SkodaMart’s ‘green air’ solution.

Soldato
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Phrases like this always makes me think it only comes from people who cant afford what they would like and want to stick it to the people that can. Believe it or not some people couldnt give a monkeys what other people though of their car purchases and they arent always status symbols but some people have the money to afford such things and want to live their best life as you only get one go at it.

I agree with what you are saying in principal but you are saying it to people on a car enthusiast forum which I think is what Simon is eluding to, hence its not exactly going down too well.

Prestige cars don’t necessarily mean fun.
I’ve had more fun in basic cars such as the original Mini, MK1 Fiesta XR2 and my Westfield, also my motorbikes which cost a fraction of a prestige car.

150mph + top speed is totally excessive.

My suggestions are to avoid the potential of us all driving around in Nissan Leafs.
With auto drive and restricted speeds anyway.
I suspect that may be on the horizon
 
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Soldato
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Prestige cars don’t necessarily mean fun.
I’ve had more fun in basic cars such as the original Mini, MK1 Fiesta XR2 and my Westfield, also my motorbikes which cost a fraction of a prestige car.

150mph + top speed is totally excessive.

My suggestions are to avoid the potential of us all driving around in Nissan Leafs.
With auto drive and restricted speeds anyway.
I suspect that may be on the horizon

But people dont necessarily buy prestige cars for fun, they may buy them for the lovely armchairs they can be that are able to chew miles in comfort and at speed. People have differing requirements in cars, you think Fox buys a 5 series because he thinks its a fun car?
 
Soldato
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Prestige cars don’t necessarily mean fun.
I’ve had more fun in basic cars such as the original Mini, MK1 Fiesta XR2 and my Westfield, also my motorbikes which cost a fraction of a prestige car.

150mph + top speed is totally excessive.

My suggestions are to avoid the potential of us all driving around in Nissan Leafs.
With auto drive and restricted speeds anyway.
I suspect that may be on the horizon

But again, you contradict yourself. You say you don't need speed to be fun, but then you say you don't want restricted speeds. LJK Setright used to drive a Suzuki SC100 because what he drove was less important than how he drove it and most importantly, why he drove it. Your entire premise seems to be "don't do what I do, but do as I say".

I'm sure I could try and drive a Nissan Leaf so as to extract as much fun as possible from it. I crashed my Tesla and I'm tooling about in a Hyundai Kona EV at the moment and it's not remotely as fast as the Model 3 but it's still epic fun in bends because the tyres have essentially very little grip and it slides around all over the place, especially if it's wet. Oh, and it has 200bhp so it's not exactly slow in a straight line either.
 
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Prestige cars don’t necessarily mean fun.
I’ve had more fun in basic cars such as the original Mini, MK1 Fiesta XR2 and my Westfield, also my motorbikes which cost a fraction of a prestige car.

150mph + top speed is totally excessive.

My suggestions are to avoid the potential of us all driving around in Nissan Leafs.
With auto drive and restricted speeds anyway.
I suspect that may be on the horizon

Do you have a specific reason for not liking Evs? Its coming across as that, with a load of not particularly well thought out reasons, and a failure to at least do some background before your "light bulb" moment

I would and suspect most people will 100% take a leaf over some 600cc or something similar fiesta equivalent as you seem to support
The leaf will be faster, so why does holding on to ICE seem so important to you

You have dreamed up issues that dont exist and I am really struggling to follow your thoughts, if its that hard to do on a phone then maybe post up when you dont have to use a phone.
 
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Changing a vehicle mid-life at an individual level doesn't necessarily accomplish anything or even realistic - scrapping a perfectly good van is probably more damaging to the environment than continuing to use a slightly less fuel/emission efficient vehicle.

Exactly swapping mid life doesnt achieve anything in total of any notable balance

However, the OP seems to do quite high mileage so his own emissions would drop. If we were lucky someone who didnt do as high mileage would buy his old one and total emissions would fall. BUt its possible the oposite could happen

Really its why the emissions for all vehicles at the point of sale are pretty much locked in over their normal lifetime
 
Caporegime
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Got to be one of the most bizarre threads ever this

I dont think anyone, literally anyone is saying that Evs are perfect
Range anxiety, charging times, charging point availability etc. All simply challenges to resolve, one thing we are particularly good at as a species
Already fixed to all intents and purposes for Tesla drivers

Have a look in the EV thread on here :D
 
Caporegime
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There's nothing wrong with leading by example. Whilst efforts may be a drop in the ocean, we can't think like that or nothing will ever change. Do what is right because it's right.

Of course there is, we are paying through the noteworthy it.

It would be more morally right to.put pressure on these orhere countries as a small change there would be a bigger change than we could affect by taxing the hell out ifour own people.
 
Soldato
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Of course there is, we are paying through the noteworthy it.

It would be more morally right to.put pressure on these orhere countries as a small change there would be a bigger change than we could affect by taxing the hell out ifour own people.

And how can we put pressure on countries to change if we don't first? In addition to this, the likes of China are fundamental to the functioning of Western consumer society, people need to cut back on cheap Chinese goods, otherwise China have the world over a barrel, they won't change yet because their industry provides to Western wants.

"China, you need to stop meat markets, concentration camps, coal power plants, animal rights abuses, human rights abuses."
"If we do those things then we cut our production by 50% [guesstimate] and you can't have all the cheap tat you want."
"Oh what, no toy with my happy meal, **** that!"

TLDR Shouting at the likes of China isn't a solution, we 'rely' on them too much.
 
Soldato
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I don’t see why we can’t keep big engines but still try to reduce our impact.

Sure. If we can get some big V8 Hybrid engines to do around 50-60 mile range on electric then we have a win win. Some hybrids already have this sort of range on electric, so it's not far away from being common place. At 50-60 mile range, that would cover most peoples daily use, and greatly reduce the pollution from such engines. Meanwhile, when you want a bit of fun / are on a track, then you have the big V8 to fall back on.

To be fair, I doubt that is how the bigger sports cars will go either. I think turbo 4 or 6 cylinder with larger electric motor is more likely.
 
Soldato
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Sure. If we can get some big V8 Hybrid engines to do around 50-60 mile range on electric then we have a win win. Some hybrids already have this sort of range on electric, so it's not far away from being common place. At 50-60 mile range, that would cover most peoples daily use, and greatly reduce the pollution from such engines. Meanwhile, when you want a bit of fun / are on a track, then you have the big V8 to fall back on.

To be fair, I doubt that is how the bigger sports cars will go either. I think turbo 4 or 6 cylinder with larger electric motor is more likely.
Unfortunately that doesn't really work. Ignoring the sheer cost - if you have a big combustion engine, then you need a powerful electric motor to be able to lug it around at any level of acceptable performance, which adds to the weight even more. You then more battery capacity to power that - which is also heavy.

It's certainly doable - what you're actually describing is a Ferrari SF90. Perhaps in 10years you'll get the same powertrain in a Fiat. In the meantime, I think most of us will have to suffer with performance slightly shy of that.
 
Soldato
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BMW will already sell you the x5 45e which will do 50 miles on a charge, though it isn't v8 powered it does have the 3ltr 6.

The electric motor isn't the problem they are energy dense and with the zf8 equipped cars it sits between the engine and gearbox where the torque convertor would sit so doesn't require any additional space. It's still the battery size for the capacity that is the problem.
 
Caporegime
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And how can we put pressure on countries to change if we don't first? In addition to this, the likes of China are fundamental to the functioning of Western consumer society, people need to cut back on cheap Chinese goods, otherwise China have the world over a barrel, they won't change yet because their industry provides to Western wants.

"China, you need to stop meat markets, concentration camps, coal power plants, animal rights abuses, human rights abuses."
"If we do those things then we cut our production by 50% [guesstimate] and you can't have all the cheap tat you want."
"Oh what, no toy with my happy meal, **** that!"

TLDR Shouting at the likes of China isn't a solution, we 'rely' on them too much.

We are already greener than China. And America.

We dont all drive 15mpg v8 engines. The average here is probably a 1.3i.

We dont need to cripple ourselves while others barely bat an eye lid do we?
 
Soldato
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I think you might be surprised how strong the chinese push for clean air now is. They CN6b emissions standard comes in before EU7 and the New Energy Vehicles are quite strongly incentives to push the uptake.

Look at cities like Shezen where they only have EVs buses, the country has 400,000 - 99% of the worlds share. They are benefiting by having new infrastructure to introduce rather than replacing legacy.
 
Soldato
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Assuming you mean well, and you’re not trolling, you really haven’t done your research.

1. on any given day, depending on the load in the system, the UK can be running on well over 50% renewables and if the wind stops completely the hydro still keeps the renewables in the mid-20’s.

2. Electric cars reduce exhaust pollution at the point of use to absolutely zero. Yes, they move that pollution elsewhere and that’s the point. The people who are getting sick don’t live next to a power station, they live next to a road. EV’s take away the issues with pollution in the cities where the people live. Even allowing for the fact that the electricity still has to be made from fossil fuel at least some of the time, it’s much easier to control the emissions from one coal, wood or gas burning power station that from several million ICE vehicles.

3. I’m not going to call you a hypocrite because hopefully you do mean well, and you simply don’t do yourself what you’re asking others to do. Your EU5 van is literally killing people. EU6 vehicles actually don’t pollute that much and it’s EU5 that are being banned from cities because they’re literally poisonous. And if you really cared, you’d ditch your fleet of polluters and get one/two clean vehicles that do(es) the same job. Yes, that means spending money, and ultimately that’s what this is about. It’s going to cost quite big money to ditch the polluters. From your post you want others to do it, but you don’t want to do it yourself. This, and the fact that don’t actually appear to know what you’re talking about, massively reduces your credibility in this area.

What I am actually suggesting is that our general attitude to motor vehicles needs to change.
Years ago Americans would have been utterly horrified at the thought of driving a 4 cylinder Japanese saloon, and now they are common place.
I will admit that I am genuinely shocked at the claimed renewable percentage - however I am also skeptical.
I fully understand how electric cars work thank you very much.
My EU 5 van is killing people far less than the jumbo jet that has just taken you on holiday, or the crazy over powered German saloon that's just torn the tarmac up as it passed you.
Or the old builders van pouring out soot.

Tesla isn't the future IMO, Tesla is the technical showcase of what is possible.
The future is more like the film Demolition Man IMO, a sterile 'pod' with no steering wheel that takes you to your destination automatically obeying all road signs and speed limits.
I like cars, I love freedom more, the choice to go where I want, when I want, how I want.
I genuinely think we are massively privileged to have experienced free travel like this this in our life times (think about it) 100 years ago it wasn't possible, 100 years from now I suspect it will be radically different.
We will be remembered as the selfish wasteful century, we have used more of the worlds resources in the last 100 years than many decades before us combined.

We do not need over powered, flash performance cars to lead a happy life and neither does driving one make you 'successful'.
See a man in a new Range Rover (you don't see his debt) See a man in an old car (you don't see his money - the truly rich have nothing to prove).
 
Soldato
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I suspect my emphysema came about from either cycling in heavy rush hour traffic, passive smoking or maybe even dust and soot from work.
Other than a cough in the morning I have no symptoms, I am however shocked that as a total non-smoker (hate it) I am affected.
I cycled for 20+ years and I am still fitter than most for my age so as I said i'm not looking for sympathy.
I am still able to run/cycle without problems
 
Soldato
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But people dont necessarily buy prestige cars for fun, they may buy them for the lovely armchairs they can be that are able to chew miles in comfort and at speed. People have differing requirements in cars, you think Fox buys a 5 series because he thinks its a fun car?

Clarkson actually said a Citroen Berlingo Mulitspace rode as well as a Jaguar.
I didn't buy Citroen for fun either.
 
Soldato
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I think EVs make more sense with less mass.
Electric cycles/motorcycles look genuinely promising.

They may also suit some who commute a medium distance to work and can charge at home. (Providing this 50% renewable figure is to be trusted).
One thing I did see though on the government website was whist the means of electricity generation has changed (coal now gone) the total demand hasn’t.
I find that hard to believe.
I’ve also heard that England can’t generate enough electricity for itself and has to buy it in from France & Scotland?
 
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Soldato
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Strangely enough as well my 2008 2.5 litre Z4 is ULEZ compliant.

My 2002 BMW R1150GS is also ULEZ compliant.
(however I have to write to BMW and get a certificate of singular vehicle exemption).
 
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