EV mechanics shortage.

[trevskoda]

It's a gamble Marie, sometimes you get lucky sometimes not. But I'm not saying you have to spend 10's of thousands. Our last car cost about £4500 and we still had problems with it that couldn't have been picked up by a mechanic.

700 quid though, I reckon you could expect some trouble, why would anyone give a car away for so little otherwise?

Second car not required but maybe 5/7 years old low miles but dealers dont want them, or hibby has passed away and wife just wants it gone.
I know a chap picked up a six mth old boat for i think around 5/7 grand as the man had died and wife wanted a car, he bought the car she had here eye on and handed over papers for boat, he sold it on a few weeks later for 50 grand, a sharp eye grabs the pie.

 

[Robmac]

Second car not required but maybe 5/7 years old low miles but dealers dont want them, or hibby has passed away and wife just wants it gone.
I know a chap picked up a six mth old boat for i think around 5/7 grand as the man had died and wife wanted a car, he bought the car she had here eye on and handed over papers for boat, he sold it on a few weeks later for 50 grand, a sharp eye grabs the pie.

I thought you might Trev!

 

[edina]

I know a chap picked up a six mth old boat for i think around 5/7 grand as the man had died and wife wanted a car, he bought the car she had here eye on and handed over papers for boat, he sold it on a few weeks later for 50 grand, a sharp eye grabs the pie.

Can’t see anything clever in conning a widow out of her inheritance

 

[Robmac]

Can’t see anything clever in conning a widow out of her inheritance

I must admit, that's the first thing that went through my head Chris.

 

[trevskoda]

Can’t see anything clever in conning a widow out of her inheritance

Nothing clever just the way life is, car sales men do it every day, i worked in 2 big garages and watched it happen every day.

 

[edina]

Nothing clever just the way life is, car sales men do it every day, i worked in 2 big garages and watched it happen every day.

Trev, I’ve been involved with selling for the best part of my working life and just because someone else does it, does not make it ethically or morally right.

 

[Boris7]

I’m just popping out for some popcorn

 

[trevskoda]

Trev, I’ve been involved with selling for the best part of my working life and just because someone else does it, does not make it ethically or morally right.

Well most do it here, i wont mention the biggest dealer in the north, been up in courts many times for naughty things.
What im saying is buyer beware and know your stuff if you dont want caught out, i have had many cars brought to me not long after sale,
And to be honest they were taken on big time, i never done so, bad boys out there, watch some on the tube.

 

[Geek]

But do you understand what the 20/50 or others meen and what deturgents do in oil never mind the long chain polymers, answers on a post card.

Yes, I'm a geek.

 

[Geek]

If electric cars where cheap i for sure would buy one as handy for short trips which kills a piston engine, £300 to £500 would be my price range.

At that price, you are limited to a secondhand Nissan Leaf.
The drawback is that it will only have the small battery and the range will have dropped below 100 miles. Still enough for more than 95% of my car journeys.

 

[trevskoda]

At that price, you are limited to a secondhand Nissan Leaf.
The drawback is that it will only have the small battery and the range will have dropped below 100 miles. Still enough for more than 95% of my car journeys.

Im 1/4 mile from tesco, 6 from wifes church, 100 ml range will be just the bogs dollocks

 

[ricc]

100 mile range, glorified golf cart is what electric cars should be....replace all them Chelsea tractors on the school run.

 

[trevskoda]

100 mile range, glorified golf cart is what electric cars should be....replace all them Chelsea tractors on the school run.

Very few people travel more than 6/12 miles from home where i live, some even less..

 

[Robmac]

Very few people travel more than 6/12 miles from home where i live, some even less..

Blimey Trev. Do you conduct surveys to find the habits of all those local to you?

 

[GeoffL]

I suspect it's not the shortage of EV trained mechanics per se that's the issue, but the way that manufacturers of all new cars seem to be locking out DIY and independents. One example is the Hyundai Ioniq 5 in the USA where an owner tried to change their own brake pads and couldn't. Hyundai said they either needed to buy their official diagnostic system (for about £6,000) or spends about £2,000 on an approved OBD2 scanner and pays about £60 per week for a subscription to Hyundai software ... just to change their own brake pads!
TBH, it's been getting worse over the last couple of decades and there now seem to be more and more tales of independent garages and DIY owners being locked out of maintaining cars because of 'main dealer only' software being required for what used to be the simplest of tasks. You can't even change the battery on many newer cars as dealer only software is required to tell the car the battery's been changed! It's got so bad that many (myself included) now won't even consider a car newer than 2016, so it's hardly surprising that the average age of cars on the UK roads today is now over ten years.

 

[trevskoda]

Blimey Trev. Do you conduct surveys to find the habits of all those local to you?

Na just watching and talking to folk gets me informed, i know one person who has never been out of Glengormley in there car.

 

[mariesnowgoose]

There is a cultural dissonance between Northern Ireland and the rest of Ireland, Rob.
Trev is pretty accurate in many of the things he says about the North.

I noticed some of the subtle (and not so subtle!) differences last year and the same again this year. For me the contrast is quite stark.

But I know which part of Ireland I would prefer to visit every time!

 

[HurricaneSmith]

I suspect it's not the shortage of EV trained mechanics per se that's the issue, but the way that manufacturers of all new cars seem to be locking out DIY and independents.......

I had a Renault 12s and bought a shock absorber from a local dealer. Later, rather subdued, I asked them how on earth I was going to compress the spring to put it all back together.

They told me its not possible at home due to broken limbs . They must have liked me because they fitting it for free, having first cleared the mechanics out of the workshop.

So possibly there's always been an element of "only possible at a dealer".

 

[trevskoda]

I had a Renault 12s and bought a shock absorber from a local dealer. Later, rather subdued, I asked them how on earth I was going to compress the spring to put it all back together.

They told me its not possible at home due to broken limbs . They must have liked me because they fitting it for free, having first cleared the mechanics out of the workshop.

So possibly there's always been an element of "only possible at a dealer".

So simple with this cheap tool.

 

[GeoffL]

So simple with this cheap tool. [image deleted]

You beat me to it! If you haven't got a proper spring compressor, you can even use a couple of "spanish windlasses" -- although I have to say that's not recommended -- even if I got away with it many years ago!