Y Fan Wen
Member
- Location
- N W Snowdonia
Does anybody have an electric quad yet?
Why would disposel be expensive? Batteries are around £400 to £500 per ton scrap?
What a great garage you use. A large second hand Land Rover and trailer dealer got a mate of mine to spend over 2k on his Discovery a few years back on head gasket and other issues and then when it went for an mot around a month later told him the chassis was completely rotten and to scrap itI use an small but v competent (MOT centre) independent garage that I have been with for 20 years and they have done a brilliant job of balancing my desire to run a car into the ground with practical advice about what is worth doing. I trust their advice and would recommend them to anyone. They spent half a day tinkering with it for no charge. It is close to the edge for 2 new tyres but they didn't fit them (to save my money) until they had come to a conclusion about the reason for sluggish start (and as the tyres are still just legal, I won't bother to change now). Basically v slow to pick up when starting, esp when cold, smoky, and runs unevenly for first couple of minutes. Have ruled out injectors, glow plugs and anything else they could think of and think it is a compression issue. Although it has only done 130k which is not much for a diesel it is not doing long journeys like I used to which is probably taking its toll. So it's drivable but I will look to change it before MOT in the autumn (and before spending on new tyres!) It is only worth scrap as a lot of the bodywork was scratched when a shed roof fell in on it after heavy snow a few years ago. It's 13 years old.
Thanks for the advice re: alternatives
My wife has a 70 mile round trip for work on almost all A roads and motorway so that's beyond a Nissan Leaf without charging in work time?I bought a second hand Leaf a couple of years ago for running into town which is a couple of miles away. I have a 50kw solar pv system, so as long as I charge it during the day its free fuel. Love it. No tax, £120 annual service. Nissan garage says 6 year old battery is still fine. Do get a bit of range anxiety if round trip is over 40 miles, especially in winter, so wouldn't do as only car. Just know what you want it for.
Atleast you got choice. If you go to a dealer here they will only sell you the P90D or whatever the most powerful was, costs a hefty 110k€. I'd still love one though, but we play with cards that are dealt to us and i only have a Mercedes.I had a go in a tesla 2years ago the slower one 0 to 60 in 5.? Seconds I think the price then was about £55k 280mile range
What about a Renault Zoe with the bigger 41kwh battery?My wife has a 70 mile round trip for work on almost all A roads and motorway so that's beyond a Nissan Leaf without charging in work time?
Out of interest how does the cabin heater work on these? Do they have Webasco type night heaters? I would think that if you wanted to get the car defrosted and warm on a winter's morning on battery it would crucify your range.
I was reading about that Renault Zoe this morning, and it has a phone app that can automatically set the cabin temp up, as Daniel says before you set off, while its still attached to the mains. Clever idea.Out of interest how does the cabin heater work on these? Do they have Webasco type night heaters? I would think that if you wanted to get the car defrosted and warm on a winter's morning on battery it would crucify your range.
indeed some have a battery pre-heat function, when on mains, to make the drive as efficient as possible.By absolutely nailing the battery! As far as I can tell our GTE uses a kettle element in the water jacket to heat the cabin. I have it set so it preheats the car from the mains before my wife sets off for work.
If I drive it I'll put the engine on for a couple of miles to warm the car before switching back to electric.
My wife takes the view that if the car doesn't do it automatically then she isn't going to do it for it, so her electric mileage in the winter is about half what it is in the summer, due to the heater drawing all the amps and also I suspect the battery isn't as efficient when it's cold.
Completely different set of 'challenges' that we will need to get our heads around as electric cars become more predominant.indeed some have a battery pre-heat function, when on mains, to make the drive as efficient as possible.
Infact the fastest mode on the Teslas has a 45 minute wait before it's available to bring the batteries up to something like 50C