Cars

[deathrey]

I did a search and couldn't find a topic about cars though I thought we did have one previously so apologies if I've needlessly started one.

 

Mr Deathrey was in a car accident and my car was written off. He is thinking that this may be the time to make the jump to an electric car. As I trust you guys more than the general internet, anyone got any experiences or advice to share? I'm a little bit unsure as we visit my family a lot and they live about 100 miles away and I have worries that we don't have the infrastructure to support electric cars yet. Also that everything eats in to the battery and how will this effect longer journeys? We are looking at the Audi Etron but it only has a range of 200 miles and it's bloody expensive 

Edited May 27, 2021 by deathrey
Typo

[Chest Rockwell]

Personally I think going electric right now is a bad idea if you don't have cash to splash. Fully electric has the infrastructure problems you've mentioned, and plug in hybrids aren't good enough to actually save you much money over a regular car. And I don't think their resale value is going to be great as there are going to continue to be big leaps in the technology over the next few years.

I'm assuming you want a decent sized car with the little one and all the baby crap you need to carry. You might want to think now about whether you're planning you have another kid as we're now finding ourselves thinking about a 7 seater, so we can fit two kid seats all our stuff and another adult so we can go for day trips with, for example, my mum.

Edited May 27, 2021 by Chest Rockwell

[Keith Houchen]

Alas my car has gone to the great Citroen garage in the sky. It’s the classic story of buying a cheap car and subsequently spending more over the years for keeping it on the road because you can’t afford to pay what you’ve paid out in one go, and you can’t get finance because you’re both unfit for work because of health issues. 
 

It’s a right bastard, my girlfriend has mobility issues so a car is essential but we might be off the road for a few months while we scrape together enough for a cheap car. 
 

(Dir. Ken Loach. 2021)

[deathrey]

We have had the 7 seater discussion as we would like another baby in the next year or two.  Do you mind me asking what size car you have @Chest Rockwelland do you struggle with two car seats?

 

We got lucky and actually got paid out more money for our car than we originally paid for it so money isn't a huge issue. But we are looking to move house so I want to keep to a budget.  I hadn't really thought about technology changes and the value of the car dropping - though I do think in a couple of years cars will do more mileage on a charge than they do now. We test drive a few hybrids but I didn't particularly love them.

[deathrey]

Can either of you access Motability scheme@Keith Houchen?

[Keith Houchen]

14 minutes ago, deathrey said:

Can either of you access Motability scheme@Keith Houchen?

Unfortunately it’s still too expensive. I think it’s a great scheme but we are trying to save what we would spend weekly for that scheme. We will be alright, I hope you’ll all forgive me for hoping the weather is shit while I can’t drive off to a scenic place!!

[Chest Rockwell]

1 hour ago, deathrey said:

We have had the 7 seater discussion as we would like another baby in the next year or two.  Do you mind me asking what size car you have @Chest Rockwelland do you struggle with two car seats?

 

We got lucky and actually got paid out more money for our car than we originally paid for it so money isn't a huge issue. But we are looking to move house so I want to keep to a budget.  I hadn't really thought about technology changes and the value of the car dropping - though I do think in a couple of years cars will do more mileage on a charge than they do now. We test drive a few hybrids but I didn't particularly love them.

We have a BMW X1 at the moment. The biggest problem is it's really not comfortable for someone to sit inbetween two car seats at the back for anything more than a short journey. So fine for just the four of us, but can't really go anywhere with anyone else.

We could do with extra boot space as well (especially as we have the dog and all her stuff with us too). So I guess it really depends on what your need is.

Edited May 27, 2021 by Chest Rockwell

[deathrey]

We had an Audi Q3 that was written off and to be honest, we struggled with the boot size too so the plan is to go bigger now. We had Discovery Sport for a short time and that has a massive boot, it's also a 7 seater. I have thought about buying one of those again, you can get one a couple of years old for about 25k but I feel so guilty about the environmental impact.

[Rule One]

The Audi E Tron has been a nightmare for my friend, he's had two of them and they've both inexplicably failed within the first 3,000 miles. Audi can't explain why it's happened either and it was a pain to get them to refund/cancel his deal with them. Both vehicles just shut down and wouldn't get going again, they tried to blame some of it on his charge point but he had it checked and certified three times to prove them wrong. It was nice to ride in but going off his experience/cost, it just wasn't worth it. 

He's now got a Tesla Model 3 which isn't as spacious as people make out and having a quick go of it, it was very strange to drive. I don't like it at all but he thinks it's the bee's knees. 

[Chest Rockwell]

2 hours ago, deathrey said:

We had an Audi Q3 that was written off and to be honest, we struggled with the boot size too so the plan is to go bigger now. We had Discovery Sport for a short time and that has a massive boot, it's also a 7 seater. I have thought about buying one of those again, you can get one a couple of years old for about 25k but I feel so guilty about the environmental impact.

Yeah I know where you're coming from. I really love the idea of going electric.. And with the amount of short local journeys I do I feel like even the plugin hybrid route would have a significant impact. But financially it just doesn't stack up at the minute, so it comes down to how much you are willing to / able to afford to stump up for your principles. It's tough when it comes to something this big. So cut yourself some slack and don't feel bad if you consider whatever you get now to be a short / medium term car, and we'll all be on electric soon enough I think.

I just don't think it's quite there yet, and you need a car now.

Edited May 27, 2021 by Chest Rockwell

[BigJag]

Working for the local council street lighting team we have seen how difficult it has been to get even a trial street level EV charging scheme of the ground. The EV infrastructure is woefully inadequate and will struggle to catch up with the manufacturing output of EVs. Especially a concern if you want to travel long distances regularly. You can overcome some of the issues with journey planning. Other than the initial adjustment, you get used to EV driving quite quickly.

Edited May 27, 2021 by BigJag

[Cod Eye]

I think I'm going to be going full electric next when I swap my car next April-ish. Got a big diesel 7-seater at the minute, but since I split with the ex it's way too big for just me and and working from home it's hardly getting used(We used to go to the caravan every weekend with 3 kids, us two and my mother so we needed the seats at the time). I'm thinking I'll be fine 99% of the time just topping it up with the charger at home and if I do have to go a bit further on a run, I'll just plan the trip around motorway services that have chargers.

Way I see it, fossil fuel cars are going to be fully sacked off soon anyway(although I don't think it will be as soon as the government are wanting), so if I can make the swap now and get used to it, I might as well...

[Chest Rockwell]

That's great if you want to do that, but what exactly is it that you think you need to 'get used to'?

[deathrey]

Thanks for the feedback Gents, a lot to think about. Your feedback in particular @Rule Oneis particularly useful. We had test driven the Etron and it was lovely but very much stretching our budget so it's good to have some real life feedback. I think your feedback along with my concerns about the low mileage you get out of a charge are enough to put me off.

 

I think you may be right @Chest Rockwell and we are going to have to think of this as a short/medium term solution with the view to going electric in the long run. We had a 2017 Q3 but the new version has a much bigger boot so I think we may revisit that along with the Discovery Sport. We got a 22k payout on our old car so we would only need to put a little bit in and we can save the rest of the money we had earmarked for an electric car in 2/3 years time. 

 

With my limited (test drive) experience on the electric car, the only thing you need to get used to is the complete and utter lack of noise. You can't even tell if they are started or not.

[Cod Eye]

1 hour ago, Chest Rockwell said:

That's great if you want to do that, but what exactly is it that you think you need to 'get used to'?

Driving the thing in the first instance. The fact there is no gears and the instant acceleration for a start. Then getting into the habit of putting it on charge every time I park up and also into the habit of working out where the chargers are on a journey.