Where would you go next...

bazz26

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118542017#Comment_118542017

A G20 330d is a rare sight on these shores now that it's not worth importing one. That has quite a few optional packs on that car too unlike the similar one for sale in Morrison's. How much would that car have cost brand new 2 years ago? 75k? BMW configurator has a base 330d X Drive M Sport Pro starting at just over 70k now before you get ticking options.

carsfan2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118543285#Comment_118543285

I reckon early 70’s for that car new.

you can’t actually get one at the moment with some of the kit on that due to chip shortages.

sk8board

I know when I got my 420d, the 30d in the same spec was €8k more.

curiously, the same two engines in the 5 series are €15k diff. Go figure :)

The 330d is the sweetspot to get that performance. If only it was a touring

Leonard Hofstadter

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118542546#Comment_118542546

You just can't beat that sort of convenience, and though I am definitely not a fan of diesels, BMW's six cylinder diesels are just brilliant, petrol performance (more actually), smooth even by petrol standards, a half decent noise but high 40s to 50 mpg if you're careful.

Sure even last weekend I did Dublin to Cork, then Cork to Mitchelstown and back, followed by returning to Dublin via Limerick, all on one tank, and this is a 19 year old 2.5 litre petrol car, not exactly the kind of thing that's noted for fuel efficiency. No stopping en route, no worrying about fast chargers, slow chargers, where to find a charger, no wasting time, just got in, did almost 420 miles at motorway / main road speeds. I stopped when I wanted to not when the car wanted me to. I drove at the speeds I wanted to not worrying about slowing down to find a charging point or finding a charging spot in a car park, etc etc.

It simply couldn't have been done in an EV.

bazz26

Speaking of 6 cylinders - stealthy 340i Touring:

https://www.carsireland.ie/3013258

Cyrus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118545198#Comment_118545198

So did you stop en route or not ? 420 miles is 650km or so most modern EVs would do that with one well placed fast charge stop of around 30 min. It's not the inconvenience you imagine it to be (I say imagine because it's clear you have no actually experience)

maddness

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118549775#Comment_118549775

Downhill with out using the radio or air conditioning though…

maddness

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118549538#Comment_118549538

Take the badge off for the ultimate sleeper.

Leonard Hofstadter

Pity it seems to be quite a low spec, low end instrument binnacle, no heated seats and I bet there's no electric seats either since it's not mentioned in the ad.

You'd forget about all of that every time you start the engine though....

Cyrus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118550102#Comment_118550102

Obviously.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118549775#Comment_118549775

In a proper car you don't have to stop at all though if you don't want to, that's the big difference. No inconvenience at all.

User1998

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118550440#Comment_118550440

I was always kind of against EV’s and was all for plug in hybrids such as 530e, Golf GTE etc, but after doing some long distance driving from Dublin to Mayo, I realised that stopping to charge just wouldn’t be an inconvenience to me at all. Every time I stopped there were several chargers available. And I had to stop anyway as I was so fed up with driving, granted I would have had to stop for longer instead of just the 10 minute stops I was doing. I’m sure there are people who can drive 3 hours without stopping but I definitely cannot

roosterman71

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118545198#Comment_118545198

Out of interest, how often would you do trips like that? I used to think electric would be no good for me and then I started tracking trips and mileage. Turns out, an EV would work nearly all of the time. 3 times in the last 4 years I've done more than 300km in one drive, and never done that on back to back days.

My own issue with EV is the home charging. Not possible without a cable out across the street. Therefore, I went to try upgrade to an Octavia vRS. Skoda have no interest in ordering the spec I want though so that's out for now. They say it would be a 6-9 month wait (that's fine by me), and they wouldn't agree price now - only on delivery (not fine). Plus I'd need to pay 40% deposit now, non refundable, before they order to cover themselves of ordering a car that could be left if I changed my mind. 3 garages, same story.

carsfan2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118549538#Comment_118549538

that car has literally no options.

such a pity to see a car with that drivetrain and such a miserable spec.

Cyrus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118550440#Comment_118550440

I have loads of proper cars as you call them and never once did I do a trip of that distance without at least one stop.

Cyrus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118550680#Comment_118550680

For the vast majority of people an ev will cover 90 percent plus of their trips without needing to charge.

If you are in the bracket where that's not you then hold off until range increases, and if you can't charge at home I'd say forget about it aswell unfortunately, too much of a faff.

wotzgoingon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118550742#Comment_118550742

Someone on here once said they were walking a street in Dublin I think it was and it was one of those streets without driveways so everyone has to park on the road and they seen a wire going across from a house to a pole and down the pole to road level and it was a cable for an electrical socket for an EV. I'm not sure of the legal side of doing such a thing but anyway this person was doing it and it was working for them.

Cyrus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118550814#Comment_118550814

Not a bad solution! Will probably be a normal granny charger though so pretty slow.

hooch-85

We've driven over 800kms this weekend in our new EV. Required 2.5 hours of charging overall. One was for 1 hour 30 while we were exploring the city of Derry, the two others were around 30 mins each on 50 KW chargers. Total spend, €21. I can deal with the inconvenience when it's one sixth of the price of what petrol would have cost. If you have two cars in the house, one EV and one petrol you are laughing.

bazz26

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118550709#Comment_118550709

There are surprisingly a fair few cars like that in UK. Probably had no interest in options and spent their budget on their choice of engine instead.

wotzgoingon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118550709#Comment_118550709

What options would you like? Electric seats no thanks more stuff to break. Heated steering wheel or heated/ cooled seats no than you either from me. Reversing camera I can do without and also parking sensors too, I don't need them.

Two things I would want is cruise control and aircon. Small bit of preference to adaptive CC but no biggie if it just has standard CC. Climate control isn't high up there on preferences from me as I could deal with basic aircon.

Leonard Hofstadter

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118549775#Comment_118549775

Thank you for once again proving my point they they just are not convenient as a real car with a real engine.

You even admitted it yourself that there is not one EV that can do 420 miles on a single charge, even a fairly inefficient petrol car can (without any sort of special eco driving techniques I might add), but even if it couldn't, stopping for five minutes to fill up is not the inconvenience stopping for half an hour (your words, not mine) is. We know even the fastest charging EVs take 10 minutes to give 100 km in the absolute optimal conditions (10-80% battery at the fastest possible charger), even a V12 petrol can give you 500 km in 5 minutes and there's none of this palaver about fast fuel pumps, slow fuel pumps, the tank being 80% full or below 10% full or whatever.

wotzgoingon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118552263#Comment_118552263

I don't know I could drive an electric vehicle and just watch an episode of something on Netflix while it charges. Cheap tax and cheap to run while not down on power with the majority of electric vehicles.

digiman

There is no convincing some posters that EVs will suit the vast majority if they would open their mind a little, and of course there is a small cohort of unusual driving patterns that it would turn out to be less convenient for. I'd leave it at that, no point in turning the thread completely off-topic on this debate all the time.

I hate when I see these rare 6cyl 3.0L petrols which have no spec, the 330d x-drive seems well enough priced to be fair.

I wonder how long Colm Quinn will hold onto the 540i x-drive before dropping the price a bit. At €60k I still think it would be over-priced, for €75k I can get a brand new 545e which is a quicker car and much cheaper to run for the year.

https://colmquinnbmwgalway.ie/used-cars/BMW/5-Series/540i-xDrive/202112090370201/

Leonard Hofstadter

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118550680#Comment_118550680

Every few weeks and in the summer I go to Kerry where there is no charger within 15 km of where I'm staying (and yes I have checked). I am not giving up my weekend so I can drive to the nearest town just so that I can make it back to Dublin without stopping. Nor am I doing the alternative which is stopping for at least half an hour en route either going down or back - three hours is a long enough journey as it is so I have better things to be doing than leaving Dublin half an hour earlier or getting back to Dublin half an hour later.

Like you, home charging is not possible for me either which I accept does reduce the usefulness of an EV to me, but this of course is another issue - what are we going to do for people who are renting, ro living in apartments? The one advantage of an EV (That you can always leave home with the equivalent to a full tank of petrol) is not there so what are those folk supposed to do. This is another advantage of good old fashioned petrol and diesel - it doesn't discriminate against those who do not have their own driveway (which is a not insignificant number of people).

Leonard Hofstadter

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118552358#Comment_118552358

I agree with you on the price of that 540i vs the price of a new 545e (though you'd want to spend another €10,000 plus on some essential options like the M Sport Pro and Comfort packs, not to mention a few other things) but the 540i will be much lighter (exactly 200 kilos less according to BMW) so it will be a much better driver's car, have a much bigger boot (530 vs 410 litres) and a proper sized fuel tank (68 vs 46 litres). There isn't even that much of a performance gap, either (at least on paper) at just 0.3 seconds to 100 km/h - though the 4.9 seconds of the 540i is hardly what you'd call wanting.

So while I can see the appeal of the 545e for sure (it's very keenly priced and the premium over the four cylinder 530e xDrive is relatively very modest), the 540i is going to be a better car to drive (especially as unlike the 545e, it comes with sports suspension as standard, something that's not available in the 545e just like every other PHEV BMW even in M Sport spec - although you can get adaptive suspension, which is what I'd want the M Sport Pro pack for) and more convenient to live with so it's what I would take given the choice.

Just not at the price Colm Quinn wants it for though🤣!

Cyrus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118552263#Comment_118552263

I am willing to bet that I spend far less time in petrol forecourts than you do, something you conveniently forget.

You appear to drive long distances frequently and have no driveway of your own, the exact scenario where I have already said an ev wouldn't be advised so you appear to be debating with yourself about it to be honest. You don't need to convince they don't suit you, but like I also said the majority of people cover less than 50k on 90 percent plus of their car trips.

hooch-85

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118552263#Comment_118552263

Have you ever heard of a cost benefit analysis? As you say your 15 year old 325i will do 500kms for 5 minutes at the pumps, we all get that we've driven petrol cars for years too. But when you are saving up to €100 a week on fuel that you can enjoy on the better things in life you'll soon see why EVs make sense for the boring hundrum driving the majority of us have to do, not the driving we want to do.

You also need to drive an EV cos they are actually the furthest thing from boring, the tech these days in them is phenomenal and you'll feel more refreshed stepping out of one after a long journey than you ever did before stepping in.

maddness

I agree with Hooch that an EV and a petrol/diesel is the perfect two car household. I do 400 kilometres plus a couple of times a week working so it wouldn’t suit me but my wife commutes 50kms a day so an EV would be suitable for her. I still don’t want one though!

If you live alone do you now have to buy two cars? 🤣