[T_B]

Is it on his website?

Maybe this one

http://www.es-on-ice.co.uk/article/show/2

[slackline]

As an aside, Es Tressider (ex-Cullin Ridge record holder, runner, climber, GB ski mountaineer) wrote something about living in the highlands having an electric car as your only car. I'll see if I can find it.

I've also read this  and was trying to find it earlier... was an interesting read.. IIRC it was all fine apart from a round trip to Manchester airport in shitty weather when their range crapped out badly...

https://twitter.com/EsTresidder/status/793227965626736640

[tomtom]

Is it on his website?

Maybe this one

http://www.es-on-ice.co.uk/article/show/2

nope.. fraind not, was like a car review in many ways...

[Fultonius]

Hybrid for me with the next motor. Diesel is a burning platform (literally and metaphorically) - and the NO2 emissions are sonething I'm not cool comfortable with as an owner. Latest Korean offerings wedding electric with 6-7 speed auto's rather than toyota's cvt look promising.

Full electric is a way off (infrastructure more than car tech) and would only become viable for me when it reliably cracks 200-250 miles (as in that distance when its cold, wet and with a headwind!!). But I love the idea of electric cars. Anyway - driverless will be here in a big way in ten years time.

So, what you're trying to say is: yep, I'm on the waiting list for a Telsa model 3?   

[duncan]

Es-on-cars, it's food for thought.

A Norwegian academic colleague runs a Leaf and it's a very nice car. A no-brainer for his 30 mile commute from Hell (...the place, the drive along Trondheimsfjorden is glorious!). Electric-only cars wouldn't currently work for us because of the street charging issues and requirement to do 300+ miles (Portland) in a short day. Or would they?

We're currently running an old diesel that has about the same fuel economy as a hybrid. It only gets used on long runs, never in the city, so currently taking the chris j stance that replacing a functioning vehicle is, overall, less green. The retired Super Alpinist's Prius seems a well-sorted car though and I'd definitely consider one when the Skoda dies. 

[tomtom]

Es-on-cars, it's food for thought. 

Thats the one!

[slackline]

As an aside, Es Tressider (ex-Cullin Ridge record holder, runner, climber, GB ski mountaineer) wrote something about living in the highlands having an electric car as your only car. I'll see if I can find it.

I've also read this  and was trying to find it earlier... was an interesting read.. IIRC it was all fine apart from a round trip to Manchester airport in shitty weather when their range crapped out badly...

https://twitter.com/EsTresidder/status/793227965626736640

Quick write up of 4 months of life with an electric car in the Scottish highlands:
....
The second was driving to Derbyshire (400 miles from here) to see family in stormy weather with gale-force southerly winds.
...
I thought having an electric car would be one of those things, like rarely flying and heating my house at 19 degrees, that I do because I’m concerned about climate change, but that I’d rather not do. On the contrary I’d say for our lifestyle it’s a nicer, more convenient car to have. The experience so far has been really positive and it gives me hope that electric cars can very rapidly take over from ICE cars in the years to come, especially as cars with double the range of ours for a similar price are on the horizon in the next 2 or 3 years.

[duncan]

Full electric is a way off (infrastructure more than car tech) and would only become viable for me when it reliably cracks 200-250 miles (as in that distance when its cold, wet and with a headwind!!). But I love the idea of electric cars. Anyway - driverless will be here in a big way in ten years time.

Electric-only cars wouldn't currently work for us because of the street charging issues and requirement to do 300+ miles (Portland) in a short day. Or would they?

Thinking about this some more. It’s good to take a break every 100-120 miles, I’d be fine with a car with this range after a 25-30 minute recharge.

Typical climbing trip to Portland: 100 miles from London gets you to Ringwood, recharge car (~80% in 30 minutes) and driver, on to Portland, climb, back to Ringwood (another 100 miles), recharge, and return to London.

A car with a 120 mile range (e.g. a Leaf) could work, just, if everything was in your favour. At present, our nearest street charging is 1km away. You’d need to be very organised to always set off with a full charge. Realistically, the round trip would frequently involve three or four stops. That's a significant barrier for me.

A car with a 180 mile range in non-ideal conditions (at a non-Tesla price) is my tipping point. You could then start 70% charged, say you’d been unable to top-up a day or two before, and still do 100 miles with a bit to spare. Or do the whole trip with one stop in Weymouth. Logistics of other long journeys are similar: drive two hours, half an hour break, rinse and repeat.

It sounds like we could see this in ~5 years.

[duncan]

...

[Fultonius]

In an attempt to be as prophetic as possible I'm going to lay it on the line here. I reckon in 10-15 years we're all going to wonder why.t.f. we didn't push for electric sooner (not why we, as consumers didn't switch - Duncan's "tipping point" is exactly why) but I mean more pushing for the technology. Elon Musk really has to take a lot of the credit in my opinion.

Practically no servicing required, (oil changes, timing belts etc.) quieter, cleaner, much cheaper to run. Can de-mist your windows form the comfort of you breakfast table via your phone.

I can't wait!  Shame the only camper currently available has about 80 mile range:  http://www.hillsideleisure.co.uk/blog/electric-campervan/

[dave]

In an attempt to be as prophetic as possible I'm going to lay it on the line here. I reckon in 10-15 years we're all going to wonder why.t.f. we didn't push for electric sooner

Yep, it'll be like when the ban on smoking in pubs came in.

[Bubba]

Over the medium/long term I think hydrogen will win out over leccy...

[Johnny Brown]

Yep, it'll be like when the ban on smoking in pubs came in.

We're going to sit around wishing they weren't so unhealthy cos they sure covered the farty smell?

[Duma]

Over the medium/long term I think hydrogen will win out over leccy...

Out of interest, why? (assuming you mean fuel cells, it's just a different battery, they're all electric motors) Hydrogen is just a storage tech really (splitting water to get the hydrogen is going to use electricity I guess?)

[chris j]

Over the medium/long term I think hydrogen will win out over leccy...

I don't think anyone will pay to develop the infrastructure for widespread public hydrogen use. Bus companies and the like where they fill up from only one central location will probably continue to develop it but I think it will remain niche.

[Bubba]

Out of interest, why?

Faster "charging", longer range. But in reality it probably never will as there's only 8 public filling stations so far in the UK so way behind EVs. I thought it had had more adoption but no 

[James Malloch]

Quick question regarding selling my van.

It's a 07 Peugeot Partner (120k miles) with a mini camper conversion (lights and bed) but it's a basic one. It starts first time and runs fine but I've had a few problems with it.

First, the oil light comes on occasionally on a longer drive and the engine sound changes. I've fairly certain (from asking various garages and getting it looked at) that it probably needs a bloody good service. Clean the oil sump out, replace filters etc. As it only happens occasionally the general consensus is that it probably has some crap in the sump/oil that loosens on a longer drive and a bit of it is circulated, hence causing the oil pressure warning. It stops once the engine is turned off and left for 5 mins but would come back faster than if you left it for a day or two (I've had it happen and then be okay for the next 1000 or so miles).

Secondly, something locked up once and forced me into an emergency stop. It was looked at a lot by the recovery team and a local garage and there were no issues with the breaks and they were fairly certain it wasn't them. The only thing they could think of is that I somehow knocked the clutch (or it slipped) and it locked up. This was pretty scary but only happened once and has been driven a fair bit since without issue.

So the question...

It's MOT is due in 3 weeks and I want to sell it as I'm getting a new vehicle soon. I personally think it will do okay and require minimal repair (if any) given it has been seen by my (old) local garage a lot in the last year and had a fair bit of work done. However having not really used it in the last 6 months, mainly due to the potential oil issue and having access to another car, I don't want to spend any money on repairs etc.

Thus, is it better for me to try and sell it now with the above caveats?

Or stick it in for an MOT at Halfords this week (£30) and then risk having to sell it as an MOT fail if any repairs are needed that I don't want to foot the bill for?

Any thoughts/experience would be appreciated. I know it's not going to go for much but it would be good to maximise it's value.

Other than that - if anyone wants a cheap van with known issues then let me know...

[Fultonius]

Whatever you do,  don't put it into a Halfords MOT - those are designed purely to give you "advisories" that you then have to fix at halfords...  I've had advisories one year,  which miraculously fixed themselves the next year...

Sent from my E5823 using Tapatalk

[slackline]

There are two centres in Sheffield that do the Councils MOTs that Bonjoy put people onto in the Campervan thread if I remember correctly (too busy to go digging for his post now).  They don't do any repairs so have no incentive to find advisories or things that need repairing.

One is DOT MOT on Olive Grove Road.  Last MOT there on my campervan and like Fultonious advisories from the previous MOT had cleared up on their own.

[James Malloch]

I might avoid Halfords then - thanks!

I'm living in Leeds now but there's a council one here too which might be able to fit it in at some point. I used it for an old car years ago and I'd forgotten about it so great recommendation. I'll give them a call later to see if it would be an option before it's due.

I used DOT a few years ago whilst at uni in Sheffield - it does do repairs now as it ended up costing me about £500 after getting break pipes etc replaced through them. Nice bunch of guys but the name is a little misleading now I think.

[Paul B]

I think that's a 'fairly recent' change. Bubba always used to recommend them too.

[SA Chris]

Changes to taxes I was unaware of. Sounds like a stitch up for hybrids.

http://www.whatcar.com/advice/buying/ved-car-tax-changes-in-2017-what-do-i-need-to-know/

[Johnny Brown]

Well that's fucking retarded. Nice one George.

[tomtom]

Before everyone goes crazy - its for cars registered from 2017 onwards.... nothing to see here unless you are buying a new car...

[Johnny Brown]

Well the thread has been discussing the transition to renewables. Which clearly the current government have very little interest in promoting.