This is just a rant… maybe a discussion starter

Margins on 2nd hand and new electric cars are thin, gone are the days where you could get 25% off a new car, and thin margins mean lower commission.

Servicing costs are minimal so no kickbacks for selling the servicing plans.

People are wise to paint protection and alloy wheel cover that cost more than a refurb.

EV buyers tend to make better decisions and are more likely to be cash buyers or finance elsewhere, so no kickback for selling a finance plan.

Manufacturers still selling higher margin hybrid and ICE vehicles mean they are the real target for salespeople.

Manufacturers also want to shift their ICE inventories and new products so they are still pushing the FUD on electric, and myths like “EVs will be obsolete once Hydrogen cars come out, you may as well get an ICE car in the meantime.”

I’ve had a really bad customer experiences at Toyota, Honda and now Kia dealerships.

I know people will suggest the Tesla online sales model, but Musk is just ruining the brand to the point where I can’t buy or recommend one.

So now I’m going to do all my own research, find the exact car I want, and contact the dealer/seller directly while avoiding as much interaction as possible.

Anyone else so used to being gaslit by the government they started to read this thinking ‘Great! Let’s find out how I’m a “failed citizen”, who had rubbish plans during the pandemic’

I’m finding this transition a little difficult, I’m hopeful but I’m still half expecting the Home Secretary to announce concrete shoes at low tide for all immigrants or something.

As a Thames Water “customer” (given the complete lack of competition maybe “hostage” is a better term) who will have a £20 rise per year, and as someone with no money I’m fine with paying an extra £1.65 a month for water, but not to Thames Water who will inevitably use that money to pay shareholders dividends.

If it stops us from dumping raw sewage into the rivers and oceans I’ll happily pay ten times as much, but it’s clear that Thames Water is just corrupt, and cannot be trusted with any extra money.

James Dyson who famously championed Brexit then moved his company’s head office to Singapore, and finally lost a libel case when papers pointed he was a massive hypocrite, has now announced he is cutting 1/4 of the UK workforce.

All this while parliament is busy swearing in all the new members.

In case you needed another reason to avoid his crap vacuum cleaners other than the horrible repairability and quality of failure prone components.

Is YouTube actively trying to make their platform as unusable as possible?

In case you can’t zoom the YouTube definition of ‘latest’, is any time in the last few years.

My video suggestions are also 50% text posts now for some reason.

I need some help finding the simplest but safe small EV for my parents in their 80s. They currently drive a massive old Mercedes E and S-class, but they don’t need such big cars, as sight and reaction times dwindle having such big powerful cars might get them into trouble. I’m looking for a small simple EV with the ability to lock things down and start every drive with consistent user selectable settings. Maybe limit the power, ensure the air conditioning is set appropriately every time and that the radio turns on to their station and with the volume at a good level. Basically so they just have to get in and press the go pedal, without worrying about messing anything up because the next drive will be back to normal again. For size I really like the Honda-E but I have taken them to two garages and both have been terrible experiences, where the salesperson tried to convince my parents that EVs were a dead technology and that they should buy a Hybrid until the Hydrogen cars come out. The longest journey they ever do is 100miles but mostly journeys are <50miles round trip. Anything with 130miles + would be perfect and give some cold weather/degradation buffer.

On some things the UK is progressive, on other issues, like sustainable transport, they see it as antisocial behaviour.

Looks like the Labour Party have finally hired someone under 60 to handle their social media. Excellent, no notes.

Just thinking back to the iPhone 6 which is 10 years old this year. I’m trying to work out if there are any features people use that weren’t available 10 years ago?

My dad still uses my old iPhone 6, and it really highlighted for me that innovation has stagnated in the last 10 years, unless I’m missing something.

I’m still on the iPhone X, and the latest models just don’t have any features I’m excited about. I was thinking about what would make a difference to me and I think a really cool feature that would make me upgrade is thermal imaging.

Thermal cameras are expensive and the resolution and frame rate is generally rubbish because they are a niche item, but they are so useful. I’ve used them for everything from fixing heating systems, cars, and electronics to simply checking if my dog is still in the garden in the dark, or working out where ‘that draft’ is coming from.

Thermal imaging needs to be brought into the mainstream for price reduction and development, that integration to the next generation iPhone can deliver.

Am I just a weirdo, or would you like a thermal camera on the iPhone?

I’m typing this on an iPhoneX I got on day of release. I’ve had a new battery and it’s still perfect. I kept telling myself I’d wait for USB-C, but now it’s here I’m just not bothered. I think the only reason I would have to upgrade is when mobile apps drop support for iOS 16. What “must have” feature are you using to justify an upgrade?