously I kept the torque, you know, at full kind of sport mode,
but you do have modes. So you can switch them up, you know, it still sort of drives
truck ish. Like it's, you know, when you are on still some bumpier roads and things like it's,
it's, you know, it's, it sways a bit, but it's also a little stiff, like in certain
spots where you would, you know, if you were in like a big like Cadillac SUV, you know, you,
you will probably soak up those bumps maybe a little bit more than the, than the truck does,
but it wasn't like a deal breaker. I'm used to kind of, you know, partial ride in a sense.
So that's not a deal breaker for me. It might be for other people, but, you know, the biggest
con, you know, we talked about it was the range anxiety. I just am not still on the camp
of just what it takes to kind of live with an EV. It's still just a lot of adjusting versus
like a gas power car. So you wouldn't buy one you're saying if you want to, you know,
it's an interesting situation too, because I would consider it if I knew that I was doing some light
towing with it. Oh dude, talk about range anxiety. That towing's got to kill that power. But that's
why I say light. Yeah. That's why I say light. Like I wouldn't be taking this, like,
you know, even I wouldn't be taking it, say if I live here in San Diego, like, you know,
towing a car out to like, you know, Chuck Walla out in like central California. Like
I probably wouldn't even do anything like that. I wonder if anybody really does people have
lightings or even the Rivians or whatever. I see people with the Tesla's with tow hooks on them
and stuff too, but aren't they actually using it for that? Well, I think, I think it's,
it's like, it's like options. You're like, I have my four wheel drive, my truck. I rarely,
like ever, never use it, right? And I have a tow package in my truck, never really use it.
But if I had to, I had to, I could, you know, and I think that's what it comes down to is
like having the ability and the capability to use it, even though you don't use it to be able to use
it in case you do need to use it. Yeah. And that's, that's kind of where I'm at is that it would,
it would be cool to have it to use like if I was just, you know, for some light towing that's
more local within, within like a, you know, a hundred miles or so of where I live and,
you know, just needed that for that reason, you can still use it as just like a great,
just like transport vehicle because it's just so roomy. Materials are pretty nice. They're not like
top notch, you know, there is some plastics and some things like that that, you know,
when, what these things cause new was maybe a little bit unacceptable. Now, like on the
used market, there may be. Okay. So what was the, do you check on the sticker price on the
vehicle? I know the. Yeah, no, that's a good, that's a good question. Cause I did look up
used prices, but I don't know if I looked them up. I guess like how much would you
buy that thing brand new? How much would I want to pay or how much is it? Like if you're
with a dealership, you want to buy that same truck brand new, what would you think you'd be
spending? I mean, I know it was over a hundred. Over a hundred. I think it was, yeah, I think
the RST model specifically was over a hundred and I cheated actually because I knew this one
was the RST first edition and so MSRP on them were actually 120. Damn. Okay. Which again,
that is a very ridiculous price point for, you know, again, what a lot of people are going to use
this for. And I wonder if, if the guy you rented it from, I wonder if he just leases these things.
Do you know? I wonder if it's even possible because you're using it for rental car service.
Is that one of the caveat? You can't do that. I don't know. I think it's,
I think it's similar to, well, that's more insurance related. I think where you,
you know, when you do ride sharing, going back and forth to work five miles away.
I wonder if that might be a limitation to actually being able to lease one of these,
but, but I imagine like, you know, a big, you know, way of, you know, offsetting the expenses of
these is, you know, even if he did, you know, get a loan on the car or whatever the truck,
like, you know, being able to rent it out and, and, you know, use it for that has
probably helped a lot. If you got it used though, I looked up used prices on these
this for a year old truck. This is probably a good little conversation piece.
How much do you think, how much do you think it's depreciated in one year?
Well, it depends on the mileage I would think. I mean, okay, in a standard mile,
in a standard year, most cars, what do like 10 to 10 to 15, maybe 15,000, maybe a year?
Let's call it 10, that like, if, if, if it did, like just say average is like 10 to 12,
how much would you expect 120 grand truck to cost a year later? Just if you were to take a guess.
I don't know how hot EVs are these days. If they're not very, yeah. So I would say probably
in the maybe around 90 or 89. It would be even worse than that. If you were,
it would be worse than that if you owned it. But if you were looking at these and you
were actually interested, you'd be a lot happier. 60?
60. I'm seeing some for like high fifties and they're only a year old with like 12,000 miles.
Well, I think the full size like EV truck department, it's kind of weird. So as far as your competitors
go, we have like, you have the, of course, the holy grail of the cyber truck itself.
And then you have the Ford Lightning, which I heard they're getting rid of that truck.
I heard not going to keep doing it. Yeah. I just heard something on Instagram.
I didn't, you know, fact check any of that. I just saw somebody post on Instagram
that they are discontinuing the Ford Lightning and I'm like, that's crazy.
And of course you got the Rivian, which is smaller. And I think, of course,
you got Scout coming out the next year, the year after that, they got a truck and an SUV,
all that trick. And like, I thought the lightning was kind of cool because it was very similar
to what I already have. It's like, it's like, all right, I'm already used to the size of the vehicle.
I'm already used to everything and all the buttons and all the doors and all everything
with seats. And I know it. You know, it's like, it's like moving in something you already know
versus something completely, you don't, it's totally unknown. But I don't know, like,
like, I don't know if I would, I don't know, man. I mean, I don't know if I buy one,
though, you know, I don't know if I really would want to buy a full size EV, maybe,
I don't know, but there's something expensive, like brand new.
For 60, yeah. I mean, for 60 grand, like, I mean, you can get you a very great,
a very good Raptor for that price. Use one. I don't know.
Use round. Oh yeah. 100%. Yeah. Brand new.
Yeah. I think the brand new ones is my truck, the sticker on my truck was 70.
Oh yeah. So wrap. So, but, but that's going to have the Roush package on top of that.
Roush package alone was $15,000 on top of the price of the truck. So my regular,
my truck was 55 grand. Like for like my truck without the Roush package, 55 grand,
because I have two window stickers. I have a window sticker for the truck from Ford,
and I have a window sticker, an additional window sticker from Roush.
Yeah. On top of the Roush package. So, so that was then and about my other truck,
other F-150, I got a killer deal and I think about it. I paid like $33,000 for my other truck.
And it was like virtually the same truck, except it didn't have the four-wheel drive
and some of the bells and whistles didn't have, but it was the F-150 XLT,
crew cab, chromatoh, 5.0 engine, all that stuff. I paid like $33,000 for it. This is back in 2011.
Yeah. So, which is, God, I would love to have a truck that size for $33,000 brand new.
We ate everything today. I don't think you can find it.
Yeah. It's inflation, man. It's the way everything's going up, the price of everything
and the price of cars. And I mean, it's crazy. I think, I mean, if you can do some, do your homework,
you might be able to find a good used vehicle that will still last and still run.
And if you gave a list too, I mean, on cool cars like for under like, you know, under 10K,
but like, God, my mind always goes to, I'm just one of those people that when I think of
like buying a new car, quote unquote, I always go used for whatever like the price point is.
Like I consider what used car can I look at for that price point before I, honestly,
before I even consider a new car. The end was the only car that, and again,
but it was, my car was used when I bought it, but you know, even that car, like I was like,
okay, I, you know, I could try and find like a 23 model and, you know, with no miles and,
and, you know, try and get that. But my mind went straight to like, okay, if I can find something
used that, you know, maybe has 5000 miles, maybe 10, like that's going to just save me so much
money. And it's still going to be a great experience. Yeah. The thing for me though,
was when I bought my first truck and this other truck, this new truck I have,
was that all of the incredibly good like interest rates are only available on the
new car and all the, all the rebates they give you and all the great deals and all the cool stuff.
It usually only works with like new vehicles. Yeah. And they even top off that 36 gallon tank,
but dude, they topped it off for free for me, man. They, when you buy a new car, they give you
a fault. They normally don't. Yeah. They use cars. They don't at all. Cause I bought my Z
used and I asked them for a tank of gas and I said, no, we don't do that. That's a used car.
I'm like, what's that you guys did? That's like, that's 40 or $50.
It's like, well, we still don't do that. Yeah. So, so nice that they washed it and filled it up
and even changed out the battery for me and all kinds of on my truck when I bought it.
And, and that was, that was great. When I bought my other, yeah, I say I'm buying new
vehicles. You get that and you get like no miles on it. I think my truck had like less than 20
miles on, when I bought it, it's whatever. He took it just, just to like do a few test
drives and the thing and take it off the delivery truck or whatever. So that is a cool
experience though. It is. It is. It is. It is super cool. You know, knowing that every mile is your
miles and that it's something you bought, you're the one that had it. So, you know, every, every
problem with the truck, every ding is your ding. It's your, it's your, it's your thing. Cause
when you buy a used car, even when I have my Z, it's like all these little quirks and
different things. Like what did he do here and what's this here? Did he fix this? Did
he not fix that? Is this damage from him or is it from me or whatever? It's like
dealing with other people's problems when you buy a used car. It is a good point, you know.
And I think it also depends what you use the car for it too, because if you know,
you're going to put like a ton of miles on it, on a car. Like if you do like say a traveling
salesman kind of job or something where you're like real estate or something you're,
when you're traveling a lot, you obviously can't lease a car because you're going to go way over
and miles on a lease. And if you buy a used car, you're going to put the thing,
put the thing in the grave early. And or you just going to have to deal with just,
you know, just headaches with, you know, with something that might not be as reliable as you
expect it to be as well. And, you know, and then yeah, when something does happen,
you're covering the costs. And yeah, I mean, that's a good point.
There's all these things to get a factor. And I was going to tell you that I think
there is like a mathematical formula to the sweet spot for when you actually buy
a used car. Like there's a spot where the depreciation hits a certain level
to where the car is still like considered in like kind of newish range still.
I think it's around maybe four years, maybe I'm thinking a four year, five year
with like 60,000 on the, on the, on the clock, you know, some, some around there,
maybe 50,000. Maybe if you can get around 50,000, five years old, maybe that's kind of like,
like the sweet range because that way it like it depreciated the most amount of the value.
I don't know, as a whole video I saw on this, like figure out the,
figure out the way to buy your best, best way to buy a used car, like what time and mileage to buy
a used car. Cause some of these used cars, like when you said, like the EV lost that much money
in one year. Now imagine in five years. Yeah. And you probably can get a really,
you probably get down for like maybe 30 grand. Yeah. You always wonder where the floor is for
something that something with 750 horsepower and like, you know, essentially a luxury truck.
But yeah, I see this, this always pops up in my head about how low can this really go before
it's just absolutely ridiculous. And you know, you're just, you're just like, you have to buy it.
Like, well, if you want to know the, the vehicle that like depreciates the most,
go look at used Range Rover's. Oh yeah. Yeah. They start at like 120 or whatever they are.
And then I see them for 10 grand, like 10 grand dude, but that thing will give you so many
nightmares. I've heard horror stories about Range Rover's and used Range Rover's always in the shop
and everybody's had one hates them and they're just money pits and after money pit. And that's
why that's why they dropped so much in value. You see, you'll see a lot of BMWs. Do you like,
I've seen some BMWs. Yeah. I was going to say BMWs, some older, you know, some older Mercedes.
Oh yeah. Like not even that old. We say older, not like that old.
Yeah. No. Yeah. 2014, 15. Yeah. And they're selling for like 10, 12 grand.
Yeah. That was like an $80,000 car. You know, so that's something you have to be really
consider when you buy something like that. And you have to like figure out why was this car,
you think it's a great deal. I'd be like, why is it a great deal? Yeah. You know,
you got to really scrutinize that. And it depends what you want to do with the car.
If you want to keep the car in the shop, make it a project car for the track or whatever,
fine, whatever, that probably some matter. But if you're actually going to depend on that car,
the drive 300 miles or whatever you got to do for your work or whatever you got to do,
that you might want something that's probably more reliable.
And yeah, that works best for you. So I'm glad that truck worked out for you, man.
Yeah. No, I had fun with it for sure. It was a cool experience. And yeah, you know, I,
I have been just kind of gotten a new found interest in, you know, kind of,
kind of the truck lifestyle a little bit. And, you know, down the road, I've always,
you know, said it, like, you know, there'll be a use for it, you know, something like that.
But we'll see if that time comes, if it would be an EV truck or whether I'd,
like I said, be getting a Raptor or something. Dude, you gotta get a Gen 1 Raptor.
If you can find one, the thing about my truck, what I kind of hate still even to today is
parking. I hate parking my truck because you can't, no, you got to,
I got to back it in every spot I go into. It's not because I'm trying to show off.
It's not because I'm trying to be cool. It's because the way the wheels are in the front
that the steering wheels are in the front. So when you back into a tight spot,
you're pivoting the rear of the vehicle in a tight maneuver. That's why forklifts,
when you go to like warehouses, the forklifts, the steering is always in the rear.
It's in the back. Yeah. Right. So they can pivot in tight little spots.
And so people get mad. Like, why are you back in the truck? And because it,
you literally can't nose it in at this approach. You can't unless I swing really,
really wide and there's not enough space to swing really, really wide. So I have to
back it in. So I do it, I back in it all the time. Do you have problems when you,
when you drove that thing, we have problems parking it?
No, well, no, not really. The one time where I was in downtown, because I was grabbing a quick
breakfast, I had the, and this is just a downtown issue mainly, but I did have to
parallel park and it's on a, be a busy one way street where there's a bunch of people
still coming actively while you're trying to park. And so I like kind of,
when I saw the spot, because I knew I was like, there weren't a lot.
I had to kind of go in a bit like nose first, but not fully because I knew I wasn't going to
be able to park it that way. But to allow like the cars behind me to go past, but then as I'm trying
to like come back out a little bit so that I can start to them back in and actually park properly,
you have to worry about all of the people that are in the lane next to you
that don't care at all that you're trying to park and they're just trying to go straight.
And, and at the whole time while you're trying to do this, the sensors in the car telling you
that like there's an approaching car coming, watch out. So you're getting dings and your seat
actually vibrates while you're doing this too. And so you're like trying to ignore all of that
because it's like, I know that that's happening, but I need to like go out so I can come back
in and park. And so once I actually like was able to angle it properly and come in,
the cameras just help it so much to be able to like get and get the right angle. You get,
you get the whole trajectory line in the, in the rear view and everything. And so
really I don't think it would be an issue in a normal situation, but
on a one-way street in downtown Sacramento was a stressful situation.
Well, what I've been doing is we went up a busy parking lot and I'm pulling up to a spot that
I'm going to back in. I got to swing out to the left so I can back in behind me, right?
And I'll turn my four-way flashers on to kind of learn people because people
try to sneak in behind you while you're backing up, which is totally dangerous.
Daring back into a spot, you're trying to like close the gap to me and the spot,
you're going to get hit. So that sometimes happens and sometimes people are like confused
that you're back in the vehicle and you think you're going to move it in or think you're
doing something else. So you kind of have to figure this out. I try to park away from other
cars. And if you see a spot that looks too small, like, I don't think I want that spot,
you know? So I would pass on that spot, you know, from time to time. So
it's a challenge and I'm sure places like Texas or Oklahoma that have like,
I'm sure lots of land and lots of places of park and stuff. I'm sure they don't no problem at all,
but out here in the city with some silly, yeah, city, city spots, although I did see raptors in
New York city in physically in New York city, parked on the side. Like you said,
parallel park, like you did in the side of these one way streets, they were parked there
and I take a picture. I couldn't believe it. I saw a full size gen three or gen two or
three raptor, the newer ones parked in New York city on those one way streets,
the tiny little streets parked on the side there. I was like, look, check this out.
They drive those trucks down here. They park them down here. Check that out.
Yeah. That's, yeah, that's, that's a feat right there for sure. Cause yeah, like I said,
it can be done and now it's modern, the modern tech, like it can make it a lot easier than it
would have been in the past, but, but it's something you used to, I get so frustrated
though. And you, when you mentioned, when you're in a parking garage or you're,
this is in a parking lot and you have somebody that's like, cause I, I mean, I always back
in even with my car just because it's just habit, you know, that's, that's just the car guy in me,
I guess you can say, but there's a, you know, you get those people that are always just like
right on you. And you know that it's going to be an issue when you actually find the spot,
because they're going to be too, when you actually go to like reverse in, they're going to be,
they're going to be too close and you know, they're not going to understand that you're
backing in. They're going to think you're doing something else. I've tried to like,
you know, now, like you said, put your flashers on to let people know that you're looking for
a spot. So they know to maybe like ease up and give you some space. But that's one of my biggest
frustrations is like people that are just in a rush and like a parking garage or a parking lot.
And you know, they, they just want to be on you and then like they get angry when now you're
trying to like, when they have to wait for you now or have to even back up a little bit so
you can get into a spot. And to your point, like, yeah, you try and like maybe park away
and give people their space and everything. But just a pet pee of mine, if you're in
parking lots, just chill. Like we're all going to find a spot eventually.
Right. Right. Right. No kid road rage and people that happens all the time, man. So
it's one of those things. But so the experience you went on out there before work and rented
the car, did you get some footage for your YouTube channel? I did. Yeah. I got a decent
amount. Yeah. Some good camera shots, a couple drone shots, actually. And it's really cool.
Like I wanted to just the, just a little, little heads up of the potential screenshot
as thumbnail is I found this like sort of industrial area. I think it was like maybe a
refinery or something out there that in the evening where it had like sort of the,
the smoke billowing out of like the chimneys and everything. And it's this cool shot that
I got with my drone with the Silverado EV next to kind of like the oil refinery with
like all of like the smoke coming out. And I thought it was maybe a nice contrast a little
bit. I would say, yeah, definitely. Definitely. Sure. But yeah, got some great footage. I'll
probably have to do some voiceover stuff to kind of, kind of collaborate everything in
terms of my thoughts overall. But yeah, I'm excited to pull something together.
Is it going to be like spread across multiple videos? Just one? No, it'll just be a
single video. And like I said, it'll be an experience or experiment with the channel
because, you know, when you change up anything with your natural flow at YouTube,
it really depends on how well it's received. So, you know, because it's going to be so
different from like my like last run of content over the last couple of months,
I have no idea how it's going to perform really. But I want to give it a shot because,
you know, I don't necessarily want to start getting into like full on car reviews,
but I want to have like that flexibility to every once in a while kind of throw in,
say a test driving experience or, you know, maybe sharing experience with driving,
like, you know, a friend's car, like my friend has an S15 Sylvia and he's talked about kind of
having a little video just driving his car and things like that. And so, you know,
just here and there, I want to have the flexibility to say like change up the car
of the channel and talk about something different. But I still obviously the core right now is
the end content. And so, like I said, taking a little bit of a risk, but I think it'll be
fun. You know, at the end of the day, you just kind of have to have to do things,
see how it's received and just keep moving. So I'm excited.
That's fantastic. Well, courage. I want to thank you once again for stopping by the,
you know, the CCC studios as we call around here.
And always a pleasure to be on.
Man, this has been fantastic. And once again, can you tell everybody
where they can find you and your YouTube channel?
Yeah. Oh, thanks for the plug. If you search up The Driven Dad,
The Driven Dad 22 will take you right there, but Driven Dad is the YouTube channel and also
on Instagram. Like I said, a lot of Elantra and content, but some other stuff on different
brands and just facts and things like that. So feel free to check it out.
Fantastic. And you listening at home, don't forget to check out
coolcarswithchris.com. Subscribe to this show. And if you could, it'd be so awesome
if you could leave a rating and review. Hopefully it's a five star. You know,
we're worth it. Come on now. And until next time, I'll catch you later.
About this episode
Courage shares his experience renting and driving the powerful 750HP Silverado EV on a trip from Sacramento to Oakland. The conversation dives into the realities of EV ownership, including charging costs, range anxiety, and tech features like Supercruise. They also discuss the challenges of driving and parking large trucks, the evolving truck lifestyle, and the economics of buying new versus used vehicles. Alongside car talk, they touch on content creation strategies for YouTube and social media, making this a blend of automotive insights and creator life.
Original notes
This week on Cool Cars with Chris, Courage is back from a business trip with something much more exciting than work updates β a test drive of the 750-horsepower Silverado EV RST.
From its whisper-quiet electric torque to the not-so-quiet charging bill, we dig into what itβs really like to live with a six-figure electric truck. Spoiler alert: $65 doesnβt get you a full charge, and range anxiety is still very real.
Plus, we go behind the scenes of YouTube content creation, why platform-specific content matters, and how captionsmight be the unsung hero of video growth.
π What We Cover in This Episode:
Renting the Silverado EV RST on Turo
Real talk: charging costs, public stations, and range expectations
Comparing Super Cruise vs Tesla Autopilot
Why the fake engine noise might actually be genius
Courageβs take on YouTube vs Instagram content
Best practices for short-form video, captions & cross-posting
A closer look at EV vs gas cost comparisons
Ride quality, interior space, and what makes this truck unique
The question we all asked: Why didnβt they call it the Avalanche?
- Is the Silverado EV worth over $100k?
π§ Perfect For:
Truck lovers curious about EVs
Anyone shopping for or renting an electric vehicle
Content creators figuring out cross-platform strategies
- Fans of behind-the-scenes YouTube workflow tips
- Listeners who like their auto talk real, raw, and road-tested
00:00 β ποΈ Intro & Courageβs Return
00:24 β π Renting the Silverado EV RST on Turo
01:00 β πΉ YouTube Content Strategy & Posting Cadence
03:00 β π± Instagram vs YouTube Shorts & TikTok Trends
06:00 β π¬ Importance of Captions in Short-Form Video
07:30 β π οΈ Podcast Production Checklist & AI Help
08:00 β βοΈ Sacramento Trip & Airport Talk
11:20 β β Charger EV Not Available β Here's Why
12:30 β π» First Impressions of the Silverado EV
13:45 β π The Fake Engine Noise Debate
15:20 β β‘ Power, Features & EV Truck Experience
18:20 β π£οΈ Long Drive Test: Sacramento to Oakland
21:30 β π§ Super Cruise vs Tesla Autopilot
22:00 β π Charging Experience with EVGo
24:00 β πΈ The Real Cost to Charge a Silverado EV
26:00 β β½ Gas vs EV: Cost Comparison Breakdown
29:00 β π¬ Range Anxiety is Real (Again)
32:00 β π¦ Storage, Frunk, and Backseat Setup
33:30 β π§ Why Didnβt Chevy Call it the Avalanche?
35:00 β π€ Final Verdict: Worth the Price?
36:00 β ποΈ Towing, Ride Quality & Everyday Use
40:00 β ποΈ Super Cruise Eye Tracking & Safety
42:00 β π Final Thoughts on EV Trucks Today
Silverado EV RST, electric truck review, 750 horsepower EV, EV truck charging cost, Super Cruise vs Tesla Autopilot, Turo EV rental experience, EV range anxiety, real world EV charging, Silverado EV interior features, YouTube content strategy, Instagram vs YouTube shorts, podcast for car enthusiasts, EV vs gas truck cost comparison, first time driving an electric truck, EV road trip experience, charging an EV truck, fake engine noise EV, Silverado EV Super Cruise, Cool Cars with Chris podcast, electric vehicle podcast episode.
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