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Who's bought their last tank of petrol?

It’s certainly the way manufacturers of pretty much everything want it take it. Maintain customer control and sell more stuff more often. Govts love it too for obvious reasons. Trouble is, the disposable culture is more expensive for the consumer overall and I’d suggest more harmful to the environment.

I agree, but they will do all they can to avoid wages keeping pace and the only way to do this will be to rent everything as it will all be too expensive to buy.

Buying a car these days is too big of a financial commitment, it will be well out of date tech wise by the time they've paid it off and god forbid they're driving around in something that doesn't have all the latest whizz bangs in it. A bit different from previous generations when all cars were basically the same inside, three pedals a steering wheel and a shonky radio, nobody used to care about owning one for 10+ years because the likelihood was the new one wouldn't have much else in it!
 
I can easily see the time coming that doing anything seriously polluting like burning petrol/diesel will be like drink driving/smoking.

You can't bet against that sort of thing, people love to feel virtuous even if the effect is microscopic, but of course it's an entirely specious comparison. If we were serious about the polluting we would be talking about getting the older, most polluting vehicles off the road. Instead, EVs target a market that involves replacing some of the cleanest ICE technology - to create lucrative markets and later, with a bit of critical mass, more tax.

If buying over-priced EVs gives people a fuzzy feeling of superiority that's fine, but of course a genuine attempt to deal with polluting vehicles would involve subsidy and incentives to deal with the worst, not some kind of hope that you can stigmatise those unable or unwilling to be ripped off.
 
I checked my mileage today on the back of this thread.

I bought the van May 2014 via an online dealer, it was delivered early June 2014 with 100 miles on the clock and I’ve done just under 48,000 miles and that includes a trip to west Wales, Argyle and a few times to Keswick and around the Lake District for holidays.

Blimey, I've done 48k since covid started alone, and that is with some furlough and less work on!
 
I should hope so for 700 Euros. :eek:

For that price I'd expect it to come with a gardener to push it around for me. :)

Just over EUR600, but basically maintenance free for life. And easy to store (folds up) and carry. Battery charges quickly.

Amazing, total convert!
 
Just over EUR600, but basically maintenance free for life. And easy to store (folds up) and carry. Battery charges quickly.

Amazing, total convert!

Now you have my attention, 47cm you say? Is it rugged? I have this battered old John Deere that refuses to fall to bits despite twice weekly use over 20 years on very rough ground. It is beginning to rot in parts though.
 
Seems pretty rugged to me - well built and robust although some plastic parts are used. There are some dearer ones with more metal I think. 5 year warranty comes as standard too, (you need to register post purchase).

Thorough review here if that helps.
 
I want to throw a huge Spanner in the Works!!!

You are all barking up the wrong tree. We have the solution now and it can be incorporated for most people at a stroke (sorry Harold Wilson) or maybe the day after. It is being done now in Slovakia (or maybe it is the Czech Republic) now so what is it?????

The answer is Reliable, Frequent and FREE Public Transport. The technology is here for driverless trains and is being developed for driverless buses and HGVs so why not? It can avoid being strangled by Unions, China and even the Taliban in the future and the shortage of HGV drivers is also solved by driverless wagons - fewer cars on the road makes driverless easier and safer.

Electrification of rail systems is here and capacity to run it can be developed so why not. It just needs political will of BoJo and forward thinking Mayors of large conurbations to get things rolling. You could even have a small fuel allowance for the odd few hours in Golf GTI as compensation.

48 k miles since COVID are you proud of that!!! That is about 960 hours behind the wheel, bet you use the phone a lot while driving or sitting in traffic jams or are you just inefficient??

FF
 
Transport systems are great if you want to go from the same a to the same b all the time and a and b happen to be where you need to be.

totally a no go for my job, unless I need to be in central london
 
At the very least such a policy will dramatically reduce car use. I am not advocating total elimination, yet. Rural living depends on cars at the moment but how about low cost Uber driver less??

What job needs 48 k miles over 2 years. It is 120 days, think about it.

FF
 
The answer is Reliable, Frequent and FREE Public Transport.

I can't see that happening in my lifetime, at least not where I live. City dwellers only even seem to think about solutions that apply to themselves, however as I mentioned earlier in the thread - in my village in the highlands of Scotland we get 2 buses per week (allegedly, as I've yet to actually see one in the 3 months since I bought the house there) and even those don't go anywhere with a train station. If you're waiting for useful public transport you'll have a long wait. Cars aren't a luxury there - they are essential.
 
What interests me is when will range anxiety switch to being something that applies to ICE vehicles? At some point there will be plenty of charging points and far fewer fuel stations than we have today. 10 years?
 
What interests me is when will range anxiety switch to being something that applies to ICE vehicles? At some point there will be plenty of charging points and far fewer fuel stations than we have today. 10 years?

It'll be interesting to see how it goes however putting in sufficient charging points, especially in cities where most people park on the street, is going to be a very significant challenge and costly as well - so not sure if 10 years will be enough. Take Glasgow for example - I heard the councilor responsible for the environment on the radio a few weeks back and they mentioned they'd installed 225 public charging points, and in a city with a population of nearly 600,000 it sounds like there is a lot of work to do.

The drive to EV's (which is probably the right thing to do if hydrogen isn't a viable option) is fine but really does need to be matched but a huge push on putting the infrastructure in place including answering the charging question for those that live somewhere that doesn't allow them to have their own charging point.
 
What job needs 48 k miles over 2 years. It is 120 days, think about it.

FF

In much less than two years, I average about 40k a year. Nothing special just mobile service engineer/repairs. Unless the bus is willing to carry my van full of tools and go exactly where I need it to then it is useless.
 
At the very least such a policy will dramatically reduce car use. I am not advocating total elimination, yet. Rural living depends on cars at the moment but how about low cost Uber driver less??

What job needs 48 k miles over 2 years. It is 120 days, think about it.

FF
I used to drive 25k to 35k per year. IT consulting and supporting sales across the U.K. at that time. I’m sure those doing those roles will be using Teams a lot nowadays but being on site can’t be avoided.
 


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