The Car thread

[Kopic]

Got crashed into in the company rental today. Super fun. Fortunately a police car was there when it happened and stopped on the way to another call. Left after taking a few details and then the bloke who hit me shot off as well. Copper came back about 15 minutes later and gave me all his (fake) details. Called me later on this evening to tell me he went and found the bloke again, pulled him and took his car for only having a provisional licence. If I was in my own car i'd be more pissed off, but its the first "crash" I've had in 16 years of driving and feeling a bit off this evening.

 

Do I have to tell my own car's insurance company about this? It was an enterprise rental on company insurance with myself as the main driver. Will be pissed if it puts my own insurance up.

[HighPeakFox]

3 hours ago, Kopic said:

Got crashed into in the company rental today. Super fun. Fortunately a police car was there when it happened and stopped on the way to another call. Left after taking a few details and then the bloke who hit me shot off as well. Copper came back about 15 minutes later and gave me all his (fake) details. Called me later on this evening to tell me he went and found the bloke again, pulled him and took his car for only having a provisional licence. If I was in my own car i'd be more pissed off, but its the first "crash" I've had in 16 years of driving and feeling a bit off this evening.

 

Do I have to tell my own car's insurance company about this? It was an enterprise rental on company insurance with myself as the main driver. Will be pissed if it puts my own insurance up.

I suspect asking Enterprise might provide the answer. 

[Innovindil]

 

Anyone got any idea what this orange warning light is trying to tell me? Keeps going on and off and can't find it on kias website. Old ass 58 reg kia ceed if that matters. Thanks in advance 

[Raj]

6 minutes ago, Innovindil said:

 

Anyone got any idea what this orange warning light is trying to tell me? Keeps going on and off and can't find it on kias website. Old ass 58 reg kia ceed if that matters. Thanks in advance 

Fountain.

 

 

Is your washer fluid topped up

Edited 24 September 2025 by Raj

[Innovindil]

11 minutes ago, Raj said:

Fountain.

 

 

Is your washer fluid topped up

I'll have a check when I get home. Never had a car light up for lack of washer fluid before. Thanks 

[Jattdogg]

3 hours ago, Innovindil said:

 

Anyone got any idea what this orange warning light is trying to tell me? Keeps going on and off and can't find it on kias website. Old ass 58 reg kia ceed if that matters. Thanks in advance 

Just recently hit the 100,000km mark congratulations from this Canadian who measures in Km's

[fox_favourite]

8 hours ago, Innovindil said:

 

Anyone got any idea what this orange warning light is trying to tell me? Keeps going on and off and can't find it on kias website. Old ass 58 reg kia ceed if that matters. Thanks in advance 

It means you have a really excited car....

[JonnyBoy]

I have moved into a new house on Friday and i will be looking to charge my electric vehicle, i am with British gas currently but looking to switch to a supplier that has the best rate for charging my car. Does anyone know which energy supplier will offer the best deal for overnight charging? i have heard octopus energy could be a good option 

 

 

[TiffToff88]

2 hours ago, JonnyBoy said:

I have moved into a new house on Friday and i will be looking to charge my electric vehicle, i am with British gas currently but looking to switch to a supplier that has the best rate for charging my car. Does anyone know which energy supplier will offer the best deal for overnight charging? i have heard octopus energy could be a good option 

 

 

 

My sister works for Ford, she always recommends Octopus to anyone buying electric cars

[Raj]

On 24/09/2025 at 08:57, Innovindil said:

I'll have a check when I get home. Never had a car light up for lack of washer fluid before. Thanks 

What was it?

[Innovindil]

1 hour ago, Raj said:

What was it?

Still don't know. Topped up the water and it's still coming on and off. Must be a dodgy sensor. 

[Greg2607]

6 hours ago, JonnyBoy said:

I have moved into a new house on Friday and i will be looking to charge my electric vehicle, i am with British gas currently but looking to switch to a supplier that has the best rate for charging my car. Does anyone know which energy supplier will offer the best deal for overnight charging? i have heard octopus energy could be a good option 

 

 

I'm with octoput on Intelligent Octopus Go.... only some chargers are compatible with the "intelligent" element of it mate.... essentially, for me, I plug the car in, tell it when I need it charging by, and octopus decide when they will then flow electric to the charger....  it doesn't JUST happen between an 11pm and 05:00 window... 

 

They do it at 7.5p per KWH...... but when they choose to  charge the car... the whole house is on 7.5p   sometimes octopus choose to charge at 14:00 onm a Saturday afternoon if there is a surplus of electricity. 

Edited 29 September 2025 by Greg2607

[JonnyBoy]

14 minutes ago, Greg2607 said:

I'm with octoput on Intelligent Octopus Go.... only some chargers are compatible with the "intelligent" element of it mate.... essentially, for me, I plug the car in, tell it when I need it charging by, and octopus decide when they will then flow electric to the charger....  it doesn't JUST happen between an 11pm and 05:00 window... 

 

They do it at 7.5p per KWH...... but when they choose to  charge the car... the whole house is on 7.5p   sometimes octopus choose to charge at 14:00 onm a Saturday afternoon if there is a surplus of electricity. 

got you makes sense, so actually you could benefit from the 7.5p per KWH in the home if you decide to put the washing on for example? sounds obvious, but is that the selling point over other companies? I know British gas do a similar thing where it is 7.9p KWH only 12am - 5am. 

[Greg2607]

4 minutes ago, JonnyBoy said:

got you makes sense, so actually you could benefit from the 7.5p per KWH in the home if you decide to put the washing on for example? sounds obvious, but is that the selling point over other companies? I know British gas do a similar thing where it is 7.9p KWH only 12am - 5am. 

full disclosure mate, we were already with Octopus, so it just made sense to move onto the electric tariff.   Work installed the Charging Point for free as part of an offer for their EV scheme and we just made sure we picked one with compatibility....   IF you have Solar or Battery at home.. be careful with that, as our charger doesn't support that functionality, but we don't have solar or battery anyway at this point. 

 

Final thing to be aware of with Octopus (i don't know if this is true of all suppliers) - but you are only meant to have 1 EV on the tariff....

 

We have two EV's.... but we let the Charger itself handle the communication with Octopus (rather than the car directly) - so technically, they don't know which vehiecle is charging.... 

 

Octopus do also do an "unlimited" option where you pay £30 a month fixed price for EV charging.... if you are gonna be high mileage, might be worth doing the calculations as you might be better off that way. 

 

As an when I can be bothered to do the maths... I might switch to that. 

[Robo61]

1 hour ago, Greg2607 said:

full disclosure mate, we were already with Octopus, so it just made sense to move onto the electric tariff.   Work installed the Charging Point for free as part of an offer for their EV scheme and we just made sure we picked one with compatibility....   IF you have Solar or Battery at home.. be careful with that, as our charger doesn't support that functionality, but we don't have solar or battery anyway at this point. 

 

Final thing to be aware of with Octopus (i don't know if this is true of all suppliers) - but you are only meant to have 1 EV on the tariff....

 

We have two EV's.... but we let the Charger itself handle the communication with Octopus (rather than the car directly) - so technically, they don't know which vehiecle is charging.... 

 

Octopus do also do an "unlimited" option where you pay £30 a month fixed price for EV charging.... if you are gonna be high mileage, might be worth doing the calculations as you might be better off that way. 

 

As an when I can be bothered to do the maths... I might switch to that. 

It is worth doing the calculations for Octopuses "Drive Tariff" at £30 a month you you must remember you won't be able to take advantage of load shifting the rest of the house on that tariff.  I reckon you would need to do arund 2000 miles a month to make it worthwhile.  I don't do anywhere near that but IOG works fine for me

Edited 29 September 2025 by Robo61

[VLC86]

Car failed its MOT today. It’s a bag of shit but over the last 3 years I’ve averaged 3000 miles in it while working from home.

 

Anyone got the Golf GTE? Any good? Probably going to get something on lease.

[FoyleFox]

13 hours ago, JonnyBoy said:

I have moved into a new house on Friday and i will be looking to charge my electric vehicle, i am with British gas currently but looking to switch to a supplier that has the best rate for charging my car. Does anyone know which energy supplier will offer the best deal for overnight charging? i have heard octopus energy could be a good option 

 

 

Octopus Intelligent Go is good. It's 7p 23:30 to 05:30 as well as the other 7p slots that may be offered that Greg mentioned. The app takes care of everything. 

You need either a compatible charger or car.

 

Unfortunately, our charger isn't, the car was until 18 months ago but then it came off the list. Sadly, Octopus have now noticed this and are moving us onto Octopus Go, from next week. It's now going to be 8p from 00:30 to 05:30, which is only going to increase costs by £40 a year. 

 

[Greg2607]

They've also just released a V2G tariff.  So if your car has Vehicle to Grid capability, you will be able to charge your car for free, as long as it's always plugged in when at home. 

 

My only query on this, is what impact that has on battery degradation.....

 

I really go like Greg Jackson and Octopus as a company.  If I could invest in them, I absolutely would. He's very innovative and future focused.

[JonnyBoy]

10 hours ago, FoyleFox said:

Octopus Intelligent Go is good. It's 7p 23:30 to 05:30 as well as the other 7p slots that may be offered that Greg mentioned. The app takes care of everything. 

You need either a compatible charger or car.

 

Unfortunately, our charger isn't, the car was until 18 months ago but then it came off the list. Sadly, Octopus have now noticed this and are moving us onto Octopus Go, from next week. It's now going to be 8p from 00:30 to 05:30, which is only going to increase costs by £40 a year. 

 

Ok, so worth me checking if my new company car is compatible on the list. I guess you also don't get to benefit from using electricity for other things when the rate drops to 7pkwh during the day? or is it just the lower rate for the car? 

[Greg2607]

41 minutes ago, JonnyBoy said:

Ok, so worth me checking if my new company car is compatible on the list. I guess you also don't get to benefit from using electricity for other things when the rate drops to 7pkwh during the day? or is it just the lower rate for the car? 

it's for the whole house mate. 

[Robo61]

5 hours ago, JonnyBoy said:

Ok, so worth me checking if my new company car is compatible on the list. I guess you also don't get to benefit from using electricity for other things when the rate drops to 7pkwh during the day? or is it just the lower rate for the car? 

You might be better giving serious consideration to the charger you choose.  Charger integration works more smoothly than vehicle integration and it is less likley that the charger will be withdrawn from  the list than it is the vehicle.

[The Bear]

IIRC Octopus have a list of compatible chargers on their site if you click through the EV charger install section. 

Edited 30 September 2025 by The Bear

[Grebfromgrebland]

If you don't have a compatible charger your car might be compatible which octopus can control the charge times.

 

 

[FoyleFox]

13 hours ago, JonnyBoy said:

Ok, so worth me checking if my new company car is compatible on the list. I guess you also don't get to benefit from using electricity for other things when the rate drops to 7pkwh during the day? or is it just the lower rate for the car? 

If you go onto the Octopus website it has a section with all the chargers and cars, pick from the drop downs and it will advise if compatible. The charger is possibly easiest as then it won't matter if you change the car to a non compatible one in a few years. Our charger came with the car so unfortunately we couldn't. 

 

And yes, as Greg said, the whole house can be 7p. We didn't miss that element when we lost the Octopus app as we've a battery and everything is 7p all day... well, soon to be 8p 

[JonnyBoy]

11 hours ago, FoyleFox said:

If you go onto the Octopus website it has a section with all the chargers and cars, pick from the drop downs and it will advise if compatible. The charger is possibly easiest as then it won't matter if you change the car to a non compatible one in a few years. Our charger came with the car so unfortunately we couldn't. 

 

And yes, as Greg said, the whole house can be 7p. We didn't miss that element when we lost the Octopus app as we've a battery and everything is 7p all day... well, soon to be 8p 

 

yea have done that, from what i can see there isn;t loads that are compatible? tesla fine, BYD no, Hyundai no and some others i have tried are no. I am with British gas ev tariff currently as thats who the new build were with when i moved in. 7.9p KWH between 12-5, ideally be good to switch to Octopus though