Car Leasing

[Katman]

I used to have a car that had the benefits of both an electric motor  and a petrol engine. The electric range was around 35 miles which was mostly okay for day to day trips to and from work as long as it went on the charger every day. You could switch over to the petrol engine whenever you wanted or it would automatically change once the battery was low. I owned the car for around three years, did around 18,000 miles including one trip to the UK and filled it with petrol five times during the three years.

[mad_manx]

7 hours ago, WTF said:

if you're that close to work why not walk ?

I do that most days in summer. 

[mad_manx]

4 hours ago, Katman said:

I used to have a car that had the benefits of both an electric motor  and a petrol engine. The electric range was around 35 miles which was mostly okay for day to day trips to and from work as long as it went on the charger every day. You could switch over to the petrol engine whenever you wanted or it would automatically change once the battery was low. I owned the car for around three years, did around 18,000 miles including one trip to the UK and filled it with petrol five times during the three years.

Thats a plug in which combines the best of both petrol and electric .. one issue with it is that it doesn't qualify for the cheaper EV tariff. 

[ellanvannin2010]

I had a hybrid for 4 years and got 50 to 60 mpg out of it doing local driving and was pleased with it.

Went back to petrol only when they decided that hybrid would be banned at the same time as all petrol as not worth paying the premium. I would have thought better hybrids would be a better short term solution  myself.

I will not be buying an electric car until no alternative as the charging time, method, and the range is awful and the batteries are not without severe environmental costs.

Hydrogen would seem the best and most practical alternative but that seems to be the Beta whereas battery is the VHS

Edited June 29, 2021 by ellanvannin2010

[Annoymouse]

On 6/28/2021 at 12:15 PM, AcousticallyChallenged said:

My understanding is that essentially, Toyota built the hybrid to give diesel levels of efficiency from a petrol engine, by having the motor take up the slack when the engine wouldn't be running as efficiently, rather than replacing the petrol motor.

 If you rely on public charging then forget an electric car, it’s only going to get more expensive to publicly charge and until we have proper rapid charging you’ll be forever waiting for a charging point. At a push you could try a range extending version something like a BMW i3 or a Vauxhall Ampera.

Hybrid wise Toyota/Lexus is by far the most tried and tested, biggest benefit is start/stop traffic, if your travelling through Douglas at peak times you’ll probably benefit, in general driving the self recharging Hybrid makes sod all difference, regen braking is like aggressive engine braking, you’ll find it often brings your speed down quicker than you’d like and you’ll be getting about 10 seconds of recharging if that.

Ideally you’ll want an extended test drive (say over a weekend) before committing to purchase.

[doc.fixit]

2 hours ago, ellanvannin2010 said:

I had a hybrid for 4 years and got 50 to 60 mpg out of it doing local driving and was pleased with it.

Went back to petrol only when they decided that hybrid would be banned at the same time as all petrol as not worth paying the premium. I would have thought better hybrids would be a better short term solution  myself.

I will not be buying an electric car until no alternative as the charging time, method the range is awful and the batteries are not without severe environmental costs.

Hydrogen would seem the best and most practical alternative but that seems to be the Beta whereas battery is the VHS

I won't be buying one because I can't afford it until I can buy a second hand one for about £2000................never? 

[ellanvannin2010]

17 minutes ago, doc.fixit said:

I won't be buying one because I can't afford it until I can buy a second hand one for about £2000................never? 

Be plenty soon enough, battery shagged, range 30 miles

[Katman]

19 hours ago, mad_manx said:

Thats a plug in which combines the best of both petrol and electric .. one issue with it is that it doesn't qualify for the cheaper EV tariff. 

Yes that annoyed me at the time that MU wouldn't let me have the cheaper tariff. I have it now as I have a full electric car, but mainly use it to run the washing machine, tumble dryer and dishwasher.

[Cambon]

17 hours ago, ellanvannin2010 said:

Be plenty soon enough, battery shagged, range 30 miles

And that is the problem. One friend of mine has a Leaf and a BMW hybrid. Drives the BMW virtually all the time. Another friend was looking at a second hand Zoe. As he was about ready to sign, he found out part of the contract was that you had to rent the battery for (I think he said) £1000 a year. More than he spends in petrol! He decided against it.

[AcousticallyChallenged]

If I was doing 15 miles and back every day, then most EVs would be about perfect.

Unfortunately, I'm in the stage where my daily driving is over what a 24kWh Leaf would do comfortably in winter with heaters on etc. I could probably do it if I was being very economical, but I'd be pushing it, and wearing coats instead of having the heater on. A 30kWh one would manage it but need charging every day.

Pricing up EV running costs would put me at about 800 quid ahead over the course of a year on fuel vs something like a small diesel or small Toyota Hybrid. Less using public charging, plus the inconvenience of not charging anywhere near home.

For PHEVs, again, I'm outside of the range where I'd be able to do it all on electric, and for the fuel I'd use, the savings get smaller. And I'd be spending more on an older car for that.

If public charging was cheaper and more prevalent, then I'd definitely reconsider. But ever getting cheaper seems unlikely.

[Annoymouse]

1 hour ago, AcousticallyChallenged said:

If I was doing 15 miles and back every day, then most EVs would be about perfect. Unfortunately, I'm in the stage where my daily driving is over what a 24kWh Leaf would do comfortably in winter with heaters on etc. I could probably do it if I was being very economical, but I'd be pushing it

Doing that sort of daily mileage I think you fit the criteria for a small diesel quite well, I do similar mileage and have never had a single DPF issue. I do some basic preventative maintenance, I change the oil twice a year because if a regen is aborted the oil get diluted over time and I don’t want my bearings or turbo seals awash with a diesel/oil mix, I also clean the egr valve at each second oil change. The car is now on 80k, I plan on keeping it until it hits at least 150k, one thing to note is make sure you use the proper low ash oil, lots of garages don’t bother and just use the same oil viscosity grade and just blame the DPF when it blocks 🤷‍♂️ 

I appreciate doing 2 oil changes might attract some criticism but I would do that on any car with a timing chain or that’s turbo charged (in my case both) regardless of whether it had an egr or DPF fitted, extended service intervals have a lot to answer for.

 

[AcousticallyChallenged]

1 minute ago, Annoymouse said:

I appreciate doing 2 oil changes might attract some criticism but I would do that on any car with a timing chain or that’s turbo charged (in my case both) regardless of whether it had an egr or DPF fitted, extended service intervals have a lot to answer for

I'm a firm believer in regular oil changes. The extreme values sell cars better and reduce their fleet costs for the life of the car as the manufacturer sees it.

BMWs are notorious for timing chain issues that seem to be linked to 18,000 mile service intervals. I think some French vans now have 2 year or 30k oil intervals on them. Great for the van's lease lifetime, I'm sure.

My only real hesitation in buying diesel is that I'm after something comparatively modern to what I'd often favour. I want a bit more refinement than buying something 10-15 years old and running it into the ground. I think the residual value of a diesel in 2-3 years time may well be a lot lower than something more environmentally palatable.

[Annoymouse]

42 minutes ago, AcousticallyChallenged said:

My only real hesitation in buying diesel is that I'm after something comparatively modern to what I'd often favour. I want a bit more refinement than buying something 10-15 years old and running it into the ground. I think the residual value of a diesel in 2-3 years time may well be a lot lower than something more environmentally palatable.

I think this depends on your length of planned ownership, technology is moving so fast around electric/hybrid cars that depreciation can be quite heavy, it’s ok for taxi drivers or fleet owners who clock up 200k miles in a few years, if your buying at 2/3 years old and selling within a year or 2 you’ll probably be ok, but you wouldn’t want to buy a 5 year old one and sell it at say 10 years.