Lady Elanore

I took this recently one evening. 10x zoom on my Samsung phone and then a further digital zoom (totalling around 20x zoom I would estimate), so that's the excuses out of the way. Impressive catch though (the bird, not the photo)

To give Peugeot credit, they kept me informed about this inconvenient matter and reduced my expected bill by 15% as well as dropping my car off outside my house just now. The service manager brought it back in person, which was quite nice. Driven car around the block and it seems OK. One surprising thing that the service revealed is my rear tyres are wearing faster than my fronts. Maybe I should stop handbrake turning my car into parking spots?

Sounds like the updates have gone through today. I can remote access the car again, which is positive. They are ringing back in a short while to let me know what's going on

Won't be seeing the Tesla chap until the next footie season and the Kia owner had a list of woes so long I'd have to get him to write them all down. If it had been my car, I would have returned it as not up to spec. I honestly reckon that all the people I know reasonably well, who own EVs, have had major problems within the first couple of years. I've never known such problems with ICE owners. It definitely feels like we are all Beta testers. I can't think of any acquaintances that own regular Hybrid cars having issues, though. But that would be understandable with the lower voltage and complexity, of the cars.

He was finding that charging at home was becoming 'challenging' (I think it was taking longer than previously), so booked it in and had a software update. Didn't go totally smoothly, As I recall it was a "pick it up the next day" kind of problem. As for the Kia, that was a total nightmare. Became a standing joke when he turned up for work in a parade of different courtesy cars (all ICE and entry models). I think he was thinking of junking the whole EV thing, except he had invested in a windmill farm to get cheap 'leccy, so persevered. He now uses an ICE car for a lot of jobs though. The only issue I have ever had with an ICE car updating was when I agreed to it happening whilst parked at a petrol pump. I thought it would be a background update, but instead it immobilised me for quite a long time and I managed to block not only the pump, but all traffic on that side To be fair to the car, it was my own stupid fault.

FWIW, I have a colleague who has had problems with Tesla software too. Although the record for days not on the road, seems to be owned by a colleague's Kia Niro. Spent many, many weeks at the dealers.

Hopefully they can fix things, as I will require a car for around 7 weeks soon and won't be able to swap back into my car if they sort it during this timeframe I won't tell them that of course, just ring them up and explain that they need to open up around midnight and I can do the swap back at some point

My PHEV went in for a routine service and a software update to do with the battery and general energy use. Because of a DVLA web crash today, I couldn't get my driving licence code for a loan car, so the dealer dropped me off at home instead. It crashed (electronically) during the update and now the car won't start, apparently. The Dealer sounds a little worried and the car is staying with them overnight. Great! Luckily, I have a dinosnore ICE car that will get me about. Almost all my colleagues and friends who have EVs and PHEVs seem to have had a similar problem with their cars having an overnight stay in relation to software updates. The most recent of which was a friend with a Porsche Taycan (although he got a Panamera for a loan car).

I gave up on photobucket and moved to Flickr. I even pay for membership as I don't want the site to go full advertising or collapse. Photobucket just became a pain for my needs sadly

This just published in Autocar https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/hidden-skodas-unlocking-brands-secret-museum-room

Wow, there are some very nice cars there. Incredible how many different cars are there and that none of them are the BMW M135i

That's not necessarily an analogy that I can fully realise I seem to recall selling an F150 lightning and I think the rating on the bed was only roughly 1/2 ton! I remember thinking there were countless small Japanese pickups with significantly more load capacity than that. Mind you, they didn't have 380BHP and 450lb/ft of torxxx all going through a live axel. It was the main selling point as I seem to remember....oh, and that noise £20k got you a nearly new low mileage one in those days Sorry, exactly off-topic. Now where were we with men's bits?

It's only just over an inch longer, too! Mind you it only has 2 seats and is slightly lower, which isn't the best use of space, perhaps. But boy, the mini seriously needs to go on a diet. Can you "fat shame" a car?

My Jag, which is a pretty wide car, or so I thought, is 'only' 2042mm inc mirrors. It's not as wide as a Mini !!!!!!!!!!!!

The facilities that I described, have seemingly t'd off from the incoming feed to the water park. I certainly didn't see any tree trunk cables being laid during installation, so the cost of the installation wouldn't be that great, all things considered. The chargers themselves may be expensive, but apart from safety checks, they have virtually no moving parts and should be built to last a reasonable while, certainly I expect them to last longer than a petrol pump before needing maintenance. The 'fuel' itself has no transportation cost, is totally on demand (no storage fees) and the car parking at the water park has always been free. My take is a lot of people are seeing the whole EV thing as an opportunity to make easy money and as we are being asked to go electric to save the planet, being screwed financially by big companies to do so, appears to be extraordinarily cynical. Hopefully the next government will do something about it (Disclaimer: regardless who that government is)

I have a car that can easily get me to my destination for the walk without using dinosaur juice and with a couple of hours charge can easily get back again. Not using the evil petrol even once. Just because it has a 12kW battery doesn't make it none-EV if I choose that as its mode of drive. The infrastructure is pants and the prices are atrocious. Why have charge points if it is going to cost nearly 3 times the average cost of electricity in your house, and that's just the standard consumer rate, not the eco rates available through the night. I'll probably take my 575PS V8 to the water park as it has a huge tank and doesn't need a top-up to get there and back. It is also more fun to drive. I tried embracing partial electric travel, but the industry doesn't want me. Suits me, I'll stick to ICE more than happily. Shame they wasted a huge amount of money fitting all the unused charge points really

Mr May makes a good and balanced point or two

I went for a longish walk today and could have left the car to charge at the relatively plentiful charge points at the car park. If I wasn't to casually charge, it would be over 80p/kW!! Or sign up and save a few pence. That explains why most of the chargers are always empty. Dread to think how much it cost to install them all. The more time goes on, the more I am becoming anti-EVs. It's not any one individual EV, but the whole ethos around them. Overpriced, underserviced, too compromised, falling residuals (in free fall for some marques). Second-hand cars needing battery replacement and that will come one day, will write the cars off. I also hate the minimalist interiors and in many cases horrifically dull styling. At least make an effort, guys. I realise that some EVs are very stylish, the Taycan Cross is stunning, as is the Audi E Tron, but there are a little pricey when new!

Mate's Taycan with long range battery struggles to get much past 200 miles in the real world during winter. If he takes advantage of the 10-80% quick charge figures (beyond that is always slower as charging rates are seriously reduced as the battery gains charge) he wouldn't even get 200 miles. I simply can't begin to look at EVs until they have better range. I won't even be looking at PHEVs unless I get a deal of the century on one. £560 road tax for a vehicle that I can run on pure electric around town, isn't giving me any incentive to stick with PHEV either.

I do love an Alpine. Probably my favourite colour too

A little OT but I always set alarms and timers to the nearest 5 mins Occasionally I challenge myself and set an 'odd' number. Back on topic, my hybriddiddy has a screen control for the temp and the Jag has big knobs. Guess which I prefer (no smutt please...you know who you are! )

I like this article too. It's about cars should have some buttons etc, at least if you want a full 5 star NCAP rating EVs seem to be leading the move away from the more traditional button, knob and stalk controls that I love and expect, so hopefully this will at least check their ambitions. Is it just me, or does anyone else like to fiddle with their heater controls? https://www.autocar.co.uk/opinion/new-cars/finally-new-safety-rules-recognise-buttons-beat-touchscreens

I've not forgotten them, I just like V8,s V10s and V12s better

One day I will collect all my useless cables, adapter and such like... and put them in an enormous bin bag and sling them all.

I like the sound of this, although obviously not as much as I like the sound of a V8 (or V10, V12, Flat 6, straight 6.....) Disclaimer: there is no sound in the below article https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/british-firm-launches-shelf-hydrogen-fcev-powertrain