MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
Looking at getting rid of my car and getting something a bit bigger and a PHEV seems a good way to avoid the road tax associated with SUV type cars. My driving mostly consists of local trips less than 10 miles each way (office is 9.7mi) and once every couple of months a longer drive to somewhere else in the North of England for work (could be anywhere). Lots of my work trips are driving to NHS buildings which often have chargers anyway.
The Outlander looks to have a suitable EV range to get me to work and back without having to charge at work, although if I had to we do have a fast charger there but not sure what it costs.
I have a double driveway at home and can run a 3 pin charging lead from the garage and under the up and over door overnight without much bother.
Looking for people's personal experience of owning them, reliability, model years to avoid etc.
Not had one but I have friends who have had them and they are a lame duck, just useless at everything apart from avoiding road tax.
They get nowhere near the fuel efficiency claims or range, are big and heavy and have compromised boot space because of the phev kit.
They are a cynical product designed to exploit a gap in the rules/market.
I had a GX4 outlander which had to go in for work he the dealer gave me a phev
I have to echo the above, boot was poor, fuel economy a joke, boot compromised, green washing at it's worst
My mate was looking at replacing his one a he seemed to quite like it.
Then he found out Mitsubishi are withdrawing from the UK and EU market, he now has a BMW SUV!
They are a cynical product designed to exploit a gap in the rules/market
This, unfortunately. The last hybrid (non-plug in) i had the fun of driving did double the mpg of the non-hybrid car it replaced whilst mine was being mended. It also had a large battery with dubious environmental implications. Only good thing was that for the 5-6mile range it appeared to have in battery mode, it could get to tesco and back. For the rest of the time it was a white elephant.
Yeah, the Outlander sounds rubbish.
For contrast, on something a bit newer - our new Kuga PHEV returned 70mpg yesterday on a 15 mile journey, did 11 of those on electric only even though it wasn't charged.
When it's charged, it's got a genuine 30 mile range.
(edit: I'm aware I'm an environmental hooligan for forgetting to charge the car).
Are you an NHS employee and looking at using a salary sacrifice scheme?
If so look at stuff like the BMW 330e Touring, might be cheaper than you think
Are you an NHS employee and looking at using a salary sacrifice scheme
I'm not, just a contractor sadly. They do seem to get a good deal.
Thanks for all the feedback everyone. Sounds like a firm avoid then.
They're OK within expectations. Need to be charged often and you need a GX4 or above to get electric heating - that way you can preheat in the winter and avoid running the engine to get the cabin warm. Later ones are better at keeping the engine off, early ones you had to be very gentle to avoid the engine starting to assist. Not efficient on a long motorway trip but great for commuting and local running about. Terrible to give to a company car driver doing hundreds of miles a day.
Worth looking at the VW Golf and Passat GTEs, they work really well as short range EVs. Can use all the electric performance and stay warm without the engine on, and when you're on a longer trip it's only a 1.4 TSI so not bad at all, easily 40+mpg even if you started with an empty battery.
Mate had one and hated it a lot.
Do the maths on both the short journeys and the longer ones when you’re running on conventional fuel. They are highly inefficient when not in EV mode. Never owned one but I looked at it pretty carefully and the maths didn’t add up for the journeys we were going to be doing.
My wife has one. Very comfy and nice inside. With the rear seats down she gets her bike in the back wheels on. Drives nice. She gets 20-25 on a full charge. I get a bit less as I just floor it all the time. But Im not allowed to drive it much.
Its full of options like heated steering wheel and other things I've not tried out. She likes it, but we dont pay for our electricity much as we have solar panels and get paid a big fat wedge for feeding the grid (when the sun comes out). She drives it electrically to work, so is not bothered about getting much more. She bought it primarily for a high driving position and so she could bung the bike in the back wheels on.
Its a nice vehicle and I did try it in the snow, it was way better than my Transit Van in that respect 🙂
We have one of the commercial ones at work and are replacing 2 of our diesel ones with 2 new PHEV vans. They are okay though battery mileage isn't great, about 25 miles. Our current one which is about 6 years old has done about 90,000+ miles and the only issue was the battery had to be replaced. I'll advise don't **** up a battery as it cost a lot of money and about 3 months to get it replaced.
As a personal choice, I wouldn't have one I'd look around for something better.
Consider full electric if your destinations have chargers. A guy near us has an Outlander PHEV, he used to plug it in but it seems the novelty/practicality wore off as it's rarely plugged in anymore. He still replaced it with a new version recently though (still doesn't get plugged in)
Work colleague had one couldn’t wait to get rid ! Nowhere near claimed range and cost him a fortune on fuel 🙁
Am on my second PHEV car through NHS lease scheme. Looked at outlander and didn’t think reviews looked good enough. Very happy with both the phevs I have used - 50 mile daily commute with diligent plugging in and charging every evening. The economics seem to work much better as a company car. I don’t think I would buy one privately as they have very high list prices and are very complicated if go wrong. It really annoys me to hear about drivers who get these cars on company schemes and don’t plug them in, just using them as a tax dodge. Current car is a Volvo xc40 phev which is very good value on the lease scheme. In the first 10k Miles of using, about 40% of mileage has been electric. This e mileage will have been in urban and traffic jam situations where the petrol engine would have got very poor mpg. PHEVs are great as long as the maths/economics work out.
Next door neighbour has had 2 outlander company cars.
1st one, he did 180000 miles in it, it never missed a beat and he preferred it to his big audi. Electric mileage started at 35 miles but had significantly reduced. After the mot he was told it needed some work with the brake lines but that meant all the batteries had to come out which was £1000 in labour before they started (main dealer)
He traded it in for a newer one. I think it comes with a 10 year warranty on the batteries. He does high mileage and he said the new one is almost double the mileage and its saving a fortune in fuel. Last week it died in the fast lane and he limped to the emergency lane. Turns out water in the wiring loom. Replaced under warranty. No idea what it would cost if it wasn't.
He loves them, he says they are amazing in snow and nice to drive. I think it's a bit big for just him and no kit or bike!
He's on the outlander Facebook page. Loads of info on there but he said some people take it to extremes on electric mileage data.