Gerrycan

Cheaper models tend to be LFP (exceptions in Korean vehicles) and more expensive models use NMC due to better energy densities. I think it is important to clarify since it may affect how you (should) live with it.

My understanding (willing to be corrected) is that the Elroq 85 has an NMC battery which means the best procedure for slower battery degradation is to maintain the charge between 20 and 80%. It is ok to charge to 100% for range flexibility on a longer journey, and ok to run down to low percentages if you immediately charge it. It is leaving the battery for a long period at either higher or lower limit that causes the greatest degradation. LFP batteries (in the Elroq 60) are different insofar as they are far more tolerant of extended periods at the limits and even benefit from regular (weekly?) 100% charges to maintain correct battery level monitoring. I do get very confused on the vehicular heat pump option and what it does. I mean I understand how a heat pump works, and its efficiencies, and even have very effective reverse cycle air conditioning in my house. In an ICE vehicle the heat is supplied from the engine waste heat and the cooling from an engine driven cooling heat pump and the combination allows control of temperature and humidity, so that you can clear the condensation from the windows without freezing your man bits off. So, if you opt for a heat pump then it cannot just be a reverse cycle unit since you need both hot and cold elements to achieve the same de-humidification. Then there is the question of how battery temperature is controlled, essential for fast charging and longevity (original Nissan Leaf being a prime example of the consequences of not managing battery temperature). Does the battery have separate heat pumps circuits or share the passenger cell facilities?

Always difficult to comment on one-off journeys, especially when quoting the display figures (unless confirmed to be accurate against measured refuels) but yes, a 52mpg return from a 2.0tsi would be pleasing. I'd estimate that a 1.0 or 1.5tsi version driven in a similar manner/environment as you describe would probably get around 60mpg as the 2.0tsi is a nice performance engine but not particularly economical. With regard to fuel, the general published consensus is that if your car is capable of adjusting to better quality fuel then you can expect about 1% improvement for each increase in RON rating and a little more if the better-quality fuel has lower levels of ethanol than the mandatory 10% in UK 95 RON fuel. Ethanol has 10% lower energy density that 'pure' petrol.

I think a test drive before purchase would be mandatory (maybe you can wrangle an extended test over a couple of days since you are a long-time Skoda owner). It may have the herbs you require but consider that it is a two tonne vehicle and driven enthusiastically will probably wear through the tyres quicker than an RS. Surely some sort of home charging would be possible even if at a nominal 2400 watt. That should be enough to provide most daily local requirements and avoid the hassle/costs of regular public charging. I can't believe that warranties on Skoda are still only 3 years in the UK as they are 7 years here is Aus and have been for a while.

@TheWanderer , I'm curious about what is motivating you to consider a move to an EV from a 2023 Octavia RS? I have been giving the change some thought myself, but despite having several domestic factors in place (3 phase electricity, some solar panels but only generating about 2.5kw at best, off-road parking/garage, more clement winters than the UK) I can't quite justify the change at this time. The Elroq 85 is a two-tonne vehicle, no spare tyre, although not sure I like the idea of jacking up two tonnes by the roadside. Here in Adelaide, Australia the public charging infrastructure is pretty poor especially since (cheap) Chinese EV sales have gone through the roof and overwhelmed existing facilities where they are not affected by vandalism or poor maintenance. Things are probably better in the UK? EV is better around town but range is especially affected by cold and high speeds relative to an ICEV. What is the situation there regarding trained maintenance staff for EV when things go wrong (very poor here), EV depreciation and insurance costs. Also make sure the payload capacity of the car meets your needs (surprisingly low on many EV). I guess it depends on the majority of the type of driving you do (local or long distance) but even at the higher fuel costs currently hurting us it does not justify our making a change from our current (old) ICE vehicles. Have you test driven an Elroq and what was your experience relative to the RS?

The run in the previous post was painless but soon after my post I suffered really bad right foot pains and could barely put my weight on it. Took time off work, some anti-inflammatories, rested for a couple of days and then started some calf raises on the stairs when it felt better. Pain dropped very quickly and I could resume walking and back to work. Things felt really much better today and went for a 4km run. Don't know why but I had the quickest speed I've run in months. So far no adverse reactions either 🤞.

Welcome to the Forum! We have only visited the awesome South Island, but the North Island is next on our agenda. Is your Scout a petrol or diesel? My wife was always keen for us to get one but there were not many sold new and so rarely good ones on the Adelaide 2nd hand market. Hasn't really stopped us from hitting the dirt roads in our 1.4tsi though (when dry). NZ usually gets a bigger range of Skoda vehicle options and well before Australia does, I expect because of our now redundant Aus car industry protection special local design rules.

It may be a conceit, but I believe I have a reasonable idea on how to get good mpg from an ICE vehicle, especially around our urban environment and without breaking laws. I don't hyper-mile or drive slowly or do anything to annoy other drivers, I just allow a couple of extra metres and anticipate traffic conditions. I'm also aware that there is a difference in best economy and best efficiency of an ICE engine. I've got no real experience with EVs other than the occasional drive, but I am interested in them and read/view the reviews of any potential future purchase. The reviews annoy me as they often make illogical claims regarding consumption rates. For instance, there is often the statement that highway consumption is compromised because 'they don't get the opportunity to execute regen braking like they do in urban stop/start traffic'. Sure, regen braking will make some difference (recovering energy rather than wasting it with friction brakes), but surely the biggest influence is speed and overcoming the total drag (frontal area x drag coefficient) which increases fourfold when you double the speed. Open highway and on our rigorously policed speed limits I'm happy to average 100kph (100/110 kph speed limits) around my urban areas I am lucky to average 30kph (40/50/60 kph speed limits) out of peak traffic. Can anyone provide an idea of kw consumption is shown at various constant speeds? say 20/30/40 increments to 110 and I don't care if it is kph or mph. Can you confirm that you are better off using low regen and maintaining a steady speed rather than heavy regen braking? Similarly, can you coast (no regen, no current used) in an EV? Is it more economical to coast than using light regenerative braking? Be interested to hear informed opinions.

I would be inclined to follow procedures previously suggested by others before contemplating walnut blasting. Get a VCDS scan for possible fault codes and more targeted fault analysis. Stick an inspection camera down the intake to look at the intake valves to see how bad, or not, they really are. I'd also do a simple compression test for possible rings wear or valve seat issues.

10 year old battery is a good innings these days with stop/start tech, so yes, a new battery sounds a good idea. Best stick with AGM otherwise you will have to change the battery type coding.

I used to religiously record fills into an app and compare against the results against the 'since refuelled' display. I've posted this before but when my 1.4tsi was brand new the consumption displayed was actually pessimistic (showing about 4mpg worse than actual) but over 120,000km the display has gradually moved through precisely accurate to now being about 4mpg optimistic. I no longer use the app but I do perform a quick calculation to compare each refill (hopefully to a consistent level) for a rough assessment of display accuracy and see if there might be mechanical concerns requiring attention. Actual consumption is down from new but I have a suspicion the current tyres (Continentals) are not the best for consumption as they are quite noisy now. At our current low annual mileage it is going to be while before they are replaced.

It's helpful to others to include engine details. Your profile only says it is a 2014 Octavia Estate. I have similar year and type to yours with a 1.4tsi engine and is a manual. I get between 48 and 65 mpg on a run depending on driving environment and my demeanour. The displayed consumption can be a bit optimistic, and you should compare to manually calculated consumption when refuelling for a reality check. My past two Octavia estates (mk2 and mk3) have been among the most versatile, economical and pleasurable vehicles I have owned. I'm not enamoured with the current crop of 'electronic nannied' new options so hanging on to my current one for now.

If you haven't seen loads of diesels 'broken down' by the roadside so far in your journey through France then I would not worry about it.

The new Asic runners arrived quicker than I expected and the heel felt pretty good after a week's rest, so I went for a 5km run. The Novablasts are definitely providing better cushioning and achieved a better time than expected. Might try to up my asthma meds to see if it improves my breathing shortcomings experienced later in the run.

I procrastinated too long over replacing my inadequately cushioning running shoes and have developed some pain in my heel after a 7.5 km run, which was probably a bit too much after a heavy 20k step workday the previous day. Anyway, I have ordered some Asic Novablast which should offer far more on-road run cushioning than my present pair. I would have liked a pair of SuperBlast but they were just a bit too expensive. While I wait delivery I will assess whether it is heel bone bruising, plantar fasciitis or even a mild fracture, all of which I have experienced over the last thirty years. It pretty mild at this stage so a couple of weeks should see improvements.

I have to mention the incredible London Marathon results. The winner Sawe in 1:59:30 and Kejelcha only 11 seconds behind. The breakdown of the results is almost beyond belief Averaging a smidge over 21 kph, the 2nd 21km in 59 minutes, the last 5km a couple of seconds faster that the fastest Parkrun registered (allowing that Parkruns are 'for fun' so distance and timing accuracy can be very 'iffy'). Apparently Sawe has been drug tested once every 3 days on average over the last few months at his own request since a few African based athletes have recently been detected taking either performance enhancing drugs or masking agents.

Both of my sport watches have accuracy issues counting my steps at work due to my wrist being stabilised when pushing product around on trolleys. So, I put one in my pocket and the other on my wrist. The wrist unit counted around 18k steps and the one in the pocket 40k steps. Similar results when I reversed the watches being worn and carried in pocket. During free walking (ie not at work) they both register near identical results. I'm still unable to work out the huge disparity in pulse count between the two units during exercise. I'd have to borrow either my son's or his wife's chest monitoring units to do this, but they both take their daily gym session monitoring very seriously. I might have a chance to borrow one when they take a family holiday to Fiji, that is if they treat it as a real holiday.

Last week I came home very late from work to find my wife had gone to bed, but ominously the car manual was left open where it references 'low coolant warning'. A small puddle of coolant under the pump confirmed that the pump replaced in early 2020 had failed again. Luckily the warning happened close to home and there was no overheating. Quoted A$2000 from the dealers and A$1700 by an VW independent specialist (halve those prices for UK pound conversion). The independent said they could do it straight away once they had confirmed the problem and sourced the parts required which usually have to be sourced from the eastern states with a couple of days delay especially with current Hormuz situation created diesel shortages. The leak was slow enough for me to drop it in on Tuesday morning on the way to work (cycled the rest) and fixed by Wednesday arvo (cycled from home to pick up) for less than A$1500 (inc our 10% goods and services tax), so well pleased. Although we have been lucky to avoid any engine damage with the failed pumps it is concerning how unreliable this part is when I consider the remote parts of Australia, we have travelled to in this car. I'm talking dirt roads and no mobile phone cover and the few other cars we meet are usually heavy duty 4WD. Might have to look at some satellite options next time we venture further afield whenever fuel is again more abundant and hopefully cheaper.

I'm no expert but thought that SCR dosing (Urea based?) was injected into the exhaust gases to reduce NOx and so would have no effect on the buildup of intake carbon deposits. I think my 12yo and 120km 1.4tsi (direct injection) is experiencing a similar issue. Car drives perfectly well but consumption at highway speeds has worsened noticeable since it was new. Not unexpected since 90% of the time the vehicle is driven short distances in an urban environment. I love the old diesels to drive but would not consider a diesel, new or old, unless I was doing a lot of long distance driving, preferably pulling a caravan .

Spoke to someone recently who describes himself as 'semi-retired from running' as he only (lol) currently does about 120km a week! He is tossing up whether to increase his training to try to get to the next Olympics! He works for a living, married and his wife is expecting their first. Puts a different perspective on the attitudes of some very entitled and overpaid professional athletes.

The run was completed in somewhat hot, humid and therefore uncomfortable conditions which forced a few stops, but it did reveal a few things. a) I am hopeless at putting a watch on a 'wrong' wrist ie using my left hand to put it on my right wrist. b) My dominant right wrist is unexpectantly smaller than my left. c) The distance measurement was pretty close at 0.02km (20 metre) variation overall, but the new unit was far faster reporting distance travelled and more consistent on reporting current speed. d) The new unit reveals that the old unit was probably not accurate reporting heart rate during the run, and the new Garmin much more in line with what I would expect at my age. The average heart rate for the run varied by a considerable 20 bpm. More independent checking required, I think. e) Both units reporting of my vO2 max for the run were identical. One funny thing though is that I had set up a Garmin Connect account about 10 years ago with a cheap unit I found on the beach (I tried contacting Garmin to find the owner to no effect) and did not bother to put in my birth date but accepted the default which now thinks I'm a 36 year old. On the basis of a couple of runs the Garmin says I have a biological age of 32. Be interesting to how that stat changes when Garmin respond to my request (can't do it online myself apparently) to double my real age on the system.

I am now the 'proud' owner of two working GPS sports smart watches. After I bought a new Garmin unit as replacement for my malfunctioning Fitbit, I chanced on a web site with suggestions on how to factory reset the 'dead' Fitbit with a complex sequence of activations on the one external button.....and it worked. I will adopt the new one as it has several features I like but it will be interesting to compare how the two units report the same run. Yes, I will be the idiot runner wearing two units tomorrow morning.

The internet was right, the Fitbit Versa 3 is not a reliable unit having irrevocably failed the other day after about 2.5 years. I cosseted it more than previous units, like avoiding swimming with it, although it was worn every day, but still disappointed. A few days to my birthday so will probably go for a Garmin unit and accept contributions from the family toward its purchase. Don't need an elite unit but would like GPS, running and activity stats, and 'advanced' heart rate functions, as well as the ability to answer phone calls on my mobile (which has been a surprisingly useful feature). Not sure which specific unit yet but probably priced in the two to three hundred pound price range. Garmins can be quite large and clunky though which do not suit my skinny wrists.

No current lung infection - tick Recovered from medical procedure - tick Run out of excuses - tick So out for some light morning runs before the sun gets up and temperature gets too unbearable. I can't work out whether I was shamed or inspired to run again by my daughter in law getting up at 4 am on Christmas morning for a 25 km run and my uk great nephew participating in a Christmas morning parkrun in near zero temps.

Annnnnd then after only two runs I contracted another respiratory virus. Had to have a clinical PCR test to find out, this time, I had 'Human pneumovirus' and the planned medical procedure deferred. Pretty fed up with just coughing and not running this year, to be honest.