Aspman

He's got a Hyundai but tbh I'm paraphrasing a conversation from a while back.

Yep, Lots of very powerful motors still selling well it seems but I can see stock of fast BMWs starting to build. Prices still high. It's going to take time for the market to go off I suppose. I'll be hanging off until Jan I guess.

TBH an efficient petrol might actually be cheaper than an electric right now. Neighbours electric is costing him about £30 to 'fill' right now on cheap rate lekky and he's been topping up at the free council chargers when he can. The council is withdrawing the free charge and his bill could be going up. so he's going to be about £50 for 200 miles in his car. I bet there are plenty of ICE cars that can do 200 miles on 50 of petrol or diesel even at todays prices.

I actually wanted something significantly chunkier for Mud if I could have got it, but just couldn't get anything in time. TBH those yokohamas will probably decompose before they wear out with my mileage right now.

Car go fixed, local dealer actually knocked £50 off teh bill without asking. Battery was fine but the bulb holder was unsurprizingly corroded. Since fixing no more battery problems. Haven't found the will to take up a fight with the selling dealer.

Ended up getting Yokohama Geolanders for the Jimny, chonkiest tyres I could get quickly. I have to say I am surprisngly entertained by the Jimny. It should be awful really, it's a bouncy, noisy lack pretty much all extras. The gearbox whines, the radio is terrible etc etc. I think it's so diferent it makes it quite fun. It actually got a few complements from the gamekeepers. It would be truely painful to drive any great distance in (on the ears mostly the seats are quite comfortable) but for short hops I quite like it.

Mrs says, just pay it not worth the hassle. And what I hear when a big company says something like that....... It's always fun to hear the little pause after you say "I've been waiting for an excuse to try the small claims court process, what's the address for your legal team?"

The battery is probably goosed, it'll be nearly 10yr old. But Mini say it's covered, no * or caveats. Looks like false advertising to me. If the battery is just old then it will be covered but the local dealership says that if it shows any evidence (in the event log of the mini one assumes) that the battery was allowed to fully discharge it won't be covered. Doesn't matter if that happened before it was sold.e Actuall had this same crap with BMW before with diamond cut alloys. approved used but since the alloys had been refurbished they woudn't cover them

Not even 3 months.

So got JCW coupe, old but good nick and cme with full approved used mini warranty. Got battery charger coz battery was showing charge issues and it'snot driven a great deal. Charged battery and battery still showing issues. Phone mini (local), "ok but battery isn't covered under warranty". [Clicky click] https://discover.mini.co.uk/used/approved-used-mini-warranty "We want you to have total confidence in your car which is why the warranty is backed by MINI, not third-party insurers, and even covers the battery and exhaust." "Ah yes it depends...." Also cover missing from back of lights. "ah that's also not under warranty you'd need to tke that up with the dealer that sold it to you"

Instruction for the Coupe are to use the battery terminals. It doesn't have a seperate negative mounting point. Which is odd since the Countryman clearly does. Battery appears to be knackered anyway. Getting discharge warning 15min after taking it off the charger. Not a shock (fnar fnar) really it being a 10yr old battery. Should be covered under warranty, or it is according to the Mini site. But also a bulb went, going to replace found that the trim int he wheelarch was loose and there was no cover over the access to the lights. Hopefully the buld has gone and water hasn't buggered the electrics in there. Will be pushing to have that fixed too.

It does sound like you have a well established contract with them. But that doesn't actually stop them breaking the contract. If they break the contract you would need to take action to recover 'damages'. Damages only being available to get you back to where you would have been otherwise. since you haven't been without a car or incurred additional costs you probably don't have much of a claim for damages. I would suggest being pragmatic when you try to move this forward. You only real lever against the company is probably adverse publicity.

Speaking with the dealer when I got the Jimny he was expecting the market for 'heavy gear' (his words) to tank over this winter but that the market for small economical cars would be quite boyant. I can see 'heavy gear' starting to be offloaded now, lot of private sales for high power high depreciation motors coming onto autotrader. Marketed prices are still high but I'll be keeping an eye out to see if they metal is staying on the forecourt or still shifting.

Have ordered CTEK CS One. It's a dear one but since it does everything for you including sorting out the polarity I can't make a mistake and the Mrs will be much more confortable with it. Thanks all.

So this might sound stupid but I can't see clearly if either the Ring or CTEK maintainers can be used whilst the care battery is still connected. I really don't want to have to take it out and have the hassle of recovering the car's settings. Do they work in-situe? It's implied but only implied.

Ring and CTEK look worth investigating. I really wanted something that lets me leave the battery in the car and these do

Well tbh yes for the Mini right now, but the Jimny will probably need something come the spring.

Just looking for some advice on an optimate type device but for a car not a bike. We've one car that will probably not be driven over winter and need to keep the battery topped up and conditioned. I've looked up optimate but everything is for bikes.

80s Vauxhalls were pretty easy to open and start with a screwdriver. A sharp knock on the lock facing would knock it into the car anyway, you could pop the lock with your finger through the hole. the whole lock was held on with a pretty insubstantial C clip

Anything will be a classic if you wait long enough. But for some more common cars you might have to wait a very long time before it becomes an investment. Better to buy something you will love to run as your classic, if it increases in value then that is a bonus. We've a car (JCW Mini coupe) which we've bought with a view to it being a future classic, but that is secondary to it being something the Mrs has always wanted to own (again).

wee beastie

Apparently there is a market mechanism which keeps the electricity prices linked to the gas price. So there is some talk about decoupling electric from gas to break that link. I’m on a 100% renewable tariff soo clearly I’d like to be paying less for making that choice. unless the politicians take the leap to fix prices we’re basically all fooked. Practically every business will close. Unfortunately i think the tories are ideologically against anything like that so we’ll see no help till they are bites out in 2yr which will be far too late.

There is nothing wrong in what you say is just a bit of a perfect picture. The market IS broken now which is making for crippling bills

It’s a lot of money to put in batteries and solar on a big enough scale to make a difference, it’s also probably too late to do it for this winter. Lots of people are doing this. I would too but I’m not sure I’ll be in this property long enough to get the roi. And you won’t get much Solar gain in winter when its using the most electricity

Yeah the basic maths means that ASHP will never be cheaper than gas. The efficiencies are statistical snake oil but being very simplistic heat pumps are UP TO 3x (300%)as efficient at heating water within the system than a gas boiler. So (physicists trick of a perfect model) imagine it uses 300 units of energy to heat a tank of hot water using gas. A heat pump at perfect efficiency should manage to heat the same tank of water using 100 units of energy. So super efficient and much cheapness yeah? No. The heat pump is using electricity not gas so each unit of energy costs (at least) 4x as much. Using the upcoming price cap for figures 52p for electric and 15p for gas) 300 units of gas will cost - £45.00 100 units of electricity will cost £52.00 so you’ve spent £20k on a new system which is super efficient and green etc and despite it using 1/3 the energy of gas you pay £7 more or 15% if the temperature is 0 efficiency drops to about 2x so the difference becomes £59.00 or a 133% increase over gas. But it’s actually worse than that. At low temperature to prevent icing the ashp will reverse flow and run defrost cycles on itself which is electricity you’re not using to heat your house. Heat pumps work on gradually warming your house as well so need to be on 24/7 unless the hot water is on. So you can’t take advantage of cheap rate electric. Weather changeable? Well you’re Screwed with heat pumps again. The slab takes about two days to warm through like a massive storage heater so you need to plot your heating to that schedule.