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Post by gezza on Aug 3, 2023 17:42:03 GMT
Had the same 520d as above for 7 years with no problems and very reasonable running costs and now have a 530d xdrive msport and still fairly reasonable costs.
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Post by zou on Aug 3, 2023 18:02:50 GMT
Not spent a penny on motoring since 2019. Drive work vehicles from time to time to stop me forgetting how to drive.
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Post by geoffr on Aug 3, 2023 20:48:05 GMT
I wouldn’t have another Diesel Why not? My 308 diesel has averaged over 60mpg throughout the last year, no real issues with reliability with it or the Focus diesel I drove for at least 7 years before then (getting similar economy for everyday driving and managing 80mph on a long trip on at least one occasion). I get to drive petrol hire cars for work fairly regularly & they don't perform significantly better, just use more fuel. Three letters, DPF. I do too many short journeys to keep one in good order. |
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Post by JohnY on Aug 3, 2023 21:03:09 GMT
Not spent a penny on motoring since 2019. Drive work vehicles from time to time to stop me forgetting how to drive. Driving is a bit like swimming, riding a bike, using a proper Nikon, or flying a fixed wing aircraft. They become almost instinctive, but one does have to be aware of gotchers, generally caused by new technology. |
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Post by willien on Aug 3, 2023 21:35:21 GMT
Not spent a penny on motoring since 2019. Drive work vehicles from time to time to stop me forgetting how to drive. Driving is a bit like swimming, riding a bike, using a proper Nikon, or flying a fixed wing aircraft. They become almost instinctive, but one does have to be aware of gotchers, generally caused by new technology. Yoda. Relaxed be seems are you.. |
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Post by andy on Aug 3, 2023 21:52:52 GMT
Why not? My 308 diesel has averaged over 60mpg throughout the last year, no real issues with reliability with it or the Focus diesel I drove for at least 7 years before then (getting similar economy for everyday driving and managing 80mph on a long trip on at least one occasion). I get to drive petrol hire cars for work fairly regularly & they don't perform significantly better, just use more fuel. Three letters, DPF. I do too many short journeys to keep one in good order. Clogged EGR valves and knackered dual mass flywheels seem to be common problems for those that can get past the sound of spanners in a washing machine too. |
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Post by peterob on Aug 4, 2023 6:46:13 GMT
Three letters, DPF. I do too many short journeys to keep one in good order. Clogged EGR valves and knackered dual mass flywheels seem to be common problems for those that can get past the sound of spanners in a washing machine too. They can be a bit of a clatter. I drive a diesel because, 10 years ago, that was the only engine available for the car I wanted. Other than the clatter it is fine. It has an older non-regenerative DPF so it is noticeable when the clean cycle starts but we don't use it for very short (cold start) journeys so the cycle usually kicks in on a motorway cruise. I appreciate the range of over 600 miles. Performance is adequate and at least as good as, if not better than, the petrol cars that we've had. All engine technologies have advanced incredibly. I find it hard to believe that a modern 3-cylinder petrol engine can produce more power than the 2.8 V6 I had in a Ford Granada back in the day (110 bhp). |
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Post by petrochemist on Aug 4, 2023 7:25:25 GMT
Why not? My 308 diesel has averaged over 60mpg throughout the last year, no real issues with reliability with it or the Focus diesel I drove for at least 7 years before then (getting similar economy for everyday driving and managing 80mph on a long trip on at least one occasion). I get to drive petrol hire cars for work fairly regularly & they don't perform significantly better, just use more fuel. Three letters, DPF. I do too many short journeys to keep one in good order. I guess you must have a very different driving pattern to me, my daily commute involves about 13 miles of open road each way and I very rarely face stop start traffic for more than 100yds. Its now probably only a half dozen times a year that I take my own car for trips beyond the range of an electric car, but even that is enough to make them impractical for me. Even without considering the high purchase costs... |
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Post by andy on Aug 4, 2023 7:55:14 GMT
Clogged EGR valves and knackered dual mass flywheels seem to be common problems for those that can get past the sound of spanners in a washing machine too. They can be a bit of a clatter. I drive a diesel because, 10 years ago, that was the only engine available for the car I wanted. Other than the clatter it is fine. It has an older non-regenerative DPF so it is noticeable when the clean cycle starts but we don't use it for very short (cold start) journeys so the cycle usually kicks in on a motorway cruise. I appreciate the range of over 600 miles. Performance is adequate and at least as good as, if not better than, the petrol cars that we've had. All engine technologies have advanced incredibly. I find it hard to believe that a modern 3-cylinder petrol engine can produce more power than the 2.8 V6 I had in a Ford Granada back in the day (110 bhp). SWMBO has one of those 1 litre ecoboost engines in her fiesta and gets well over 50mpg usually. They go quite well but are a step back in refinement under load and are also known as ecoboom because of catastrophic failures like cracked blocks. Fingers crossed! |
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Post by geoffr on Aug 4, 2023 20:38:54 GMT
Three letters, DPF. I do too many short journeys to keep one in good order. I guess you must have a very different driving pattern to me, my daily commute involves about 13 miles of open road each way and I very rarely face stop start traffic for more than 100yds. Its now probably only a half dozen times a year that I take my own car for trips beyond the range of an electric car, but even that is enough to make them impractical for me. Even without considering the high purchase costs... Commute? What commute? I drive a six mile trip (12 mile round trip) 3 or 4 times a week and a couple of shorter round trips. I might do a longer journey but not very often anything that would allow a DPF to regenerate. Longer journeys, possibly once a month but rarely long motorway trips. An electric car has attractions but the cost isn’t at all attractive, neither is the mass of a car with suitable range. |
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Post by zx9 on Aug 5, 2023 8:42:59 GMT
Having seen the bribe increase from £5K to £7k I will probably scrap my van, I only started looking in to it yesterday but so far I can not see how it is to be treated from a VAT point and can only assume that the £7k is inc. VAT. Which makes just under £6K back to me where as the value of the vehicle is about £4k, as it is only needed four or five projects a year I suppose that I will have to except the slow slide into semi retirement. Yes I could hire a vehicle which is expensive or I could easily spend £20k on a Euro6 van or £30+k on an electric van, neither of which would see a positive return on investment.
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Post by dreampolice on Oct 24, 2023 7:33:07 GMT
The friends we went to stay with this weekend live in Surrey and have registered 2 of their non compliant vehicles for auto pay. One of them has a private plate in the format ‘2 ABC’. He has had at least 10 charges against the car when it has not been in London. He got his money back but it seems if the ANPR gets a partial hit and the vehicles reg number has his digit and letters in, he gets the bill. He has seen the photos and there are vans, trucks and cars for whom he has paid!
Conversely his other non compliant vehicle is his motorcycle which has never been picked up despite being used quite a few times.
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Post by andy on Oct 24, 2023 9:13:02 GMT
The friends we went to stay with this weekend live in Surrey and have registered 2 of their non compliant vehicles for auto pay. One of them has a private plate in the format ‘2 ABC’. He has had at least 10 charges against the car when it has not been in London. He got his money back but it seems if the ANPR gets a partial hit and the vehicles reg number has his digit and letters in, he gets the bill. He has seen the photos and there are vans, trucks and cars for whom he has paid! Conversely his other non compliant vehicle is his motorcycle which has never been picked up despite being used quite a few times. Perhaps the other vehicles have stealth plates or really bright lights that shine on the number plate? Suspect the lights could be rather effective at obscuring parts of a licence plate, especially if the light includes IR and that's not difficult for an LED. |
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Post by MJB on Oct 24, 2023 9:24:35 GMT
The friends we went to stay with this weekend live in Surrey and have registered 2 of their non compliant vehicles for auto pay. One of them has a private plate in the format ‘2 ABC’. He has had at least 10 charges against the car when it has not been in London. He got his money back but it seems if the ANPR gets a partial hit and the vehicles reg number has his digit and letters in, he gets the bill. He has seen the photos and there are vans, trucks and cars for whom he has paid! Conversely his other non compliant vehicle is his motorcycle which has never been picked up despite being used quite a few times. Perhaps the other vehicles have stealth plates or really bright lights that shine on the number plate? Suspect the lights could be rather effective at obscuring parts of a licence plate, especially if the light includes IR and that's not difficult for an LED. My wife's Vauxhall Tigra has a factory fitted bent front number plate and car park ANPR cameras can't recognize it. |
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Post by dreampolice on Oct 24, 2023 9:33:10 GMT
Coincidentally I have just seen a story on my Apple News feed about a guy who has been having the same problem with a similar formatted personalised plate, where he has been billed for other folks charges. Like my mate, he has been advised by TFL to remove auto pay.
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