You Really Want Electric Cars?

LCPete said:
One of my favourite cars we’ve had was the Renault 19 16v that had over 100K miles on it when we got it was an excellent car that was great to drive only had minor issues with it
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Yep. Had one of them. Great car.
 
Jelster said:
I had a citroen BX as a company car years ago, and it was bloody awful. The Mk3 Cavalier it replaced was brilliant by comparison. Having been an apprentice mechanic at a Simca/Peugeot dealership, I had plenty of experience with their whacky examples. I just dislike most of the current French cars, and my experience of the cockpits of them are harsh plastics and uncomfortable seats.

I consider myself a bit of a petrolhead, and struggle to have any affinity with French cars in general (the Alpine 110 excluded). Just my opinion.
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Bobsyeruncle said:
I had a Peugeot 405 Mi16 as a company car in the early 90's.
It was fun to drive....:police:
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I had a BX19 GTI. It was bloody awful, noisy, slow, unreliable, a real pos.
How the BX and the Pug, with the same engine could be so different is staggering.
 
Cockney said:
I had a BX19 GTI. It was bloody awful, noisy, slow, unreliable, a real pos.
How the BX and the Pug, with the same engine could be so different is staggering.
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I don't think the engines were identical.
The citreon was a 1905cc and the Peugeot was a 1998cc
 
Bobsyeruncle said:
I don't think the engines were identical.
The citreon was a 1905cc and the Peugeot was a 1998cc
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I thought the were basically the same block from the group. I may well be wrong.
Either way the BX19 GTI 16 was a real dog.
 
LCPete said:
One of my favourite cars we’ve had was the Renault 19 16v that had over 100K miles on it when we got it was an excellent car that was great to drive only had minor issues with it
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I had the one with a boot, which I thought was better looking. The Chamade or something like. Engine spun like a turbine.
 
LCPete said:
One of my favourite cars we’ve had was the Renault 19 16v that had over 100K miles on it when we got it was an excellent car that was great to drive only had minor issues with it
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I had one of those, it had 'water cooled' fuel injectors when the gasket on the bonnet scoop failed, allowing water to drip all over the top of the engine when it rained. Other than that it was fun to drive....but the Volvo T5R estate that replaced it was even better.
 
Cockney said:
I had the one with a boot, which I thought was better looking. The Chamade or something like. Engine spun like a turbine.
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Same here. We took ours on a road trip to Norway. We met a family in a big posh BMW while we were there, the 'lady' of the family made a disparaging remark about the 'little' car we had, later it transpired that they were terrified of the Norwegian roads in their 'big' car, while we had a ball on the mountain roads.
 
C'mon chaps - keep things on topic. We're supposed to be discussing electric cars and problems, not old French cars . . . :rolleyes:
 
Sky said:
C'mon chaps - keep things on topic. We're supposed to be discussing electric cars and problems, not old French cars . . . :rolleyes:
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This is electric and has four three wheels. Does it meet your requirements? :naughty:

Electric milk float in snow at Swindon E20 2050007.jpg
 
Sky said:
C'mon chaps - keep things on topic. We're supposed to be discussing electric cars and problems, not old French cars . . . :rolleyes:
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OK, I have a new Honda Jazz Hybrid e:HEV, it drives like an EV, can be driven in single pedal mode but having 2 electric motors and a petrol engine with 40l fuel tank I don't suffer from range anxiety and can average >70MPG urban driving.... On a recent trip to a nearby shopping mall (20 mile round trip) the trip computer recorded 99MPG.

It has a 'smart' powertrain; it will seemlessly run in pure EV mode from battery; it will run in electric mode with the petrol engine acting as a generator, or it will run in petrol mode with the petrol engine driving the road wheels directly. Flooring the accelerator gets both electric and petrol drive. The transmission has a 'B' mode which means more aggressive brake regeneration to charge the battery .

It's the best car I have ever driven in stop/start urban traffic and in traffic jams........
 
AndrewFlannigan said:
I think that will depend on the market and the marketing.

Who could have predicted the enormous success of Citroen's 2CV, if they assumed that all cars had to offer the same facilities as the then current Rover? Selling a product depends on identifying what a group of customers want and what they're prepared to pay.
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over in Greece when I was looking at cars to buy last year a lot of the basic cars are extra basic for that reason , most of the bottom range cars have manual wind windows and a very basic stereo , steel wheels with old school wheel trims , basic cloth seats are normal , all the crap in UK cars is to pander the market , over in Greece most people want basic cheap reliable transport. I think if Europe could come up with a very cheap and basic electric car for a low price it would take off , so many people near my house in Crete are fitting solar cells and panel systems as well .
 
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Mr Bump said:
so many people near my house in Crete are fitting solar cells and panel systems as well .
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And hot air balloons or airships to get out there to save burning all that ( approx 1 gallon every second) Kerosene (y)
 
A lot of money is being spent including safety features to meet UK, EU & NCAP tests, things like extra airbags, automatic emergency braking, speed limiters, lane keeping, intelligent cruise control. these require cameras, radar, sensors all of which add to the cost. EVs need them just like ICE cars.
 
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broc said:
A lot of money is being spent including safety features to meet UK, EU & NCAP tests, things like extra airbags, automatic emergency braking, speed limiters, lane keeping, intelligent cruise control. these require cameras, radar, sensors all of which add to the cost. EVs need them just like ICE cars.
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true but a lot of that stuff is just really cheap electronics that just bolt on to existing systems in fact most of the things you have mention are just extras in the ICU with a few extra sensors and buttons on the stalk.
 
I think I've decided that now isn't the right time to buy a car. I think I'll put the idea on hold in the hope that the world will return to normal but with every day that passes I think I believe a little less that that'll actually happen.
 
woof woof said:
I think I've decided that now isn't the right time to buy a car. I think I'll put the idea on hold in the hope that the world will return to normal but with every day that passes I think I believe a little less that that'll actually happen.
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oh the oil/gas thing hasn't peaked yet for sure.
Russia will continue to batter Ukraine for a good 6 months I think.
Food prices will be next to explode.
 
I've had my Audi Q4 E-Tron just under 4 months and so far it has been great. I love driving it. I've done just under 7000 miles so far. For a big heavy car it's fairly quick off the mark.
I'm lucky as there's a car park with several chargers near my house and they're all free.
My 7000 miles has so far only cost me £75 :cool:
 
broc said:
OK, I have a new Honda Jazz Hybrid e:HEV, it drives like an EV, can be driven in single pedal mode but having 2 electric motors and a petrol engine with 40l fuel tank I don't suffer from range anxiety and can average >70MPG urban driving.... On a recent trip to a nearby shopping mall (20 mile round trip) the trip computer recorded 99MPG.

It has a 'smart' powertrain; it will seemlessly run in pure EV mode from battery; it will run in electric mode with the petrol engine acting as a generator, or it will run in petrol mode with the petrol engine driving the road wheels directly. Flooring the accelerator gets both electric and petrol drive. The transmission has a 'B' mode which means more aggressive brake regeneration to charge the battery .

It's the best car I have ever driven in stop/start urban traffic and in traffic jams........
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Waiting for our HR-V (6 month lead time) The spec is very similar to your Jazz. Really looking forward to driving it.

Anthony
 
broc said:
A lot of money is being spent including safety features to meet UK, EU & NCAP tests, things like extra airbags, automatic emergency braking, speed limiters, lane keeping, intelligent cruise control. these require cameras, radar, sensors all of which add to the cost. EVs need them just like ICE cars.
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All these features aren't needed, better driver training would help make cars safer, as making cars smaller would lessen car park bumps?
 
broc said:
A lot of money is being spent including safety features to meet UK, EU & NCAP tests, things like extra airbags, automatic emergency braking, speed limiters, lane keeping, intelligent cruise control. these require cameras, radar, sensors all of which add to the cost. EVs need them just like ICE cars.
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mj4456 said:
All these features aren't needed, better driver training would help make cars safer, as making cars smaller would lessen car park bumps?
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TBH I agree, it seems all these are just one step up from the man with the red flag ;)
 
Cobra said:
TBH I agree, it seems all these are just one step up from the man with the red flag ;)
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Road deaths in the UK dropped from 7,985 in 1966 to 1,792 in 2016. Over the same period, car travel doubled from roughly 350,000,000,000 passenger kilometers per year to roughly 700,000,000,000 passenger kilometers per year

The reasons are debated but a decrease of 77.5% in deaths against an increase of roughly 100% in travel seems significant to me.
 
Cobra said:
TBH I agree, it seems all these are just one step up from the man with the red flag ;)
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The problem is all these things make cars heavier, so more inertia, so more power at impact, so more safety gear needed.
I remember when you could push a car to a petrol station.
You ain't pushing my Mazda anywhere.
 
Cockney said:
The problem is all these things make cars heavier, so more inertia, so more power at impact, so more safety gear needed.
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It cuts down on the 0-60 times too.
Thankfully my car has very little of that stuff, OK so I have ABS and a limited slip-dif but that's about it. :D
 
I think my MX5 is 21 years old now. That must be good for the environment.

There you go Brian. Tell the Mrs an MX5 is the responsible and sustainable environmental choice.
 
Way back in 2018 I failed to convince my wife we needed an MX-5, she said it was too low & too difficult to get out of. Changing tack I managed to convince her a Mini Cooper S convertible would be a better choice for taking our young granddaugher out for trips & she would love the roof down experience. It worked........
 
broc said:
Way back in 2018 I failed to convince my wife we needed an MX-5, she said it was too low & too difficult to get out of. Changing tack I managed to convince her a Mini Cooper S convertible would be a better choice for taking our young granddaugher out for trips & she would love the roof down experience. It worked........
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Looks like you made a sensible compromise.

I've only had one partner who liked sportscars, she did the timing at the local race track. All the others thought they were stupid and the wind and drips and getting their hair messed up with the top down never convinced them otherwise. Mrs WW just about tolerates my MX5 but she really doesn't like the top being down.
 
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woof woof said:
Looks like you made a sensible cmpromise.

I've only had one partner who liked sportscars, she did the timing at the local race track. All the others thought they were stupid and the wind and drips and getting their hair messed up with the top down never convinced them otherwise. Mrs WW just about tolerates my MX5 but she really doesn't like the top being down.
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The Mini was a hoot to drive, with a 2litre Turbo delivering 190BHP and gokart handling I found it more fun than the latest MX-5 .

I have had a few convertibles, my wife hated the Z4 I had, she described it as a 'silly little car'. She was more tolerant of the 320i & 428i hard top convertibles I had later. After the 428i I had a spell with SUVs but in 2018 decided I wanted a convertible again & bought the Mini.

No more convertibles for me now though, sadly I need to avoid exposure to the sun.
 
The fun car is Mrs Nod's. However, mine's faster and the bikes are even more fun! Even the electric car is a fair bit of fun, especially away from the lights.
 
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