EnterName

I'm sure you'll enjoy them all. Even the bad things that happen with a first car usually turn into good stories you'll enjoy telling later in life. 😄

The more people who see drag races like this, the more popular electric will become.

Hi Andrew! You never forget your first car.

The VED or "Car Tax" as it's often known is a bit of a mess and keeps getting fiddled around with. (See attachments) Surely there has to be a better way than the current way of doing it? I was thinking about this earlier, and came up with a rough idea which should be sustainable and fair. VED based on the following: 1) A charge for the energy used in vehicle manufacture - 100% of charge in year of registration, reducing by 10% every year thereafter until 0% charge after 10 years. 2) A charge based on energy used for driving – So a a direct link between the energy used used on a mixed driving cycle over a standard distance, and the tax applied. This would cover petrol, diesel, electric, whatever. 3) A rebate based on efficiency – A negative offset to 2), to reward more efficient vehicles and encourage improvements in technology. 4) A charge based on pollution – A link between the harmful gases & particulates produced by the vehicle and tax applied. (Probably overkill to add brake and tire debris in here.) Note: I'm not convinced CO2 is a harmful gas, so I'd want to limit any charge related to CO2. 5) A charge based on recycling effort – An offset charge. Positive to charge extra for vehicles that contain materials that are expensive or difficult to recycle/dispose of. Negative for vehicles which are cheaper & easier to recycle. I haven't suggested any numbers for most of these various charges, or even percentages to the offsets, but the manufacturing charge seems reasonable to encourage cars to be kept running for as long as possible, though balanced against the benefits of newer, more efficient and less polluting vehicles. I had a hard time finding energy usage numbers for cars, which is important to level the playing field for gas/derv/hybrid/electric. Any thoughts? Have I overlooked something?

All I wanted was a shiny car.

Possibly, but the valet only works during the week, and they only agreed to redo the car on Friday just before closing, so it's not unreasonable that they had a full Monday booked and just didn't have a slot for my car. I'll speak to him tomorrow and see what they say. I haven't completed the customer experience questionnaire yet, so my experience will go in there. I'd rather wait and have them do the job properly, than have another crappy job. That said, if they are just trying to wait me out, thinking I'll get impatient and take my car before I'm satisfied with it, my approach with them will change. But I'm already not pleased, given that they've had since the start of August to get this done, but not quite ready to start bouncing off the walls.

He mailed me at 17:58 to say the valet had left early and wasn't able to do my car. He's going to contact me tomorrow after he's established when it will be done. So we'll see. I've not actually pushed him for time at all yet, so fair play to the guy.

Well it's not looking good just now. Listers said they'd phone me today and they shut at 6pm. I'd chase them up, but I can't be doing with the "Ah Mr EnterName, I was just about to phone you!". If he doesn't phone me today, then he's broken a promise, which may be used as leverage if I need to ask for my money back.

That figures. I've got the 7-speed wet DQ381, which seems pretty reliable. Maybe I should save my money.

Incidentally, is that the dry-clutch DQ200 gearbox on your Yeti?

I'm tempted by the scuff & dent insurance, but it's a lot of money and I could always just get the scuffs and dents done myself as and when, instead of paying up front for them. I have 2 year's warranty remaining on the vehicle, but maybe an extended warranty *would* be a better idea. 👍

From what I've read on here, the 1.4TSI is a highly-regarded engine and preferable to the 1.5TSI in some ways. Have a search on here for problems, I believe there are one or two known issues that crop up, but I can't recall exactly as I've not really been interested in the 1.4/1.5 engines.

So I have 30 days to decide on whether to get the following: Listers Gap insurance - 36 months £430 Wheel & Tyre insurance - £200 claim limit per tyre, 5 claim limit, 36 months term £489. If I trash a wheel and tyre, I suspect I'd need the £450 / claim insurance at £599 Lister Smart Protect - Repairs scuffs, chips and & dents at home with £10 excess. £305 /12 months - £509 / 36 months. (Total claims <= £3000) This has a huge number of caveats and exclusions in the small print. Every claim is at their discretion, it seems. Listers Protech paint protection plus fabric - £387 for lifetime cover. I've seen great results, and though I bought it with my car and it was crap so they're redoing it. (I bought it as I have an Alcantara interior) Anyone had any experience of these products? Any thoughts?

That looks pretty good. Which Toguard do you have? There seems to be a whole load of them. https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=Toguard+HD+Dash+Camera&ref=nb_sb_noss

*Now* all I need to do is decide whether to buy their bump & scuff insurance. In two minds about that, TBH. Pretty sure I won't bother with gap insurance and the wheel insurance.

That gridwatch link is very interesting, thanks for sharing that. 👍

I can see it taking off in a big way from this point forward. Pretty much all manufacturers are into it. Hybrids been going long enough now for any generic problems to have been exposed. Running costs are low and reliability is pretty good. (The Toyota Prius has a pretty good reputation, and even quite old examples are still reliable.) The "milk-float" perception is disappearing fast, as the 100% torque from 0RPM makes electric vehicles very quick off the mark, which was a reservation I had. I'm not sure what the leasing costs are like, but I'd expect residuals to be fairly good on a car within warranty. I think the final hurdle will be charge times. If you need to make a long journey, you need to factor in finding somewhere to charge your car, and the time it takes to charge. However there seem to be more charge stations springing up all the time, and EV ranges are improving. If the government hikes the tax on petrol and diesel vehicles, and more and more pollution charges are introduced in cities, I can see EVs taking off in a big way. It was the same story with diesels. They had a bad rep, then people found reasons to buy them and they became popular. (Then the government & EU intervened and now diesels are falling in popularity.) I don't much care for EVs, but then I can't imagine buying an SUV either, and look how popular they are.

That's the sort of finish I was expecting. Mine really wasn't very good at all. I've just received the purchase experience questionnaire from Listers, so I'll leave completing that until after I've collected the car.

Start with e-Bay and the nearer the car is to Saudi, the less you'll pay in shipping. But is going faster in Saudi a good idea? 😋 https://www.studymode.com/essays/Saudi-Arabia's-Number-One-Enemy-Traffic-505925.html

A 740% increase in sales of a niche vehicle caught my attention. I suspect the MHEV vehicle sales are just people buying diesels with improved stop-start technology.

That's a good point, I *will* push for a refund if I'm not happy with the finish. I'd have probably just shrugged and taken the hit as a waste of money if I hadn't seen my neighbour's amazing finish on his car.

I went to pick up my car today, having bought the cheaper of the two Listers Protech options. Frankly, it was sh!t. The car looked as though it hadn't been cleaned, far less had a "polymer based sealant" applied to it. There were dots of rust fallout on the car and the paintwork felt dull, not clean and smooth, like after a wash and wax. (This is a 2019 vehicle with 7000 miles on it.) Worse than that, the car actually had what appeared to be bird crap in the gully where the rear window meets the hatch lid. My neighbour had the cheapo Listers Protech on his 2018 car, and the results were excellent and remain excellent, which is why I decided to go for it, despite advice to the contrary on here. I have a sneaking suspiscion they actually didn't treat the car at all, though the salesman assured me they had. I am not a happy bunny, and left the car with them to be redone.

I'm not surprised that diesel sales are down, but I am surprised that diesel MHEV sales are so strong. Not because I think there's anything wrong with them, I'm just not sure who's buying them. (Source https://www.best-selling-cars.com/britain-uk/2019-full-year-britain-new-car-market-overview-and-analysis/)

I've had various diesels since the late 90's and I realise swapping to a turbo petrol will be a bit of a culture shock for me. I'll miss the low down grunt of the diesel, but I'll enjoy the extra revs of the petrol. Hopefully I won't regret changing to petrol from diesel.