EV general discussion

[MrRockliffe]

Probably a rolls royce to get the customer service you need

I don't think my "needs" are anything outside of the ordinary.


I've only asked for a working car in exchange for money - Hyundai have now had 5 chances to provide that.


I think that's more than reasonable.



At what point do you otherwise say enough's enough?

1.5 years into a lease?




I've learned the hard way that the first 30 days are the MOST important, because afterwards you simply don't have any ability to reject the car.

What's next on the list? BMW?

I'll likely get an i4 yeah.

 

[chanjy]

I don't think my "needs" are anything outside of the ordinary.


I've only asked for a working car in exchange for money - Hyundai have now had 5 chances to provide that.

First of all.. I don't want to come across as some sort of car dealer apologist. So it's not intended to be like that. But a bunged up windscreen wiper just feels like a crazy thing to reject the car over. I'm sure if you actually spoke to them they would let you take it to the nearest dealership and pick up the bill.

 

[lordrobs]

I don't think my "needs" are anything outside of the ordinary.

Unfortunately your expectations probably are. The vast majority of people chasing cheap lease deals would probably have initially been annoyed at the car not being reserved for the deposit, then completed the financial agreement (removing the second issue you had with them), not even noticed the paint and just gone "ooh, shiny" then returned it to get the defect that slipped through QC resolved.

We've already mentioned how standards are poor and that your (and my) employers wouldn't stand for it. I'm not sure what industry you are in but we certainly don't supply our products on the drip with race to the bottom pricing so expectations are different. Again, unfortunately, the vast majority set the baseline acceptable standard and that is what you are seeing.

My company car was delivered with - paint defects, interior scratches, mismatched paint on the bumpers, interior rattles and wonky numberplate. I didn't particularly care so I accepted it (I also didn't have much choice as my current one was off to it's new keeper the same day).

Would I have accepted it MYSELF, hell no. However if I was buying a car for myself I wouldn't be going to the cheapest dealer selling the cheapest stockpiled car that met my base criteria at £16k off list and expecting perfection.

 

[cuke2u]

Probably a rolls royce to get the customer service you need

I disagree, when spending thousands on a car there should be a standard of practice.
I once complained to a BMW dealership they'd washed my car when I'd asked them not too and recieved a full apology from the service manager and a £100 credit to use on whatever I wanted within the dealership.
I once brought a new A4 and it was clear the PDI hadn't been completed fully and the windscreen was dirty inside.
I complained and was treated to a meal, with my partner, at any local restaurant of our choice. Price within reason of course.
If no-one complains then standards will drop as complaints are a barometer on how good or bad a dealership performs.

 

[LiE]

Just put a deposit down on an iX 50 so need to think about an EV charger. Being a newer house we have the wiring already for an EV just need the wall charger fitting. We have solar/batteries from FoxESS so does it make sense to go with the Fox charger ?

 

[Demon]

Just went to charge the ID.3 this morning (first charge since picking it up) and when the first charger didn't work, i tried two more and same thing, so my heart sank in a 'Have I bought a Mr Rockcliffe special' moment!
Luckily someone rocked up in their eNiro to charge so I swapped cables briefly and turns out it was just the cable! Phew.. I've just been to the garage who seemed very apologetic and when they couldn't find any spares, they asked if I wanted to swap with my cable from my old car.. perfect.. all happy again!

 

[Journey]

Just put a deposit down on an iX 50 so need to think about an EV charger. Being a newer house we have the wiring already for an EV just need the wall charger fitting. We have solar/batteries from FoxESS so does it make sense to go with the Fox charger ?

Mental buying a new ix50 it will drop in value faster than a lady of the night drops her drawers.

 

[LiE]

Mental buying a new ix50 it will drop in value faster than a lady of the night drops her drawers.

Who said it's new? It's a 2023 with 27k miles, so has already dropped its drawers.

 

[Demon]

Just put a deposit down on an iX 50 so need to think about an EV charger. Being a newer house we have the wiring already for an EV just need the wall charger fitting. We have solar/batteries from FoxESS so does it make sense to go with the Fox charger ?

I'd get something known for integrating with the energy platforms, such as Hypervolt, that way, should you switch to an EV that isn't natively supported, the charger will be and that helps access all available energy offerings.

I like the iX, my Brother in law has the iX 50 (his has a lot of extras) and loved it, and we've just got a quote for an iX M70 in work as I'm unsure on if I want to SalSac again or just go with a company car and make it something nice..

 

[Jimbeam3678]

I disagree, when spending thousands on a car there should be a standard of practice.
I once complained to a BMW dealership they'd washed my car when I'd asked them not too and recieved a full apology from the service manager and a £100 credit to use on whatever I wanted within the dealership.
I once brought a new A4 and it was clear the PDI hadn't been completed fully and the windscreen was dirty inside.
I complained and was treated to a meal, with my partner, at any local restaurant of our choice. Price within reason of course.
If no-one complains then standards will drop as complaints are a barometer on how good or bad a dealership performs.

Completely agree with this - equally praise good service. I try to do both, not always but I aim to.

 

[lordrobs]

I disagree, I once complained to a BMW dealership they'd washed my car when I'd asked them not too and recieved a full apology from the service manager and a £100 credit to use on whatever I wanted within the dealership.
I once brought a new A4 and it was clear the PDI hadn't been completed fully and the windscreen was dirty inside.
I complained and was treated to a meal, with my partner, at any local restaurant of our choice. Price within reason of course.
If no-one complains then standards will drop as complaints are a barometer on how good or bad a dealership performs.

The dealership won't care nor will the manufacturer. There is one metric they are interested in, units shifted. While customer satisfaction should make a difference to their ability to do that the reality in todays market is that it doesn't mean a thing.

The only factor that makes a jot of difference to the units shifted is £### per month, smallest deposit possible.

It's like housing. Massive estate new builds are notoriously poorly built but people buy them because it gets them into something new that meets their criteria as cheaply as possible. Do Persimmon, Barratt, Taylor Wimpey et al. give a stuff that your kitchen sink floods with turds when you flush the toilet? Nope, because they are already looking at next quarters figures and if sales dry up a bit they will just throw another sweetener into the deal.

 

[cuke2u]

The dealership won't care nor will the manufacturer. There is one metric they are interested in, units shifted. While customer satisfaction should make a difference to their ability to do that the reality in todays market is that it doesn't mean a thing.

The only factor that makes a jot of difference to the units shifted is £### per month, smallest deposit possible.

It's like housing. Massive estate new builds are notoriously poorly built but people buy them because it gets them into something new that meets their criteria as cheaply as possible. Do Persimmon, Barratt, Taylor Wimpey et al. give a stuff that your kitchen sink floods with turds when you flush the toilet? Nope, because they are already looking at next quarters figures and if sales dry up a bit they will just throw another sweetener into the deal.

Rather cynical, I've always personally been of the impression once the error of their actions are pointed out, this being judged from the responses I received.
But there will always be those dealerships indifferent to any criticism, of course. As for the manufacturers, they are remote from the customers anyway which is why they have dealerships as the first level of contact. If any dealerships I deal with cannot give the level of service they should, or acknowledge the error of their ways when they get it wrong they do not get my business. That isn't just as a car purchaser either.
As for housing, can't see what on earth that has anything to do with it, and really the language you use to 'illustrate' a point is bit unnecessary.

 

[Shadowness]

It's like housing. Massive estate new builds are notoriously poorly built but people buy them because it gets them into something new that meets their criteria as cheaply as possible. Do Persimmon, Barratt, Taylor Wimpey et al. give a stuff that your kitchen sink floods with turds when you flush the toilet? Nope, because they are already looking at next quarters figures and if sales dry up a bit they will just throw another sweetener into the deal.

People buy them as they need homes. People move in to them as soon as they're built. I was the first in my new house when the estate was being built, and I was a first time buyer.

It's not as they're as cheap as possible, it's just new availability. We're hoping to finally move out of that house next week, and while we looked at new builds, there wasn't a hug amount of choice for older houses. The quality is lower as they want as high margins as possible. I think I was relatively lucky with mine, but I'll never buy a new build again.

 

[bigmike20vt]

Just put a deposit down on an iX 50 so need to think about an EV charger. Being a newer house we have the wiring already for an EV just need the wall charger fitting. We have solar/batteries from FoxESS so does it make sense to go with the Fox charger ?

insee the hypervolt has already been suggested.

now it's set up properly in have no issues with my zappi which also supports solar charging as well as intelligent octopus so I don't need to tie it to my car which is handy as we own 2 EVs only one of which works on intelligent octopus.

things may change going forward so it's absolutely sensible to be prepared with a solar charging compatible unit... however it is unlikely you will want to actually use it to charge with solar at the moment due to export payments being closed to double what the off peak import charging costs with the right tariff.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

Just put a deposit down on an iX 50 so need to think about an EV charger. Being a newer house we have the wiring already for an EV just need the wall charger fitting. We have solar/batteries from FoxESS so does it make sense to go with the Fox charger ?

I wouldn’t use the existing wiring because it will be into your main consumer unit.

The issue with smart charging is that it can happen at any time, literally any time.

If your battery system can see the load from the charger (and it can because it will be in the main consumer unit), the battery will fill the demand.

So if octopus/edf/eon etc decide to charge your car at 8:43pm with no notice, your battery will dump whatever it has left into the car.

You can get fixed time period tariffs where energy is cheap but they are priced higher. As more renewables come on the grid, I can only see the gap between them and the ‘dynamic’ versions widening. For example, at this time of year, the cheapest energy is available from 11am-2pm.

The solution has 3 options:
1) only use the more expensive time of use tariffs which have a fixed overnight period.
2) use 3rd party controls like home assistant to monitor for EV charging and make sure the battery is charging at the same time
3) electrically ‘blind’ your solar/battery system to your EV charger.

This involves splitting the supply cable just after the meter, installing a small standalone consumer unit which only supplies the EV charger.

The CT clamp which your solar system uses to monitor power consumption is place after the EV charger on the cable which goes to the house consumer unit.

#3 is the best long term fail safe solution. Any competent installer should know how to achieve this with your install, if they don’t, bin them.

 

[Shadowness]

Anyone have any experiences with the Toyota C-HR+?

The misses wants to look at some alternatives to the Model Y, and she likes Toyotas. I'd also like to check out the Renault Scenic too.

BMW/Volvo look nice too, but they seem to be much more expensive, when you add some of the toys you'd actually want.

 

[chanjy]

Anyone have any experiences with the Toyota C-HR+?

The misses wants to look at some alternatives to the Model Y, and she likes Toyotas. I'd also like to check out the Renault Scenic too.

BMW/Volvo look nice too, but they seem to be much more expensive, when you add some of the toys you'd actually want.

C-HR is a hybrid/plug in hybid while the Scenic is a full EV - you need to decide what you prefer. The Toyota equivalent should be the bz4x I think, not the C-HR.

 

[lordrobs]

As for housing, can't see what on earth that has anything to do with it, and really the language you use to 'illustrate' a point is bit unnecessary.

People say about expecting good service when buying a car as it is the "second most expensive thing you will ever buy", I was just pointing out that you can't necessarily expect better for the most expensive thing you will ever buy.

People buy them as they need homes. People move in to them as soon as they're built. I was the first in my new house when the estate was being built, and I was a first time buyer.

It's not as they're as cheap as possible, it's just new availability. We're hoping to finally move out of that house next week, and while we looked at new builds, there wasn't a hug amount of choice for older houses. The quality is lower as they want as high margins as possible. I think I was relatively lucky with mine, but I'll never buy a new build again.

Absolutely, it isn't a slight on the buyer, the industry needs to do (much) better. The "as cheap as possible" comment is obviously relative because no housing is cheap. Certainly round here however there seems to be financial incentives to buy off plan.

People can also be excused to think that buying new = no issues. It absolutely should, but the reality, just as it is with many cars, is that this simply isn't the case.

 

[Journey]

Who said it's new? It's a 2023 with 27k miles, so has already dropped its drawers.

Sorry, totally misread though you said iX3-50. Those iX's are mahoooooosive. Not sure what you've paid/committed to, but unless it was closer to £30k than £40-42 I still reckon it has a good way to fall even in just 12-18 months. Bit of a difference from an A4 though.

 

[DarrenM343]

C-HR is a hybrid/plug in hybid while the Scenic is a full EV - you need to decide what you prefer. The Toyota equivalent should be the bz4x I think, not the C-HR.

They mentioned the C-HR+ which is the full EV.
I like the look of the model, personally. Not driven one or even seen one in the flesh yet but will pop into my local dealer soon to take a look. I thought they were doing a 300hp version but I don't think it's available in the UK, at least yet. 10 year warranty as Toyota offers should be standard with all new EV's in my opinion.