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EV general discussion

david25 said:
Did you see the recent lease deals on the Model 3?

Back in April it was £295 deposit, £295/month
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Yeah, we see them every now and then (I keep an eye on this Pistonheads lease thread now and then) but when I turn it up to 20k miles p/a it cranks the numbers up quite a bit.

MrRockliffe said:
May have missed but have you got a budget?

i4s are getting to low 20s and they’re a fantastic car with very usable interior space due to the hatch design.



More than welcome to have a look and drive of mine - can arrange to meet up when I’m in Godalming for work (which is my primary office).
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That's a great offer, thanks. To be honest at this point we're just ploughing all our spare cash in to a house deposit, which complicates things even more, because I'm pretty certain we'd end up saving by switching. My wife can charge for free at work once or twice a week, but she also wants a new job so there's a very real chance we'll be losing that perk too. Loads of variables to think about.

Right now we're just gonna focus on the house thing, once we have that and can install our own charger the world will be our oyster.
 
unexpected bedfellows

Step inside the Neue Klasse-based iX3 and the dashboard is nearly bare. Just a small cluster of switches survives on the centre console. Climate control? Gone from physical form entirely — now handled through the touchscreen or by talking to the car. BMW says this isn’t about chasing a trend. It’s about catching up with how people already live. Pawah pointed to younger drivers — roughly under 45 — who default to touch and voice everywhere else in life, and expect their car to keep pace.
....
But China May Force a Rethink

Here’s the twist: China’s own regulators are about to clamp down on the very minimalism its market helped inspire. A new national standard — expected to land on July 1, 2027 — will require 19 essential functions, including gear selection, wipers, lights and indicators, to have real physical controls. Not just anywhere, either: fixed locations, a minimum size, and tactile or audible feedback.
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european right-handed drivers might find car touch screens easy to use, but this seems BS to me that any right handed person is efficient using a touch screen with their left
hand, be it a phone or a car touch screen, versus physical controls.
(maybe the under 45 right handers are ambidextrous and can use a knife/axe/saw with precision,with either hand)
 
don't most newer cars have voice recognition though? I dislike pressing buttons on a tablet screen (though not as much as I hate the old BMW rotary dial thing..... ) but if voice recognition is ok that works.
 
jpaul said:
unexpected bedfellows



european right-handed drivers might find car touch screens easy to use, but this seems BS to me that any right handed person is efficient using a touch screen with their left
hand, be it a phone or a car touch screen, versus physical controls.
(maybe the under 45 right handers are ambidextrous and can use a knife/axe/saw with precision,with either hand)
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So you're not gonna buy one then?
 
I thought people/designers were starting to realise that physical controls are the way forward in cars or at least a better blend of physical/touchscreen after going too far the other way in recent years.

Our ID3 is too far the wrong way for touchscreen and our Kona is too far the other way with physical buttons (I've given up trying to do any sort of AC control on the go because there's just a slab of buttons and who knows which one I need).
 
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EV related tyre question.
My rear conti all seasons will be toast in the next 1-2k miles, currently got 99V XL rated fitted all round.

Official spec is 95T, how wallowy and crap will it feel if I swap the rears for the same tyre but with the lower rating? £100 is a saving not to be sniffed at :o
 
bigmike20vt said:
have you checked different suppliers? the last couple of sets of tyres for my i3 and ipace I have saved a fair chunk getting from F1 auto centre
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Yep sat and went through them all this morning a pair of 95T rated ones is pretty much £100 cheaper than anything else on all the sites that have them, best I've found for the 99V XL ones is just over £300.

Working out at under £120 per tyre, at that price I'm tempted to buy 4 and stick the spare 2 in the shed until the fronts wear out if they're not going to be terrible to drive on.
 
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That seems like a good price for I assume 18" tyres & fitted?

Just spent £340 on two All Season Contact 2 tyres for the rear of the Model 3. These replace the older version of the same tyre which have done nearly 30k miles. Fronts still have 4-5mm of tread so should last at least another year.

Also sailed through its service with Cleeveley with just some remedial suspension work needed which I knew was due anyway.

Battery is also sat at 88% SoH via the in built battery health test which seems to be in line with its age and mileage (just under 61k) for an original SR+.

Overall quite happy with the overall results after nearly 4 years of ownership.
 
Yeah 255/15/18, it's a very tempting price considering I've eaten those rears in less than 18 months. Just don't want to end up feeling like I'm driving around on jelly :D
 
Diddums said:
Your username suggests you might be Scottish, in which case you should be grateful that anyone can understand you at all :D
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I am, although my accent is more a hybrid of West Country/Dutch, with only a small hint of Glaswegian creeping in on the odd word here and there (I'm not sure if that makes it better or worse!)

Jimbeam3678 said:
Voice works well, surprisingly well in my Tesla with Grok. Almost shocked how useful it is.
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Since Android Auto switched from Google Assistant to Gemini, I've found it's actually worse. Google Assistant would at least tell me it doesn't understand or isn't able to do something, whereas Gemini straight up lies to me.
 
Haggisman said:
I am, although my accent is more a hybrid of West Country/Dutch, with only a small hint of Glaswegian creeping in on the odd word here and there (I'm not sure if that makes it better or worse!)



Since Android Auto switched from Google Assistant to Gemini, I've found it's actually worse. Google Assistant would at least tell me it doesn't understand or isn't able to do something, whereas Gemini straight up lies to me.
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I keep swapping back to the old assistant (though it periodically switches back on its own)
Gemini objectively isn't as good for driving . for instance it can't connect to my Amazon music account where as the old assistant can
 
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Eek, starting to have regrets going with Ohme Pro. Was fine for a year or so but now loses 4G connection, turning it into a dumb charger, and so premium higher rate charge from Octopus.

Started with once every couple weeks to now being down 3 days straight. Power cycling no longer fixes it, and no WiFi backup, it’s doesn’t have the hardware for that.

Engineer organised from Ohme coming out 9th Sept…managed to charge it to 93% the other day when it magically came back up aaand like clockwork it went down again overnight. Very frustrating and highlights the issue all this inconnnected tech.
 
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with three and vodaphone merger, or 3g shutdown (had some o2 texts a few months bsack) is there some consolidation of 4g masts and possibility
of new bermuda triangles, which is where I live diddums.

Diddums said:
So you're not gonna buy one then?
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eventually but the shortlist is short - I think stellantis with both designs and lighter cars (from smaller batteries & engineering), + design,
is where it's at - they just need to put the 280bhp+lsd from junior velocee into the hatch e408; chinese/koreans mb, bmw typically heavy
and lost the dynamics i have in a 1500kg audi estate.
 
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