Latest Government Wheeze. Spelling?

Total hearsay (again)

Thanks Jan. My problem is I sometimes I over-react; no offense intended on either side.............

It's interesting though how once a story starts, it just keeps getting bigger. Having heard about the "difficult Japanese MOT" I took it on trust; I should have done a bit of research first.

The idea of changeing the engine for a modern one of different make is interesting; a suitable candidate might be one of the JTD diesel engines used by Fiat in the 'Multipla', but unless you really know what you're doing (which I don't) swoping engines around complete with their respective engine management systems etc?

One thing about the Multipla diesel is that the engine is crammed into a very small space, so at least it's got that in common with the XM..........

The other day precisely I was thinking, seeing where things seem to go, how nice it'd be if in 10-15 years time independent firms make+sell universal full kits to convert your old "polluting" car to a hybrid one (batteries, electric motor, small fosil-fuel motor, ecus, the lot) so anybody who wants can keep their favorite "old" car!

Do u think it'll happen? Will they be selling on ebay for £1,000??

cheers
George

Listening to the radio this morning (Japan NHK), a bloke was interviewed about converting a DeLorean. But he didn't make it a hybrid. Just replaced the IC engine with an electric motor. He and his group of environment conscious retired people from Mazda and other companies are into this thing

Hi

I read about a company in California that was converting old air cooled Porche's (mechanically simpler than the new ones) with some fairly low tech batteries (even lead acid I think). It was in Autocar a couple of year ago http://www.evporsche.com/ . I guess if charge times come down and capacity goes up then people might start doing it although lets face it, XMs probably won't be the car of choice due to their weight and complexity. I'd think that conversion for say, Mk1 Focus's, would be the way to go.

I reckon once we get to 1-2hr charge times (using a standard plug socket) and 150-200mile range lots of people will consider it.

As it is at the moment you have to be a strange person to buy something like a Gee-Whizz.

Cheers

Tony

The problem with engine changes (to HDI, electric or whatever) is the insurance premium. How many insurance companies are going to be willing to insure it for a sensible amount in this country?

There are plenty out there that will refuse to insure a car that has had the wheels replaced because (it is not standard) - I used to have to pay about £70 a year more because the XM had non-standard alloys (despite them being on the car from new as far as I can work out). I have come across one that didn't like radio replacement in a 10 year old car!

Those that will insure it will probably charge a premium for insuring the 'modified' car. You are unlikely to get that one past them and get away with it as you would have to inform the DVLA to be able to get through the MOT I would have thought.

Of course, if the government was really into the environmental impact and efficiency of our national car fleet then they could force/incentivise the insurers to look favourably on electric and more efficient modern engine conversions - that being far more environmentally sound than remanufacturing a whole replacement car. But they don't seem to be so they won't.

There you go, no need to leave your UK home:

http://www.everything-ev.com/basic-ac-conv...0-kg-p-462.html



£4,197 for getting the necessary kit to convert your XM to full electric.

Just plug an electric motor to your existing gearbox.

Then spend as much as u wish on batteries to get just a commuter or a Ferrari-shaming XM.

I'd do it tomorrow if I had the knowledge and a spare XM.

Their main website: here

I'm thinking that hydraulic Cits are ideal cars to convert to electric given the suspension specs can easily be tweaked to managed the extra weight.

cheers
George

This post has been edited by jorgy9 on March 24, 2009 02:35 am

Here it's all simply explained and it sounds like, for people in the know, it can be way cheaper than the offering I quoted from the UK firm.

...and some examples here.

...and some reviews of how-to guides here.

...and that's probably the best page of all: here

cheers
G

This post has been edited by jorgy9 on March 24, 2009 06:37 am

According to the Sunday Times, Darling will be introducing a scrappage scheme in the budget, worth £2000 to each owner of a 9 yrs or older car prepared to scrap it and purchase a new or nearly new car. The paper even devoted its second leading article to it. It mentions that eight european countries have introduced such schemes, Austria, France, Germany,Italy, Spain, Portugal and Romania. New car sales rose by 40% in Germany and (with a smaller incentive) 8% in France. This equated to a 30% drop (200,000 vehicles) in new car sales in Britain in the same period.
Other statistics mentioned that 80% of new cars bought in Britain come from abroad and 75% of the cars made in Britain are exported.
In fairness the article casts doubt on the environmental benefits claimed for the scheme and seems more influenced by the employment issues. It concludes that the scheme is worth a gamble.
The SMMT is clearly lobbying very hard on this scheme, pointing out that British component manufacturers would benefit as many imports have some British components. Also stating that new car sales help support a sector that employs 800,000 people and that a year long scheme would only cost £160M.

My own view on this is that owners of 9+year old cars don't usually buy new cars even when they have some spare cash and they would probably have to fund the gap by borrowing if they did.
I think the car owner would be little or anything better off and the benefit of the £2k will end up with the manufacturer/ stealer. It is likely that a participant will be little better off than if he were to haggle for cash now before the scheme than he will after with the grant. Scams will be widespread ensuring that the available money is snaffled by the industry one way or another.
Since 75% of cars made in Britain are exported how is it that sales here have not benefitted from other countries scrappage schemes?
New component sales will be offset by loss of aftermarket component sales for the scrapped cars.
Better not to tinker with market conditions because of unforeseen consequences.
£160M is only a small number in the context of the sums gambled by the banks.
The taxpayer will be paying for the general financial debacle for years to come. Why do governments seem hell bent in encouraging people to take on more debt and in restoring the culture that created this mess in the first place.
Annual rant over.

Robert

This post has been edited by robertxmb on April 12, 2009 04:12 pm

Couldnt agree more with you Robert, it seems they just want to make themselves look good by blinding the ignorant with promises of (what seems at a glance) a way to save the planet, secure jobs and keep up with the jones' when of course this is all c**p.
The trouble is even when this lot are gone they will only be replaced with idiots of the same calliber, which is the most depressing bit

D

The scrappage deal is working very well in Germany, much better than expected. So well that the govt had to increase their budget for the scheme.

The French one isn't doing as well, because there aren't many cars that cost less than €1000. The French introduced their scheme to protect jobs in the French car manufacturing and sub-contractors sector, but the only cars where the scrappage deal is of interst, is for small cars like the C1, 107 etc... which are made in the Czech Republic, so the French aren't really supporting it.

just a thought regarding road tax.... if a car is registered in a country with cheaper tax, but driven over here, would it require uk road tax....

if so, does anyone in 'over there' want to 'own' my xm lol and i'll drive it over here on permanent loan....

maybe it could work the other way too.....

maybe odd when buying insurance, ''do you own the car'' ''no, but my friend in xyz does and i'm borrowing it''

In France we have no road tax..... But, in the UK a vehicle registered in any other country can only be driven for a limited period on its non uk registration.I think it's 3 months or so. Similar over here. No one really takes a great deal of notice though, cars are on UK plates for years in some cases. I'll bet in the UK the plod would soon spot an easy nick though, or some do gooder would shop you. Nice try though Lez. Cheers, Carl