What Car do you drive??

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Re: What Car do you drive??

Post by AdDaMan »

Except you don’t have to pay a penny when they do break down and you get a courtesy car while they are being fixed, free of charge. Not quite the same. .
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Re: What Car do you drive??

Post by r-macus »

But i'm still out less money as the avensis value is not even that of what the car depreciated. I used to love cars, and will one day buy another nice fresh one. But as of now and the foreseeable I will be going down around the lower end. Older car doesn't always have to mean a banger.
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Re: What Car do you drive??

Post by jtc »

I'm really tempted to put the deposit down for a Tesla Model 3 for when they land in the UK late next year. But I wonder what the competition will have on the market by then...
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Re: What Car do you drive??

Post by stefs »

Here is my latest. Finally picked it up a couple of weeks ago after more than 2 months of delays (not the dealers fault). Mercedes C350e plug in hybrid.
Bloomin nice car even if the official fuel figures are an utter work of fiction. Jeez its a bit lively when you press all the go faster buttons!
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Re: What Car do you drive??

Post by BobMunro »

Nice car, Paul.

My eldest son has the 350e saloon and he loves it.
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Re: What Car do you drive??

Post by Bahnstormer_vRS »


stefs wrote:Here is my latest. Finally picked it up a couple of weeks ago after more than 2 months of delays (not the dealers fault). Mercedes C350e plug in hybrid.
Bloomin nice car even if the official fuel figures are an utter work of fiction. Jeez its a bit lively when you press all the go faster buttons!
Smart car, but how lively is it when the batteries are flat and you can't plug it in to charge?

Does it charge on the go from braking and coasting like a non-plug in hybrid?

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Re: What Car do you drive??

Post by stefs »

Bahnstormer_vRS wrote: Thu Oct 04, 2018 10:08 am
stefs wrote:Here is my latest. Finally picked it up a couple of weeks ago after more than 2 months of delays (not the dealers fault). Mercedes C350e plug in hybrid.
Bloomin nice car even if the official fuel figures are an utter work of fiction. Jeez its a bit lively when you press all the go faster buttons!
Smart car, but how lively is it when the batteries are flat and you can't plug it in to charge?

Does it charge on the go from braking and coasting like a non-plug in hybrid?

Guy



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The batteries never go completely flat as such. If it drops below the level where you can drive on pure electric it still operates like a standard hybrid charging when braking / coasting as you say. You can fully charge while driving but with the drop in MPG that would be counterproductive.
So very lively regardless of battery charge. 0-60 5.9 secs and top of 155mph.

ps thanks Bob...yes initial impressions are very nice
Cheers now, Paul
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Re: What Car do you drive??

Post by Mikkei4 »

Anybody seen the expected life of these hybrid/plug-ins batteries and how much/what percentage of the car cost is from the batteries?
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Re: What Car do you drive??

Post by what-time-is-it »

When we had a Nissan Leaf (pure electric not hybrid) the battery had it's own standalone warranty of 8 years or 100000 miles. In the 2 years we had it the battery showed no signs of deterioration in 2 years of modest driving. At the time you could buy the car outright or own the car and lease the batteries for approx. £60 pm. A replacement battery was somewhere in the region of £5-8k.
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Re: What Car do you drive??

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Mikkei4 wrote: Thu Oct 04, 2018 12:12 pm Anybody seen the expected life of these hybrid/plug-ins batteries and how much/what percentage of the car cost is from the batteries?
Not sure on the merc but my last car was an audi etron which was the same arrangement. Sure that was 8 years / 100K as well. That also had no noticeable drop off in the 3 years I had it
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Re: What Car do you drive??

Post by Bahnstormer_vRS »

@stefs - thanks for the info and vote of confidence Paul.

Difference between plug-in and self-charging hybrid had puzzled me; not that I'd investigated it too deeply as I'm not about to buy a new car in the next 1-2 years (spent too much on watches recently :lol:).

However, I had noticed that Skoda's Vision RS, shown at the Paris Motor Show this week is scheduled to be a plug-in, whereas VW have gone down the self-charging route (e.g. Golf GTE).

Must say that a petrol or hybrid will be my next chosen car, as my current driving pattern is mainly local / short journeys with occasional distance work.

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Re: What Car do you drive??

Post by stefs »

Guy, the golf gte is not self charging. It is a plug in hybrid and is essentially the same car as the audi a3 etron.
It along with many other phev is not currently being offered by vw or any of the german makers. Since the farce with vw and the emissions cheating there are different test regulations that more accurately reflect real world mpg and co2. With these new tests the figures cannot be achieved and so certain subsidies have been withdrawn from the manufacturers! The only plug in hybrids you can buy from vw, audi and merc are old stock.

Think hard and be informed if you think you would like to go for one of these as they are very expensive and unless you do very short trips enabling much of the driving to be purely electric they will not achieve anything like the economy they are supposed to. They are however lovely to drive (in my experience) and massively beneficial as a company car if you have a very understanding boss! For the merc a non hybrid with similar spec would cost me roughly 3 times the monthly tax!!
Cheers now, Paul
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Re: What Car do you drive??

Post by nigelb001 »

I do have experience of a non plug-in hybrid having dipped my toes into hybrid with a 2 year old Toyota Auris three years ago. I would guess that hybrid cars are improving all the time and am sure the new Mercedes are altogether better, but that Toyota was not a good driving experience for me and I only kept it for a year before thankfully selling it on (the shortest time I have ever owned a car, usually 4-6 years). In the real world of driving the 10 mile electric only range was never achieved, the best being my usual 3 mile trip mostly downhill to Tescos at under 25mph. Over 25mph and with the slightest incline the petrol engine would kick in and scream away for ages while the car desperately tried to catch up with the CVT gearbox. The fuel consumption, stated at 76mpg, wasn't even close being at best 52mpg on a long flat run and more like 44mpg when tootling around on a daily basis. The best thing about it was the zero road tax, but that was not worth putting up with the car it so back to petrol now. Battery warranty was 8 years so had 5 years to run when I offloaded it and got a reasonable price, but I suspect these hybrids will be almost worthless when the age of the car approaches 6-7 years.


Glad you are liking the car and am sure your driving experience will be far better than mine ( I am partial to a three pointed star) but no more hybrids for me until things improve dramatically. Don't let me put you off!
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Re: What Car do you drive??

Post by Bahnstormer_vRS »

stefs wrote: Thu Oct 04, 2018 2:57 pm Guy, the golf gte is not self charging. It is a plug in hybrid and is essentially the same car as the audi a3 etron.
It along with many other phev is not currently being offered by vw or any of the german makers. Since the farce with vw and the emissions cheating there are different test regulations that more accurately reflect real world mpg and co2. With these new tests the figures cannot be achieved and so certain subsidies have been withdrawn from the manufacturers! The only plug in hybrids you can buy from vw, audi and merc are old stock.

Think hard and be informed if you think you would like to go for one of these as they are very expensive and unless you do very short trips enabling much of the driving to be purely electric they will not achieve anything like the economy they are supposed to. They are however lovely to drive (in my experience) and massively beneficial as a company car if you have a very understanding boss! For the merc a non hybrid with similar spec would cost me roughly 3 times the monthly tax!!
I stand corrected Paul.

I had heard that there was a six(ish) month delay on the Golf GTE but thought that was due to a full order book / shortage of key components (I waited six months for my Yeti back in 2011/12 as either the DSG G'box or 2.0L TDI engine had demand exceeding supply) not the new WLTP emission regs.

Although, being out of the Company Car scene these days and therefore out of touch with the BIK scales, I do know that PHEV cars are a no-brainer when it comes to BIK. My next door neighbour has just finished his lease on a 2.0L TDI Tiguan and is now waiting six months for a Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV (for the zero BIK). He's bought a 59 plate MINI as a stop gap.

One thing that I'm not keen on with Hybrids is the extra weight and subsequent effect on handling / roadholding, not to mention the increased wear on tyres and brakes.

As mentioned, I'm not looking for a new car for the next couple of years.

My vRS spec Yeti does me very nicely for now and, even though I keep looking, I can't find a better alternative. Most SUVs are now bigger with higher boot levels, which Davie (greyhound) won't be able to jump up to and I don't fancy coming down to a normal car. Besided, I can always drive my son's Honda Civic TypeR if I want some real fun. :grin:

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Re: What Car do you drive??

Post by BobMunro »

stefs wrote: Thu Oct 04, 2018 2:57 pm Guy, the golf gte is not self charging. It is a plug in hybrid and is essentially the same car as the audi a3 etron.
It along with many other phev is not currently being offered by vw or any of the german makers. Since the farce with vw and the emissions cheating there are different test regulations that more accurately reflect real world mpg and co2. With these new tests the figures cannot be achieved and so certain subsidies have been withdrawn from the manufacturers! The only plug in hybrids you can buy from vw, audi and merc are old stock.

Think hard and be informed if you think you would like to go for one of these as they are very expensive and unless you do very short trips enabling much of the driving to be purely electric they will not achieve anything like the economy they are supposed to. They are however lovely to drive (in my experience) and massively beneficial as a company car if you have a very understanding boss! For the merc a non hybrid with similar spec would cost me roughly 3 times the monthly tax!!
Yes, at the moment they are a gimme from the tax man in terms of Benefit in Kind taxation. We've got a pool of around 400 cars and a pretty amazing list to choose from - I would guess half the fleet now are either fully electric (e.g. Tesla) or plug in hybrids. I drive an X5 plug-in myself and apart from losing a bit of room in the boot due to the batteries the car is superb - and quicker than the diesel alternative. Unless I'm in stop start traffic I am rarely in electric mode but the charging from braking and coasting is enough to keep 25% charge in the battery for a boost when for example overtaking. I never plug mine in either!!

I fear the tax man is going to catch up soon!
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