Model Railway Forum

Petrol Howard, replacing the wife motors. EV have a long way to go before i dip my toe, pre op on tues too.

I change my cars every 12 to 18 months, all brand new and top range models. My current is a Hyundia Tuscon plug in Hybrid on 71 plate with Tech pack, but I have just ordered a new Tuscon self-charging hybrid. Delivery estimated to be up to 9 months! So may have a new car in September or October 2023?

dtb wrote: ↑Sat May 02, 2020 1:52 am

Mountain Goat wrote: ↑Wed Feb 12, 2020 8:35 pm

Steve M wrote: ↑Sat Feb 01, 2020 2:18 pm Very few MOT (or equivalent) rules are retrospective.
My 43 year old Spitfire would never be expected to satisfy a 2020 standard. In fact it is now MOT and tax exempt but that’s not the point.

I used to have a Volvo 131 (Amazon) which was registered in 1965. When I last owned it and took it for an MOT, the young MOT tester started to put the exhaust emmissions equipment in the exhaust. I told him that the car was exempt from the emissions test and the car was built years before catalytic converters came out. It ran on the old leaded petrol (I had to add the additive).
"Well, it's passed the emissions anyway" he said.

hey MG I used to have a white Volvo P1800

I thought I replied before but think internet may have been too weak to send mesage as it does not sem to be here. Never had a P1800 but I have had quite a few Volvos.

For those of you who buy new cars every other year, as I get to them about a decade on, it would be interesting to know what is good and what is best to avoid.
I hate modern dashboards with computer screen displays. (Don't mind a small LCD type screen as a side display but no tablet-like screens for the dials! I would HATE to have that in a motor vehicle. Soo distracting!!!) Do they still make new cars with "Proper" old dials or would I be best to keep buying old?

Brilliant Volvo ownership history there! (Edit: just realised that was written in 2019! Doh) I gained an appreciation for old Volvo saloons when my dad ran a gold/beige 1980 W reg Volvo 264, it was a lovely looking car but it had a hard life before he got it and was always breaking down. As an adult I looked up it’s specs and based on what I remember it had the 2.7 litre Peugeot derived V6 with a 3 or 4 speed auto gearbox.

I’ve always fancied owning a three box Volvo but never found the right one, hot or lukewarm 850 saloons are now far too expensive to buy for what is a 25 year old car, again I gained an appreciation for them from watching the 850s running in the BTCC.

After a seven year spell owning an utterly dependable VW Passat diesel, I bought a Mitsubishi Galant V6 Sport saloon, which was rare as rocking horse poo when they were new, even rarer now. The manual gearbox version is rarer still. I love the shark nose styling, and relative mechanical and electrical simplicity which means I can do most of the maintenance and repairs myself. Mine has been tastefully improved with nice aftermarket wheels and a stainless steel exhaust.

As with most Japanese cars surviving into their third decade, rust is the bane of my/its life. Japanese car makers didn’t bother with rust protection even as late as twenty years ago, which is fine in Japan where the roads aren’t treated with salt, but is disastrous in the U.K. As long as it keeps passing it’s MOT I’ll keep running it. Despite being 22 years old it’s my daily commuting car, and covers the 530 miles per week without a fuss.

When the time comes to replace it, there’s nothing made after 2005 that really appeals from a simplicity or visual/performance viewpoint.

I went for a petrol car this time as most of my trips are short and annual mileage around 3-5k miles.
Previous carry over diesels from my higher mileage years didn’t like that new regime and it was endless fault lights due to clogged EGR valve or cat, etc. Great if you are a high miler, but not suitable for a weekly shopping trip.
EVs are not viable for me either due to initial cost plus that for home charging installation, unknown electronic faults yet to come, with steep depreciation and crazy battery replacement costs, etc. I would not be confident of making a very long annual trip in one given either the current infrastructure for en-route charging.

I am changing our car this year and thinking EV perhaps. Saw a chap at local services plugging in his car to a charger. Asked him what he thought of electric cars. He said they are nice drive with good acceleration but an absolute nightmare to find charging points. That was enough for me I'm going petrol. I think a Citroen C4 probably. Had test drive and liked it very much. Good MPG. and nice comfy suspension. Important for my wife's back pain.

I know someone with an electric car but she has had it for a while as is an early Nissan Leaf, and when she did distances in it, was about a year or two ago when they had installed charging points and certain places offered re-charging free to customers (E.g. Starbucks) and this last years worth of time, she has not been up to travelling so has not needed to re-charge anywhere other than her house. But I have heard the issues people are having with re-charging. One guy on the internet said that he sold his EV as he got fed up of the long waits. He gave this senario as an example that with a piston engined vehicle in a queue to be refilled, and then an electric car in a queue to be re-charged. the one may take 15 minutes. The other could be waiting hours!
The good thing is where most car parks have EV chargers so one can be recharging as one is shopping, but that is where they are available.
There is a concern to having the electro-magnetic chargers via induction about the cancer risks of them (Think pylons) but that is another story. As long as there is a charging cable (And it is impressive how theplugs can't be pulled out unless the charging current is first switched off. A nice safety feature especially in the rain) and one has access to a charger that one has a suitable payment method for one to use (And we have enough new power stations made in time as EV's do take a lot of power from the grid to recharge them) then apart frlm things like excessive tyre wear whsre is best to buy 4WD or AWD to avoid this as the tyres wear a bit more evenly, then I ses them as a practical means of transport. Just do not call them enviromentally friendly as that is debatable. Look at them for their practicality as if oe runs out of charge, knock on a door, run an extension lead from their home with their kind permission and have a cup of coffee and half an hour latwe away one goes!

I will never ever own an EV. And forget about the 2030 deadline for the end of fossil fuelled vehicles in the UK - it aint gonna happen!

Just before Christmas I traded in our two diesel cars, a 2008 Jag and 2013 Mini for a 2019 Astra hatchback petrol (ex mobility) with 4k miles on the clock in showroom condition - that will see to our motoring requirements till we both hang up or driving gloves .

Jsa274 wrote: ↑Thu Feb 02, 2023 9:08 pm
As with most Japanese cars surviving into their third decade, rust is the bane of my/its life. Japanese car makers didn’t bother with rust protection even as late as twenty years ago, which is fine in Japan where the roads aren’t treated with salt, but is disastrous in the U.K. As long as it keeps passing it’s MOT I’ll keep running it. Despite being 22 years old it’s my daily commuting car, and covers the 530 miles per week without a fuss.

That was certainly true of early Japanese cars, the reason was that there was not much of a second hand market in Japan due to the compulsory requirement to replace certain components whether they were Ok or not after a number of years so cars were scrapped much earlier than here. Therefore, manufacturers did not feel the need to make them last. I do not know if there have been changes to the replacement part regime since but their cars certainly last better now, last Japanese car I owned was a Nissan Bluebird and it looked almost new when sold after we had it a few years followed by my eldest daughter.

Currently I am driving a Kuga PHEV which is the latest in a series of Kugas we have owned and I have been very pleased with all of them. The thing I like most about SUVs is the ride height and the ease of getting in and out, I could never return to a standard saloon now.

Richard

Am thinking of changing my diesel Octavia for another one. Tough as old boots. Have changed two front springs, front discs and one headlight bulb in 13 and a half years of ownership. Over 60 mpg on motorways when loaded with 4 adults and luggage. Same battery and exhaust all this time. I don’t feel electric vehicles are developed enough yet and charging seems to remain problematic. Maybe in 7 years time things will have improved by which time one more vehicle will probably be my last.