Trouble with electricity is that its price goes up fiercely ,the cars themselves are limited in a number of ways which makes them less convenient, they are expensive, harder to fix, expensive to insure and the public ain't entirely stoopid. They know that the tax take on petrol will inevitably be applied to electricity sooner or later and the electric cars will become even more expensive the week after they have bought in, like as not.

22 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

I don't see much evidence so far of the average driver embracing electric.

I'm a driver and I've just bought an "electric toothbrush" does that count ? 🤣

10 minutes ago, anon said:

Trouble with electricity is that its price goes up fiercely ...

But surely with the government closing all our coal powered generators, and running down our nuclear capacity, they have worked out that solar power, and windmills will be more than enough to provide all our future energy needs, right? LOL

Unofix, the electric toothbrush is the greatest benefit to mankind. Since I bought one I have been able to abandon my twice daily exercise programme.

I might actually be the target audience for an electric vehicle. Pre-pandemic I did an average of about 16k miles a year; now it's down to about 2k, if that.

Of course, in a spectacularly brilliant bit of bad timing I bought my current diesel car in January 2020 to cope with all the motorway driving and high miles, so what do I know?

2 minutes ago, erictcleric said:

I might actually be the target audience for an electric vehicle. ........ now it's down to about 2k, if that.

 

Now, that's about 1 x full charge/month, yep, the grid may just cope with that LOL

On 10/5/2021 at 5:33 PM, anon said:

Cue the 2022 new car market collapsing without trace.

And apparently this September's new car sales are almost 45% down on the 10 year average for the month, and the lowest since September 1998.

Media reports are mainly blaming it on "chip" shortages but one does wonder if there's more to it than that.

 

2 hours ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Media reports are mainly blaming it on "chip" shortages but one does wonder if there's more to it than that.

 

I think many folk are also concerned at the ban on ICE cars in 9 years, which may effect the residual value of 'new' cars - not everyone changes their car on a 1 or 2 year cycle. Also, the current range of battery cars are still out of reach to many, with inherent range issues, and inconvenience & expense of charging...

There were very few cars on the Motability scheme as well which is where a good chunk of new cars go...it's been updated this month and there are a few more cars on it, but the advance payments are ridiculous on many.

You can now get a 2.0 TDI Golf on there, though you're stuck with DSG only, and the advance payment is over £3k!! 😮 

17 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

battery cars are still out of reach to many, with inherent range issues, and inconvenience & expense of charging...

Tesla was apparently the best seller in September, with almost as many electric cars sold (15% of total sales) as in the whole year in 2019. (PHEVs accounted for another 6%.)

I still wonder, though, if that's the effect of tax efficient schemes which some people are able to take advantage of. I don't sense much appetite for them among normal private buyers.

Certainly people I know are very wary indeed, general comment is along the lines of "why buy the motoring equivalent of Betamax when VHS, DVD, PVR and internet streaming have yet to be invented"!😃

No Ford model seems to have made the top 10 in September, btw!

There are now quite a few cars with an honest 250 mile range and that is enough for some. The low sales may be signalling the start of a trend that goes something like this: in five years' time my car will be worthless anyway so I may as well hang onto it until then and buy a much better electric than I can buy now. There will be greater range, better infrastructure and they will be cheaper.  Well, maybe.

6 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Certainly people I know are very wary indeed, general comment is along the lines of "why buy the motoring equivalent of Betamax when VHS, DVD, PVR and internet streaming have yet to be invented"!😃

 

That's an attitude that comes with age! In my teens, I use to be an 'early adopter', till I realised how much money I squandered on new tech, which became very quickly old tech! Even when I was at the stage in my life when I did buy new cars, it was always end of run models, so that all the bugs etc had been worked through by a willing public, bless'em!

 

1 hour ago, anon said:

. The low sales may be signalling the start of a trend that goes something like this: in five years' time my car will be worthless anyway so I may as well hang onto it until then and buy a much better electric than I can buy now. There will be greater range, better infrastructure and they will be cheaper.  Well, maybe.

Yes, I think that's how my friends think. Or someone might invent something that nobody's thought of yet. As Stephen says, we're all too old to be early adopters now and all retired so we can't take advantage of these tax efficient "salary sacrifice" schemes, either!😃

We seem to have moved, as usual, off the original topic and into the territory of this thread started by Stephen - perhaps we should continue over there!

 

https://www.fordownersclub.com/forums/topic/121302-petition-against-government-banning-sale-of-petrol-diesel-cars-in-2030-petition-now-over-but-energy-chat-continues/#comments

 

 

 

 

On 10/5/2021 at 11:08 AM, Eric Bloodaxe said:

If only.....  

I've long held the rather boring view that the key to better road safety is better driver training. Most of us pass our tests and then learn nothing more for the next 50 plus years (unless we attend a speed awareness course!). I make no claims about my driving skills, but at least I've had a fair bit of extra training both via my company when I was a company car driver and at my own expense (and a speed awareness course!).

I'm not necessarily advocating compulsory re-tests after "x" years, but something along the lines of a speed awareness course to update drivers on changes in legislation, etc, since they passed their test, along with practical modules on defensive driving, skid control etc.

Unfortunately that will never happen as it still leaves too much human control for the legislators.

On the mechanics of these systems, like Tom and Unofix I've commented several times on cameras misreading signs, signs that are missing, damaged or covered by vegetation, and out of date GPS data.

The danger here is that drivers will concentrate less as they think the system is taking care of speed for them. 

 

 

 

You need to get yourself on a Driver CPC course.... great fun listening to all the numpties getting into quite heated debates as to why Horses/ Pedestrians and cyclists are actually allowed on a public highway.

1 hour ago, Wino said:

You need to get yourself on a Driver CPC course.... great fun listening to all the numpties getting into quite heated debates as to why Horses/ Pedestrians and cyclists are actually allowed on a public highway.

I have also passed the Institute of Advanced Motorist test, and the RoSPA Advanced driving exam, so am proper smug with myself 🤣

My TSR briefly went nuts today driving down to Norfolk. I was in (I think!) a 30 at the time but in the space of a few yards the speed sign display went 40, 30,50,70 and back to 30. No idea what caused that.

Another interesting thing was the "no overtaking" symbol came up (correctly) for only the third time since I've had the car.

And I kept getting "caution" from the annoying woman's voice (no, not the Mrs😃) every time we neared a fixed speed camera on the way down through Lincolnshire - that's only worked twice before in 3 years!

Wonder if I can buffer a frame in France that reads 130? Drop that into the video stream from the camera and see what that does for the limiter!

13 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

I kept getting "caution" from the annoying woman's voice (no, not the Mrs😃) every time we neared a fixed speed camera on the way down through Lincolnshire - that's only worked twice before in 3 years!

Were you using the satnav at the time? There is a weird setting in Sync to control the speed camera warnings. The choices are something like "Off", "Voice", "Beep & voice". I think that if you choose "Voice" you only get the warning when you have a destination in the satnav but if you choose "Beep & voice" you always get a warning. Whatever you choose you never get a beep!

2 hours ago, pcaouolte said:

Were you using the satnav at the time?

Never used sat nav in my life!😃 It was on the "home" screen as usual. 

10 hours ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Never used sat nav in my life!😃

What?? Got my first one in 2003, and use it regularly even for known trips. Then again, I have zero sense of direction LOL

31 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

What?? Got my first one in 2003, and use it regularly even for known trips. Then again, I have zero sense of direction LOL

Few weeks after I passed my test (2009) I got 'lost' on rural roads about 10 miles from home.  Had to stop at a pub and ask for directions back to the A12.  Definitely lost some man points there, couldn't really afford to lose any more!   Was bought a sat nav for xmas that year though I only used it on unfamiliar routes.  Lasted until 2017 when I replaced it...new one was utter rubbish (as with anything bought this decade!), only used it a handful of times.  

48 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

Then again, I have zero sense of direction LOL

Friend of mine uses one for every trip, however short. Whenever we arrange to meet up somewhere, he gets lost. The real worry is he used to be a P&O Captain!😃

2 hours ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Friend of mine uses one for every trip, however short. Whenever we arrange to meet up somewhere, he gets lost. The real worry is he used to be a P&O Captain!😃

Sounds like your friend needs a chauffeur to ferry him around.......gets coat .......

4 hours ago, Wino said:

Sounds like your friend needs a chauffeur to ferry him around.......gets coat .......

Yes, fortunately his wife has an excellent sense of direction and usually does the driving when they are in the car together. Come to think of it, she was often able to accompany him at sea - I wonder if it was her actually steering the ship!😃

Well here we all are, it's the middle of March 2022. When are we going to see these compulsory speed limiters introduced on all new vehicles (just so I can have a laugh) ?

Have I missed it and in fact they are already on new cars ?