lol-lol

Thought it did when did it before but of course one gets the reverse in the Spring when one loses an hour in the 0030 to 0530 GO Night period. One does not trust the Smart Meter as that is oft wrong. GO stated period on website etc just says 0030 to 0530, nothing about BST or GMT.

Two Octopus notable time slots coming up this weekend 24th -26th Octy. Free electricity 9pm to 10 pm tomorrow, the 24th of October and Dont forget the hour going back 2 am becoming 1 am means, with Octopus Go and perhaps other tariffs, an extra hour of 8.5p, 7p etc per kwh cheap lecky ! Get ready to fill you boots (ie batteries car and home)

The local Skoda dealership quoted nearly £1K so I got it done by an ex Skoda dealership that had moved over to selling Dacia and Renault and were very glad they did and they got lots of sales as those brands did so well in the last decade. I think the water pump was changed as well as the thermostat and it is quite common to replace the belt and tensioner also when doing the pump and thermostat. Modern, even small wiesel engines and so complex fort such a little engine. Think it might have been 105 hp, basically a 3 cylinder version of the 4 cylinder common rail version. Great mpg ie up to 80 mpg on a run. Glad I now live with a bunch of cars with much simpler mechanicals.

Indeed one system but the cylinder head is more of a sub system compared to the jacket. Clearly they have to be seperate and heads are removable from the jackets. The cooling water in the head will typically run 10c hotter than the cooling water in the jacket as the cylindef head has much more exposure to high temperatures. The cylinders are cooled by the oil as well as cooling water. Always a touch one as to which sub system to send the cooling water to first and which sub system, head or jacket first. What I do know it use to take me 10 minutes to change a thermostat and whole thing cost me about 10 quid. Now it requires about 3 hours work, told may as well change water pump as well whilst got engine apart and it cost me £800. Progress for another 5 mpg i gather !! One of the many reasons I went electric. Three times the efficiency less than a tenth of the complexity !

Presume you are referring to the cooling water. Modern cars have two cooling water circulatory systems, then there is the oil temp which starts at ambient but not unusually to hit a temp usually runs a bit higher than the water ie even above 200c at time of very high engine stress.

Yes quicker warm up for the higher temperatures but probably more NOX as that occurs more at higher combustion temperature. On our super massive marine diesels, most efficient ICE on the planet, a 1 degree rise in intake temp translated to a 2c rise in exhaust temp. NOX is more the concern than CO2 these days.

The new emmisson standard is going to test ICE cars at higher temperature, specifically at 35C rather than just 30C, temperatures we are seeing in the UK increasingly like we did here in Worcestcestershire a few weeks ago and similar in SE England. With Euro 7 the test us to include brake dust but this is just another area EVs will win hands down due to their regenerative braking. The only area EVs owners might be worried is tyre particles but, as we have shown with examples, EVs are not, in general, the super heavy weights painted in the bias media. Also a test for engines, and batteries, at high mileages. Yet another win for EVs. Whilst ICE vehicles will have leaking piston rings etc the EV motor etc just keep on knocking out similar power with no pollution from the power plant. As with the conditions of the EV grants if the battery falls to below 80 % capacity that is poor but even then the EV is usable and clean and not belching out massive pollution way outside its parameters like ICE would be. Fix might be relatively simple replacing the below par cell or pack.

Thankfully we are moving on and Euro6e BIS and Euro 7 use different conditions etc. I hope they retest many of these ICE cars that got Euro 6a to d certification of under 8p mg / km and their true levels of pollution are republished anfmd if they fail to meet the limits then they are restricted in where they can go. We saw lots if Euro 5 cars be sold off as they were not fit to enter city areas without paying fines and the same will happen to Euro 6 a to d cars that don't really pass the emissions test in the real world. PHEV hybrids are being reclassified from the wildly exaggerated 500 mpg plus and 10 gm / km of CO2 to more like 50 gm / km and pay the VED and BIK tax levels at those higher levels. This comes in in t months time I gather.

One problem with this is those with salaries between £50k and £100k are good at, and government make it easy to avoid paying the 40% income tax, and even the 2% NI levy. Even more so for those on 100k to 125k where the effective tax rate is over 50%. Make NI non exemptable from Salary Sacrifice would be a start.

Those are the Lab test results that car manufacturers made their cars perform within those limits. Real world tests, in the lower temperatures range of air intake and surrounding temperatures, rain water being sprayed off the road hitting the casing of the catalytic convertor showed the lab results could be out a factors of several multiples. Euro BIS abd Euro7 look to address the lab results against what tge emissions are in reality both at low higher ambient temperatures and high humidity and wet conditions and results of such tests are showing NOX as high as 6 and 7 times higher than than 60 for petrol and 80 mg/ km for diesel. I think this will be much of the motivation to restrict or ban Euro6d abd below from cities ie the real world pollution of Euro6d and below is often nowhere near where it should be. Diesels, petrol vehicles and hybrids will be not allowed unless it is a large battery PHEV than can use their electric drive and anyone use fossil fuel propulsion, detected by infrared cameras, will be fined substantially.

No, far too tight to pay the extra for the bigger battery and have just not needed it as the smaller battery still does 260 mile range and on the very unusual occasion I need a few more miles I just stop at one of the 90,000 odd chargers a get a few kwh just to get me home to the very cheap home charging. Smaller battery versions are cheaper to buy, usually better dynamically due to the less weight, cheaper tyres etc.

Germany has reintroduced the EV grant system. Not as generous as before and looking very much like the UK's EV Grant system. Think it is for EVs of less than 45k Euros and is a €4k grant so basically the German government will still get a net tax receipt based on the VAT collection. Should help their ailing car industry though specifically on those smaller cars as well as for other EU car makers including Tesla Berlin. Chinese cars being whacked with the massive EU AntiDumping tax. UK being targeted by Chinese such as a MG4 Long Range for £20k. Would not want one but that is cheap !

My Scenic is 1822 Kgs not 1906 Kgs. Weighs the same amount or full of fuel if you had most of a tank I suspect weight would be almost identical. Concern about SUVs is their high front ends in hitting pedestrians, cyclist etc I understand. Also to try and get those diesels without the better two stage NOX reduction and whose real NOX is higher the 60 mg/km or even 80 mg/km. Whilst it is denied the level or cleanness of emissions is going to risey from Euro 6 I believe it is only a matter of time, ie 2028 or later, that the NOX emissions minimum standard will be raised to Euro 7 standards for London and other major cities if not an outright ban of diesels from cities during working hours at least. Think you were looking at the large battery Scenic rather than my 60/65 kwh version.

Far too many Chrlsea tractors around that need to be wacked for several reasons ie Bigger danger to cyclists, pedestrians and other road users. Doing more road damage General worse emissions Oft near the edges, or over, the parking boxes they are suppose to fit in Could be a good extra revenue raiser Make traffic queues longer Is increased charges enough of a dis-incentive or do we need more of a big stick. Bring on the K cars.

Very good friend of mine, 6 foot 5", use to get in the old Mini fine, after removing the bump stops and pushing drivers seat right back. Could not put anyone behind the driver but could use front passenger seat and rear passenger seat. I found the exterior size of the car has surprisingly little bearing on driver and front passenger space. Whilst disappointed with European Car of the Year 2025 Renault 5 rear passenger space to be honest I travel 90% plus on my own or with 1 passenger who goes in the front. I have the European Car of the Year 2024 Renault Scenic for when I need 5 large driver/passenger spaces, which is not usually for 5 large adults as that would exceed the GVW of the cars with its mere, but average, 523 kgs between Kerb and GVW, but those little one, ie grand children, need rear space for their car seats. Low weight, even with their accoutrements, prams, strollers etc, but good rear seat space is nice. So back to thinking about the CoTY 2025 R5, yes compromised in rear seat space and I would not like to be back there for more than a few minutes. Hope the wee electric Twingo has good front seat space like the R5, back seats will be rubbish to those of us over 6 foot but fine for children and petite persons but the cost saving in buying and running would be huge compared to running another sizeable car like the Scenic when I already have one for the team bus.

As I said before the mark 1 Superb was probably the worst of 15 Skodas i had, apart from it's 1.9D engine, 130 hp version. Handled like a barge. Stretched Passat chassis i gather but they did not bother to adjust the suspension. They got better but all well felt the Octy was the better car, at least for me a 6 foot one and passengers smaller than me. Superb did get better all round performance it seemed. Would have had a 280 hp 4x4 as Octy never got that underpinning.

The Paris weight triggering of extra parking charge gave EVs a massive 400 kg weight concession over ICE. As a multiple EV owner I am happy to have parity with ICE on charge weight either for extra parking charges or VED. German and German derivative cars ie SEAT, CUPRA and Skoda do appear heavy compared to French, Chinese, Korean and US EVs of tge same class. I am being kind if I said that it is because of their extra quality and proper to cars tgat could be driving at over 160 kph on Autobahns. Or they could be just designed without weight reduction being an important facet to VAG etc.

Kgs not Lbs ? 1 kg = 2.20462 Lbs

One chassis presumably and of course there is/was the very competent 4x4 superb, 280 hp that the police in some areas bought as a motorway / pursuit car.

Same for original Merc EQC is 2.5 tonnes unladen and has a GVW of just under 3T. No wonder it cannot even do 3 miles, ie 5 kms per kwh. Very quick accelerating car with up to 400 hp but lots of negatives including a prop shart tunnel running thru the cabin making it have no flat floor in the back seat area as it used the old ICE chassis.

What does your V5 say for Max Permissable Weight ?

My Scenic EV a massive 523 kgs between Kerb and GVW but still under 2400 for GVW. Not exactly massive. Better not fill up with screen wash too high !!

Well yes ordinary cars are often loaded way over their GVW limit. 3,4 or 5 big adults and maybe some luggage in the boot quite oft a few percent over the vehicles limit. Generally in small and even medium vehicles you only have around 500 kgs and that includes fuel luggage and passengers. On traffic exercises I have been involved in one might just get a warning for being a few percent over. I have seen 35% over the GVW when doing Anti Bootlegging exercises at Tormarton on tge M5 and at Crickade on the A417 and that is very dangerous for the occupants and other road users. You see it in elevators/ lifts. Do the maths 850 kgs and it says 12 people. Well I am 110 kgs in light clothing, add a laptop I am carrying, winter coat i could be around 120 kgs. What i hate is when the lift overloaded buzzer goes off and the little and light people around me look at me and their eyes say "well your the biggest, you get out". So embarrassing. Overloading cars is very common and sounds like might be more focus on it if it is linked to extra parking charges, more weighbridge or use of existing ones. We introduced SOLAS and weight and safety has become an much bigger issue in transportation. All car drivers and owners should ve more aware, no excuse as it is on your V5

GVW not Kerb Weight it appear to reference.

I remember from my Department of Transport time that road damage related to axle weight is to the forth power so 10% more weight does about half as much more road damage. Also, in general, survivability of cyclists and pedestrians is worse when that group is hit by these bluff SUV shaped vehicles compared to low saloons. It can really split what versions of models would get hit. My 60 kwh Scenic would be OK but the 90 kwh Scenic will get whacked. Lots of the German and mid and bigger pseudo German ie SEAT and Skoda cars would get whacked with this higher parking charge and we saw this with the Paris rules on this. They went big on this as I recall the extra charge was 3 times I think for heavy Chelsea tractors. The road damage and greater risk to others may give councils the reasons they need.