What do you drive?

[chrisp65]

23 minutes ago, sidcow said:

My brother in law used to customise Beetles, the whole engine sticking out of the bonnet thing. 

A few years ago he built a beach buggy.  Had some twin pipes he needed to blank off and found a sherwoods curry jar lid fitted them perfectly. 

He put a VW Camper Van engine in the back of it with the fibreglass body it weighed nothing.  He was supposed to put a concrete block in the front to weigh it down but didn't bother.  If he put his foot down he could do wheelies in it. 

We had a bag of concrete in the front of our first Beetle in the winter to counter cross winds, and it sort of worked.

Upgraded the windscreen washer system too, for those interested, the ‘standard’ version for the wipers was powered by connecting the washer bottle to the spare tyre. So if you used the washer fluid too much on mucky roads, you had a flat spare tyre. We went high tech and bought a little electric pump which we duct taped to the inside of the bonnet.

Our second Beetle we upgraded the engine to a 1600 and gave it a couple of other light mods that made it really quite perky (for a Beetle), but left the brakes as they were. So it had sort of 1990’s power coupled with 1970’s brakes. My missus once managed to completely 360 spin it on ice in a country lane without touching the muddy bank either side. I don’t think we’d achieve that again if we tried it another thousand times.

 

[Phil Silvers]

14 hours ago, Davkaus said:

Still 4 years away, pretty cool looking though. We'll see how competitively they can price it.

I still really like this cute little thing as a city car

 

£28,000 for a car like that, though, and that's the basic model, it just doesn't make sense. If you want a nippy and practical hatchback, you can pick up a Fiesta ST-3 for a few grand less than that.

Yh another cool little EV.

[choffer]

Hoping the VT hive mind can provide some help as I'm totally stuck in deciding my next car. I've ran a Tiguan for the last few years and it looks like it's going to start to get expensive soon so I want to swap it out for something a bit newer. I generally buy (max) three years old with no more than 25,000 on the clock. I do too many miles to make a pcp workable so I always end up buying.

Ideally I wanted a hybrid but I don't think I can make it work with the budget. So I need a break from a VW and am stuck between a NX, XC40 or a Stelvio (the outside bet). The NX is the only possible hybrid but I the Luxus (Lexii?) look so tired. First time in my life I'm genuinely stumped - I usually know exactly what I'm getting next. If anyone has any insight, it'd be appreciated. If not, I'll ask mumsnet.

[Xela]

Nothing in the Skoda or SEAT range? As i'm sure you know, same chassis as the VW and Audi models. Or do you want a break from the VW Group overall?

[choffer]

13 minutes ago, Xela said:

Nothing in the Skoda or SEAT range? As i'm sure you know, same chassis as the VW and Audi models. Or do you want a break from the VW Group overall?

I went from successive Audi to the VW. I found the finish to be much lower quality with the Tiguan so have just presumed it'd be a further step down with Skoda or Seat. With the amount of time I spend in the car, I'm all about the comfort. 

[Xela]

4 minutes ago, choffer said:

I went from successive Audi to the VW. I found the finish to be much lower quality with the Tiguan so have just presumed it'd be a further step down with Skoda or Seat. With the amount of time I spend in the car, I'm all about the comfort. 

Funnily enough, a mate has just gone from a company Q2 to a new T-Roc and he commented that the VW, while nice, is not as well finished as the Audi. 

[Phil Silvers]

48 minutes ago, choffer said:

I went from successive Audi to the VW. I found the finish to be much lower quality with the Tiguan so have just presumed it'd be a further step down with Skoda or Seat. With the amount of time I spend in the car, I'm all about the comfort. 

A fully loaded Kodiak or Karok would be high on my list of test drives. Toyota Rav4 hybrid too. Not sure on prices but Porche Macan might be worth looking in to.

[villa4europe]

58 minutes ago, Xela said:

Funnily enough, a mate has just gone from a company Q2 to a new T-Roc and he commented that the VW, while nice, is not as well finished as the Audi. 

What I found was that if you went up through the audi lines or whatever you call them you can noticeably see and feel the difference, if you get an S line or black edition or then the s or rs you get a real sense of where your money has gone just by sitting in it

It wasn't like that with a golf, the jump from the base model to say a gti wasn't anything special bar the tartan seat pattern

you can pay £15k more for a better version of the same model and the cab will be very similar, that's not what I found to be the case with audi, the engine and the cab and the car in general all increased 

[Xela]

I see a lot of VW Transporters about nowadays... not the standard panel vans, but the Kombis and Caravelles.

I do like them. I like the thought of driving a van. 

[Big Salad]

3 minutes ago, Xela said:

I see a lot of VW Transporters about nowadays... not the standard panel vans, but the Kombis and Caravelles.

I do like them. I like the thought of driving a van. 

I'd like something bigger myself, its just gas prices over here are ridiculous right now.

Do like the look of a Kia Telluride though so if I do go the SUV right might be that or a Mitsubishi Outlander.

Again though with gas prices the way they are, gonna keep my smaller ride for now, but the above are ones most keen on.

[Lichfield Dean]

Finally done it. Getting an electric.

Having had a couple of Hyundais recently and generally liked them (their only fault is being a bit bland) we've got ourselves a good deal on a Kona Electric 64kwh in what they weirdly call Surfy Blue.

Did a test drive in it, and to say I was impressed... Wow. So much torque, and so effortless to drive, and so quiet. I'm never ever going back to fossil fuels. Loved the thing. It even has a HUD!! I imagine the new Ionic 5 is even better, but is bigger and more expensive.

Gotta wait until October to get it but I can hardly wait.

[Tegis]

13 hours ago, Lichfield Dean said:

Kona Electric

I just googled it and went to the Swedish Hyundai website. Was greeted with THE SPECIAL OFFER getting the charger cable for free if I buy/lease the car. So in normal circumstances the cable is not supplied with the car making it not fit for purpose? Carmaker words removed

[Lichfield Dean]

36 minutes ago, Tegis said:

I just googled it and went to the Swedish Hyundai website. Was greeted with THE SPECIAL OFFER getting the charger cable for free if I buy/lease the car. So in normal circumstances the cable is not supplied with the car making it not fit for purpose? Carmaker words removed

I just hope it doesn't come with a label saying "batteries not included"...

[Phil Silvers]

3 minutes ago, Lichfield Dean said:

I just hope it doesn't come with a label saying "batteries not included"...

I watched a few YouTube reviews of the Kona last night after reading you're post. It's quite an impressive car, good move me thinks, good find. 

[stuart_75]

15 hours ago, Lichfield Dean said:

Finally done it. Getting an electric.

Having had a couple of Hyundais recently and generally liked them (their only fault is being a bit bland) we've got ourselves a good deal on a Kona Electric 64kwh in what they weirdly call Surfy Blue.

Did a test drive in it, and to say I was impressed... Wow. So much torque, and so effortless to drive, and so quiet. I'm never ever going back to fossil fuels. Loved the thing. It even has a HUD!! I imagine the new Ionic 5 is even better, but is bigger and more expensive.

Gotta wait until October to get it but I can hardly wait.

I've been electric for 12 months now in a BMW i3s. It was a huge faff getting the charger installed during lockdown 1.0. But as you say, I'd never go back to fossil fuels as my main day 2 day car.

[Phil Silvers]

3 minutes ago, stuart_75 said:

I've been electric for 12 months now in a BMW i3s. It was a huge faff getting the charger installed during lockdown 1.0. But as you say, I'd never go back to fossil fuels as my main day 2 day car.

We should all have gone electric over the past few years, bargain motoring after the initial outlay, artificially low motoring costs if I guess right until no more fossil fuels and governments have to recoup billions in lost income. In the future the cost of running electric will resemble today's petrol/diesels running costs but the electric car premium will level out too I guess.

[stuart_75]

3 minutes ago, Phil Silvers said:

We should all have gone electric over the past few years, bargain motoring after the initial outlay, artificially low motoring costs if I guess right until no more fossil fuels and governments have to recoup billions in lost income. In the future the cost of running electric will resemble today's petrol/diesels running costs but the electric car premium will level out too I guess.

But how do HM Govt charge "petrol style" prices for the electricity that goes in the car and regular electric prices for power that goes in the home? I'm paying 5p/kwh from 20.30-00.30 and then 13p/kwh outside that. I'm sure the this golden age of cheap electric motoring will not last long.

[Davkaus]

1 minute ago, stuart_75 said:

But how do HM Govt charge "petrol style" prices for the electricity that goes in the car and regular electric prices for power that goes in the home?

They don't, that approach is a non-starter without shifting millions into fuel poverty. The far more likely outcome is a mileage based tax.

[Genie]

What I found weird about the roll out of electric cars is that the first generation are mainly ludicrously fast. I’m looking at Tesla mainly. 

People jumping out of 130bhp diesels into cars that are equivalent of double or triple that performance, which pulls down the range, and increase the amount of time it needs to be charged (and therefore the amount of drain on the grid which uses a lot of fossil fuel).

Then the Nissans and Renault’s of the world came along and said “here’s a small electric car that has a more normal power output… however, you can only drive about 20 miles on a charge, and it’s far more expensive than the petrol/diesel version”.

It’s taken too long to get a range of cars with a normal power output and a usable range imo which has been part of the fairly slow uptake (along with the price).

[Lichfield Dean]

Just now, stuart_75 said:

But how do HM Govt charge "petrol style" prices for the electricity that goes in the car and regular electric prices for power that goes in the home? I'm paying 5p/kwh from 20.30-00.30 and then 13p/kwh outside that. I'm sure the this golden age of cheap electric motoring will not last long.

Oh, it won't last. In the same way that I refused steadfastly to get a horrible diesel car until my current vehicle because they are horrible pollution mobiles. But the gov made it so that it was basically unaffordable in comparison to run a petrol car. And then, as soon as I had it, they turned about 180° and made it expensive and useless to own and not driveable into cities. So no doubt they'll do the same to me with my electric car.