Only one EV charger at home?!

Many hills in your area?

Getting manual cars in general has become much more difficult in the UK. New models in some marques are automatic only for petrol or diesel :(

They probably won't even get out of the parking lot if they have never driven a manual gearbox vehicle before. Too many things to do at once and the swap to having to use left hand to do gear shifts takes some getting used to if you are right handed (and vice versa for us driving in the USA but to a much lesser extent). Using your left hand to do something precisely like that is harder if you are right handed.

The other way around auto to manual is trivial although you might well declutch the brake approaching the barrier for the first time.

Be careful what you wish for. The Japanese driving test takes place on a standardised layout about the size of a cricket pitch complete with its own hump back bridge. Every driving school has one as learners are not allowed on the roads. The result is pretty weird.

I know because I have taken the practical test in Japan when I lived there. It was fun since we have been driving an automatic for a year and the test was in a clapped out manual gearbox official car supplied by the test centre. Second gear was almost completely worn out!

Remembering that "Green" traffic lights are officially "Blue" in Japanese is essential to obtaining a pass...

Mostly it is the planning ahead where (new) drivers fail.

There are gaps in the hedges on all the tight bends where I live. The odd one has a radar activated please go round the dangerous bend sign. They never work on cold frosty winter's mornings...

Autos are so much better than they used to be that it is probably far safer for average drivers to use them. And there are a lot of very average drivers around.

Engines tend to last longer in an auto. You dint tend to use peak RPM so much.

Easier while learning, allowing inept drivers to forget about one task and concentrate on not failing the test elsewhere. Those that have the ability to pass in a manual will not only do so, but gear changes become almost subconscious, so they are no distraction from driving.

In message <u2o1b3$3ivf$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me, The Natural Philosopher snipped-for-privacy@invalid.invalid writes

My style of driving is to get into the highest gear possible as quickly as possible, while not making the engine labour.

With autos, when accelerating I find that they hang on in the lower gears for much longer than I'm used to. I find myself easing off the acceleration in order to coax it into changing up. Also, when reaching an upward slope, they change down earlier than I would in a manual. The general result is that the engine is often revving faster than I feel it needs to.

Do you mean the light is actually green but you have to call it blue?

It *is* a slightly more turquoise shade of green than in the West but it you don't answer "Blue" (in Japanese) you will fail the test. More here:

I wonder if it has anything to do with history? Either of very early traffic lights or from the Japanese railways?

On British railways, the old semaphore stop signals had "spectacle" lenses fitted at the pivot end of the arm, so as to show a red or green light at night. They were originally lit by oil lamps, which had a yellow flame, so the "green" lens was actually blue, so as to emit green light. Even when the lighting was converted to electric, they continued to use the blue lens and fitted yellow bulbs for some time.

Been there, done that, got the T shirt...

I tuck my left foot under my right when I start off. Well, usually...

Andy

Wimp. I had a 3.5 litre V8, until I blew it up.

But clocks are inaccurate.

They can't limit me. I can take the full 24kW if I want.

Mine are just crimped pieces of lead or whatever. Easy to get on Ebay for a couple of quid.

Until that s*it breaks. But if you pull a filler flap hard, it opens anyway.

I wonder how many youths will go around cutting through charging cables?

A hippy?

Never ever buy a car from a car dealer. They will disguise every fault.

For f*ck's sake, you run a wire form the nearest piece of electricity. Just how dense are you?

Don't use a duct. Cables are waterproof.

Without using a duct, nobody will care you tacked a wire onto the wall.

And your population just accepts this?

F*ck the regs. It's your house.

In English please?

The trouble is the car makers haven't made the cars to take more than 8kW on a single phase. Either cost or because they don't think anyone wants to.

But you can always create three phase from single.

So the only review states the first one shipped was faulty. And they have a picture of a 40A breaker and say it's 80A. Doesn't sound like a company which knows what it's doing.

You're in the UK I believe? Well Whatcar etc etc etc disagrees. "All petrol and diesel sold in the UK must conform to British and European standards - EN228 for unleaded and for diesel EN590. This means that they should all work in the same way"

Supermarket fuel is cheaper because they make a smaller profit. Just like their bread costing less than a baker.