therealhantsram

A friend has an electric VW Golf and loves it. Does mostly short journeys. Used to fill up with petrol twice a month. Now it’s 20 quid on the leccy  bill. They have a static in the lakes (live in Burnley) It will make that one way trip without difficulty unless you hammer it. Charge falls very quickly above about 55/60 MPH. Biggest expense ? Closing the tailgate on a new iPhone ! 
 
I’d love one but not ready for that leap yet. Charging time and infrastructure have a way to go for me but if anyone wants to give me an iPace I wouldn’t say no ?

I’m very seriously considering upgrading my Peugeot 3008 to a new hybrid 3008 when it comes out in January. 
we’re on a PCP scheme with Peugeot, so we pay monthly. We pay about £250-£300 a month on petrol. Before lockdown my wife would have to drive about 80 miles a day, and I’d have to do some long trips to Manchester. We were spending about £500 a month between us. 
Electric motor has a range of about 40 miles, which is exactly what my wife needs to get to her new work and back. 
so I figure, if it increases our monthly payment by £100-£150 we should be quids in. 
we also have solar panels, batteries, and a leccy tarriff that pays us for using electricity during the night, which should reduce recharging costs to virtually zero. 
thinking of investing in a fast charger too. That way I can finish work, get home at 5, stick it on to fast charge, and then it’s fully charged ready for her to get off to work at 7. 
I did fancy a full electric for my next car, going hybrid feels a bit like being a vegetarian who still eats fish and chicken on special occasions. But I think a plug in hybrid is a good, sensible half way house til the infrastructure catches up. 

Depends on your range - if you really are only doing the school run look at some gen one plug in hybrids that you can now pick up quite cheaply (Vauxhall Ampera, BMW I3, Nissan Leaf) as long as you can get a low mileage one that hasn't had the batteries hammered.
I have an Ampera which I bought a few years ago, currently doing about 94mpg (it has a petrol engine that kicks in when the batteries run out). Most of my runs in it (especially in the last six months) are less than 30 miles, I honestly can't remember the last time I was at the petrol station. One point, less so in modern versions, is that range differs significantly summer to winter - my Ampera charges to about 40 miles electric in summer but in winter that is down to 28-30 miles and in colder weather that can end up being a couple of miles less.
But, to repeat, if you really are doing a few <10 mile runs a day it's a steal - I reckon by the time I trade in mine I will have saved more than half the initial outlay in fuel savings and I'll sell it around half what I paid for it. Not many cars you can say make you money.
I love the ride in electric mode, it's totally different as you don't have gears and torque is way above a petrol equivalent. But I'm still not in a head space where I think we can commit to all electric - just still need that petrol engine 'other car' for the long motorway trips.

some of my Vehicle Engineering colleagues at JLR, when we were still working on the PHEVs and MHEVs, got to test a lot of the then-existing electric cars. They take some getting used to, instant power and re-gen on the brakes. 
From memory, the Nissan Leaf, from a practicality, engineering and driveability point of view, came out as the overall favourite. It may be a bit pokey, but hey ho.

Mrs Wolfie has a Toyota CH-R Hybrid (self charging), which we really like.
I find that when I drive it, I compete with myself how long I can have it running on electric (when you accelerate anything other than gently, the engine kicks in again). Small boot and I wouldn't call it fast, exactly, but it is still a lot of fun to drive on a bendy road.
We'll be swapping it middle of next year and are seriously considering going full EV next time - current favourite is the Hyundai Kona EV. the new ones are quick and with a 280 mile range.
Full EV's are expesnsive to buy but will hold their value well, as they get more popular in years to some.

I currently have a fully electric Corsa. As long as you aren't doing long journey's on motorways you shouldn't have any issues as the range drops significantly above 60mph. Although, if you don't mind a half our pitstop every couple of hours then it's not so bad.
I don't think the upfront cost is worth it unless you're looking at a salary sacrifice scheme of some sort. Charging from home you're looking at about 4p a mile vs 8-10p with a petrol/diesel car.

I think he was without a club for about a year after leaving us. So I suspect this is a pretty low level. That said, he can still work his way back up. He'll get spotted and move in to better things somewhere in Europe I reckon.

Yeah, he should be thanking us. Couldn't have won it without us!

Just been watching Criminal on Netflix. Excellent stuff. The first episode with David Tennant is probably the weakest. So stick with it. 
Amazing acting and clever writing. 

Just to remind everyone that the entire reimagined Battlestar Galactica series is available on BBC iPlayer. Don’t let it’s sci-fi leanings put you off, it’s one of the best shows of the past 20 years...

Started Mindhunter last week. 2 or 3 episodes in. Getting into it - love a bit of psychology with my crime drama. Set in the 70's. Promising.

Remember the one with Michael Praid in the early-mid 80's. That was good when i was about eleven.  It's on ITV hub . Might give it a watch to see how bad it probably was. Should never have re- watched an episode of The Fall Guy.

Is this acceptable? 
Shane Nicholson promoting Covid conspiracy theories on Twitter. 
I am furious about this. 
Tens of thousands of people dead. Our doctors and nurses working all hours and in some cases giving their lives, and then we have this idiot from RamsTV proclaiming it all hoax. 
"stand up and stop complying". WTF!? 

Recently watched the reruns of Broadchurch having missed it the first time round. What an absolute huge steaming pile of horse manure - crap characters; crap acting; crap storyline; unbelievable situations and the most ridiculous final episode when the guilty party was finally unveiled.... if you’re tempted to watch it, spend your time instead trying to trim your toenails with your own teeth - it will be a far more worthwhile way to waste 8 or so hours of your life.....

I’m pretty sure evidence shows that the best returns come from not messing about with your portfolio too much. Mostly because even the experts are quite poor at predicting the future.

I put my Pension pot into HSBC management service, medium risk rules. Its done alright over 9 years. Value dipped heavily at beginning of March but is now back to within 5% of where it was. So I'm happy to leave it to the professionals. 
Periodically I try to second guess them with pretend buying or selling of my larger stock holdings. The evidence is they are better at it than me. No surprise. What did surprise me was how few trades they actually do. More active in the currency fields.
Years ago I was friends through my pa in law with the head of a major publishing house. His "hobby" was to peruse the FT each morning and then ring his stock broker. His advice to me was if you can't go big and spread the risk don't do it. Always assume you will lose the lot and invest accordingly. Set a budget and NEVER chase losses!

My view is that these days stocks and shares are a mugs game for the individual investor. Between the pension funds, the banks and the hedge funds, the big players have this market all sewn up. 
Your better bet is to actively manage your pension fund. Don't just let your pension sit in the default fund. Review your pension every 6 months and make changes to get the most out of it. Most major providers have around 200 funds you can choose between. Lots of options, and in lots of different stock markets too. This is the biggest and most important investment most of us are likely to have. Make it work hard! 

Finished series 1 of the Fargo anthology having got about 4 episodes in 3 or 4 years ago. Don't know why I abandoned it. Superb. Billy Bob Thornton is absolutely captivating as a psycho hitman and the supporting cast are all great once you get past Martin Freeman's accent. 
I don't know who directed the episodes, but they've got the Coen Brothers touches nailed.
Series 2 took an episode and a half to get adjusted to but well into that now. 

Some good results tonight, now if we could get 3 points tomorrow, it's game on!

Watched the game today. On this showing I can't see either Millwall or Swansea making the top 6. Neither team really impressed. Millwall slightly better andni would tip them to finish above the Swans. 
 

Anyone else have a slight delay in the audio today? Nothing major, but I did know Lawrence had scored before it went in.

That first season of Fargo... Billy Bob Thornton was incredible. Such a psycho. On the edge of my seat every time he was on screen. 

That first season of Fargo... Billy Bob Thornton was incredible. Such a psycho. On the edge of my seat every time he was on screen. 

My view is that these days stocks and shares are a mugs game for the individual investor. Between the pension funds, the banks and the hedge funds, the big players have this market all sewn up. 
Your better bet is to actively manage your pension fund. Don't just let your pension sit in the default fund. Review your pension every 6 months and make changes to get the most out of it. Most major providers have around 200 funds you can choose between. Lots of options, and in lots of different stock markets too. This is the biggest and most important investment most of us are likely to have. Make it work hard! 

That first season of Fargo... Billy Bob Thornton was incredible. Such a psycho. On the edge of my seat every time he was on screen.