C8RKH

It seems these days that washing and polishing your car has, for far too many, become the hobby that has replaced actually driving your car.

If "Mount Gay" was the name of an old traditional English pub, the petitions would be in to have the "offensive" name changed. I'm not a connoisseur of Rum but do like a little of this Venezuelan rum. I was introduced to it by a friend with a Venezuelan wife. I take it with a couple of ice cubes and like to drink it sat outside as the sun goes down. Chillin' at its best, but I only have one these days as have seriously reduced my alcohol intake and am feeling the benefits!

I do long road trips of 4-7 days in my Sport 410 +nothing. The lack of fold on the carbon buckets is mildly irritating, however I use soft bags and they fit in fine. I've had stuff for mr and Mrs C for 7 days, including folding picnic chairs and table in it. No issues. The fold in the recaro seats in my NA + nothing was a breeze for carrying stuff. I'm sure the Emira seats will fold, so that should be easy to live with too for touring. Indeed, I reckon a V6 Auto Emira would be a great continent cruiser. I've never forgiven Lotus for not doing a Targa Evora, the fact they haven't done one for Emira is unforgivable. A simple fabric Elise/Exige arrangement (or a simple panel like 308/328) would have been sufficient for me, the fancy tri-folding convertibles just add weight and is something else to go wrong.

They never mention the Fiat bin parts in Ferrari's, or, the VW/Audi parts in the Lamborghini's (which are numerous), Porsche and Bentleys. Funny 'dat.

Welcome back. I have thought about leaving but just can't! The force may be strong with you, but remember, never take your helmet off. "This is the way".

The Evora was criminally undervalued, partly due to frankly piss poor Lotus marketing efforts, and partly down to the fact that mo9st journo's couldn't see beyond Porsche. It seems that, like the NSX, once out of production people feel they can now laud the Evora, maybe because it is doesn't stir their relationship with Porsche, as you can no longer buy a new Evora.

My Evora is 6 years old. Had it from new, and it still retains that new car smell. Alcantara everywhere but never had the need to clean the interior. Maybe that's the secret, just hoover it every now and then as required.

The special editions are just paint and stickers aren't they? Really worth the extra?

That must be a very old folklore - I believe BA inherited the "Speedbird" call sign from BOAC, maybe it was more of that era as in 1974 when BA was formed that was already 30 years after 1944 and so the pilot would have been well into his 50's if BA.

Yup. I would assume from the information provided that a hot engine would not need the help of "priming" to ignite, so if you did "prime" it would be too rich etc. I only ask as I'd love an Esprit, one day, and you old farts may not be around by the time that happens for me to ask and get the advice Thanks all.

As an add to this, I have heard that Esprit's can be a real bugger (I believe that is the correct technical term) to start when the engine is hot. Out of interest, is the starting procedure the same in this instance too? Thanks.

That's brutal! You forgot the smashed avocado on sourdough.

OK, always a shame to see a dealer leave, as we have precious few as it is.

Did you get a "reason" for them closing @exeterjeep?

It would seem that despite the best efforts from climate activists, government, and manufacturers, consumers are increasingly turning their backs on EV's. Hence the fact that EVs dominate the list if used car models that have fallen in value the most in the last 12 months: https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-13209483/EVs-used-car-price-fall-value.html If you own an EV this is depressing news and continues (accelerates even) the trend of the past 18 months. However, if you're looking to take the plunge and get into a late model EV then of course it is great news. I cannot believe the price drop in the Kia EV6 - it's an astoundingly great EV, but its most recent one year decline is a staggering £14,300, or 30.5%. That's enough to really tempt to go and look to replace my wife's 3 year old Karoq with one. The EV6 would be a better car in every aspect (apart from range of course) and veritable bargain. As I've said before, the primary buyers of EVs are company car directors, company owners, and salary sacrifice company car drivers. They are not as price sensitive as normal consumers as the considerable costs of the EVs are significantly offset by the huge tax savings. However, as these cars filter onto the "normal consumer" second hand market the demand it would seem just does not exist. Why?

@exeterjeep

Did that. Really enjoyed it too. I was watching it in my study, wifey came in and scoffed "but that's aimed at kids" and I just looked at her and asked what her point was as she's always calling me a childish twit or similar. Bloody women. Never understand them...

Nope. "I know nothing". But we are affiliated, and approved, by over 40 chargepoint OEMs and we've installed oodles and oodles of them. It's a good job the people I work with know stuff otherwise we'd be fecked... I on the other hand, just sit and spout bullshit allday. But then you guys knew that already hahahaha.

Thanks @Bibs, I'm looking for a new series to binge, and love sci-fi, so will give it a try. Been watching Shogun on Disney and quite enjoyed it, even if it is giving me flashbacks to my childhood watching Richard Chamberlain!

Stop fueling the fire @exeterjeep as you'll cause some heart attacks at worse, or burst blood vessels at best https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2024/03/asda-electric-vehicle/ That article (above) concerns Asda deactivating over two-thirds of its charging points, going from 165 at the start of 2023 to only 46 now. The issue, behind the scenes, seems to be the partnership with BP Pulse, and this is not the first time I have heard of customers being disgruntled with BP Pulse's service. Until we sort out the infrastructure, EV's are going to have this roller coaster ride. For the many, who are middle class and have an EV through salary sacrifice and their company, this is not an issue, as they will benefit from home charging (as being middle class they will have a suitable, accessible, location for a home charge point). However, for those who don't, or do a high mileage and need to use public charging stations, this is another huge blow. Not only does it take away some super convenient supermarket car park capacity, but it will lead to higher unit costs for charging through reduced competition, IF, this trend to deactivate continues. That coupled with reports that almost a quarter of EV charging points installed to date do not work, is extremely worrying, as rightly or wrongly, it adds to consumer anxiety around range. The good news is that my company is working on launching the UK's first, nationwide, support and maintenance service for EV chargepoints covering commercial operators of chargepoints from 7kw single guns to over 350kw DC charge points with multiple guns. 24x7 condition monitoring. Fault diagnosis and repair. Firmware and hardware upgrades (e.g. increase capacity, addition of contactless payment modules etc). Electrical safety testing. Cyber and physical security protection etc (apologies for the flagrant free publicity advert!). On a brighter note, it seems that Ford are getting their act together and understand that mass adoption needs attractive range plus purchase pricing. This looks good and if it is really £40k for a 374 mile range then even I would be tempted as it means I could do one of my regular one way journeys, of 296 miles, without need to recharge or worry about the range. Not aware of anything else currently, at a sensible price, that would do that. https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/ford-explorer-price-range-power-revealed

And by my definition above I have no problem with that and laud your decision. I never said "YOU" do. I said the EV industry and the "fan boys" do. I was not making a personal attack, but you seem to have taken it personally. I was merely continuing our earlier discussions where you had stated that you did not see this sort of stuff coming from the EV sector, and so provided an example. That was the ONLY reason I mentioned you in that specific bit, to address something you had previously raised. So no attack intended, nor indeed actually made. Hmmm.... I totally disagree and what pisses me off is on a forum topic entitled "Is electric really the answer" it seems we are only allowed to say "Yes" and agree according to some. That's a great way to censor debate.

Agreed Tony, my point was that in this instance they are doing it and then trying to justify their decision based on "green" credentials which is total horse shit. I have more respect for the people who buy 5.0 ltr Range Rovers, Bentayga's and the ilk as they are not trying to "greenwash" and are just sticking up two fingers and saying I bought it cos I could and wanted to. Honesty!

You're spot on @Escape but the problem is your views will have you labelled as "Filip the Heretic" as you refuse to worship at the EV pulpit. I have said this so many times - "replacing 30m ICE vehicles (the majority still with years, decades even, of useful life left in them, early, with 30m EV's is NOT, and has never been, an environmentally sound or reasoned argument". The sheer volume of NEW resources that will need to be mined, extracted, refined, and processed, and the huge amount of energy needed to do that, just for the cars, is staggering. As is the impact of this on the environment. All of this is totally discounted, or brushed aside, as NOT being relevant by the EV fan boys, whilst at the same time, they pronounce that Hydrogen, for example, will never work and is a non starter due to the energy required to extract it. @eUKenGB this is ONE prime example of the one sided bullshit from the EV sector. Hydrogen extracted using excess wind energy is a super low carbon footprint. Now, add in the amount of infrastructure that needs to be provided to support those 30m EV's. A few million Chargepoints. 45m Charging cables (tethered and in car). A couple of million cubic meters of concrete. Cabling to local transformers. New transformers. Underground and overground electricity grid upgrades. Etc etc. Then we have to deal with the batteries once they are kaput in the car. Despite the BS spouted on here 4 years ago, the technology and recycling facilities are nowhere near, still, capable of dealing with the volume of batteries that will be discarded. When you add ALL of this NEW stuff together, the environmental impact and cost, just in the UK, is absolutely huge. It's mega. The issue is that most of this stuff is NOT being counted in the net zero target calculations. Yes, of course, dirty ICE needed all of that new infrastructure too. But that has been built over 70 years with most of the environmental impact from the infrastructure now being "sunk" and no longer "impacting". Retiring or dismantling this infrastructure, way before the end of it's useful life, just adds more to the environmental impact. So it reduces are ability to really hit Net Zero. So in effect, what we are "trading", is the emissions produced by ICE now, against the full scale replacement of the infrastructure and vehicles with electric. There is now way that this will deliver a Net Zero result in the next 50 years. Unless of course, we continue to "fiddle" the calculations to make them fit and produce the answer we desire. We do need change. But that change should be coming by reducing the number of vehicles on the road. Reducing the number of vehicle miles travelled. By avoiding having to build 30m BEV's, and the associated infrastructure required, AND, taking ICE vehicles off the road, I would argue that we would reach a true Net Zero result faster. But this will require significant investment in public transport, and improvement to the roads environment in our towns and cities, to encourage more walking, cycling, and use of said public transport. We are so far away from a sensible approach that it hurts. Meanwhile, people are shelling out £100k plus on Glory Wagons that weigh well in excess of 2.5 tons, with a huge manufacturing footprint and hugely inefficient "range", because it gives them prestige. It has absolutely fook all to do with the environment - it is bragging rights and the ability to offset tax through salary sacrifice. Let's stop kidding ourselves and be honest.