The Car Thread

[EpsomWolf]

Yeah, with those sort of examples there’s not going to be a lot of driving going on, just kept as artwork museum pieces.

Difficult to think there’d be any capital growth at those sort of prices but people with the means to shell out 300k or so are going to be used to generating revenue not giving it away, so, , got to be more to it than just satisfying a teenage kick but playing for high stakes nonetheless

 

[Keef]

I think I’ve said before, I’d love to buy something like that and daily driver it just to piss all the precious people off.
I bought a 10yr old Suzuki Bandit 600 from a dealer with 350 miles on it, booked a fortnight off work rode it across France and Spain to Fes in Morocco and back, had nearly 5000 miles on it when I got back, I feel cars and bikes should be used

 

[leedswolf]

Beta Tested on the Dead

Tesla’s autopilot lies, the courtroom reckoning, and Elon Musk’s decade-long FSD fraud in the fast lane

open.substack.com

 

[EpsomWolf]

Beta Tested on the Dead

Tesla’s autopilot lies, the courtroom reckoning, and Elon Musk’s decade-long FSD fraud in the fast lane

open.substack.com

Very informative and pretty concerning article, but the anti-Elon anti-Tesla hate soon leaks out and by the end feels so agendered as to undermine its credibility.

I wish people wouldn’t do that, not the best way to get everyone on board. .

 

[leedswolf]

Very informative and pretty concerning article, but the anti-Elon anti-Tesla hate soon leaks out and by the end feels so agendered as to undermine its credibility.

I wish people wouldn’t do that, not the best way to get everyone on board. .

TBF the author, Mary Geddry, generally makes political weight against Trump et al (see links posted by me in the 'Trump' thread). Nonetheless, that aside, it is pretty concerning.

 

[pagey]

Drove the daughters new Enyaq this morning, as much as I've been raving about EVs since I had one, it was refreshing to be driving a manual petrol again.

 

[Wolf Hunting]

I'm making a LONG drive at the end of September , Sailing to Bibao and driving to Torreveija, around 850 kms calculated at about 9.5 hours including a 1 hour stop.
I was gonna do it in my wife's ID3 but I cant rely on charging points which will be crucial on the return journey where I have to make the ferry back home.
So I'm making the trip in my 1 litre petrol Golf. Get into Bibao at 0800, off the boat around 0900, then get going.
I'm not going via Madrid , but via Zaragoza.
Has anyone done this route.
Has anyone driven a car for 9 hours?
Any tips?
I'm, there for 3 days, then I head back....
This is NOT a holiday, it's a job. I have a job to do.
Then come home.

 

[EpsomWolf]

No idea about the route itself but the time and distance doesn’t seem too bad. I’d just try and enjoy the journey and being on your own, play what music you want or listening to your stuff on the radio and of course the break from fiddling with a phone.

The tiredness/stress thing depends a lot on the type of journey though, loads of people will easily travel 12 hours or more but that’s a piece of cake in the likes of Canada or Australia, much less stressful than half that time in the U.K.

Once drove from Pisa to Cambridge in one day, 1075 miles with a ferry crossing, pre-satnav using a paper map. Seems crazy looking back but I was young and it was a challenge, and road trips were an adventure and not a pain in the arse.

Some of the best times were on road trips with the sense of freedom and very few restrictions. There’s a sadness that’s all gone and much safer now for all the obvious reasons, but I guess those starting to drive now who are forced to drive like a load of automatons, plotting trips point-to-point with range and charging points the most important things on their minds will never know any different.

Just different times. I guess for business you just want to get in and out asap, but what you’ve got planned seems to not be too bad.

 

[Tredman]

We've done it (or to Malaga anyway) in a diesel and an EV. Easy enough in both but its a boring drive mostly. Get a cabin on the ferry you'll need to sleep well.

 

[Tredman]

No idea about the route itself but the time and distance doesn’t seem too bad. I’d just try and enjoy the journey and being on your own, play what music you want or listening to your stuff on the radio and of course the break from fiddling with a phone.

The tiredness/stress thing depends a lot on the type of journey though, loads of people will easily travel 12 hours or more but that’s a piece of cake in the likes of Canada or Australia, much less stressful than half that time in the U.K.

Once drove from Pisa to Cambridge in one day, 1075 miles with a ferry crossing, pre-satnav using a paper map. Seems crazy looking back but I was young and it was a challenge, and road trips were an adventure and not a pain in the arse.

Some of the best times were on road trips with the sense of freedom and very few restrictions. There’s a sadness that’s all gone and much safer now for all the obvious reasons, but I guess those starting to drive now who are forced to drive like a load of automatons, plotting trips point-to-point with range and charging points the most important things on their minds will never know any different.

Just different times. I guess for business you just want to get in and out asap, but what you’ve got planned seems to not be too bad.

That's just not true. We did 3000 miles in a not very efficient EV (ipace) across Europe - didn;t plot anything - just used the satnav as we would in a smoker.

 

[Sniffer]

Currently sitting in southern Spain after driving here in an EV. France is a piece a piddle as there’s EV chargers at the service stations whereas Spain takes more foresight and planning. Know where your charging points are and that your apps work there would be my advice and stick to them. If your in car sat nav says that you can go on for another 40km to the next charger ignore it as charge anxiety can kick in. Allow extra time for charging too as some I’ve used in Spain don’t go at the speed that they could if there 2 car connected to a charging unit.
Even the stunning scenery wears off after a while so ensure that you have plenty of your favourite music in the car and snacks available.

 

[Mel Evo]

Currently sitting in southern Spain after driving here in an EV. France is a piece a piddle as there’s EV chargers at the service stations whereas Spain takes more foresight and planning. Know where your charging points are and that your apps work there would be my advice and stick to them. If your in car sat nav says that you can go on for another 40km to the next charger ignore it as charge anxiety can kick in. Allow extra time for charging too as some I’ve used in Spain don’t go at the speed that they could if there 2 car connected to a charging unit.
Even the stunning scenery wears off after a while so ensure that you have plenty of your favourite music in the car and snacks available.

Great stuff! The distances people are accustomed to driving in Spain, for e.g. a day out or weekend away, are just so much greater than in other countries, even France.

 

[Tredman]

Currently sitting in southern Spain after driving here in an EV. France is a piece a piddle as there’s EV chargers at the service stations whereas Spain takes more foresight and planning. Know where your charging points are and that your apps work there would be my advice and stick to them. If your in car sat nav says that you can go on for another 40km to the next charger ignore it as charge anxiety can kick in. Allow extra time for charging too as some I’ve used in Spain don’t go at the speed that they could if there 2 car connected to a charging unit.
Even the stunning scenery wears off after a while so ensure that you have plenty of your favourite music in the car and snacks available.

We used mainly Tesla chargers and they were pretty plentiful - not found many on your route?

 

[Sniffer]

Been to 2 on the 2 occasions that I’ve made the trip. Each time the charging plug wouldn’t release after the charge was complete. I should really look into the reason why it didn’t (I’m in a Q4) but unloading luggage to get to the charger release lever in the boot in 35 degree heat isn’t recommended. I’m with electroverse and they bill me straight to my octopus electricity account so I tend to go for their ones.

 

[Tredman]

Weird, I know on my Id.7 I need to stop the charge on the Tesla app and then double unlock on my remote fob to get it to release. The cheapness and number of them outweighs my distaste of their owner.

 

[EpsomWolf]

That's just not true. We did 3000 miles in a not very efficient EV (ipace) across Europe - didn;t plot anything - just used the satnav as we would in a smoker.

Fair enough, you guys use the things but it does sound a bit different to Sniffer’s experience.

Always a bit difficult to judge as the big pro-EV pro-eco types to seem eager to present the ownership experience as effortless at all times, to the point other owners experiences begin to undermine the credibility.

I dunno, I’m not anti-at-all-costs either, I just can’t believe range and charging is not something that’s always on your mind and I’m a believer in eliminating ball aches as much as possible and not adding to them.

 

[Tredman]

Fair enough, you guys use the things but it does sound a bit different to Sniffer’s experience.

Always a bit difficult to judge as the big pro-EV pro-eco types to seem eager to present the ownership experience as effortless at all times, to the point other owners experiences begin to undermine the credibility.

I dunno, I’m not anti-at-all-costs either, I just can’t believe range and charging is not something that’s always on your mind and I’m a believer in eliminating ball aches as much as possible and not adding to them.

Most EVs you will be taking to the continent will easily do 240 miles from 80% to 20%. You then stop for 15-20 mins to get back up to 80% and go again. No one should be doing more than 3 hours without a decent stop, its totally not the hassle you seem to think it is.

Having just done 1000+ miles in some daft US SUV it was a worse experience than the roadtrips I've done in our EVs over the years.

 

[Wolf Hunting]

I was looking forward to going in the wife's ID3 but was intruiged by the Spanish method of putting a charger in an industrial estate, not 5 or 6, but 1 or 2. some times I'd have to drive 20kms off the motorway into a town to find a 50kw charger. Not too many 250Kw knocking around.
Budgeting on 300 km per charge at 120kph I'd need 3 stops (850kms) but Jesus, it's so dependent on other things.
I've drawn up a gradient profile of the route and it's a killer!
For instance, upon leaving Bilbao, you climb over 1,900 feet in the first 75kms. and then just after half way, you climb to the highest point just over 4,000 feet before dropping 1,177 feet in only 80kms which sounds like fun. Until you factor in the return leg and that is a massive climb steady and continuous for 80 kms , from 49 metres to 1,225. Then I hit the tesla problem. Tesla have made less than 50% of their chargers available to non Tesla vehicles, whether you have an account or not. At certain points you'll plug it in, but the charger just won't see your car. which means fucking about in towns trying to find a 50kw charger only to arrive and find its occupied. This was a deal breaker because I'm heading for a ferry, and I'm sitting in Logrono trying to find a charger that' open and not slow.
So fuck it, I'm going in my 1 ltr Golf. A tank of petrol on my single stop will be cheaper than 4 charges and will be quicker.
1 x 10 minute stop vs 4 x 30 minutes. But Tesla aren't available, so its just too unreliable.

 

[Tredman]

Loads of Tesla chargers. Download the ABRP app and let it do the planning for you.

 

[Wolf Hunting]

Loads of Tesla chargers. Download the ABRP app and let it do the planning for you.

Yes I used that, but as I said if you're driving a Non Tesla car, you can't use every one of them.
There's a service station half an hour from me The service station where the SINGLE non tesla charger is does not show up on my Tesla App. BUT... the Southbound one did!
So I bombed it up to the next turn off and came down to the Southbound one found the bank of 10 Tesla chargers but only 3 were available to me, even though there were only 4 Teslas using the others. Complete pain in the hole.