UPDATE: Reviews section refreshed, redesigned, searchable: Go take a look
It's very def in my list but as a used purchase - if buying new you must put it through a business unless you've won the lottery.
This one is £76k - would have been well over £150k new with a few extras ticked
£7k down, £1300/month PCP - roughly what HP and diesel cost me a month in my pickup.
Can only write down 18% each year on a reducing value scale with it being used, so the corporation tax offset isn't great.
BIK 4% so overall used as a company car it's not a huge cost to have a supercar and erm save the planet...
Only thing I don't like is the middle vents don't have an adjustment knob to turn them off. Minor thing reallyThey're probably doubling up as cooling vents for the entertainment/infotainment system.
But if you are heating up the cabin from cold it uses maybe 2-3kW,more like 5-7kW.
Also just joined this club
The Mazda 5 has had it's HG go... Being as i will attempt to DIY it, that puts me a few weeks without a car
i had run the maths on how much it cost me in diesel, mainly for commuting and had a figure in my head
looked around, only car i could replace it with would have been an Outlander PHEV, but couldn't find a suitable one in budget
So i started looking at PCP (never had it before)
Zoes, MG4, Leafs, few Ionics
Anyway, the OH rightfully dragged me to a used car supermarket, walked around 4 floors.. MG4 was written off as soon i saw one... Leaf's.. were so so...Saw a nice looking e208 GT and a few Vauxhall Mokka's in white with red details, looked like a special model... unfortunately neither had the service history which would support vehicle and/or battery and motor warranties..
The only car i test drove, a 2022 Zoe, somehow specced as a GT line, but listed as an Ionic...I think it has every extra except the Bose sound system. 12500 miles...100kw motor
Anyway... bought it, 1k downpayment, 182? a month over 48 months. 3300 Balloon payment.
honestly, so relaxing... so quiet.. perfect for just getting about
waiting for my friendly sparky to sort me out a home charger so i can hop electric tarrif and benefit from that too
It had no connectivity to the web, for the Renault app, remote warm up, live traffic etc
said to contact customer services.. a short whatsapp convo and sorted, apparently Renault have no way for me to pay for a subscription, as no one ever did the web site, so they chucked another 12 months of connectivity and live updates on for free, bloody good
more like 5-7kW.
Never seen more than 3kW but then I'm not in Sweden and it's not a big car.
Sorry not been following this thread so these things have probably already been covered but appreciate your patience.
Our car was written off yesterday and it would make sense to go electric but I now have about a week to research and get a new car set up so have some questions I’m hoping people can help with:
- If my house electric is 50 years old am I likely to be told we need to rewire the house to get a charger fitted?
- Approximately how long does it usually take to set up home charging? We have a drive next to the house so access should be ok.
- Can you temporarily charge off a standard house socket while we’re waiting for an install?
- Finally what car? Generally 30 mile round trip to work with occasional longer journey. 2 people so don’t need a huge car. Will sometimes want to transport 2 bikes
Can you temporarily charge off a standard house socket while we’re waiting for an install?
Yes, get a granny charger with adjustable output, and you can leave it going at a lower rate, e.g. 8 amp. It will give you around 2kwh per hour. We do this as our primary way of charging at the moment, the plug/socket gets nothing more than slightly warm and it's been left going for 10+ hours.
Last time I bought a car it was £6,000 and 4 years old but that was 8 years ago 😀 Just starting to look now, hopefully under £20,000 and don't mind second hand. We'd be buying outright and not on hire as tend to use a car for as long as possible. The car before this was 16 years old when it was retired. You may have guessed that I have no interest in cars. The main criteria are practicality and longevity with minimal maintenance (just standard servicing)
Can you temporarily charge off a standard house socket while we’re waiting for an install?
Yes, get a granny charger with adjustable output, and you can leave it going at a lower rate, e.g. 8 amp. It will give you around 2kwh per hour. We do this as our primary way of charging at the moment, the plug/socket gets nothing more than slightly warm and it's been left going for 10+ hours.
Yep, I've being charging from a 3 pin wall plug at 10amp for 2 years. Smartened up the process by using a tapo p110m plug too save me trying to programme the car.
Using octopus agile to get some cheap rates. I don't do many miles so it isn't a nightly charge up. Did 6hrs straight during the recent negative prices with no ill effect.
We'd be buying outright and not on hire as tend to use a car for as long as possible.
I'm a die hard "buy something and keep it a long time", but with electric cars it's definitely worth at least looking at lease schemes if you or your partner have access to salary sacrifice schemes through your employers.
My brother in law has an electric Porsche (Taycan I believe). I was really excited to get to go for a drive with him in it when we visited him in the States over Christmas. After about five minutes I was bored and completely underwhelmed. The interior was dull and boring (apart from a couple of bling screens - but all cars have them now so who cares). The acceleration is slower than my Lexus RZ. And it just looks drab inside and out. Apparently it is very good on a track though (briefly – until it needs some more AAs in) and he races cars, has a Lotus Elise amongst other cars so knows how to extract performance from a car, I just didn't get to see it when being driven around in it.
My neighbour has a Carrera Turbo, and that is a completely different beast altogether – looking, sounding and driving like a performance car.
If my house electric is 50 years old am I likely to be told we need to rewire the house to get a charger fitted?
My charger is from a spur directly after the meter - all new and custom and up to regs from there. If you know a good electrician you can be good to go in a day. It's a long mornings work but not onerous for a good tradesman.
My house needed the cable from the network to my house to be updated. This took a year to organise and 3 days to do. No cost to me.
Thank you for the replies. It sounds like a quick swap to an EV is possible using a granny charger whilst we sort things out, so will look into them. My husbands employer does a salary sacrifice on EV's so can check that out too. Also good news that it goes at the start of the electrics so should be ok without fixing the house. I now have just over 7 days to find a replacement car and get it home before the insurance company takes the hire car back off of us. What fun....
We'd be buying outright and not on hire as tend to use a car for as long as possible.
I'm a die hard "buy something and keep it a long time", but with electric cars it's definitely worth at least looking at lease schemes if you or your partner have access to salary sacrifice schemes through your employers.
My salary sacrifice ends in 2 months, and the numbers I'm being offered mean I'll be buying used this time. Unlike in 2023, there are plenty of options now. @jag1, there are quite a few EV specialist dealers around now so i'd visit one of those to get a look at a few different cars. 1 week seems like a lot of pressure for a £20k decision, could you work around it for another week or hire a small vehicle?
FWIW, my budget was similar and there's plenty at that price point which are a decent size and well regarded:
Hyundai Ioniq 5
Kia EV6
Kie e Niro
Polestar 2
Skoda Enyaq
VW ID5 or ID4 maybe
Volvo XC 40
I'm having to budget more as I want a Genesis GV60 with manufacturers warranty.
On charger front, have done about 60k in 5 years with no home charger, just the 3 pin.
First non routine service bill on 6.5-year-old Zoe today, 750e for an air con compressor. Could have been worse but I pointed out to the dealer that it was a common fault on early Zoe 50 and people on forums were getting a 40% contribution from Reanult - they gave me a 55% contribution. It packed up (noisy for a long time then stopped with a clunk) on a fast charge which stopped the charge. We drove on very slowly to the next charger in the hope the battery would cool enough to charge - it did, and we crawled home.
Heading out today to look at a new Renault4 iconic+ seems like a decent spec for not ridiculous money. Probably buying outright or is a big deposit like 50%+ then smaller monthly payments a better idea(I have to money to buy outright)? 4 years until retirement when I think we will be rethinking vehicles.
It does the job and a quick run in a friends yaris gr4, convinced me that easy driving around the scottish borders is a better option for me
The R5 boot lip and size doesn't work for the dogs.
Popped into Renault garage in Carlisle. They've obviously taken the Parisian waiter approach to car sales. 6 folk on laptops not one asked if we wanted anything.
Went next door and dropped more money on a VW id buzz. Probably an easier car to live with given the aged parents.
They've obviously taken the Parisian waiter approach to car sales. 6 folk on laptops not one asked if we wanted anything.
I like that approach, I like to be left to walk around, read anything to be read, play with the cars on display and then ask for help when I'm ready for it. My first approach on the Zoe went something like "Hi we're interested in that Zoé, it looks like the rear seat would have to come out to get the mountain bikes in, can I try". He helped, the seat back came out and we measured the space, then we sat down to talk money.
This warm weather and some long journeys is proving enlightening in the Polestar 2.
I'm currently at Nottingham having driven a convoluted way down here from Stirling. Over 330 miles and 4.5miles/kWh compared to winter / usual at about 3.6-3.9. Tomorrow I head home, currently charging up, and range is showing as 310 miles if I go to 100% - which I'm tempted to do on Instavolt's discounted overnight rate to get home without any charging stops...
They've obviously taken the Parisian waiter approach to car sales. 6 folk on laptops not one asked if we wanted anything.
I like that approach, I like to be left to walk around, read anything to be read, play with the cars on display and then ask for help when I'm ready for it. My first approach on the Zoe went something like "Hi we're interested in that Zoé, it looks like the rear seat would have to come out to get the mountain bikes in, can I try". He helped, the seat back came out and we measured the space, then we sat down to talk money.
Yes, but a "Hi, we're here if you need anything" would surely be better than completely ignoring potential customers.
Now to get the charger fitted which is less than simple in a 150year old building.
Down in Glasgow this weekend so taking the chance to take a look at the Honda Super N. Completely impractical, barely has a boot and fairly limited range but given that the longest drive we do is Glasgow a few times a year, to the other end of the island and back is 100 miles.
Down in Glasgow this weekend so taking the chance to take a look at the Honda Super N. Completely impractical, barely has a boot and fairly limited range but given that the longest drive we do is Glasgow a few times a year, to the other end of the island and back is 100 miles.
I like it.
But I would have preferred a Honda e with improved battery/ range...
If you can bring yourslef to ask for help at Renault the Twingo goes 35 miles further. 😉
Picked up a used Genesis GV60 this weekend. Spent a long time looking and had to spend 50% more than I really wanted to. But it's bloody lovely. Feels much more sophisticated than the Polestar and yet to plough through the 700 page manual so got a lot to learn.
Feels much more sophisticated than the Polestar ..
Oooh, how so? I've no intention of shipping in the Polestar, but interesting to hear about other cars as well!
Interesting point here regarding efficiency...
A few months ago I changed the driveshafts in teh Polestar (famous for a clicking issue, and mine's out of warranty so DIY job!) - at the same time i changed teh reduction gearbox oil. All manufacturers state it's a 'lifetime part' and doesn't need changing - i think this is to add to the appeal of an EV being "buy and forget"?
Anyway... i had the driveshafts out..and I take my car on track so it's had a tough life, so thought I'd change the oil.
The stuff that came out was black and mucky! So stuck fresh oil in (in the front and rear motors) and my efficiency has never been so good! I'm easily getting 15-20% better efficiency regardless of the weather change. Honestly - it shocked me!
The car is nearing 80k miles, so it's DEFINITELY something worthwhile to do!
DrP
Interesting DrP.
Mines not yet had a service with us, but I know my garage is very keen on changing oil like that even if suggested that it's 'sealed'. Ours is only 40k miles.
Edit: despite all 70mph, mine did 350 miles home with one charge, it sat on a Supercharger at 158kW and I had to interrupt my lunch to go move it off the charger it was so fast...
It's a good sign if the garage is keen to change it. I mean - it's OIL, in a series of cogs, so why wouldn't it be good to change!
IOt's a bit of a faff on teh polestar cos officially you need to take out a driveshaft (you fill via the driveshaft hole!).
However, some clever souls have designed a 3d prind component that plugs in via the drain port, and allows you to FILL from the drain port (after you've drained it!).
Needs a syringe and tubing to let the trapped air out, but that's the way i'd do it in future TBH.
Yours did 350 miles ON one charge, or with JUST one charge halfway? Mine's a LRDM launch edition (so 2021...) - i'll get 240 miles at a push. The more modern ones have a front motor that disengages, and bigger battery, so can get way more!
I'm prob gonna drive down to the Nurburgring again in a fortnight - using the euro charging infrastructure is just sooo good!
DrP
Picked up a used Genesis GV60 this weekend.
Awesome. My favourite car that I’ve ever had. Hope you enjoy yours as much as I did.
New car day today for me. Sitting waiting on delivery of my EV5.
Yours did 350 miles ON one charge, or with JUST one charge halfway?
I had journey of 330 miles.
It would have done 300 miles on 100%.
However, I chose to charge up near end of journey so I had range for today's 130 mile trip.
SMLR, pre facelift.
Oooh, how so? I've no intention of shipping in the Polestar, but interesting to hear about other cars as well!
I prefer the interior, particularly the UI and the ways to interact with it, feels more luxurious. Got different drive modes from steering wheel button, eco disengages one motor so that's caught me out at roundabouts! But you've got Miss Daisy, normal, mental and then really mental with the boost button. Plus paddles for adjusting re-gen. It has a HUD, which I thought would be distracting but is pretty useful. It seems to have at least 2 buttons for everything. Cooled seats are nice in this weather.
I do miss Android Automotive, as the wireless AA in the GV60 is a bit hit and miss. Also the big central screen was nice. Also dislike that it won't stay in i-pedal mode - and can't enter it in reverse, which is bloody odd after 5 years in full regen. I think the P2 had more range but the GV60 range calculator is all over the shop currently, not sure why. Still really rate the Polestar, just wanted something different.
Also dislike that it won't stay in i-pedal mode - and can't enter it in reverse, which is bloody odd after 5 years in full regen.
Try the Auto regen mode. Hold down the right paddle to engage it. It adjusts the regen level on the fly based on the conditions. It’s like witchcraft
Picked up my buzz (yeah yeah) last night. Bloody hell it's too clever by half I'm not sure I'll ever figure out what it does. Tootled up the road in eco and it seemed to return 5miles per kW but that was in a definite getting to know you drive. It did waft everyway and plonking the right foot is definitely a woosh moment.
Ah well. It appears yesterday's low consumption was optimistic not so high today.
Ah well. It appears yesterday's low consumption was optimistic not so high today.
Also dislike that it won't stay in i-pedal mode - and can't enter it in reverse, which is bloody odd after 5 years in full regen.
Try the Auto regen mode. Hold down the right paddle to engage it. It adjusts the regen level on the fly based on the conditions. It’s like witchcraft
Thank you kindly, will give that a go. First long journey suggests range in eco of 280 miles is possible, so pretty decent. Passenger reports that the reclining seat is amazing.
Also dislike that it won't stay in i-pedal mode - and can't enter it in reverse, which is bloody odd after 5 years in full regen.
Try the Auto regen mode. Hold down the right paddle to engage it. It adjusts the regen level on the fly based on the conditions. It’s like witchcraft
Thank you kindly, will give that a go. First long journey suggests range in eco of 280 miles is possible, so pretty decent. Passenger reports that the reclining seat is amazing.
Popped into Renault garage in Carlisle. They've obviously taken the Parisian waiter approach to car sales. 6 folk on laptops not one asked if we wanted anything.
Went next door and dropped more money on a VW id buzz. Probably an easier car to live with given the aged parents.
The last time I took the parents out in the buzz , they struggled to get up into it , bless em. Mind you it’s just as entertaining watching them get into my dads Celica .
if you get a GTX , beware of the cascade issue where the dash lights up like a Xmas Tree, and you lose useful features like hill hold ( fun when that happens on a steep hill) . Make sure you learn to brake with your left foot just in case 😯
Oh and don’t take any bs from VW, it’s a known issue with a cure , albeit it takes a long time to get it sorted
Ah well. It appears yesterday's low consumption was optimistic not so high today.
So what did you get now?
Well, it looks like we're about to join the EV club.
Had a drive yesterday in the Kia EV3, and also a Renault 4 EV. I much preferred the latter, and would ideally like to get the roll-top roof option, but Mrs HTO doesn't like the looks (especially from the front). I mean, she's wrong, but is quite insistent, so ...
We looked at the R5 too, but it's a bit too small and the range is a bit limiting for at least some of the journeys we'd want to make.
The current joint favourite - subject to this afternoon's test drive - is the Kia EV4 hatchback.
Never driven an EV before yesterday - didn't take much getting used to - and EV acceleration is quite intoxicating (coming from a series of very averagely - performing diesel family cars)
We are soon to join the EV world- looking for the most practical small second hand EV for £15k ish second hand, plan to buy for cash and keep, that is not longer overall than an ID3 (so about 4.2m) for reasons of driveway length and other car.
Candidates include Hyundai Kona, ID3, Peugeot e208/vauxhall ecorsa (same thing). Current car is a 21 year old Honda Jazz, which I love and would ideally like an electric version of that! Priority is practical space, reasonable (200mile +) range, simplicity of use, (insurance cost?) Super fast charging a bonus but mainly will be used for 50-70 mile round trip commute.
I’d be grateful for any tips, experiences, horror stories or other advice!
cheers
Kings, got the car a few weeks ago and started the charger installation process. Up to SIX months before it can be done. 90 days before the survey can be done to establish just how much work is needed, unlooping and new main fuse. The 90 days to allow the work, then installation can happen.
Kings, got the car a few weeks ago and started the charger installation process. Up to SIX months before it can be done. 90 days before the survey can be done to establish just how much work is needed, unlooping and new main fuse. The 90 days to allow the work, then installation can happen.
Candidates include Hyundai Kona,
We're very happy with our eNiro, which is a slightly bigger version of the Kona. I think it ticks your boxes.
that is not longer overall than an ID3 (so about 4.2m) for reasons of driveway length and other car.
Candidates include Hyundai Kona, ID3, Peugeot e208/vauxhall ecorsa (same thing). Current car is a 21 year old Honda Jazz, which I love and would ideally like an electric version of that! Priority is practical space, reasonable (200mile +) range, simplicity of use, (insurance cost?) Super fast charging a bonus but mainly will be used for 50-70 mile round trip commute.
How about a byd dolphin? Not the surf version which is small. Not sure what they cost 2nd hand but there might be some long range beyond in your price range?
Corsa e older models have slightly smaller batteries than the newer model, won't do 200 miles but they charge reasonably quick.
Old style ioniq won't do most of the stuff you want but they are nice cars and cheap insurance group.
Byd atto3 might be under or around 4.2m 🤔 been on the market for a while so you might get a high mileage long range version for £15k
Candidates include Hyundai Kona,
Good car - and a bargain. We considered one but though the boot a bit small (nothing folding the seat down would not fix most of the time), slower to charge (same with the Niro EV or eNiro) and somewhat 'challenging' in looks. BUT, totally brilliant car.
We discounted the ID3 as earlier ones seem to be plagued with issues.
Ended up with Polestar as it charges faster, had a bigger boot, long range single motor with no packs was all we needed, and there was a raft of them for sale around our budget that were ex-lease, 3 years, 30-50k miles...Downsides are it is BIG and too few buttons. However I am 6 months in an really appreciating it. It has had a few 300+ mile trips, charges like a beast, is efficient, comfy, banging stereo and Just Works. I even got the canoe on it this week:
