dutchie01

I am interested to find this out as well James. I find it more difficult to drive at night getting older as oncoming headlights make it difficult to see clearly. I am told it is because of age. When you are young the light enters the eye only through the pupil but when older also through the side of it or so. I know the night vision glasses from tell sell and apparently it totally changed the lives of people that started using them they look so happy! But... do they work?

Toyota, Yamaha, Kawasaki, Mazda, Subaru. Talking about a formidable engineering powerhouse! On a sidenote, Ineos Granadier was supposed to offer a Hydro version of the new car but this is scrapped as there are simply no fuelling stations.

I was in Portugal this week visiting a business friend and he took me out in his Merc GLS 7 seater with 6 pot diesel and 4wd. Ohh how nice a drive it was with air suspension and no electronic dash all buttons galore. The entire EV discussion doen not exist at all in Portugal !

Make sure you are well before returning to work Vlad!

The whole circus leading up to the 95 grams regulation took well over 10 years with automotive lobby putting their full weight in. It was softened, delayed, compromised all you can think of until it was set in stone and connected to heavy fines if the average co2 of the entire fleet exceeds 95grams. For manufacturers this is an outright nightmare and has truly massive consequences so yes i see why everybody is protesting. First of all engineering a petrol engine to emit below 95 is so costly it cannot be used in the A nor B segment cars without heavy price increases making the cars unsellable. Thats why they are disappearing rapidly. Another reason is manufacturers are ectively steering sales to remain below the threshold of 95 grams. As small cars are volume sellers they can imbalance your average fleetsales rapidly creating massive fines. Thats why VW simply did not supply the Polo for months and months. manufacturers are using the loopholes of the regulations and can easily add more weight to a car to make it eligible for over 95 grams. - Vehicle weight is retained as the underlying utility parameter, i.e., the heavier a manufacturer’s car fleet, the higher the CO2 emission value allowed by the regulation. The factor used is 0.0333, meaning that for every 100 kg additional vehicle weight, the emission of 3.33 g/km more of CO2 is allowed. Wonder why we end up with ever heavier cars? Then they have to create new factories productionlines, new contracts with suppliers ( in this world a bomb has gone off, imagine the thousands of companies supplying all engine parts that are no longer needed..). They are literally forced to invest billions of Euros in this transfer and exactly that is happening. Anyway the more EVs are produced the more economical it is to produce them and VW for instance is expecting BEV production to be as profitable as ICE very soon. https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/volkswagens-ev-business-profitable-combustion-engines-sooner-than-planned-ceo-2022-05-12/#:~:text=Volkswagen's EV profit margins to match combustion engines sooner than planned - CEO,-Reuters&text=BERLIN%2C May 12 (Reuters),Herbert Diess said on Thursday. Where all this will lead? no idea but in 5 years the automotive world will be a very different place.

https://carbuzz.com/news/top-scientist-outlines-toyotas-measured-approach-to-evs

where does LPG fit in? I always thought that was a clean fuel and i drove lpg cars years ago fuelling infrastructure is available and you can retrofit your petrol at not too high cost surely this is more realistic than going on about hydro that if at all will be a decade away at least? anyone shed a light on this?

Interesting. Sounds like the explanation why car manufacturers went for BEV instead of Hydro.

Vlad, i am not for or against ev, hydro or ice but facts are facts. It is easy to come up with all sorts of arguments that support ones ideas and if these are based on facts all fine but "batteries cannot be recycled" seems a bit off the scale. the toyota bzx comes with a 10 year or 1 million km warranty on the battery plus a written statement it will have over 70% of life left after 10 years. Just saying.

https://www.hydro.com/en-NL/media/news/2022/europes-largest-electric-vehicle-battery-recycling-plant-begins-operations/?gclid=CjwKCAiAwomeBhBWEiwAM43YIBSxpIr0keoLmxoqaXIlUoFFu_Zp158pKw1bEHQe0CpjsexeShNOQxoC8j4QAvD_BwE https://batteriesnews.com/mercedes-benz-subsidiary-licular-leading-e17m-libinfinity-project-battery-recycling/ https://group.mercedes-benz.com/company/news/recycling-factory-kuppenheim.html https://www.fortum.com/media/2022/09/fortum-start-battery-recycling-operations-germany-serving-european-ev-automotive-industrys-rising-demand-battery-raw-materials Just 5 minutes of googling gave above result and there is lots more. Seems battery recycling has turned into big business!

Reality out in the market is that the industry has chosen. Remember nobody insisted them to start producing electric vehicles, the demand was the dreaded co2 95 grams that will become lower over the years. The industrywide answer was electric vehicles and not hydro. If hydro is or would have been the wonderful solution as some on here seem to think why not the other way around? https://www.reuters.com/technology/exclusive-automakers-double-spending-evs-batteries-12-trillion-by-2030-2022-10-21/

The sound of reliability. Below latest vid from Savagegeese is touching some of the points from this thread, reliability, long term ownership, what is luxury etc. Check it out!

Happy in their own skin, owned various makes through the years and does not care one bit what other people think of him?

I had to choose a new companycar after some SAABs and wanted to order another one but the company unfortunately went bankrupt. Sniffed around the usual German suspects but wanted something more individual, like the Saabs were. Walked into a Lexus showroom had a look at the IS 250 (just released then) and what sold me was the doors! You open the front door and give it a push to close it. The bankvault like Thud just told me enough. I ordered it without a testdrive!

So, reliability for new cars is not so important? I beg to differ as not all new cars are leased or fleet vehicles. There is a large part of the market that buys new privately. I am slowly slowly nearing my retirement so will have to buy a private car for myself for the first time since 1987.. The number one topic for me will be reliability as i do not want to fork out my reduced income to silly repairs. So the choice will be Toyota or Lexus as far i can oversee it now. Toyota s number one salesargument is the world famous reliabilty of the cars and this made them the number one worldwide. Kia/Hyundai saw sales grow rapidly when they started with an 8 yr warranty. Fiat and Alfa saw sales collapse because of bad reliability and wasnt it the Chairman/MD of range rover that told the press they are missing 100,000 orders p.a. because potential customers have no faith in their reliabilty?

BMW? heres another one. I needed an official offer for my new companycar and had the spec fully worked out and written on a paper. Entered the dealer explained the situation and told him, it was Friday, i could send him an order by Monday. And what was the reply?....... tadaaa here it comes... Could you possibly come back next week Sir, we are redecorating the showroom and installing the new 5 series for the display this weekend. I left in total confusion, it is extremely difficult buying a new car from a dealer!

Heres another one. I wanted to buy a 1 yr old GLA for my wife asked for a testdrive reply was that would be possible after i buy the car first. I thought it was a joke but they were serious! Left the building and will take the bus rather than buy a car from those arrogant self centred space cadets again. I wish they lots of competition from China.

How old were the 30 VW s of your fathers company?

How do you prevent that thing from getting stolen? Looks expensive guess you will always take it inside even at work?

Sorry, wrong button! Anyhow have a look at the 2022 salesfigures. Some 10,000 cars sold by lexus and the newish brand Polestar already on 7k with one model. Cupra another new one at 14k, MG ( ! ) at 51k and so on. In 2023 the Chinese will be in there as well and i expect Lexus to shrink further as there are no new models that are competitive or intereresting enough for the bigger public. Even the new RZ BEV seems a weak proposal with a too limited range. Oh dear, it does not look good.

I dont think it is by choice Linas more out of lack of choice there simply seems no other option. https://www.carmagazine.co.uk/car-news/industry-news/uk-2022-car-sales-analysis-winners-and-losers/

Dont want to crash the party here but all this is very experimental and IF it makes production you could be looking at years and years away. 2030 could be the goal. Not sure if i am still in the market for a new car by then.. On the other hand i do think it is great that all routes will be explored as it is not for old gits like me but for my children and grandchildren. Typing this mid winter and 14 degrees. Hope they speed up a bit!

To put things in perspective. Lexus dealer in the states where lexus IS mainstream and takes the competition head on. No niche product there.

Stand alone Lexus dealers have disappeared in The Netherlands. Lexus operates from a corner in Toyota dealers. Sad but the reality of not selling enough cars. Reminds me a bit of Alfa Romeo that moved in with Fiat

And that exactly is the bottom line. If they cannot build a business case around a model they will not do it to prevent a loss. Looks like Lexus will be a producer of SUVś and crossovers only as that is what the public wants. Saloons, estates and sportscars are dead.