Only one EV charger at home?!

Ugh, treehuggermobile.

I have a 2002 Renault Scenic. 3 or 4 cylinders depending on it's mood. In 3 cylinder mode I think the petrol goes straight into the exhaust, because the miles per gallon plummets like hell. You'd think fuel injection would turn off the failed cylinder, but I guess French electrics ain't that clever. It does manage a warning light.

I will never ever buy a Tesla. You buy a Tesla which contains an AC unit, but you have to pay to have it switched on. Then you sell it to someone else, and they have to pay to have it switched on again? THEFT! The Tesla company are CROOKS!

Satnavs have loads of voices. Trouble is most are American, that grating pompous I know everything voice.

I just use Google Maps. Works perfectly. Before a smartphone I had a real Tomtom and it f***ed up all the time. Took me up farm roads with locked gates, told me to do a u turn on a dual carriageway where the central reservation had been closed off, it was terrible.

The Aussie accent is the best for telling you off. "Turn around! You're going the wrong way!"

Mine warns me if I'm over or near the limit when approaching one. I use the "Radarbot" app which tells me in a very posh English accent, "Warning! Possible mobile speed camera, limit fifty." You can tell it if it was there or not. The last time I passed a real one, it said there was definitely one there, because a previous driver had said so.

If it's average speed, I use the average speed on my car's dashboard. Which means getting stuck behind someone lets me floor it at 120mph to the next camera.

I normally use brakes, since they're precisely controllable unlike down-shifting. Only once (in the French Alps), I smelt the brakes, so I simply dropped a gear to reduce the load on them.

Do you have to call them Bev? Are they female?

you need to leave room in the "tank" for

There's no problem. The car could just apply a big load to discharge the battery so it can still use regenerative braking. A big heating element perhaps. Doesn't have to direct it inside the car, it could just go outside.

I'd set it to none. Why should I have to use a pedal to keep the car at a constant speed?

What happens behind you is not your problem.

No, the rest of the world is too thick to buy a car which does something as mundane as gear changing by itself.

My 1998 VW Golf Auto got better mileage. An Auto is always in exactly the most efficient gear. And often between gears.

It f****ng well is if they're going to ram you at 60 mph.

For once I can agree with you. Giving lessons to tailgaters with the handbrake was a favourite trick. Only let it off when the smoking tyres in the mirror were a foot from your rear bumper.

Exactly, sooner or later you'll guess wrong and change down too early.

Why would you think one side of the hill was the same angle as the other?

I was, in 1997. I stopped doing that as soon as I passed the test. Braking is much more controllable. Engine braking is all or nothing, completely unsuitable for gracefully changing speed. Think about the erson behind you seeing a car lurching about with no brakelights.

A much more sensible idea.

That's only because you don't know how to do it properly.

They soon learn not to drive too close to you.

The best idea is to compromise with a sensible mixture of gear-changing and braking.

It's all old-hat anyway. The cars of the future, and a lot of them now, use regenerative braking. Which is another new skill to learn.

Mine may be a bit elderly, but the level of regen available depends on battery temperature and level of charge. Ideal for energy use minimisation is to not use the brake pedal at all except to hold when stopped, which means slowing down earlier when it's cold or you are starting out with a full battery.

nib

I had a friend who changed gear to get engine breaking, His engine broke!

I use lift and coast, if I am not in a hurry. Very little engine braking on an auto. The challenge is for the cruise control, set to 30mph, to just cut in as you pass the 30 limit sign...