Hairy Bikers and Other Petrol Heads

Dangerous Davies

Dangerous Davies

Western Thunderer
Nothing to do with cars but Mad Max wrote above:-

And when running with both electric and IC power it don't 'alf shift! :)

In the book 'the train doctor' the author mentioned that when the class 91s were introduced on the ECMR the DVTs were not ready so a class 43 HST was used as a DVT instead. The engine merely idled to keep the compressors etc. powered up. Then one day they decided to go the whole hog and get the 43 to earn its keep. The acceleration was improved significantly!

Dave
 
Max M

Max M

Western Thunderer
ICH60 said:
Was chatting to my local BMW garage manager and he was say that 90% of EV sales are to companies or businesses, due to the tax benefits The other 10% were sold to private buyers. Of the 10% half had return them and bought a ICE vehicle. Mainly due to lack of charging facilities. He was recommending me to buy a petrol version due to extra cost of a EV or hybrid out weighed the told running costs of petrol. you would have to cover around 70000miles to start making it worth while. He then went on to tell me that I couldn't order a new petrol version until start of 2024!
Go and look at a Tesla charging station and look at the Power cabinet and DC converters then you have the actual charging position. they take up lots of space. Where are they going to go in the city streets.
If you take a standard garage petrol station say my local Tescos they have 10 pumps. most have cars there for for 5 mins so if you say you have half full at any one time so thats approximately 300 cars per hour. Now say it takes an average 1hour to charge your car that would require 300 charging spaces. That is a lot of space.
Interestingly the chargers you find in Supermarket car parks most are not working. That is because the supermarket becomes liable for the maintenance after the first year, and they seemly not keen on spending money on them.
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I take the point regarding travelling long distances and have heard similar tales together with charging points that don't work and the need for different app's depending on whose owns the charger (although I believe the government are addressing this?).
Equally problematical is on street charging and access to it. I understand lamp posts and Telephone cabinets can be adapted and I've seen one version that was flush to the ground when not in use.
They go some way to address the issues but IMO it can't solve all of them...particularly if you are on the top floor of a high rise.

I don't know if the chargers at my local Tesco's work or not. I used them once while we shopped and on returning top the car we had an extra four miles. About enough to get us home. Decided that by the time I'd connected the car and logged in to their app it wasn't worth the hassle for such a small benefit.

Regarding the extra cost (of a PHEV)
The additional cost to was just over 3K.
As I mentioned in my previous post I estimate savings of around £670 p.a. which give a return on investment of over 20%.
If I could get anywhere near that on my other investments I would be a VERY happy bunny!
 
Eastsidepilot

Eastsidepilot

Western Thunderer
Well thanks for all your input guys all very interesting experiences regarding EV's, Hybrids etc.
As for weight the Jeep comes in at 2.5 ton already, one of the things that attracted me to it was that it is permanent AWD ( Jeeps Quadra -Trac II system) and makes for a very sure footed vehicle especially in winter, we get some nasty icy roads around here, not to mention the broken surfaces etc., and the Jeep takes it all in it's stride and in comfort also with air suspension
Judging by your comments I could be swayed by a hybrid version or hydrogen fuel which I mentioned in my previous post, but going by the comments on price for charging away from home and availability etc. I still will avoid a full blown EV for as long as I can, I'm 67 now and hopefully still have another 20 years of driving in me ( my Father was still driving at 90 and quite safely I might add ), so what comes our way over that coarse of time remains to be seen............. I'm gone !


:D
 
G

Genghis

Western Thunderer
My son has a 2 litre Toyota Corolla hybrid: gets about 65mpg round town and suitable for longer journeys too. Very nice car.

Dave
 
Neil

Neil

Western Thunderer
Allen M said:
Col
Are they road user friendly? :( Being the top side of 80 with a full licence for over 60 years I still expect car to make a sound. A few days ago I was pushing my supermarket trolley across the car park listening as much a looking for something moving. I almost stepped into the path of an electric car. I think they should make a 'proper' car noise at low speed to aid safety, especially for the visually impaired.

Regards
Allen
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I've noticed at low speeds when a modern petrol engined car is coasting or dawdling round a car park they make as little noise as an EV.
 
oldravendale

oldravendale

Western Thunderer
Now.... and entirely inappropriate for this forum so I'll retreat to the back of the class. Do I buy for Mrs D a Golf, a Skoda Fabia or hang on to the Honda Jazz - seven years old and 45K miles? I don't want an answer, sort of just putting it out there.:D

Oh, BTW, it'll also be driven by a Grumpy Old Man.

Brian
 
cmax

cmax

Western Thunderer
oldravendale said:
Now.... and entirely inappropriate for this forum so I'll retreat to the back of the class. Do I buy for Mrs D a Golf, a Skoda Fabia or hang on to the Honda Jazz - seven years old and 45K miles? I don't want an answer, sort of just putting it out there.:D

Oh, BTW, it'll also be driven by a Grumpy Old Man.

Brian
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If there's nothing wrong with the Jazz, you could save your money and keep it, if you fancy a change, either or, both good cars, it down to personal choice.

Gary
 
Max M

Max M

Western Thunderer
What to buy would be a personal choice. If you and your management have driven the Golf and Fabia how do they make you feel compared to the Honda?
If you both get a good feeling in one of them then buy it. If not keep the Honda.
 
simond

simond

Western Thunderer
Bearing in mind, of course that the Skoda is a VW (or vice versa if you prefer). The badges, (cachet, if you care for such things), and price are the differentiating factors. Excellent choices.

I have a great deal of respect for Mr Honda. Apart from learning a bit when Swindon was one of my customers, I have enjoyed three Honda cars and two motorbikes. They were all pretty much excellent, particularly the ST1100. And of course, the best selling vehicle of all time is a Honda step-thru. He didn’t achieve that by making shoddy vehicles.

So I guess its a case of what floats your boat. Enjoy!
 
Eastsidepilot

Eastsidepilot

Western Thunderer
Agree that Honda makes some good vehicles, I once bought a new 750 F2 back in '78, nice machine but I always seemed to revert to my preference for British twins, namely Tritons.
 
Mike W

Mike W

Western Thunderer
Easy choice that. Whichever is the cheaper - leaves more funds available for model railways?

Mike (who is just about to add a 20 year old Toyota to the family fleet because ... its cheap!)
 
G

Genghis

Western Thunderer
oldravendale said:
Now.... and entirely inappropriate for this forum so I'll retreat to the back of the class. Do I buy for Mrs D a Golf, a Skoda Fabia or hang on to the Honda Jazz - seven years old and 45K miles? I don't want an answer, sort of just putting it out there.:D

Oh, BTW, it'll also be driven by a Grumpy Old Man.

Brian
Click to expand...
Have a look at the newly revamped Toyota Corolla hybrid: getting good reviews. As I said before, my son has one which replaced his VW. Having had a series of VW group cars the Hill family have moved on following c**p service from the local dealer who showed zero interest when we tried to buy new replacements. As a fellow Grumpy Old Man I can vouch for the car, but it isn't as good as a Jag (yours or mine:D)

Dave
 
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