Buying a Hybrid or Electric car - advice required please

SLITHER99

We had a couple of Prius' going as pool cars a while ago. Not bad little motors, but the VW Diesels seemed to get more mpg than the Prius!

UncleZen

research the subject worried jim, then you'll know.
Its been debated on here at length.

Paperbird

I knew two people that were given a Prius as company cars and both said their fuel bill had gone up by about 30% compared to the diesel cars they had before them. I don't know if mileage makes any difference but they were both doing around 20,000 miles per year.

worried_jim

UncleZen wrote: »

research the subject worried jim, then you'll know.
Its been debated on here at length.

I must have missed that one in the last four years, why don't you bullet point it for me so I can catch up.

scaredofdebt

The depreciation figures for the Leaf are practically guess work at the moment.

grdmitro

wait for few more years for more affordable real electric cars, like Tesla GenIII

in meantime Model S arrives to Europe in 2013:
www teslamotors com/models
300miles range, 0-60 4-6sec
beats top BMW M5 in drag race, costing the same

Timay

If I was you I would just buy your standard petrol engined car, unless you do mega miles then I would just buy a standard diesel powered car.

Electric cars do not have a very good range, the batteries will only last around 5 years, you might get more but there efficiency will decrease fairly quickly. The batteries also cost a bomb

Some of the first 2011 Nissan Leaf electric car owners are already needed new batteries because they are not suited to the warm weather climates they have been used in. Cold weather also has a bad effect on the batteries.

All be it our weather should be most suited to electric car batteries in he UK.

With Hybrid cars you want to be careful what the car manufactures say about MPG as in real world tests done my car review magazines and the likes show that what they claim for MPG is very rarely true when using them in the really world and in actual fact give you maybe just a little more than a average car today. For example a Peugeot 3008 hybrid4 claims to get 70mpg+ but in real world testing the testers managed just 46mpg.

IMO hybrids are just gimicks and for people to pose about how they are saving the planet in in actual fact are just as bad.

You can also expect larger and more frequent repair time/bills for a hybrid.

Overall if your just looking to save bills there is next to no point buying a hybrid as you will never recoup the costs by the couple of hundred quid a year you will save at the pumps each year.

cootuk

All depends on your annual mileage, budget, and where you drive.

All motorways, high mileage, get a diesel but sell within four years to avoid problems with DPF/DMF
Low mileage buy a small petrol car.
Average 10k mileage, mixed, then either petrol or hybrid. I wouldn't buy brand new as depreciation costs are high unless you get for a big discount.

real life driving with a 2006 Prius.
Worst case, short runs from cold (school run), mid40s
Motorways 50+ mpg depending what speed i run at
Longer runs 50+ mpg
we recently did a touring trip round scotland and got mid50s.

Yolina

Timay wrote: »

IMO hybrids are just gimicks and for people to pose about how they are saving the planet

Well I decided to save up and splurge on a brand new car, I test drove several, including the Yaris hybrid and rather liked it, so got one managed just shy of 70mpg today over a 12 miles trip and certainly not complaining (and just as well given the rather small 36L tank I have :rotfl: )

None of the hybrid owners who have posted on this thread have mentioned anything about "saving the planet" so I think you're off the mark there maybe

You can also expect larger and more frequent repair time/bills for a hybrid.

I don't think that the people with 150,000+ miles Prius where the brake pads only needed changing at some silly high mileage (regenerative braking=kind on the pads) and who apart from the usual - i.e oil, filters, tyres - still have all the original parts in their cars would necessarily agree with you.
Does that mean than no hybrid will ever go wrong? Of course not - but then I don't know of any model of car with a 100% record.

Edit: I have always been lucky in that in over 20 years of having cars, I've never had any serious and expensive to fix issues - I certainly hope that things will continue that way

notanewuser

Paperbird wrote: »

I knew two people that were given a Prius as company cars and both said their fuel bill had gone up by about 30% compared to the diesel cars they had before them. I don't know if mileage makes any difference but they were both doing around 20,000 miles per year.

I've never been more travel sick than I have when a passenger in one of these heinous cars.