Content by Rolfe in February, 2026

That was another story. Somewhere in Germany I think, and I think I was 62 and my friend was 61 (there's nine months between us). She was waved through on the senior discount and I was asked for ID. She was well put out.

Yes, it's a good discussion. I appreciate that it's something simple for you, but put together my own lack of electrical expertise (sob, my father was an electrical engineer, but he gave that up well before I was born) and my installer's reluctance to go down that road, and it's an issue...

Oh yes!

There's no great shortage of used MG4s around. You should be able to find another similar car, and you can satisfy yourself about the warranty when you inspect it.

I hear what you all say, but I certainly wouldn't be tackling this myself and as my installer isn't keen then it's a big hurdle to overcome. The fact is that power cuts are few and far between around here, and prolonged ones pretty well unknown. I see the EPS more as an insurance policy than...

My friend and I were on the Waverley paddle steamer a couple of years ago. We went to order food and were told to take a seat and our order would be brought over to us. A little later I went back to the service counter to get something to drink, just as our food was being given to the waiter (a...

Yeah, that got me when I couldn't shift the equivalent slider for the discharge function, and the car refused to boil my kettle when it was down under 50% SoC.

And I merely said that I imagine yours has it!

I've just called in to my local garage and booked Caliban in for a full pre-MOT inspection on 9th March, with particular mention of the suspension. His three-year anniversary is 13th April, so that should give me time to get a warranty claim sorted if there is a problem there. He's done about...

I see the utility, but I also wish they would fix the bug in the SE software that prevents it being switched off.

I always use ACC on the motorway. It's so convenient and relaxing. Why stress about a mile or two of range?

I've been taking an elderly neighbour to hospital appointments, and she's mentioned it a couple of times. However her husband, who walks slowly with a stick and has replacement hips as well as chronic knee problems, never mentions it. I think it may be a function of the person's height.

A significant number of older people have complained that the MG4 is difficult to get in and out of. You need to get your mum to try a demonstrator for herself and be absolutely sure she's OK with it.

It's that last paragraph that's the kicker. I do not have anything close to the necessary expertise, and my installer, probably wisely, doesn't seem very interested in tackling it. Using the VtL to power appliances in the house directly seems like a reasonable work-round.

Siteguru's car is older than mine though.

Good plan.

I am told that this isn't possible with GivEnergy batteries.

I'm intending to go for the latter!

Mine has it, I noticed it when I was cleaning. I imagine yours has it too!

:cool: Nutcracker is good. (As I typed that, it got a name-check on the radio.) Much more of this and I'll be telling you my theory of how Swan Lake is basically Götterdämmerung with the serial numbers filed off.

Sorry, I misread. Cancel that.

Let's hope this is something you will soon be laughing about, and it's never repeated.

I'm surprised you have an SR that deigns to stop the charge before 100% at all. Mine has always charged to 100% given the slightest chance. If I want less added I have to use the Octopus Smart charge and set it there.

I suspect someone saw the thread in the "similar threads" list, didn't realise it was so old, and replied.

I must talk to my local garage about the feasibility of inspecting these bushes quite soon, before the 3-year anniversary and the MOT fall due, to give time to put the thumbscrews on MG if necessary.

I had to turn mine on actively when I got the car. Presumably it can be turned off the same way.

Would that that were possible.

The boiler draws about the same as Gary's does, I reckon. However it's hard-wired into the circuit and can't be plugged in to the VtL. I have an emergency power supply setup where, if the power goes off, the boiler continues to run from the home battery, and there is also a double power point in...

Don't know yet. Bill arrives later.

Thanks for all you do, and I hope we'll see you back soon.

Agreed. At least at the moment, it's a non issue.

Heating not working Plumber came morning All well now.

Oh dear! I hope you weren't specifically going for the advertised show. (The best I can do is a tourist performance of Swan Lake in a small theatre in St Petersburg in 2016.)

My own thoughts about a prolonged power cut are that although I can't seem to get the power from the car into my home battery, I could run an extension lead from the car directly into the house for most usage, and save the solar - going into the home battery - to run the central heating boiler...

Wow! What did you see?

Am Faclair Beag doesn't censor anything, or pull any punches.

Are you aware of any loss of range, though?

A bheil Gàidhlig agad? (And if you try asking Google translate, it will lie to you.)

I have an SE SR and do the calibration charge regularly. Whenever I come home at under 10% I let the car sit for an hour or two (to let it get a good look at the bottom of the well) then charge (AC, obvs) to 100% in one run - don't let it break or it will lose its place, something something...

I really hesitate to ask why.

Mine too.

Oh dear.

Don't start me. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Adequately-Explained-Stupidity-Lockerbie-Luggage/dp/1783062509 I see they've got to the point of demanding silly money because the first print run is almost all sold. I really need to get the second edition to the printer.

That's way above my pay grade.

At the 2-year service my dealer said my LFP battery was at 93%. The previous year they had said 100%. I'm not sure if I believe them because I don't honestly notice any less range than when the car was new.

It wasn't so long ago. Nearly 25 years though, I suppose. My godson was shopping in London and saw what he thought was a "Towering Inferno" type film on a TV in a shop. Then he realised a woman standing next to him was crying, and it was the News...

I do sometimes look at old buildings and wonder what the lives of the people who lived there were like. From houses that are still occupied to Newgrange.

I remember when they moved from you asking the operator for the number to dial phones. I remember when 78s were a thing. I remember inkwells in school desks with ink in them.

Mmmm. There's a reason they make you practise scales, it's not just gratuitous torture. Muscle memory. Understand why you need to do this and work to that goal.

I'm not so sure I fancy the future much either, the way things are going. I reckon there would have been advantages to me from being born three years earlier (I'd have avoided the pension age trap while still having a decent shot at vet college), but I'm quite sorry for young people these days.

Not really. If I'd lived even 50 years earlier I'd be blind now, instead of having excellent vision thanks to cataract surgery. As a woman my life would have been restricted in ways men can't even imagine. Even ten years earlier it would have been much more difficult to get into university to...

This.

Just get the thing that suits you best at the time you need/want it, and don't fret about it again until the time you need/want something else.

Is there any signage telling ICE drivers they shouldn't do that?

At least people are going to get the opportunity. In many streets there's a mutual agreement that everyone gets to park outside their own house and the system should work well in these places.

Everything is developing so quickly, all we can do is buy the best thing for our needs at the time we need/want it, and relax until we're at the stage of needing/wanting something else.

I've been away, so I just assumed they would have done it.

February has been pretty rubbish too, but hey, look at today... 28.8 kwh. And there was enough clipping it would actually have been worth exporting some of the battery in the morning, even if only to see how high generation could get at 1°C.

That would be 0°C battery temperature rather than 0°C ambient temperature, though, and you can always run a battery heating cycle.

I wish I'd known this new rule wasn't in force yet last week, when I got home on 9%. I could have done a calibration charge.

Seems to me one could make a good argument that any tax due should be able to be offset against the expenditure of installing the system.

My SE SR was definitely noted as something like 1,680 kg (I can't remember exactly). I have to book on the Mallaig to Armadale sailing again so I'll see what it says this time. I'm thinking of doing an immersion course on Uist so I was a bit concerned when I saw the headline and thought they...

In Penang I bought a pewter plate with the Chinese New Year animals on it, and the horse in the middle, and promptly had my luggage intercepted at the Maldives because on x-ray they thought it might have been a Buddha...

I expect you're right. They do say it's not an issue at the moment, but something they need to think about for the future. There was something about getting data on actual individual vehicle weights. But last time I booked on a CalMac ferry (as opposed to just rocking up and driving on), as...

Mine were replaced under warranty.

Surprised by the amount of sense in this about fires, but slightly dismayed by the rest of it. https://www.bbc.co.uk/naidheachdan/sgeulachdan/cze0p7zzj52o The headline is "Effect of electric vehicles on ferry services" and I really thought we were in for a load of rubbish about fires. But no...

The dealer I bought my car from ditched their Peugeot franchise to expand the space for MGs.

That is slightly scary. I'm thinking about asking for a pre-MOT inspection of mine.

Shovelling snow, boring

Today, a ton of snow.

Your daughter needs re-educating with extreme prejudice.

There's nothing new under the sun.

You're joking, right?

I once saw a detailed breakdown of that, and it's all true. The electricity used to refine a gallon of petrol would drive an EV for the same distance a gallon of petrol will drive a petrol car. Not to mention the rest of it, the extraction, the transport, even the diesel the petrol tankers burn...

2025: 139.99 kwh 2026: 153.38 kwh According to GivEnergy. I don't believe a bloody word of it. This is 2026. The house was empty from 5th January. It was just ticking over, fridge, freezer, wifi, central heating at 10 degrees. There is no way there was nearly 20 kwh generated on the 8th, and...

That is actually evil!

Back on bike. Terrified of scales.

Do you know if there is still a rapid charger at the Torridon Hotel? That was indispensible to me going north from Applecross.

In both Bali and the Maldives, where I've just come back from, we had a heron (not the same one) who appeared every morning to watch us eat breakfast. In Singapore it was mynah birds.

Never mind, thanks for trying. Maybe another time, another event. I have a gazebo I will happily donate to the effort.

Great. I just hope four is enough. (You will remember my shenanigans in Tyndrum and Crianlarich in September 2024. I mainly remember the steak in the Crianlarich Inn though. And tripping over a cable in the rain...)

Well, I just got back from an all-inclusive holiday. I managed a short bike run yesterday, have to get fit again for the summer touring. I suppose the good part was that I definitely wasn't as distressed as I was the same time last year.

Do what you can, I say. But frankly, even if you told me that EVs were killing the planet and everyone should go back to petrol for the sake of the environment, you'd have to prise my MG4 out of my cold dead hands.