moley

This is a typical vacuum gauge.

In the 'good ole days' of distributors, points and rotor arms mechanical wear made timing a little difficult to be precise. I would set the timing with a strobe light and then use a vacuum gauge, which usually gave a slightly different reading and I would then set the timing to the reading on the vacuum gauge.

I bought Mrs Moley the 1.5 Kamiq SEL exc with the DSG box. It's a good package and the fuel economy is very similar to her previous 1.2 tsi Fabia combi with the 6 speed manual box. In June we spent 10 days in Ireland and the rental car was a VW T Cross, with the 1.0 3 cylinder engine and manual box. Although the performance was OK the 1.0 litre engine is a little gruff when pushed, where the 1.5 is more refined.

Indeed it is, but the inference is that as China reduces it's use of petrol and diesel this will lead to a collapse of the global supply system. One statement he made was that as less and less petrol and diesel is required there will be less and less fuel stations as they will not be viable and you might have to drive long distances to find a fuel station. I think he said that the the drop in demand for fossil fuels in China would be 5% per year up to 2030. While it probably is a tipping point of fuel sales in China I'm not convinced by that decline for demand for fossil fuels will be that rapid.

Shame he didn't actually show what Bloomberg were claiming. As EV sales increase and petrol and diesel sales decrease the use of fossil fuels will also decrease, but in the UK it is estimated that 96% of cars on the roads are ICE, so the demand for petrol and diesel is not going to dissappear that fast and OPEC swings production levels to suit demand and control the price. I wonder if he predicted Harris to win the US election 🤔 It looks like fossil fuels are still currently in demand.

I seriously looked at changing Mrs Moley's car to an EV in October 2023. The positives were that her annual mileage is around 4k, she didn't need a big car and the was no VED on EV's. I got quotes for installing a home charger before sitting down and doing the maths. The sensible option was the MG4 but I was unsure of it's long term viability and I really didn't want to buy a Chinese vehicle if I could help it. I would prefer to stay with Skoda, but the Enyaq is too big. She settled for the Kamiq with the 1.5 petrol engine and DSG box. The price came out about £12k less than an equivalent EV. Now the VED on EV's is going to be the same as a ICE car, so that incentive has gone. For the future I see that Skoda are planning two new EV models, a mid size and a smaller 'SUV' style. In 3 years time that might be an option, but at the moment the £12k we saved will buy us about 90,000 miles of driving.

I think the market has decided, EV sales are not going in the right direction. To impose financial penalties on car manufacturers for not selling enough EV's because the public don't want them or can't afford them is just crazy.

I wonder if anyone else has had this query. Because I have been covering around 33,000 miles a year for the last 20 years I've always run my Skoda diesels on the 2 year / 20,000 miles service regime. With this the mileage would always come first, so I was used to getting the message 1800 miles to service. Now I've retired I'm not doing the big mileage, so I was not surprised to get a 'oil service in 28 days' message yesterday. The problem I have is the last service was in May 2023 and I've only covered 16,000 miles, so 4,000 or 6 months short?

VED is a tax that goes into the 'pot' and is not specifically used for road maintenance. Every car buyer pays VAT on a new car. If you buy a new Tesla above a basic model 3 the VED for the second year will be £600 as it stands.

How do you 'dereg' a vehicle and shift the renewal date? I was under the impression that the date of first registration in the UK in the V5C was start point for taxation and MOT. The 'luxury tax on vehicles with a list price of over £40k is £410, this is added to the ved for the vehicle. If your vehicle is £190 the luxury tax will make it £600. EV's are currently exempt.

I had never heard of this make, in fact I thought that the guy at the rental desk said it was a 'Lincoln'. Evidently it's a joint venture between Volvo and Geely. It drove OK in the 5 hours to the hotel / factory / Hotel / factory and 5 hours back to Stockholm Airport.

When working in Sweden earlier this year I booked a VW polo or similar with Avis and got this 🤔

E.on Next offer an EV driver fixed tariff, so I guess that other suppliers do the same.

Only if you haven't fixed your tariff.

Railways are OK if you live in a town or city, but if you live way out in the sticks with minimal or no bus service the car is your only option. Then there is the cost of using a train. If I drive to Manchester and back it would cost me around £60 in diesel. If I use the train I would have to walk 1 1/2 miles to the station,then a train to Waterloo, tube to the embankment, tube to Victoria, Victoria to Manchester, cost of more than £120 return. I could have 4 people in the car and luggage. On the train the cost would be x4 and luggage would have to be carried from train to tube etc. Railways have their place, but so does the car.

I've not really got that involved with EV's although last October I weighted up the pros and cons when sorting out the wife's next car. We went petrol again rather than EV. One factor in favour of an EV was zero road fund licence, but I understand that from April 2025 the road fund will be £190 for EV's. I thought the idea was to encourage EV ownership.

Which variant, engine and transmission?

The rental car in Ireland recently was a VW T Roc, which is the same platform as the Kamiq. I'm not sure which version of the T Roc it was, but it was a 1.0, 3 cyl 5 speed manual, so I guess it was the lower power unit. The trim level was OK, but I had to the key in a little slot to start the car...haven't done that for a while. The wife has the 1.5 DSG Kamiq and although the 1 litre was OK it did mean using the box when coming to hills and the engine was a little gruff. The rear seat moved forward to increase the boot space, but comparing this against the Kamiq it appears that with the seat moved forward on the T Roc the boot space was the same as the Kamiq. Also with the seat moved forward the leg room in the rear was greatly reduced. I did consider the more powerful of the 1 litre engines with the DSG when I bought the Wife's Kamiq, but I'm glad I went for the 1.5 4 cyl.

Hi Skomaz, Age is just a number and I'm still breathing in and out😉

Thanks Gaz👍

It's been a while, but I'm returning to Briskoda as I have a little more time on my hands. Quite a lot has happened since I was last here. We survived covid and I managed to catch it twice, once in Wakefield and the second time in Hamburg. My wife caught it once while I was working away in Stuggart 🤔. Unfortunately I lost two of my German colleagues from Aachen, one customer in the West Midlands and one neighbour. I retired at the end of last July, with the view of just selling spare parts from home. There was quite a backlash from customers, so I am doing a limited amount of travelling in the UK and consulting on the phone / email etc. My German colleagues don't seem to accept my retirement and I have have 3 visits to Germany to carry out training, 2 visits to Sweden to build a machine and service work and a week in Rhode Island to help them build a machine and train the operators how to use it. Lots of projects at home and I've no idea how I managed to find the time to go to work previously.🤔 I still have the 2019 Superb L&K combi My wife's 66 plate Fabia 3 sel combi has been passed onto one of our daughters and last October I bought the wife a 23 plate Kamiq 1.5 DSG sel exec in race blue. I hope you are all well and enjoying the hot June weather 🤭 Moley

I was working in Germany again last week and finished the job on Thursday evening , which gave me some time before heading back to Frankfurt airport. on Friday. The weather wasn't good so I found that in Neckarsulm there is the Deutsches Zweirad-und NSU-Museum.. Spent a couple of hours at the museum, which has a large selection of motorcycles and a few cars before heading to Hockenheim. In the collection I found this 1903 Laurin & Klement motorcycle. Good Museum with friendly staff and they were amused when I told them my first motorised transport when I was 16 was an NSU quickly

Well, the time has come to say farewell. Been on the site since 2007, in which time I have owned 6 Octavia combi's, 3 Fabia's and a Superb. Thanks to Colin for running a very good site, There have been some very good people on the site over those years with a wealth of knowledge and expertise, sadly some of those have moved on. Unfortunately there is now a small minority of very closed minds that want to censor anything that they don't agree with and believe that they are always correct. There is no point arguing with a closed mind, so I'm not going to bother anymore. Good luck to the true Briskodian's out there and stay safe. Moley.

In a couple of weeks time I will have to visit a customer in London who has a small machine in the back of his shop not too far from Kings cross station. Fortunately I don't have to visit the shop too often because it means parking in the street as near as possible and then lugging all the required equipment to the shop, which is usually a few hundred yards away. Last time I went all of the old pay at the parking meters had gone and now you have to register the car, register a credit or debit card then when you find a parking bay phone through with the number of the bay etc. 2 hours max parking then you have to move to another bay and phone again. Now there is the added restriction of ULEZ charge (ultra low emissions zone) Since changing the car last year I thought I better check to see if I have to pay to drive in the ULEZ. Good news the emissions are EU6, so no charge, but now here is the really stupid part. When I park I will be in the borough of Islington and because I drive a diesel there is a £3 per hour surcharge to park on top of the £4.95 hourly charge. Basically I can drive my diesel around Islington all day at no charge in the ULEZ, but as soon as I park it and switch off the engine it cost £3 per hour.

Alonso has a fractured upper jaw after his cycling accident.