dutchie01

All brands will be confronted with this problem i guess. Its about increased interest rates but also cars that increased considerably in price during the long wait until delivery. My experience with Volvo in the Netherlands was that the XC60 i ordered back in November was some 8000 euro more expensive on the day of delivery in August. I am leasing through Leaseplan and all orders through them were honored. Private buyers however were given the choice to fork up the difference or cancel the order.

To be fair this has been going on for decades already only difference is now it is fully digital and can be controlled from a distance. In the old days you could spec the car exactly how you wanted it ( not if there was much choice). Nowadays the marketingdept is the deciding factor to drive profits by pushing customers into upgrades. A car is developed and they then take the expected most sold spec as a basis. Everybody wants these wheel/color/upholstery/engine/infotainment and so on. What they then do is take all this OUT of the standard offer and place it into packages or subpackages that are inter connected as well. ( lower stiffer springs and gearboxflippers at the wheel? ok but only if you also take the sports upholstery/setas adding another 4k). This works and almost no car is leaving the factory as basis and depending on make/model the extra income can be anything between 15 and 50% ( MINI!!).

Isnt it the Ryanair system? You buy a car but then need to pay extra to be able to open the passengerdoor. If you forgot to order the dtk ( digital trunk key) you cannot load you suitcase. The cars infotainment system will bombard you with commercials unless you pay. Limitless possibillities!

Surprisingly well. BSA, Royal Enfield, Triumph, Norton,Royal Enfield are all doing pretty well and the best selling bike is not Japanese, its a BMW

The German website states range up to 440 km. Trainee has been at it again

The issue here could well be that Toyota is creeping upward in design, materials, luxury feeling. Toyotas are no longer the boring breadboxes of yesteryear just look at the new Prius, BZX range. It could well push Lexus into a corner just like Skoda has done with VW. What is the brand identity?

Nobody with a right brain did believe EVs would be taxless until eternity no? Strange and biased article in my opinion. Also not taking into account the rapid development within the EV industry. Batteries will become cheaper and better, lighter more capacity faster charging,recycling. Cheaper cars are on the way, for example VW just announced an ID2 and ID1, Toyota is on a roll etc.

Or is the 7 series a cheaper version of the Rolls?

well, just a phone, no internet. ( and a battery that lasts for a week)

Malc, remember the Nokia 6110?

Football has been highjacked by big money. It is held in mafia states ( ruzzia/quatar) and organised by the Mafia ( FIFA). Fifa dont pay taxes thank you, and all profit goes to them thank you, they decide what happens and when in the country organising the event, almost a state within a state only thing missing is a private army. Middle east sheiks are buying clubs and players for fun. The amount of money going round is obscene

The media plays a big role as well. Just look at the nr 1 news site in the US Fox News. Compare that with nr 2 MSNBC and dear g8d its two sides of a coin, 2 different realities, worlds. Facts are just ideas and Science is an opinion. Twist and turn whatever is needed to reach your goal. Russia comes to mind where lying is accepted if it is done to achieve something.

Its the polarisation of the country, you are with us or against us. Its killing the debate and fuelling the hate. Not US only just go country by country in Europe and youĺl find thesame sentiment. I think both democrats and republicans are not happy with their leaders and dont want them to run if there is a good number 2, but who is that?

Well Malc, then there will only be women left as the average life expectancy of men in Russia just before the war was 64.5 years ( UK 82.5) They are drinking themselves to death already no war needed. But hey who cares.

Not too clever. Blank out your plates on a red civic type R? How many of those are registered? Easy find. Reminds me of a group of 20 something olds driving an alfa spider classic. Did thesame on a warm summersnight 4 in the car hood down and going full speed through a speedcamera with pants down of the rear passengers, mooning i think it is called. They took the licence plate off what could happen? They had them within a day, how many alfa spiders are registered.

I guess the democrats are hoping he will run, its the best thing that can happen to them. Trump lost the general election and the house. And that was before the cobweb of lawsuits, before the classified docs story, before the financial fraud allegations. Then there are now republican candidates standing against him, Desantis, Pence, Cruz. The republican party cannot win a general election with Trump.

Its a free world Toffee and everybody can choose the car they want. There will always be people that are interested and can afford new technologies, the latest cars, the best houses in the best location. A lot of people will not have 10k in the bank but a lot will and are ready to spend it, not everybody chooses to drive around in an old Subaru but some do, and that is fine, like i said its a free world. If you take a look at the UK market there are roughly 33 million cars driving around and this year some 1.5 million ( only ) new cars will be sold. Lexus marketshare is less that 1%. That means the second hand market is massively bigger than the new car market. Petrol cars will still be around till way after 2035, they can be serviced, bought, sold or scrapped no problem. Its a free world. I can still buy a perfectly fine car for less than an electric bike. Can use it for shopping or even drive it all the way to Spain to lie on the beach if i so want. If you maintain your car you can keep running it until the wheels fall off its your choice but some make a different choice and all that is fine. Current inflation is staggering and in the third covid year all is still upside down. The Russian agression is causing the energymarkets to freak out driving inflation up all over Europe but in 12 months we could be living in a different world again. Whatever the situation we are lucky to live in this part of the globe, in a democracy which allows you to make your own choices, to read what you want and say what you like.

Now THAT would be something wont it haha

Oh dear, sensitive topic John as my wife always takes the most epensive option.

It is not only down to economics. Although the vast majority of EVs currently sold will be company car drivers this will change. It seems to me the EV market in Holland is some 2 yrs ahead of the UK. When charging infrastructure is developing things start to move fast. The first adopters were the techies going for Tesla quickly followed by company car drivers going for it due to fiscal support. Currently almost 35% of new EVs in Holland are purchased by private people. Why? Well maybe as it is more economical, you charge at home with power from your own solarcells. But there is an other thing, people drive one because they like driving an EV. Just like some like driving a V8 petrol, simple as that. Each to their own i guess.

I thought it was a 1 child policy started in the seventies when China was still as poor as a church rat. Punishment thesame as it is now, financial or social isolation. Had horrible effects as families were depending on sons to work and generate income. If the newborn was female the baby was frequently drowned or killed and buried. All this led to a shortage of women and men that could not start a family. All abandoned now. Guess no longer needed as they can control the population in even more terrible and modern ways..

Whatever happened to Acid Rain or the Hole in the Ozone Layer? anyone?

Just dont see that happening Malc, we are too far in already. Hamburg port just sold 25% to China, German government currently visiting China with billions in orders for airbus as return. When i was a kid all food was grown local, first supermarkets ( cash/carry ) were not there yet. Textile and furniture industry was local as was radio/tv, even cars. Shoes? local production. Soaps? you get it. Currently typing on a chinese laptop on a chinese table wearing jeans made in india shoes from morocco tv china and so on. Steak from the supermarket? cow from argentina, processed in mexico, repacked in poland and on your plate after 4000 km travelling. Iphone? China. the entire world economy is heavily depending on the chinese manufacturing and this will not change. On the topic of the new religion of climate change it seems to me this is mainly highjacked by white upperclass 16/18 year olds with purple hair, naive idealistic worldviews, i want it now attitude and an urge to be in the center of attention. Oh last thing, coal stations? India, Pakistan, China and .... Germany and The Netherlands as there is not enough oil/gas from the F..ing russians so coal to the rescue!

I could not agree more malc but the irony is that we, the western consumers, are creating this ourselves. Everything has to be cheap and then cheaper. Jeans for a tenner, kids toys are imported by the shiploads just like basically everything else. We order and China produces. Also in automotive. Carparts, electronics everything. Funny thing is that pricing of some of the new Chinese EVs is not as cheap as you might expect. Think China, you expect cheap nothing else really

The Japanese started production here, Nissan, Honda, Toyota all have several factories all over the UK and the continent. Question is will the Chinese open up shop as well or will they remain within China? Any thoughts?