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Indeed disgraceful behaviour by BMW as NG had already paid some of the servicing cost as part of the contract so the garage should have simply asked for a contribution towards the late service cost and not totally disregard what he had already paid and then charge him for the service in full.
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AW & replacing an old, but loved Polo.
I cannot see why they should buy a Hybrid which is north of £20K
3,000 mile per year shopping trolley - buy a brand new outgoing Hyundai i10 for £7/8K - other cars are available
5 year warranty, reliable runner of a car - uses more fuel than a hybrid (marginally) but a lot kinder bearing in mind all the extra factory processes to produce a hybrid car.
Pocket the £10-£15K and have a nice holiday every year or maybe 2 holidays out of season.
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Batteries not included
I also think the advice to buy a £8k Zoe with a £70 per month battery lease cost in ludicrous; based on the mileage done over 16 years in the Polo, Renault would be coining it.
If they want electric, I would think a Mitsubishi i-MiEV, or the European badged version would suffice, as well as being nearer to the Polo in size.
The battery packs are good for 50-70 miles and it doesnt sound like she needs even that much.
Last time I looked prices started at around £5k for something made by a reliable manufacturer.
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I would think a Mitsubishi i-MiEV, or the European badged version would suffice, as well as being nearer to the Polo in size. The battery packs are good for 50-70 miles and it doesnt sound like she needs even that much. Last time I looked prices started at around £5k for something made by a reliable manufacturer.
Having used those i-MiEV in a fleet; they are awful. They feel unstable at anything above 35 mph and the doors are so thin that I would not want to be involved in a side-on crash.
*spelling edit
Edited by groaver on 13/09/2019 at 19:16
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I would think a Mitsubishi i-MiEV, or the European badged version would suffice, as well as being nearer to the Polo in size. The battery packs are good for 50-70 miles and it doesnt sound like she needs even that much. Last time I looked prices started at around £5k for something made by a reliable manufacturer.
Having used those i-MiEV in a fleet; they are awful. They feel unstable at anything above 35 mph and the doors are so thin that I would not want to be involved in a side-on crash.
*spelling edit
They look so small narrow and high-sided, almost like one of those three-wheeled 'leaning' motorbikes. I wouldn't like to be cornering at speed in those vehicles.
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If I might reply en mass,
The woman is 70 and drives on average, just over 3,000 miles per year; thats about 9 miles a day.
It is highly unlikely her car gets used much outside of a 30mph zone, and she IS 70, so high speed cornering isnt really an issue.
How a car feels to drive is also very much down to personal taste, although I accept the iMiev is a very lightweight car, and with the Pug and Citroen versions, rattly panels were reported.
Side Impact; the car has 4 stars on NCAP, being let down primarily by a low pedestrian score.
Battery cost could be an issue, but other than the one HJ quote, I cannot find ANY official prices, not even direct from Yuasa, or on Mitsubishi forums; but I have read that the cells can be easily replaced individually, even though the dealers will only quote for a full pack.
With people like Hybrid24 appearing, and the individual cells being sold for ~ £300 s/h on Fleabay, I would balance the risk of a cell dying against the £840 per year cost of renting the Zoe batteries, when the woman is only likely to get the petrol equivalent of ~£400 of value out of them.
(Based on 50mpg supermini at current petrol prices).
At 9 miles a day average, those i-Miev batteries could be down to 20-30% of their original capacity, and still be enough most of the time.
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It is highly unlikely her car gets used much outside of a 30mph zone, and she IS 70, so high speed cornering isnt really an issue. How a car feels to drive is also very much down to personal taste, although I accept the iMiev is a very lightweight car, and with the Pug and Citroen versions, rattly panels were reported. Side Impact; the car has 4 stars on NCAP, being let down primarily by a low pedestrian score.
High speed cornering isn't the issue really. Remember the Elk test?
The thing is throughly unpleasant to drive due to its handling characteristics.
A mixture of ages and sexes driving our fleet would testify to this.
NCAP doesn't mean a whole lot when a current generation crossover ploughs straight into it sitting quite a few inches higher up.
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Driving only 3k miles per year, even a V8 would work out cheaper than the rental of the batteries.
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Aren't the NCAP ratings subjective, i.e. you can only compare vehicles of roughly the same size, as surely a 5 star rated city car's occupants would not survive a crash with a far larger and heavier BMW 7 series etc of the same star rating, never mind a huge SUV or double cab.
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It may seem harsh that French speeding tickets start at 1km/h over the limit, but there is also a technical margin. So if you're done for 81 in an 80 you were actually doing 86. The notification of the fine shows the recorded speed and the retained speed and it is the latter that you're fined for.
I live in France and drive professionally and while I'm no fan of speed cameras, unfortunately they exist. However they always have warning signs and a reminder of the speed limit. If you're going too fast and get caught don't whinge about it.
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To be fair to BMW, 4,000 miles over the contracted service limit does seem a lot, despite the owner's bereavement. It's not like it was 50 or 100 miles over. Like all these questions, we don't know if the dealer might have been sympathetic, neither do we know the owner's attitude.
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Re Frog March Although HJ specifically mentions that speed limits automatically drop to 50kph when entering a town/village etc in France, the same applies to other countries. I live in Austria and it's the case there. The Austrians are also fond of speed cameras, plus they have random vehicle checks. It's mandatory to carry your licence - if you are stopped and don't have it with you, you won't be allowed to drive off. Might mean a bus or taxi to get it from where or it is, or if you have another driver in the car who has their licence, they can drive.
Edited by Mike H on 17/09/2019 at 19:57
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