🚨L1's 🇫🇷 shenanigans. Roll the dice to drive a french car

[loserone]

First post re-purposed to be a bit of a fleet history.

99 Daewoo Lanos black, 1.3 given to mate in need.

02 Nissan Almera 1.5 blue ebayed

90 Eunos Roadster 1600 to kevfromwales

94 Mazda 323f GTi ABS (to @Jim Bell)

90 Ginetta G26 1600 pinto Ebayed

02 Subaru Impreza Sport Ebayed

04 Seat Toledo 1.8t to @Jim Bell

94 Lexus LS400 swapped for a mandolin with @scaryoldcortina

04 Suzuki Alto sold to colleague

98 Kia Pride (sold to @JohnK)

13 Nissan LEAF sold on Facebook to rural Scot

95 Peugeot 405 estate (sold to @Jimbob McGregor for bits)

99 Peugeot 206 GTi engine donor, scrapped

01 Volvo S60 2.4t sold to @drum

98 Suzuki Baleno GSR sold to @Tickman

05 Subaru Legacy Spec B sold to @HillmanImp

1996 MG F VVC sold to @scaryoldcortina

93 Peugeot 205 CJ sold to @castros_bro

95 Peugeot 405 1.6 saloon roffled to @Cavcraft

02 Peugeot 306 1.8 cabriolet roffled to @DoctorRetro now with @Six-cylinder

88 Peugeot 205 XUD sold to  @davehedgehog31Now with @Saabnut

88 Peugeot 305 XUD estate went to @yes oui si

99 Peugeot 206 GTi (now with @Grumblespeed)

99 Peugeot 306 HDI estate went via @yes oui si

94 Peugeot 205 INCA (half share, swapped for an engine in a convoluted deal) now with @Jimbob McGregor

02 Peugeot 406 2.2 HDI executive sold to @doobietoo

90 Peugeot 205 GR sold to @jmsguzzi

04 SAAB 95 AERO HOT (sold on FB marketplace to a vape shop proprietor)

06 Peugeot Partner 1.6 HDI (scrapped)

52 Ferguson TED20

88 Peugeot 305 GLD came back and went back to @DodgyBastard

54 Peugeot Partner 2.0 HDI sold broken

02 Peugeot 106 Independence sold locally to chap in need.

02 Honda CR-V 2.0 petrol Auto sold on FB marketplace

07 Honda FR-V 1.8 petrol manual Sold to @JimH

02 Peugeot 106 independence roffled to @Sunny Jim's dog

59 Renault Trafic Passenger sold after dying in France

22 Dacia Duster blue 1.5dci 4x4 bought new.

1994 Citroën Xantia turbo d sold to @Ged for an engine

1989 Renault Express 

2004 Renault Sport Clio 182 Sold to a resident of Barrow in Furness

2008 Mercedes Benz W211 e220 cdi ROFFLED to @Fat_Pirate

1989 Mercedes Benz S124 2.3 HGF'd and sold to @NorthernMonkey

2022 Renault Zoe GT line + R135 52kWh

1999 Renault Mégane 1.6e convertible from @PSAPerv roffled to @Back_For_More

2006 L322 Range Rover 4.4 AJ-V8 from @83C

1990 Peugeot 205 XR

So, as intimated in the SQA and N24 threads, this week I have been mostly looking at leaves. With apologies to Trigs for ruining his tapatalk.

 

Today we test-drove a 2014, 24KWH VISIA, which means poverty spec, as it comes complete with steel wheels and a lack of a TV screen in the dashboard.

 

Other advantages are that it's not an IoT device (no TV screen means no SkyRim SkyNet CarWings NissanConnect,) all the better for attending infosec conferences - not that there will ever be any within range!) so there can be no pre-heating for my 0630 commute, and it doesn't come with the efficient heat exchanger, so having the heating on reduces the range by 30%.

 

The vague plan is to pay it off over three years, whereby the payments will be roughly equal to the amount of money I currently spend on fuel and RFL. I will then own a six year old car with an our of warranty battery. Insurance will be 20% less than the 405. Therefore downgrading to a car with poor visibility and no cassette deck will cost only the electrickery it takes to run it, assuming roughly like-for-like servicing costs.

 

Commute is between 40 and 50 miles a day, ideally I'd be able to nip out to the shopping centre (10 mile round trip) in the evening too. It will NOT be our only car, as would be expected on this forum, so this isn't worrying me too much, though it feels like a big commitment costing as it will more than I've spent on cars so far in my life.

 

I will also confess that having a modern 'safe' car around Mrs_L1 and the sproglet, with another one on the way, is appealing. The long term goal will be to replace the 405 an H6 Outback for longer journeys and the weekly trip to the supermarket at 15MPG. At this point the leaf would 'replace' Mrs_L1's K11C Micra, which is feeling a bit tired, but which we won't rush to trade in at £100.

 

A charger seems to be free, and it will go on the outside of the garage so I don't have to open the garage door twice a day and shuffle whatever's on the drive.

 

WCPGW?

[cort16]

Does the price include the battery ?

Just find a neighbour with one and wait until theyre at work and use their charger.

[loserone]

Yes, it's an owned battery not a leased one - first thing I checked as it's 'cheap' compared to others, but I figure that's because of the spec.

 

There's a free rapid charger at work, but tbh I cba with faffing around with charging except for overnight.

[Timewaster]

I was informed that in the (unlikely) event of me getting an electric company car I would not be allowed to plug it in at work as that would be seen as supplied "fuel" with HMRC issues.

 

I think that is rubbish, but I have yet to find a definitive answer.

[Lacquer Peel]

First dibs on the 405.

[loserone]

This would be pretty tempting too, if I were a bit braver.

 

[Patent]

There is some truth to this. The electricity the car uses to charge is worth something. Charging up your car is a "benefit" so you'd be liable for BIK tax at the relevant rate for the value of electric you've used.

Ive not seen any practical examples of this in practice!

[loserone]

The cable locks in, but they could go at it with a stanley knife I suppose ..

 

It'll either be on the drive, in the garage, or at work.

[meshking]

I keep looking at these as a replacement for our runabout 04 focus. Trouble is that 5-6k buys an awful lot of petrol. The car does a maximum of 10 miles in any round trip, so until the focus totally dies it's just not worth it.

 

If it were me, I'd be trying to find the newer one with the more efficient heater, simply because of your round trip mileage.

 

 

 

Sent from my SGP621 using Tapatalk

[Tayne]

I was looking at that black one and thinking it had a lot of battery degradation for 17k miles...

 

It's about £1500 to restore the batteries to full health.

 

L1, have you considered getting a Leaf Spy to interrogate potential purchases?

I'd also want the heat pump and pre-heating, it gets cold up here.

[sierraman]

The cable locks in, but they could go at it with a stanley knife I suppose ..

 

It'll either be on the drive, in the garage, or at work.

Braver man than me to go at a HV cable with a Stanley knife.

[loserone]

I was looking at that black one and thinking it had a lot of battery degradation for 17k miles...

 

It's about £1500 to restore the batteries to full health.

 

L1, have you considered getting a Leaf Spy to interrogate potential purchases?

I'd also want the heat pump and pre-heating, it gets cold up here.

It certainly seems like there are a few high mileage ones about.

 

Leaf spy is on my radar, but I suspect more for tuning how it gets driven - though I will check the state of health of the battery.

 

I don't think pre-heating is a killer, but the lack of a heat pump is making me think hard; the range should still be OK for my commute even with the heating and lights on, but when it's a 7 year old car will I regret it when I'm driving round with a hot water bottle?

[loserone]

I'm sure there are areas where those might be problems, but I can't imagine this being one of them

[cort16]

One of the guys at work has a new one and it’s been interesting to see the compromises he has t make. His commute is around 50 miles a day , which means with a true Scottish range of 90 miles in a charge he can comfortably do the commute and not have to panic too much /freeze to death is stuck in traffic.

Last week it was fully charged and he took it out on Sunday and forgot to plug it in. 60 mile range, not good enough to get to work and back so he had to park it about 7 miles away so he didn’t get caught in traffic and run to the office and back at night then drive home with everything off.

 

Now his rapid charger has stopped working and the slow charger can’t do a full charge over night so it takes 1 full day to charge . As a result every second day he has to take his wife’s car and she has to get the train to work .

 

Also the outfit that installed his rapid charger made a total arse of it and when they left bathroom had no power!

 

It works great 90% of the time but I doesn’t take much to upset the balance .

[sierraman]

What a massive ball ache. The bit about it losing a third of the range if you use the heater or have Radio 2 on a bit too loud sounds like a serious pain.

[gordonbennet]

Heater taking too much power? sorted, WCPGW

 

 

 

The costs are great in theory, but the already highly indebted country is losing fuel revenues which can only be slightly made up for by the short life span of the vehicles so far which aids VAT and other new car costs contribute, it remains to be seen how things change in the coming years.

[Tayne]

What a massive ball ache. The bit about it losing a third of the range if you use the heater or have Radio 2 on a bit too loud sounds like a serious pain.

 

The radio runs off the12volt battery and so has negligible impact on range.

 

Later/better equipped Leafs have pre-heating, heat pumps and heated seats to minimise the impact on range.

[Tayne]

One of the guys at work has a new one and it’s been interesting to see the compromises he has t make. His commute is around 50 miles a day , which means with a true Scottish range of 90 miles in a charge he can comfortably do the commute and not have to panic too much /freeze to death is stuck in traffic.

Last week it was fully charged and he took it out on Sunday and forgot to plug it in. 60 mile range, not good enough to get to work and back so he had to park it about 7 miles away so he didn’t get caught in traffic and run to the office and back at night then drive home with everything off.

 

Now his rapid charger has stopped working and the slow charger can’t do a full charge over night so it takes 1 full day to charge . As a result every second day he has to take his wife’s car and she has to get the train to work .

 

Also the outfit that installed his rapid charger made a total arse of it and when they left bathroom had no power!

 

It works great 90% of the time but I doesn’t take much to upset the balance .

 

 

I'm assuming this chap didn't actually drop £35k on a rapid charger (0-180% in 40mins) for his house?

If he did then I'm not surprised he's having issues.

More likely, its a 7kw wall box which is equivalent to an electric shower or cooker circuit.

 

Quite surprised by his running 7 miles each way.

Assuming he's in good shape, thats got be 1hour50mins out of his day, I would have spent 40mins on a rapid charger on the way home...

I would have also thought that a bit more public charging would allow him to drive his car more of the time.

 

 

[Tayne]

Heater taking too much power? sorted, WCPGW

 

super ser.JPG

 

 

The costs are great in theory, but the already highly indebted country is losing fuel revenues which can only be slightly made up for by the short life span of the vehicles so far which aids VAT and other new car costs contribute, it remains to be seen how things change in the coming years.

 

 

 

I think there's far greater sources of revenue to chase then forcing electric cars off the road.

Or do you like the idea of pollution related deaths reducing pension liabilities?

 

And what do you mean by "short life span"?

The black one shown above is for years old and has done 171k miles, it could benefit from a few quid chucked at the battery (not stopping it moving though) but then it hasn't needed a clutch/dmf/exhaust/turbo and will have saved its owner a lot in servicing/tyres/brakes.

[Tayne]

Be prepared for this L1, lots of people will tell you that the electric car is just plain wrong.

 

Eno, of this parish, has an I3 (real range of 120miles) and one of his diesel-owning neighbours takes great delight in telling him that he won't be able to drive it the 30miles to work nor charge it overnight.

 

You'd think there would be greater support for alternative fuels on a site dedicated to unloved cars, wouldn't you.

[cort16]

He has got a rapid charger but as I said his is currrently broken.

He doesn’t run that every day he did it when he didn’t plug it in overnight and had already set off.

 

I like them I’m just saying if you use them every day for a decent commute you need to understand that there are compromises .

[Tayne]

He has got a rapid charger but as I said his is currrently broken.

 

 

Wow.

 

Thats impressive dedication to the cause.

Especially when the wallbox is free (or nearly free) and he's paid out £35,000 for a DC rapid rapid charger.

 

 

 

Surprised he doesn't use the public rapid chargers though.

[loserone]

Be prepared for this L1, lots of people will tell you that the electric car is just plain wrong.

 

I have noticed!

 

Anyway, it turns out that Evans Halshaw Nissan is only a Nissan deal for new cars, and used cars are just Pendragon used car sales.  So no free home charger.

 

Also, it's missing any leads for actually charging it, though they'll throw in a DC lead.  Presumably that's a cheap aftermarket one.

 

Awaiting a status report on the battery before I can start really seriously thinking about the numbers, biggest concern is still the heater - not even from a comfort perspective (I have a coat, and nice warm boots) but getting into a car when it's -2 with a wet hipster beard can freeze up the inside of the windscreen in 300 yards.

[loserone]

I'd also want the heat pump and pre-heating, it gets cold up here.

 Yeah, we don't live in Aberdeenshire, and presumably you've seen the state of affairs of the Bigg market in the evening; it's less of an issue.

[Tayne]

You can get a £500 grant from Olev to put a home charger in, the dealer just does the paperwork on this, it's not them paying for it.

You may need to add a few pennies for tethered or locking.

 

What's the Bigg Market got to do with things?

[loserone]

I believe I'd have to apply for that directly, and it only covers some of the cost for the charging point - not that that's an issue in the scale of things.

 

My point was it's rarely cold enough to put long sleeves on round here.

[Tayne]

I believe I'd have to apply for that directly

You've got the spare time and the literacy skills to write stuff on here so I reckon you can fill out the form to get £500.

[loserone]

Shame we don't live north of the border as there's a top up grant available to cover the whole cost.

 

Mind, commuting to Newcastle would be a ball ache.

[gordonbennet]

I'm not anti the bloody things by the way, just that one must be aware when doing the maths that things can change, and whilst there isn't so much to go wrong as a modern Diesel, when the batteries and motors/controllers start to fail they ain't going to be pocket money fixes.

[Tayne]

Shame we don't live north of the border as there's a top up grant available to cover the whole cost.

 

 

 

 

And an interest free loan to purchase, workplace charging grants, shitloads of free public charging etc.