A diesel on short milage?

bigadaj

FreddieFrugal wrote: »

Electric car?

My wife's car does sub 4000 miles a year. I'm thinking of getting an electric car when hers needs replacing as its only used for short trips and so charging isn't an issue - can be done overnight.

Depreciation on EVs is huge, so used prices are comparable to a petrol car of similar size and age

Granted finding one for £1000 is unlikely - but a couple of grand more would get you a three year old.

What about battery life and potential replacement cost?

JustAnotherSaver

how much does an electric car cost?

FreddieFrugal

bigadaj wrote: »

What about battery life and potential replacement cost?

Battery capacity degradation is very slow and seems to be getting slower all the time as new cars and battery systems come out.

I know it's a high end example - but the Tesla Model S based on current performance and testing is predicted to retain 92% capacity after 100,000 miles

The cars lose battery capacity quickly in the first few years, it then slows to very little, before increasing the rate again towards the end of its life.

The worse decline happens in very hot conditions - think parts of the US where most of the reports come from

Most electric cars on the road today should still last 10 years.

Even at reduced capacity - they'll still do a decent range - especially if you're just driving in town. And if you have off road parking and can easily charge it daily or every other day, then it doesn't really make a difference.

Say you buy a £4,000 3 year old EV. You mange to get 7 years of low cost motoring out of it before the battery capacity fails.

That's still a pretty good deal! The savings in fuel and tax will have more than made up for the cost of the car.

I would not consider an EV as our main car at the moment - I'm sure in the not too distant future they'll have more rapid charging and ranges comparable to conventional engines - but for a car that's only doing short trips with access to off road parking for charging , could work out very well.

benten69

Seem to see a lot of people saying to avoid Diesels with DPF's if doing low milage due to damage that can occur. While this is true, a DPF is more or less a catalytic converter. Just like a DPF, if a catalytic converter on a petrol engined car is not allowed to fully warm up and only does a few miles at a time, it will build up with carbon and fail, just like a DPF will.

So the real solution is to buy either, but take the car out for a good solid run once a week to get everything up to full operating temps and prevent carbon build up and premature failure of parts.

Iceweasel

Am I right in thinking there are only 6 purely electric cars available in the UK?

BMWi3
Nissan LEAF
Renault ZOE
TeslaModel S
Volkswagen e-Golf
Volkswagen u-Up!

Any more?

FreddieFrugal

Tesla Model X
Mercedes B class
Ford Focus
Kia Soul
Peugeot Ion/Citroen C-zero/Mitsubishi I-miev
Hyundai ioniq (October)

JustAnotherSaver

benten69 wrote: »

Seem to see a lot of people saying to avoid Diesels with DPF's if doing low milage due to damage that can occur. While this is true, a DPF is more or less a catalytic converter. Just like a DPF, if a catalytic converter on a petrol engined car is not allowed to fully warm up and only does a few miles at a time, it will build up with carbon and fail, just like a DPF will.

So the real solution is to buy either, but take the car out for a good solid run once a week to get everything up to full operating temps and prevent carbon build up and premature failure of parts.

Well since my car doesn't warm up on the miles i do (10 to work. It used to be 6.5 for many years) i guess i will be falling in to that same category based on what has been said here.

I can only assume it takes a looooooooong time to happen since i have had this car for the past 8 years & had absolutely no issue with it.

daveyjp

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

Well since my car doesn't warm up on the miles i do (10 to work. It used to be 6.5 for many years) i guess i will be falling in to that same category based on what has been said here.

I can only assume it takes a looooooooong time to happen since i have had this car for the past 8 years & had absolutely no issue with it.

The post you responded to is so full of inaccuracies its not worth commenting on.

AdrianC

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

but if you're going to buy a £1,000 car then it's a £1,000 car, whether it's petrol or diesel.

You'd likely get a better car for a grand buying petrol than diesel, just as you'll likely get a better car for a grand buying big than small.

I'm not talking about modern diesels with that DPF, i'm talking about the older ones (obviously for that price).

There's a LOT of DPF-equipped diesels in that price range.

My wife owns a 1.6 VW Golf. The MPG on it is terrible. 33mpg on a good day. Parkers reckons around the 40mpg marker

Woah, hold on... Parkers doesn't "reckon" anything. Parkers quotes the officially tested figures.

whereas my wife is doing about 4-6 tops.

And that's why her economy's atrocious. Because the car's barely warmed up by the time she's turning it off. In winter, especially, it's going to be running rich ("on choke", if you go back that far) almost the entire journey.

KingS6

Might be good idea to get the EGR valve blanked whilst you're at it.