Sign up for CleanTechnica's Weekly Substack for Zach and Scott's in-depth analyses and high level summaries, sign up for our daily newsletter, and/or follow us on Google News! A new study from the German Automobile Club (ADAC) tells us what we’ve always suspected would be the case — electric cars ... [continued]
I must have been buying the wrong brands for the last few decades, because that is NOT my experience. My experience is that ICE cars get REALLY unreliable beyond the ten year mark. Expensive unreliable. To many trips to the garage unreliable.
I haven’t owned my non-Tesla EV for that long, but I’ve had more fun and pleasure driving that car in the last three years than I had driving petrol and diesel cars for the last thirty years.
I normally get a low-mileage single previous owner second hand car that’s a few years old so I’m not paying thousands just for a fresh car smell, and run it until it starts getting annoying and expensive, when I trade it in for a newer model.
10 years is my experience as well. However the vast majority of those problems are not related to the ICE (which is well protected from the elements in a closed system with good oil). A EV or ICE makes no difference to the body or suspension system.
However the vast majority of those problems are not related to the ICE
That is the complete opposite of my experience. In my experience the most frequent and expensive problems are related to the engine in an ICE car. Here are some problems I’ve had, and I don’t think they’re super rare, just a regular car showing its age:
clutch seizing up (no gears in an EV),
wheezy starter motor not starting the engine (no starter motor or engine in an EV),
stalling way too often (after years of trouble-free hill starts) (EVs don’t stall)
alternator failing (no alternator in an EV)
coolant boiling (no coolant in an EV)
fan belt screeching (no fan belt in an EV, but admittedly that one was a long long time ago)
squeaky brakes (only use the physical brakes in emergency braking in an EV)
Other problems I’ve had that could happen to any car:
blown lightbulbs
blown fuses
tracking is off
tyres wearing out
proximity sensor failure
aircon failure
Even the bottom two, which weren’t cheap, were still not as expensive or as complicated as the ICE shit I’ve tolerated over the years. My services cost me significantly less and there’s rarely any work to do.
A EV or ICE makes no difference to the body or suspension system.
I’ve literally never got rid of a car because of body or suspension problem - the engine has cost me too much stress, money and time, way, way, way before the body is shot or the suspension is failing. My uncle got rid of a car because of a bodywork issue, but he had had so much work done on it and had so many failed MOTs I don’t know why he didn’t trade up years earlier.
I must have been buying the wrong brands for the last few decades, because that is NOT my experience. My experience is that ICE cars get REALLY unreliable beyond the ten year mark. Expensive unreliable. To many trips to the garage unreliable.
I haven’t owned my non-Tesla EV for that long, but I’ve had more fun and pleasure driving that car in the last three years than I had driving petrol and diesel cars for the last thirty years.
A car is usually driven over 10k miles per year. 10 years would typically be beyond that 100k miles.
I normally get a low-mileage single previous owner second hand car that’s a few years old so I’m not paying thousands just for a fresh car smell, and run it until it starts getting annoying and expensive, when I trade it in for a newer model.
10 years is my experience as well. However the vast majority of those problems are not related to the ICE (which is well protected from the elements in a closed system with good oil). A EV or ICE makes no difference to the body or suspension system.
That is the complete opposite of my experience. In my experience the most frequent and expensive problems are related to the engine in an ICE car. Here are some problems I’ve had, and I don’t think they’re super rare, just a regular car showing its age:
Other problems I’ve had that could happen to any car:
Even the bottom two, which weren’t cheap, were still not as expensive or as complicated as the ICE shit I’ve tolerated over the years. My services cost me significantly less and there’s rarely any work to do.
I’ve literally never got rid of a car because of body or suspension problem - the engine has cost me too much stress, money and time, way, way, way before the body is shot or the suspension is failing. My uncle got rid of a car because of a bodywork issue, but he had had so much work done on it and had so many failed MOTs I don’t know why he didn’t trade up years earlier.