Journalism and Cycling 2: the difficult second album

That's an average of about 5l/100km / 56mpg over 12,000km which, while possible, is unlikely.

I'd recommend people use something like fuelly religiously for a couple of months, it's always surprising! :)

Sadbh was also on Radio1 Drivetime extolling the virtues of the car-free life

How much does an electric car cost (assuming a car loan, interest included), and then how many kilometres are you driving before you break even on the cost?

One issue that we've been hit badly with in the past year has been down to the ever increasing dependency on electronics to make the car do anything. My philosophy has been to buy something a few years old, then drive it until it doesn't owe me anything. Last summer our family car, a high spec Ford S-Max from 2014, effectively went into a huff and would do nothing - wouldn't start, central locking not working, nada. We got it towed to the local Ford service center who alongside Ford themselves proceeded to mess us about for 6 months to no avail (except for the guts of €2k spent on a non-fix). Ford eventually told us that the no longer make the part (the ECU) and that our car was essentially scrap as far as they were concerned (despite similar going for €9-10k on Donedeal). We eventually got it fixed by a lad that was able to put in a 2nd hand one and reprogram it.

Anyway long story short, and this is somewhat contrary to my guestimate of depreciation above, to my eyes there is built in obsolescence by the manufacturers facilitated by the complexity. You just know the first thing to go will be the huge touchpad invariably found in the middle of the dash of modern cars. You can bet the replacement, if available at all, will come at a much inflated price. Similarly the proprietary nature of a lot of this means that it's much more difficult to drop the car round to the local garage to fix. This is something that I fear will be an issue on EVs as they pass the 10 year mark (though I do grant they're mechanically simpler).

It's something I can see regulation for standards coming in eventually. The ECU is as the end of the day a computer that talks to systems - there's no reason it can't be a generic component that costs €100. Sure, let each manufacturer stick their own software on to it, but if the hardware is generic, it avoids all the nonsense.

Anyway, I'll knock off the rant against the auto industry as I'm straying way off topic. To bring it back somewhat depreciation is much more of a factor in 2025 than it was 25 years ago - the complexity I've talked about brings much higher costs when new, and to my mind you're living on borrowed time beyond 10 years - and quite possibly less.

What is this sorcery of a seat that goes up or down at touch of a button? making it easier on slopes

Heard on BBC podcast https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0028tzr

I think we're talking about two slightly different scenarios - attended and unattended vehicles. I'm talking about attended vehicles, where the driver is sitting outside the shop, or the doctors, or the football training or similar with their engine running for the duration, without a thought given to the damage they are doing to others around them and to the environment in general and to their pocket.

I've seen a few courier vans left open, engine running, while the driver does a delivery.

Such quality care for our packages! No surprise that this happens: