Random thoughts on life
There’s lot of news about Reddit selling their content to various companies, particularly for AI, but not, that I’m aware, to Cult of Mac, an Apple news site.
But Cult of Mac are using it anyway.
Oh, and then adding their own affiliate links on top of other people’s content, and all without telling them about it.
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So, somebody put up a guide on the worse used cars to buy. It was pretty terrible, with no quoted sources, so I replied with this response…
Where has this information come from (“Annual Auto Surveys” is a bit too generic)? It appears to be US participants. How many? How “much-worse-than-average” do they have to be to be on this list?
Data without sources is pretty redundant, imo, and best taken with the lightest pinch of salt until proven otherwise.
At the time of my writing this, it’s had 2.3k likes. I’ve never known anything like it.
But, aside from those accusing me of owning a car on that list, which is why they think I’m annoyed at it (I don’t), I keep getting one thing constantly thrown at me, and I never could have expected it.
And it wasn’t even the person who tried to correct me by saying the expression was “a grain of salt” (both version are valid and “pinch of salt” is usually used in British English).
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A couple of months ago, I mentioned that I’d bought a Mazda MX-30 R-EV. It’s not a full EV, but a plug-in hybrid, albeit one that go 50 miles on battery alone and the petrol engine is just used as a generator.
As part of the sweetener from Mazda I was offered a home charger for half the usual price. Considering installing one of these generally adds to the value of your home, it would seem rude not to.
The Pod Point Solo 3 was the option available to me (there is a 3S but this is intended for those that have solar panels on their home) and it was installed quickly, cleanly and efficiently. But, a couple of months later, how am I getting on with it?
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Most cars these days come with connectivity for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, albeit it’s usually a wired solution. Being able to do this wirelessly is even more convenient, so there are a number of third party products available to achieve this.
However, costing anything up to £100 they’re not cheap and most appear to be have drawbacks of one kind of another – whether it’s a slow response between screen and device, or one where you can’t use any other Bluetooth devices at the same time (which would be a problem with me having an Apple Watch, for example).
To me, the inconvenience of plugging a cable in isn’t worth me spending that amount of money and for it still not being as good in use. But what if I didn’t have to spend that money to try something out? What if I spent just £11.52? Well, that’s exactly what I’ve done.
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I was due to replace my car early next year, and I’ve been looking at plug-in hybrids (PHEV). The cost and range anxiety of a full EV was always something that put me off, which is why the PHEV was the perfect solution.
I’d been looking for a while, online, at the options but was dismayed at the high costs or, where it wasn’t so expensive, the massive compromise.
And then I came across the recently released Mazda MX-30 R-EV. I went for a test drive, read the reviews and, days later, bought one. Why now? They have some fantastic offers, inc. a big chuck off the price.
So, how’s it gone?
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