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Post by EspadaIII on Jul 8, 2024 8:58:40 GMT
With my family we drove thousands of miles in the US in the 70s and 80s. Those highway barges were superb comfy cruisers and remarkable economical at 55mph. We got 30mpg (Imperial) from a 3.8 6-cyl on average but it dropped to 6mpg in and around San Franciso for one tank!
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Post by dixinormus on Jul 9, 2024 2:29:30 GMT
Hate to say it… but that Ionity situation would irk me!
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bpg
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Post by bpg on Jul 9, 2024 5:53:48 GMT
It's the pasties 🤮 that would do me in. I don't like them, give me heartburn. That, and sitting at the end of East Midlands airport sucking in the kerosine from those Ryanair, Jet2 and TUi flights. Petrol and diesel fumes bad, kerosine gooooood 👺
For my road trip this weekend ABRP and Shell Recharge apps tell me I'd need to make 8 stops, totalling 4h 39 minutes in addition to the 10h 36m driving time. No single hop would be more than 169kms and limited to 110kph when moving. That last bit works for Switzerland.
How much bratwurst, toblerone and prosciutto washed down with service station coffee would be consumed in 4½+ hours ? A red bull or two might be in order to stay laser focused. 🥵
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Post by Humph on Jul 9, 2024 8:43:10 GMT
We filled up at a Leclerc the day before our return trip and again somewhere in northern France and then just drove home. Didn’t feel all that primitive.
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bpg
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Post by bpg on Jul 9, 2024 9:01:42 GMT
That's the thing with EVs, brilliant if you're just kicking around the doors. The longer the journey the more time you have to dedicate to the car while finding something to keep you occupied/entertained not being at your destination.
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Post by Humph on Jul 9, 2024 9:09:46 GMT
I could see a hybrid working for me now. I do more short trips than I did when I was working, but I still do a couple of longer runs most weeks and of course the occasional very long one.
However, given that my current car owes me very little and still seems to tick all my boxes, that’s a decision for the future.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 9, 2024 9:11:06 GMT
That's the thing with EVs, brilliant if you're just kicking around the doors. The longer the journey the more time you have to dedicate to the car while finding something to keep you occupied/entertained not being at your destination. Aye, well, we should be using (electric) trains for long journeys... Yes, I know, they're too expensive and unreliable. That should be addressed as we transition from ICE cars, sadly it's not the case yet. |
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Post by Humph on Jul 9, 2024 9:15:35 GMT
I’m not sure we’d have managed to get all the shit we took to France and back on a train!
😬
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bpg
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Post by bpg on Jul 9, 2024 9:28:45 GMT
I'm not putting my holiday in the hands of train operators, their disgruntled staff and air traffic controllers. Probably why more people choose to drive.
Edit: switching to trains we could have a third class, like we did before people chose not to travel that way.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 9, 2024 9:34:15 GMT
I don't disagree lads, which is why I'm driving to Carcassonne this summer. But I wish the train was a more attractive/affordable/reliable option, I'd far rather let the train take the strain, were it practicable.
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Post by Humph on Jul 9, 2024 9:55:11 GMT
I can just about remember my dad putting his car on a train. Think it was called Motorail. I suppose the Eurotunnel is sort of that.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 9, 2024 9:57:06 GMT
A trans-continental Motorail scheme would be brilliant. If the price was roughly the same as a tunnel/ferry crossing plus fuel to destination, I'd be all over it.
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Post by Humph on Jul 9, 2024 9:58:42 GMT
Me too, it’d make the roads a pleasure to use while all the normos were on the train!
😈
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 9, 2024 10:00:21 GMT
You are such an Alpha, Humph. Respect.  |
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Jul 9, 2024 10:03:55 GMT
That's the thing with EVs, brilliant if you're just kicking around the doors. The longer the journey the more time you have to dedicate to the car while finding something to keep you occupied/entertained not being at your destination. Really can’t make sense of that. Yes, this trip has taken some planning because I’m doing it this way for the first time. But the MK stop was just an experiment, to find out what’s there — and since the answer is a shitty coach station with pay-to-use toilets and a mechanical coffee counter, along with an unreliable charger installation, I won’t be going there again. But Gridserve was easy, if predictably expensive. And Ionity at Leeds was really very good. And if you can take on 150 miles (or more) in 15 minutes, as most modern EVs can, then the planning becomes more about picking the most economical options, knowing that there’s a fallback option just up the motorway. And all this for the kind of trip most do a couple of times a year. And once you’re travelling for more than a day, human needs — food, beds, toilets — always become more demanding than those of the car. |
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