Still Lead in the Old Pencil

[bizzard]

And yet ladies I've spoken to about driving Chelsie tractors don;t want one at all, all they want is a small neat car, easy to handle and park. Its there old man that insists on them having a 2 tonner because he wants, to drive it too to look big and  important. and because he's probably payed for it.

Edited October 31, 2019 by bizzard

[IanD]

2 hours ago, Graham Davis said:

My 4x4 Yeti easily gets 50mpg on a run and my Midget around 38mpg.
And I have a 4x4 to fit in with my hobbies of car rally safety work, caravanning and photographing things in the forests locally for NRW, plus I can give something back to the community by being a member of 4x4 Response Wales.

I am also a Director of the local Car Share CIC and we now own an electric Zoe which seems to be getting used quite often, mostly on journeys of less than 100 miles, I suspect because recharging points are not that plentiful in Mid Wales.

So you're one of the <5% who do have a genuine need for a 4x4, which as I said means you're not part of the problem. Now drive down any street in London -- especially Chelsea! -- and count the number of absolutely massive 4x4s (Range Rover, Land Cruiser, Mercedes, BMW, Audi...) there. They're the problem...

1 hour ago, bizzard said:

And yet ladies I've spoken to about driving Chelsie tractors don;t want one at all, all they want is a small neat car, easy to handle and park. Its there old man that insists on them having a 2 tonner because he wants, to drive it too to look big and  important. and because he's probably payed for it.

My next door neighbour falls into exactly this category, but she doesn't get to choose the car. OTOH I've met ladies who do like them because they're big and have a high driving position and this makes them feel safe when driving the kids one mile to school -- in spite of the fact they're statistically more likely to have an accident, and more likely to scrape the thing on other cars or stationary objects because they're so wide...

[Machpoint005]

5 hours ago, cuthound said:

Yes, it can get into shorter parking spaces etc, Octavia is 4.667 m long, the Yeti is is 4.22m long.

 

(My garage is 4.3 m long, so I have a Yeti as it is the most commodious car that will fit into the garage).

 

Fairy Nuff!

 

My car doesn't live in a garage, so I never thought of that. Most of that extra length must be down to the Octavia's ginormous boot, which is a definite plus point for me. Pretty much the same car underneath, though (they are both Super-golfs, aren't they?). 

[The Welsh Cruiser]

The closest I cam to respecting Gordon Brown was when he proposed much higher road tax for these gas guzzling monsters. Unfortunately he bottled it and retracted the plan, presumably following pressure from the manufacturers.

[MtB]

1 minute ago, The Welsh Cruiser said:

The closest I cam to respecting Gordon Brown was when he proposed much higher road tax for these gas guzzling monsters. Unfortunately he bottled it and retracted the plan, presumably following pressure from the manufacturers.

 

No, objections from all the champagne socialists who need one to ferry little Tabitha and little Toby back and forth to playgroup, safe from all the white van men on the roads!

 

 

(Delivering all the stuff they just bought on Amazon, obvs...)

 

 

[cuthound]

40 minutes ago, Machpoint005 said:

 

Fairy Nuff!

 

My car doesn't live in a garage, so I never thought of that. Most of that extra length must be down to the Octavia's ginormous boot, which is a definite plus point for me. Pretty much the same car underneath, though (they are both Super-golfs, aren't they?). 

 

Yes both based on the Golf platform.

 

The boot on the Yeti is verybaccommodating, because the vertical tailgate allows you to pile stuff right up to the roof, and you can fold down or even 

remove any or all of the rear seats if you need more space. The only thing it can't cope with are long lengths of wood or pipes, but these can be tied to the roof rails.

 

A great car for the money, pity they don't make them any more.

[The Welsh Cruiser]

9 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

No, objections from all the champagne socialists who need one to ferry little Tabitha and little Toby back and forth to playgroup, safe from all the white van men on the roads!

 

 

(Delivering all the stuff they just bought on Amazon, obvs...)

 

 

Tabitha and Toby would be ferried backwards and forwards (in safety) to a private fee paying school rather than a mere playgroup, surely? 

[peterboat]

13 minutes ago, The Welsh Cruiser said:

The closest I cam to respecting Gordon Brown was when he proposed much higher road tax for these gas guzzling monsters. Unfortunately he bottled it and retracted the plan, presumably following pressure from the manufacturers.

 

9 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

No, objections from all the champagne socialists who need one to ferry little Tabitha and little Toby back and forth to playgroup, safe from all the white van men on the roads!

 

 

(Delivering all the stuff they just bought on Amazon, obvs...)

 

 

I think a road tax of 5k per year might kill the sales 

[IanD]

5 minutes ago, peterboat said:

 

I think a road tax of 5k per year might kill the sales 

And would cause massive protests from this who say "I have the right to drive what I want". Well yes you do, and you can pay extra for being an SUV idiot ;-). (we'd have to find a way of not penalising those who actually need one)

[MtB]

3 minutes ago, IanD said:

(we'd have to find a way of not penalising those who actually need one)

 

But nobody actually NEEDS an SUV!

 

 

[peterboat]

1 minute ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

But nobody actually NEEDS an SUV!

 

 

True Mike but the sales of them are skyrocketing! I don't get it but I am in the minority 

[Machpoint005]

14 hours ago, cuthound said:

A great car for the money, pity they don't make them any more.

Yes, the Karoq seems a poor imitation -- too mainstream!

[Graham Davis]

21 hours ago, Machpoint005 said:

I'm no critic of the Yeti, but can it do anything the 4x4 Octavia Scout (with the same powertrain) can't do?

The drive mechanism is exactly the same but the Yeti is shorter, and has smaller front and rear overhangs and the "ramp over " angle is better, but that only really applies in fairly severe off-road situations.
The Octavia has a bigger boot but since there are only the 2 of us we don't need that amount of space.
The very short rear overhang makes for a very stable towing package.

[Machpoint005]

All Fairy Nuff, Graham, and also why I opted for the Octy!

[IanD]

16 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

But nobody actually NEEDS an SUV!

 

 

I meant 4x4...

[cuthound]

On 29/10/2019 at 18:34, peterboat said:

I did read on clean technica that Li recycling was way higher than the 5% suggested most is done in China and the far east as Bob says. Of course we have bought recycled batteries but they won't be on any stats because as others have said it's a little breaker that broke the EV down 

 

This article in the IET (formerly IEE) magazine suggests not.

 

https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2019/11/recycling-challenges-need-to-be-addressed-as-old-electric-vehicle-batteries-mount-up/

[peterboat]

34 minutes ago, cuthound said:

 

This article in the IET (formerly IEE) magazine suggests not.

 

https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2019/11/recycling-challenges-need-to-be-addressed-as-old-electric-vehicle-batteries-mount-up/

Paid for by the oil companies plenty of recycling goes on but is never recorded I have done 74 which have never been recorded, and James has done thousands so take the figures with a pinch of oil

[cuthound]

5 minutes ago, peterboat said:

Paid for by the oil companies plenty of recycling goes on but is never recorded I have done 74 which have never been recorded, and James has done thousands so take the figures with a pinch of oil

 

No, if you look how a Lion battery is made up, lots of small individual cells soldered together you will realise why human intervention, and thus cost limits their feasibility to recycle cost effectively.

[MtB]

1 hour ago, cuthound said:

No, if you look how a Lion battery is made up, lots of small individual cells soldered together

 

Only some of them are like that according to the reading I've done on them.

 

The big individual cells one can buy are just that inside - large single cells - or so I am led to believe. 

 

 

[Dr Bob]

2 hours ago, cuthound said:

 

This article in the IET (formerly IEE) magazine suggests not.

 

https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2019/11/recycling-challenges-need-to-be-addressed-as-old-electric-vehicle-batteries-mount-up/

There is very little need to recycle them now but there will be in the future as EV use becomes higher. This is what that article says viz:

 

half a million cubic metres - of unprocessed pack waste will result when these vehicles reach the end of their lives.

 

Note the word 'will'.

Of course there isnt much recyling now. As I said previously, it will only happen once the old batteries are available and companies see it as valuable to recycle. There are ways to do the recycling.

[cuthound]

11 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Only some of them are like that according to the reading I've done on them.

 

The big individual cells one can buy are just that inside - large single cells - or so I am led to believe. 

 

 

 

True, but my understanding is that the ones using many individual cells are used for applications requiring the sudden delivery of high currents such as EV's

[Dr Bob]

2 hours ago, cuthound said:

 

True, but my understanding is that the ones using many individual cells are used for applications requiring the sudden delivery of high currents such as EV's

The big single cells are also used which will be much simpler to recycle. My Winston thunderskys came from an ev and are designed for high delivery. None of this many individual cell stuff where there are many many more small soldered connections to break. Give me a big single cell anyday for mechanical stability.

Edited November 9, 2019 by Dr Bob

[MtB]

 

My 8 cell bank out of an EV looks for all the world like 8 big individual cells too.

 

But I'm not planning to cut a cell open for a look unless/until the bank is knackered!!

 

 

[Iain_S]

On 30/10/2019 at 09:38, peterboat said:

I don't think we will have to worry about it 2029 meteorite is supposed to hit earth so jobs done!

Apparently, it'll miss, (Unless that's fake news, designed to keep the plebs in order ?)

https://www.space.com/asteroid-apophis-2029-flyby-planetary-defense.html

[peterboat]

16 minutes ago, Iain_S said:

Apparently, it'll miss, (Unless that's fake news, designed to keep the plebs in order ?)

https://www.space.com/asteroid-apophis-2029-flyby-planetary-defense.html

If it misses it gets us 7 years later! I am throwing this in for fun really although in Scotland last week I saw the biggest shooting star I have ever seen