Count Your Blessings

[Bob Culver]

In the local newspaper a tale of a well heeled woman in the not insignifiacnt SI city of Dunedin. She had sprung $98000, over L50,000, for a Tesla and found that when it conked out has to arrange transport well over 200 miles to the larger city Christchurch for repair.
Compare with the Seven. Apart from the crank, little that cannot be fixed by the roadside and by quite low skilled to get you home. I get very nervous going anywhere in my inherited Jazz. Severe limitations on towing and any/many failures unfathomable and unfixable by me. I dont know how many yards it will go if the alternator ever fails.

[Tony Press]

Talking about Tesla batteries we just had a brand new large size battery in an array being installed locally burst into flames on test- last heard it was still burning after 3 days.

We often hear of Tesla car batteries catching on fire !

[Steve kay]

"If a lithium-ion battery ignites, it is an exothermic reaction rather than a combustible fire. To deal with such ignition requires specialist extinguishants, sometimes requiring application for a prolonged period. If the application of fire extinguishers do not extinguish the fire, ensure all personnel are suitably isolated from the vehicle by creation of an exclusion zone so that they are not affected by heat, gaseous emissions or any potential explosion."

There are whole sections in the blue book relating to EVs, from which the above is an extract.  Any lithium battery is banned from use on conventional competition cars.

 I found myself examining a Tesla, and could hardly believe that anyone would spend money on such an orgy of bad taste, and give away their money to such a pinnacle of the concept of planned obsolescence. Our Sevens, and indeed machines such as 2CVs, used little of the earth's resources to be built, often a long time ago, and require very little of those resources to keep going. Not a single part of my Ruby was made in China and has a dubious independence from the makers of chips and similar computer technology, none of it came from very dubious employers of children mining special metals. On those very rare occasions when something goes ever so slightly wrong, it can be put right by the sweat of the owner, advised by this forum from which nobody makes a penny. Our suppliers do not whisk components into darkened rooms, and then declare that they need to be replaced at enormous expense. 

End of ranting, now out to lie underneath a Seven, do Teslas have big ends?

[Andy Bennett]

They certainly have big TV screens.
It's one of the things I don't get in modern cars. In a time of cars being designed and curved to within (and past) an inch of their life, they have a TV screen strapped to the dash like a 5 year old placed it there.

[Chris KC]

Bob, I prefer "enthusiastic" to "low skilled"!

[Tony Griffiths]

Touch screens and connectivity in new cars are both serious dangers. Need to open the sunroof? How about just pressing a button? Absolutely not, switches cost money. Instead, the carmaker forces you to look at a touch screen, find the appropriation section, draw your finger along it and the roof opens. Except, at the exact moment you attempt that, the car goes over a bump and your finger resets the SatNav to some destination in the Far East. Meanwhile, as your attention is directed at the screen (an email comes in and you ponder the reply) 300 metres down the road at 70 mph you fail to notice the truck stopped in front of you. OK, the autonomous cruise control will bring you automatically to a violent stop - but ............

[Duncan Grimmond]

As I've said before, pedal power and public transport has to be the way of the future. If everyone riding a tram/bus was obliged to pedal a generator to assist the inertia flywheel-drive on board we would all be as fit as fleas!
What, you live in the countryside? Tough, there's a price to pay for your bucolic luxury: either capture cow-farts or generate methane from manure for your car else you'll have to cycle!

[David Stepney]

As I've said before, pedal power and public transport has to be the way of the future. If everyone riding a tram/bus was obliged to pedal a generator to assist the inertia flywheel-drive on board we would all be as fit as fleas!
What, you live in the countryside? Tough, there's a price to pay for your bucolic luxury: either capture cow-farts or generate methane from manure for your car else you'll have to cycle!

Bucolic luxury? What bucolic luxury? I live just outside Bala, and, whilst I have wonderful views and no near neighbours, there are downsides to living in the countryside. Firstly, any serious shopping is 30 miles away in any one direction. There are many times I have been to Wrexham and then on to Oswestry and home, a round trip of over 100 miles. Until the electric car industry comes up with a vehicle with decent range and a charging time measured in minutes rather than hours, 
I can’t see how we in the rural areas are going to still get around as we have become used to. I recall, not so long ago, having to travel up to Wolverhampton in the day and over to Blaenau Ffestiniog the same evening, total running distance of over 250 miles. A friend of mine, who owns a Nissan Leaf, attended the meeting at Blaenau and wistfully remarked that his then new Leaf would not have had the range to do such a mileage in one day.

Also, my water supply comes from a spring. We have had the driest spring and summer that I can remember, and the water supply dried up six weeks ago. We have been carrying water and relying on family and friends for showers and clothes washing for this time.onc eagling, what bucolic luxury?

[Bob Culver]

Hi Duncan
i understand some life boats had llarge levers like handbrakes which were oscillated by passengers. Some railway line inspection jiggers here operated that way when I was a boy. perhaps scope for buses. one for Seven pasengers could be helpful in head winds.

[Duncan Grimmond]

We have two stagecoaches a week here or a 1.5 mile walk to the bus stop. The time will come when the short-lived luxury of personal transport will be recognised for what it was, an unsustainable luxury with a high price.