Zel's Fleet Blog - BX, Jag XJ-S, Sinclair C5, Mercedes 208D & 230TE, AC Model 70.

[mickthemaverick]

Polestar 3?

[Zelandeth]

Polestar 3?

Hmmm...."Starting at £76,540..."

The interior looks like a sensory deprivation chamber to me, absolutely everything being through the touchscreen is definitely a black mark. It's also an SUV.

[mickthemaverick]

This video I posted may be worth a look while you are mulling Zel!!

viewtopic.php?p=872466#p872466

[Zelandeth]

Haven't had a chance to watch that yet, though the thumbnail and title just immediately looks like the sort of click bait that YouTube loves to try to sneak into my feed when I'm not looking and I have honestly little time for.

Do I really care that there's a camera pointed in my face? Being absolutely honest, not really. In fact it's probably the active safety kit I object to the least. Of all the active safety systems I've seen, the one which detects when you're getting tired is the most likely to have in my case at least reduced risk. Especially back when I was far younger and wasn't anywhere near as good at listening to my body as I am now and used to do daft nonsense like Aberdeen to MK runs non stop, or driving from Aberdeen to Elgin or Inverness while running on 2 hours sleep. I've caught myself veering at least once or twice before going "Okay I need to take a break now" - and if the car had been smart enough to tell 18 year old me I was being an utter and complete idiot, that can only be a good thing. Only reason I didn't cause an accident back then was because I was *lucky* and because Aberdeenshire roads at 5am in 2003 tended to be empty.

Not really sure why anyone would have expected Brexit to in any way impact what safety kit was going to end up in our cars though, aside from making it more expensive to the buyer though. There are *plenty* of things in the world which seem worth worrying about to me, but a fixed, low resolution monochrome camera pointed at me in my car really isn't at all high on that list for me.

As it is though I'd personally be *perfectly* happy with an entirely classic fleet. I reckon between the Rover and the Trabant I'd have all my needs perfectly covered. I'd miss the air conditioning in the summer, but otherwise I'd be happy. It's not just about me though - Abby needs the car for work periodically and has a 2+ hour commute through rush hour Birmingham traffic. Additional to that I'm going to be needing to get Darren to/from regular medical appointments we simply can't miss at either the John Radcliffe or Churchill Hospitals in Oxford going forward.

Abby is entirely capable of driving my classics (and honestly she's probably a better driver than me), but gets no enjoyment out of it like I do. She's also been brought up in a country where niceties like air conditioning, power steering and an automatic gearbox are givens even on the most knackered wreck you get as your first car when you pass your test. So being plonked in the Rover where she has...uuh...a heater...for luxury doesn't tend to get me any thanks.

If I'm transporting someone to or from appointments for chemo or radiotherapy I really want it to all be conducted with the absolute bare minimum of fuss or risk of problems. Anyone who's travelled regularly between MK and Oxford recently will know it's an utterly horrible journey with no good route, especially in rush hour. Abby used to work in the JR, and used to leave MK before 6am if she wanted to be confident of actually being in the office by 9. We'd usually see her back about eight or nine in the evening. If I've got no choice but to deal with that nonsense, and there's technology which can make it easier for me I'm all for it. I've long said that the most likely accident I am to have is going to be in stop start traffic, I'll get distracted for a fraction of a second and wind up running into the car in front of me at 2mph. The fact that I seem to spend about half my life stuck in said traffic and how that skews the statistics has a lot to do with it! Under those circumstances, do I think automatic emergency braking systems are a good idea? Absolutely. Having them false trigger in lane 3 at 70mph on the M6 when someone cuts in front of us slightly too close for comfort? Not so much!

I actually did some crunching of numbers this afternoon for the sake of curiosity to see how things would stack up financially if I were to run out tomorrow and buy a Renault 4. I've discounted the Kia for now I think. It's just too much excess for the sake of it, and honestly I've realised running around in the Volvo a lot this last few weeks just how tiresome dealing with a properly big car around town really is. Taking a step back down in terms of footprint isn't the worst idea. Am I saying I Won't buy an EV6 GT one day? Absolutely not. Especially once they've depreciated for a few years. The vibe I still get from them is that they're a Tesla Model S for someone who really quite liked what the Model S offered when it arrived on the scene, but really doesn't want to buy a Tesla. The Renault though is a car more rooted in what makes more sense in the real world... list price is a third of that of the Kia as well.

While quite a few of the numbers were generalised and spitballed, I was really surprised to find that the running costs of the Volvo and the Renault (including the finance payments) are within a hundred quid or so over the course of the year. The orders of magnitude saved on fuel count for most of that. You're talking ~£250 (pessimistically) rather than £2750. Servicing is a saving as well (especially with how expensive engine oil is getting and the Volvo taking 7.5 litres of it!), and I'm not even taking into account the fact it'll need a timing belt in the next year or two and that's not a small job on this engine; or or course that with a 20 year old car that any manner of Expensive Things could go awry at any moment. I've been pretty lucky on that count with this car so far - despite the number of people telling me that these gearboxes are made of cheese and like to explode as a pass time. Other savings come in with both tax and insurance being roughly halved.

Of course it's not as simple as that, and there's still the balloon payment at the end of the term to consider - but honestly we've been down this road when I bought the 107 - and we had that for nearly ten years in the end. Having a car which Just Worked without perpetually wondering what that noise was or where I'm going to get that part from this time was really quite pleasant from the perspective of someone who spent most of his early years in motoring keeping cars held together with duct tape, bailing twine and sheer determination for many years.

We'll see if this actually does end up going anywhere, it might not. I've very much needed a distraction over the last couple of weeks though and this has been a subject which drew the short straw as it's something I've been able to dip in and out of.

I am definitely going to see if I can arrange a test drive of a 4 though. Last EV I really spent any time driving aside from a quick shot of a friend's Model S was the pair of electric 106s we had at work before they were replaced by the C1s at work back around 2006 or so. Curious to see how things have moved on since then. My only real gripe with those though always that nobody ever bothers to plug them in to the charger when they were finished, and with a 50 mile range, that was a problem!

[CitroJim]

A good read Zel and I must say I generally agree on the points you make; particularly having one car that just works...

And very much agreed about manoeuvring a big car around town; wish more would think like you!

May I wish Darren all the very best...

[Zelandeth]

Sorry if the start of that last post came across as unintendedly snappy. Running on virtually no sleep and have essentially been on high alert continually for the last month now so I'm not at my best!