Driving an ICE after a Leaf feels like Stone Age

Rafal

[Reposting for your pleasure/annoyance from my thread here]

I realise I am preaching to the converted and this is a self-congratulatory post, but it is the weekend, so be happy.

My brand-new 30 kWh Leaf went for an overnight paint protection coating job, so I had to rent an ICE for a day. Got an largish Opel Insignia diesel with 6 manual gears. Manual! How "retro"—I can't understand why they still exist here, even if the rest of the modern world has abandoned manual... Do some people still like manual? Masochists or slightly eccentric? Working the clutch, I reminded myself that at least I did not have to get out and hand crank it with a rusty iron while pouring hot oil on it.

OMG, that thing vibrates angrily like it would rather explode than drive. No comparison to the assured steadiness of the appropriately heavy Leaf. Heating took 20 mins to get going and it always felt a bit damp. Seats were designed to hurt. I could not make any sense out of the satnav, which was worse than even an inoperative Connect EV. I suppose the Insignia UI was designed for the same people who still like manual gearboxes.

While driving, Insignia felt like it was barely able for it, mushy, and the starting and stopping of the engine just reminded me how silly it is by 21st century standards. It all felt slightly surreal and cost 5 times more that a Leaf to refuel, even with diesel, for the same journey.

Happy to be back to my silent in comparison, super-responsive, softly suspended (my butt prefers that), wonderfully warm and dry, modern and well-equipped Leaf. Oh, and the coating coped superbly with today's heavy snow and mud, looks nice and shiny now.

Leaf: I won't abandon you again, please look after me, too. Nissan: get your act together and finish the job making Connect EV at least half as good as the car is, please.

peposhi

Hahaha, I know the feeling

As a matter of a fact I miss my ex-TDI's engine rumble, but not the bills that were coming with it.

Water John

STOP, yere making me green.

Don't post that Water John in the regular motors section or you'll probably get banned !

I know what you mean though, and people do like changing gears because they "want" to "feel" in control and if pressing a clutch and playing with a stick makes them happy than I'm delighted for them. I certainly do wonder why all the people that sit in traffic for endless hours not choose an automatic ? Is it because of the extra initial purchase cost ? and the old fashioned mindset that automatics are gas guzzlers ? Automatics don't cost a lot more to run these days and if it cost 50 Euro's a year extra and 1000 to buy I think that's absolutely worth it.

The best automatic I found was Audi's CVT Multitronic, matches the poor torque band of a Diesel brilliantly. Of course the CVT in the prius was good too. CVT's do buzz under load though but for normal driving they're great. It averaged about 48 Mpg overall it was a 2003 B6 TDI.

The DSG has come on leaps and bounds too, the early ones used to get confused and they were laggy, they still lag a bit and any ICE is going to seem ultra laggy to an EV driver.

I certainly do not miss that VW Group PD TDI Rattle and noise, it was horrible, the common rail is a lot better but still , you'd clearly know it's a diesel.

When I drive our Cee'd Diesel estate It really drives me nuts, it's lighter and about 10 more hp than the Leaf but it feels it has a lot less power and it takes what seems to be forever compared to the leaf to move when you put your foot down.

Scottie99

I wholeheartedly agree. Sometimes I've to drive the Mrs Pulsar. Although it's an automatic it doesn't have the smoothness of the Leaf and no fun in comparison.

Benny_Cake

I'll be driving an ICE for the first time in nearly a year this Tuesday while my Leaf is in for it's first service. Not looking forward to it!

Bigus

Not to mention the things that can't go wrong with an ev , no turbo, DMF,clutch, DPF, alternator, starter,timing belt , head gasket, and on and on, so industrial and archaic.

Motor industry will be turned upside , hence Tesla being so disruptive ,

Also I can't understand why no manufacturer makes a softly suspended comfortable model that never saw the Nurburgring .

Next gen batteries will really nail it.

macnab

I bought a new 30kw Leaf last week and the slagging from the ICE car drivers in work started all over again (it's my 2nd Leaf)
I found it ironic that I am one of the few people in work who has had no car related problems in the last 6 months.
Of the group on a particular day there was my Leaf with no problems. A BMW 520d owner who had just had an engine rebuild due to a timing chain failure, BMW swallowed the bill for €13000 but he had to pay €2700 for extra work. An Opel Insignia owner had a timing belt failure, which Opel repaired as a good faith gesture.
2 VW owners had EGR issues which they had to foot the bill for themselves.
When I pointed out that none of those issues were a concern for an EV driver one of the VW drivers added that he just drove 1500km on one tank of diesel and didn't have to stop for fuel once in between. I pointed out that he had to stop to get out to go to work and again to go into his house, which is the same as a Leaf driver.
I, on the other hand, drove 20000km in the last 15 months and had to stop 3 times for fuel by his understanding of the word stop, compared to at least 13 dirty smelly diesel stops he would have to make for the same 20000km.
The thing that amazes me is that the ICE car drivers always start these comparison chats with a view to proving to me that an EV is a silly car to buy.
I have owned enough sports cars in the past, including a 4 litre 500bhp V8 BMW M5, to know what I do and don't like.
I have also tuned enough motorbikes to know that torque and BHP are great unless they are in the wrong RPM range. EV power trains, in my opinion, are much smoother and seem to release their energy in a very useful manner compared to any ICE car I have owned.
I expect my next motorbike could be an EV (Zero SR is my current favourite) and I also expect to have a whole new round of slagging from my biker buddies.

What diesel can get 1500 kms ? that's 932 miles ? Must be a pretty big tank.

Electrics are very reliable, look at the amount of Prius out there with very few electrical failures.

I really laugh when I hear the add for the Auris Hybrid on the radio, emphasising the fact you don't have to plug it in as if the effort was too much for most people lol.

They should have said something like, "you don't have to plug it in but it will cost many times more to fuel"

macnab

[Deleted User] wrote: »

What diesel can get 1500 kms ? that's 932 miles ? Must be a pretty big tank

Agreed, some people don't let the truth get in the way of a good story ha ha, must be a VW thing.

NIMAN

I'd say the 1500km range is one that must have been in some advert somewhere, you know the ones that say you're going to get 75mpg on your new BlueMotion.

Of course this is on their test track, at a constant 56mph, with all the seats ripped out, all the air catching surfaces taped over etc.

In normal use driving that real people do in the real world, they really get 55mpg.