Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

Thanks!

Sounds like you're well set to reject the PoS. Good luck.

Sweet. That reminds me, I need to register the Trav as MOT exempt. And drive it.

WIP

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Ta. Out of interest, d'ya reckon I should mention that a chargeback is possible if they don't want to volunteer a resolution? Assuming of course that I can get my bank on board first.

Can't see it would hurt. I doubt the bank would be bothered, and it might prompt scum-dealer into doing the right thing.

Genuinely interesting presentation on battery tech from Tesla last night.

Seems like they have a clear production roadmap to halving battery cost and increasing range by 50% within the next 2-3 years; culminating in the in-housing of their battery manufacturing and the release of a $25k electric car.

Going to be a lot of nervous manufacturers of cars and batteries after that...

Solid state?

CHe?

This is awesome.

No.

I would call it marginal gains from several different things (ie something achievable and not a lab tech that'll take decades to deliver).

First a new battery cell design, tab-less which reduces cost and also increase power / range, larger physically but without the heat issues that usually comes with.

Second, anode / cathode material changes that remove cobalt and improve electrode travel, increasing efficiency and decreasing cost.

Third, a change in the process from wet to dry rolling battery material which reduces the factory footprint, manufacturing process (and therefore cost) by an order of magnitude.

Finally, integration of cells into the vehicle architecture. Basically a single process for casting each half of a car, that allows you to integrate the cell into the physical floor of the car and glueing them in. Making the car lighter, with tighter packaging and higher rigidity whilst reducing cost and increasing potential capacity per car size (more cells for the same footprint).

Pretty exciting stuff that allows for scaling of battery production and massive capacity / footprint gains whilst improving cost and carbon efficiency.

And due to Brexit their European factory is now going to be in Germany rather than the UK.

Classic winning strategy.

This was genuinely my most wanted car when I was young. Street Machine did a series of tuning articles for them back in the early 90's and I wished I'd kept them. From memory it was common to use a fiat twin cam block with a celica rear axle, cheap parts back then...

Genuine pick ups are hard to find and many (like the one in the pic) have non standard beds. Such a shame car like this are now completely out of reach for most.

New car today. Going full ecowarrior with a 2017 Nissan Leaf 30kWh model.

Will report back on how I get on.

Sick Fadez

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New car today.

an autumn Leaf

These both seem to be very nice examples but very expensive... or am I just a cheapskate?

Legacy Spec B

328i touring

Boring q: My parking permit has been approved, paid for and processed. Received an email saying I can now park in my zone. Should I still wait for my physical permit?

Mad money for the Spec B.

Just selling my 130k auto Spec b for 2400.

You'll see a wee drop in fuel costs with the leaf..

Just paid £2600 for my e46, 320d touring. 75k, one owner, 04 plate. It’s a low spec/base model but in good condition other than one big scratch. I was worried I paid over the odds! Lol. It’s not the fastest or fanciest (but more than good enough for me on both counts). Not many examples with low miles around.

Not ulez compliant tho.

Has it sold or is it still available?

Exactly how Jaguar should have done it the first time.

I love a roadster

Interesting, so 4 years older but sweet straight 6 power = £1,200 more

I can see cars like this becoming more and desirable as a "usable classic" by people like me who don't want a hideous modern car - I only do approx £5k a year so in theory should go on indefinitely with a reasonable level of maintenance