Shortly to be buying a LEAF!

forgotmyname

LPG is OK when it worls. But sometimes its a PITA. I had a RangeRover on LPG. 100L tank of gas + a tank of fuel and you could cover a fair distance without stopping.

The leaf appeals because its free tax

But £7500+ for 2 years motoring... Restrictive motoring at that.

Buy something reliable for your longer journey's and small 1L petrol vehicle as a backup.

Your £7500 will have 2 useful cars sitting on your drive that you can sell. rather than just hand them back.

harveybobbles

forgotmyname wrote: »

The leaf appeals because its free tax

Always used to amaze me when people would buy a new car because it has £30 or free VED.

They seem to forget they've just had to spend thousands...

sh0597

Its a funny one really. I was one of those people, although not with a new car. There's definitely some kind of psychological thing where the tax seems more important.


To me the leaf seems like it belongs in the 1980's because EV technology hasn't really advanced a lot since then. I mean it has electric everything including a wizzy power up noise. It makes an artificial noise so pedestrians can hear it coming...


But at the end of the day there's no reason why EV technology has suddenly become attractive. It's basically a small hatchback with unimpressive 0-60 that can only be driven 80 miles without stopping. Yours for over 20K (and that includes a £5k subsidy.)

Trunk_z

@forgotmyname
Our lifestyle isn't throwing money away, far from it. We have 2 cars. One of the cars costs about £250 a month in fuel. I calculated that the Leaf would cost less than this a month to lease, and only about £20 in electricity to run it. Then on top of the free charging stations in our local area which we can use occasionally. It would also take a lot of the shared journeys which our other car does. It is also cheaper to tax, use in the congestion zone in London and insure.

@topdaddy
Leasing the battery costs £93 a month and would add in further mileage restrictions. My concern is if we decided that we were going to keep the car (by a loan or similar) at the end of the 2 years, it would be difficult to sell. A lot of used Leafs that sell are the ones without the battery lease. So I guess I'm trying to keep my options open.

@JonathanA
The nearly new ones are very tempting! It's just the uncertainty in years to come when I want to sell it. Although I suppose if in 2 years time its worth nothing, then its the same as the brand new car?

@harveybobbles
Both cars are in good condition - they are just a little bit thirsty!

Basically, the intention is that instead of paying £250+ / month in petrol, we could spend the same money but have a shiny new car to do it in. Providing we can get a good deal on mileage (if the decision is new), then the more we use it the more attractive it becomes. A lot of the things that we enjoy doing happen to be far away - such as the longer geocaching routes (done them all in our area!) - if we removed fuel as a barrier, then we could enjoy ourselves more.
In a roundabout way, that is how we justified the choice of car.

Lungboy

I seem to recall reading something about Renault having some hefty special offers on their electric cars at the moment.

I have to agree that electric seems like a total waste of money. A Citigo or similar would cost you far, far less than the Leaf. I think you can get them for £69 a month.

harveybobbles

So, currently paying £250 per month on fuel.

For a 25grand car thats 100 months worth of fuel...

I personally don't get it.

Trunk_z

harveybobbles wrote: »

So, currently paying £250 per month on fuel.

For a 25grand car thats 100 months worth of fuel...

I personally don't get it.

Well, I thought either pay £250 for fuel, or £200 for a nicer box to sit in with much lower running costs. I'd imagine it works out the same, except there is a warranty and fewer running costs on the new car - no 'surprises' as it were.

OddballJamie

Trunk_z wrote: »

@forgotmyname
Our lifestyle isn't throwing money away, far from it. We have 2 cars. One of the cars costs about £250 a month in fuel. I calculated that the Leaf would cost less than this a month to lease, and only about £20 in electricity to run it. Then on top of the free charging stations in our local area which we can use occasionally. It would also take a lot of the shared journeys which our other car does. It is also cheaper to tax, use in the congestion zone in London and insure.

Rather than the fuel cost, what's the actual mileage and type you will be doing?

Also are you on economy 7 as less than £5 a week is extremely optimistic from £60 previously spent on fuel.

There is a member on HUKD who switched to a Leaf to 'save' money, when I looked at the figures it appears his previous car (20 year old Toyota) was getting less than 18mpg. Pretty much any eco box would have saved him money.

Lungboy

Get a Citigo or i10, they seem to fit your needs and are less than half the price of the Leaf.

Also: Bargain!

Trunk_z

Mileage is roughly 1000 a month.

My calculations were... rough in my head. I'll work through them now:

1000 miles a month currently costs roughly £250.

1000 miles in the Leaf would require approximately 10 charges in a month (2.5 a week). The leaf has a 24kwh battery, of which you have access to 22kwh.
22kwh * 10 charges = 220kwh
I pay 11.498p per kwh.
220 * 11.498 = 2529.56p or £25.30 ish.
This works out to about £6.32 a week.

Our weekly shop has a free EV charging post, so 1 of the weekly charges will be there and cost us nothing.

I agree that perhaps any more economical car will save money though.