YANO (Yet Another New Owner)

[Rolfe]

I used to be well practiced in the folding arms technique with an addition of unfolding a newspaper, propping it against the steering wheel and starting to read it.
This was usually employed when despite having right of way a car comes in the opposite direction and expects a 40 foot bus to either vanish or reverse.
Unfortunately buses don't vanish and legally they can't reverse with passengers on or without a competent banks-man on the public highway.
Oh! And I was getting paid until my shift ended whether the bus was moving or not. ?

 

[FiferMG4]

Tourists in EVs would want accommodation, and be more likely to do the trip with more stops and so spend more. You'd think this is something they might want to encourage, but I wouldn't hold your breath.

Those were exactly my thoughts when composing the email, Rolfe.

 

[QLeo]

First run report.
Well, we are at our destination on our first trip with our new MG4. The trip was from Lochinver to Beauly, then over the top and down the other side into the Great Glen at Drumnadrochit, along to Fort Augustus, then Fort William and on to near Arisaig. The car is an utter joy to drive. And we are hoping it is a fortunate car too, judging by the fact that we pulled up to the charge point just as the people with the car that was charging were leaving.
But...
As we were approaching Fort William, a BOING went off and a brief message that the speed recognition system had failed. OK. We then had a brief stop at a shop, and the dreaded yellow warning triangle appeared along with another icon which I now see was a auto-hold failure. But the car said "Ready" and our friends were expecting us, and all seemed fine. I did try the cruise control and it didn't work.
I have just locked the car and left it for half an hour or so, and the error messages seem to have cleared. I don't know if there is a way of "rebooting" the car when such things occur, but we'll pick these issues up with the dealer next week.
But I was reasonably happy with the electricity consumption. 4.4miles per kWhr at the charge point and 4.5 now. Not a fast run on these roads in summer traffic, but I think that's OK.
We'll see how the trip back home goes in a day or two.

 

[Rolfe]

That's great. What a fabulous run! I have no idea about the speed recognition system and whether it fails - is this the thing where the car reads the speed limit signs by the roadside? I always turn it off because it lies to you as often as it gets it right, usually by reading speed limit signs that are not relevant (like speed limits in side roads you are passing, or speed limits for HGVs). Mine spent miles between Broughton and Moffat bleating at me that it was a 40 mph limit due to seeing the HGV signs. (It's 60 for cars.) After that I decided to can it, and turn it off as part of my pre-flight check.

The autohold fault is a recurrent thing and of no importance. It seems to happen if you press the brake too soon after sitting down in the car, before it has had time to gather its wits. Sometimes it seems to want a bit longer to gather its wits than other times. Just give it a bit of space if it's still booting up the screens. (It also happened to me once in conjunction with a warning that I'd left the tailgate unlatched, but again it was fine after I'd got out, slammed the tailgate shut, and started again.) I wouldn't worry about waiting for half an hour, just get out, then get in again and start again - if you're not too quick on to the brake to get started it will be fine. Or just ignore the whole thing and press on, as you did.

Your consumption figures are impressive. I think it likes hilly roads with all the regeneration, and also slower travel.

 

[QLeo]

That's great. What a fabulous run! I have no idea about the speed recognition system and whether it fails - is this the thing where the car reads the speed limit signs by the roadside? I always turn it off because it lies to you as often as it gets it right, usually by reading speed limit signs that are not relevant (like speed limits in side roads you are passing, or speed limits for HGVs). Mine spent miles between Broughton and Moffat bleating at me that it was a 40 mph limit due to seeing the HGV signs. (It's 60 for cars.) After that I decided to can it, and turn it off as part of my pre-flight check.

The autohold fault is a recurrent thing and of no importance. It seems to happen if you press the brake too soon after sitting down in the car, before it has had time to gather its wits. Sometimes it seems to want a bit longer to gather its wits than other times. Just give it a bit of space if it's still booting up the screens. (It also happened to me once in conjunction with a warning that I'd left the tailgate unlatched, but again it was fine after I'd got out, slammed the tailgate shut, and started again.) I wouldn't worry about waiting for half an hour, just get out, then get in again and start again - if you're not too quick on to the brake to get started it will be fine. Or just ignore the whole thing and press on, as you did.

Your consumption figures are impressive. I think it likes hilly roads with all the regeneration, and also slower travel.

Thanks so much - that's all a great relief. Yes, I find the speed recognition thing mildly annoying, so will probably switch it off too. The autohold thing is probably what I did, so again, thanks for the reassurance.
We are getting used to feathering the throttle to maintain a speed, rather than a sine wave of acceleration and regen. But yes, when we do have to slow down or stop, it's mildly pleasing to know you're getting benefit from it.

 

[Rolfe]

I haven't seen the Autohold fault warning for a wee while now - bear in mind I've only had my car for about five weeks! I think I'm getting into the habit of settling down and fastening my seat belt before I touch anything. When I first got the car I seemed to see that wee yellow triangle a lot! But if it does happen, it's a nothing-burger. At most, get out, then get in again and start again.

There was something I was wanting to ask you, just out of interest? How are you planning to manage balancing charges on the LR battery without any home charging capability? I was thinking that taking the car to a type 2 charger then waiting for it to get to 100% and then do its balancing thing could get a bit tedious out in the wilds of Assynt, even if you took it there having got it quite close to 100% on a DC charger, and even if you have type 2 chargers that will let you sit on them for the necessary time.

I was thinking, will your neighbours let you balance charge at their property from time to time? Or might your home electricity cope with balance charging using a granny lead? Once the car has topped off at 100% it draws less than 100 watts while it's balancing - I typically see 20 watts, although occasionally it goes up to 70 watts.

Of course, I don't really know what the LR battery needs. Someone said it will balance to some extent at 80% charge but how do you arrange that? An LR owner can probably tell you. I'm settling into a routine of just using my granny charger to top up after short journeys, but if I've done a longer journey and want to get back to full more quickly I just have 54 minutes (the maximum allowed) on the village 50KW charger, which usually delivers 30 to 35 KWh depending on starting SoC, then finish off on the granny charger to 100% and balance. I'm curious about how you manage the LR battery as a general thing, and in particular how you organise the balance charging.

 

[QLeo]

I haven't seen the Autohold fault warning for a wee while now - bear in mind I've only had my car for about five weeks! I think I'm getting into the habit of settling down and fastening my seat belt before I touch anything. When I first got the car I seemed to see that wee yellow triangle a lot! But if it does happen, it's a nothing-burger. At most, get out, then get in again and start again.

There was something I was wanting to ask you, just out of interest? How are you planning to manage balancing charges on the LR battery without any home charging capability? I was thinking that taking the car to a type 2 charger then waiting for it to get to 100% and then do its balancing thing could get a bit tedious out in the wilds of Assynt, even if you took it there having got it quite close to 100% on a DC charger, and even if you have type 2 chargers that will let you sit on them for the necessary time.

I was thinking, will your neighbours let you balance charge at their property from time to time? Or might your home electricity cope with balance charging using a granny lead? Once the car has topped off at 100% it draws less than 100 watts while it's balancing - I typically see 20 watts, although occasionally it goes up to 70 watts.

Of course, I don't really know what the LR battery needs. Someone said it will balance to some extent at 80% charge but how do you arrange that? An LR owner can probably tell you. I'm settling into a routine of just using my granny charger to top up after short journeys, but if I've done a longer journey and want to get back to full more quickly I just have 54 minutes (the maximum allowed) on the village 50KW charger, which usually delivers 30 to 35 KWh depending on starting SoC, then finish off on the granny charger to 100% and balance. I'm curious about how you manage the LR battery as a general thing, and in particular how you organise the balance charging.

Thanks again re the dreaded triangle.

I am not sure about the balancing charge, what we call cell equalisation in off-grid terms. But you've pretty much described all the options we have if and when we need to do this. There is a charger in Lochinver that will allow long stays, and two of our neighbours have kindly offered us power if we need it. Obviously we would not want to take advantage of that, but it's an option. Yes, the house supply can handle about 1.8kW or so, but as I've mentioned, our system did not have an EV in mind. Time may change that, but only in summer. From what I can understand, but may be wrong, the SR needs this more/more frequently than the LR. I'm not too bothered, as we do have some options. Maybe I'm not bothered because we haven't had to do that yet!

 

[QLeo]

<COLUMBO_VOICE> One more thing....
We saw two other MG4s on this trip. I don't think I've ever noticed any before, but we saw a lovely red one and a white one. Soon the woods will be full of them. It's rather nice.
Also, when recharging, a couple came up to ask about the car. Rather good driving a conversation piece.

 

[Rolfe]

I have only seen one other MG4, a week ago in Edinburgh. It looked identical to Caliban, to the point where my first thought was, have you just nicked my car? I couldn't tell if it was SE SR or SE LR though. The driver wouldn't have noticed me as I was in a bus at the time, going back to where I'd left my car outside the city parking limits. I drove from Largs to Peebles yesterday and although I did keep a bit of a lookout, I didn't see one. I did see a couple of ICE MGs.

I have had some admiring glances and comments from various people though.

I don't honestly know much about the LR battery, that was why I was asking you about it. The SR is relatively simple, and I'm glad I chose it for that reason although I didn't actually know that at the time - I just figured I didn't need the extra range, being 20 miles from Edinburgh and 50 from Glasgow. Since the car has no issues with being taken up to 100% every charge and sitting there, I just do that on either the granny charger (at home) or a type 2 if I'm away, and then let it do its thing. It seems to take about 30-45 minutes every time to shuffle its cells.

It certainly doesn't take much power at all when it's balancing - no more than an incandescent light bulb. But on the other hand if it had to finish off its main charge before starting to balance, which it inevitably would even if you charged it to 100% in Lochinver and then drove home, that might give your home system a bit of a melt-down. On the other hand if you have a neighbour with mains electricity then even half an hour on full charging followed by a balance charge wouldn't be much of an imposition. If you have a neighbour with mains electricity and a wall box, it would be a trifle.

Out of interest I was looking at routes from Lochinver to Arisaig, and the AA had a suggested one which was more than 20 miles shorter than yours and only a few minutes more travelling time. Except that last bit might be somewhat inaccurate, because the route went across the Skye Bridge to Broadford, then to Armadale and back to the mainland on the Mallaig ferry! ? Is this something you'd even consider? Normally in an EV I'd go for the route with the shortest mileage, but this idea looks well dodgy.

A friend from Oban told me about a guy, in the early days of satnavs, who pitched up at a pier somewhere with a route his satnav had given him, with no idea it included three ferry trips. The CalMac guy on the pier held the ferry for him, and phoned the other two ferries he needed to catch to ask them to wait for him. Nightmare.

 

[QLeo]

I have only seen one other MG4, a week ago in Edinburgh. It looked identical to Caliban, to the point where my first thought was, have you just nicked my car? I couldn't tell if it was SE SR or SE LR though. The driver wouldn't have noticed me as I was in a bus at the time, going back to where I'd left my car outside the city parking limits. I drove from Largs to Peebles yesterday and although I did keep a bit of a lookout, I didn't see one. I did see a couple of ICE MGs.

I have had some admiring glances and comments from various people though.

I don't honestly know much about the LR battery, that was why I was asking you about it. The SR is relatively simple, and I'm glad I chose it for that reason although I didn't actually know that at the time - I just figured I didn't need the extra range, being 20 miles from Edinburgh and 50 from Glasgow. Since the car has no issues with being taken up to 100% every charge and sitting there, I just do that on either the granny charger (at home) or a type 2 if I'm away, and then let it do its thing. It seems to take about 30-45 minutes every time to shuffle its cells.

It certainly doesn't take much power at all when it's balancing - no more than an incandescent light bulb. But on the other hand if it had to finish off its main charge before starting to balance, which it inevitably would even if you charged it to 100% in Lochinver and then drove home, that might give your home system a bit of a melt-down. On the other hand if you have a neighbour with mains electricity then even half an hour on full charging followed by a balance charge wouldn't be much of an imposition. If you have a neighbour with mains electricity and a wall box, it would be a trifle.

Out of interest I was looking at routes from Lochinver to Arisaig, and the AA had a suggested one which was more than 20 miles shorter than yours and only a few minutes more travelling time. Except that last bit might be somewhat inaccurate, because the route went across the Skye Bridge to Broadford, then to Armadale and back to the mainland on the Mallaig ferry! ? Is this something you'd even consider? Normally in an EV I'd go for the route with the shortest mileage, but this idea looks well dodgy.

A friend from Oban told me about a guy, in the early days of satnavs, who pitched up at a pier somewhere with a route his satnav had given him, with no idea it included three ferry trips. The CalMac guy on the pier held the ferry for him, and phoned the other two ferries he needed to catch to ask them to wait for him. Nightmare.

Yeah, the Armadale-Mallaig ferry just isn't reliable enough to risk that route. And at this time of the year it needs booked too, which is a hassle. But it is weird having to go across almost to the east coast only to have to come all the way back to the west. Also the route includes a notorious stretch of single-track that isn't pleasant, that will add quite a bit of time. A nice route if you're poodling, but not if you need to get places.

 

[Rolfe]

The AA times are usually quite reliable when you stay on land. They predicted my time of arrival at my hotel in Largs on Thursday night to the actual minute. But when I saw that one (zoomed out) I thought "what the hell?" and when I zoomed in I thought, four hours 19 minutes? Are you assuming that by magic the car would arrive just as a ferry was about to leave and would be able to get straight on it? (Is the mileage of 159.6 miles including the nautical miles?)

I spent 45 minutes in the queue for the Millport ferry yesterday morning, with sundry lorries (and a hearse) ahead of me. I know the score.

 

[QLeo]

Well, we have just returned home, after the first weekend run in our first EV. Thanks to @Rolfe for calming us when Strange Things happened on the way south. We had no further problems on the way back, but quite a few "learning opportunities."
We are now reasonably seasoned at topping up at Chargeplace Scotland charge points, and have been fortunate not to have to wait anywhere. We are slowly getting to enjoy the necessary pause in a journey, and, to be honest, we are looking forward to this aspect of changing our driving habits.

We charged in Fort William while we did a supermarket shop (here in the north west, whenever you go anywhere, you also also do a supermarket shop, to save a 150 mile round trip later). We then drove about 110 miles to Ullapool at an average of 4.5miles per kWHr. This was helped by a little traffic on the A82, but not helped by some open road... It also included the very steep climb out of the Great Glen, when we lost efficiency, obviously, but by the time we were down the other side, had gained it, and a little more, again.

I did leave the road speed sign recognition off this time, which failed on the way down. It's not wildly useful anyway.

But we did have one interesting experience. In Ullapool, I set the cruise control to 30 so as not to have to concentrate on speed. I noticed two pedestrians walking across a side street, but just peripherally as there was no danger. But when the car spotted them (I could see the human icon in the display) the car braked hard. Everything came together in my mind quickly, and I realised the car was actually doing the right thing - those pedestrians were indeed in the road, just not the road we were planning to take.

We then had the last 45 miles to do. Now this, with our old diesel Panda, and indeed with any car we've had, is a fuel consumption killer of a stretch of road. I am not sure what it is about this road, but we have consistently got a good 20% worse fuel consumption on it. When we got to the gate of our house, the indicated efficiency was 4miles/kWHr. But as I drove up the last steep 50metres to the house, it flipped back to 3.9. Rats. So not bad, but not good either.

And a last observation, we live on the NC500 driving route, as mentioned before. It can be nightmare for us, trying to get to appointments or get home, when tourists assume everyone must similarly be having a leisurely holiday. An example happened along Loch Assynt. We found ourselves behind a Jeep. At one point, the driver slowed to 30mph on the A road, whether wonderinng about the route, or taking in the scenery who knows. The car then drifted way over to the other side of the road, so the few overtaking spots became dicey. But that's where we are happy with our MG4. As soon as we got a chance, we could deploy the loud pedal and know that within a couple of seconds we'd be past, rather than the (not-so)friendly tussle for road space that overtaking sometimes entails when drivers are miles away, watching the scenery. I got the need for speed out of my system decades ago, probably in my teens. But I do appreciate the car's acceleration ability for the safety of such events.

We collected the car on Wednesday and already have just shy of 500 miles on the clock. We have another 200 mile round trip this coming weekend and then a 700 mile round trip next week. So far so good, both regarding the choice of an EV and the MG4.

 

[Rolfe]

Do keep us posted, I'm loving your accounts of your journeys. And fairly jealous too.

You are getting fantastic fuel economy. I seldom see 4 miles/KWh, although one time when I did I had been on roller-coaster roads.

If people pootling along single-track roads simply had it drummed into their heads to keep a look out for following traffic and to pull in and allow the following driver to overtake if it looks as if they want to, life would be a lot simpler. I seem to remember big signs on Mull telling people to do this, but they seem to forget five minutes after they pass them. It takes seconds to pull into a passing place and let the doctor or the vet overtake and then get back to pootling, but will they do it? Even flashing lights seem to enrage them rather than invoke the desired response.

I know what you mean about the speed availability. I had a couple of sticky situations with my first Fiesta (Miranda), which was only a 1.1 litre, where it simply died on me and I couldn't complete the manoeuvre that had looked doable at the start. I traded it in for one of the last XR2s ever made (Ferdinand, obvs), at 1.8 litres I think, and felt a hell of a lot safer. I think the Peugeot 306 I got next (Ariel), and then the Golf (Prospero), were both 2.0 litres. Just being able to see an overtaking opportunity and do it is a great thing. It's also handy if someone is behaving erratically on the motorway. Put your foot down and leave them in the rear view mirror I say. If I hadn't been able to do that with the MG4 I'd have looked elsewhere, but it performs very nicely in that respect.

I think I have slowed down a bit. I'm not doing the illegal speeds I was doing back in the 1990s (I got nicked for 94 on the M74 once, with my elderly mother in the car), or at least if I see that sort of number I'll back off guiltily rather than pressing on. I was pretty much forced to slow down in 2020 and 2021 because my eyesight was dodgy. When that was all fixed in June last year I had a sort of "Holy Wow" moment when I realised I could see well enough to do what the hell I liked again, but being retired I'm just not in so much of a hurry.

The temptation to do a road trip up your way some time in the summer is quite strong though. That thing with the stealth camping using an air bed and a sleeping bag and the VtL facility looks quite intriguing...

But we did have one interesting experience. In Ullapool, I set the cruise control to 30 so as not to have to concentrate on speed. I noticed two pedestrians walking across a side street, but just peripherally as there was no danger. But when the car spotted them (I could see the human icon in the display) the car braked hard. Everything came together in my mind quickly, and I realised the car was actually doing the right thing - those pedestrians were indeed in the road, just not the road we were planning to take.

I had a somewhat similar experience. I was driving quite slowly along a street with parked cars along the kerb. Someone came out into the road between two parked cars, went to the driver's door of one of them, and opened it. My MG4 slammed its brakes on.

At first I was all "what the hell, that is ridiculous!" but then I thought about it. Yes, the guy going to his car wasn't intending to step out into the traffic. He judged that he had enough space to open his car door even though there was passing traffic, and he was right about that. I hadn't pegged him as a hazard. But that could have been someone about to run into the road ahead of me. The automatic emergency stop could have saved someone's life, or at least serious injury. I'm leaving it on for now and it will stay on unless it throws up unacceptable false positives. I don't count what happened as unacceptable.

 

[QLeo]

I had a somewhat similar experience. I was driving quite slowly along a street with parked cars along the kerb. Someone came out into the road between two parked cars, went to the driver's door of one of them, and opened it. My MG4 slammed its brakes on.

At first I was all "what the hell, that is ridiculous!" but then I thought about it. Yes, the guy going to his car wasn't intending to step out into the traffic. He judged that he had enough space to open his car door even though there was passing traffic, and he was right about that. I hadn't pegged him as a hazard. But that could have been someone about to run into the road ahead of me. The automatic emergency stop could have saved someone's life, or at least serious injury. I'm leaving it on for now and it will stay on unless it throws up unacceptable false positives. I don't count what happened as unacceptable.

I agree, I don't think it's unacceptable at all. I had assumed the event was to do with cruise control, but it sounds as though I have more study to do with the manual.
What was interesting was that it happened in a split second, I took in the situation in a split second, and realised what the car was trying to do, in spite of not knowing it had this capability. I'm not saying that to suggest that I'm quick off the mark, but rather that the car is already making me raise my expectations of it, and to understand that it has systems that are designed for safety.

 

[Rolfe]

I was not using cruise control when it happened to me. I never use cruise control. I'm actually quite hazy as to what point the car slammed on the brakes. I saw the guy come out and open his car, and the MG4 slammed on its brakes, but exactly where the guy was when that happened I couldn't tell you.

Someone else described a more genuine incident in another thread. Someone did come out in front of the car, and he reckons the car got there a split second before he did. That split second could make all the difference.

Another thing that's struck me is that the quietness of these cars makes this all the more important. I know they do make a pedestrian warning noise at low speeds but it's still not that loud and people don't necessarily associate this sound with a car bearing down on them. I've seen several surprised looks on pedestrian faces when they turned and saw me. If we're used to pedestrians hearing our ICE cars and expecting them to move out of the way (or not step into the way), we may be a bit slow to realise we haven't been heard.

 

[QLeo]

All interesting and encouraging observations

 

[Archev]

Obviously, the more expensive your car, the more right of way you have?

When I was back in Mull about ten years ago I tried to find that blind corner again to photograph it, but I couldn't. The road hadn't just been improved, it had been realigned, and the whole thing was gone. Basically the road rounded a rock, going downhill, with a steep drop on the other side with no safety barrier at all. I'm good, but I'm not prepared to do that. Reverse uphill, round a blind corner, with a steep unprotected drop on the outside of the curve, on a road little wider than my car? Nope.

A farmer in Perthshire told me about a guy in a campervan who tried to get him to reverse across a narrow hump-backed bridge in a Land Rover - while towing a horse trailer containing a sick mare he was trying to get to the vet.

I missed those tales of Mull as I was trying to be nursemaid and housekeeper to my wife most of this year.
That corner on Mull was phenomenal, they should have left it even if only for the Mull rally. At least the road round the Gribun rocks is still as it was that’s fun to drive but so much better with an EV with no gears and stacks of oomph (aye even in a five?)

 

[Rolfe]

I didn't realise the corner was famous! It only really stayed with me because of the impossibility of reversing round it.

 

[Archev]

I didn't realise the corner was famous! It only really stayed with me because of the impossibility of reversing round it.

Aye I’m sure the corner, or more likely the rock outcrop, had a name - whether official or just colloquial, but beautiful views of Ben More and its neighbour A’Chioch keeping your eye off the single track in front of you - it was truly wonderful travelling on my BSA motorcycle which was built the same year as myself ??

 

[Rolfe]

There was a fairly flat stretch of machair after it. I remember quite seriously considering driving over it to get round the lorry, but prudence prevailed.