The Car Thread: Mark III

[Finsbury Girl]

My 2 bob after spending a weekend driving around BrisVegas (Brisbane) in a Tesla Model 3. Now obviously driving around old Blighty is massively different but some things will be the same.

Not gonna lie, the driving experience of a Telsa is awesome once you get used to it. I had to turn on "roll" as it was just too weird to stop dead after you took your foot off the accelerator. Not having the speedo in front of you was a pain as well. But man it went like a "shower of ****" , acceleration is just awesome and handling is on the money.

Getting in and out and starting the car was a bit annoying, you have to tap your card on the pillar to open the door and then tap on the console and was a bit fiddly. I prefer to open the door get in put foot on brake and push a button. But this is all stuff you will get used to.

I drove around a fair bit, Brisbane is about twice as big as Metro London, and I drove across and back of it a lot and I went about half way to Toowoomba as well so I suppose going from Central London to Godalming ish. So a good mix of highway, freeway and ****ty central traffic. My main concern was always charge. I tend to be on the safe side and preferred >50% charge. Range was good I won't lie BUT the number of times I went to go to a charger and it was already taken was like 90% of the time. And they tended to be in the most annoying places to get to. Honestly the stress and hassle of driving to like 5 different chargers to get one that was available more than took away the joy to drive.

If you had a tesla wall at home and puttered around west London all good you'd have no dramas. Get out on the m1 for extended periods and I'd be planning my route very carefully indeed as well as being super patient to find a charging station.

[Finsbury Girl]

I've got to say, and I have zero agenda here, that video test was right in the middle of the stock broker belt, encompassing some of the wealthiest areas in Surrey, it is absolutely not going to be representative of other parts of the UK.

[Neon Ignition]

*Checks ZapMap* Yep, definitely not going EV any time soon

[QualityChimp]

*Checks ZapMap* Yep, definitely not going EV any time soon

Good shout - looks like there's loads on my daily commute, plus they have units at work and we'd get one at home too.

[Neon Ignition]

Yep, our whole town looks like it has around 8 with the nearest being in a public car park several miles away from our home, I'm familiar with it too so know it only has two charge points. The way our house is located there's no way to charge a car from an outlet from it either, our rear yard is closed and the gate exits to a passage leading to our parking spaces that are two houses distance away. The front of the house opens onto a main road where because it's also opened onto a marina rarely see's a free space let alone the practical issues. Given we do high mileage (currently close to clipping the 125,000 mile count after 8 yrs) we'll go second hand, something where the cost isn't too much of a concern with EV options being a more long term consideration, likely till the tech progresses much further on charging speeds etc.

[Anpanman]

As QC says car decisions are personal to the individual, there's no one size fits all.

Sister has a Merc EV and loves it whereas every manager at work I know doesn't like the range at all on their company EV's - most have gone Audi. In the past they could get around their patch with a diesel without fuelling now they have to stop at least once to top up particularly in winter when range really drops, add to that using the extra toys like pre-heating the car from your phone while you eat your brekkie in the house all eats into your mileage.
Don't get me started on availability of traction batteries should you need one, particularly for an early model EV.

Toyota looks to have a better solution coming;

https://media.toyota.co.uk/toyota-sets-out-advanced-battery-technology-roadmap/

We wouldn't have an issue with a home charger but for now an EV doesn't sit with me, it is exciting that a few of us are looking at a new car, am interested to hear how we all get on in pursuing our next vehicle.

PCP's I believe can affect your pension - my favourite current subject in the whole wide world!

[QualityChimp]

in winter when range really drops, add to that using the extra toys like pre-heating the car from your phone while you eat your brekkie in the house all eats into your mileage.

These are all things I've been worried about too, which is why I asked friends for some real world experience.

The pre-heat thing, if you're plugged in at home, it takes it from the grid.
If you're not, it does it gradually, rather than one massive battery draining blast.
Others said they put the heater on and in a few minutes it's warm anyway and you turn it off. Just like a fuel car!
Another said they've said it's knocked only a few miles off the total distance.
Another agreed and said "or put a jumper on", which sounds daft, but a fair point as you'd have done that in a fuel car as they don't preheat at all!

I don't think EV cars are a solution to every problem, but it does feel like there's lots of urban myths and the people who have taken the plunge, on the whole, seem pleased to have done so.

[CMcK]

There is a lot of nonsense spoken and accepted as truth about EVs. After 2.5 years with one running around Scotland, Wales and England I can honestly say most of those myths are false.
And Toyota need to shut up about these amazing batteries that are just around the corner. They’ve been saying it for years with nothing to show. It’s a tactic to keep people buying their hybrids until they get the finger out on the BEV front.

[Anpanman]

Yes I think the jury is out on EV's, nice to hear other real world usage from CMcK though.

[Wools]

I've had a positive experience of owning an EV, so far!

Before my EV, I used to own a BMW M2 Competition and adored driving it for the 4 years I had it but last year, it had its first big service and the car came out of warranty. While wondering whether to keep it, I thought I'll try some EV's and took out the Fiat 500e Abarth, the MG-3 and Cupra Born. All were interesting cars to drive in their own way but I didn't love any of them.

I've always admired Tesla's but Elon Musk and his fan base revolt me, so never considered one. But while debating my next car, I noticed my local Tesla Guildford had a 0% interest deal on. Which was a PCP deal for cars in stock only (You can't spec one) but then at 0% for the life of my deal. I thought I should try a Tesla Model 3 and took one out for an hour test drive. The difference in look, feel, technology and range was night and day towards the other EV's I tried. So I picked mine up late last Summer and have hit around 3K Miles now. I don't commute for work and haven't yet installed a wall box, so all my miles are social and I've only ever charged on a Tesla Supercharger, never used a 3 pin plug.

I've been on 2 driving holidays with Mrs Wools, drive most weekends and bumble about around town sometimes during the working week, with the local Super Charger station around 9 miles away. Never been caught short while travelling and the car has been beautiful to drive. I'm a real petrol head so do miss a manual car which had road presence, being lucky enough to own a few performance cars in my time, but the Tesla has been a great experience overall. It wafts everywhere as it's so peaceful to drive, the range is true and it's not yet put a foot wrong. I can imagine I'll have to install a wall charger if I had to start commuting but for now, I really don't need a home charge station.

Big thumbs up from me!

[fishbowlhead]

Better than my sisters recent experience with an EV. She got given one as a curtesy car after someone rear ended her car, the EV drained itself whilst she was in the supermarket with the kids, very odd she thinks as she was charging it up whilst she was shopping. Turns out someone tamper with the charger a few days before but it would still show as charging and take your money, just not output anything to the vehicle.

Since they didn’t provide a home charger for it, the hire company had to have it towed and a new petrol car delivered since the battery was completely dead with no residual.

EV’s are awesome.

[CMcK]

How did the car drain itself?
Bad crack from the hire company not to provide a home charging cable though. Surprised there wasn’t one in the car anyway.

[QualityChimp]

So we went for a test drive in a Cupra Born, which was a lovely car but it was a bit bigger than we wanted.
We both found it a bit counter-intuitive to drive and some odd design choices like AC is ONLY controlled on the touch screen and I found it to be a bit laggy and imagined crashing whilst cycling through 5 laggy screens just to turn the heater down.
The volume on the wheel is touch-sensitive and just gripping the wheel turned the radio up.

The salesman was a bit of a knob too, which didn't help!

Then we'd booked for another drive in the E-208 at a Peugeot event.
We were actually an hour late as the Cupra visit had taken longer to get to/from, but that totally worked in our favour as they were 2 sales short of their target and throwing everything at us!

We took the car for a test drive each and both found it a much more intuitive drive.

So we've gone for it!

So, we've made a bit of a compromise in that it's the new exterior but the old interior (physical dials, not a 3D screen, smaller entertainment screen), but the price was impossible to ignore.
It's about half the monthly price of the Born and twice the price of a used 5-year old Corsa at Car Warehouse.
They've thrown in servicing, breakdown assistance, the colour we wanted and they're even installing the rear parking camera.

We had Octopus Energy come over on Saturday morning and install the charger, which seems really clever and easy to control (lock when away, only charge when cheap etc.). Then in the afternoon, we took the old Fiat 500 to We Buy Any Car and I'll be honest, despite the new clutch, I feel we robbed them considering all the work that needs doing and that covers 3 payments towards the new car.

The new car has arrived at the garage and they're doing the checks and adding the plates and hopefully installing the cameras.
They sent a video of it and it's all starting to feel real now!

There's always something better, but this seems like a brilliant meeting of specs, availability and monthly payments.

[fishbowlhead]

How did the car drain itself?
Bad crack from the hire company not to provide a home charging cable though. Surprised there wasn’t one in the car anyway.

She could hear a fan on somewhere but couldn't switch it off nor find where exactly it was coming from, she suspects it was that, plus the car only turned up with 40% battery as well, really poor showing form the hire company, it did literally 5 miles before letting her down.

[CMcK]

Weird. Even if the demister was on full bore it should still last hours with a 40% charge.

Post some photos of the new wheels when you can QC.