Looking at buying a new car

[John Bennett]

I force the Peugeot (hybrid) into electric for short journeys as it makes no sense firing up a cold engine. The automated mode selection is stupid though - it's literally:

If < 38mph,
mode = electric.
else
mode = petrol

And it'll stay in electric until the battery is 0%. Which'll leave you with half the bhp when you use the engine and crap MPG as it'll be trying to charge the battery by dragging on the drivetrain. Six grand battery to replace too.

Fortunately you can manually control it all, although it's not as straightforward as it should be.

edit: I remember almost being in reach of an NSX around 2005. However all the cheap ones were 3.0 autos :-|
3.2 manual with popups is where it's at. They do sound lovely, although I've only seen one on the road in 20 years!

 

[kingtreelo]

i dont understand people who buy hybrid cars, its like you are going "i dont want to go full electric...i have been on facebook and electric cars are rubbish" and at the same time are going "yeah, petrol....nothing quite like a combustion engine with loads of moving parts and things to go wrong"

2 x the possible problems

 

[mysticmonk]

That's the wall paper on this PC I'm using, Love the originals with Black Roof, just a shame I didn't have an decent garage else I'd have bought one in early 2000s

View attachment 54304

Had a good spin of one on the hanshin loop, before getting penned in by the japanese police and ending up on the local news television. Japanese police are the most polite in the world, fair play. I'd do it again though

 

[Venom]

i dont understand people who buy hybrid cars, its like you are going "i dont want to go full electric...i have been on facebook and electric cars are rubbish" and at the same time are going "yeah, petrol....nothing quite like a combustion engine with loads of moving parts and things to go wrong"

2 x the possible problems

Its the worst of two worlds a heavy petrol car . Like having 50 50 bread , why... bloody have white bread !

 

[John Bennett]

i dont understand people who buy hybrid cars, its like you are going "i dont want to go full electric...i have been on facebook and electric cars are rubbish" and at the same time are going "yeah, petrol....nothing quite like a combustion engine with loads of moving parts and things to go wrong"

2 x the possible problems

I just bought mine because I fell in love with the car

But yes, they're frighteningly complicated and you also get hammered for the 'wealth tax' (unlike pure electric).

However, for many it means they can commute a 5-10-mile journey to work on electric (and maybe score a free charge) and also have a car that would do the length of the country without having to plan a route around charging. It can also still limp along if you lose a motor or the engine.

I agree they're heavy too, although the I.D. Buzz is still almost half a tonne heavier!. VW also want £500 a service as they've managed to make servicing an E.V. involve hours of crawling around under it doing a massive checklist of things that are almost certainly fine. You do get the first 3 free at least, thankfully.

 

[John Bennett]

Actually, thinking about it, most combustion engines are now tiny little things that you have to screw the nuts off for a bit of performance and are laden with stuff like particulate filters, so a hybrid gets a bit more poke without falling into a horrendous emissions tax bracket.

 

[Vorbis]

My BMW i3 range extenders were fucking brilliant. To be fair the 500cc engine only charged the batteries but was a fantastic concept. About 120 miles on pure battery (about 70 on the 1st one I owned with a smaller battery) which was fine for 99% of my use and a small petrol tank which could be topped up as needed to add another 70-100 miles of range. Best of both worlds in my view. I had 1 which had done near 150k miles when it got written off which I bought with almost 80k on the clock and I had zero mechanical issues whilst I owned it.

 

[Chihiro]

Lucky I didn't buy my hybrid then its a company car forced on me only managers get full electric in the form of a Hyundai ioniq 5 & I'm far from that position !
And of course living in a terrace no where to actually plug it in.

Someone must be buying them as they hold there value better:

"Depreciation: Hybrids generally hold their value well, often outperforming used EVs. In 2025, 24-month-old hybrids held 68% of their value, whereas comparable BEVs dropped to 49%."

Used hybrid cars hold strong as BEVs drop in value | IT Fleet Automotive

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