Leaving Jaguar

[Guest]

I shall be sad to see the old girl go, but there are too many little faults to rectify (suspension and electrical) and rust bubbles on parts of the body starting to lift the paint work. As I said they are all minor but comes to a lot of money when you add them all up.

I haven't come to this decision lightly . Thanks for all the help I have been given in the past.

Happy Motoring

Gary 

[Claws]

that's a Shame Gary

but wish you many happy miles in the future

regards

Steve

[BigM]

Hi Gary,

Sorry to hear that you're moving on. What are you thinking of getting next? Just out of interest where is the rust showing through?

 

Cheers Mark 

[Guest]

Hi, 

rust is on the front wheel arch, and a little bit on the rear on drivers side. The rear one is low down near the sill, so a bit worried that may go further under the sill covers.

 

Think I will get shot on here for telling what I have bought , traded the Jag in for an electric Nissan Leaf

 

[BigM]

Hi Gary,

Thanks for the rust spots heads up...........you'll have to excuse me now whilst I go and load both barells......😠😣😝

[Leo]

No, shooting would not be the appropriate method of despatch: He goes to the electric chair!

[Lazlo Woodbine]

I had a ride in a Leaf. It was the weirdest feeling especially as you set off. You know sometimes when you're sat in traffic and the car next to you pulls forward and for a brief moment your brain tells you you're moving backwards? That's what it felt like, no sound and no vibration to tell you you were under way, just movement.

[BigM]

3 hours ago, Leo said:

No, shooting would not be the appropriate method of despatch: He goes to the electric chair!

He may get a kick out of that...! 😂

[Leo]

Seriously, I have considered buying a Nissan Leaf (not to replace the XK!).

I don't have anything against going electric, and being near the Nissan plant we have loads of charging points in this area, but I concluded that the battery technology is in it's infancy, and I decided against investing at this stage.

In a few years the electric cars will probably be seriously quick, and have much longer ranges. They will then sell in far greater numbers, and I may well invest in one then.

I'll still have the XK though: I don't see me selling that before I am too old to get in and out of it!

[Lazlo Woodbine]

To be honest I cannot see much advantage to an electric car unless you own a power plant. I know someone who does and he had a Bedford CF chock full of batteries but that's another story..

I think the environmental benefits of EVs are shaky to say the least. I get that if cities were full of them and not hydrocarbon burning vehicles then a percentage of urban pollution would be moved elsewhere. But that's the thing, it just moves to somewhere else. A "Zero Emissions" car is actually a bit of an insult as it's just not true, the laws of thermodynamics say this.

I don't know how long the drive-trains of EVs will last. Modern internal combustion powered cars are often uneconomical to repair due to relatively minor components and so are scrapped despite being generally sound. Labour is the major expense and until there are a lot of people all over the country competing to service EVs that will be an even bigger problem. I fear that the complex electronic control systems and components will economically write off many EVs much earlier in their lives than conventional cars.

This bothers me a lot as I believe a car effectively gets more environmentally friendly the longer it lasts as the waste involved in scrapping it and making new replacements is avoided. I think dust to dust emissions are the only way to gauge how environmentally friendly a car really is. Ones that are uneconomical to repair before the emissions they have produced in their lifetimes exceed those produced manufacturing a replacement one are all too common and it's not right. The car industry can bang on about saving the planet all they like but sales and profit will always come first, if it didn't then cars would be made to be genuinely repairable not throwaway.  

[Leo]

Laz, I agree with your comments right now and for some years to come, though I would expect the environmental footprint of EVs to come down as the technology improves.

Right now, one of the most environmentally friendly vehicles is the Land Rover Defender: Bult since 1946, more than 50% are still on the road. They are of course very simple to maintain, and even the body panels simply bolt on and off.

Yet they are exactly the kind of vehicle which may be banned from certain areas.

[Old Peter]

There will be much argument with load of pros and cons.  I think that the Government have jumped in too quickly to consider all the implications.  I might have been better if the PM had changed the XJ she uses to go from Downing Street to the House of Commons to a nice little Hybrid for starters.

Battery technology is coming in quite quickly though.  SWMBO has a Toyota Yaris Hybrid which also has a 1.5 litre petrol engine.  The battery that operated the electric engine sits under the rear seats and does take up a lot of room.  Ideal for shopping and city driving and the quietness can be a bit eerie.

It is al a bit of wait and see, and if Formula 1 went wholly electrical we might see some answers.

Peter.

[Leo]

We already have Formula E: It is quick enough, though they have to pit half way through to change cars because the batteries don't last long enough!

Sadly, it is ruined for me by the fact that it sounds just like Scalextric!

[Carole Simpson-Hadley]

Like everybody else, neither my partner nor I are convinced about all this "dump fossil fuel cars" malarky.         Sadly, it looks like the governments are, with some pretty stringent regs due to come in places like Paris etc. Sacra bleu.

Entirely agree about the Formula E........we watched a few times and felt all that was missing was the trigger controller in the right hand.   Shades of Scalextric and Minic Motorways!

Like Laz, we have experienced the going backwards phenomenon, much akin to sitting in a train in a station, when the next-door chain moves and you are convinced that its your train that is on the move.     Happened to my partner once in a retail park car park, and he almost put the brake pedal through the bulkhead trying to stop his car, which wasn't actually moving.

The argument will run and run, and we shall all have our point of view, but good luck to GaryE with the Nissan.  (Will resist all jokes about extension leads, shocking, and Duracell bunnies etc etc)

Whatever happens, like Leo, don't think we'll be giving up on the XK until we can't get in or out of it!

Happy growling, as always  

[Old Peter]

You cannot disinvent the internal combustion engine.  You can improve it and it has come a long way since the side valve engine, eve though that is still used in lawn mowers etc.

Emissions from the engine seems to be the issue, and putting charges on certain vehicles and banning others from certain roads is rather stupid.  Not only that, the air above the UK is not static and what is done with emissions in the UK could result in our clean air being blown to another country and their dirty air being moved over here.

My comment on Formula 1 going all electric would say to the manufacturers what can you do to make the electric engine perform in the same was as the petrol or diesel engine.  When they say that they can't. and they will, the idea  of an all electric country is confined to the bin.  After all, we have steam trains still running!

Peter.

[Guest]

18 hours ago, Leo said:

No, shooting would not be the appropriate method of despatch: He goes to the electric chair!

can you plug the car in as well at least it will leave it charged!

[Guest]

I haven't really bought it for environmental; reasons , I wanted a car that was quiet and a bit nippy. The leaf fitted the bill with the advantage of saving me loads of money in fuel costs.

At present I spend £170 a month on fuel, this will drop to £25 max, possible less as there are free charging points around. It is very quiet with all the modern gismos including  360 degree  cameras. Its  a lot faster than my diesel Jaguar on acceleration.

The other main deciding factor was all the grants available even with a second hand one. I get a home charging point supplied and fitted for free.

I agree they are not for everyone,  it is a leap into the dark specially as its my only car, but once i have had it for a few months I should be able to get a toy for the weekend which will involve a V8 with a Jaguar badge

[Guest]

8 minutes ago, R2e said:

What the government do not appear to have any knowledge of is how much extra electricity generation, distribution, upgrade of existing power supplies, etc, will be required for us all to go electric, not to mention the infrastructure upgrades needed to provide everyone with the facility to charge their electric vehicle. It will be no good if three, five, seven people in the same street plug in at the same time and blow the supply capacity. Just think of the strain put on the current electricity supplies when people turn on their kettles during a break in a popular entertainment or sporting TV program. And most people would want to charge their vehicles overnight.

Then there is the pollution from all that extra power generation, most of which will come from burning fossil fuels. Or from the eventual scrapping of worn out electric batteries and vehicles. Or the vastly increased requirements for rare metals, where are they going to come from? It is likely also that in 20 years' time the technology will be very different to what it is now, how can governments possibly gamble on all this by making stupid statements based on the status quo?

I think it will go down the route of the Tesla power wall where you generate, store  and supply your own electricity most people who have these are only drawing 9% of their electric from the grid.

There is a trial going on in the west country that the cars parked attached to the grid will supply electric to the grid during peak times and charge at low demand times. This alright unless you have to use your car in an emergency. 

The technology is not there yet,  and the tesla power wall is far to expensive. Time will tell 

[Coolcity]

I'm not even convinced about global warning. First we had the ozone layer problem, then that magically fixed itself apparently. Then we had the issue of cutting down too much of the rainforests, citing that the Amazon (forest not website) may provide up to a third of the world's oxygen, then science proved it hardly proves any because the forest is so dense that little oxygen can escape. Then another report claimed 6 out of the top 10 world climate scientists said that it was a natural progression - every few thousand years or so the temperature goes up and down. That's a known fact, and previous fluctuations can't be blamed on the industrial revolution!

As for lithium, it's extremely dangerous, extremely toxic and very difficult and expensive to recycle. Currently the powers that be are talking about burying much of the waste. I believe there's a huge man made lithium pool somewhere in South America where most of the world's lithium is produced, mined or whatever and it's said to be the most toxic place on earth. And we've only just started! 

The cars, well I don't think they've thought it through. Who's going to want to buy a 10 year old hatchback for a couple of grand when they're going to have to spend another 4-5 grand replacing the knackered batteries? What do people do for overnight charging who live in flats and apartments and don't have a dedicated parking space? Half the houses on our street don't have a driveway, What do they do? I could go on of course, but I'm far from convinced that scrapping millions of cars with ICE engines to usher in electric vehicles is the way to go. Surely the place to start is with trucks and buses, and even replacing diesel trains. For me the whole thing is a sales gimmick to help the ailing car industry who are struggling to come up with anything new.