Test drive report

[JonMad]

He said it didn't fit under the "arch" to his drive.

I mean, hence the question - Si posted a picture, which clearly wasn't the entrance to the drive, and said it didn't fit, yet the picture suggested it did.

You godda zoom in on dat sharrk fin dood.

Ta, hadn't spotted that in the pic. That's a shame. Maybe dig out the driveway under there with small ramps down either side, to achieve the required height clearance

[Rich B]

That's a really short "garage/arch/thing" - the ID Buzz isn't much over 6 foot isn't it? Got to be less than 2m all in?

I'm still trying to picture this odd set up with the back (and front?) of the garage removed to drive straight through - why didn't they just remove the garage?!

[Jobbo]

I'm going to be accused of attention whoring now but this is just to explanify, honest. And I'm at work so can't take pictures from the angles which would be useful.

The drive which we use to park cars on is to the rear of the house and is paved:


The photo below is taken from the back of the gap to the right of the Mini in the above photo, looking back towards the house. You can see the hole where you drive through the old garage:


Because there's a room above what used to be the garage, and there are water and heating pipes and electrical supply pipes etc through it, taking it down is not going to be that straightforward. And I don't want to do building work or lose a bedroom.

The lowest points (three all the same height) are the cross beams, at about 1.92m. Anything up to 1.9m will fit OK with neearly an inch clearance; the Buzz height from VW is 1898mm but Autocar's road test said it was about 1.93/1/94 m. That discrepancy is the shark fin aerial.

I have checked the height of big SUVs like the Cayenne and the Merc GLE and they're fine; even a full fat Range Rover is 1870mm. It's vans that won't fit, really.

[Rich B]

The room above it makes it make a lot more sense.

I actually quite like the concept now I've seen it - having proper hard standing (and lawn) behind the house rather than just in front is probably quite a nice/useful thing.

[Explosive Newt]

Can you re-lay the (presumably concrete) floor 20mm lower with entry/exit ramps?

[Matty]

102 Emira's on AT now....so you're not lost for choice that's for sure.

Can you re-lay the (presumably concrete) floor 20mm lower with entry/exit ramps?

I'd have to *really* love a car to start scraping away my drive to make it fit !

[NGRhodes]

https://www.eibach.de/en/news/detail/vw ... s-lowering

[Matty]

https://www.eibach.de/en/news/detail/vw ... s-lowering

The irony of how long it took for someone to suggest modifying the car to fix the problem...on a car forum

[mik]

Can you re-lay the (presumably concrete) floor 20mm lower with entry/exit ramps?

He might find himself with a need to lower the floor further in the future though - better to simply install a jacking system to painlessly raise the room above this aperture. Futureproofing.

[Jobbo]

Lowering the ground under the former garage would create a sort of sheep dip full of run-off water from the drive. So no, but I did think of it enough to realise the obvious issue

[Gavin]

https://www.eibach.de/en/news/detail/vw ... s-lowering

The irony of how long it took for someone to suggest modifying the car to fix the problem...on a car forum

someone ssaid to bag it, pretty much straight away I think.

[jamcg]

Oof, 140 mile range at 98% charge? That's city car range for bopping around town, not exactly what you want on a big, spacious five seater.

Edit - just realised I must have read the numbers wrong in the ad, and that 140 miles is the trip, and ~200 miles is the range, which is a bit better, but still a bit light for such a large vehicle - I'd want to see a solid 300 in something like that.

It weighs almost 2.5 tonnes, so once you load it up it’ll be knocking on for 3 tonnes. They’ll have kept the weight down for commercial vs passenger vehicle speed limits, so more range would mean more weight and crossing over into being classed as a light truck rather than a van

[DeskJockey]

Can you re-lay the (presumably concrete) floor 20mm lower with entry/exit ramps?

He might find himself with a need to lower the floor further in the future though - better to simply install a jacking system to painlessly raise the room above this aperture. Futureproofing.

The correct choice is to buy all the surrounding land, build a miles long track with exciting corners that bypasses the issue with the house.

Edit: for the Lotus obviously, not the Buzz.

[Simon]

Surprised no-one's mentioned a Furze style tunnel to the garage TBH. Slacking.

[scotta]

Lowering the ground under the former garage would create a sort of sheep dip full of run-off water from the drive. So no, but I did think of it enough to realise the obvious issue

I dont see this as a problem...

[Mito Man]

Can you park it out the front driveway or is it a hassle with charging? We never parked the EVs in a garage or awning or too close just in case they deduced to turn into a huge flamethrower

[duncs500]

Build a garage in the front for the tall cars to complement the one at the back for shorter cars. More garage space and headroom for vans, buses and whatever else you want.

You need to get the Emira first anyway though, so it's tomorrow's problem.

[Jobbo]

I did park the Buzz out the front but it was in front of some windows to the living room and would life more difficult for delivery drivers turning round.

[mik]

Lotus emailed me this morning - trying to tempt me with some new but "pre configured" Emira options, including some of the colours unavailable on the launch editions.

I'm sure it will come as a surprise to nobody that I also think it looks great in white. (This is an i4 so not of interest other than vizualz)

"Mist White" i4

[Rich B]

It really works better on lighter colours to me - that does look good. Fuck paying £85k - I might be tempted when they are 45-50k though.