OT: Brakes seizing on electric cars? (2024 Update)

[Rod Speed]

Not for long trips, the recharge time is much too long.

[Xeno]

90%+ of car owners do not make long trips, at least long trips that exceed that range. For those, an electric car is likely suitable. Besides, need to occasionally do a *long trip*, rent an appropriate vehicle for that task. It is what I used to do when I had interstate deliveries to make back in the late 80s as my daily driver was a 20 year old worn out hack.

[Rod Speed]

Bullshit.

Bullshit, because of the stupid recharge time.

And the even more stupid price of an electric car with a range like that.

No thanks, I want the car to do whatever I do.

< It is what I used to do when I had interstate

More fool you.

More fool you.

[Xeno]

Prove me wrong Rod, prove me wrong.

90% of people just use their car to commute or as a shopping trolley.

On that score we are, strangely enough, in agreement.

You want the car to be full of shit? What a strange requirement that is.

Worked for me at the time.

Recently married, had just purchased a house, money was tight.

[Rod Speed]

You made the claim.

You get to do the proving.

That's how it works.

Bullshit.

It works a lot better to have a car that will do what you do.

No reason not to have a non worn out. specially when you are a mechanic, stupid.

[Xeno]

I was wearing them out myself. I was doing in excess of 60,000 kilometres a year. One engine I had saw four of my cars and did 300,000 kilometres for me. It had 180,000 kilomtres up when I bought the wreck it was in. I *saved* lots of money by buying $100-$500 cars and keeping them going and doing what I wanted. The vehicles I rented were large wagons or vans because I needed to cart goods interstate. My runabouts were small sedans and I only needed a larger vehicle every few weeks. It wasn't worth my while buying such a large vehicle for my normal needs.

[Rod Speed]

Then you are a f****it.

That's not going to wear them out.

So you must be a f****it if you wore out those 4 cars with that engine.

That was clearly a stupid thing to do.

Stupid way to operate with that many km per year.

Stupid to be renting that often.

That's bullshit with renting that often.

[Commander Kinsey]

But is it affordable? There's no poini in buying electric if the extra cost is more than the petrol you'd save.

[Xeno]

The cars were at the end of their lives. I just kept them going for cheap! As a motor mechanic, I am quite capable of doing that - and I did.

The cars were old hacks when I bought them. They were at the residual value end of the spectrum - ie. worth as much as the value of the tyres and rego. I had this spare engine that was in excellent condition even though it was high mileage. When the engine that was in the car when I bought it gave out, in when the spare and I just kept rolling along. It even spent 2 years at the top of my driveway, out of a car and exposed to the weather. The final car it ended up in was my wife's, after she cooked that engine. We had paid off the house by then so I bought her a near new car and I installed the spare engine into her old car. That car served me as a go to work hack for many years after that. It was still running well, though starting to use a little oil, when I consigned it to the wreckers. That engine would have had close on half a million kilometres by then. In hindsight, I should have removed and sold the BW35 auto in it as I had completely rebuilt that some 30 or 40k kilometres before.

Not at all Rod. That engine saw another 300,000 kilometres before it began consuming more than a normal amount of oil. Some engines are clearly capable of doing more kilometres than average.

It worked for me. As I stated above, I am a motor mechanic. Keeping them on the road wasn't difficult.

It was a question of economics. I would have needed to own and run a much larger car full time than I needed. This way, I rented a suitably sized wagon or van *only* for those times my little business required it and claimed the costs back from tax. I couldn't do that with my daily runabout.

A dozen times of year or so, well worth it Rod.

[Rod Speed]

No such thing with a car, particularly for a mechanic who doesn't have to pay anyone to improve it.

It would have made a lot more sense to buy better used cars so you didn't need to rent any.

But were too stupid to buy cars that could do what you used rental cars for.

Yep, you actually were that stupid and spent much more on renting cars that you would have if you had bought cars that only needed a bit of work to be able to do what you did with rental cars.

If you had bought the right used car, you could have done that with that car too and never needed to rent anything.

Of course they are, particularly when used for the trips that you were stupid enough to rent cars for.

It would have worked much better if you had bought what only needed some work to be able to do what you stupidly rented cars for.

Just as true of buying what you only had to do some work on to be able to be used for what you stupidly rented cars for to do your drug runs with.

Nope, you f***ed that up completely.

But still much cheaper than renting so often.

You could have done that with the owned car.

Corse you could if you have bought an appropriate car.

Wrong, as always. The more often you do that the less economic sense it makes.

[Commander Kinsey]

Yip, my Golf did that. Easy to prove, accelerate from stationary slowly, revs are 2000. Floor it, revs jump up suddenly.

And how on earth do you think this negates what I said? I said my auto had 4 ratios.

[Commander Kinsey]

The number of times I've read of a Merkin crashing their car because they "confused the brake and accelerator". How the f*ck can you do that?

[Commander Kinsey]

Rover 75? I drove my neighbours one a few times, it felt like a learner driver was changing the gears without using the clutch.

[Commander Kinsey]

Correct, I never said otherwise. I said a RATIO is produced, totalling from the gears and the torque convertor. The ratio is simply the speed of the wheels compared to the speed of the engine.

[Commander Kinsey]

Fucking treehuggers messing everything up. They're never happy, put up windfarms and they complain about the noise, or that we're using up precious metals in the generators.

And there's no point in moaning about them when electric is taking over anyway.

And my point still stands, diesel cars have been around for a long time, well before we went all soft and green. Why the hell didn't we ditch the inefficient petrol engines which wore out quicker?

[Ahem A Rivet's Shot]

Because diesel engines were (for a long time) perceived as slow, noisy and dirty, mainly due to early truck engines. Also perceived as only being suitable for larger engines which is why when they did come to cars it started in the big Mercs.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Smallest Diesel I have seen is 0.3 cc:-)

And of course the real technology that helped make diesels work effectively was turbocharging ...

[Ahem A Rivet's Shot]

Indeed, especially when combined with inter-cooling.

[Commander Kinsey]

I've never changed brake fluid in my life. Presumably it can't absorb water if it doesn't get in.

[Commander Kinsey]

But all that went away quite a while ago.