Been a while since ive needed a new car, so many choice, Electric, Lease, or 2nd hand?!

mickym

Hi,
My current car, an 03 Toyota is in at the garage, and im not expecting good news with it (suspected new CAT or/and clutch repair).
Im wondering what my best choice would be should I need to buy a replacement car rather than get the Toyota repaired, and would be interested in what the forum thinks.

Firstly, im not really a car snob, and see them mainly for practical use, so im not after a particular type, however I do prefer a higher seated driving position a SUV gives.
My requirements:

• I work from home so no commute, however if my circumstances did change max commute would be 70mile drive.
• Need reliable car to take my kids to school, and pick wife up from work twice a week.
• My current car is £340 road tax per year
• Current petrol running costs are £150pm
• Current insurance is around £450

Im concerned buying 2nd hand will be a minefield, and that does concern me a lot. My last two cars ive known where they have come from so been aware of a true FSH.
Looking at what I currently pay for petrol, tax and insurance Im considering if  going for some sort of lease, especially electric as what im saving on fuel would offset the price on the lease. Are there any good sources for doing the figures on electric running costs etc? Would a newer more economical petrol care work out cheaper than an electric lease?

I was brought up in a house hold that was always against leases/loans, so its hard for me to shake the idea that the car wouldnt ever be mine.

Is there a good clear source of info on how leases work? Is there an electric car thread anywhere?
Thank You!

DrEskimo

My vote is second hand EV. Get all the benefits of low running costs AND the low depreciation costs.

In my case, my used EV has cost me around £80/month in depreciation over the 24months (still have it, but that was it's trade value at the 24month mark). It was still under the warranty in that time, so no different to buying brand new, and I even got 2yrs servicing for free.

The equivalent lease deal on the same make and model was about £280/month. That didn't include servicing and was also without metallic paint or the reversing camera. 

Greatest advantage is that since I was happy, I was not forced to hand it back. Simply extended the warranty for another year (£289) and still have it...may keep it another week...month...year...decade. Who knows!

Grumpy_chap

Is the 70-mile commute total or each way?
What type of budget would you be thinking?  Quite different answers whether you have £500, £5k or £50k.

BOWFER

There's several EV owners and fans here, fire away with your questions.
If your commute is 70 miles in total, then that's easy for any EV with a battery over 30KWH.
I always tell people to work on around 3.5 miles per KWH, to be safe.
So something like a Leaf 40KW, which is available really quite cheaply just now on lease/PCP, is perfect.

mickym

BOWFER said:

There's several EV owners and fans here, fire away with your questions.
If your commute is 70 miles in total, then that's easy for any EV with a battery over 30KWH.
I always tell people to work on around 3.5 miles per KWH, to be safe.
So something like a Leaf 40KW, which is available really quite cheaply just now on lease/PCP, is perfect.

Thats 70 miles in total... and tbh, i dont see it happeneing. Ive been working from home for about 12 years and would be looking for another remote job if had to get a new one. it was simply a 'just in case' requirement as thats the furthest away id be willing to commute

I have some savings, perhaps £3k ish, and like I say, already pay around £150pm on petrol on my current guzzler, thats before insurance and expensive road tax. This is likely to be even more when one of our kids moves to a school further away later this year. 

2nd hand EV is interesting, but Id be wary of buying something with older, problematic battery tech..,, is this an issue? What prices are there for 2nd hand EVs, where is best to source and buy from?

Also saw some budget cars such as the Dacia Sandero / Duster seem to get great reviews. WHilst id be saving petrol costs compared to my current car, EV would save me more.

Thanks again for your comments.

mickym

Oh, one other option I have is that I can access a family members pension benefit scheme with Vauxhall that allows for discounts.

BOWFER

When it comes to older EVs, you're really talking about the Leaf and Zoe  - there wasn't much else years ago.
The good news is the batteries are holding up very well indeed, only minimal losses even over many years and high mileages.
For your needs, a used Nissan leaf 30KWh would do nicely, it came into circulation in 2016 and is available from about £8000 now.
Easy enough 105 miles from that.
You may even be able to live with the 24KWh model, and they are available from about £5000, around 80-90 miles from that.
When buying a Leaf, a main dealer should be able to give you a SOH (state of health) report for the car that gives available battery capacity.
For other dealers and/or a private buy, you want to buy/borrow an OBD2 device that plugs into the OBD port in the car, then you use a phone app called 'LEAFSPY' to connect via bluetooth and get the results.

mickym

Well repair quote has come in..... £750 for new clutch. 
That doesnt fix another issue the car has with engine management light on which indicates potential replacement CAT soon too (which is another £700). For a 180k milage 03 RAV, im thinking I may be better putting the money towards another vehicle. 

Grumpy_chap

Sounds like the Rav is a scrapper.

What is the budget if you go for something else?

mickym

BOWFER said:

When it comes to older EVs, you're really talking about the Leaf and Zoe  - there wasn't much else years ago.
The good news is the batteries are holding up very well indeed, only minimal losses even over many years and high mileages.
For your needs, a used Nissan leaf 30KWh would do nicely, it came into circulation in 2016 and is available from about £8000 now.
Easy enough 105 miles from that.
You may even be able to live with the 24KWh model, and they are available from about £5000, around 80-90 miles from that.
When buying a Leaf, a main dealer should be able to give you a SOH (state of health) report for the car that gives available battery capacity.
For other dealers and/or a private buy, you want to buy/borrow an OBD2 device that plugs into the OBD port in the car, then you use a phone app called 'LEAFSPY' to connect via bluetooth and get the results.

Thats great information, thank you. 
Are there Leafs that should be avoid...i.e. dont buy from before a certain year?
Are there regular neccessary services, if so how much are they? Are they expensive to get fixed/maintain?
Is it recommended to buy from a Nissan dealership? 

BOWFER

mickym said:

Thats great information, thank you. 
Are there Leafs that should be avoid...i.e. dont buy from before a certain year?
Are there regular neccessary services, if so how much are they? Are they expensive to get fixed/maintain?
Is it recommended to buy from a Nissan dealership? 

Only the really early Japanese-built should be avoided 2011-2013
Easy to spot them, they have a light interior and only came in one trim level.
From 2013 they became British built and three trim levels.
If you can, go for the TEKNA trim as it has leather interior, heated seats, heated steering wheel, BOSE stereo and proper LED headlights (on dip only, but still better than any other headlights you'll have had before).
If buying one make sure the previous owners deletes all their 'carwings' accounts details, or getting the app to work on your phone will be a problem.
The app allows you to pre-heat or pre-cool the car remotely, and other useful stuff.
Pre-heating is what I miss the most, I'm counting the days until I'm back in an EV.
I'd also recommend that whatever Leaf you go for, you get the highest rated home-charger (7KW), I have a podpoint brand myself.