I think the younger OEMs will steal a march here, software

Tesla have the idea of subs to fund continuous dev because if you are not getting money from someone once they have bought the car where is the funding for your software dev?

The EV6 has some impressive tech, 800v so less current for same charge power, very impressive active battery control mean it can charge really quickly too

Important for a tank with a big battery

 

They are one of the best features of the e but it looks like they are not cheap enough for Honda to carry forward to their 'real' BEVs.

Or maybe there is some electrical/CAN reason One thing they HAVE to have fixed is the intermittent failure of the car software to allow DC chargers.

One side effect is you check the cameras are clean/free of water otherwise the image is blurry. Position wise it has always worked fine the human eye/brain compensate.

 

Agree on the mirrors, I switch cars and they feel very natural

Will I take it to the NEC classic car show on Friday? Dunno.

Will use it for the same journey to bike show though. Kiddo has young, sensitive ears and the SC car scores low on NVH

 

Woo sort the formatting later lol

Total costs (excl fuel and ins) Year 1 £0 Year 2 £0 Year 3Rear tyres £208Front tyres £250 £458)Rear wiper £7.50 £475)12v battery £70 £545)Booster pack £90 £635)First MOT £45 (£680)Tax renewed to Dec 2024 £0 If we estimate fuel on 3p/kWh, given we have done c17k in the car I make it c£510 (super rough est, I pay 7.5p a kWh at the mo but when I travel I have paid 10x that - if you do a lot of miles or a lot of public charging walk away now) For comparison a decent ice I reckon could achieve 40-45mpg and a diesel c50 (maybe, my golf did not) At 40mpg it's 425 galsAt 50mpg it's 340 so £2.2k-£2.7k in ICE I think the car is worth broadly similar money to the car I compared to, a 1.5 Civ Sport so that is the size of the benefit, plus just going into year 4 of free tax vs £180pa on the civ It's cheap to run then but not a panacea. I like it but I am contemplating that Toyota Land Cruiser

 

Formatting aside Jason there is a fair bit missing e.g. free servicing 5 years, free road tax 5 years, both coming to an end. Only in the last year or so have you got on the Octopus 7.5p overnight tarriff I think? What would the 1.5 Civic Sport have cost in servicing and road tax. I dunno but just saying. The other big dipper is depreciation which for BEVs is considerable in the last 18 months to 2 years, business as usual for ICEs. Basically no one but a purist would go out and buy a BEV now, new or used. With Honda, as well as the Honda 'e' utterly crappy 12v battery there is an issue bubbling under around the charging software which dislikes DC chargers not disconnecting quickly enough, leaving the 'e' with only AC charging until someone resets the error. Honda typically use completely non standard OBD transmission blocks so any normal OBD scanner will not be able to digest the data so basically you're forced to pay for Honda Assist (AA)/ Warranty at ~£450/annually and live with uncertainty charging on the road. Being snot faced Honda won't admit to this ever. I doubt they will fix it now costs of the 'e' have been spent and the car is discontinued.

My circumstances enable me to live with the situation, don't take many trips, have to buy AA relay direct to cover both our cars. I am gambling on a 'keep it until one of us dies' approach i.e. me or the 'e'. Certainly ain't being ripped off for extended warranty. Come the end of the 5 year free servicing package I am going to an indy. One with eyes so he can do the multitude of visual checks.

But Hondas are reliable cars, right?

 

There is a lot there sir

A civic sport of similar age/ mileage is £18k today
An e £16.5k

They were on par when I bought I think

tax £0 Vs £180 so saved £560 in 3 years and £640 incl the year I just taxed for

Service I will spend almost nothing, maybe £15 AVG Vs £80 DIY.. if you go to honda no idea

Fuel 3p a mile vs 16p is a fair comparison
6k costs £180 Vs £960

It does add up imo but you have to live with shit range etc, the drawbacks are not trivial

I have swung back to wouldn't buy another tbh ATM. Especially given the tax thing. Let's see where that lands.
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Mine has never broken down bar 2 flat batteries. Tiny boot, fun drive, you could debate it all week. Would I make the same choice? Not sure. I briefly pondered another BEV. We will see. I have seen regular 50s range from 80s charge lately. Stupid.


Fuel price has been all over the place. You don't have significant miles in an ice, I have 2 and one bike, even the bike costs 10p a mile fuel, the SC is more like 30p a mile+

and they all need ££ tax

And oil, plugs etc

I know the e is newer but in 2020 my bike needed plugs £20, oil £40, oil filter £10, air filter £25, brake fluid £10, this year the S2 needed oil £50, plugs £50, diff fluid £20 and you can read the extras to.get through an MOT

it's not a clear, night and day sums game. Sums are worse for you cos new and you use dealers. You could drive till it dropped, there is very limited maint







​​​​

 

It’s giving me civic hatchback vibes!

 

Yes I agree there is oodles of data for example yours had gifted (was it a dealer demo car?) the 5 years free service package. Plus you bought at a significant (?20%) discount off new price I think you said so good for you mate. I shoulda done that but being probably my last 'new' car before I snuff it the boat was pushed out. So to speak.

Me too I am on the cusp of, would I rather not have bought it. It depends on how Honda perform on their reputation for reliability and on keeping the car alive. For now I will see how I go with the issues outstanding, 12v batt and the DC-charging failure.

Coming in September 2025 is a about servicing when my 5-year deal ends.

I object to trecking up to the city and giving them £250-£300 annually for going round a visual inspection/check list and changing pollen filter (every 2nd year) brake fluid (every 3rd year) and trans fluid (every 5 years). I would rather keep my local indy garage in business. The compromise I will seek is for them to do their check list for say £50 and me get the heavy lifting done by my indy as I require i.e. filter annually, brake fluid on inspection as required by specific gravity (could be more or less often than every 3 years) and brake wear. Dealer just charged me £45 to update the satnav (maps only) so there is, I hope, a precedent for a generous labour-only charge to carry out a visual check. I am hoping my treatment of the 400v big battery sees me well beyond warranty. Latest charge the other day in a cold garage it took 122 miles for 100% and my lifetime average is 4.2 miles/kWh. 8000 miles at 3.4p/mile inc public chargers. I drive like Miss Daisy on full regen and within speed limits.
Mostly.

 

2014 Seat Leon FR Diesel bought in 2015 for £ 15,900. 100,000 miles, 60 mpg avg. Diesel avg cost £ 1.40. Fuel cost over 8.5 years £ 10k. Annual tax £20, £ 160. Annual service £ 150. New front tyres twice £ 500, new rear tyres £ 250. Current value £ 5,000. That works out to £ 0.24 per mile. Without range anxiety.
I don't have an E, but let's say purchase price £ 37,000, trade in value £ 14,000. Tyre costs assuming double £1,500, leccy for 100,000 miles = £ 3k. Another £ 200 for misc. £ 0.27 per mile. Yes the running costs are less than a third but it's the capital cost that kills the E. Plus looking a bit like a dork driving it (said in jest, the car's looks is either liked or not).
BEV economics only works as a company car, but I can see BIK for BEV being introduced sometime soon.

 

Agree the new cost of an E is beyond daft. at Rog's c£31k they were expensive, at 37/38k stupid. I think i paid c£25k

Comparing a car bought 8 years ago is a little tenuous. They dont obviously do a diesel anymore but £30k for a 150hp petrol so you do start £7-8k ahead

i dont see it making that ground back which is why i say buying another is ~

but fuel costs are currently super cheap. you could argue that having a bev i drag my average cost per kwh down (c18p) or you could claim that it costs sub 2.5p per mile which no ICE will match on straight fuel terms (that's about 260mpg for petrol at 650p a gal)

It doesnt need warming up, it de ices itself, it parks itself if you like

but yeah.. it's tough.

on numbers you would need to make the current energy price instability work for you and buy a lightly used, heavily depreciated car.

For me it's almost the ideal daily but slightly small. I dont like family cars but this one i am quite fond of. I've tried a few from a Golf GTD x 2 (dull), Vectra DTI (cheap motoring but also dull), BMW M3 (dull but sounded good), had the unfortunate exp of driving her qashqai and driven a few random shitboxes with work over the years. they are all crap imho but i also dont wanna get bummed by a dealer, the smarm really agitates me. and i dont wanna get my hands dirty on a car i dont like

so maint on the SC S2, the NA one, the bike.. that's enough

i honestly think you could do 100k on this and barely touch it. i dont know how you did 100k miles on 3 sets of tyres on fwd car. Daisy would fly by.