Motors Help me pick a car

All still handled by your main local dealer, you just have to ensure there are no gaps in service history and it has all been done in accordance to the schedule preferably at a main dealer for an easy life, proving non main dealer service work has been done to scheduale can be a problem without fully itemised reciepts with part nos etc.

The other thing to be caustion of for cars out of network is that it is not an import or ex business vehicle as warranty terms can be different in differnet markets and lease terms, I once bought a brand new Grand Scenic from Motorpoint that was a business lease that was dropped, got me a cheap car, 12k for a brand new ( 5miles on clock) decent spec diesel, it was awesome but it had less warranty than a UK car and Renault would give me grief when I brought it in even for servicing and getting stamped etc, fortunately in 6ys/100k absolutely nothing went wrong, most economical, reliable car I have known, it was even a struggle to wear the tyres out I did wear out the pedals and my daughter sucked the key to death.

 

Warranty is with car manufacturer, dealership are only the ones carrying out the work and doing diagnostic as the gatekeepers.
You most probably need to be prepared to pay 30min diagnostic first. If it's warranty work, it wouldn't be charged.

So after buying, when service is due, just phone up your preferred dealer and book yourself in like any garage.

I've bought Leaf at 2.something years old somewhere far away. I went to local dealer and serviced using a free service (from PCP deal) no problem. Some grounding recall was also done during service automatically. The only dealership "network" oversight is to call you and get you to come back for overpriced servicing.

 

They all work fine!
I have done the following whilst I have owned it:

1. Replaced power steering pump, lines reservoir and all the hoses
2. Deleted the auxiliary radiator as well as the one with a manual fan clutch and installed an electric one
3. Replaced all other cooling components and hoses including the water pump, reservoir etc
4. Replaced the rocker cover gasket
5. Replaced all pulley wheels and tensioners as well as the 2 fan belts
6. Fitted a 'new' front bumper
7. Replaced the MAF/DISA valve
8. Cleaned the throttle body and replaced all the hoses to solve a vacuum leak
9. Changed the oil, air filter, pollen filter, oil filter

All helped in no small part by a brilliant amateur BMW mechanic called The 50s Kid on Youtube

 

It would be perfect for the wife to do the school run in - 4 seats after all!

 

Nice one, it's a solid engine, with that sort of maintenance it sounds like you're ready for another 80k.

 

If you're desperate to spend silly money, you might get more of an investment - and more fun! - out of this...

For my two penn'orth, the EV market for me is still quite young, still too many options/considerations I have no clue about nor time to research (plug standards, charging availability, electricity tariffs etc.), still too many limitations (distance between charges, additional advance planning required for longer journeys, time spent charging ie. at services on the motorway instead of refuelling and carrying on quickly, battery wear, possible requirement for solar panels at home to make it worthwhile) and still far too much cost attached, not just to the vehicle and repairs but also to additionals like those solar panels, home chargers etc. and any obsolescence replacement as the tech matures. But then I guess that's the point of your thread - to find out answers! Just reading through some of the (intelligent and well-informed) responses though, definitely confirmed this is not an area for me to get involved in at the moment. Too much other stress going on...

I'm sure what I've just said will no doubt attract criticism but it's my own view and I have no clue what I'm talking about as I don't know enough, so bear that in mind! For my side, I've just spent £1200 keeping my P-reg GT on the road (owned from new, currently at 174k miles), for several main reasons:

• It's MINE!
• I don't use it often enough to justify an expensive upgrade (but I was considering cluelessly purchasing a K&N induction kit for fun )
• I don't spend enough time in it to justify an upgrade to any of its functionality
• Cost of maintaining it vs cost of buying and maintaining an EV is not even worth the comparison - from some of those prices above, I could pay the same each year for mine (which isn't likely at all - a lot of big stuff needing doing this year) and still come out quids in after a decade!
• I have other priorities I'd rather spend the money on, as you alluded to early on in your posts - new kitchen required, several appliances have all gone pop at the same time (dishwasher, tumble drier, oven, fridge etc. ), would prefer to make memories with the kids on holiday (I don't reckon they're going to look back and go "remember all that time we spent driving to the shops in that EV Dad bought?" but they might remember the Northern Lights or visiting the Colosseum), get them some needed kit or even put it aside for education fees/their future/whatever
• I think I'd get more enjoyment out of improving the place I live in and making it a home (or at least one in a better state of repair!), because we spend more time there than sitting in a car
• I do like the growl of a decent petrol engine

In fairness, even if I had no car at all I'd probably look at spending about £5k on something in sound condition that did its job rather than going EV, with the above reasons still applicable (barring the "my-car-specific" ones of course) but that's just how my brain sees value. Thinking about it, when we needed to get the missus a new one for work we paid £3750ish for a ten year-old A3 Turbo which has been fantastic for the last six years we've had it. And it goes like stink, which is a plus in my book. I don't know how much we've paid for maintenance but it really isn't that much, certainly nowhere near as much as the car even cost - maybe not even half as much.

So I guess it's a question of personal affordability and personal priorities - but on a forum for serial tech upgraders, I may not be the best person to be opining! Just thought I'd offer the alternative viewpoint.

Would be interested to know how you get on and what your final bill is though - might answer some of my unknowns...

 

The cheapskate part of my mind wants to buy another old combustion car. The desire for new shiny tech and idealistic side of me want the expensive EV. Either way the car will probably be run until it's death because better the devil you know is my opinion.

 

Definitely with you on that one - plus if it ain't broke etc.. I hate replacing things for the sake of it.

So I suppose it's down to opportunity cost then, really - what would your personal finances dictate you must give up in order to fund the more expensive option?

If you go without a holiday for the next three years or without the new kitchen you actually need to make life happier and more comfortable, could you (or the family!) accept that?

 

God no! 40k for a front wheel drive rattly old Ford are you a mentalist

Of course if it was a mk1 Astra GTE my rose tinted specs would come in too.

You don't need solar or home batteries etc, that's just tech geeks going too far as always

It needs to be no more difficult than buy EV, drive EV, many companies will fit a home charger for you as part of purchase. You just need to understand the tech limitations and pitfalls, like any car, if you do 1000 miles a week, you don't buy a petrol and you don't buy an EV, you buy a diesel!

If you potter around town doing like 10 miles a day for the most part with a long trip once or twice a year, you don't buy a diesel, you stick to petrol or EV in this case is perfect.

100k in 20yrs puts @Spraduke in the latter camp, that is very low mileage, should be easy miles for a petrol or an EV, it's not really diesel mileage.

I get zero joy from spending on my house couldn't be more dull to me, it is never ending, once one thing is done the missus moves to the next until we've done everything and cycle around again. Buying tech for said house though.....that's another matter

Certainly holidays etc can all still be done that's all about good budgeting and money management same for providing for education etc.

My daughter is better set than me as a teenager, as it should be, I've been investing for her since birth, locked away in child accounts so I can't dip she already has a pension going well too, good old compounding and some luck, amazing what a little bit a month can do

Like yourself I like a good noisey petrol for fun, I also like the tech in these modern cars too but I do spend my days developing hardware for it so it's to be expected I have a strong interest in that.

 

I'm sure you've considered this already but if you're going to keep a car until it dies, remember to factor in replacement EV batteries. The norm in UK weather conditions seems to be after 7-10 years of use and cost upwards of £10k unless it's a smaller/budget vehicle.

 

When I bought it, it was from a garage that an old guy from Oxford part-exd it to. He was the only owner from new and had religiously taken it to BMW every year for servicing/repairs, regardless of cost.
I can't really afford (or want) to do that so have learnt to do all the repairs etc myself.
They have all been wear and tear, age related work.
The bodywork/engine/gearbox is rock solid.
One major expense 2 years ago was the front control arms, back suspension, diff repair, handbrake and rear disks and drum brakes.
I entrusted this to a very reputable local BMW specialist in Swansea. (Cost £1600!)
Since then, it's been fine.
Been on a couple of long trips to watch football (Rotherham..233 miles & WBA around 140 miles each way) and it has been fine.
172,000 miles and counting!

 

* looks around nervously while opening up solar/energy monitoring software for the energy thread *

 

Whilst of course there is no denying that battery tech degrades over time the likely hood of an actual death is low, a degradation in capacity yes, sure, but on 5k a year the number of battery cycles will be quite low, the BMS should do a great job maintaining 3 to 4 cycles a month.

regardless I'd question your source of info for that seeing as every EV has a min of 8yr warranty on battery and that warranty is covering also when there is a 20-30% drop in usable capacity meaning that EVs manufacturers are confident it would at least do that, of course it will do better as they don't design these warranties to actually pay out.

If you did have to pay out, you would likely still have saved so much dough owning you'd still be quids in

UK weather is ideal for EV batteries, it's typically neither too hot or too cold, I'm sure they get a much harder time in EV capital of the world Norway.

I haz all the datas too, I have a data mining problem.

 

I'm not on about the battery pack expiring, more that after that extended use period, it may have degraded to the point whereby the range is diminished enough that it could become unfit for the current owner's original mileage requirements, depending upon what is acceptable to live with. Winter cold weather mileage already takes a good chunk out of a new batteries estimated range so an old, tired, short on range battery in summer is going to be notably exacerbated in winter.

 

(I missed this)
My wife's Nissan Leaf is over 8 years old now. It is first generation EV without anything to actively look after the battery. Around new year time I see BMS thinks it has 80% original capacity. That means just under 18 kWh of capacity out of just over 22 kWh original. EV batteries are designed to last more than life of the car.

EV batteries degrade slowly. As long as the range is sufficient it works fine. I mean, 18 kWh from a very first generation EV is so much for local runabout, we plan to use V2H to draw power from it throughout the day!

Well looked after battery with active thermal management and TOA updates to BMS should have no problem lasting a long time and many miles with low level of degradation. Using OBD tool, I see Tesla maintains battery temperature above 10c throughout the winter. Whereas unmanaged Leaf falls down to 4 temperature bars, which is below 10c IIRC.

 

Yeah, i get that but as you said yourself, "as long as the range is sufficient it works fine". The OP has a range requirement of 200+ miles. The quality and age of the used vehicle (and battery) is going to be dictated by the budget. Maybe when that battery has aged around 8+ years, it may not have enough remaining capacity to do the 200+ miles required range. That's all I'm getting at - just another point to consider when buying a used EV that you plan to keep until it's scrap.

 

My car being a PHEV has an 18.8Kw battery (14.7 useable) and is diabolically inefficient in its EV mode 1.8-2.5 mpkw due to its weight ( only experienced winter so far, the optimist in me is expecting more soon ) this small range and capacity is still enough for the missus to use it a couple of days in the week. I say it is inefficient but considering its use case being her commute car plus the school run pool car, it spends a lot of time in car parks waiting for tardy kids heating cranked up etc, the electric heating is a big drain. She'll do ~ 30miles on it, I'll nudge 40 as I just go to work and back, that size in a little leaf probably lasts twice as long. Of course we don't need to care about its range as we have a whole other propulsion system in the car and when the battery is dead it still works as a pretty good hybrid.

Amazingly complicated, best and worst of both worlds, 2 e-motors, a turbo petrol motor and a battery all working in harmony together, what could possibly go wrong, did I mention my propensity for risk taking....

 

One for the drivetrain nerds, nuffin scary 'bout this .....

 

Huh, drop the rear propshaft and bash all the batteries in the tunnel, I've never seen that before but it makes perfect sense.

Bit of a brave pill though