Recent content by ChrisMiller

Mine went up (Darwin) from just under £200 to just over £275, but I'm an old codger, so maybe that helps! That was a renewal (after switching last year because they were then the cheapest), but comparison didn't find anybody cheaper.

Tesla owners in deep freeze discover the cold, hard truth about EVs I hear it's around -40ºC in northern Finland, at the moment.

I've always manually selected the car network before starting the app (I'm on version 1) and have no problems. Modern Android (and, I assume, Apple) phones complain that there's no Internet connection and offer to switch to another network, which I have to manually decline.

My car is very similar in age and mileage to yours, and I get just over 20 miles in summer and today is 16-17 miles. But I live in a very hilly area - no doubt if I moved to East Anglia or the Netherlands, I'd get a better reading (and I also don't concentrate on maintaining a constant 30mph).

The car usually gives a warning message when battery is low in the key fob. Maybe the microswitch inside the fob is playing up? Did you get a second fob with the car, and does it have the same problem?

You may well be right, nrayanov, but it worked flawlessly for 6 years, and nothing has changed on the car, so I can only assume that somehow the DAB signal in the UK has altered.

My renewal (I'm with Darwin) increased from £200 to £275 in August - but my PHEV is 8 years old, and I'm an old codger ;).

The problem (uncommanded retuning to Absolute and losing all the names on presets) only started at the beginning of 2022, never having occurred in the previous 6 years, and there were no changes to MMCS firmware at that time. It may well be a firmware issue, but something must have changed in...

I highlighted the part which you claimed to be "nonsense". "Charge" doesn't completely override this behaviour, it postpones it until the battery charge level reaches ~80%.

This behaviour you describe as "nonsense" is fundamental to the way the car (or pretty much any hybrid) operates. The only difference the buttons make is the level of charge in the battery at which it commences. If you do nothing, the car will run in EV mode until the battery reaches an...

I remain to be convinced that selection of Save/Charge makes any difference to the way the car's management system switches between series and parallel modes. It's not behaviour that I've ever observed or even read about.

I should have been clearer and written that 'Charge' converts additional petrol to electrical energy. It's true that if you arrive at your destination (or recharge point) with an 'empty' battery, you've used the same amount of fuel, but I don't really want to be thinking "I'm 30km from my...

The car will do its best not to let the battery fully discharge. What is shown on the dash as 'empty' is really about 15%, precisely because it doesn't help battery life for a Li-ion cell to be fully discharged. I'm afraid I'm going to confuse matters by disagreeing with kpetrov - I've never...

IC engine start is handled by the main drive battery. The lead-acid is not man enough to deal with this, it's only there to power up the electronics at start up. For the same reason, you can't jump start another car from the PHEV (although the PHEV can be 'jumped' if all the batteries have run...

Be aware that there's an electric drive system capable of delivering 200A at 300V. Coming into contact with that could ruin your entire day.