Car (or bike) Chat!

[Marco]

You see, I like black wheels and blacked out windows, which I don't think is chav on a class car (and yes the Peugeot comes into that category), just makes it look bad-ass... A 'pimped up' Honda Civic or Ford Focus, perhaps.

Nothing wrong with French either, *if* it's good. The only French car I've really liked though, was the Citroen DS - now THAT was a class act and stylish as fuck, not to mention way ahead of its time!

Marco.

[Beobloke]

Big Citroens are the exception in my book. I’m a big fan of the DS, CX, SM and even the unloved XM! I wouldn’t touch any other French cars with a barge pole.

Then again, I suppose I’m not really arguing from a position of strength given that my Range Rover is now in its third week at the garage whilst they try to solve an electrical fault that is proving somewhat elusive...

[Ali Tait]

I'm not sure whether I like it or hate it... The colour is quite cool (dull/brutal shades are 'me'), nothing that looks too 'cheery', as I like cars to look 'menacing' and purposeful, but I'm unsure about the rest.

20" wheels on an estate car? Fake 'sporty sounds', to make it sound 'racy' and anyway most of all, what do the French know about making sports cars, or anything purporting to be such?

I'd need to drive it to form any kind of proper opinion, plus I'm not a fan of hybrids either. And only a 1.6L engine? For a staunch '3L or nowt' man, a tad weedy... Still, it's an interesting option to consider, which is a bit different from the norm, and that's something the French (and Italians) are good at

Marco.

Well like it or not, smaller engines are the way it's going. Does have it's upsides- with the hybrid its 360bhp and a claimed 130 odd mpg- even if you get half that its still a great figure. To me it looks a great compromise for a family man that also wants a drivers car.

[struth]

Well like it or not, smaller engines are the way it's going. Does have it's upsides- with the hybrid its 360bhp and a claimed 130 odd mpg- even if you get half that its still a great figure. To me it looks a great compromise for a family man that also wants a drivers car.

yes i think the days of big engines are dying and of course all engines eventually if this govt has its way. this i dont agree with, as if they can make ice cars clean enough the along with hybrid tech it should be an option... and may well still be.

a few potential options ive looked at(on line) today are, Skoda- kamiq,Karoq and Kodiaq.. Vw- Tiguan.. Ford- Puma. The Petol version of the Peugeot- 2008.

[dave2010]

yeah the problem with full electric is finding fast chargers on big runs on motorways that are working and dont have a 10 car queue. petrol of course is plentiful at any station. no doubt its getting better but is it good enough yet? not that i travel much tbh but its offputting to only have one 100kw charger in a hundred miles and its not working

How big do you need it to be? Also, how far would you normally go in a day? Someone we know bought a small Toyota electric - think it was a Yaris - and says it's great. However we inherited a Yaris (petrol) which we didn't like much, and we eventually used that in part exchange for the Prius - which was in many ways brilliant. If you're not going fully electric I'd suggest sticking with hybrids (petrol). There are also the plug-in hybrids (also petrol, but larger batteries) - but the downside of those is that often they have smaller room or luggage space. I took a Prius hybrid - which I really liked - out on a test drive, but it was one of the models which sacrificed a seat and too much other space for the batteries. Some people I know with plug-in hybrids say they're really good - but that's really if you're only doing about 20-30 miles/day round trip. Small electrics are good for 100 miles/day round trip, and I've met a fair number of people now who've got old Nissan Leafs- presumably cheaply - and use them as runabouts. OTOH those are pretty useless for going more than 100 miles. Getting a "decent" electric with a reasonable range is still too expensive for most sane people.

If you've really gone off Toyota then look around, though I'd suspect they're still about the best for hybrids.

Probably the most sensible mid range EV is the Kia e-Niro - though I've not done a test drive of one of those yet.

[struth]

How big do you need it to be? Also, how far would you normally go in a day? Someone we know bought a small Toyota electric - think it was a Yaris - and says it's great. However we inherited a Yaris (petrol) which we didn't like much, and we eventually used that in part exchange for the Prius - which was in many ways brilliant. If you're not going fully electric I'd suggest sticking with hybrids (petrol). There are also the plug-in hybrids (also petrol, but larger batteries) - but the downside of those is that often they have smaller room or luggage space. I took a Prius hybrid - which I really liked - out on a test drive, but it was one of the models which sacrificed a seat and too much other space for the batteries. Some people I know with plug-in hybrids say they're really good - but that's really if you're only doing about 20-30 miles/day round trip. Small electrics are good for 100 miles/day round trip, and I've met a fair number of people now who've got old Nissan Leafs- presumably cheaply - and use them as runabouts. OTOH those are pretty useless for going more than 100 miles. Getting a "decent" electric with a reasonable range is still too expensive for most sane people.

If you've really gone off Toyota then look around, though I'd suspect they're still about the best for hybrids.

Probably the most sensible mid range EV is the Kia e-Niro - though I've not done a test drive of one of those yet.

hi dave, cheers for that info... size is about boot and mostly door and seat height. im not very flexible physically so it needs a decent height door to get in and seat needs to both not be too far down or at an angle as leg wont go past horizontal.

this leaves me mostly with suvs and xovers etc. the chr is probably the lowest i can do, and a little taller might be good as my neck is now less flexible than when i leased it. ive gone off the lekky as there isnt many service station fast chargers that i can see. if i want to then go out for day im probably stuck with 80miles each way charge before it goes dead....then where are you? at least with petrol for now anyway thee are pumps on motorways all over the shop.
as much as i would like an e vehicle, its just not advanced enough for longer runs. i might not do many or any but i wouldnt want to be put off by it.

[Marco]

Well like it or not, smaller engines are the way it's going. Does have it's upsides- with the hybrid its 360bhp and a claimed 130 odd mpg- even if you get half that its still a great figure. To me it looks a great compromise for a family man that also wants a drivers car.

Yes I have some sympathy with that view, although cars with big engines, for those who want them, will be around for sometime yet, both new and on the second-hand market

As for whether the Peugeot is a 'driver's car' or not, remains to be seen and would need to be assessed with a test drive

Marco.

[Ali Tait]

Yeah, but Peugeot do have a long history of hot hatches, so I'd bet on it being pretty decent.

I prefer a bigger engine myself. :-)

[struth]

The inside of the Peugeot.

[dave2010]

Hi Grant,

Not sure if the Renault Zoe would be suitable - if you wanted to try an EV. It's arguably one of the best small ones with a fairly upright driving position, and it'll just about do 200 miles in a day - though the range appears to depend on the weather. That would typically cost you about £10 - or less - with a battery pack rated at around 50 kWh and assuming a max price of 20p per kWh. In most petrol cars that'd probably need at least 4 gallons - today's cost maybe about £25. Of the bigger EVs, very few have anything like the combination of range and space, plus presumably affordability, which I think you'd need.

I don't know much about your purchasing - you could get a very good second hand petrol car for less than a cheap new EV.
In Scotland you can get an interest free loan for 6 years for an EV - but dealing with the organisation which processes those is a bit of a PITA.

One thing I really don't know about most of the EVs - and maybe someone here would know - is what kind of gearbox - if any - they have? I think the Zoe has a fairly standard type of variable gearbox - though one is more or less completely unaware of it when driving. Possibly some of the others have some form of electric variable speed motor, though maybe they do still need a gearbox to cope with the range of speeds. Of course a petrol or diesel car needs a gearbox as there isn't enough torque at very low engine speeds, so normally the lower speeds are at least 1000 rpm, which would usually get a car up to 20-30 mph - by which time the engine will be revolving faster, and need a gear change. Electric motors might well be able to operate from very low rotational speeds, and then by circuit and winding changes goup to much higher rotational speeds, thus reducing the need for a gearbox to match the motor speed to the road speed.

I really don't know - maybe someone else here does.

For your purposes I really think you might be best to stick with the devil you know - even if not perfect. I was really sad to lose my Prius. How many miles do you think you'd want to do a year?