In the Dukes of Hazzard or knightrider the scene would cut away and they would drive off in a different car! I bet they got through a few cars in those series!
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Who has or is planning to get an electric car / EV Talk
- Thread starter PracticalMac
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I didn’t shop around for insurance for a Tesla.
The reason being, we’ve been with our insurance company for the better part of 15 years, and our rates have always been competitively low compared to the competition, plus the coverage has been excellent. By leaving one insurance company for another, then obviously you have certain rates you have to pay upfront immediately, and then if we’re not happy with that insurance companies premiums/coverages as they alter, then you’re back to looking for another insurance company, which is not a game I wanted to play.
Also, what’s nice about some insurance companies, is that they can actually do the shopping for you in terms of looking at other competitor rates to see if it would exceed their coverage costs. Which in our case, work towards our advantage just to stay with our current provider.
The reason being, we’ve been with our insurance company for the better part of 15 years, and our rates have always been competitively low compared to the competition, plus the coverage has been excellent. By leaving one insurance company for another, then obviously you have certain rates you have to pay upfront immediately, and then if we’re not happy with that insurance companies premiums/coverages as they alter, then you’re back to looking for another insurance company, which is not a game I wanted to play.
Also, what’s nice about some insurance companies, is that they can actually do the shopping for you in terms of looking at other competitor rates to see if it would exceed their coverage costs. Which in our case, work towards our advantage just to stay with our current provider.
It’s rare I stay with an insurance company longer than a few years and it’s an annual standoff to get a competitive rate. In Europe, insurance companies are never competitive to existing customers and you have to play them all against each other to get the price down. There doesn’t seem to be any reward for loyalty like there used to be sadly.
I have found that here in the US, especially if you have an older home or live in an area with weather related issues, changing everything over is a lot more difficult than it may be worth to save a few $$.
The rules were supposed to change this year so existing customers get as good a deal as new ones. But I’ve not renewed since that came in.
Exactly; you get big cashback rates for new customers that existing loyal customers don’t get. I look every year for another insurers.
Liverpool Victoria was the best for our Polestar 2 and had some additional EV specific benefits as well, like cover for the cables etc.
Windscreen cover was my biggest surprise by how much more it is. Lots of tech attached to it though.
And in the UK the Tesla charging network will open up soon to all EVs. That will be nice as the Eurotunnel club flexiplus lounge has a whole bunch of Tesla chargers.
Too funny though how in the short period we’ve had the polestar I’ve had theee Tesla drivers ask what it is and comment on how good it looks. Lol can’t blame them, I do the same if I had a Tesla.
It must be very different in Europe. I don’t know how insurance practices are involved over there, but here in the United States, most of the people I know around me, have probably been with there insurance agency for five years or more. And I suspect what happens is to keep your rates low, if you’re a ‘good driver’ with no traffic offenses, rank at a certain age where you’re less of a liability on the roadway and you’ve had no vehicle accidents, your insurance deductible/rates are relatively low.
The other reason I didn’t cross-shop insurance for a Tesla, some of these insurance companies will sell your information once they have your phone number/email, and I don’t trust their practices. So in that case, I just wanted to make it a ‘safe bet’ and stay with our current provider.
But yes, there doesn’t seem to be any loyalty to long with-standing customers, even though I think there should be in terms of more ‘tiered packages’, unfortunately there isn’t here either.
Insurances premiums are low here for careful drivers. I have 9 years of a no claims bonus currently but I still have to make sure I am getting the best deal. We have a big comparison industry here and a phone call at renewal time always gets further money off. The rules changed this year where insurance companies aren’t allowed to offer inflated premiums to existing companies and I am yet to test whether they are abiding by this. I recently added my A4 to my policy and I am paying around £250 for fully comprehensive cover on it. I am nearly 40 so the cost comes down every year like I’d imagine it also does in the States.
Yes, insurance rates definitely drop when you start to age more, because you become less of a liability typically for many drivers. Unfortunately, with electric vehicles, it doesn’t seem to matter, even though it should to a degree taking the totality of circumstances altogether of being a responsible driver with a clean driving record.
In the US, if you receive a traffic citation, it can take up to 10 years for it to completely be unconsidered from your driving record with insurance companies. So it’s one of those situations, where you have to kind of treat driving as a privilege, and not a right like some people do the way with their driving behavior.
I think a problem especially for EV drivers is that many never had a car that can accelerate like that before. I’ve already seen people getting themselves in silly accidents. I think they should make more less powerful versions for the masses.
Don’t most have an eco mode that reduces acceleration etc? The i3 does. That will be Mrs AFB default mode!
Classic UX issue if that is what it is called. Who would want to drive in eco mode. Make that the standard mode and others sort plus. But really with an EV there is not much point to these different drive modes.
So many are amazed by the acceleration but you can buy 4 sec cars for way less money than an EV and they’ve existed for a long time. Even 7s cars are deemed fast for what a lot of people making the switch were used to.
Therefore I’m not surprised insurance companies see them as way bigger risk.
Also manufacturers EV teams seem to throw away the rule book. Like securely holding a steering wheel with that yoke. Or like don’t worry about disengaging the gearbox or putting the hand brake on, just open the door and the car will do it. Heck ive seen people doing that and touch both brake and throttle on their way out and get the car in launch control.
Us humans are generally dumb, now we give them all very fast cars. Yup I’m not surprised with insurance premiums being so high. Our was higher than the BMW M2 Competition we had.
I guess the tire wear is more weight than acceleration unless traction is terrible. I tried this morning but can’t make our Polestar break traction 🤣
Tyre wear is higher. But brake wear is lower. So one cancels out the other in my book. Also depends on your driving style!
Brakes are a lot less expensive than tires
But yes one pedal driving is brilliant. The Polestar system is really good as it applied the balanced braking principle to it so it’s smooth all the time, and you can even coast at the same time if you can control your right foot.
How do you like the infotainment system?Brakes are a lot less expensive than tires
As an Apple eco system user I was a little concerned with the Android Automotive Operating System, but I need not to. It is really good, very responsive, works very well. Really good integration with the car systems especially for Google automotive services (gas) apps. This morning I had a text conversation with my wife and it works as well as Siri in apple CarPlay. Apple CarPlay gets launched this spring as well but i have not missed it at all.
The Harmon Kardon system is very good as well. The two sub woofers really help lift the system, and what I love is that the amp must be good quality as even at low volumes it sounds amazing.
Yes very happy with it.
I’m glad there are so many good options now. I considered the Polestar 2, and I think it’s a great looking car, but I wanted the 7 seats (even though I’ve only used them twice..). Hoping the Ioniq 5 and EV6 remain reliable. None of them are easy to come by right now. The only Mach e I can find right now is the standard range too.. all extended ranges are order only.
The Mach-E was my ‘runner up’ for awhile. Initially, I wasn’t actually a fan of the Mach-E when it first released, and I didn’t care for the whole ‘Mustang crossover branding’, but now it seems to make sense towards Fords vision for the future.
Anyways, I didn’t want RWD, because where I live, AWD is necessary here, so that automatically puts me in the extended range dual motor, which right now; retails for about $55,000 with inflation (MSRP is $47k-ish).
Here is one model I looked at. When you see them in person, and the overall stance with the contoured lines, it’s a pretty freakin sweet EV for the most part. And from my readings, I’ve heard mostly really good things in terms of build quality, with the exception there was a few software concerns with display cluster in the beginning, but was patched through OS updates.
Ironically, the Model S that I looked at, didn’t have any inflation at all, and it’s the most mature platform right now, but it also put me in a situation where I had to sell one of my performance cars. (My 392 6.4l Scat Pack).
Cornering puts a lot of wear on tires. Doing it faster and with more weight wears at a non-linear rate.
