Motors Help me pick a car

Think I found the super secret album sharing option.

 

Nope still can't see it

 

Apparently shared is different to public! Works now (checked from logged out browser)

 

That's a good colour, The_Crapman should buy one and put his Boob-Tech logo on the side.

 

Shorter range EV's are perfect as local runabouts. You won't regret it.
7.5p or 9.5p/kWh overnight charging makes it vastly cheaper than petrol.

We've been running 2014 Nissan Leaf since 2017. It does 80% of what we need from a car with just 60-80 miles range, charged chealy at home overnight, no service costs, very reliable car.

 

This guy has a similar age 40 kWh Zoe, I've been following since his Leaf days.
50k mile update, some rather expensive repair to suspension and brake.


One thing worth doing with EV is strip and clean all brakes every few years. They get very little use, I've had to replace front disk and pad due to rust in 2019. So now, I brake hard a few times when exiting my residentual area whenever I drive the Leaf. This summer, I'll be stripping all the brakes and clean them.
Tesla service mode actually have a guided "brake burnishing" program. Probably worth doing once or twice a year, to avoid needing to strip and clean (?).

 

That's quite disturbing, that a key vital safety feature might not perform as expected due to lack of use.
If it's a problem then surely the car should be programmed to do a brake drag every x miles / months rather than relying on the owner to strip and clean their brakes

 

Keep an eye on the drop links on the front suspension too, they're a well-known failure point.
The Zoe is based on the 2010 Clio, but Renault didn't uprate the suspension enough to account for the weight of the 500kg battery pack.

Have you considered getting Cleevely EV in for the occasional driveway service?

 

I've actually had a chat with James from Cleevely mobile service team (and youtuber) on Saturday at Fully Charged Live. Very nice guy and asked about Leaf servicing needs plus Model Y suspension upgrade options. He's also investigating the latter on his family car. One thing they specifically offer on their leaflet is, for £200 something, to strip and clean all brakes.

Some cars do that according to condition. But road conditions differ and it's difficult to definitely detect rust.
I'm not sure about dumbly periodically add drag that affects economy and may be just when the user needs the car to be most efficient.

souce: https://www.tesla.com/ownersmanual/model3/en_au/GUID-3DFFB071-C0F6-474D-8A45-17BE1A006365.html

Brake burnishing is a known procedure that is done on all cars. Regularly do this can effectively preserve the brakes on EV's.

The problem with car manufacturer is that they only care about first 3 years. Brakes are usually not a problem within that period. Only a problem not looked after for many years. For the price of main dealer servicing and they aren't doing anything for that money (apart from inspections), they really ought to clean the brakes.

 

Thanks for the heads up. As we're getting it from a Renault dealership they're already replacing the front discs and pads before we get it. I saw something else this morning suggesting the occasional heavy breaking on EVs to

 

It shouldn't have anything to do with detecting rust, discs rust over a period of 24 hours if a car is sitting, it should be a periodic automatic procedure to ensure the brakes are in a suitable condition so as to be fully functional / prevent callipers seizing.
When it comes to vehicles of any kind economy and efficiency should not be given preference to safety.

But not all, it's a requirement which should be added to the legislation in order for a car to be type approved in my opinion, especially as the trend towards 1 pedal driving increases and reduces the amount of use the brakes get.

 

Conscious of this I tend to do the odd bit of heavier braking in mine, not sure if it is required but there's so much regen braking available when driving normally it takes a lot to kick the real brakes in. If I was braking from motorway speeds more I'm sure they'd get more use as the motor is not strong enough to haul down from high speed quickly.

 

Totally agree. TBH existing brake disk+pad and their usage methods are not suitable for EV's with regen braking.

I would prefer current shape Nissan Leaf e-pedal (and I think Tesla) approach where brakes are used to stop the car at slow speed with one-pedal driving. At very least they will scrape off the surface rust. Then may be an in-car reminder to do brake burnishing every 6 months.

The issue I had with old shape Leaf was due to brake pad contact were small due to a lip of rust on the disk. MOT picked it up as advisory, so I changed it myself, £100 for parts. That shows the safety check done by MOT is doing its job.

 

I think that guy's been mugged off by his Renault dealer tbh - the front is a McPherson strut setup like every other FWD car for the last 30 years, the lower arm ball joints and drop links take a punishing, just budget on replacing them every 3 or 4 years, it'll drive better as a result too. Parts are about £100-250 (depending if you replace the whole arm or just the ball joints) for reasonable aftermarket and maybe 2h to fit.

Good point about the brakes, make sure you give them a workout once in a while - as noted leaving the motorway is a good opportunity, otherwise once in a while go out and try and activate the ABS with a good hard braking session. But again, an hour every couple of years to strip and clean the front brakes is an hour well spent.

 

You don't have to go nuts to activate brakes on mine just a bit firmer, though it has a visual aid so easy to see, instead of an rpm gauge, it is a torque demand gauge and that works for power and charge so you know when you are at max regen and then if you push the brake pedal harder you see the extra force for physical braking on the gauge, very clear, it's a nice guage, didn't like it at first because it was different but quite handy now I understand it for eco driving.

 

I've got a hybrid Merc with brake drying, it always gives the brakes a gentle drag when you move off the driveway, you can feel it scrubbing the rust off the discs. Even just being a hybrid it can mostly survive with just regen, but I like to drive it properly once in a while so the brakes never feel neglected

 

Better off giving them a bit of stick and up to temperature though, helps clean the crap and get the pistons moving as much as they can.

Another factor (for other posters of course, I'm sure sandys knows this) is make sure the brake fluid is changed like clockwork to schedule - if you let it sit it absorbs water (even through the lines) and corrodes the inside of the calipers, giving you sticky brake pistons.