Electric cars.

Yes, years ago I used to frequently encounter a mother and her small boy (about 3-ish) on my walk to work and they were always deep in conversation. One day I heard her say to him "Well, birds don't have toilets you see" and I really wished I could have heard the rest, but we were going in opposite directions!

As well as mothers ignoring their children, I see dog walkers completely ignoring their dogs. They walk along really slowly with their noses glued to their phone and no interaction at all with the poor bored mutt.

 

The Dog walkers I dont like are the joggers and bike riders, hardly a walk of interest for the dog, cant even stop for a pee.

 

Hi,

A couple of days ago I was browsing the web looking at brand new cars. Our current car is 8 years old; a Skoda Yeti 2.0L diesel SE L with full leather interior. Bron and I have always loved this Yeti bought new and still do in fact if Skoda still made these Yeti's we'd be on our third by now.

Having had a brief browse of modern cars I'm put off with the ever increasing electronics to the point I think some cars don't even have a hand brake lever. The Yeti at the moment attracts only £35 per year road tax and it's a "clean" diesel; it costs nothing in depreciation it could actually increase in value if we keep it. With only 36,000 miles on it the engine is only nicely run in; it's got a full service history and sails through the MOT every year; the bodywork is like new and last year I dropped all the wing liners to carry out rust proofing using Bilt Hamber also the cills and door bottoms were rust proofed; I wanted to rustproof the bonnet and tail gate but the weather won't let me.

You've probably guessed by now we're keeping our Yeti and will ensure it gets fully looked after; we would never trade it in against a milk float or hybrid; it's better than the lot of EV's.

So many EV owners are now trading in for ICE cars glad to be rid of their EV.

Kind regards, Col.

 

On the subject of electronics on modern cars, I was watching 'Fifth Gear' and they were doing a comparison of 4 EVs including the Tesla 3. Jason Plato got in to drive it and apparently genuinely couldn't work out how to start it as there were no buttons, just a massive interactive screen. He actually needed to select the correct screen, swipe up or down depending on whether he wanted to forwards or to reverse and then press the accelerator. If that isn't technology for the sake of it I don't know what is.

 

Mobile phones have been banned by two schools that are linked on the Isle of Man.

 

Mine 11 yrs old this year, no plans of changing, its probably the oldest car I've ever owned.
I struggle to find even a petrol car that I like these days.
Cars are now just boring or maybe I have changed, the car market has stagnated.

 

Mine is 12 yrs old ... and I had my previous one for 17. After 15, it gets tricky finding breakdown cover. I will probably give up driving when my current one reaches the end of its useful life. I can't be doing with sensors beeping at me, daytime headlights, and all that nonsense. If a manufacturer came up with a really simple, no frills, easily repairable, inexpensive model, it would sell like hot cakes, IMV.

 

Cars appear to be designed and built to appeal to people who like gadgets.

Just because something is possible it doesn't mean they have to build it into a car.

 

Yes, I've seen a dog being dragged along with its leg cocked.
And the whole point of a walk for a dog is to sniff everything with great thoroughness. It's their social media.

 

I''m sure you can see the irony of complaining at the lack of critical thinking, and being told what to think whilst posting unsubstantiated nonsense about EV fires, fuelled (excuse the pun) by a load of sensationalist guff from some well known media outlets keen to keep us agitated.

It's interesting and useful to look at the facts of EV fires in more depth - I'd certainly be cautious in choosing an electric scooter or bicycle to keep or charge in the home.
Here's an article with some research behind it: Electric vehicle fires are very rare. The risk for petrol and diesel vehicles is at least 20 times higher

 

H,

We all spend our money and choose what to buy with it. Petrol & diesel cars I agree do catch fire but they are quickly put out unlike the highly dangerous EV fires which need to be parked in the middle of a field. I feel uneasy just parking our diesel Yeti near an EV and never want an EV on my property; it's easy to say EV fires are rarer than petrol or diesel fires but how many EV's are on the road compared to petrol or diesel.

EV's are being banned from a number of places like underground car parks; I'm sure those owning an EV felt safe until they were one of the unfortunate ones having their home burned to the ground.

It's not just the fire risk its that EV's are now classed as white goods like washing machines in fact they are worse than white goods because white goods don't get scrapped if they receive a knock. How many EV's will become classic cars in the future when EV's have a built in self destruct due to having a battery that will need replacing costing more than the EV is worth.

"unsubstantiated nonsense" I'm sure the EV owners shown in all the YouTube videos would say the stories are substantiated;

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ev+fires

I won't buy a car where it's value drops like a lead balloon and no one wants it second hand it being classed as a disposable item.

At work we had a Caterpillar diesel and a Yale electric fork truck; the Caterpillar fueled in minutes; the Yale was much different; it would run half a day until dinnertime then it was a real pain using an overhead crane to swap it's discharged battery for a fully charged battery; a job no one volunteered to do. The Caterpillar was used both outside and inside the huge despatch department but the Yale was needed to collect pallets of motors from JIT (just in time) cells otherwise there would have been two diesel trucks.

No offense to anyone but my choice is our diesel Yeti; EV sales are not doing well with many EV owners going back to ICE's.

I'm 77 and I think our Yeti with regular servicing will be running when I'm gone.


Here I'm on a Brough Superior; will EV's still be around as long?

Kind regards, Col.