I've given up on LPG - the future is Electric.

Bug One said:
It is tempting (and I coulddn't resist). Just don't get mis'sold the fact that it'll do 100+ miles on one charge.

Although, the 2018 model is even more tempting.... http://carslane.com/2018-nissan-leaf/
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The range isn't an issue for me, my only major issue is not being able to have a charging point outside my house. Garage is off and behind the house, and has no power source
 
Nasher said:
Only if you make a point of blasting past ecoboxes in 2nd gear :P
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Noted... will report back on my scorecard

Jonnycoupe said:
Interestingly I had a half way house last night S500 L AMG HYBRID. Great driving it today leaving my street in EV fully charged. Defined luxury.
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Funky... I have an S350d at the moment and can't stand it - it's not horrible... just dislike diesel with a vengeance and I think BMWs are much better.

Swapping the E63 for an F-Type at the weekend.
 
crinkleshoes said:
Being given an E63 AMG tomorrow... does that ruffle and jimmies in here? :D
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If I was given any decent car, and didn't have to pay the fuel myself - I'd be over the moon.

Oh, and your AMG is probably more fuel efficient than my other car.

Edit,

Just curious, but is that a gift from mummy and daddy, or is that a company car. I've never known a company give away cars like that, even for senior directors - the tax would be massive. Or do you work at a dealership?
 
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Bug One said:
If I was given any decent car, and didn't have to pay the fuel myself - I'd be over the moon.

Oh, and your AMG is probably more fuel efficient than my other car.

Edit,

Just curious, but is that a gift from mummy and daddy, or is that a company car. I've never known a company give away cars like that, even for senior directors - the tax would be massive. Or do you work at a dealership?
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I have a petrol fuel card I can use for personal use :D

It's not mine - it's an insurance replacement while my Boxster S is in for repair... some dude drove into it last Thursday :(

So I had choice of E63/M5/F-Type and some other things that didn't interest me. They were very apologetic that they couldn't offer me a 911.

Have driven the latest M5 so know what that's like.

Have always wanted to sample the Merc x63 engine, even though I don't like Mercs much.

Rental company said I can change it if I don't like it... so I'm going to try out the E63 for a few days and then swap it for the F-Type :)

Nice little upside to being in a crunch. Guy has admitted liability too - so don't have much to worry about.

The Porsche is mine... no gifts involved.

I'm quite new with my company at the moment... but when I've been with them for a while it's likely they'll put me in a decent 4/5/6 series.
 
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crinkleshoes said:
Noted... will report back on my scorecard



Funky... I have an S350d at the moment and can't stand it - it's not horrible... just dislike diesel with a vengeance and I think BMWs are much better.

Swapping the E63 for an F-Type at the weekend.
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Do you work for a dealership moving these cars around for them or something? :)
 
No wonder everyone's insurance is through the roof if they are giving out brand new AMG E Class Mercs as an equivalent to an older Boxster :eek: :p
 
Jez said:
Do you work for a dealership moving these cars around for them or something? :)
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Nope - see above.

[TW]Fox;30416555 said:
No wonder everyone's insurance is through the roof if they are giving out brand new AMG E Class Mercs as an equivalent to an older Boxster :eek: :p
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Enterprise put these vehicles in the same class as a Boxster S.

Had to go through complaints procedure though to get an upgrade from S350d. Got £100 as compensation for being in a "lesser" car for a few days too.

Glad I paid the extra for "like for like" otherwise I'd be in a Golf or something.
 
I don't think any rental car firm has a 2 seater roadster in the same class as an S Class, you'd have some pretty irritated corporate execs when the four of them stood in the office trying to work out how to fit into the allocated Boxster :D
 
[TW]Fox;30416582 said:
I don't think any rental car firm has a 2 seater roadster in the same class as an S Class, you'd have some pretty irritated corporate execs when the four of them stood in the office trying to work out how to fit into the allocated Boxster :D
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Yeah - it's a bit silly.

Supposedly AXA's top option with enterprise was their "Executive Premium" class which is S class / 7 series / XJ.

Enterprise have "Coupe Premium" which is Caymans and the like plus "Super Premium" which includes Boxster S, 911 C2S, Audi R8, Lambos, Ferraris, Panamera Turbo S, SLK350, E Coupe 350... plus more odd things you wouldn't ever think are bundled together.

Bit of an oddity to stick them all in one class. My insurance didn't want to pay for the R8/Lambo/Fez though - hehe.

AXA guy was telling me they had to update their contract with Enterprise to get me in the "Super Premium" class and that it's never happened before :/ That's what I was told anyway... no idea the validity of the statement.

... now to find an apple to stick on the apex of a corner...
 
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Bug One said:
Just curious, but is that a gift from mummy and daddy, or is that a company car. I've never known a company give away cars like that, even for senior directors - the tax would be massive. Or do you work at a dealership?
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I've seen Bentleys, Ferraris, Aston Martins etc. as company cars. I think I even saw a Ferrari on a stock sheet as a pool car...
 
I would love an electric car, the ability to put the heaters on whilst your getting out the shower on a cold freezing morning is amazing :D I'm sure there are other cars which have that ability, but damn, I wan't electric anyway.

My car will keep my happy for the next three years, who knows, there may be cars on the market for 20k which will do a good 100+ miles by then :confused: maybe
 
Will Gill said:
It's all fairly superficial as far as I understand it, a petrol car uses fossil fuels to power it, an electric car gets its power from power stations burning fossil fuels to power them.
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Two problems with this post.

1. The UK grid is greener than that - about 38% of electricity is generated from renewables + nuclear (as of 2014). Better to be 38% green than 0% green as petrol is.

2. As Joe T mentioned in #95, electric motors are much more efficient than internal combustion. An ICE car loses about 75% of the energy in the fuel as heat just burning it, then more in the gearbox and drivetrain (some say 15%). From what I can tell electric motors are very efficient, 75-95% ish, and they don't need gearboxes. In the future they'll be wheel mounted too, getting rid of drivetrain losses.

So the "fuel" is cleaner than burning petrol, and the machine itself is more energy efficient.

Edit: also remember even fossil fuel power plants are more efficient than your petrol motor. Gas power plants get 35-60% efficiency from what I can find. Even coal plants aren't far behind. So even with transmission losses it's more efficient to burn the fuel in a big power plant and send it to your car than just burn it directly in your car.
 
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With EVs most of the energy is lost from charging (it takes much more energy to charge batteries than you get back), heat and the extra weight they have to lug around.

If they can solve the weight problem it would probably fix the range issue and make them a lot more efficient. But that won't happen until someone invents some new lightweight battery technology.
 
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Nasher said:
With EVs most of the energy is lost from charging (it takes much more energy to charge batteries than you get back), heat and the extra weight they have to lug around.

If they can solve the weight problem it would probably fix the range issue and make them a lot more efficient. But that won't happen until someone invents some new lightweight battery technology.
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Literally have no idea what you mean, the range issue is actually a cost issue.

They are heavy because of the energy density of cells today. The efficiency of EV is very goo, you get most of what you put into the battery into the wheels. Hybrid might be where you are getting confused where under regen the to charge the battery round trip to use later can be much lower than 50% although everything is getting more and more efficient, particularly due to higher bus voltages
 
Jonnycoupe said:
Literally have no idea what you mean, the range issue is actually a cost issue.

They are heavy because of the energy density of cells today. The efficiency of EV is very goo, you get most of what you put into the battery into the wheels. Hybrid might be where you are getting confused where under regen the to charge the battery round trip to use later can be much lower than 50% although everything is getting more and more efficient, particularly due to higher bus voltages
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I think the point is more range=more batteries= more weight, possibly a case of diminishing returns. Ive not looked at the weight difference between something like a leaf and and a tesla.
 
Yep, diminishing returns is the problem. You can't just add more and more batteries to increase range. Because friction becomes a bigger and bigger energy sucker.

There is a sweet spot which won't improve until batteries become lighter or better at storing energy. Once they crack that (and they will eventually), they will replace petrol/diesel.
 
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joeyjojo said:
Two problems with this post.

1. The UK grid is greener than that - about 38% of electricity is generated from renewables + nuclear (as of 2014). Better to be 38% green than 0% green as petrol is.
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Just thought I'd wave a little "hi" at the massive elephant in the room here.

If we start getting a higher portion of our transport requirements covered by electrical power instead of petrol/diesel... who's going to put up all those lovely new nuclear power plants we'll need?

Right now, most of our stock is ageing, and due to be shut down withing the forseeable future. Struggling to think of the last new nuclear station we built :) Because wind turbines won't be fuelling the cars of the future...
 
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