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Post by Humph on May 17, 2021 9:30:41 GMT
Taking a new car out, at night, round there?
Sure about that?
😬
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 17, 2021 9:30:51 GMT
  Enjoy the day Dubya. Can't imagine I'll ever have that collecting-a-brand-new-car feeling ever again, but you never know. Maybe a lease or PCP might make sense for me on a new one again one day.
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Post by Humph on May 17, 2021 9:36:40 GMT
I'll have to keep the Merc a good while longer now. Put two new tyres on it on Saturday...
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WDB
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Post by WDB on May 17, 2021 10:14:57 GMT
Taking a new car out, at night, round there? Sure about that? 😬 It’s coming from leafy, riverside Taplow, not from Reading. 😛 |
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Post by Deleted on May 17, 2021 10:43:04 GMT
Bit close to Slough, that. I should know. I was born there. Taplow, I mean.
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Post by Humph on May 17, 2021 10:52:18 GMT
I used to go to Slough, when a large online retailer had their head offices there. It's a bit like Crewe really, maybe even a little classier...
😉
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WDB
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Post by WDB on May 17, 2021 18:11:30 GMT
Slough has its pleasant parts - mostly called things like 'Windsor'. Anyway, new car day, remember! Too soon for a detailed review but the gratuitous, circuitous drive home went well. First positive impressions: - Sport mode The plain i3 doesn't have this - and I drove ours everywhere in Eco Pro. Sport isn't overtly 'sporty' - it doesn't turn the instrument panel angry red like the 6GT I drove. If anything, it makes the car feel a little more relaxed, as it is more inclined to coast and roll on when I lift off, rather than regenerating and slowing down. It may become my preferred mode in this car.
- 40, 20, 10 Respectively, in millimetres, the extra track, the extra tyre width and the amount by which the rest of the car is closer to the ground. They may sound like small changes but they add up to a more planted, solid-feeling car that is noticeably happier hurrying along a B-road. This is good.
- Lodge MrsB1 has declared herself a very happy beaver. She likes her textiles and she likes this one. There's a bit of 1970s houndstooth jacket feel to the fabric, a feeling that it wouldn't seem out of place with a pipe, a moustache and some hessian-backed gloves. This is a good thing, and yet it still seems modern. A nice fabric interior is so much more interesting than a leather one.
- It's still an i3 Click it back to Eco Pro, trundle it through town on one pedal and it's just like the old car, which was always great for that sort of driving.
I feel a muse coming on. Years ago, I grumbled at lazy journalists for always writing that Volvo estates had enormous amounts of room, even when the biggest Volvo was the V70 and that was distinctly poky inside. It was as if they simply assumed that Volvo=space and didn't bother to check. (Or that they were all garden gnomes and couldn't tell a spacious car from a matchbox.) I feel something similar about reviews I've read of the i3S: they almost all point out the larger wheels and wider tyres and state confidently that these make it ride worse than the plain i3. In fact, the opposite is true, and is the main reason we now have an i3S. It still rides firmly, but it's not jittery or plain uncomfortable as our old car could occasionally be. It feels much better controlled, and this is a very good thing. |
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Post by Humph on May 17, 2021 18:42:59 GMT
Glad you like it. Would've been a bummer if you hadn't 😉
Hope you get to enjoy it on the occasions when you can prise the keys away from Mrs B. I suppose with an electric car the dealer would have been morally bound to charge it up before collection, as opposed to the normal 1/4 of a pint of petrol or diesel they normally put in a new ICE car?
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WDB
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Post by WDB on May 17, 2021 19:06:38 GMT
That thought occurred to me too. It was about 7/8 charged when I picked it up.
(Thinking about that, it may well have left the factory fully charged. It was showing 22 miles covered, which is about an eighth of a charge, and that would mostly have been its pre-release testing in Leipzig. So that’s German electricity I’ve been using.)
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Post by dixinormus on May 18, 2021 7:50:08 GMT
There’s but a handful of used i3s on the market down here, and just about all of them are the REx version. Guess the importers spotted our charging infrastructure...
There is a fully-electric 2014 used import from Japan, but it’s used battery is only providing less than 70 miles on a full charge! Didn’t think they would deteriorate to Leaf levels so quickly?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 18, 2021 8:47:10 GMT
Would be very interested to give your new motor the once over one day, Dubya. Sounds great. I've still not seen or experienced an i3 of any kind at properly close quarters.
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WDB
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Post by WDB on May 18, 2021 9:11:11 GMT
There’s but a handful of used i3s on the market down here, and just about all of them are the REx version. Guess the importers spotted our charging infrastructure... There is a fully-electric 2014 used import from Japan, but it’s used battery is only providing less than 70 miles on a full charge! Didn’t think they would deteriorate to Leaf levels so quickly? 70 miles was close to the limit of the original 60Ah i3. The evidence is that i3 batteries generally don't deteriorate, certainly not like Apple batteries. Our old 94Ah could manage 140 miles - I think our record was 129 with something in hand - and the new 120Ah should get close to 180, even with its wider i3S tyres. Not all the range increase is due to battery capacity; efficiency has improved too, and I'm hoping the cabin heat pump in ours will help further in the winter. I'd be interested to know how many of the Rex generators in NZ ever get used in earnest. Ours proved necessary about three times in nearly four years; most of its activations were done manually by me, because it demanded a periodic maintenance run and I preferred to choose the time when it happened. (It's barely audible inside the car at speed, but the monotonous drone is embarrassingly conspicuous when trundling through a town, so it's best to run it on an open road. 15 minutes every couple of months is plenty.) Would be very interested to give your new motor the once over one day, Dubya. Sounds great. I've still not seen or experienced an i3 of any kind at properly close quarters. I'll be happy to show you, Vić. Soon as I can find it again. (Don't we have a long-overdue appointment for a Caversham kebab?) |
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Post by Humph on May 18, 2021 9:19:37 GMT
Wouldn't want to get chilli sauce on those woolly seats...
😬
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 18, 2021 9:30:57 GMT
Wouldn't want to get chilli sauce on those woolly seats... 😬 Nor the car's interior. |
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bpg
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Post by bpg on May 18, 2021 14:25:38 GMT
It must be a relief replacing a car with an updated version and being pleasantly surprised.
I am surprised how much more efficient an EV is with the temp in the teens. Look forward to seeing what you think about the heat pump. The one in our car appears much happier dumping heat than scavenging in sub-zero temps.
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Enjoy the day Dubya. Can't imagine I'll ever have that collecting-a-brand-new-car feeling ever again, but you never know. Maybe a lease or PCP might make sense for me on a new one again one day.
