I very much like both elements of your post, @MuttleyCAFC
My first car was a little Morris 1100 and after it went to the scrapper (rust, of course) it was a long time before I owned anything better designed. I had bigger cars but nothing with more interior space, the thing was a wonder. Admittedly I've always bought oldish cars so my driving career in the 80s and 90s involved A LOT of shit heaps. I must have had about 30 cars over the years, some for as little as a month or two, but the last handful have lasted an average of five years or so, none costing more than two grand, and none needing much money spent. "It's just a car" is my justification, but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate good design and build quality. Comfort is a massively underrated attribute and I hated Mrs Idle's company Astra which I couldn't drive for half an hour without getting terrible backache. But I think enjoyment from driving is as much about the road you're on as the car you're in. You can have as much fun in a shitty old 205 on a twisty lane as in a Maserati on an autobahn.
I'm a bit contemptuous of the kind of person that feels the need to drive a supercar, but I suppose that might be rooted in deep-seated suppressed envy. But if I'd won euromillions last night (haven't checked yet) I'd buy a Saab 900 turbo, and stick with it.
A stunning car. Beautiful in an unconventional way. I drove my son's Panda multijet for a few days a while back and it is fantastic on the smaller, twisty country roads. I would go as far to say it was a revelation. We bought it for him because we didn't want him having a sporty car as his first car so it was a surprise but he has said it wasn't the car he had in mind but he would buy it now as a student as it is cheap to run, easy to park and fun to drive. It has been said it is more fun driving a slow car fast than a fast car slow.
I love driving so this topic interests me. Wifey and I both got new cars this year. We were contemplating electric but decided the country and infrastructure just isn’t there yet. We Both opted for diesel as they are probably cleaner than many petrol nowadays.
She went for the family car - Volvo Xc60 with 12k on the clock (ex demo so fully loaded and barely run in). Wonderful drive but a bit juicier than anticipated at 35mpg - which I was getting in my drab petrol family wagon - great car but sooooooo boring (Mazda Cx-5)
I ended up getting a Jaguar XE as my dad has been telling me how great jags are. Beautiful smooth drive, 55mpg and looks delicious and I couldn’t be happier.
bottom line is they are a tool to move you about but I want to be enjoy driving and be comfortable and these cars tick all my boxes for me and the family. I spend quite a bit of time in the car so don’t want to be in an unreliable piece of shit - I’m past those days now.
I finally took delivery of an EV6 yesterday. I live in a rural area but wanted an EV as it looks better bearing in mind that my business is renewables and reducing emissions. Chose it due to its range which I'm always sceptical about but I drove 158 miles yesterday and still have 52% charge which I'm chuffed with
I finally took delivery of an EV6 yesterday. I live in a rural area but wanted an EV as it looks better bearing in mind that my business is renewables and reducing emissions. Chose it due to its range which I'm always sceptical about but I drove 158 miles yesterday and still have 52% charge which I'm chuffed with
Are you 'height challenged' ? We were interested in the EV6 until we sat in one. Both me and Mrs Hex immediately agreed the front and back headroom was minimal. I'm 6ft so not overly tall and Mrs Hex is 8 inches shorter.
I accept I am probably wrong, but I think we might be jumping the gun with EVs. At this moment, they don't offer me the range I need without hassle. We did an 8 week tour of Europe/Italy last year and are doing a shorter tour of Belgium and Holland this year with another long one next year. It wouldn't have worked with an EV.
Is it better to keep buying an EV than buying say a decent deisel and keeping it for a good few years? I don't trust the car companies in that respect. When I am certain they are the way forward, I will change my view. They seem too consumerist to me to be a genuine solution to the problems of the planet. Also, currently they use electricity that to a large part isn't produced very cleanly. The batteries don't just have to be made but also disposed of at some point. Why are so many of them twice as big as they need to be? When everybody uses EVs, how will the government get the money it gets from fuel duty?
I accept I am probably wrong, but I think we might be jumping the gun with EVs. At this moment, they don't offer me the range I need without hassle. We did an 8 week tour of Europe/Italy last year and are doing a shorter tour of Belgium and Holland this year with another long one next year. It wouldn't have worked with an EV.
Is it better to keep buying an EV than buying say a decent deisel and keeping it for a good few years? I don't trust the car companies in that respect. When I am certain they are the way forward, I will change my view. They seem too consumerist to me to be a genuine solution to the problems of the planet. Also, currently they use electricity that to a large part isn't produced very cleanly. The batteries don't just have to be made but also disposed of at some point. Why are so many of them twice as big as they need to be? When everybody uses EVs, how will the government get the money it gets from fuel duty?
Road pricing is my guess. Seems the most equitable method too.
I accept I am probably wrong, but I think we might be jumping the gun with EVs. At this moment, they don't offer me the range I need without hassle. We did an 8 week tour of Europe/Italy last year and are doing a shorter tour of Belgium and Holland this year with another long one next year. It wouldn't have worked with an EV.
Is it better to keep buying an EV than buying say a decent deisel and keeping it for a good few years? I don't trust the car companies in that respect. When I am certain they are the way forward, I will change my view. They seem too consumerist to me to be a genuine solution to the problems of the planet. Also, currently they use electricity that to a large part isn't produced very cleanly. The batteries don't just have to be made but also disposed of at some point. Why are so many of them twice as big as they need to be? When everybody uses EVs, how will the government get the money it gets from fuel duty?
There isn’t enough lithium in the world to make the batteries for replacing all the existing petrol and diesel cars.
I accept I am probably wrong, but I think we might be jumping the gun with EVs. At this moment, they don't offer me the range I need without hassle. We did an 8 week tour of Europe/Italy last year and are doing a shorter tour of Belgium and Holland this year with another long one next year. It wouldn't have worked with an EV.
Is it better to keep buying an EV than buying say a decent deisel and keeping it for a good few years? I don't trust the car companies in that respect. When I am certain they are the way forward, I will change my view. They seem too consumerist to me to be a genuine solution to the problems of the planet. Also, currently they use electricity that to a large part isn't produced very cleanly. The batteries don't just have to be made but also disposed of at some point. Why are so many of them twice as big as they need to be? When everybody uses EVs, how will the government get the money it gets from fuel duty?
There isn’t enough lithium in the world to make the batteries for replacing all the existing petrol and diesel cars.
And what there is causes massive environmental and climate problems in its extraction. It is massively water intensive in areas where there is little actual water.
I finally took delivery of an EV6 yesterday. I live in a rural area but wanted an EV as it looks better bearing in mind that my business is renewables and reducing emissions. Chose it due to its range which I'm always sceptical about but I drove 158 miles yesterday and still have 52% charge which I'm chuffed with
Are you 'height challenged' ? We were interested in the EV6 until we sat in one. Both me and Mrs Hex immediately agreed the front and back headroom was minimal. I'm 6ft so not overly tall and Mrs Hex is 8 inches shorter.
😂 no mate not really I'm 5'11" not tall but not short either. Are you sure the seats weren't raised ? I find it really roomy
I very much like both elements of your post, @MuttleyCAFC
My first car was a little Morris 1100 and after it went to the scrapper (rust, of course) it was a long time before I owned anything better designed. I had bigger cars but nothing with more interior space, the thing was a wonder. Admittedly I've always bought oldish cars so my driving career in the 80s and 90s involved A LOT of shit heaps. I must have had about 30 cars over the years, some for as little as a month or two, but the last handful have lasted an average of five years or so, none costing more than two grand, and none needing much money spent. "It's just a car" is my justification, but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate good design and build quality. Comfort is a massively underrated attribute and I hated Mrs Idle's company Astra which I couldn't drive for half an hour without getting terrible backache. But I think enjoyment from driving is as much about the road you're on as the car you're in. You can have as much fun in a shitty old 205 on a twisty lane as in a Maserati on an autobahn.
I'm a bit contemptuous of the kind of person that feels the need to drive a supercar, but I suppose that might be rooted in deep-seated suppressed envy. But if I'd won euromillions last night (haven't checked yet) I'd buy a Saab 900 turbo, and stick with it.
Our first new car was a two-tone Triumph Herald Estate. We were excited by its walnut dashboard facia and its turning circle etc - but it was so gutless. On our morning drive to work from Pukerua Bay we were infuriatingly passed every morning by this elderly lady in her Morris 1100. Like your car IH ours showed rust in no time despite my enthusiastic polishing. It didn’t help that, after retaining the same shape for many years, the Triumph people came out with a new design for the headlights the next year, immediately dating ours. In those days in NZ, the 1960s, you needed overseas funds as a deposit on a new car. On the plus side though petrol was 3 gallons and a squirt for 10/-.
My first car was a Morris Ital, it never managed to reach 70 mph. Rusted away and you could see the road if you lifted the passenger mat, just to prove the point re rust only 28 still registered in the Uk.
I finally took delivery of an EV6 yesterday. I live in a rural area but wanted an EV as it looks better bearing in mind that my business is renewables and reducing emissions. Chose it due to its range which I'm always sceptical about but I drove 158 miles yesterday and still have 52% charge which I'm chuffed with
Are you 'height challenged' ? We were interested in the EV6 until we sat in one. Both me and Mrs Hex immediately agreed the front and back headroom was minimal. I'm 6ft so not overly tall and Mrs Hex is 8 inches shorter.
😂 no mate not really I'm 5'11" not tall but not short either. Are you sure the seats weren't raised ? I find it really roomy
Mrs Hex needed to have her seat raised so that she could see over the steering wheel (!) but I don't think you can change them in the rear. Width-wise it was roomy as you say.
We have a Toyota RAV4 hybrid which is 4 years old now and that is our “main” car. It’s more of a work horse with a tow-hook and lots of room.
Up until a couple of weeks ago my wife also had a 19-year old Smart Roadster. The epitome of go-kart roadholding and smiles-per-mile. Recently it has started to become very difficult to get in and out of the car as it is so low so we started looking around for something to replace it with. We started looking for something practical like a Merc B, Golf Plus. i used to drive a 1990 Merc SL and was a member of the local MB club. Through the club I met and became friends with the club’s technical expert, so he was our go to when we started our search. In the end we settled for an 18-year old Merc SLK200K with only 60.000miles on the clock and in near perfect condition.
We had our friend look it over and he gave us the OK to buy it. The previous owner had ticked the boxes for almost every option available, right down to a heated steering wheel for those cold winter morning.
All this for £9.000.
I can’t help but think that, at the moment, driving an older car must be better for the environment when you take the impact of the production of batteries and the increased electricity requirement. It has made me wonder about our hybrid Toyota.
A few years back I looked up used minders. I found one at a used price from a main dealer in Gillingham that only had 28 miles on the clock. Genuine bargain. However I would not swap my tiny automatic fiesta as my ideal car, great for city life, and can do a journey too.
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I ended up getting a Jaguar XE as my dad has been telling me how great jags are. Beautiful smooth drive, 55mpg and looks delicious and I couldn’t be happier.
bottom line is they are a tool to move you about but I want to be enjoy driving and be comfortable and these cars tick all my boxes for me and the family. I spend quite a bit of time in the car so don’t want to be in an unreliable piece of shit - I’m past those days now.
Is it better to keep buying an EV than buying say a decent deisel and keeping it for a good few years? I don't trust the car companies in that respect. When I am certain they are the way forward, I will change my view. They seem too consumerist to me to be a genuine solution to the problems of the planet. Also, currently they use electricity that to a large part isn't produced very cleanly. The batteries don't just have to be made but also disposed of at some point. Why are so many of them twice as big as they need to be? When everybody uses EVs, how will the government get the money it gets from fuel duty?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/14/electric-cost-lithium-mining-decarbonasation-salt-flats-chile
2.2mn litres of water is needed to extract 1 tonne of lithium.
Up until a couple of weeks ago my wife also had a 19-year old Smart Roadster. The epitome of go-kart roadholding and smiles-per-mile.
Recently it has started to become very difficult to get in and out of the car as it is so low so we started looking around for something to replace it with.
We started looking for something practical like a Merc B, Golf Plus. i used to drive a 1990 Merc SL and was a member of the local MB club. Through the club I met and became friends with the club’s technical expert, so he was our go to when we started our search.
In the end we settled for an 18-year old Merc SLK200K with only 60.000miles on the clock and in near perfect condition.
The previous owner had ticked the boxes for almost every option available, right down to a heated steering wheel for those cold winter morning.
I can’t help but think that, at the moment, driving an older car must be better for the environment when you take the impact of the production of batteries and the increased electricity requirement. It has made me wonder about our hybrid Toyota.
Genuine bargain.
However I would not swap my tiny automatic fiesta as my ideal car, great for city life, and can do a journey too.