OT: Driving electric cars in winter

[Mr Macaw]

My Golf required the brake to go from R to D, and form D to R. Not sure at what point it stopped me, I assumed it was from N to D and from N to R.

[Mr Macaw]

Which is why you'd select a sensible gear to do an emergency stop. In fact, is it even possible to get a manual gear lever into 1st when going 70mph? The synchromesh wouldn't be able to.

[Mr Macaw]

Even with a normal car, you're taking a lot of weight off the other rear wheel.

[Clive George]

Mercedes and Rolls Royce did use it.

They have a reputation for unreliability. IME that's bollocks for the later ones (though the latest computer-controlled ones might be worse again - Citroen managed to get their hydraulics sorted, but their electrics were a bit crap), but the reputation was set by then.

It is a bit annoying if a pipe goes - you lose brakes, oower steering and suspension, in the opposite order.

Sadly Citroen have now pretty much reverted to steel suspension - I think hydraulic might be an option on the top models of the bigger ones, but that's it. Just as Merc and RR worked out, they can make metal-sprung cars which ride and handle as well, and it probably is cheaper to make.

[Waimer]

That produces a lighter car, not a heavier one.

[Waimer]

Because that extra complexity doesn't really deliver much for most.

Sure, but those were obviously people who prefer that approach.

Not crap so much as not worth the significant cost.

And why don't you have one yourself ?

[Mr Macaw]

In total, I'm sure adding safety equipment makes it heavier. Maybe it's more the roll cage etc.

[Mr Macaw]

You mean people who prefer a smooth journey to a fairground ride? Isn't that everybody?

They are significantly smoother. Several times smoother in fact. Just watch the Top Gear horse filming video.

I use 2nd hand cars and I've never seen one for sale near here.

[Mr Macaw]

On Thu, 03 Mar 2016 11:34:43 -0000, charles wr= ote:

What would be the reasoning behind doing that?

-- =

Flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how much weight you have gained.

[Mr Macaw]

On Thu, 03 Mar 2016 11:27:45 -0000, Davey wrote:=

Sorry, I will try to spend my entire life on newsgroups from now on.

There is here, most are on the right, and so is mine, which means I can = always get a free pump by going to the wrong side and pulling the hose a= cross.

-- =

Flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how much weight you have gained.

[Mr Macaw]

The only pump I saw that wouldn't was an LPG pump. The attendant said i= t was for safety, which was a load of s**te as most LPG hoses are actual= ly much LONGER.

-- =

A lawyer is simply a computer on two legs. It cannot think for itself, = all it can do is remember vast amounts of information - past cases, bill= ions of strange laws, etc.

[Waimer]

It's silly to claim that the high end Mercs and Beemers are a fairground ride.

So why didn't you get one when in France ?

[Mr Macaw]

I didn't. A similar car but not with Citroen suspension, is a fairground ride in comparison, especially with speed bumps. Now Bose suspension, that is excellent. You don't even feel the speedbump at all.

Because I only buy a car when the last one is broken. And importing one would be a hassle with red tape surely?

[Waimer]

Not within the EU, easy as falling off a log. Even you should be able to manage it.

[harry]

I had one. Excellent in every respect. But a rot box.

[NY]

My sister, who used to feel a bit queasy in some cars, said that my dad's Citroen GS was worse than many other cars, so maybe it smoothed out the bumps but left some sort of vague swaying motion that triggered her car-sickness. I wouldn't know: I've never experienced it and I can even read in a car which my sister and my wife can't do - my wife can't even read on a train or an aeroplane so she uses spoken books (eg from Audible) to while away long journeys.

I liked my dad's GS. It had a few quirks - like the non-self-cancelling indicators, the radio that was mounted vertically between the seats (*) and the bizarre C-Matic transmission that was effectively an automatic gearbox (torque converter, epicyclic) but with a gear lever for changing gear manually. And a flat-four boxer engine that was woefully small (I think it was only about 1100) so needed to run at stupid revs. But a nice comfy luxurious car. His later Xantia was even better (decent-sized diesel engine, conventional auto transmission) whose only embuggerance was that the full-beam light on the dashboard was completely hidden by your hands on the steering wheel.

(*) My dad always used to get crumbs and other grot in the cassette slot :-(

[Dave Plowman (News)]

If you went to the bother of an epicyclic box, you may as well have a full auto. Which is why pre-select boxes disappeared when full autos arrived.

It was a conventional synchromesh box - based on their earlier four speed, but with only three, and a torque convertor. They did do some clever things with the TC line pressure to smooth out gear changes, though.

The reason for these odd ball transmissions is the factory already had the equipment to make a conventional gearbox. But not an epicyclic one.

[NY]

Ah, was it a conventional box? How did they handle the situation of changing gear without a clutch pedal? Shame they chose to give it a 3-speed rather

4-speed box and that they used the 3-speed layout of gears, with reverse and first in one plane and then second and third in the next. I was always terrified of hitting reverse instead of second when changing up, though I imagine it had a very good interlock, though I don't remember an actual lifting collar or push/pull gear lever interlock.

It was a very notchy gearchange, with a very pronounced "bang-bang" as the lever was moved out of one gear, into neutral and then into the next gear, and very difficult to change down smoothly (eg when approaching a junction or when about to go down a steep hill). And the torque converter gave a

*very* woolly feel because there was so much "slack" in the ratios: you apply more power and there's a lot of increase in engine speed to accommodate changing TC ratio before the wheels start to feel the effect of increased engine speed.

I wouldn't have touched it with a bargepole, but dad preferred it to fully manual with clutch. He'd had a series of auto cars before (mainly Hillman Hunters) and then had a manual GS which he didn't really like so when his company car was due for renewal he went for another GS (or maybe a GSA) with C-Matic as Citroen didn't do proper auto on the GS. After that he went for Honda Accords and a Ford Sierra (all auto) before having a Citroen Xantia which was lovely. Don't remember whether that was auto but dad's random gear-selection was notorious when he drove mum's car so he'd probably forgotten how to drive a manual and would have chosen auto :-)

I remember another quirk of the GS/GSA: the brakes were separate from the hubs and were at the other end of the universal joints between gearbox and wheels which made it a much harder job whenever the garage needed to change pads/discs.

That single-spoke steering wheel was a bit bizarre too. At least it was circular, unlike the Quartic one on the early Allegros which was "what were they smoking when they designed that one" territory :-)

[Davey]

My only experience of driving an Allegro was picking one up in London, driving to Southampton, then on arrival at Bilboa, driving it diagonally across Spain to south of Valencia. This was in about 1975 or so, when the main roads had mostly one track tarmacc'ed. It was sometimes the left lane, sometimes the right lane, and often the middle section, without lanes. By the time I arrived, I had got the hang of the bizarre steering wheel. I and had to drive it back some months later...

[Mr Macaw]

What stopped the petrol flying out the other side?