OT: Driving electric cars in winter

[Bod]

Yup, I fill up from any side, whichever pump is vacant.

[John Rumm]

All the Jap cars I have had, have had the filler on the drivers side...

[charles]

My Mazda has the filler cap on the left hand side.

[Steve Walker]

It's not the height that the problem, it's the movement - it is illegal for vehicles to have lights (other than indicators on Lotus 7 style cars and possibly now headlights linked to the steering on some production cars, buts that's only because they may have approval from another EU country) that move around.

SteveW

[Steve Walker]

Or, if you have a kitcar like mine, everything is stiff enough that jacking one wheel more than a few inches off the floor (like when you want to put an axle stand under) lifts both sides!

SteveW

[Vir Campestris]

All the "Jap" cars we've had have had it on the left.

(one was built in Hungary, another in Sunderland, but by Japanese manufacturers)

Andy

[Steve Walker]

Well for a real world example: On the 19th of December we drove from Manchester to Stranraer with a car and trailer; took the ferry to Belfast; drove to Belleek; filled up with diesel (which I am very glad about) and carried on to a house outside Ballyshannon.

An hour after we arrived and just after we'd finished unpacking, our eldest son James (12) was making tea in the kitchen when he keeled over into a tonic-clonic (grand mal) seizure, but with a one sided facial contortion like a stroke. He had no previous health problems.

While I called an ambulance and then had to meet it at the end of the road to guide them (it was in the countryside, on a back road), my wife stayed with him.

The fit lasted a little over 7 minutes (usually such a fit is 3-4 minutes). Normally as the fit subsides, the person will either want to sleep or will be awake and confused, but our son went into full cardio-respiritory arrest. Luckily my wife is a nurse and managed to get his heart restarted. She repeatedly got him breathing, only for him to stop again after 3 or 4 breaths. He only started to breath properly just as the ambulance arrived.

He and my wife were then taken to Letterkenny Hospital (over an hour's drive away).

As I'd refilled my car - which I'd done as it only takes a couple of minutes and I had been passing the cheapest garage in the area, I could follow the ambulance - with his two younger brothers, who were desperate to make sure that he was alright and some clothes. Without that we'd have been stranded and desperate to get to the hospital.

After he'd been checked over and settled in for the night, I could then drive somewhere to get some food for his brothers and then back to the house for the night.

The following day, involved the same 2-1/2 hour round trip to retrieve my wife and our son, followed (in short order), by a 2-1/2 hour round trip in the opposite direction to Sligo - as we had just found out that her uncle James (yes our son is named after him) was dying.

That is all real and just confirms to me that I want the flexibility, range and short refill time of a petrol, diesel or LPG car and not a range limited, slow recharging electric one. Once electrics can match range and refill times, I will look again.

Meanwhile, our son has not yet had another fit and is awaiting scans to make sure there is no underlying cause.

SteveW

[News]

In message , Bod writes

Ditto. I still can't, and never could, remember which side the filler cap was on my last car, which I drove for 18 years,

[Tim+]

Quite a few cars now have a small arrow painted over the petrol pump symbol in the fuel gauge to remind you which side the filler is.

Tim

[John Rumm]

On those with a picture of a petrol pump, the side the hose is on the picture normally matches the side the filler is on the car.

[NY]

*Normally* that's the case: either the pump symbol has the hose on the side where the filler is or else there's an arrow beside the pump on the side where the filler is.

But I remember reading a few months ago about a make of car (can't remember any details. sorry) where this was not the case and the "standard" pointers pointed to the *opposite* side. :-(

[Mr Macaw]

While you're moving your foot from the brake to the gas, you have released the clutch pedal slightly so the engine is holding the car form going backwards.

People who take advanced tests tend to follow the rules without thinking for themselves.

[Mr Macaw]

Bullshit. They have rev limiters. Do this: sit in your driveway in neutral or with the clutch in, and rev it up. Keep your foot on the gas for 5 minutes. Do you really think you'll break the engine?!?

[Mr Macaw]

Indeed. But what I was actually thinking of but forgot at the time was the other end. If you jack up the back of the car, you want the front wheels braked. If it's rear wheel drive with a rear wheel handbrake, you can't do that and the car could roll off the jack while you're under it.

Handbrakes that pass MOTs are still dodgy. Mine won't hold the car on a hill right after an MOT.

The other rear wheel has f*ck all weight on it. I don't wish to buy chocks just because the manufacturer is a f****it. I'd never buy a RWD car anyway, they don't handle very well. Just look at any BMW.

[Mr Macaw]

Why don't all cars use hydraulic suspension? Those Citroens are great. Look for the video of Top Gear driving one round a racetrack while filming horses.

[Waimer]

Cost.

Most car buyers didn't agree.

[Mr Macaw]

Surely it would only take as long as a single gearbox car?

What I like about autos is you get no jerks while accelerating hard and it changes gear, I assume a DSG would jerk, as the power from the engine would be less when you've changed into 3rd from 2nd.

Chicken feed compared to all the other crumple zone shit we have nowadays.

[Mr Macaw]

I found my Golf with a torque converter was good with my foot down. Very good when overtaking, as soon as my foot went down, it would fly forwards with high revs.

[Mr Macaw]

There are many expensive cars. Why don't we see it on Mercs and BMWs?

I've known three people with such a car, and two of them said it was brilliant (where brilliant referred to the ride comfort). The other said it was brilliant but unreliable and expensive to fix - I think he was unusual as I've not heard of reliability problems in general.

I fail to see how anybody could think they were crap, basically they smooth out bumps MUCH better than normal suspension.

[Mr Macaw]

What makes you think that?