My EV journey

5805 Views 286 Replies 24 Participants Last post by Ian D, 10 h ago

Ian D

Discussion Starter · 2 mo ago

4

So I finally bit the bullet and bought an iPace. I found a late 2019 iPace SE in corris grey with only 22k on the clock from Grange Jaguar Swindon. The deal was impressive, £3k dealer contribution, free wall charger and installation, 2 year extended warranty, next service is free.

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The interior

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I said goodbye to the XF, it’s done me well and hardly ever put a foot wrong. Someone will get a good car there.

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Started off with a near full battery.

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I done 87 miles, the range went down 96 miles. Not too bad at all I think seeing as I was hooning it a few times as the acceleration is addictive! The tech on the SE is quite impressive, the adaptive cruise with stop and go is a nice addition too.

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Ian D

Discussion Starter · #221 · 13 d ago

Frank said:
Going to test drive an I-Pace on Thursday morning, will see if it will be good enough to prise me out of my S6 and back into a Jaguar. After our XF experience, SWMBO will need some convincing!
Have noticed one tricky problem though, the charging point is on the front nearside which will be the most difficult place to get at when parked in my garage

I wish my car even fit in my garage, 60’s build so you’d just about get a mini in there and probably only an original one at that.
Hope you enjoy the test drive as they’re great to drive. Have a go at putting it in dynamic mode, find a slip road onto an A road/motorway and floor it. Then find a nice country lane to try the handling of it, quite surprising just how well they handle.

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Frank

· #222 · 13 d ago

Ian D said:
I wish my car even fit in my garage, 60’s build so you’d just about get a mini in there and probably only an original one at that.
Hope you enjoy the test drive as they’re great to drive. Have a go at putting it in dynamic mode, find a slip road onto an A road/motorway and floor it. Then find a nice country lane to try the handling of it, quite surprising just how well they handle.

With wife on board and probably the sales guy, I suspect that chucking it around country lanes will be a no-no, but that will not likely stop me trying...

I'm not getting any younger and with the current level of traffic, state of the roads and speed limits, spirited driving is becoming a thing of the past. Nevertheless, I still like the capability to be there in my car. The S6 is excellent at being a comfortable, quite easy cruiser which will then seriously embarrass a sports car when I wake up the V8 and have some, albeit brief, fun. The I-Pace just needs to come close enough to potentially close a deal.
I designed the house and integrated double garage nearly 10 years ago so made sure the garage was as big as I could get away with (planners are a pain!) but with my wife's car, our bikes and the usual garage paraphernalia there's not much room to spare for a large car - and I didn't take into account EVs! I-Pace body is 5" wider (1.1" between mirror tips) but 10.7" shorter. I find public car parking spaces are already on the narrow side for the S6, so an I-Pace will be a bigger (no pun intended) problem....

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j777stp

· #223 · 13 d ago

good luck with the Test drive they are a very attractive looking Car. Good luck dealing with the main Dealer I have simply given up trying to buy form a main dealer they are just programmed to annoy you.

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JimC64

· #224 · 13 d ago

Frank said:
With wife on board and probably the sales guy, I suspect that chucking it around country lanes will be a no-no, but that will not likely stop me trying...
I'm not getting any younger and with the current level of traffic, state of the roads and speed limits, spirited driving is becoming a thing of the past. Nevertheless, I still like the capability to be there in my car. The S6 is excellent at being a comfortable, quite easy cruiser which will then seriously embarrass a sports car when I wake up the V8 and have some, albeit brief, fun. The I-Pace just needs to come close enough to potentially close a deal.
I designed the house and integrated double garage nearly 10 years ago so made sure the garage was as big as I could get away with (planners are a pain!) but with my wife's car, our bikes and the usual garage paraphernalia there's not much room to spare for a large car - and I didn't take into account EVs! I-Pace body is 5" wider (1.1" between mirror tips) but 10.7" shorter. I find public car parking spaces are already on the narrow side for the S6, so an I-Pace will be a bigger (no pun intended) problem....

Good luck with the test drive Frank.

I wouldn't be taking the salesman with me if I were you, have a word Frank you want to test drive the car, real world, not with some sales guy watching your every move.

Test drives are a bit of a joke too, a 20 minute around the block, there and back run doesn't really cover it.

Anyhow, hope to hear your thoughts

Jim

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j777stp

· #225 · 13 d ago

JimC64 said:
Good luck with the test drive Frank.

I wouldn't be taking the salesman with me if I were you, have a word Frank you want to test drive the car, real world, not with some sales guy watching your every move.

Test drives are a bit of a joke too, a 20 minute around the block, there and back run doesn't really cover it.

Anyhow, hope to hear your thoughts

Jim

how many times do we buy a Car with a short test drive and a brief scan over the vehicle. You never get to know what you have bought until your firsr journey or the first time you actually wash the Car

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JimC64

· #226 · 13 d ago

j777stp said:
how many times do we buy a Car with a short test drive and a brief scan over the vehicle. You never get to know what you have bought until your firsr journey or the first time you actually wash the Car

100%
20 minutes, just up to temp and around the houses, maybe 5 minutes along a short dual carriageway if you're lucky, for something you're going to spend a lot of money on and live with daily for several years most likely.
Its unlikely you're going to reverse, get into and out of car parking spots, load groceries / luggage etc etc and a load of other scenarios, that you will experience often throughout the ownership experience..............I have a funny feeling Frank will have this covered though

Jim

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Frank

· #227 · 13 d ago

JimC64 said:
100%
20 minutes, just up to temp and around the houses, maybe 5 minutes along a short dual carriageway if you're lucky, for something you're going to spend a lot of money on and live with daily for several years most likely.
Its unlikely you're going to reverse, get into and out of car parking spots, load groceries / luggage etc etc and a load of other scenarios, that you will experience often throughout the ownership experience..............I have a funny feeling Frank will have this covered though

Jim

Well an electric motor should not need a warm up at least! Unfortunately I will only have about half an hour as I'm dropping into the dealer on the way to something else. Also, it will not be the actual car I'll buy should I go ahead, any final purchase would indeed require significantly more time invested up front.
From past experience, I will tell within the first few minutes if I'm likely to like it or not but fully agree that until you have lived with something for a while you do not really get to know the full ins and outs. For the Kia EV6 I knew pretty much straight away after sitting in it that I wouldn't want one. It was a messy design and didn't have the quality feel that Jaguar/Audi/Merc/etc have.
After a test drive and if it is a close run thing, I always make the effort to retrace the same test route in my current car, it can be an eyeopener either way!

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mac_doctor

· #228 · 12 d ago

Ian D said:
I wish my car even fit in my garage, 60’s build so you’d just about get a mini in there and probably only an original one at that.

You would have to take your office out first! My spare bedroom was a garage when the house was built in 1930-odd - it may just fit a modern motorbike in if I were to convert it back!

j777stp said:
You never get to know what you have bought until ... the first time you actually wash the Car

That'll explain my cluelessness, then!

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Frank

· #229 · 12 d ago

j777stp said:
You never get to know what you have bought until your firsr journey or the first time you actually wash the Car

How many Ferraris have you bought that turned out to be MR2s once you washed the dirt off then?

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mac_doctor

· #230 · 12 d ago

Frank said:
How many Ferraris have you bought that turned out to be MR2s once you washed the dirt off then?

All of them, as it happens. How did you know?

Frank

· #231 · 12 d ago

mac_doctor said:
All of them, as it happens. How did you know?

He had them relisted in the classifieds, this time as e-types. "Need a wash"

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Ruby351

· #232 · 12 d ago

Frank said:
Going to test drive an I-Pace on Thursday morning, will see if it will be good enough to prise me out of my S6 and back into a Jaguar. After our XF experience, SWMBO will need some convincing!
Have noticed one tricky problem though, the charging point is on the front nearside which will be the most difficult place to get at when parked in my garage

I hope the test drive goes well for you and if you are in the market for an I-Pace, have you thought about changing positions with your good ladies mota???

Frank

· #233 · 12 d ago

Ruby351 said:
I hope the test drive goes well for you and if you are in the market for an I-Pace, have you thought about changing positions with your good ladies mota???

Early days yet, but I have considered it. Problems will be my larger door compared to her small car may cause opening issues against the wall (wife will not mind though as her door will then open into the centre space!) but also there is a pedestrian door on the right at the garage rear where we get the bikes in and out, so the bikes really need to be on that side and with the shorter car. Anyway, if I ever get as far as an I-Pace, I'll figure something out - reversing in is an option but then the door vs wall issue will arise

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stewartw

· #234 · 12 d ago

Frank said:
Early days yet, but I have considered it. Problems will be my larger door compared to her small car may cause opening issues against the wall (wife will not mind though as her door will then open into the centre space!) but also there is a pedestrian door on the right at the garage rear where we get the bikes in and out, so the bikes really need to be on that side and with the shorter car. Anyway, if I ever get as far as an I-Pace, I'll figure something out - reversing in is an option but then the door vs wall issue will arise

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Frank

· #235 · 12 d ago

stewartw said:

The door into the house was a good one!

Reminds me of an old friend, long since departed this world, who had a lockup garage only inches wider than his car, so he used to push it in and pull it back out again!

Perhaps I should put a window or door in the side wall so I can go around the side and plug it in, Ha! Better still would be to create some sort of self-docking mechanism.....robot lawn mower style

Ruby351

· #236 · 12 d ago

JimC64 said:
I wouldn't be taking the salesman with me if I were you, have a word Frank you want to test drive the car, real world, not with some sales guy watching your every move.

Test drives are a bit of a joke too, a 20 minute around the block, there and back run doesn't really cover it.

Jim

I couldn't agree with you more Jim, on both counts

I remember test driving my first automatic, Mercedes CLK coupe, the chap came with us and I asked him to drive it out and onto an open road as I was a tad nervous, this he did and then got into the back seat. The road was from Lydney to Chepstow, which is wide with a few inclines, dips, and bends and fortunately it was quiet at the time, so good to drive on as well as get a feel of the car.

Needles to say there wasn't much to be nervous about, as once in 'drive' I didn't have to do anything else, so I settled into the drive pretty quickly really and obviously I wanted to test the oomph, now with the BMW I had and Audi before this, the engines would be similar, so I was expecting the same sort of performance if not better, but with manual, if you want to floor it you can drop a gear and deck the peddle ... no can do with an automatic. So I took my chances and just dropped the peddle instead ... uh-oh ... big mistake!

G-force or what? Cheeks rattling, Anita pinned to the back of her seat no need for Botox and bloke in the back wet himself

Soon learnt that hitting the accelerator in an automatic has the same effect of dropping a gear ... I learn fast

The best test drive I ever went on was when a mate was getting a new Volvo estate, we went in on the Friday, they handed him the keys and told him the tank was full and to go and enjoy it for the weekend. Now that's what I call service and it paid off too, as when he returned the car, he placed an order for the colour and spec he wanted and again two years later.

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Frank

· #237 · 12 d ago

Ruby351 said:
I couldn't agree with you more Jim, on both counts

I remember test driving my first automatic, Mercedes CLK coupe, the chap came with us and I asked him to drive it out and onto an open road as I was a tad nervous, this he did and then got into the back seat. The road was from Lydney to Chepstow, which is wide with a few inclines, dips, and bends and fortunately it was quiet at the time, so good to drive on as well as get a feel of the car.

Needles to say there wasn't much to be nervous about, as once in 'drive' I didn't have to do anything else, so I settled into the drive pretty quickly really and obviously I wanted to test the oomph, now with the BMW I had and Audi before this, the engines would be similar, so I was expecting the same sort of performance if not better, but with manual, if you want to floor it you can drop a gear and deck the peddle ... no can do with an automatic. So I took my chances and just dropped the peddle instead ... uh-oh ... big mistake! G-force or what? Cheeks rattling, Anita pinned to the back of her seat no need for Botox and bloke in the back wet himself

Soon learnt that hitting the accelerator in an automatic has the same effect of dropping a gear ... I learn fast

The best test drive I ever went on was when a mate was getting a new Volvo estate, we went in on the Friday, they handed him the keys and told him the tank was full and to go and enjoy it for the weekend. Now that's what I call service and it paid off too, as when he returned the car, he placed an order for the colour and spec he wanted and again two years later.

Reminds me of the CLK 500 I owned, or rather it owned me. Each time I started it in the morning I'm sure I could hear a voice amongst the burbling asking "Are you going to respect me today or am I going to kill you?" Summer fun turned to winter fear and in the end I decided that a high power to weight ratio needed a Quattro drive train and placed a factory order for an Audi S4. A work colleague was a bit of an Audi fan (worked on his own cars, new the part number of every cog in the transmission sort of guy) so imagine my surprise on mentioning my new order when he asked if he could buy my CLK! I gave him fair warning about its "liveliness" but he thought he was man enough for it so the deal was done. Not long after as I was passing his desk I enquired how he was getting on with it. A sheepish look followed by his story of getting stuck behind a dawdler and when an opportunity arrived a hard down right foot....which ended with he and his wife sitting in a field with the sheep! Fortunately no harm to themselves although the underside of the CLK didn't come out of the experience too well.

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Frank

· #238 · 11 d ago

Maybe I should not have watched this before the road test tomorrow:
Jaguar i-Pace real-world review. The ups & downs of running an electric car.. - YouTube
Three years old, the charging infrastructure should have improved a bit by now, or has it?
Motorway range issue is a big turn off

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JimC64

· #239 · 11 d ago

Frank said:
Maybe I should not have watched this before the road test tomorrow:
Jaguar i-Pace real-world review. The ups & downs of running an electric car.. - YouTube
Three years old, the charging infrastructure should have improved a bit by now, or has it?
Motorway range issue is a big turn off

Good review, although not so much on the range / motorway run etc. "Range anxiety" is a real thing supposedly now for a lot of EV owners.

I know Steve just had to deliver one a few weeks ago, covering a fair few miles and had to stop 2 or 3 times to charge and experienced similar issues / wait times.

The charging infrastructure will improve, over time, eventually. It looks like these are great for stop / start running around town and doing local trips, not so much on longer drives

Jim

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Ian D

Discussion Starter · #240 · 11 d ago

Frank said:
Maybe I should not have watched this before the road test tomorrow:
Jaguar i-Pace real-world review. The ups & downs of running an electric car.. - YouTube
Three years old, the charging infrastructure should have improved a bit by now, or has it?
Motorway range issue is a big turn off

Go on the iPace forums would be a better view, download zap map, if you’re part of octopus use Electroverse, which have access to over 450,000 chargers in Europe that are discounted.

Pre-condition the battery pack if going on a long run to get more range.

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