EVs anyone?

[MattyP]

I've been reading through this thread with interest. Really like the idea of an electric car.

Have a few problems though in that I don't live in a house with a drive at the moment and won't for the foreseeable future (terraced house in a long block of terraced houses!). Guess I could always find a charging place somewhere to leave it overnight etc.

At the moment we have two petrol fuelled cars. But would really love to swap one of those for a local runabout electric car. I make the odd long distance trip during the year so for holidays etc which I have to pack for a family so the larger petrol car would need to stay for a bit.

Think a lot of these "problems" aren't really problems its about changing your mindset around how you travel and doing a bit more planning etc. I'm hoping that we get "charge parks" built near estates like mine where you can park and charge overnight. Which would be one solution. Or have on street charging posts or something.

Generally is exciting times though love all this new electric car tech. Went to a bubble car museum a few days back and there was a Sinclair C5 in there. He was so ahead of his time Sir Clive... just not enough cash to realise his ambitions I guess.

[Cloudane]

Yeah some local businesses are popping up around the country doing street chargers etc but we need something consistent really. Not THAT many of us have driveways, and I happen to have privileged living arrangements myself.

It is doable if you have nearby rapid charging as you can just go use that once a week or whatever but you'd want it to be a few reliable ones, not one ropey old council funded one that is always occupied or broken.

Other than that it's fine, you easily get used to planning, and there'll be less and less need for that as batteries get bigger and rapid chargers become more widespread.

[matt303]

I wasn't planning on changing the ZS EV just yet but a test drive in the MG4, catching the end of the current silly money being offered for used EVs and lucked into a cancelled order so no 16 week wait so switched to a MG4 SE SR. So just the standard spec and the 51kWh LFP battery, it's returning around 200 miles estimated range in the current weather so should be a 250+ mile car in summer at least. Drives really nice, about 170bhp and rear wheel drive.

[Dio]

It's not just used EVs. All second hand prices are insanity. They just gave me £9k trade in for a nearly 9-year-old car, low mileage but scratched to hell by the kids' bikes, with four kerbed alloys and probably needing new rear brake discs. In the five and a half years I had that it certainly cost me more in servicing, insurance and tyres.

[Rhythm]

It's not just used EVs. All second hand prices are insanity. They just gave me £9k trade in for a nearly 9-year-old car, low mileage but scratched to hell by the kids' bikes, with four kerbed alloys and probably needing new rear brake discs. In the five and a half years I had that it certainly cost me more in servicing, insurance and tyres.

Just sold my 5 year old Peugeot 3008 for over £12k. Paid £18k new and it's not in the best of shape.

Used the same company to quote for my GF's Hyundai i10. 3 years old, she paid £8.5k for it. Offers coming in from dealers at above £9k. It's crazy

[zip accident]

It's not just used EVs. All second hand prices are insanity. They just gave me £9k trade in for a nearly 9-year-old car, low mileage but scratched to hell by the kids' bikes, with four kerbed alloys and probably needing new rear brake discs. In the five and a half years I had that it certainly cost me more in servicing, insurance and tyres.

Just sold my 5 year old Peugeot 3008 for over £12k. Paid £18k new and it's not in the best of shape.

Used the same company to quote for my GF's Hyundai i10. 3 years old, she paid £8.5k for it. Offers coming in from dealers at above £9k. It's crazy

It's inflation. You young folks just don't remember the '70's. So long as new car prices are more, the indudtry won't care.

[Rhythm]

It's inflation. You young folks just don't remember the '70's. So long as new car prices are more, the indudtry won't care.

Chip/parts shortage is bumping up prices of cars, so used prices are higher too.

Even aside from that I got lucky when I bought my 3008. Listed at £21k, bought for £18k, then 6 months later the same car was being sold at £27k because Peugeot realised how popular it was.

Similar with the i10 - GF bought hers when the list price was £9995, but the starting price for them has increased to £12k, hence she can now sell her 3 year old car for more than she paid

[zip accident]

It's inflation. You young folks just don't remember the '70's. So long as new car prices are more, the industry won't care.

Chip/parts shortage is bumping up prices of cars, so used prices are higher too.

Even aside from that I got lucky when I bought my 3008. Listed at £21k, bought for £18k, then 6 months later the same car was being sold at £27k because Peugeot realised how popular it was.

Similar with the i10 - GF bought hers when the list price was £9995, but the starting price for them has increased to £12k, hence she can now sell her 3 year old car for more than she paid

You may have been lucky, but if you can't buy new for what you get selling the old, it's just inflation like it used to be, which was terrible and annoying, but at the time you got used to it.

[Dio]

In the 70s a 9-year-old car was worth £20 a ton.

And the tonnage was usually a lot less than it was when it left the factory.

[Rhythm]

You may have been lucky, but if you can't buy new for what you get selling the old, it's just inflation like it used to be, which was terrible and annoying, but at the time you got used to it.

Puzzled and impressed that I'm appearing "young" :-)

The interesting thing about this whole inflation thing is seeing what it hits and what it doesn't. Gaming laptops, for example, are *way* cheaper than desktops for the first time ever. My energy bills are down to £20 per month. Used cars are going for more than they sold for new. It's fascinating

[zip accident]

In the 70s a 9-year-old car was worth £20 a ton.

And the tonnage was usually a lot less than it was when it left the factory.

I never passed the driving test, so I don't remember, but I do remember seeing many cars at least that old still on the road. In the '60s bubble cars disappeared almost overnight, but old ordinary cars seemed to keep rolling.

You may have been lucky, but if you can't buy new for what you get selling the old, it's just inflation like it used to be, which was terrible and annoying, but at the time you got used to it.

Puzzled and impressed that I'm appearing "young" :-)

Comparatively, assuming you are near the average YY age.

The interesting thing about this whole inflation thing is seeing what it hits and what it doesn't. Gaming laptops, for example, are *way* cheaper than desktops for the first time ever. My energy bills are down to £20 per month. Used cars are going for more than they sold for new. It's fascinating

It went up and stayed up that time, but wages went up as well as prices, so it could, this time no almost no wage rises, so prices have to come down again, or at least stop rising.

[Dio]

There were a fair few on the road, but they were mostly lethal deathtraps by that age (by any reasonable modern standard).

By the time it was 8 years old you could see through the footwells in my dad's Triumph Dolomite. Which was handy, because when the water leaked in through the door, windscreen or bulkhead it just ran straight out the bottom.

My cousin once famously abandoned the exhortation to "pedal faster" going up hills when it became clear that at any point we might be doing a Fred Flintstone. "Feet up!"

[Dio]

Gaming laptops, for example, are *way* cheaper than desktops for the first time ever.

It's a power thing. Now Moore's Law is pretty much done, you need to use more transistors and power to go significantly faster, but you can't do that in a laptop form factor, you simply can't get rid of 100W+ without burning someone's leg.

[zip accident]

There were a fair few on the road, but they were mostly lethal deathtraps by that age (by any reasonable modern standard).

By the time it was 8 years old you could see through the footwells in my dad's Triumph Dolomite. Which was handy, because when the water leaked in through the door, windscreen or bulkhead it just ran straight out the bottom.

My cousin once famously abandoned the exhortation to "pedal faster" going up hills when it became clear that at any point we might be doing a Fred Flintstone. "Feet up!"

Hm, that may be down to the manufactures, or marques? I remember seeing 1950s cars in the early 1970s, maybe they were very odd exceptions, it seemed to be the big cars that survived.

OTOH I seem to remember Moggy 1000s being around until quite recently. I certainly don't have statistics.

My father had an 1100 for about a year (two?) then a Volvo (second hand) that certainly lasted him easily a decade.

[Rhythm]

Gaming laptops, for example, are *way* cheaper than desktops for the first time ever.

It's a power thing. Now Moore's Law is pretty much done, you need to use more transistors and power to go significantly faster, but you can't do that in a laptop form factor, you simply can't get rid of 100W+ without burning someone's leg.

I've put it down to the fact that GPUs embedded into laptops aren't useful to crypto-miners.