Discussion
Sorry, not sure on the service cost as my one had it done as part of the purchase deal. They said it would involve a brake fluid change and I know they stripped/cleaned the rear drums as they sounded a bit rough (I've taken to giving it brake tests every now and again to clean up the discs/pads/drums).
Unfortunately OVO aren't (yet) compatible with solar panels so that knackered that one!
Oh, and the car lies. Two days ago it showed possible range of 201 miles. Over 1/1/2 days during which it averaged 6.2 miles/kWh it was all done at 165 miles. Ok, that's 5 more than claimed but it was never getting anywhere near what the guess-o-range-o-meter suggested in what were ideal very warm start stop journeys and fairly slow speeds. At least I now know first hand the best it will achieve!
Unfortunately OVO aren't (yet) compatible with solar panels so that knackered that one!
Oh, and the car lies. Two days ago it showed possible range of 201 miles. Over 1/1/2 days during which it averaged 6.2 miles/kWh it was all done at 165 miles. Ok, that's 5 more than claimed but it was never getting anywhere near what the guess-o-range-o-meter suggested in what were ideal very warm start stop journeys and fairly slow speeds. At least I now know first hand the best it will achieve!
I think ultimately the car isn't actually capable of a real world 200 miles regardless of driving style. The reason being the efficiency had increased from the previous average of 5.9 to 6.2 over those 1.5 days of driving. Ambient temps were up too. My default driving mode is eco, regen level 2 set and B mode used 'manually' when there is something to be gained. So yes, all the sums said it might be doable and eco + (which I don't use) might have coaxed another few extra miles but nothing like 200.
I rarely use a/c in any car but switched it on the previous week for about 1 minute......the range instantly dropped by almost 40 miles which is nuts. I now pop open the rear windows for some though flow air which seems to work fairly well.
Car has sat last couple days but sun is out now so will give a long slow charge from the panels and see where it ends up.
I rarely use a/c in any car but switched it on the previous week for about 1 minute......the range instantly dropped by almost 40 miles which is nuts. I now pop open the rear windows for some though flow air which seems to work fairly well.
Car has sat last couple days but sun is out now so will give a long slow charge from the panels and see where it ends up.
Hmm, not surprised at those 'service' charges....A brake fluid change at an indy would be <£50, a pollen filter takes minutes to fit and is usually around @£20. Other than a literal kick of the tyres and check that nothing is amiss what else is there? Wiper blades, £25 quid and 5 mins to do yourself, or pay them (nothing do to with service 'history') what £70 ish?
They might argue that they plug it in to check the systems but unless there is an issue or they do an update, I would suggest they probably don't plug them in unless a problem has been reported.
Average over last 1600 miles has now increased overall to 6.0 m/kWh. It did sneak up to 6.1 but then I discovered the extra bit of throttle travel during the week...It feels a bit like an ordinary auto where you pressed through to the kick down switch at the bottom of the throttle travel, seems to give a bit more punch up to 30 mph or so.
They might argue that they plug it in to check the systems but unless there is an issue or they do an update, I would suggest they probably don't plug them in unless a problem has been reported.
Average over last 1600 miles has now increased overall to 6.0 m/kWh. It did sneak up to 6.1 but then I discovered the extra bit of throttle travel during the week...It feels a bit like an ordinary auto where you pressed through to the kick down switch at the bottom of the throttle travel, seems to give a bit more punch up to 30 mph or so.
First Mot tomorrow.....hope the emissions are ok.....
On a serious note, when purchased the driver's door speaker was kaput. Rather than phaff around waiting (it was on back order apparently) I put up with it thinking no worries for a few weeks. That was 6 months ago....Two weeks ago the passenger one failed so car is also supposed to be having that sorted together with a slightly flaky boot switch. Already had a bit of grump at the dealer so we will see if they do a decent job of things tomorrow!
On a more positive note, it is still averaging 6.0/6.1 m/kWh. Any thoughts of a more 'impressive' ev soon disappear when reports of low 3-4 m/kWh are read especially with the draconian depreciation in ev world at the moment. That of course may change over the next while as these things cycle around but it is still a concern nonetheless.
On a serious note, when purchased the driver's door speaker was kaput. Rather than phaff around waiting (it was on back order apparently) I put up with it thinking no worries for a few weeks. That was 6 months ago....Two weeks ago the passenger one failed so car is also supposed to be having that sorted together with a slightly flaky boot switch. Already had a bit of grump at the dealer so we will see if they do a decent job of things tomorrow!
On a more positive note, it is still averaging 6.0/6.1 m/kWh. Any thoughts of a more 'impressive' ev soon disappear when reports of low 3-4 m/kWh are read especially with the draconian depreciation in ev world at the moment. That of course may change over the next while as these things cycle around but it is still a concern nonetheless.
Mot all good and now have working speakers in the front doors again. It transpired that the car should have had speakers in the rear doors from the factory but they had never been fitted.....Dealer tried to get the assorted clips to fit but I needed the car back and the clips have still not arrived. Turns out, they have to drill out something on the rear doors to fit them and then phaff around some more. I can live without them until we all have more time and the bits are in stock.
Due to the delay on sorting this, the dealer went around the car and gave it a bit of a mini service, sorted some squeaks and rattles and gave it a nice clean and didn't charge for the mot either which nicely balances things off.
I reset everything for coming home and experimented with no regen set other than the occasional 'B' mode arriving at roundabouts. Lots national limit with 3 miles of 30/40 zone at the end. 5.8m/kWh overall sitting at 55mph for the majority, it doesn't half feel weird coasting along at close to the national limit though!
Due to the delay on sorting this, the dealer went around the car and gave it a bit of a mini service, sorted some squeaks and rattles and gave it a nice clean and didn't charge for the mot either which nicely balances things off.
I reset everything for coming home and experimented with no regen set other than the occasional 'B' mode arriving at roundabouts. Lots national limit with 3 miles of 30/40 zone at the end. 5.8m/kWh overall sitting at 55mph for the majority, it doesn't half feel weird coasting along at close to the national limit though!
The Wii Mii continues to go about its business and has cracked on through 15k miles now without protest. Just as well we want to keep for a bit longer as it appears to now be worth sweet FA. The same age Fiesta is still worth more or less the same as it was a year ago....
Temps are dropping here now but the overall average is still hovering around 6 m/kWh so decent advertised range of 160miles is still possible with care. I think over the next month will see a drop down into the 5's as the heater becomes a requirement and lights start going on. Let's see what happens.
Cheers
Temps are dropping here now but the overall average is still hovering around 6 m/kWh so decent advertised range of 160miles is still possible with care. I think over the next month will see a drop down into the 5's as the heater becomes a requirement and lights start going on. Let's see what happens.
Cheers
And therein lies the problem ( at this point in time). The overall cost can't simply be ignored if it doesn't suit the argument. If you look at my first post about this, my goal was to genuinely discover which was cheapest to run around in, a Mii electric or petrol Fiesta. They are both '20 plates and of very similar mileage.
Because of huge depreciation on the Mii over the last 6 months the figures look very bad currently which is unfortunate but they are what they are. That is only going to affect us if we choose to sell and we don't have any plans on doing that as it is very good at the local runabout stuff, in fact, it's probably the best wee car we have ever had in that respect.
In regard to M'way stuff ( I know others use them for this), it is not great. It is a town car as demonstrated but the low 4's efficiency on a dual carriageway to Perth early this year. I tried various things, eco mode, cruise/no cruise, sitting at 58/60 mph (any slower just makes you a target/sitting duck). We returned via small country roads and through villages for fear of not making it back. I realise some think that 4 m/kWh is good, I do not! We haven't attempted any other similar trips in it since and use something else more appropriate.
If you can get a cheap one and use it for local stuff then it won't disappoint.
Because of huge depreciation on the Mii over the last 6 months the figures look very bad currently which is unfortunate but they are what they are. That is only going to affect us if we choose to sell and we don't have any plans on doing that as it is very good at the local runabout stuff, in fact, it's probably the best wee car we have ever had in that respect.
In regard to M'way stuff ( I know others use them for this), it is not great. It is a town car as demonstrated but the low 4's efficiency on a dual carriageway to Perth early this year. I tried various things, eco mode, cruise/no cruise, sitting at 58/60 mph (any slower just makes you a target/sitting duck). We returned via small country roads and through villages for fear of not making it back. I realise some think that 4 m/kWh is good, I do not! We haven't attempted any other similar trips in it since and use something else more appropriate.
If you can get a cheap one and use it for local stuff then it won't disappoint.
As far as I can tell there isn't anything similar unless e-Up or Citigo that are more or less identical although beware Citi Gos with only slow charging.
At this point, my balance sheet disproves the cost equality between small petrol/electric. Both were bought 2nd hand, low miles one private owner. At the time they were both slightly below ball park prices.
The figures don't lie, it's all there in black and white. As said, depreciation of over 40% on a used Mii versus around 10% on the petrol Fiesta over twice the time span. It doesn't matter how cheap your electric/charging is, it will take some time and plenty of miles to sort that or a complete about face within the markets.
If you have to charge away from home/work then it's even worse. As said previously, this won't suit many peoples' arguments for pro EV but these are my own current and up to date facts. Once we start adding RFL from '25 that gets even worse as it will be exactly the same price as the Fiesta.
So yes, IF you can buy an EV cheaply and charge cheaply you can still just about beat the system, or, keep what you have and run it 'til it dies! At the moment, a petrol Fiesta wins (sorry....)
At this point, my balance sheet disproves the cost equality between small petrol/electric. Both were bought 2nd hand, low miles one private owner. At the time they were both slightly below ball park prices.
The figures don't lie, it's all there in black and white. As said, depreciation of over 40% on a used Mii versus around 10% on the petrol Fiesta over twice the time span. It doesn't matter how cheap your electric/charging is, it will take some time and plenty of miles to sort that or a complete about face within the markets.
If you have to charge away from home/work then it's even worse. As said previously, this won't suit many peoples' arguments for pro EV but these are my own current and up to date facts. Once we start adding RFL from '25 that gets even worse as it will be exactly the same price as the Fiesta.
So yes, IF you can buy an EV cheaply and charge cheaply you can still just about beat the system, or, keep what you have and run it 'til it dies! At the moment, a petrol Fiesta wins (sorry....)
Drop in efficiency today, 7 C ambient here and down to 5 m/kWh and showing sub 150 miles range on full 'tank'. At least the sun is shining and its still being charged by the PV 's!!
Curiosity got the better of me this week, I test drove a Cupra Born. They are (in my opinion) one of the few decent looking EV's and rather than read what everyone 'thinks' I thought I'd try one for myself. Positives are Good driving position, good seats, nice damping and it went down the road quite nicely.
Negatives, the complete arse who signed off the haptic switchgear should have been fired on the spot. It is impossible to hold the steering wheel correctly, feed it properly and not press/lightly touch a button thing.....a nonsense and I don'y buy the oh you get used to it, it just shouldn't be there full stop. It only grudgingly achieved 4 m/kWh despite being gentle on 'range', sorry, not good enough. Yes it's heavier and more powerful but I was being deliberately rangey to try and coax more from it. The view out the back for parking is poor too. Mrs Sticky summed it up, doesn't feel the money they are asking for it......I prefer the honesty of the Mii.
So the Wii Mii stays and we shall see how it fares through the worst of winter!
Curiosity got the better of me this week, I test drove a Cupra Born. They are (in my opinion) one of the few decent looking EV's and rather than read what everyone 'thinks' I thought I'd try one for myself. Positives are Good driving position, good seats, nice damping and it went down the road quite nicely.
Negatives, the complete arse who signed off the haptic switchgear should have been fired on the spot. It is impossible to hold the steering wheel correctly, feed it properly and not press/lightly touch a button thing.....a nonsense and I don'y buy the oh you get used to it, it just shouldn't be there full stop. It only grudgingly achieved 4 m/kWh despite being gentle on 'range', sorry, not good enough. Yes it's heavier and more powerful but I was being deliberately rangey to try and coax more from it. The view out the back for parking is poor too. Mrs Sticky summed it up, doesn't feel the money they are asking for it......I prefer the honesty of the Mii.
So the Wii Mii stays and we shall see how it fares through the worst of winter!
Cheers chap, it is a nice wee buggy and we do enjoy it for what it is. A great wee runabout for short trips saving the (real) ICE car for proper journeys, towing the caravan etc.
Having said that, I have just managed to get a CoC from BMW allowing the 22 year old (now there's being green for you) Touring to enter LEZ/ULEZ zones as its NOx value is very low. Admittedly it doesn't do many miles over the year, just the big ones and towing 5 up with 4 bikes on the roof and 2 dogs in the boot over many miles. Having researched very thoroughly indeed, there isn't an EV in the world that can manage that kind of work load and comfortably exceed 100 miles without having to stop in some crappy service station and pay silly money for both food/drink and amps!
Its horses for courses, EV's are good at some things, ICE better at others, simples.
Having said that, I have just managed to get a CoC from BMW allowing the 22 year old (now there's being green for you) Touring to enter LEZ/ULEZ zones as its NOx value is very low. Admittedly it doesn't do many miles over the year, just the big ones and towing 5 up with 4 bikes on the roof and 2 dogs in the boot over many miles. Having researched very thoroughly indeed, there isn't an EV in the world that can manage that kind of work load and comfortably exceed 100 miles without having to stop in some crappy service station and pay silly money for both food/drink and amps!
Its horses for courses, EV's are good at some things, ICE better at others, simples.
Crumbs, worst results yet with efficiency down to 4.5 m/kWh this past week and a fully charged range of 132 miles this morning. Not ideal. The heater is only on 19C, any lower and I might as well have the windows open.
The thread on i3's has got me thinking again (nearly bought one before the Mii) but then others with experience post up results not that much better. A bigger car is not an option for us (it's all town use) and as this is supposed to be cheaper motoring spending another £20k would seem remiss too.
Hmm, thinking hat on!
The thread on i3's has got me thinking again (nearly bought one before the Mii) but then others with experience post up results not that much better. A bigger car is not an option for us (it's all town use) and as this is supposed to be cheaper motoring spending another £20k would seem remiss too.
Hmm, thinking hat on!
Currently down at around 3.5 m/kWh average at the moment due to the cold weather. I think I've found the ideal winter setting after various attempts. Heater on 18C (sometimes 19), heater fan on 1 and heated seat on level one too. This seems to keep the cabin reasonable without feeling I'm in a Caterham....This seems to offer genuine range of 100-110 miles. This is a little less than ideal for my purposes but a quick 3/4 hr charge at home gets me to the end of the day. ~Now rocking up to 18k miles.
Delved into other options such as i3, MG4 etc but with car prices being very 'difficult' at the moment I'm going to wait and see. Over the last 2 weeks I have watched an already very well priced i3 (42Kw) drop twice by a total of £1k and I think there is still some way to go. I was offered a brand new MG4 for a bit over £23k with choice of colour and so on. Time to be patient I think as finance rates are still hopeless and I had some fairly hefty i3 insurance quotes too.
Delved into other options such as i3, MG4 etc but with car prices being very 'difficult' at the moment I'm going to wait and see. Over the last 2 weeks I have watched an already very well priced i3 (42Kw) drop twice by a total of £1k and I think there is still some way to go. I was offered a brand new MG4 for a bit over £23k with choice of colour and so on. Time to be patient I think as finance rates are still hopeless and I had some fairly hefty i3 insurance quotes too.
somouk said:
I was getting similar the other day coming back out of Birmingham.
Does anyone elses car always reset to 22 every time it is locked and left for a period of time? Really annoys me!
It seems they all do that chap whether Mii, Citigo or up. From my extremely scientific testing......it seems that after the car has been locked for at least 15-20 mins (ish) then everything resets. Quite why an 'engineer' chose 22C as the default setting when everyone else in the world is trying their best to get a decent range out of the thing is beyond me, surely 18/19 would have been sensible. I have cars that are 22 & 25 years old and they can remember the last setting so it must be the usual penny pinching nonsense again from VW.Does anyone elses car always reset to 22 every time it is locked and left for a period of time? Really annoys me!
Having grumbled about all that, it's not like there are many buttons or menus that you need to go through to reset at least! I do wonder what a slightly facelifted Mii could have been with a slightly bigger battery (say 3-5 more usable Kw), better headlights (Leds) & a longer term memory of settings would have been like. It's one of those cars that is so close to being just so. Still can't get i3's out of my head.....
VAG, had it all in the good old days. Had 2 MK1 Golf GTi campaigns and then an 8v Mk3 Gti that lasted 5 weeks before it went. Downhill since as far as I'm concerned. Anyhoo!, Discovered the Wii Mii has heated door mirrors last week...!! Unless you lean forward literally out of your seat you can't see the little emblem
I could have read the manual of course but that's cheating and taking away the little surprises...!
I could have read the manual of course but that's cheating and taking away the little surprises...!
The Mii is going. As good as it was over the milder months, its lack of range when colder is not acceptable. I tried all the various permutations the car allows in order to maximise range but stay reasonably comfortable inside (i.e. not bloody cold!!) but when you are into the low 3's efficiency wise it is always a struggle. The last 3/12 K miles have averaged 3.6 m/kwh, however the number 2 would appear initially on the coldest days and very gradually get up into the low 3's.
Typically, warm sunny day today and back up to 6m/kwh.....but it goes on Thursday. The Fiesta remains for another year heh-ho.
Typically, warm sunny day today and back up to 6m/kwh.....but it goes on Thursday. The Fiesta remains for another year heh-ho.
Not sure on what motor/battery system it uses to be honest. If it is the same as the eGolf then it is simply lightness/simplicity that gives the Mii decent warm weather efficiency. It does have the 'VW pink' coolant fluid for the batteries so there is some temp control unlike a Leaf for example. It has frustrated me really, as I have said before, I genuinely like the Mii, but in cold weather we have gone from a genuine 160 miles down to 100-ish and that is too much of a compromise.
If it was still giving (in cold weather) a genuine 115-120 miles then I would keep it but despite all my efforts to encourage that, it's just not happening unfortunately.
In regard to Teslas giving 4 m/kwh, the Mii struggles with that if used as an out of town car, then you have 1/2 the weight, week heating and not much in the way of creature comforts etc. I only tried one longish dual carriageway journey and it was out of its depth to be honest, great around town though!
I have looked at MG4's, 500e's and driven a Cupra Born. The first two don't seem to get anywhere near claimed ranges by anyone who has tried regardless of conditions and the Cupra's haptic buttons drove me straight back to the showroom. I can see me going down the i3 route with a heat pump as the 42kw versions still seem to give 140 miles when cold and that is the extra range I need on a daily basis as worst case scenario. They also don't tend to have all the assists that need switched off every time you get in!
If it was still giving (in cold weather) a genuine 115-120 miles then I would keep it but despite all my efforts to encourage that, it's just not happening unfortunately.
In regard to Teslas giving 4 m/kwh, the Mii struggles with that if used as an out of town car, then you have 1/2 the weight, week heating and not much in the way of creature comforts etc. I only tried one longish dual carriageway journey and it was out of its depth to be honest, great around town though!
I have looked at MG4's, 500e's and driven a Cupra Born. The first two don't seem to get anywhere near claimed ranges by anyone who has tried regardless of conditions and the Cupra's haptic buttons drove me straight back to the showroom. I can see me going down the i3 route with a heat pump as the 42kw versions still seem to give 140 miles when cold and that is the extra range I need on a daily basis as worst case scenario. They also don't tend to have all the assists that need switched off every time you get in!
The Wii Mii has gone......but not very far (and I'm not taking the mick re cold weather range....), hooligan no.2 decided he rather liked the idea of it as a first car, I liked the idea because of enormous depreciation that is effectively avoided for the time being at least, and he can charge up at his part time work now and again too-result!
An i3 (42 kw) has replaced it and I'll begin a thread on that.
An i3 (42 kw) has replaced it and I'll begin a thread on that.
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