New: Recommend a New Car or just moan about random cars šŸ™„

Haha, if you get the 4.8, it will be a ā€œtideā€ of petrol :laughing:

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Isnā€™t there a panamera hybrid?

Relax, everyoneā€™s favourite hip uncle, the Russians, have got this covered for you -

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The one with green brake calipers, yes.

Yes there is and itā€™s as pointless as all other hybrids. The anti wrinkle cream of the car industry. Wankers.

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Iā€™m pretty sure the point of these threads is to recommend pointless/unsuitable things.

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I wasnā€™t having a go at you for pointing out that they made one. Everyone makes them, but why?

I rather like hybrids, and they suit the regulations in Japan and the US.

The plug-in hybrids can work for some situations - getting the pollution out of towns. If I could have about 30 miles range that would be the weekā€™s school runs all on electric power.

Hybrids have no environmental benefit. If you want to save the planet just keep your Mazda until the end of its useful life.

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It depends how you use them. I and many others could achieve a huge proportion of my mileage on pure electric, which would be a real step to reducing a lot of pollution in St Albans. Thatā€™s a clear environmental benefit. The whole pop to the shops and school run thing is awful, as thereā€™s loads of pollution from cold engines.

But I do intend to keep my current car until itā€™s totally broken, for sure.

It would make a difference if a significant percentage of St Albans drivers switched but then it would be better to just have an electric car. I can just imagine how reliable the petrol engine section of a PHEV vehicle that spends the majority of its life just using electric power will be. Running an old petrol car until it dies is still the greenest option for most mortals.

I ran a 10 year ol Audi A4 diesel until about a year ago when it clocked 150k and started to get expensive to keep going.

I bought a Toyota Auris Hybrid because it was zero tax and on paper pretty good on fuel. Itā€™s ok. Reasonably economic (55 mpg ave), very comfortable, lots of things to go wrong and being an estate it has plenty of room.

Pretty boring to drive though but we never expected it to have great performance.

The planet doesnā€™t seemed to have improved since we got it mind.

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I had a go in a Subaru Impreza 1.5RX last night, dull to look at, dull inside, handled and rode very very well indeed, engine was great but underpowered, gear box was a little notchy but positive, steering very accurate/quick but a little lacking in feel, brakes a bit underwhelming, smallish boot, drank petrolā€¦

Didnā€™t buy it.

yes the one with the green brakes. I had one as a courtesy car once. It is fantastic inside, the batteries last about 12 milesā€¦hopeless as a hybrid.

So would that be 3 miles each morning and 3 miles each afternoon, 5 days a week ? Donā€™t the kids fancy walking then ?

VB

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Oldest will be walking now itā€™s secondary school, but for the youngest at 6 thatā€™s hard going with the hills we have. Thereā€™s also the need for Claire to get to work on time and the uncertainty that I can walk that far.

But things might be changing thanks to the council giving us parking half a mile away :rofl:

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TBH I wasnā€™t being entirely serious :wink: although for older kids I suppose a 6-mile round trip would not be entirely out of the question once in a while. Itā€™d be a bit more practical with a bike - I think that was about the limit for the kids who biked to my secondary school. But that was in the fens of course (flat, and I do mean dead flat). Anyone who lived further away came on the school buses.

VB

Perfect for Adam then, to assuage his middle class angsty desire for an electric car so he can feel good about himself and his fight to reduce pollution (forgetting how horrible lithium mining is fur the environment, but at least thatā€™s happening elsewhere). :smiley:

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OK Iā€™ve done some reading on this. Most lithium is extracted from brine under salt flats in South America. Itā€™s not by itā€™s nature bad, but does use a lot of water, which is not great in one of the driest places in the world.

Thereā€™s also a whole load of bad practices that go on, which tends to be the case for all mining.

Potentially worse is the need for cobalt and nickel in lithium batteries. Cobalt is a horrorshow for mining - it basically only occurs in the DRC, is mined ā€˜informallyā€™ (often by children), and is horribly toxic. Nickel is also an environmental nightmare.

But from an overall environmental perspective, all I can see suggests that electric cars are way better than petrol or diesel. The stuff suggesting otherwise is largely evidence-free, basically memes.