@DrP – I’m in the tropics (North Wales) and commute into Liverpool, it’s far warmer here than Southern England!

On Tuesday when it was wet and cold my average for the 33 miles was 3.2. It was 2.9 for the motorway journey and then improved for the slower last 5 miles.

Last weeks electricity bill was £19.83, that includes general usage as well as charging. And having checked the app the week before the car arrived my electricity usage was £10.84 for the week. Its just insanely cheap!

I have a fairly long trip coming up soon. North Wales to Milton Keynes and back the same day. Be interesting to see how this goes. I’ll have to charge on motorway charging.

My ICE car was a 300hp Cupra. Getting 50mpg was never going to happen!! 38mpg on most journeys and that’s taking it easy. I’ve had much more powerful cars than the Cupra, but there’s something about a hot hatch that is like a badly behaved spaniel…..it’s just pulling all the time wanting to get off the lead.

My point I was making is that in the month I’ve had the EV my driving style has changed. It’s only a personal anecdote. I didn’t get the EV because of the difference in cost between petrol and electricity, but it’s an added bonus.

And yeah I’m generally keeping to the left lane, I leave before the roads are too busy so I do overtake the odd truck, but generally the cruise control is set to 65. I’ll pull out if a vehicle is going much slower or I’ll just wait behind if it’s going at a similar speed. In the Cupra no chance of me being like that…..yes the car would be fine doing it, but for some reason that type of car feels completely different than driving the EV.

Another personal anecdote, my partner is a driving instructor…..in the Cupra I would be given a driving lesson every time I drove it, in the Audi she’s not once gave me a free lesson!

And again if it helps my Cupra has days when it will only connect with a Blue cable, then days when it really dislikes Blue and will only use Red….when it’s feeling purple and my kids have taken the cable out of the car is really annoying.

I have purchased cheap cables and expensive, it decides each morning as to what mood it’s in and only the correct cable for that day will work.

When it’s in a really bad mood it lets out an ear shattering scream and carries on until I’ve rebooted the head unit.

No idea how VAG have been able to get away with it. My dealer told me “it’s a known issue and a software update will fix it soon”; 3 years later and no update.

If anyone is interested, first 1000 miles done in the Q4.
Average is 3.4 miles per kw hour. Charging is averaging me £12 per week. I tend to charge every evening. Petrol was costing me £60 a week.
Todays drive was the most economical I’ve completed so far, 40 miles at 3.8 miles pKWh.

Driving style has completely changed. I’m now consciously driving to conserve  battery life. Mine is the 300hp Quattro version, I wince if the acceleration shows more than 25% usage! Absolutely loving just cruising in the left lane on the motorway. I previously drove “making progress” in my Cupra.

There’s a couple of irritations. The car has a SIM card, when I use wireless Apple Drive it uses the Audi sim…..that needs me to add money to it monthly. Otherwise I can just use a wire and it connects. My phone is then the one being used for data. Just annoying that there’s no option to say use my phone data connection when wireless.

Mega successful probably not. But two of my ex’s are both incredibly wealthy. One is French and works in Investment Banking, she used to work on the trading her floor of a Paris bank, bonuses worth more than I would earn in 10 years.

The other is my ex-wife. All family money for her. She’s an awful human being though, the entire family would rather do what take the last £1 of a homeless person.

Some pretty poor comments due to an incorrect use of language, rather childish replies which pretty much sums up what this forum is becoming.

Liking todays watches, I do like Matt’s, but as a fat old knacker I can’t really get away with wearing that type of watch. I feel like an imposter even wearing my Garmin watch!

Also Counts has got me thinking about a bright coloured G Shock…..hmmm, will have a look around. Was going to buy another Nite watch but think a more colourful option is needed. (I have an orange faced Nite watch already)

Just to add, I have my Ohme set to Intelligent Octopus Flux Import (No idea what the Flux Import is but that was the only option I had)
In my Ohme app this shows at 22.0p/kwh off-peak and 29.60 p/kwh peak. Octopus energy app was showing my Intelligent Octopus tariff as 7.5 p/kwh off peak and 28.12 p/kwh peak.

I do think its the My Audi app that is taking control, going to keep playing with it tonight, I may even delete my account from the My Audi App.

Yeah I’ve removed all timers from all my apps….but the My Audi app just creates one. Renove it again and it comes back. I am sending the update to the car from the app to say no timer and it comes back sucessful. But 10 minutes later and the car is charging again at peak rate.
Looking at the My Audi app now, there is the weird timer showing (always one week away). But I don’t think the app is set to use it, I can select Start Timer Mode and it would then use the timer that has been automatically created by the app.
The Ohme app is set to Avoid Peak Charging (no timers are set). IO is currently saying a charging plan will be made shortly after I plug in, which I would expect.
I think this is the correct settings and will try it again tonight. I still think it will just automatically start charging again though.

Once I get through the quirks I’m sure I’ll really enjoy the car. I’m also struggling with the blowers, I set the temperature to 22 degress (was cold and wet this morning)…they just don’t let much warm air come through the blowers. Its a mere trickle. Again I think this is me not knowing the correct settings to use.

Nice Dr P. Was hoping for similar experience regarding lower bills…..but I’m struggling to get everything working together!
My Ohme Home Pro Charger has an app, electricity provider is intelligent octopus and has an app, my Audi has an app.
None of the apps are set to charge as soon as the car is plugged in…but it does. Octopus Energy is set to be ready for 0630. The My Audi app I think is the problem….this I set a timer in to say 80% by 0600. Ohme I have similar settings. I have read the instructions and know I should just be using ohme, but I don’t know how to disaccioate the My Audi app from my charger/car (I don’t really want to disaccoiate it from the car). I really don’t want to delete the My Audi account.
GOt home last night and plugged the car in, instantly started charging and at 67p pkwh. Paused this and tried to work out what was going on. I can’t be waiting up until Midnight to start my charging every evening!

Do you guys have annual reviews? Appraisals? Any one on one with your leaders where you discuss performance, what you may want to do in the future etc?

What’s top of the shopping list Gaidong?

First road trip with the EV this week. Over in Anglesey. Have to say it is a faff with having to use public charging.

The phone signal over here is rubbish. Managed to install an app called Pod Point, first charger had two points but only one working. Then tried using the chargers in Morrisons but wouldn’t take card payment. No signal to install the app this machine was saying to use. Off to Tesco, connected and used the Pod Point app. Connected to it fine, put the money on the app account and managed to get less than 1kw in just over an hour.

This is probably partly because this is new to me. But thought I’d use this trip as an opportunity to see how the car works for longer trips. (Getting about 3.5kwh as an average)

First commute this morning. 30 miles cruising on dual carriageway and motorway, then a couple of miles of slower town traffic…..it’s an incredibly pleasant experience. I did leave a tad earlier than normal and traffic was fairly light.
The only negative so far is the heater makes a whining noise when it’s on high power.

Was 6 degrees, 30 miles used 11% of my battery. I didn’t check the final miles pkw, but it was just above 3 over half way into the commute. I’m still a little heavy footed, not intentionally, just need to get used to very gentle acceleration. My Q4 is 300hp (or equivalent), I’ve found that even the slightest press on the accelerator pushes the battery use to a high %. Missus has it down to a tee, I’m still adapting after coming from a Cupra that felt like it wanted you to drive it fast.

Weirdly I charged yesterday at a motorway service station (M56 Gridserve), only added about 25%, maybe a bit more, probably just over half an hour. Cost me £1. I’ve been checking my bank and nothing is pending.
Oh last thing….setting up the Audi app is an absolute nightmare!! Going to the dealers today to get it sorted. You’d think Audi would have this sorted by now, but apparently there’s loads of people who get stuck in the same loop as me.

I think my Q4 does some form of queue crawling. I’m not really sure what it does, but in town today it kept a distance away from the car in front, stopped when they did and accelerated when they did. The missus who is used to driving electric cars was driving at the time and did something on the cruise control thing, then it just did its thing.

I thought the £12k allowance was lost at £150k?

For me, the man maths kind of work out ok. But it’s an indulgence for sure. Similar to Molgrips I also enjoy driving. My commute is an hour there and about an hour and a half return. Traffic is pretty bad on the return journey. I want to sit somewhere nice and comfortable. Turn up for work fresh and ready to go. But I know I don’t need such an expensive car to do so.

Just done my first day out in the Q4, only 130 miles and getting 3.6 kwph. Loving the one pedal driving. Was genuinely apprehensive about using it, but it works amazingly well.

It was mentioned earlier that the comfort of the EV makes you drive differently, ok it was my first journey but sitting at 60mph in the left lane on the motorway seemed nice and comfortable.  I’ve not even tried to see what the acceleration feels like…..and I normally drive sporty cars. Town driving and the one foot driving was effortless. Looking forward to the commute tomorrow!

Trying to sort out all the online features and Octopus Intelligent is a bit of a mare though!

Those figures of depreciation fit into what the AA say. By 3 years you should expect your new car to have depreciated 60% of its original value.

Years ago I bought a brand new Mercedes AMG, one of my mates showed me that in the first month of its use I’d lost £15k.

Do agree though that EVs are losing a lot of money. I think that’s possibly due to them being overpriced to begin with. I’ve just got my etron q4, that’s £68,750. But I’d say that it’s realistically a £50k car. It’s just that the market isn’t quite right, possibly due to the salary sacrifice deals?

(Q4 turns up this morning….super excited!!!)

Daffy, electric thrown in? I don’t get that on my salary sacrifice.

I justified my Audi Q4 with the following man maths:-

I currently have a Cupra petrol car and commute 40 miles a day. It needs new tyres front and back every year, but call it £80 a month. I pay pcp of £260 a month. Insurance works out at about £60 a month. Servicing, MOT and tax is approx £50 a month. Fuel costs me £300 a month. Essentially the same monthly cost as the Audi will be.

Thanks guys. No, the Audi doesn’t come with the 3pin as standard. I assumed I need to buy one of these?

Audi Q4 e-tron Mode 2 Portable Charger | UK 3 Pin Plug | 5 to 25 metres

I’ve also been looking at public charging prices on ZapMap, damn expensive! 75p pKWh seems to be an average. Not that I’ll do a full charge, but that is £60. Exactly the same as I pay for my petrol car now but 150 miles less. I take it most people only use public charging when they really have to!??

My Audi Q4 eTron was due 31st May. Got a phone call on Wednesday to say it’s now ready and will be delivered on Wednesday 27th March!! I haven’t installed the home changing kit yet.

Ive opted for a tethered Ohme and gone with Octopus Intelligent. Two week install time so I’ll need to charge using public chargers for the first week.

I’m also heading over to Anglesey for Easter, going to be interesting to see what the charging is like there. It’ll be at the in-laws overnight so I presume I can just plug into a 3 pin socket from the garage and charge it overnight. Any idea on rough cost for this? Father in law was an accountant and still counts every penny! He won’t be on any ev related tariff and the Q4 is 82kwh battery. So 10 hours plugged in to a non ev rate socket? Also roughly what % of the battery would 10 hours on a standard 3 pin socket return?

I’m 5 foot 9. I ride a Medium Orange Crush.

I vary on road/gravel bikes. When racing road I preferred a 52cm frame with a 110mm stem (Trek H1 racing fit, quite aggressive geometry). Now I’m older I’m on a 54cm bike. My gravel bike is a Planet X Tempest size small, I still have a decent sized drop between seat and bars and a long stem. I could get by on a medium (54cm) but nothing bigger than that.

Not sure if that helps?

What I have found is that WFH has made me physically lazy. Took me to December to realise that I had been gradually becoming more and more rotund! I had gone from a 32 waist to almost having to buy a 36inch pair of trousers….trying a pair of 36 inch trousers on and thinking these fit ok was a genuine wake up call!

WFH yesterday again made me think that over the last 5 years when I’m at home, my downtime is a coffee while sat on the sofa. I work for a US based company so my hours can be quite late. I had gotten into a routine where I was working until 8pm most days. But I had become too lazy to go to the gym before work and too much into a routine to go to the gym at lunch.

I’ve now re-organised my days so that I no longer work until late as a matter of routine. I also go back in to the office 3 days a week – but this is by choice. I drive past the gym on the way home so makes me go.

When working from home, the only exercise I was getting was walking from the office to the kitchen. I probably snacked a lot more as well, just because the food was in the house. I went from 70kgs to 84kgs…..

Fortunate enough to be able to carry leave over. 6 days left, so means I have 34 days from April 2024 to end of March 25. How I will take 34 days off I have no idea. Pretty busy year ahead.

I have also just returned from a week in Tenerife. I tend to always do a week away in the sun in Feb. (Only affordable as it’s just me I need to pay for)

Really just want to reiterate what TwistedPencil has said, its hard. But there will be a time fairly soon when the divorce will be over. You will move on and you will be happy again.

I have very recently been through it, have also documented some of my experiences on here. I caught my wife having an affair. Things got to the point where neither of us would move out of the family home, so she would get her “boyfriend” to come and pick her up from the family home…he would even pull up on to the driveway! I went through an awful time, the divorce process was horrible, but it is only a point in time.

Anyway, just want to re-iterate. As hurtful as it is and how upset you are, please remember there is going to be a point in the near future when you’re happy again. This is a good forum for venting on, lots of people with different life experiences. And I’m not a million miles away from you, if you ever want to chat over a beer I’m only in Liverpool and I’m sure other locals would also offer the same.

Its a long race, fairly early on in the season. I can understand why UAE where not quite on the mark. Also understandable why Pederson didn’t have the legs. Its such a tough last 30km’s, might not be the biggest hills, but its flat out. The final descent is still a hard descent, in terms of sprinting out of corners and then the final few kms on the flat.
I’ve been lucky enough to ride the final 100km’s, amazing part of the world. The hills aren’t steep when its a fairly short ride, but didn’t they average something like 46kmph for the entire course? Even in the bunch thats going to be noticable and have the potential to sap the energy out of your legs. 28mph for 180 miles…

One of my favourite races of the season. Along with Lombardia.

I like the comments about the middle aged AMG owners…..I had an AMG Merc (GLC). Didn’t pop and bang but did rumble if that makes sense. I would never sit and rev it on the drive though. Also had a TVR (5 litre engined beast), that properly made a great grumbling sound without revving. I got shouted out once by a horse lady, I came to a complete stop to let the horse pass, the lady still shouted at me for my engine making the horse nervous. I probably should have turned the engine off but didn’t think, so my bad.

Brother has a Harley, no idea the type, but blooming heck that’s noisy. He doesn’t do early starts so his neighbours are safe! Really slow bike as well so no idea why it’s so noisy.

I currently have a Cupra, makes a nice noise but doesn’t pop and bang. It’s only a 2 litre, so pulling away from the house it’s fairly quiet. I also had a Mini Cooper S that did pop and bang….that wasn’t intentional…damn piece of junk was a nightmare!

I’ve had a few other noisy cars. But I wouldn’t be going out early or driving like a loon. Neighbour has a very noisy car and she does go out early at weekends. It’s some new Porsche Cayman thing, makes a nice noise and makes me smile when I hear it. (She’s also close to middle aged if that makes any difference….i’ll have to tell her she should just be driving a sensible car)

Aye agree with everyone else. Try on, if it doesn’t fit, post pics up here. I’m sure someone will buy (me too possibly size dependent)

Shaving wise…everyone is different! All gone for me!

Nice Andy. Was very tempted to get one of those, was between that and the Audi Q4 Quattro. Went with the Audi just because I need the room in the back for carrying bikes inside the car.

Is it brand new? What was the lead time like?

Funnily enough I used to find their fit a bit too loose.

As an ex roadie, super skinny, I found their jerseys and jackets too loose.

Now I’m an old fat knacker the fit is spot on for me. Way more comfortable than the size size of other roadie brands.

I love one of their gilets, I’ve had the size small, medium and now just bought a size large….and I’m now in size large in clothes.

Always been a hangover sufferer.

At peak fitness though the hangovers were terrible. I’m now fat and 50 and still a sufferer. I’ve discovered 4 pints of Guinness is my max for no hangovers. Lagers absolutely kill me as does Rum. I had a can of Guinness and two glasses of rum and Coke on Friday night, Saturday I was too rough to go for a ride.

I have a friends retirement do coming up, he and the rest of the colleagues are proper drinkers….ive booked into a hotel for an extra day/night so I’m not hungover at home.

I like the Christopher Ward Kryton. Just thinking of other similar oval indices, maybe have a look at Yema Superman Maxi Dial or the Regent Yacht.

If you’ve already got a CW I think I’d be looking at an alternative brand. Maybe Elliot Brown as they have some similar?

No, I agree with the Chief, I defo raced  XC around fields, with the teeniest tiniest bit of “tech” thrown in (grassy downhill with tight turns made with the tape. Friday Night Race Night (I think that was the series) even had two courses in the Midlands (Northants area) that was grass fields, I last raced there in about 2018.

When I was over in the states about 6 years ago I went to watch a XC race, and this was purely on grass, fire road and tarmac. Very strange.

This was a series of 3 races, and to be fair one of the races was genuinely tech in modern XC terms. The others seemed a bit gravelly. I’ve raced more technically difficult CX courses.

I can of drifted into IT, I knew it was the direction I wanted to go, just wasn’t sure how.

I work as a Technology Director for a large Investment Bank. I don’t think actual qualifications would be of any use to my role, I work on a diverse cross section of business areas, my general focus is on Operation Efficiency (budget management) and with a secondary task of being in charge of the technical aspect of. Mergers & Acquisitions for my business unit.  Maybe a business management qualification of some sort, but I’m too old and tired to even look into it. I’m 50 but my role is very time consuming, I don’t think I would have the energy to go back to studying.

Back in the early years (1990’s), working in an IT support role I did my MCSE and over time then moved into Project Management and ultimately Product Management. I have completed my Prince 2 Practitioner but it’s out of date. I do have to go on an Agile Course but it’s an internal course with no formal quals.

Technically for me to get promoted I need a Masters. That’s not going to happen. Was quite strange as I had a 1-2-1 with the CIO last year and he asked me what my Masters was in…..he was pretty surprised when I explained I don’t have one, just a GCSE in PE….

New watch day again. Went to look at this late last year, was £1500, now discontinued and being sold for £750. Glad I waited.

As this was reduced so much managed to get one for the other half as well….also half the list price….not a great photo, looks a lot better in real life.

Similar happened to me. “Retired” from racing for a couple of years. Got the urge to train again, decided I’d get fit enough to race. A year of seriously hard work to get back to race fitness, first race planned for April 1st….and we went into lockdown!

When I was racing weight was always a mental thing. I raced road and XC. I have actually raced similar grass courses to the one in the Youtube video above on my Trek Fuel Ex 8 running nobby nic’s….(I reckon at least 15.5kgs) I can’t quite remember the final result but I finished something like 24th out of 40. There was two short but steep climbs and I remember them being brutal. I would normally race on my Procaliber 9.7, massive difference (about 11kgs). I would normally finish in the region of 8th to 15th. The people I normally race against finished well ahead of me but on the same lap which was my target.

Racing on the road, I just loved having a light bike, I was 67kgs, optimal % body fat and similar to Kryton I was coached. I was never going to be an Elite, 2nd Cat for a season then back to racing 3rd Cat after a few years of not racing. A light bike just felt so much better to ride. I completely get it was a mental thing, but my race bike was a rim brake Trek Emonda with Dura Ace and 1300gram carbon wheels – weight was just over 6.2kgs. Being on a climb I would always have the confidence that the person next to me would likely be working harder to keep up (even if they weren’t it was just the mental thought that they were)

I guess it is luck:-
1. I was lucky enough to be born to parents who cared and nurtured me.
2. I was lucky to have seen life in an inner city area and had the desire to get away from it.
3. I was lucky enough to have been working for companies who have seen my desire to succeed in business and who have directed me along a career path.
4. I was lucky enough to have been born a white, heterosexual male in a time where this helped. (I don’t dispute this for one moment)

But then it is up to the individual to make the most of their luck, should they want to. Not everyone will want to or will be in a position to recognise the opportunities.

I see a lot of homeless people, I travel quite a lot with both work and socially. I always give cash, food, tea when I can. I pay monthly into my local homeless charity. I fully accept it is pure luck that I am not in their position. Luck to have been born to my parents and lucky that my parents guided me as they did.

But for me, while it was lucky in a financial sense, my drive and determination is also massively detrimental to me. While I will live a comfortable retirement, I won’t live it with people who have mattered to me.

@kryton57 I do see the parallels, some of your posts could have been written by me….i also used to be coached as a racer (but a roadie). I took it way too seriously, but part of my mentality was to be the best at X as I could, and I missed being the best “me” I could be. I was never too worried about beating everyone else, it was only about being the best racer I could be. But balancing that with my career, I missed the obvious that was happening in front of me.

It’s a tricky balance. Some people are lucky enough to get it right, others tip too far one way or the other.

(I hope I don’t sound morose! I’m actually a happy person and accepting of my mistakes, life is still good for me, it just could have been better!!)

Do agree with Aidy on this. I work as a director of a U.S. investment bank. It’s hard work, long hours and at times significant levels of stress.
This is the job I have worked towards since I was 13.
There is no doubt that luck has played a part, but I certainly don’t attribute my job and compensation package with just luck.
I also know I haven’t worked any harder than others. I have been presented with opportunities and I have taken them. Is it luck that I was presented with opportunities? I put myself in a position where those opportunities would come my way.
I knew full well that I’m not a practical person, so even while at school I realised my career would need to be office based, I was good with technology at school so made the decision to study towards a technology related job.
That being said, there are a large amount of negatives regarding my role. I say to my partner all the time that I would swap my life out for that of a bin man or a taxi driver without a second thought.
I’m at the position where I have hit my ceiling, I will never be in a C role, so this is where I will stay until I’m sent out to pasture. I report directly to the CIO, we have a good relationship but he expects constant results. There is no downtime. On holiday last month, my laptop came with me and I had meetings to attend most days. I work most weekends, normally a Sunday evening just to catch up on my emails and prepare for the Monday.
Financially, it’s nice to have no stresses. But I honestly don’t think it makes up for the stress and the constant pressure. My work, or more my desire for me to succeed at work definitely attributed to my failed marriage. I’ve tried to learn from it, but I’m very career driven (or was). I do accept it was the wrong mentality. I have rationalised it to my upbringing. I’m from a Liverpool council estate. Dad was a HGV driver, mum was a care home cleaner. My dad was an agency driver and could go for periods of time without work. Money was very tight. I always wanted to ensure that when I had my own family that we would have a comfortable financial lifestyle. That side of it I achieved, just didn’t do a great job of balancing the work / family side of life.