Dieselgate

I sold my Polo GTI via Bigwantsyourcar a month or so ago. They paid me £1,000 more than what a VW dealer offered me and £1,900 more than WBAC offered (before they start trying to knock you down). Very easy process, no negotiation on price and the money was in the bank instantly. Couldn't really have wished for it to be more painless really.

Yes it's the Gen-3. TBH I'm not much of an expert on tyres overall but I've never really noticed much difference between the all seasons and the summer tyres the car came with in terms of either of those things. Sorry not much help I'm afraid.

I had Conti Allseason contact on my previous Volvo XC60 and they seemed good to me but these were the previous generation. Currently have Goodyear Vector 4 Seasons on the Superb and they've been good too, if anything I probably rate them higher than the Conti's but obviously the newer version of the Conti's is likely to be an improvement.

Sorry, only just seen this. I never changed anything on mine. Sound just seemed to go away which is odd. Over 57,000 miles now, still on original pads and discs and plenty of wear left on them.

Make sure you ask the installer what size your main fuse is when they fit the charger as it guzzles up a fair amount of power obviously. Mine was only 60 amp and with the charger using 32 of this when in use it doesn't leave a lot of headroom especially as I often try and run other stuff at night to take advantage of the cheap electricity (washing machine, dishwasher, air con etc). Got my fuse upgraded to 100 amp by UK Power Networks a few weeks back (done FOC). Interestingly enough they informed me that a 100 amp fuse allows you to run at up to 120 amps for several hours at a time without blowing it.

Maybe not, but many people have done. I've even witnessed it a few times, someone sliding backwards down a very slight hill with spinning wheels when I was able to cruise past them with little difficulty (yes I did feel just a little smug😅😬).

I know it's going off topic a bit and I'm not minimising the need of driving to conditions but suggesting that snow/winter tyres don't increase safety is just simply not correct. Never mind the fact that the increased traction can often be the difference between getting somewhere at all or not (let alone more safely).

Seeing as this is now the extension lead thread I will add my 2p. I used to charge my Volvo PHEV using one for most of the 3 years I had it. But I did buy one that was designed to handle 13amps continuously and the charger was only 10amps. It was fine. I've got lots of those multiway extension lead things at home. Very useful. They are all rated at 13 amps and the cable is a pretty chunky thing but they don't often get heavy loads put through them. An electric iron occasionally perhaps but the main point of them is for multiple small load items and for that they do a very good job.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-search?advertising-location=at_cars&fuel-type=Diesel&homeDeliveryAdverts=include&make=Volkswagen&model=Caddy%20Maxi&postcode=CM11HT&price-to=25000&radius=100&seats_values=7&sort=relevance&transmission=Automatic There's a few fairly close you could have a look at - pretty sure none of these are wheelchair vans - they all have 7 seats at any rate.

I have managed 78mpg in my Superb Estate 200 4x4 on one occasion (and early 70s a few times). Mostly motorway cruising at a bit over 60mph. Not common though, and not really possible in winter either.

Not sure where you are looking but I'm seeing heaps on Autotrader without wheelchair ramps. And not sure what you mean about the space between the front and 2nd row seats being restricted - it's more or less the same as many other cars. I would encourage you to go and check them out, a seriously underrated car in my opinion at least as far as space is concerned and there's a PHEV coming out with a range of about 75 miles (already available on the Ford equivalent) but still petrol and diesel available if you won't touch anything with any form of electric propulsion.

Thanks - not really thinking of installing solar anytime soon. My roof faces the wrong way apparently and the cost/payback time doesn't really stack up at the moment considering I may move house at some point in the next couple of years.

There are actually lots of options - even big cars. VW Caddy/Ford Tourneo Connect (same vehicle) can be ordered for around £30k in it's most basic form. This is a seven seat car that makes a Skoda Superb boot look like a Fabia's (at least with only 5 seats in use).

Toyota are probably the least EV focused of all the main car manufacturers. They do a lot of mild hybrids but these are effectively ICE cars with a tiny battery and electric motor that helps to save fuel. As far as the government and ZEV mandate is concerned, it's an ICE.

Yes exactly - a friend who charged his Tesla at my house once just using a 3 pin plug commented on the high voltage. I think he mentioned it was around 250v. My car doesn't give me that info but the kW rate suggests it must be around that.

It's Intelligent Go but Octopus EV owners get 1p kW/h discount on the cheap rate. I haven't signed up to it as I'm on Tomato at the moment which seems even better (though looking like they might go bust any day now)! But I've only charged the car twice at home so far as I can do nearly all my charging at work. It works well though - and my charger is outputting 7.5-7.7 kW which is more than I was expecting. My dad says his typically only gives about 6.9 kW. Small differences really but quite interesting to see the variation. The BIK amount is generally already factored in to the quote you get on Octopus.

It does a bit but it is potentially true if you're in the 62% tax bracket. My car is on Octopus EV too and if I punch a wage of £110k for example into our configurator then I am getting a similar price on a low spec ID3. There won't be any deposit. If you are in that tax bracket then it is more or less a complete no brainer to do it as long as you can live with an EV. I'm enjoying mine so far but I have the Superb as backup for long journeys etc (we do these quite frequently) - I wouldn't countenance an EV as my only car at this stage but many will find it works for them if they never/rarely do long journeys.

Well here's what happened FWIW. Motorway valued it around £15,000 Autotrader around £14,500 I decided to stick an ad on Autotrader and see what happened. Before the offer posts they offer the chance to sell it via their 'Dealer Auction' service where it goes out to dealers in an online auction for a couple of days. As it's free I thought I might as well give it a go. Once it finished I got a phone call to discuss the results. Highest offer was about £13,700 which I wasn't happy with. They asked a couple of questions and then phoned back later and said the dealer said he would go up to £13,850 on the basis that I had the parcel shelf (it was missing in my photos). I rejected this too. They tried to put the frighteners on me saying it takes on average of 30 days to sell the car privately and I would have teams of boy racers coming round to floor the GTI. I put it on Autotrader as a standard ad at £14,750. Later the same day I had a call from BigWantsYourCar saying they could offer the full asking price. I sent them a few extra pictures highlighting any damage (few scratches and a couple of the alloys kerbed slightly) but they maintained the price. Dropped it round at the nearest site to me (they also offer free home collection). A chap came out and spent probably 15-20 minutes looking over the car including a short drive around the car park. The moment of truth arrived - I had been expecting at least some kind of attempt to try and knock me down on price but he simply came in and said he was happy with it. He then took the service documents, V5 etc and came back a few minutes later saying I should have an email from them which I did. Entered my bank details and a few seconds later the money was in the account! Overall very happy with the way it all went - very hassle free and not trying to negotiate on the price was a big plus! I might have managed to get slightly more for it from a private seller but selling to a dealer was way less hassle as well as less risky. For anyone who's thinking of selling a car I would definitely give them a go. Oh and WBAC's offer was £2,000 less than I got (and before they try and beat you down too...)

I've had my Cupra Born for just over a week now so it's early days but here's a bit of info that might help. It's a V2 59kWh with a couple of extra option packs added that I think gives it a P11D value of just under £40k - I got it mainly because it was about the cheapest car on Octopus salary sacrifice that I found palatable. Home charger installation was easy and free although I've only used it twice due to doing most charging at work. It's a small battery but based on my motorway driving so far (bear in mind this is summer and cruising at 70-75mph) I am getting about 3.5 miles/kWh which gives you a summer motorway range of around 200 miles. This is fine for my usage as I have a diesel for long trips but obviously if this will be your only car then it's important to consider range/charging speed/cost etc if you ever venture more than 100 miles from home. Car seems overall good quality and surprisingly roomy in the back (no transmission tunnel helps). It apparently has the same legroom as a BMW 5 series and I can well believe that. Boot is OK but nothing special, probably similar to a VW Golf. Looks wise is down to personal opinion of course but I certainly think it looks a lot nicer/more interesting than an ID3 which is more or less the same car. In terms of driving it's been good so far, very quiet (which in many ways I'm not so keen on) but smooth and punchy. It's also nice to not have to be so concerned about driving efficiently as the 'fuel' cost is so low. Mine has the Pilot pack which means it pretty much drives itself on the motorway - very relaxing. The feature which I'm most looking forward to using is pre-heating in winter as it's the thing I miss most in my Superb (my previous Volvo XC60 had it). You can also pre-cool it down in summer which I have used a couple of times but it's not as important as pre-heating in my opinion. Any questions then be free to ask!

So is your car 10 years old now? Mine has just crossed the 55k miles mark but doesn't hit 3 years old until the end of next month. It's still on original brake pads which my local indi told me still have 6mm on both front and rears when it was serviced last week. It's had no work on it at all apart from routine servicing and tyres so far (apart from an exhaust sensor fault that was sorted under warranty) which I'm certainly very glad of.

All UK standard car licences are now B+E allowing you to tow up to 3500kg without taking an additional test.

Well yes and no. My dad had quite a few issues to start with. I think it was occurring due to conflicts between the charger and the car app (at least that's how it sounded to me). But he had quite a few incidents of waking up to find the car hadn't charged. Think it's resolved now but haven't discussed for a while. My Cupra is being delivered on Friday which is quite exciting so I'll have some first hand experience soon though I hope to do as much of the charging as possible at work.

After nearly 3 years of ownership I'm looking to move on my 2nd car which is a 2019 VW Polo GTI due to getting a Cupra Born through the company salary sacrifice scheme. Basic question is how to sell it in order to get the most money for it. I ideally want to get the most money for it as possible but also sell it quite quickly... The Cupra is being delivered next Friday and I don't really want it hanging around any longer than absolutely necessary. In the normal way I would stick it on Autotrader and see what happens (my dad has recently sold two cars this way and got good offers from dealers almost immediately). However I am interested in alternative methods such as Motorway etc so interested to hear other's experiences of any sale methods. Motorways valuation of my car was about £500 more than Autotraders suggested selling price which got me slightly interested. The car has done low mileage for the age at 25k of which 19k has been done by myself in the last 3 years (looks like it almost sat in a shed for the first 3 years of it's life!) and it's been bulletproof in terms of reliability so far with no unscheduled visits to the dealer.

It is useful to note, however, that newly planted trees absorb CO2 at a faster rate than older more mature trees.

Will the UK switching to decarbonised transport a few years later make much of a difference when it only accounts for around 1% of global emissions?