ask me about...

[Pyraxis]

Right, because a testosterone-driven, manly vehicle is just what I need. 

[renaeden]

I'm interested in the 2 cats, mdagli. How old are they and what are their names?

[Jack]

I actually charge it from a public post at 9p per kilowatt. I get billed about £10 a month for 400 miles. So about 2.5p per mile, which is about 250 watts per mile. It only has 70 mile range due to being small (smart) but plan to one day upgrade the main drive battery as and when newer technology becomes available. Just bare in mind refurbishment is £8,000 and brand new is £15,000. I purchased it without a battery lease and the whole vehicle cost £11,000 second hand.

Public charging stations. This is how out of touch I am. Apparently my city is littered with them and I've never even heard of such a thing. £10 for 400 miles is a good deal. 70 miles doesn't sound too bad. Tend to average about 15-20 miles per day. How long does your car take to charge up?

[mdagli1]

Using the single phase 7kW on board charger, about an hour per 20 miles of range.


Our 2 cats are just ordinary tabbies. Sammy (fatty) and timmy are brothers.

[Queen Victoria]

I am prevented from getting an electric car or motor scooter (too old for a motorcycle) by having to evacuate about 425 miles (my sister's house slightly northwest of Houston) with The PR in case of a hurricane.

[Jack]

Using the single phase 7kW on board charger, about an hour per 20 miles of range.


Our 2 cats are just ordinary tabbies. Sammy (fatty) and timmy are brothers.

Over three hours for a full charge seems like a long wait; that's assuming it's rude to do anything other than charge up and then move out of the way so others can use it. Do like the smart cars though, because they're tiny and cute. Drive a mini and people seem to assume it get great mileage because it's tiny, but it's an older model with a supercharged engine, so am lucky to get 22 miles per gallon in the city. Still a lot better than my old jeep.

[Minister Of Silly Walks]

I get 50+ miles per gallon out of my 3 cylinder car. That's imperial mpg though, we've got bigger gallons.

That's my real world driving too, not the claim of the manufacturer.

An electric car would be ideal for me now because I mostly just drive to the train station and back home again.

[odeon]

50+ mpg is pretty good. Doesn't sound like much fun, though.

[Minister Of Silly Walks]

50+ mpg is pretty good. Doesn't sound like much fun, though.

When I was doing a longer commute it would vary between 5.5 and 5.7 litres per 100 km.

Depends on your definition of fun. It's fun for me, it's a 5-speed manual and gets along quite nicely but you've got to work the gears. I'm obviously not winning too many drag races against hot hatches or sports cars.

I remember when I was 19 and my boss had a mini. We were driving somewhere and he got a flat tyre. He got really upset because he didn't have a jack, I told him "no worries, I'll lift while you change the tyre". It was a bit heavier than I expected... but I managed to get the wheel off the ground and we changed the tyre. He still tells people that story.

[odeon]

OK, that's sort of fun.

[Minister Of Silly Walks]

When I was still in high school, so maybe 16 or 17 years old, my father had a little Suzuki hatch that was probably similar weight to a Mini. One day he accused me and my friends of moving the back end of it. I was really pissed off because (1) I didn't do it and my nerd friends certainly didn't do it; and (2) he assumed that I needed help to lift his stupid car. So I started wheeling his stupid car around, by myself, just about every day purely to piss him off. It was a lot easier to lift than a Mini because I could grip the bumper bar, press my back against the hatch, and do the whole lift with my legs from about a half-squat position. Whereas with the Mini I had to mainly use my back/arms/shoulders to lift it.

[odeon]

[Jack]

The mini had runflats on it when purchased. When one went bad, just bought a new full set of tires but passed on the expense of new runflats. Worry a bit now about having a flat, because the car sits so low it seems it would be impossible to get a jack under it, even without a flat tire.

[Genesis]

Do you like Tacos?

[DirtDawg]

Do we humans actually deserve dogs?