New Car Purchase: Petrol or Hybrid?

Herzlos

Desmond_Hume said:

The Jogger hybrid takes a glacial 10s to hit 60.  You’re not seeing much away off the lights with that kind of pace. 

That's still a second faster than the petrol one. And almost 3 seconds faster than my diesel!

It's not going to be an nippy as a pure EV, but it's by no means sluggish compared to most mundane cars out there.

WellKnownSid

Desmond_Hume said:

The Jogger hybrid takes a glacial 10s to hit 60.  You’re not seeing much away off the lights with that kind of pace. 

Max torque at zero. Lol.

But you also make a good point - EVs (and to some extent full hybrids) drive so much better because of the instant torque / power delivery.  My wife who is used to her Zoe (135bhp / 9.5s 0-60) borrowed a 200+ bhp car which was 6-ish seconds 0-60 a few weeks ago.  It was a petrol auto - and she couldn't get on with it.  "No go, no power, nothing happens when you press the pedal, really slow like a turtle."

Rosa_Damascena

We can only speak by experience, and  having test driven many vehicles this summer can rely mine.

We needed to replace 3 across the family / 3 different addresses and the commonality between us is low mileage. We all separately accepted the overall expense over taxis justified the privilege of the convenience. All 3 of us went for a hybrid:

• me - required for occasional long-distance driving, rarely used locally. Needs to pass the North Wales test.
• parent - near daily use, around town. Occasional journey outside of the locality to "give it a run" (I insist on driving on those occasions).
• sibling - local use at weekends , occasional journey outside of the locality - maybe every 3 weeks, max.

All three of us settled on used petrol hybrids - 4.5, 2 and 3 years old respectively - and are very happy with our purchases. Mine is an absolute dream to drive, all are economical and encourage us to drive with economy in mind. Its a small win but I like to score 95% efficiency at the end of a trip!

@Alanp - what you have said about batteries is a little concerning. Mine uses 34 prismatic 8.4v batteries - I take it I don't run the same risk of the whole running flat?

silverwhistle

I wouldn't go hybrid personally as it just means two technologies to go wrong, additional servicing costs (oil changes etc.) and the ability to go long ranges a bit overblown I feel, especially as my ability to go long periods of driving without stopping anyway has definitely declined with age!

On my second EV now and I even made a profit on my first, but not worried about depreciation as I keep my cars a long time and there's not much to go wrong and decent warranties these days. Have a look at prices for all cars and you'll see just how expensive petrol cars are now as well: the price gap has definitely closed. The problem is all manufacturers are going upmarket with their models and their extras: no basic Fiestas or Polos available now..

My EV is an MG4, the lower range model, and in it we drove to Italy in a day from a channel port, so don't be put off by people telling you it's not possible to do distances; and the quietness compared to previous vehicles on that route was bliss!

The charging infrastructure in the last couple of years has changed dramatically, and although a bit of planning is necessary no more than you'd probably do on a longer trip anyway. A little bit of experience and most people wonder why they were worried..

daveyjp

Desmond_Hume said:

The Jogger hybrid takes a glacial 10s to hit 60.  You’re not seeing much away off the lights with that kind of pace. 

Why do you need to see much off the lights? A car which does 0-60 in three seconds will just get to the next set of lights quicker than you.

Desmond_Hume

daveyjp said:

Desmond_Hume said:

The Jogger hybrid takes a glacial 10s to hit 60.  You’re not seeing much away off the lights with that kind of pace. 

Why do you need to see much off the lights? A car which does 0-60 in three seconds will just get to the next set of lights quicker than you.

I was responding to someone who said the Jogger was relatively swift.  10s isn’t swift. That was it. 

Alanp

Rosa_Damascena said:

We can only speak by experience, and  having test driven many vehicles this summer can rely mine.

We needed to replace 3 across the family / 3 different addresses and the commonality between us is low mileage. We all separately accepted the overall expense over taxis justified the privilege of the convenience. All 3 of us went for a hybrid:

• me - required for occasional long-distance driving, rarely used locally. Needs to pass the North Wales test.
• parent - near daily use, around town. Occasional journey outside of the locality to "give it a run" (I insist on driving on those occasions).
• sibling - local use at weekends , occasional journey outside of the locality - maybe every 3 weeks, max.

All three of us settled on used petrol hybrids - 4.5, 2 and 3 years old respectively - and are very happy with our purchases. Mine is an absolute dream to drive, all are economical and encourage us to drive with economy in mind. Its a small win but I like to score 95% efficiency at the end of a trip!

@Alanp - what you have said about batteries is a little concerning. Mine uses 34 prismatic 8.4v batteries - I take it I don't run the same risk of the whole running flat?

I was talking about the 12 v battery, not the traction batteries, if you use your car regularly there’s no problem, you can leave in ready mode which will charge the 12v battery, you can do this a couple of times a week, or, just go for a drive for 20/30 min, mine let me down over Christmas last year as I went on a really short journey, then left it over two days, and the battery went flat, but I know what to do now, and I’m able to use a trickle charger as I have a garage but I also bought a portable jump starter just in case, incidentally, my last car was a mild hybrid which didn’t drive the car via  electric and it still had battery ( 12v) issues, it seems quite common…

Newly_retired

I’ve had my mild petrol hybrid ( Mazda 2 which is basically a Toyota Yaris) for 5 months now and am very happy with it. I do several short journeys per week, but aim to do one slightly longer from time to time. My first automatic, so easy to drive. A tank of petrol lasts a long time. No battery problems so far. 

Rosa_Damascena

Alanp said:

Rosa_Damascena said:

We can only speak by experience, and  having test driven many vehicles this summer can rely mine.

We needed to replace 3 across the family / 3 different addresses and the commonality between us is low mileage. We all separately accepted the overall expense over taxis justified the privilege of the convenience. All 3 of us went for a hybrid:

• me - required for occasional long-distance driving, rarely used locally. Needs to pass the North Wales test.
• parent - near daily use, around town. Occasional journey outside of the locality to "give it a run" (I insist on driving on those occasions).
• sibling - local use at weekends , occasional journey outside of the locality - maybe every 3 weeks, max.

All three of us settled on used petrol hybrids - 4.5, 2 and 3 years old respectively - and are very happy with our purchases. Mine is an absolute dream to drive, all are economical and encourage us to drive with economy in mind. Its a small win but I like to score 95% efficiency at the end of a trip!

@Alanp - what you have said about batteries is a little concerning. Mine uses 34 prismatic 8.4v batteries - I take it I don't run the same risk of the whole running flat?

I was talking about the 12 v battery, not the traction batteries, if you use your car regularly there’s no problem, you can leave in ready mode which will charge the 12v battery, you can do this a couple of times a week, or, just go for a drive for 20/30 min, mine let me down over Christmas last year as I went on a really short journey, then left it over two days, and the battery went flat, but I know what to do now, and I’m able to use a trickle charger as I have a garage but I also bought a portable jump starter just in case, incidentally, my last car was a mild hybrid which didn’t drive the car via  electric and it still had battery ( 12v) issues, it seems quite common…

I will take your word for it but truthfully don't really understand what you're talking about 

I want to press the button, hit the brake and go....

ETA: on second thoughts, I will make an effort to use it at least once a week from now onwards, esp now its getting cold.

@Newly_retired - of the three we bought between us, one was a hybrid Yaris cross and the other a standard hybrid Yaris. I've driven the cross and enjoyed it. I refused to get in the other Yaris because its not an Excel. I like to drive in comfort.

Alanp

I have the cross it’s brilliant, there are two batteries if you like, one is a conventional 12 volt battery that is found on all cars, the other are the batteries that drive the car, it’s the 12v battery that can go flat, leaving it in ready mode will charge the 12v battery from the traction ba ( the one that drives the car in electric mode) , mine went flat because the journey I did wasn’t enough tho put charge in the 12v battery and, because it wasn’t driven for two days, it went flat..