Car (or bike) Chat!

[Macca]

Supposed to be good cars. Looks pretty good for a modern car too.

20 years ago Kia sent me half a dozen vehicles, Santa Fes and Sorrentos, because they were trying to break into the rental market.

Punters were resistant at first as it was seen as a cheapo brand. Once they had them, that all changed, they thought they were wonderful. I got them all out on long-term leases.

[Ali Tait]

Yeah, certainly more reliable generally than the usual German marques.

[dave2010]

Found this on EVs - though definitely has a US slant.

https://qz.com/ev-electric-car-myths...nge-1851590326

Got our remaining petrol car MOTd recently, and drove it back from the garage yesterday. The Engine Management System seems to be reporting errors - and power seems way down.
I think it'll reset if driven a few miles, but not sure. It's a Peugeot 207cc with a fold down roof. Used to be nice.

Also used to be quite good on acceleration, IIRC, but compared with my EV it's now totally pathetic.

Trying to decide whether to tax it and run it for a while - then maybe sell it - or just keep it SORNed. If taxed and run etc., then the EMS might sort itself out, otherwise it'll rot in our drive until it's sold.

The idea of keeping it was that if the summer had been nice it might have been good to go out with the roof down - but most of the year hasn't been nice. Pity.

I also thought it would be useful for driving to the airport, and leaving it in the car park there for shortish trips, but now it seems it's usually cheaper to take a taxi - even though that's quite expensive.

[Macca]

Owning a convertible in Scotland doesn't seem like the best idea.

Bloke near me has an SLK early nineties one. As soon as he took the hard top off for the summer we had two weeks continual rain.

[dave2010]

Hiring an EV - absolute nightmare. virtually no help from car hire company - Herz - and getting charging to work is likely to be a complete pain.
Many public chargers in the SW of England and Wales are now a complete rip-off, and trying to get apps etc. in order to make things work, or get a sensible price is a bigger can of worms or sh*te than I’ve seen in a long time.

The total cost of a moderate amount of use is now likely to be more than most of the high end, expensive, gas guzzlers.

Probably have to use credit cards to pay, at least to keep the car going long enough to get it back to the starting point.

I hate smartphones and apps with an absolute vengeance!

[dave2010]

Owning a convertible in Scotland doesn't seem like the best idea.

Bloke near me has an SLK early nineties one. As soon as he took the hard top off for the summer we had two weeks continual rain.

A couple of years ago it was fine. Rainfall is mostly not much - somewhat surprisingly, though can get fine rain or “mist”. The last year and this one have been dire.

At least car now has a valid MOT, and still seems to go, though the EMS seems upset. Nothing like as fast as the Tesla M3, but doesn’t even seem as fast as it used to be before I changed the battery. Maybe it’ll settle down. Be a shame to let it go to rot altogether.

The MOTs seem to have changed too. I think it should have failed, but the certificate has some “minor” things which need attention “soon”, such as one tyre which I noticed is really in poor condition. I’m pretty sure that would have been a fail a few years ago, but I guess it’s buck passing. Getting a new tyre is not impossible, but lets the MOT assessor off the hook if it’s recorded. A few other items are similar, so will cost a few pounds to put right.

Presumably if I drive the car a lot without getting that tyre replaced it will invalidate the insurance - more buck passing.

Modern rip off world - do as little as possible - for as much as possible [in some cases] and make sure it’s someone else’s problem.

[Pigmy Pony]

A couple of years ago it was fine. Rainfall is mostly not much - somewhat surprisingly, though can get fine rain or “mist”. The last year and this one have been dire.

At least car now has a valid MOT, and still seems to go, though the EMS seems upset. Nothing like as fast as the Tesla M3, but doesn’t even seem as fast as it used to be before I changed the battery. Maybe it’ll settle down. Be a shame to let it go to rot altogether.

The MOTs seem to have changed too. I think it should have failed, but the certificate has some “minor” things which need attention “soon”, such as one tyre which I noticed is really in poor condition. I’m pretty sure that would have been a fail a few years ago, but I guess it’s buck passing. Getting a new tyre is not impossible, but lets the MOT assessor off the hook if it’s recorded. A few other items are similar, so will cost a few pounds to put right.

Presumably if I drive the car a lot without getting that tyre replaced it will invalidate the insurance - more buck passing.

Modern rip off world - do as little as possible - for as much as possible [in some cases] and make sure it’s someone else’s problem.

In a race from Inverness to London, my money would be on the SLK If you keep it you're ready for anything, including long distance emergencies.

[dave2010]

Finally got the Polestar 2 hire car charged up a bit. Real faff - totally …****. First tried a Tesla supercharger, which might have worked, but cable too short. Not able to get safely into a position which would work. The Tesla chargers don’t have long cables, so only really work for a few models which aren’t Teslas. In the interests of not driving round for ever, found a nearby 75kW charger which took the car from 59% to 90% charge, and took the range [estimated] from 159 to 220 - 61 miles for £17.90. A petrol car doing 30 miles per gallon would need a fraction over 2 gallons for that, and would probably cost less than £8 per gallon. On top of that I doubt that the car will work as efficiently as it claims, though might be better with the regenerative braking switched on. The default seems to have been with it turned off - and horrid to drive as no smooth braking. Much better with regen.

Very frustrating. I don’t think people should stick with petrol, but given the aggro of trying to get EVs charged up, I can’t blame others for sticking with petrol vehicles. There really does need to be much more support for EVs to get people to switch. Public charging and a fragmented market with different apps etc, and variable pricing are just going to p*** most people off trying.

Sure, some companies are putting in a lot of costly infrastructure, which should be paid for, but right now many will think it’s all a rip off.

[Macca]

The way it is going the commercial world will switch over to electric way before the private motorists.

There's tractor units now will do 250 miles on a charge with a load. Won't cover every purpose but they reckon about 70% of runs.

Renault have a factory turning one out every 4 hours, all individually customised.

Plus legislation coming in to push the reluctant firms to start moving that way.

[dave2010]

The way it is going the commercial world will switch over to electric way before the private motorists.

There's tractor units now will do 250 miles on a charge with a load. Won't cover every purpose but they reckon about 70% of runs.

Renault have a factory turning one out every 4 hours, all individually customised.

Plus legislation coming in to push the reluctant firms to start moving that way.

Do you mean lorry tractors for pulling trailers? Wouldn’t turnaround time be difficult, unless there’s some form of battery swapping. Maybe that’s the way commercial driving will go.

Could indeed be sensible and a significant proportion of trade and energy consumption to optimise, and a welcome reduction in pollution may result.