Saw a good video on the new Renault Megane Electric. Vehicle to Load, 290 odd range in one form, a nice cabin space, looks promising. I might walk to the end of the road to look at the born, but the local garage haven’t got in touch yet about a look.  

 

12 minutes ago, ColinD said:

I might walk to the end of the road to look at the born, but the local garage haven’t got in touch yet about a look.  

They've been doing test drives for quite some time now. I think the onus is on you Colin. 😜

1 hour ago, ColinD said:

Saw a good video on the new Renault Megane Electric. Vehicle to Load, 290 odd range in one form, a nice cabin space, looks promising. I might walk to the end of the road to look at the born, but the local garage haven’t got in touch yet about a look.  

 

 

51 minutes ago, john999boy said:

They've been doing test drives for quite some time now. I think the onus is on you Colin. 😜

Agreed - this seems to be a "we can sell all we can get" attitude from the stealership.

33 minutes ago, KenONeill said:

 

Agreed - this seems to be a "we can sell all we can get" attitude from the stealership.

 

And if they're like that before they've got your money...

I had the same and it's not just VW group, but it will backfire as people go online to buy cars and there is a need for fewer showrooms in the future.

The showroom will be for the people who don't see a car as a functional consumer good.

 

 

Well finally went for a test drive

 

Not a long one, like 20mins. In the v3 small 58 battery, no e-boost. Possibly the one I’d consider.

 

Different to the enyaq in almost every way.

 

The one thing I didn’t like was. The way to select ‘performance’ over ‘eco’, it was three screen taps. Far to many to deal with pre overtake opportunity, and crucially post. Superb, just tap it into sport off we go. Touch screens great, but the old physically button would be nice. I know the teslas you need to use the screen/mobile app to open a glove box… it’s bonkers, but all good for the bean counters.

 

Surprisingly unthrashy on potholes and poor roads as we have up here in sheffield.

 

An enyaq 60 and this are the same (near enough) on pcp. 

 

As much as I don’t want a SUV, the born isn’t that much smaller. Only 70cm narrower, lighter, bit shorter… but not a huge amount, yet boot is considerably smaller. Coming from the superb this is a thing

 

Still 500 a month, 3k down 10k pa 48months.  On paper I was pegging the superb at 400 a month; I paid cash but need to replace that pot… 

 

So it kind of makes sense. Plus I can get one in a month if I don’t want options   

 

 

Edited 17 June, 20223 yr by ColinD

Enyaq in a month?????

How so?

Na born in a month. Dealers putting orders in for models. Albeit at there own admission with options that offer little value like tech pack l and blue paint.

 

 

Do you need the v3 options as v2 was definitely a sweet spot when I looked?

I did think the V3 was a bit "over toyed", with loads of options that brought limited value and huge wheels to cut the range

Not that I went that route, although there's a long lead time on everything, so it'll be a long while before I go electric.

No the only thing on the v3 is the electric seats. Rather have the smaller alloys too.

 

it’s not actually that much smaller 7pms narrower) than the enyaq. But a lot smaller in the boot etc.

He hit the nail on the head. 

Cars you could love can be annoying because of stupid little things 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 7 July, 20223 yr by roottoot

Autocar long-term review

 

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/long-term-reviews/cupra-born-2022-long-term-review

 

I await a motoring journalist driving an EV when the weather is really really hot & just keeping the AC off and cooking / sweating inside the car and finding out that really the AC on is not reducing the cars efficiency that much as in the miles per kWh, it is the ambient temp affecting the batteries which really prefer being driven about near 20*oC more than 30*oC. 

 

Autocar long term test reviiew

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/cupra/born/long-term-reviews/cupra-born-2022-long-term-test

 

1 hour ago, vrskeith said:

Autocar long term test reviiew

I read the grille badge as "IGUANA"!  

Well the Renault is out. Had a test. Very tame throttle. No sense of ev push; well pull as it’s fwd.

I hugely prefer the Renault interior.

 

I prefer the cupra drive

 

I prefer the mg4 price point.

 

the mg4 and cupra on short drives felt similar enough to be fun on some b roads.

 

Im soooo close. The Renault guy was intrigued why I’m not entertaining the enyaq rs. 60k is a pretty good blocking. There are a tonne of 60k ice cars I choose. 
 

im now at the ok… replace like for like my superb, 44k, or thereabouts; yikes. That’s gone up!
 

So what do I get from the born/Megane/mg4 that I don’t get from the superb?
 

Electric seats, boot space, range, convenience (perceived refuelling)

The mg4 feels lower quality than the born inside. Maybe a little rushed. Equally there is plenty in there for the money. Of that there is no doubt. 
 

so born and megane over priced, mg slightly under priced. Almost 10k diff on all the toys spec. Megane and mg deliver in days, or a few weeks.

 

not that one needs to rush, but not 12months in vag land.

 

hehe it’s fun thinking game.

 

 

 

28 minutes ago, ColinD said:

hehe it’s fun thinking game.

 

I'd be thinking I could put an awful lot of petrol in a Superb for the price of an EV 

 

Gaz

Oh heck yes. That whole elephant in the room: I don’t need to change… been looking for remaps too .
 

Most of my reasons are inquisitive, the rest environmental. I don’t believe it’s cheaper overall. It’s all very gray around the cost (environment) of all that shiny new metal and plastic. Vs the also grey cost of refining new fossil fuels/oils for my 34mpg petrol car.

 

im crap at predicting the future…

 

My gut says, opec et al won’t let the oil price drop and harm their own and lesser extent countries/citizens futures. So petrol prices only ever going up.

 

ev’s are set for a huge price adjustment, downwards. Admittedly they are going up presently. They have to fall because no one can really justify twice the ice cost for a daily runner.

 

second hand ice will continue to rise in value until ev’s price reset, infrastructure improves, electric on street charging permitted/works, oil tips the total cost per mile over ten years maths firmly in the electric direction.

 

we all have to buy boats, and then who had the last laugh says a one Kevin Costner

 

I’ve said it, now none of it will happen  

 

 

Lots of New bigger EV drivers seem to have their old Zoe or Leaf still in the family are keeping them for day to day family duties as they are something they have had for years, saved them lots of money and are still doing so. 

Edited 24 November, 20223 yr by toot

The think is always: do you need a new car? If the answer is yes, go to next line.

When looking at new car, if you can charge at home, it would be foolish to discount BEV without a thorough look.

 

For me, with ULEZ looking to expand including my home, driving Euro 5 diesel will no longer be economical. Then there is the looming hyper inflation back at beginning of the year and I have a stable job + a bit of spare cash in the bank. At that point second hand car prices were already inflated. So I took the decision to get a brand new car. All of my previous car were second hand and have ever been more than £10k.

 

For EV pricing, I'm not so sure we'll see a rapid correction. The demand curve is on the steep slope now and more & more people's mindset are changing. My belief is that the first wave of EV's will always hold better residual percentage than similar ICE cars. For example, my Skoda Octavia bought £8800 in 2017, quoted trade price is £5200 and sold for this price. My Nissan Leaf bought same year for £8900, quoted trade price is over £8000. Yes, price of both cars are inflated, but EV second hand pricing seems to be more inflated due to higher demand, both heading for a correction. The price of brand new EV's wouldn't see as big or rapid correction as current second hand ones as this is based on global supply whereas used market is based on local consumer confidence (UK is heading in a recession).

 

 

12 hours ago, ColinD said:

Well the Renault is out. Had a test. Very tame throttle. No sense of ev push; well pull as it’s fwd.

I hugely prefer the Renault interior.

 

I prefer the cupra drive

 

I prefer the mg4 price point.

 

the mg4 and cupra on short drives felt similar enough to be fun on some b roads.

 

Im soooo close. The Renault guy was intrigued why I’m not entertaining the enyaq rs. 60k is a pretty good blocking. There are a tonne of 60k ice cars I choose. 
 

im now at the ok… replace like for like my superb, 44k, or thereabouts; yikes. That’s gone up!
 

So what do I get from the born/Megane/mg4 that I don’t get from the superb?
 

Electric seats, boot space, range, convenience (perceived refuelling)

The mg4 feels lower quality than the born inside. Maybe a little rushed. Equally there is plenty in there for the money. Of that there is no doubt. 
 

so born and megane over priced, mg slightly under priced. Almost 10k diff on all the toys spec. Megane and mg deliver in days, or a few weeks.

 

not that one needs to rush, but not 12months in vag land.

 

hehe it’s fun thinking game.

 

 

 

It is a thinking game, but not sure on the fun !

Think hard before making the move, my Enyaq has gone, sold back to dealer.

I’ll update on my reasons later, just going to work now, but the environment will have to wait for my contribution to its survival.

Think hard before trading in a decent ice car for an ev. In my opinion pre touchscreen/lane assist etc etc ice cars are going to become very valuable and personally I’m getting back on that train before it’s too far out of my station.

Unfortunately I’m in a position as a private owner where the ev car I bought 16 months ago now costs considerably more to operate so the numbers don’t add up anymore.
Somehow, it seems due to Covid, Putin and The Tory Government my income is being outstripped by inflation and I found myself in the bizarre situation where I have no idea what my electricity, gas and mortgage are going to be in 6 months but right now I do know my Enyaq is worth the same as I paid for it. This is despite having 25k on the clock.
In fact it is worth thousands more than I paid for it, but it’s trade price was actually £500 more, so accounting for interest on the pcp Ive run it for over a year and walked away for practically nothing.
Things as they are I decided to cash out and will be back in a fossil/ice asap.
When I got it, with cheap electricity and occasional free charging at work, there was about £100 a month cost to me over running my petrol octavia which was closing in on 100k miles, I was happy to pay this as a premium for having a nice car which had no tailpipe emissions.
Now, charging on rapids costs as much as buying fuel. Charging at home was still ok for me but my fixed energy deal ends in May 23 and will multiply by an unknown factor. Fixed mortgage deal ends next year as well…
My leisure trips to Cornwall, The Lakes, Peak District etc became as expensive as driving a petrol car. 
Add into that mix that the Enyaq absolutely devoured a set of tyres in 25k miles, and they are not cheap - absolute best price was £165 each fitted. I’ve never got less than 40k out of car tyres and 16” are £75 for a reasonable make.
Personally I had 2 bad experiences with charging. One coming out of Manchester where I wasted an hour finding an operating or unblocked charger. Stooging around an unfamiliar city typing postcodes into the sat nav isn’t fun. 
Second one was the ev’s Achilles heel - family emergency. Jump in with 80%, fast run to a hospital 70 miles away, run about to and from railway stations picking up relatives and suddenly at a very stressful point you find yourself Googling rapid chargers to find there are only 2 within 10 miles. One is broken and the other one occupied by a leaf whose driver informed me that she was needing 30 minutes and I was lucky with my timing as she’d waited for 2 previous cars to charge !

The infrastructure isn’t there yet, its one thing planning a journey on your sofa with a cup of tea and working out where in an ev charger desert like Devon or Cornwall you can get a charge but on the hoof it is hard work (and the Enyaq sat nav which supposedly finds the nearest charger is no help).

A couple of weeks later and the Enyaq is in for the much anticipated software update. Got chatting with sales, and an offer is made which I decide to sleep on. Picked the car up and the update isn’t an improvement, so decided there and then to sell it back.

So it’s gone. There’s clearly a demand for them, hence the good price, but I don’t get BIK.
 

Beat my record for lowest percentage on the hospital run though 😬

 

Edited 25 November, 20223 yr by classic