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Took the new boy for a run to the Cairngorms at the weekend. ‘Vader’ as he’s been anthropomorphically named, did a very good job and returned 3miles per kWh, giving me a cost of 2.3p per mile. I used normal drive mode, had the heater, demister, rear screen, heated seats and wheel, and hifi all on the entire time. 120 miles covered from full charge and still had 103 left even in nearly 0 temperature. Pleased with that.Generally very happy with my choice, electric drive is so good ?. Comfy, fast (ok, really really fast ?), easy, secure on slippery roads, quiet (apart from the bings and bongs of a million safety systems all telling me I’m sh*t at driving), just really nice place to be. Rather than offer my opinions I’d be happy to answer any questions you might have as best I can. ?
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No, mine doesn’t have the heat pump. TBA the car was already built so I didn’t have a chance to specify it, but even if I could’ve I wouldn’t have spent an extra £1k as I don’t think the benefit is enough. From a cost perspective the £1000 will never work out for me, at 3p per mile I’d have to cover an extra 33,000 miles to make the money back, and from a convenience perspective mine does have (as standard on all models now) battery preconditioning which allows fast charging irrespective of the air temp as long as you’ve told the car via built on sat nav that you’re heading for a fast charger. I think, even with a 50kw charger, it’ll charge faster than I can walk to the loo, spend £10 on a dodgy coffee, and walk back! In my case it’s 99% charge at home anyway. A few trips per year down to my folks in mid Wales is the only long distance I do these days and driving at 20mph in the Land of my Fathers might save me some range! ? ???????
@kezo ?. Yeah, I chose the AWD premium thanks to the often poor winters we have in northern Scotland. I’d have liked some of the toys available on the Ultimate, and you certainly wouldn’t have much use for the extra power AWD gives (it’s comically fast in a straight line but in no way a sports car once bends arrive), but I wanted the chance to use the car in all conditions. It did really well during the recent icy spell, although I’m not sure how I’ll get on without any engine braking when the white stuff arrives. Apparently they don’t advise using brake regen when slippery and the snow mode actually disables it. Might end up having to use the actual brakes and imagine there’s an egg under the pedal ?! Plenty of grip though so fingers crossed. I’ve debated winter tyres but it’s a big cost for a car I’ll never own. North American spec cars come with all season Michelins, but we make do with the summer version. If Motability covered the continued use of all seasons I’d be prepared to cover the initial cost but they won’t. Bit of a poor policy that. ?♂️Love the car and I love the Cairngorms. Did you take your partner up the funicular?
Skoda Enyaq Race Blue
Nah, wrong side for that. I did offer to take her up the other way but she just glared at me?! Then suggested that if I wanted to go that route she’d need a bottle of wine first? Must be scared of heights ?♂️. ?
@Bowly101 you sound like you know what you’re doing driving in bad weather but here’s my advice… use the regen ?
I know you’ll soon work out yourself what’s best but on one hand they say using engine braking but on the other not to use regen cause it can lock the wheels and cause a skid… that’s not how it works unless they’ve changed the laws of physics ? once that wheel has stopped turning there is no regen plus regen normally stops about 5 or 10mph (depends on the car?)
Also I thought the funicular was out of order again ?
Funicular – A mountain railway on which counterbalanced cars on parallel sets of rails are pulled up and lowered by cables : also funicular railway Webster’s New World College Dictionary, 4th Edition.
Perhaps some are taking it out of context? Anyway if they had a bottle of wine they could have christened the car!
I will get my coat.
2024 - KIA EV6 GT Line AWD
2019 - 2024 BMW X1 2.0d X Drive Sport Auto
2017 -2019 Audi Q3 2.0d Quattro Sport Line Plus
2005 - 2017 Honda CRV Exec 2.0dGreat advice, thanks. I spent the first 30yrs living in almost tropical South Wales, the only real snow I’d seen was the famous winter of ‘82 and the occasional ski trip. For the last 20 odd winters I’ve lived 40 miles north west of Aberdeen so I now know what proper snow looks like! It’s part of the routine and as a consequence I’ve become fairly experienced with slippery conditions. Nowhere near an expert though, I keep on learning, and this very different car is just another curve to adapt to. You’re right that it will take some trial and error to work out the best settings for all the systems to find the sweet spot, I intend to do just that. I had an interesting experience last week when we had the rain fall on deeply frozen ground. Having done the standard thing of not reading the manual (tbh it is the size of the bible, not joking!) I assumed snow mode took care of everything related to slippery road driving and thought it would adjust the regen to mid level (there are 6 levels in this car ranging from zero to full 1 pedal and including an auto mode worked out by the software/nav system/driving mode). The car went up our iced track with barely a slip, I was really impressed. Imagine my surprise when coming back down the hill to find no regen whatsoever as snow mode had turned it off! ? Basically a 2 ton bobsleigh. During subsequent trips I turned snow mode off and used medium regen and found it to be very like engine braking but I’d gritted by then. When the white stuff arrives I’ll be experimenting and I’ll provide some feedback. The mechanical/tyre grip seems comparable to our other car which is an AWD Volvo on all seasons.
?? I am at expert level when taking things out of context, especially where Mrs B is concerned!
I believe the Funicular is still out of action, a funding issue. I’ve only been once, many years ago, when I took my newborn son up. Big mistake! As an inexperienced Dad I wasn’t aware that babies can’t regulate ear pressure very well so once we were half way up he started screaming. And didn’t stop until we went down. I endured a lot of disapproving looks that day ?. That put me off for good!
Love the Vader name @bowly101!??
I’m thinking about the same model to replace my Volvo XC40 T5 Hybrid…
Kind regards
Andy======================
Motability cars:
2021 - Volvo XC40 T5 PHEV.
2020 - VW Golf TDi SE Match.
2017 - VW Golf TDi SE Match.Not sure how it started but since having kids all our cars have to have a name and this one was easy!
Funnily enough the lease car that’s just gone was an XC40, although a B4 mild hybrid version. If you’d like a comparison let me know. My wife has a B5 Volvo too so I’m very familiar with that power train as well. ?
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