looking to get a hybrid

Multi_Power

The question is simple. I pay £100 per month on fuel. How much can I save and which car should I buy, so that even if I pay few £1000s to buy it, I will save that amount in few years

booksurr

the answer is simple. Start another of your many pointless threads asking questions you could answer yourself, but of course that is not your purpose is it

Strider590

The only real reason people buy hybrids is to get one over on the Joneses. Basically to appear to be socially and environmentally responsible in the eyes of people who lack the intelligence to know better..... Which I admit is probably 75% of the population.

Welcome to "pretending to be middle class England".

In money saving terms, there is no reason to buy one at all. Unless your already leasing or financing a car and thinking of a hybrid as your next one.
But even then, you'd be better off buying something older outright and being free of that costly debt.

I'm driving an 11 year old car, monthly it costs me nothing but fuel. How much to lease/finance a hybrid? £200 a month? and how much saving on fuel? It'll still cost more to run than my old 34mpg barge.

forgotmyname

Your probably going to save less than the depreciation costs on the hybrid.

What does your current car do to the gallon? What hybrid car are you thinking of buying? What car would be be buying if not a hybrid?

20 mile journey each way? Can you charge it for free at work? Have you got solar panels to charge it at home?
Will it actually be parked at home when the solar panels are producing electricity?

gzoom

I'll see if I can answer OPs questions.

We have two cars in the house.

1: A Lexus hybrid - IS300H. This was bought to replace our diesel Civic which we had for 8 years and did 100k. The Lexus gives better mpg than the Civic, and is much nicer to drive - But given the Lexus cost nearly x3 more to buy than the Civic it's no suprise it's a nicer place to park your bum

It's a beautifully made car, and stuffed to the brim with gadgets and leather etc, but on a M way run will still return 65mpg and 50mpg+ in town.

The battery is very small in the Lexus, it'll run on full electric mode only for a few miles and is recharged via braking or the engine.

Running costs are lower than the Civic but not by much. The reason we bought it was because its doesn't rattle away like tractor at idle

The Lexus hybrid is essentially a very efficient, very refined petrol car, that can recovery some of the energy lost when braking.



2: Our other car is a Full Electric Nissan Leaf - This was bought after I realised I loved the EV mode in the Lexus, and it replace my old modified BMW 335i.

I've had the Leaf now for 6 month, and done some 3050 miles. My total refuelling costs for that millage is currently just over £40!!

I live near a Nissan dealer so charge up at their free to use rapid charger, but even if I paid for all my electricity it works out at £75 or just over 2p per mile!!:eek:

The compromise with the Leaf is range. It'll do 80-90 miles on a charge, but Nissan have just released a newer version that will cover 107 miles (the claimed 155 is rubbish).

http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/new-battery-nissan-leaf-deliver-155-mile-range

The Leaf has 100% changed me view on cars. The electric motor is a much more efficient and effective manner to get from A to B. Battery technology is now becoming cheap enough to mean soon full battery EVs will be not much more expensive to buy than a petrol car.



BUT as others have said buying a new car is never cheap, because deprecation is the biggest cost of ownership.

The Lexus we are keeping for 8-10 years so depreciation isn't a issue there.

The Leaf is on a very very cheap PCP deal. £0 deposit, £200/month for 2 years and than hand back.

I'm not worried about battery life in either cars. The hybrid system in the Lexus has been proven to be good for 200K, and the Leaf has a good warranty too. Neither have much servicing costs. The Leaf hasn't even got any oil/fluid changes till 100k!! - Expect for brake fluid every 2 years.

Batteries will eventually need replacing but only after 150k+, and even than your be able to refurbish the battery back to 95% health rather than buying a new battery. Cost to refurbish the battery pack in either car is currently about £1500.

There are now a few UK Taxi companies using the Leaf, and by all accounts they love them, and they have proved the current generation of EVs can stand up to as much absue you can throw at a car, and still perform perfectly
http://insideevs.com/nissan-leaf-taxi-hits-100000-miles-still-battery-bars/

But today I'm going to test drive one of these...



As much as I love the cheap ownership costs of Leaf I'm missing POWER. The Tesla Model S delivers both power and range that makes it on-par with my old 335i....But instead of costing £90 to refuel it'll cost less than £9 - That atleast helps to offset the £55K+ price tag.

Summary: A conventional hybrid will NOT save you much on fuel, but a full electric car will. But you need to work out the costs of changing to a brand new car which is never cheap . You can however pick up a used Leaf for £7K these days. They don't have as good range as the current car - 65-70 miles but are alot cheaper.

Hope that helps....I should add I'm no tree hugger, my last three cars were a Honda Integra Type R, Nissan 350Z and a modified BMW 335i running 380bhp. But for me I'm never buying another petrol/diesel car again. EVs are the future, but they are already here, and no I couldn't careless how the electricity is generated, gas/coal/nuclear/solar, as long as I can put it into my EV I'm happy

But to the OP: If your total budget is only £5k than the current EVs are too new for you to really consider. In another 12-18 months prices will fall future and I suspect a used Leaf will hit the £5K range.

bigjl

I test drove a Tesla a few months ago.

I can only describe the acceleration as hilarious.

Goes like a Motorbike. And very little maintenance required.

One caveat with your comment on Hybrids though, they (specifically the Prius) are very good if you only ever use them in town and drive them like they want to be driven.

Martyn1981

Multi_Power wrote: »

The question is simple. I pay £100 per month on fuel. How much can I save and which car should I buy, so that even if I pay few £1000s to buy it, I will save that amount in few years

Hiya. Bit of a long shot, but might be worth you doing the rounds and seeing what deals are available for new cars.

Back in the spring Renault were offering the Zoe on a lease purchase of about £99 down and £80pm. On top of that is the battery rental (as that package didn't include the battery, Nissan offer a battery lease option too) which was about £70pm.

You could then walk away after 2 years. Not cheap as such, but if you think of the battery rental as a type of pre-payment for fuel, given the lower costs per mile of EV's, then that's a relatively cheap way to own an EV for 2 years ...... perhaps?

Mart.

BeenThroughItAll

Martyn1981 wrote: »

Hiya. Bit of a long shot, but might be worth you doing the rounds and seeing what deals are available for new cars.

Back in the spring Renault were offering the Zoe on a lease purchase of about £99 down and £80pm. On top of that is the battery rental (as that package didn't include the battery, Nissan offer a battery lease option too) which was about £70pm.

You could then walk away after 2 years. Not cheap as such, but if you think of the battery rental as a type of pre-payment for fuel, given the lower costs per mile of EV's, then that's a relatively cheap way to own an EV for 2 years ...... perhaps?

Mart.

Back in May I bought a Zoe. My advice to anyone else considering it would be don't bother. Mine started suffering with charging problems the day I picked it up, went back a week later, and wasn't returned until the middle of August. Renault's reliability is poor, and their dealer service frankly shocking.


Car itself is lovely, just a shame about the ownership experience being ruined.


Cold hard maths - I was paying >£300 a month for diesel in my Jeep just for commuting + >£200 a month for other use.


Zoe costs me <£200 a month in PCP, battery lease, insurance, and I now no longer pay for fuel (charge at work). I have a home charger I've never used.


Since buying the Zoe I've saved ~£250 a month as I use it for every trip I can rather than use another car. I've also sold one of the other fossil-fuelled cars, which paid for this years monthly payments on the Zoe. End of two years, I'll hand it back and walk away (straight to the Tesla dealer, most likely).

agrinnall

Some good answers, but all totally wasted on the OP who is a serial fantasist. All you are doing is feeding his imaginary world and keeping him active on here, the best thing you can do is ignore him in the hope that he'll go away.

Herzlos

Strider590 wrote: »

The only real reason people buy hybrids is to get one over on the Joneses.

I thought the only real reason was to get an exemption from the congestion charge? When you're saving £12/day or whatever it is now, just for being there, the fuel and leasing costs become totally irrelevant.

Outside of London, I don't see much point in them.