I sold my wife's disco sport and bought a petrol Q5. Best trade ever. Fuck land-rover in eye.

What's the cheapest car you currently have, Bob?

Can’t you pay? Brum did it in June. You pay £8 for the day but have to pay before you drive through the cameras.

b0r1s wrote:

Can’t you pay? Brum did it in June. You pay £8 for the day but have to pay before you drive through the cameras.

Nope. The Glasgow plan is a full-on ban. ANPR cameras on all boundary roads, fixed penalty of £60. Reduced to £30 if you pay within seven days. Penalties double for each repeat offence, up to a max of £480 per infraction. Multipliers are reset after 90 days without offending.

I know this sort of legislation has to happen, but that doesn’t mean I like it. I don’t want the world to keep burning. But I also don’t like that it creates a two-tiered society for the city whereby the wealthy can drive themselves into the city centre while us plebs have to spend spend spend on overpriced public transport. I mean, right now it’s £20 for me and the Mrs to take a train to work, versus a fiver for us to drive and park.

poprock wrote:

I know this sort of legislation has to happen, but that doesn’t mean I like it. I don’t want the world to keep burning. But I also don’t like that it creates a two-tiered society for the city whereby the wealthy can drive themselves into the city centre while us plebs have to spend spend spend on overpriced public transport. I mean, right now it’s £20 for me and the Mrs to take a train to work, versus a fiver for us to drive and park.

It is very regressive.

Parking in city centres shouldn't be as easy as it currently is but everyone has got used to it, which is causing huge problems in terms of congestion and air quality in most cities, amongst many other things. Electric cars clearly aren't going to fix the congestion issues. I own one, but avoid driving anywhere near the city centre in Edinburgh where possible. Edinburgh does have its own plans for a LEZ, but they are very weak and are quite unlikely to make a meaningful difference... Public transport needs to become so cheap and reliable that that it reverts to being the default travel option, but it's going to take far bigger changes for that to become a reality.

afgavinstan wrote:

But hey, if you're a COP 26 delegate you get a free travel pass that let's you onto everything. So that's nice.

This isn’t really the thread to moan about CoP26, but … fucking fuck me. Another positive, important thing that’s being handled really badly and pissing everyone off.

We’ve been told we have to close our office. Not allowed in because it’s close to George Square and therefore ‘at risk’ from expected protests. Museums and galleries closed, roads closed, trains on strike, bin collections on strike … and the visitors flying in get to skip Covid tests, receive free bus passes, and attend huge crowded events for two weeks solid. Glasgow’s going to be hit with a massive spike in Covid cases after they all leave again, just in time to be locked down for Christmas. Yay.

Bob wrote:

We tend Not to retail anything less than about £3995 as it’s not cost effective to recondition them but I’ve always got a selection of specials if someone wants a runner

That's not too bad. New cars have increased so much over the past 20 years, I'm a little surprised the used market hasn't been dragged along more. It's an interesting case of depreciation tracking because enough people are still on tight budgets.

Wealthier new-car buyers are taking bigger hits unless they buy EVs, which probably need to reach affordability for the masses far more urgently.

I'd love for someone to knock out electric Sevens for £10k (I reckon Caterham'll charge triple that for theirs, with more performance than it needs). You'd get enough juice from not much battery if you stop being silly about a sub-3 0-60.

The classic Mini and Renault 5 are also great platforms. I don't know how far modern regs apply to kitcar makers, but if they could sneak one through...

The motorbike market has some budget options now, but those are all moped equivalents, even though their frames could handle a lot more power. And then there's a massive gap, with top-end electrics starting at £15k. I'd like a KTM E-Ride with cheaper components for half the price. If AJP made one, say.

A modern coach builder?

Vice versa, empowering all the wee kit car firms to act as modern coachbuilders.

R&D and manufacturing costs for EV platforms is too expensive for the small firms to invest in - licensing a good, lightweight, reliable generic platform would open so many doors.

Proof that ‘stored in a dry garage’ on used car ads means fuck all.

Bob wrote:

Lol. Welcome to a new world of pain.

Research says it is problem free.

Toyota have developed an entire hydrogen powertrain ‘in a box’ that they’re ready to sell to small carmakers. No point yet though, when there’s no hydrogen infrastructure for refuelling.