The Car thread

[dsr-burnley]

On 18/10/2023 at 06:13, BKLFox said:

From that article "According to Confused.com, reasons for the rapid surge in prices include the extra burden of cost associated with expensive to repair electric cars, parts shortages holding up repairs...."

Why would it cost more to replace a bumper on an EV they are made of the same material right?  & what electric parts would suffer in the event of a standard bump, surely if parts are faulting on collision the impact probably writes off the car due to an issue with the integrity of the chassis anyway?

Surely most claims are bumps & dinks with superficial damage to an exterior panel, the whole thing stinks of BS.

According to the Daily Telegraph, part of the insurance risk of electric cars is that they have great difficulty in assessing the damage to the battery, and therefore have to replace the battery far more than is really necessary. If they had a better understanding of whether a battery has been damaged it would save on repair bills.

[Greg2607]

One of the other reasons that Insurance has gone up... ironically.... is due to the Fair Pricing legislation.... ultimately, it means that insurance companies can't operate with Loss Leaders (i.e. very low quotes to secure the business) so all prices have to be relatively similar to both new and existing customers. 

 

historically, they would have just relied on people letting it auto renew at a high margin and used the margin to lower new customers rates. 

[FoyleFox]

The cynic in me just thinks the insurance companies are using all of the above as convenient excuses to increase rates.

[kenny]

17 minutes ago, FoyleFox said:

The cynic in me just thinks the insurance companies are using all of the above as convenient excuses to increase rates.

They make significant sums by investing the premiums in the stock markets. Since covid the insurance underwriters have had poor returns and pass that on to the consumer.

 

The assumption is its just car insurance, but its all forms that have gone. Our work Private Indemnity insurance as wells as our Employers Liability has gone up 40% in the past 2 years.

 

House insurance has gone up 26% on average.

 

They will always blame consumer habits and extra claims, but thats mostly BS.

[UniFox21]

Only a minor annoyance, car had it's MOT today, went to pick it up when they decide to tell me the brake fluid needs replacing in the next month or so and if I wanted to book it in. 

 

I'm stood in disbelief as to why they didn't just pick the phone up to ask if I wanted it doing at the same time as the service 

Edited 25 October 2023 by UniFox21

[SouthStandUpperTier]

26 minutes ago, UniFox21 said:

Only a minor annoyance, car had it's MOT today, went to pick it up when they decide to tell me the brake fluid needs replacing in the next month or so and if I wanted to book it in. 

 

I'm stood in disbelief as to why they didn't just pick the phone up to ask if I wanted it doing at the same time as the service 

They probably didn't have the time needed to do the job today.

[dsr-burnley]

1 hour ago, UniFox21 said:

Only a minor annoyance, car had it's MOT today, went to pick it up when they decide to tell me the brake fluid needs replacing in the next month or so and if I wanted to book it in. 

 

I'm stood in disbelief as to why they didn't just pick the phone up to ask if I wanted it doing at the same time as the service 

Surely if they were dong a service they should have changed the brake fluid as a matter of course?

[The Bear]

1 hour ago, dsr-burnley said:

Surely if they were dong a service they should have changed the brake fluid as a matter of course?

Depends. Some garages offer Minor services and Major services alternating every year. Major costs a bit more more but has more stuff included like  brake fluid change, or spark plugs, fuel filter, etc included. 

 

I used to use my local Halfords Autocentre and the website would itemise everything they did on each service, so I could choose which one I needed. 

Edited 25 October 2023 by The Bear

[Foxin_Mad]

On 14/10/2023 at 11:33, Zear0 said:

Where do you think the energy to manufacture hydrogen is produced? 

Probably the same coal/gas power plants used to power the stupid app based chargers that charge batteries made from rare earth minerals mined by children!!

 

Do we just need to accept we cant really do green properly as we are not advanced enough? And move on?

Edited 26 October 2023 by Foxin_Mad

[The Bear]

6 hours ago, Foxin_Mad said:

Probably the same coal/gas power plants used to power the stupid app based chargers that charge batteries made from rare earth minerals mined by children!!

 

Do we just need to accept we cant really do green properly as we are not advanced enough? And move on?

We have the technology as a civilisation to power the entire world through green energy if the desire was large enough, whether that be through solar, wind or hydro/geothermal. 

 

It just needs the policy makers of the world powers to make the decision to do that. 

[dsr-burnley]

10 hours ago, The Bear said:

Depends. Some garages offer Minor services and Major services alternating every year. Major costs a bit more more but has more stuff included like  brake fluid change, or spark plugs, fuel filter, etc included. 

 

I used to use my local Halfords Autocentre and the website would itemise everything they did on each service, so I could choose which one I needed. 

If the brake fluid is fine and useable, they wouldn't necessarily replace it, but if it's dodgy business if they know it's on its way out and don't replace it.  By "service" did UniFox21 perhaps mean the service of providing an MOT rather than a car service?

[Tommy G]

On 23/10/2023 at 11:34, kenny said:

They make significant sums by investing the premiums in the stock markets. Since covid the insurance underwriters have had poor returns and pass that on to the consumer.

 

The assumption is its just car insurance, but its all forms that have gone. Our work Private Indemnity insurance as wells as our Employers Liability has gone up 40% in the past 2 years.

 

House insurance has gone up 26% on average.

 

They will always blame consumer habits and extra claims, but thats mostly BS.

Agreed, our private healthcare bill went up 65% this year alongside Keyman insurance up 110%. The days or level premiums have gone, insurance costs are becoming a major cost of any business now....don't even start on cyber insurance!

[Foxin_Mad]

7 hours ago, The Bear said:

We have the technology as a civilisation to power the entire world through green energy if the desire was large enough, whether that be through solar, wind or hydro/geothermal. 

 

It just needs the policy makers of the world powers to make the decision to do that. 

Hydro and Geothermal we dont really do enough of in the UK. We could actually make use of old mine workings for this too. Possibly tidal here in the UK.

 

It seems to me the policy makers are a bit strange or have conflicted loyaties. 

 

Windmils arent particularly green to manufacture, not made from particularly green materials and are terrible for wildlife, birds in particular, so although they generate electricity...is it technically green?!? Im not so sure.

 

Solar panels, again how are they constructed and using rare earth metals, again really quite questionable how green it is. 

 

The same with EVs, theres been a huge push to them. Actually against a modern petrol engine with emmisions controls it will take on average 60000 miles before an EV starts to be better environmentally, that largely depends on the source of the power. The materials and energy building the car are actually more intensive because battery manufacture isnt exactly a green process and uses a not insignificant amount of energy and resource, 

 

A lot of this stuff if you read into it feels like a bit of a con. I can see another diesel situation on the horizon, people encouraged to buy electric cars that are actually worse or no better.

 

Personally I feel there is a long way to go yet until we are technologally in a good place. Of course, its makes good sound bites and will make some people a lot of money so its probably an avenue we will be forced down. 

 

I honestly dont mind doing green things if its actually proven to be better and it works, for me it doesnt. Not yet. I hope it does because I dont deny we need to do something, but I feel we are taking the wrong path. 

[jgtuk]

https://www.carbonbrief.org/factcheck-21-misleading-myths-about-electric-vehicles/

[The Bear]

If you have solar panels and storage at home and charge the car at home then you are basically fuelling your car from the sun for free. 

 

Not that many people do I'll grant you. 

[Jattdogg]

22 minutes ago, The Bear said:

If you have solar panels and storage at home and charge the car at home then you are basically fuelling your car from the sun for free. 

 

Not that many people do I'll grant you. 

A huge upfront cost no doubt. My dads power goes back into the grid and he gets a government cheque of like $10000 a year or something so it does pay for itself over time (over here).

 

Thing is, when you have to replace.your roof shingles (they suck over here and last anywhere from 15 to 25 years) the cost to remove and reinstall panels is brutal.  Unless you can afford the more balling types of roofs instead of the ashphalt shingles we use.

[UniFox21]

9 hours ago, dsr-burnley said:

If the brake fluid is fine and useable, they wouldn't necessarily replace it, but if it's dodgy business if they know it's on its way out and don't replace it.  By "service" did UniFox21 perhaps mean the service of providing an MOT rather than a car service?

It was an MOT and a full service; was told that brake fluid needs replacing after they handed me the keys. Hence the annoyance that I'd just a fair amount of money at them for them to tell me this afterwards. 

[Bellend Sebastian]

1 hour ago, The Bear said:

If you have solar panels and storage at home and charge the car at home then you are basically fuelling your car from the sun for free. 

 

Not that many people do I'll grant you. 

We have solar panels at work and charge points and yes, I'm very fortunate

[dsr-burnley]

2 hours ago, Jattdogg said:

A huge upfront cost no doubt. My dads power goes back into the grid and he gets a government cheque of like $10000 a year or something so it does pay for itself over time (over here).

 

Thing is, when you have to replace.your roof shingles (they suck over here and last anywhere from 15 to 25 years) the cost to remove and reinstall panels is brutal.  Unless you can afford the more balling types of roofs instead of the ashphalt shingles we use.

15 years?  No part of a house should be scheduled to last 15 years.  Houses are supposed to be long term.  I expect a car to last 15 years.

 

My roof stones (not slates) were put on 198 years ago, and when the roof was recently relaid (for the first time, incidentally) most of them are re-useable.  Indian stone is available for the replacements.  Try stone, if the house is strongly enough built to support it.

 

Mind you, I haven't got solar panels on it.  An east-west terrace roof in the north of England isn't best placed to take advantage!

Edited 26 October 2023 by dsr-burnley

[Jattdogg]

4 hours ago, dsr-burnley said:

15 years?  No part of a house should be scheduled to last 15 years.  Houses are supposed to be long term.  I expect a car to last 15 years.

 

My roof stones (not slates) were put on 198 years ago, and when the roof was recently relaid (for the first time, incidentally) most of them are re-useable.  Indian stone is available for the replacements.  Try stone, if the house is strongly enough built to support it.

 

Mind you, I haven't got solar panels on it.  An east-west terrace roof in the north of England isn't best placed to take advantage!

It's the crap smaller, thinner,  lighter, stronger (due to advanced "engineering") bollox they have over here in Canada. People are buying roof stones or metal roofs but the pricing is insane compared to the ashphalt shingles.

[ozleicester]

19 hours ago, The Bear said:

We have the technology as a civilisation to power the entire world through green energy if the desire was large enough, whether that be through solar, wind or hydro/geothermal. 

 

It just needs the policy makers of the world powers to make the decision to do that. 

Once we stop the power of the miners and oil companies, we can progress. But we must move the support from the old tech (coal, oil,gas) to new, renewables.

Sadly in Australia we give $2.8 billion to renewables, while giving $11.6 to fossil fuels

Edited 27 October 2023 by ozleicester

[The Bear]

6 hours ago, ozleicester said:

Once we stop the power of the miners and oil companies, we can progress. But we must move the support from the old tech (coal, oil,gas) to new, renewables.

Sadly in Australia we give $2.8 billion to renewables, while giving $11.6 to fossil fuels

Yes it's mind boggling how much money the fossil fuel industry still get from governments around the world. 

[Parafox]

I'm stuck with a simple, yet potentially costly problem with my car.

 

I have a 2017 Peugeot 2008. I was changing a headlamp bulb which involves unclipping a retaining clip. Simple but awkward due to such limited space behind the headlight housing. As I was putting the replacement bulb in, the retaining clip fell off. It disappeared into the headlight array and I can't find it. 

 

Replacement clips are available but don't exactly match the one I lost and if I got one I still won't be able to fit it as it's impossible to see where it should be attached.

 

So far the only way seems to be to remove the whole headlight unit (which involves taking off the bumper) in order to see where this clip should go and getting it back in place.

 

Online searches aren't much help and to get a dealer or local garage to even look at and sort it, would be costly as they'd almost certainly go down the route of taking the headlight array out.

 

The clip costs less than £1. To have a garage sort it could cost £250 in labour alone.

[The Bear]

4 minutes ago, Parafox said:

I'm stuck with a simple, yet potentially costly problem with my car.

 

I have a 2017 Peugeot 2008. I was changing a headlamp bulb which involves unclipping a retaining clip. Simple but awkward due to such limited space behind the headlight housing. As I was putting the replacement bulb in, the retaining clip fell off. It disappeared into the headlight array and I can't find it. 

 

Replacement clips are available but don't exactly match the one I lost and if I got one I still won't be able to fit it as it's impossible to see where it should be attached.

 

So far the only way seems to be to remove the whole headlight unit (which involves taking off the bumper) in order to see where this clip should go and getting it back in place.

 

Online searches aren't much help and to get a dealer or local garage to even look at and sort it, would be costly as they'd almost certainly go down the route of taking the headlight array out.

 

The clip costs less than £1. To have a garage sort it could cost £250 in labour alone.

Yeah that's annoying. I've dropped stuff down the engine bay before. 

 

Have you checked it didn't make it all the way to the floor under the front of the car just in case? 

 

You could try putting a couple of bits of wood/bricks under the font tyres and drive a few inches up over to let the front end drop down and see if it dislodges and falls out. 

Edited 4 November 2023 by The Bear

[Parafox]

Just now, The Bear said:

Yeah that's annoying. I've dropped stuff down the engine bay before. 

 

Have you checked it didn't make it all the way to the floor under the front of the car just in case? 

 

You could try putting a couple of bits of wood/bricks under the font tyres and drive a few inches to let the front end drop down and see if it dislodges and drops out. 

Unfortunately it went into the headlamp unit, which is enclosed, I saw it go and now it's out of sight. I've bought an extendable magnetic probe to try to retrieve it. Even if I do, I don't know how I'll be able to get securely back in place.