Thinking of a new (to me) car…

[Anonymous]

I’ve today discovered that Birmingham will be getting its own Clean Air Zone congestion charge, anything inside the ring-road needs to comply with either Euro 6 diesel, Euro 4 petrol or anything with “Ultra-low emissions that have a significant range on zero emissions” will be exempt from the charge, coming in July 2020. Though I’m sure over the years time will march forwards and it’ll be Euro Britain 7 etc etc.

Happily I have a nice Diesel Passat. One of those that was caught in the emission cheating scandal, it’s either a Euro 4 or 5 (registered 2010), so naturally it’ll fall into the category of needing to pay £8 a day to go into town. This wasn’t a huge issue for me at the time of purchasing (January 2018 for £3.5k) the car, I can drive around the ring-road to get to my parents, and on the rare occasions I did need to go into town, I was happy to go via public transport. However, the spanner in the works is that I now have a girlfriend that lives in town and it’ll cost £8 a day to drop her home, to go over etc.

 

So I’m now having a think about if it’s worth chopping it in, what to get as a replacement, what to look for and what to avoid etc. I have a lot of time to think about this. Most of my driving is to and from work, the occasional long-drive for a trip and a weekly trip to the parents which is about 40mins on the motorway each way.

Thoughts and suggestions?

[Ed P]

We are very happy with the hybrids (excellent acceleration and handling) we have used for the last nine years or so, and if Birmingham gives a concession for hybrids that may be an option for you. However we are starting to look at new cars and the Kia Niro or Renault Zoe look interesting as we have solar panels.

[The VFM Addict]

CarGuru is my goto site for car searches.    If you scroll down the screen on the left is an Emissions option.   So you can set your Emission limit, your budget, pick makes you like, how far from your home to search, etc. and then hit search and you’ll have your list of all available options.

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[The Duke]

Only ever drove 2 hydrids, the Rav4h which I liked alot. And the Hyundai ionic which its mpg figures blew me away. Its not the most fun car to drive, but that isn’t its purpose.

Its about the same size as your passat, and will get 70mpg around town with out you even trying. I spent 2 hours in one and tried my best to drop below 60mpg. Drove it like I stole it, and I think it averaged over the 2h 65mpg.

In all honesty, I Sould of gotten one of them over my Leon FR estate. id be about £60 a week better off.

I quite like the idea of a fully lecy car, tesla is ount my price range, but I recon I could live with a Nissan Leaf. Though I’d only get one on lease, as I don’t trust the battery tech in electric cars, and wouldn’t want to be left holding one once the batteries start dying.

[JayCeeDee]

The Duke wrote:

I quite like the idea of a fully lecy car, tesla is ount my price range, but I recon I could live with a Nissan Leaf. Though I’d only get one on lease, as I don’t trust the battery tech in electric cars, and wouldn’t want to be left holding one once the batteries start dying.

A few new cars now are quoting a 7 or 8 year warranty on the batteries. They know where people’s worries are and are dealing with their concerns!!

[Bob Williams]

A hybrid will be my next Motability choice, if I can find one with the same interior access and entry as my Hyundai iX20. I need a high roofline and low sills/seats, to cater for the spinal, hip and knee problems. It’s the best compromise we found after touring dealers all round the East Midlands. If I can get something like an iX2o Hybrid, that would be ideal. Can’t have a plugin, everything we need is a drive from our village and there will be the usual catch-up: our part of Lincolnshire will get charging stations 20 years after everyone else. By then I should be feeding bugs, under a tree in a Green Burial Ground.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Ed P]

Although the range on the new Kia/Renault (same battery tech) cars are a good 200+miles, my wife is still concerned about driving on holiday and not being able to recharge because the specified charging point has been vandalised. Apparently there is no commonality in the chargers/connectors and you have to use the ‘club’ you have joined. At ++£’s/connector this could be a worry for a leccy car.

[keith with the teef]

I have a chevrolet cruize deisel. Im sure its euro 6 and 60mpg, the car is just right at all angles.

[The Duke]

I once had a laguna that (1.9d)that had a huge tank 75l and would easily get 5pg on thd motorway and 45 around town.

I always failed to see how it was classed more “dirty” than my MIL ka, that got about 40 around and about 30 on the motorway. Not to mention it was a crap car with no extras (windy windows etc…) and cost her 2k for the privalige. Bought my laguna for Renault Bury for £4k 4 years old, eth 46k miles on it. Lasted me 7 years.

[Bob Williams]

I have been looking at EV’s and Hybrids through Motability. The one that appears to fit our needs is the Kia Niro PHEV petrol auto, a medium SUV which claims its MPG as 100 plus. I am also looking at EDF, my energy supplier, who have set up a section of their website dedicated to customers interested in a charging socket fitted to the house. There is an “interest” online form to request details of energy cost for full EV’s and hybrids, using the “ask a question” box.

http://tinyurl.com/tvcjmaj

There is a tariff dedicated to EV owners, with off-peak electricity. I am very interested in this, although I have over a year left on my lease I would really like to check it out. The Kia Niro sounds good and my former Hyundai Motability dealer has moved to the Louth Kia office on the Grimsby Road, from Grimsby Hyundai, making it about 15 miles closer to home. This is the Niro, taken from the EV Database, not the manufacturer’s specs:

http://tinyurl.com/tw4ttor

That database uses WLTP ratings, which came into force in September 2018 and is the more representative and more accurate way to give true consumption data, divorced from manufacturer statistics for obvious reasons. When some hotshot dealer rep starts quoting MPG figures at you, close his mouth by asking what the WLTP data figures are. Watch his brain implode. WLTP:

http://tinyurl.com/tbqhz54

Why the Niro and not a hatchback or saloon? – Because we need the ease of entry and exit that a medium SUV gives us.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[The Duke]

Are you sure he never said he was moving to the South Korea head office? 😉

[isdarit]

got To be easier part exing your Judy mate😂😂🤦🏻‍♂️

[Bob Williams]

The Duke wrote:

Are you sure he never said he was moving to the South Korea head office? 😉

Wayne (the Motability dealer) is a Lincolnshire lad born and bred, Steve. He has trouble speaking English outside Lincs. Korean would explode his head.

isdarit:    ” got To be easier part exing your Judy mate😂😂🤦🏻‍♂️ ”

That market crashed a long time ago mate.😆😋

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Ed P]

Looks like your best bet may be a push-bike or tandam if Birmingham go the way of Ghent!

link

[Bob Williams]

That is something that will spread, I think. We have to do something for town and city children to breathe air without lumps in it.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[PlaneMan]

Cardiff is contemplating a congestion charge for non-residents.

I agree that something has to be done about traffic, especially the lazy and brain-dead who are physically able to make short journeys by foot or bike and just drive everywhere.

I’ve seen one of my neighbours bundle 3 kids into a car to take them to school. The school is 10 minutes walk for a small child at most. I couldn’t be arsed to do that. Way too much hassle.

[Richard]

If something is needed, they might try to start by sorting out the bus ‘services’ As she was coming over to see me, my daughter decided to use the bus and to set out early. It is just over a 30-minute trip each way by car. Having set out just before 09:00, she rang after a couple of hours to say the busses were a mess and finally arrived about 12:30. Three hours and a half painfully slow hours, many of which were spent waiting to catch a cold or something else besides a bus had not been one of her pleasures. After a family meal we took her home and stopped off in a supermarket on the way back, as they have a few things that others do not stock. To be fair the bus journey is usually ‘only’ about two hours, each way, average speed less than 10 mph. This was really putrid transport in action or was it inaction?

Generally her bus service is not too bad, being almost as good if slightly slower than walking into the town centre. For us, walking into town is equally pointless as driving or catching a bus to go there. The towns near us are devoid of any reason to visit them, there is simply nothing that appeals, however they are accessed. The idea of using a bicycle is strictly for the fish.

[Bob Williams]

The Notts village where I grew up had a great bus service when I was young and right up to around 1990, when it started to decline. No fewer than 7 bus numbers, from 3 different companies, served the village. We could get to Mansfield every 20 minutes via one of 4 different buses.

Mansfield District Traction ran the 108, 105, 208 and 215. The only difference between the 108 and 105, was that the 105 would turn uphill to the Old village before coming down the long Lane where I lived and turning round at the last street, reversing in to go back to Mansfield, sometimes the driver and conductor* got tea and biccies from a house where they parked. The 208 carried on through the village to Newark. The 215 was the bus caught by my fellow miscreants students from the Tech School 8 miles away. It was the longest route travelled by a Mansfield District bus, around 38 miles around the countryside. I usually cycled to school, but some of the hills were dangerous in ice or snow, so I caught the 215.

Midland General ran the B8 and the F3. The B8 took 70 minutes to get to Nottingham from the village, by a countryside meander around lots of other villages. I could get off at a certain pub, have a pint and get back on the same bus 20 minutes later! The F3 turned around in the next village to ours and came back to travel direct to Nottingham: 25 minutes at the most. There was a local service ‘Butler Brothers’ that ran between our village and a small town, Kirkby, which had different shops and was used by residents of both places.

The most remarkable fact about all those buses, is that no service was ever late by more than a couple of minutes. And most days they were well used: packed at weekends. Now my old village has a very reduced service which is never on time and my present village has a service to Mablethorpe or Louth, which ends at 7pm and does not run at all on winter Sundays.

*Yes, conductors. All buses had them at the time.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

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