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[Gilbertd]

I give EVs 10 years maximum. Toyota bought electric cars into the mainstream with the Prius, now they have bought out the Mirai. Runs on Hydrogen, has a range of 300-350 miles on a fill, takes no longer to fill than a petrol car and the only thing that comes out the tailpipe is water. An ICE can be converted to run on Hydrogen too so there's further incentive for a refuelling network.

I had a good laugh recently regarding EVs too. My wife works for Cummins, makers of large diesel engines supplied to a number of truck manufacturers as well as large generator sets. They've recently supplied diesel generators to Australia where they are being used to power rural EV charging points.........

Re the Escort diesel, it was the normally aspirated 1.6. My previous company car was due to be replaced but rather than giving me a new one, I got given the Escort as it was low mileage having been one of the managers cars who had recently retired. I did consider driving it into something solid but wasn't sure how good the seat belt and airbags were. Next option was to wait until it had been in for a service then slacken the sump plug off before going on a long journey. That would have seen it off quite nicely but I realised then that the mechanic that had done the service would have got the blame and it wouldn't have been fair on him. So I put up with it. My boss knew just how much I detested it and admitted when he gave me the news it was to be replaced that he was amazed I hadn't done something to destroy it long ago.

[Avensist]

Ford does things which I don't understand. Like the wet belt, and going back in time, the CVH etc. Apart from the engine, what about those two lever hand brake lever which looks like a aeroplane control on cars like S-max? Ok, it's fun but no fun to the consumer if things keep going wrong.

As most engines I was trained on had the specified timing belt replacement intervals of 60k miles, to me back then, I felt 40k miles was very short.

Still very interesting to hear about the actual issues and impression of those cars. Thanks guys.

[Brian_H]

It's not just Ford with the wet belts, peugeot and others do the same. I think it's down to adapting an existing chain driven design to improve efficiency/noise but seems a bad compromise to me.

You'd think rural Australia would be able to make use of some of the sunshine they get for solar rather than using diesel. Still I suppose at least its not coal!

I can't see battery electric being the long term solution either, time will tell there but it seems a bad solution to me.

[Brian_H]

I did have one of those CVH boxes in a petrol Escort. Was a bit odd at first, but not bad to drive. Didn't keep it very long, but it did the job in the time I had it.

[Avensist]

Obviously the manufacturer needs to cut down the cost, but 'cost' here can mean various things. By cutting production cost to such an extent that reliability suffers, then cars come back for warranty repairs in conjunction with lost faith in that particular brand by the consumer, so that is not a true cost cutting. Coming up with something that increase production cost and yet making things unreliable is the worst combination.

As it stands, apart from the battery constraints, the grid cannot cope if everyone went electric. Of course politicians will make optimisitic assumptions and policies but in reality their priority is to get the vote with something that sounds nice. Realistic or not is a different matter altogether.