New car

robbymax

robbymax

Standard Member
Joined
Jul 3, 2023
Messages
38
Reaction score
32
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21
Age
82
Location
market deeping south lincs UK
Driving
ZS EV Trophy LR
I have been contemplating buying a new car for two years and it's not getting any easier I have test driven and mg ZS and thought our nice it was, initially I contemplated brand new but noticed The depreciation in the first year was horrendous and doesn't stop at the first year I wasn't too concerned because I intended to keep the car four or five years if not more I've never been one for changing my car on a whim but reading all the posts on this side it would appear that there isn't a lot of joy in owning an electric car I just read one post where a gentleman went to Europe and never took any tools at all not even a spanner to disconnect the battery the mind boggles I don't want to go travelling Europe I don't want to concern myself too much with charging away from home I don't really want to drive more than 80 miles there and 80 miles back in a day that's about my lot.
it would be brilliant I wouldn't have to concern myself about charging away from home anyhow it would be nice to keep it charged on my solar system at home and ride around for nothing in the past I have been used to tinkering with the car myself but what good are mechanical tools on an electric car a means of removing the battery is about all I am capable of nothing looks the same now, you need electronic equipment, digital multimeters and know what to look for I feel completely impotent and you lot wailing around don't help i just can't see a lot of joy in owning an electric car at 82 years old, Can someone please give me some encouragement.
 
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robbymax said:
Can someone please give me some encouragement.
Click to expand...
encouragement? Go for it ! You won't regret it.

Posts here are mainly about problems (more than half of it would be sorted by reading and paying attention to the instructions manual !!!) so ignore it all !

You can drive 10 times cheaper than petrol/diesel, you charge it at home on cheap tariff, don't even have to install any special charger - I use 3-pin plug charger and pay 8p kW; 5 hours charge gives me about 12kW that is enough for about 80-90 miles and that cost me 96p ... let's say £1 per 100 miles. If you have solar - it's free for you.

The only recommendation at 82 y old is this : ignore all the information on screens apart from speed and battery charge - keep it above 40%, relax and enjoy the ride, that's it. You can buy second hand, that's what I did. If worried, buy from an MG dealer and there should be warranty, too.
(p.s. check the tyres, that's about it in-between services)
 
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robbymax said:
I have been contemplating buying a new car for two years and it's not getting any easier I have test driven and mg ZX and thought our nice it was, initially I contemplated brand new but noticed The depreciation in the first year was horrendous and doesn't stop at the first year I wasn't too concerned because I intended to keep the car four or five years if not more I've never been one for changing my car on a whim but reading all the posts on this side it would appear that there isn't a lot of joy in owning an electric car I just read one post where a gentleman went to Europe and never took any tools at all not even a spanner to disconnect the battery the mind boggles I don't want to go travelling Europe I don't want to concern myself too much with charging away from home I don't really want to drive more than 80 miles there and 80 miles back in a day that's about my lot.
it would be brilliant I wouldn't have to concern myself about charging away from home anyhow it would be nice to keep it charged on my solar system at home and ride around for nothing in the past I have been used to tinkering with the car myself but what good are mechanical tools on an electric car a means of removing the battery is about all I am capable of nothing looks the same now, you need electronic equipment, digital multimeters and know what to look for I feel completely impotent and you lot wailing around don't help i just can't see a lot of joy in owning an electric car at 82 years old, Can someone please give me some encouragement.
Click to expand...


encouragement? Go for it ! You won't regret it.

Posts here are mainly about problems (more than half of it would be sorted by reading and paying attention to the instructions manual !!!) so ignore it all !

You can drive 10 times cheaper than petrol/diesel, you charge it at home on cheap tariff, don't even have to install any special charger - I use 3-pin plug charger and pay 8p kW; 5 hours charge gives me about 12kW that is enough for about 80-90 miles and that cost me 96p ... let's say £1 per 100 miles. If you have solar - it's free for you.

The only recommendation at 82 y old is this : ignore all the information on screens apart from speed and battery charge - keep it above 40%, relax and enjoy the ride, that's it. You can buy second hand, that's what I did. If worried, buy from an MG dealer and there should be warranty, too.
(p.s. check the tyres, that's about it in-between services)
 
Don't worry about it. I made the jump over a year ago and have had no issues. I still have a smile on my face leaving other cars at the lights. The 10mm spanner is only to disconnect to reset the computers crash. This has not happened to me and I don't carry the spanner. The car has been great. Enjoy and stop fretting :) :) :)
 
I knew nothing about EV’s, but I did a lot of research before deciding that the ZS would suit my needs. I also worried about the techy stuff that some forum members posted. However, I was encouraged to go ahead, and it’s all been fine. Charge it and drive it. It’s very quiet and comfortable.
This forum has been very informative if you have questions.
 
Hi Suzanna thanks for the reply I sold my car a year ago and we've been running around in my wife's I-10 a nice car but do I really need another car, yeah of course I do but I've gotten used to not having one Medical reasons stopped me from driving for a while but if I want to go anywhere I have to use the wife's car and it leaves her without a car And that is not fair I've been looking around and there's a lot of garages up and down the country with some real bargains and they'll deliver it and that's a method I've used before I noticed you stated you have a standard range battery can't make up my mind on battery size I seem to be looking always for those with the biggest batteries the medium standard size does about 190 miles I'm sure that would always do for me but I still keep looking for that 270 Miles and that always restricts the amount available and it does affect the price considerably I just need to make up my mind and go for it
 
I'd encourage anyone to get a EV especially the MG ZS EV it's a nice relaxing quiet drive & easy to get in & out of, I'm on my second MG ZS EV on a 2023 trophy standard range, If you're not running around the country & it's for mostly local journeys you'll be more than fine.
I've never used any of the techy features on it yet, I just get in & enjoy the drive.

In over four years I've never used a public charger yet, I don't use it every day & my car requirements are well within that 199-mile range. I'm lucky & can do all my charging at home on a Ohme 7kWh charger, I used the granny charger exclusively for the first Gen1 MG ZS.
 
This thread has all the positive comments. :)

In Praise of the ZS

I guess it is the nature of online forums like this that one tends to see more complaints than praise. I thought I would try to address the balance by saying quite simply I think the our ZS Trophy LR is a fantastic car! Firstly it's really comfortable, the seats adjust well enough for me and my...
www.mgevs.com www.mgevs.com

The second hand market has settled down to normal now after the Covid pandemic. Car prices were artificially high and then took a big hit, which made depreciation look worse than it actually is.

EV cars are a joy to ride and charging for free off the solar is brilliant. I get around 200 miles a month free.
 
robbymax said:
I have been contemplating buying a new car for two years and it's not getting any easier I have test driven and mg ZX and thought our nice it was, initially I contemplated brand new but noticed The depreciation in the first year was horrendous and doesn't stop at the first year I wasn't too concerned because I intended to keep the car four or five years if not more I've never been one for changing my car on a whim but reading all the posts on this side it would appear that there isn't a lot of joy in owning an electric car I just read one post where a gentleman went to Europe and never took any tools at all not even a spanner to disconnect the battery the mind boggles I don't want to go travelling Europe I don't want to concern myself too much with charging away from home I don't really want to drive more than 80 miles there and 80 miles back in a day that's about my lot.
it would be brilliant I wouldn't have to concern myself about charging away from home anyhow it would be nice to keep it charged on my solar system at home and ride around for nothing in the past I have been used to tinkering with the car myself but what good are mechanical tools on an electric car a means of removing the battery is about all I am capable of nothing looks the same now, you need electronic equipment, digital multimeters and know what to look for I feel completely impotent and you lot wailing around don't help i just can't see a lot of joy in owning an electric car at 82 years old, Can someone please give me some encouragement.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't worry about not being able to tinker with it. They are generally reliable and things that do break in newer cars such as these should probably done at the dealer anyway for most people.

I would strongly suggest you test drive other brands as well to get an overall picture.

With your use case, I don't see there's much of a need for a Long range ZS.

I would potentially look at a used or nearly new Hyundai Ioniq 38kwh or a ID3 if depreciation is a concern.
 
If you are worried about resale values, I would certainly suggest that you go for the LR model. These will hold their values better, as more and more longer range cars come out

It's always hard reading forums, people often don't list exactly which model they have. I would say that the far majority of ZS problems are with the MK1. You hear about needing to remove the battery cable with a 10mm spanner to do a reset, again I think that's mainly (totally?) the MK1, which did seem to have some glitches. The pre-May2022 ZS Mk2 did have a firmware issue, that could cause problems when using rapid charges, once updated, that problem went away

I've had my ZS LR MK2, for 2 and a bit years, 30K miles without problems, most of my driving is within range of the charger. When I know that I'll be doing a longer drives, I do tend to check what chargers are available around abouts where I'll be needing to stop. I've never had an issue with not being able to get on charge, other than once when my car wouldn't connect, so I moved to another site (always have a bit of range spare, before you charge)
 
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well everybody thank you for the replies most of it seems to be very very encouraging now I've been on The internet and there's a car on there being sold by a garage it's advertised as a brand new car 2023 and it's done 68 miles I thought that's a bit unusual how so, so I gave him a ring today and it appears that MG are offering hundreds and hundreds of cars for sale to garages at massively discounted prices providing the garage registers them puts a number plate on and sells them so as not to upset people that have paid full price I'd never heard of this before but after having a chat with my son he assures me that it's quite legal I just wanted to know if anyone else on the forum has heard of this method of sales

now I'm talking about a MG ZS trophy connect top of the range with a sunroof roof rails and all mod con's. All the latest up-to-date software and prepared as brand new I have reserved the car and we will talk tomorrow
 
Last edited:
robbymax said:
well everybody thank you for the replies most of it seems to be very very encouraging now I've been on The internet and there's a car on there being sold by a garage it's advertised as a brand new car 2023 and it's done 68 miles I thought that's a bit unusual how so, so I gave him a ring today and it appears that MG are offering hundreds and hundreds of cars for sale to garages at massively discounted prices providing the garage registers them puts a number plate on and sells them so as not to upset people that have paid full price I'd never heard of this before but after having a chat with my son he assures me that it's quite legal I just wanted to know if anyone else on the forum has heard of this method of sales

now I'm talking about a MG ZS trophy connect top of the range with a sunroof roof rails and all mod con's. All the latest up-to-date software and prepared as brand new I have reserved the car and we will talk tomorrow
Click to expand...
It's very common, called pre-registration, lots of dealers do it to keep their numbers up. You'll be the second owner, but beside that, everything else should be as per new, including warranty

Good choice, going top of the range is always good at resale
 
Okay I've done it today I fully committed myself to an MG ZS trophy and thank you I enjoyed reading all your comments now I've got to think about charging my home runs on solar energy and this time of the year I have an abundance of energy and I am starting the day with 80% of charge in my batteries by 11 oclock they are full again and the charge controller is dumping.
Now what charger do I buy considering I have plenty of charge time between trips out it doesn't have to be anything large Capacity or special but a decent piece of kit would be needed I will connect it myself and hard wire it into my consumer unit the car has an inbuilt timer system for charging and In the winter octopus will give me my charging times. so what charging unit should I buy
 

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