Home charging EV

Yes, sad world !

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Buy an older EV with less gadgets and get a new battery if required

I find all the aids in the VW ID3 to be extremely well considered .. espically the lane assist and the overtaking cars blinking yellow on the mirrors .. and the cruise control automatic speed adjust ..with one exception .. I will be travelling happily at 110 km when a lower limit sin of 80Km on a slip appears and it responds to it..very disconcerting
And yes the the touch buttons instead of real buttons are a right pain …

My EV2 has a button on the steering wheel to turn off the lane assist (although I find I’m increasingly keeping it enabled). There’s also a shortcut to disable the bing when speeding, which is to depress the volume button on the steering wheel for 3 seconds. I switch this one off systematically… Not because I speed but because the Kia misinterprets signs too much for my liking.

So whilst I can’t permanently disabled them, it only takes a couple of seconds and my muscle memory has already remembered exactly where each button is located.

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+100,000 Ancient. Just had that in a hire car - in wet conditions pulling the wheel back after its repeated and repeated error before it put me in the ditch could have caused a skid. Fortunately it was dry and my pasenger knew how to switch the d@*mn thing off.

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I would suggest that, either you are prone to exaggeration or your car is defective. The lane corrective assistance is governed by strict standards.

You may find it irritating. I find seat belts uncomfortable and irritating especially on very short slow journeys were a collision is very unlikely. But I always belt up.

If you were to spend some time at the Transport Road Reaerch Laboratory, you would soon understand the research that goes into these devices and the tragic consequences of disabling them where the driver thought he knew better.

A quick Google shows accidents resulting from head on collisions and head on crashes are reduced by up to 60%

Let me describe it then as the car trying to turn the wheel against me, to head in a direction that would carry me off the road. While the system is obviously not trying to forcibly wrench the wheel from my grip, the phrase is plain enough to be understood.

And frankly I couldn’t give a wet slap for what testing and regulations surround this system: it’s simply dangerous as implemented for use on minor roads with surface damage. As you can see from Karen’s response, it’s not just me.

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Even the (newly built) care home that my mother is in in Woking has a couple of chargers in their car park. I haven’t checked how much they cost to use yet though.

My next car will be an EV and most likely a Renault Megane - according to the link Juliet posted Renaults (Renaulx?) have the most easily defeatable annoyance features, and also a row of physical buttons for common functions:

The only annoyance people seem to report about them is the fiddly gear change stalk, but I imagine you would get used to that.

Indeed, I have experienced the same thing myself on certain minor roads. I saw a recent statistic that suggested 41% of drivers turn off lane assistance so you are not alone.

However, although different studies vary depending on the organisation evaluating them, lane keeping assistance reduces accidents from head on collisions and lane departures by a significant amount and a proportion of those accidents will be fatal. Obviously , if everybody used them, lives would be saved. Compare those deaths with the inconvenience you experience on a poorly maintained minor road from time to time.

You are not in an autonomous car. The driver is there to react to warnings and override them if and when necessary.

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How is your mother getting on there after a few weeks, Chris?

Stellantis seem to have struck gold with their newer ranges …We got the Opel Frontera EV as my wife’s car a few months ago and we is delighted with it ..The same car is apparently with cosmetic changes also the Citreon aircross and the Peugeot 2008. . Big roomy and high .. The seating in my VW ID3 was too low for her . Anyway it has physical buttons for everything and a knob to disable alarms

Don’t be so hard on yourself :joy::rofl::joy:

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Brilliant. Best reply ever.

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It’s not an ‘inconvenience’ when your car tries to steer you off the road - it’s dangerous. There is no other word for it. My car was designed to endanger life. It is NOT a warning.

Out of interest, did you ever help build a bypass?

She’s doing well thank you! Of course she would prefer to be still at home, but she understands why that’s no longer practical and the care home is very good apart form a few minor niggles.

We are now moving on to the next stage of selling her house. I am officially retiring on October 1st and aiming to move to Cornwall a week later, though I will still come back to Guildford to help with the house sale and clearance.

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Interesting question but why do you ask? My first project as a land surveyor was to set out Spaghetti Junction. Since then, many more bypass and motorway projects in Europe. USA and the Middle East.

Do you use it for long highway trips?

The weak point of old models is their battery life, I need to travel on long distances.

I don’t use it at all..It is my wife’s car .and the 2026 model . I drive the older 2021 VW ID3 , which we brought to France this year and has a slightly larger battery. Despite it’s age ,the VW was a more luxurious model with more gizmos.and a slightly bigger battery. . 58KWH usable compared to 54KWH . So we took it … Maybe next year … . Opel has not taken any long journeys to dat.. but is theoretically capable of 400Km. … So that’s long enough.. We anticipate regular medical trips of 100Km each way and each can easily do the return without any recharge…andcany diversions .Her previous car was the Peugeot 3008 diesel in similar service and she likes the high seating. I would agree with Corona that a bigger battery is a better purchase as it wears slower

How far and how often?

Ours has a theoretical range of 400km and we’ve never had the car demand a stop before we’ve needed to stop for biological reasons.

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