New forum started today G-wiz

[Bob Purton]

Hi all. I don't know if there are any other G-wiz owners using this forum but if you are you are almost certainly aware of the disappearance of the old G-wiz owners club forum along with all its useful links to battery software and database. Ric at EV workshops has kindly set up a new forum to hopefully fill this void. Here is the link.

http://gwiz-ev.freeforums.net/

[marcus]

I saw one yesterday, actually the first I have seen for quite a while, they used to be more common.

[Bob Purton]

I thinks because a while back if you wanted a congestion charge exempt car there was little choice. Now the Fiat 500 and a host of others qualify for exemption who is going to want to drive into London in a G-wiz?

[marcus]

I think TfL are totally incompetent, some fairly big I.C. cars don't have to pay, bubbles and micros DO have to pay. How are you "encouraging" people to use small electric cars (TfL's claim) if you can drive a much bigger petrol or diesel car? Why does a space-hogging executive car, people carrier or 4WD pay the same CC as much smaller and cheaper cars?

[Big Al]

Diplomatic immunity, limos, etc. no tax. Wealthy are happy enough with it and the roads are that much emptier for them. So its a tax on ordinary citizens?

Question is why would an ordinary citizen want to be in central London which is not an ordinary place. Either as they expect to earn more money than everyone else, or they are being nosy as a tourist. Not greatly sympathetic then. Put a fence round it with gates like Berlin, I say. As a wild choice we can have Winchester as capitol of Wessex and London can knob off. Save me £50 a year on my council tax for a start. It can have its commuters back in trade for some piece and quiet and a lower standard of living round here, willingly.

I see several G Whizz round here. They are a collection of stuffed ones that the guy was looking to rebuild I think. He thought they would hold an enhanced value bit like Smarts did for a while. I assume they have not or he just has not got into rebuilding a few cars out of the wrecks.
Slightly worrying to see so many dead ones as they must be getting into situations where they are in accidents. They also do not look very robust. 

[Bob Purton]

The reason there are so many dead ones is the battery replacement cost. Fit them yourself @ £1000 and risk blowing an expensive piece of electronics or pay £1300 to a professional to do it. When the car value drops below a certain level it takes an act of faith or enthusiasm to shell out that kind of money. On top of that the workings are a lot more complicated than people imagine thus they buy dead ones and later realise they are clueless as to how to fix them and then leave them stuffed like the ones Al see's.
How robust are they? it depends in what sense, the early model faired badly in a crash test, the later ones breathed on by Lotus faired better. In construction they are very tough, they have to be to carry all that weight! A very stout steel box section chassis. When we first got ours I was unimpressed with the cheap looking plastic moldings and though it was all going to break and fall apart in no time. In reality nothing has broken or fallen off with the exception of the interior rear view mirror which is Suzuki.

Another reason why some owners are giving up on them is the replacement battery quality has dropped. Our first set lasted just short of four years, our second set is two years old and already showing signs of deterioration. Trojan, the US manufacturer is apparently cutting corners now and we are thinking of using another brand.
We are sticking with our wiz because we use it every day and it does its job very well . Even if we get through a battery set every two years its still worth it to us.
At one time Mike Boxwell was going to try using four 12v optima batteries instead of the eight 6v wet ones because it would cost much much less. I think he hit a problem reprogramming the electronics to accept alien batteries. A shame because that alone could have kept a lot more of them active. A dare say shortly the survivors will be sitting in museums alongside Enfield's and Thinks. 

[DaveMiller]

... some fairly big I.C. cars don't have to pay, bubbles and micros DO have to pay ...Why does a space-hogging executive car, people carrier or 4WD pay the same CC as much smaller and cheaper cars?

I don't think "cheaper" comes into it.  The main criterion is emissions, and to a VERY much lesser degree size.  (After all, a 5m-long 4x4, travelling at 30 mph, requires a length of road of 28 m, to allow for the quoted stopping distance.  A 3m-long tiddler requires 26 m - and both run in lanes which are of fixed width.  A 7% saving in road area occupied?)

Emissions and consumption for most older microcars are - by modern standards - hideous.  I fear that anyone raising the question would simply get such cars banned completely from London and public roads generally!

[Big Al]

Unless we include the debt of making the machines and the mileage covered at a pollution per mile rate in support and destruction debt. Don't see that do we? Some old Pug 504 diesel would probably win, or would it be the old taxis and Routemasters we just got rid of? Doh!