Mate of mine had a mk5 GTi from new for a good 10 years, it was mostly trouble free until the very end where coolant would magic itself away without trace - which our mk6 1.4tsi did too. Mk5/6’s IME all felt pretty solid - our 6 felt better quality than the mk7 that followed which we owned for 5 years or so.
Next? I’m one of those Michael Fabricants that tows a caravan so as above, highly likely a 530d Touring, not really anything else which ticks all the boxes for us. The saloon I have now is excellent but we have a puppy coming in a few weeks so not sure the saloon is going to work so I may be forced to change earlier than I wanted.
Seems like you’re oversimplifying things to suit yourself a bit tbh. He’s clearly supportive of EV’s and was an early adopter, I thought it was pretty even handed myself and not at all Clarkson like.
Why wouldn’t someone compare a used vehicle with an EV when considering what to go with? There are so many variables involved that either could make sense in different scenarios.
It’s absolutely true that a used IC vehicle is worth keeping on the road rather than making a new EV car. The simple fact is most people can’t afford EV’s and they’re not getting as cheap as was hoped ten years ago.
I suppose I just find it disingenuous because whenever I hear the whole new cars are worse for the environment than running old ones line trotted out it is only ever as an argument against EVs rather than even more polluting new cars.
You say that loads of people can’t afford EVs and this is very true but a quick look at all the shiny metal around even in this town tells me that loads of people can and at least some of those probably didn’t go that way because of all the daft crap they’ve heard about them.
Yeah agree with you there but they’re doing the same thing with EV’s it seem like? Seems like it’s obsolescence that is unsustainable. It doesn’t seem like there are enough raw materials to make either the batteries for EVs or Iridium for Hydrogen cars, so the whole new car model seems flawed as we know it. I think they should make cars modular so they can be updated, and just make them last longer, regardless of the powertrain. That would make a massive difference. Exhaust emissions are only 6% of global emissions. Manufacturing is more.
I fully romanticise the design/engineering/social/historical aspects of the motor car, you can’t blame people for being a bit rose tinted about it because it is just a magical thing. I didn’t get at all from that piece that he wanted to just make ICE cars instead and sack it all off. I like old cars but I don’t think they should keep making them. All the new ones are crap anyway lol.
Yeah, there’s millions of them though, gonna take a while. As time goes on you’re just left with well cared for examples of the 30+ year old ones and the emissions from those get more negligible as the years go by.
Diesel haulage is the worst. That seems the one area where Hydrogen is gonna make a differece
Here’s one. My Mum could have got the electric Audi Q3 whatever it’s called. But got a petrol because her boss said something about it being bad to sit on batteries. She drives like 8 miles a day perfect electric candidate.
Nice. That wide body Brabus coupe looks ace. I rewatch the Carl Cox and his Alpina B6 vid every once in a while. I’d love an Alpina B5. I’ve not been that much of a german car fan in the past - I’ve preferred more manic and lightweight cars - but my old 3 series sold me. Effortless for hundreds of miles, get out feeling good. 5 series even better.
I’d like to talk about EV’s - I write stuff, then realise I can’t or shouldn’t be arsed, then delete and start again. I think too much but ultimately EV are hugely expensive at list (cheapest estate is MG5 @ c£30,000 and isn’t heavy enough for my needs) and I suspect TCO over the term of a 48 month rental leans in favour of a small capacity turbo petrol. But me being me, I’d have to delve into working out how much each charge would cost at home, how much a charger would be etc etc. Obviously if you’re a really green person you’d look into oil vs battery and all of that stuff.
Not sure if I wrote it earlier but my mate took delivery of an i4 a few months back via his employer. £70k list. SEVENTY thousand pounds. I’d guess most EV’s are via company schemes
That’s what get’s you, the overall comfort and usability of them. I think we’re gonna get an electric one for baby moms, they she can give me my E Class back lol. I’m out the new car game so can’t see me getting one any time soon but I’m not against it.
We’ve been flirting with the idea of getting a second car. I looked into electric and they are near enough double the price of a petrol. Also, we live on a terraced street and rarely get a space outside of our house. Not sure if/how we could charge it. Do you have to charge them every night?
I don’t know how you go about getting them but I’ve seen people get some kind of cable fitted to lamp posts for charging while parked on the street. I’m too lazy to Google it.
You need to look at your annual mileage and then the range of any EV you might be able to get (then knock like a third or so off that figure to account for winter and also to not be driving around with the battery getting flat) to work out how often you would need to be charging it.
We run two cars and have a drive so getting an older Leaf to do the bulk of the mileage which is the local daily stuff was a no-brainer really. Definitely wouldn’t have come to the same conclusion if we couldn’t charge it at home, though.
I want an EV and had a Tesla Model S Plaid on order for two years then they texted me to say it was only going to be available in LHD did I still want one?
