Sagitar Posted November 10, 2013 Report Share Posted November 10, 2013 My Prius is getting fairly close to the end of its five year guarantee so I have been looking around for a replacement. A couple of weeks ago I found a low mileage plug-in Prius and eventually bought it last Wednesday. It's in good shape apart from a damaged wheel and I am taking it in to the dealer to get that fixed tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sagitar Posted November 11, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 11, 2013 You like the Prius then, looks like a nice car, is there much difference between this and the old one? Hi - Rich. Yes I like the Prius a lot. It's excellent for an old codger like me who does most of his miles pottering locally, but with the occasional long holiday trip. The new one is the plug in version - bigger battery and lithium ion instead of nickel metal hydride, but it is otherwise very similar to drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Posted November 12, 2013 Report Share Posted November 12, 2013 So can you plug this in at home to charge the battery? I take it your winter wheels from the other one will also fit the new car? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sagitar Posted November 12, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 12, 2013 So can you plug this in at home to charge the battery? I take it your winter wheels from the other one will also fit the new car? Yes. It takes an hour and a half to charge fully, after which I get 14 or 15 miles on battery alone. It's not very far, but adequate for local journeys. e.g. I drove to the hospital this morning and got better than 200 mpg going and 144 mpg coming back. Arrived home with 1.5 miles to spare . . . . The calculations indicate electric driving costs about 25% of the petrol cost, but I haven't yet done enough miles to test any of it properly. Driven over long distances as a standard hybrid I am supposed to get marginally better mileages than the standard Prius because of the greater capacity for regeneration, but that remains to be seen. I can't see any reason why my winter wheels shouldn't fit, but I haven't tried them yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liner33 Posted November 12, 2013 Report Share Posted November 12, 2013 Out of interest how many miles did you cover in the old one in 5 years ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sagitar Posted November 12, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 12, 2013 Out of interest how many miles did you cover in the old one in 5 years ? 22,000 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liner33 Posted November 13, 2013 Report Share Posted November 13, 2013 So the fuel cost is academic really ? I could do 22,000 miles in my Skyline for £6500 , I expect the depreciation on the Toyota alone is more than that in fact probably a LOT more than that !! I think its great to have one because you like them , but to think they save money or are environmentally friendly is not very accurate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Posted November 13, 2013 Report Share Posted November 13, 2013 So can you plug this in at home to charge the battery? I take it your winter wheels from the other one will also fit the new car? Yes. It takes an hour and a half to charge fully, after which I get 14 or 15 miles on battery alone. It's not very far, but adequate for local journeys. e.g. I drove to the hospital this morning and got better than 200 mpg going and 144 mpg coming back. Arrived home with 1.5 miles to spare . . . . The calculations indicate electric driving costs about 25% of the petrol cost, but I haven't yet done enough miles to test any of it properly. Driven over long distances as a standard hybrid I am supposed to get marginally better mileages than the standard Prius because of the greater capacity for regeneration, but that remains to be seen. I can't see any reason why my winter wheels shouldn't fit, but I haven't tried them yet. Do you know how much it is costing you in electricity to charge the battery, although I'd imagine it's not much if it only takes 90 minutes? So the fuel cost is academic really ? I could do 22,000 miles in my Skyline for £6500 , I expect the depreciation on the Toyota alone is more than that in fact probably a LOT more than that !! I think its great to have one because you like them , but to think they save money or are environmentally friendly is not very accurate. That is a good point actually and if you are buying these cars for financial reasons (more mpg and cheaper tax) the saving doesn't seem to be there. I guess if you did 100k+ miles and kept the car for a long time it might pay for itself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liner33 Posted November 13, 2013 Report Share Posted November 13, 2013 They are a lot of money though , c£30 k I think and £30k buys an awful lot of fuel you could probably keep an Aston in fuel for 100k for £30,000 pounds ! Dont want to sound like i'm having a go , im not i like the idea of the electric motor , makes the car super quiet and smooth to drive, just for environmental and financial reasons they dont make sense But cars dont NEED to make sense , they need to be enjoyed. I dont really keep any data on fuel up in my cars , I do occasionally reset the trip meter and work out how much the last tank has done but i dont make a note of it I dont see the point , nor do i see the point on a Prius saving £5 a week on fuel when you are losing £10 a day on depreciation doesnt bear thinking about Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sagitar Posted November 13, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 13, 2013 I have never owned a car that paid for itself. If my primary purpose was to minimise travelling costs I wouldn't own a car at all. I would use taxis and hire cars, not to mention my free bus pass . . . . However, I happen to enjoy driving and I have enough money to buy myself a nice, shiny, new car every 3, 4 or 5 years and that is what I do. I do not want any hassle because I no longer enjoy care and maintenance tasks. So I keep cars in guarantee and purchase a long term maintenance contract. I am not advocating that others should do the same, but at my age and in my personal and financial circumstances it works for me. None of those decisions negates my desire to minimise the costs of individual transactions. Just because I make a large capital purchase now and then is no excuse for being sloppy about getting a good deal, shopping around for insurance or minimising mileage costs. I am not unaware of the financial consequences of the decisions that I make. Others will make different decisions and that is up to them. For my last Prius the fixed cost was £1.08 per mile and the variable cost was £0.15 per mile (with petrol now costing about £6 a gallon). For the Lexus that I owned before that, the fixed cost was £1.10 per mile and the variable cost £0.22 per mile. (with petrol costing £4.63 a gallon when I sold it). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liner33 Posted November 13, 2013 Report Share Posted November 13, 2013 I'm much the same I own a weekend car which i enjoy tinkering with but our normal cars are replaced with brand new ones every 4 or 5 years usually when they hit around 80,000 miles and depreciation is STILL the highest cost we have even after than many miles! My wifes car allowance means that we can do that so it doesnt really cost us anything for cars but my own daily is under a long term maintenance contract as well, as the Superb also was for 3 years , I never get my hands dirty on these cars they are used and used well You arent really minimising your costs and I'm sure you know that, logging the minuscule fuel consumption whilst paying so much in the first place is maximising your costs for running a small family car, you cant compare the running costs to a Lexus , more like a Auris. Of course you dont need to justify how you spend your own money I wouldnt dream of suggesting such a thing , but lets have a bit of realism here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted November 14, 2013 Report Share Posted November 14, 2013 Well congratulations on the new purchase and like others i will have loads of questions to ask. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
parthiban Posted November 15, 2013 Report Share Posted November 15, 2013 That's not bad if you can get 15 miles out of it on battery alone - is it still limited to 30mph on electric or can the plug-in go faster? This market is getting interesting now, in particular I find the Chevy Volt/Vauxhall Ampera a very interesting prospect if I was in the market for a car like this (basically if I needed to drive into London regularly and needed to be congestion charge exempt) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SMARTLY Posted November 15, 2013 Report Share Posted November 15, 2013 And there's the BMW I3, a Renault electric Zoe and I think Kia have a prototype. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
parthiban Posted November 15, 2013 Report Share Posted November 15, 2013 And there's the BMW I3, a Renault electric Zoe and I think Kia have a prototype. I didn't actually realise the i3 was a real car until I saw one the other day - funny looking thing! I struggle with the all-electric cars though, as you couldn't use it as your only car. Which is where the volt/ampera is briliant, it's an electric car but can be used for long journeys if required. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sagitar Posted November 15, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 15, 2013 I've driven it up to close to 60 on electric only (EV) but it depends upon the angle of incline of the road and the rate of acceleration. I'm experimenting with driving strategies. At present I am favouring EV where the speed limit is 50 or lower and using hybrid mode (HV) above that with judicious use of HV if I want extra acceleration or am climbing a steep hill. The IC engine stops anyway if there is charge in the battery and it is providing enough energy to cope with the power needed by the car at any specific time. Theoretically, if you keep the conditions right, it is possible to drive the car in EV permanently, but there is a limit of around 250 miles built in so that the engine is given a work out occasionally. I'm not very good at it yet, but a large part of the fun for me is learning to drive it well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SMARTLY Posted November 15, 2013 Report Share Posted November 15, 2013 You can get a petrol engine also with the BMW I3 to increase the range, I assume it charges the battery. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sagitar Posted November 15, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 15, 2013 Interesting car, but just too small for me. We often travel with three or four (shall I say mature?) adults. What's worse is that I couldn't get my bow bag in the boot . . . . From memory, the range extender engine is described as a 647 c.c. job from one of their scooters - with a nine litre petrol tank - it serves only to charge the battery. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
parthiban Posted November 22, 2013 Report Share Posted November 22, 2013 I didn't realise it had the range extender option, but yes the BMW is more of a city car. It's good they've pushed tech on though with it's carbon construction and such. I still think the Volt/Ampera is the most interesting car of this sort to come out in recent times. The tesla model S looks promising too (other than the odd reliability concern) but that is purely electric I believe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted November 23, 2013 Report Share Posted November 23, 2013 Yes it is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GamithUK Posted November 24, 2013 Report Share Posted November 24, 2013 Peugeot also do a Hybrid4 system (ie. the 3008 src: http://www.peugeot.co.uk/discover-hybrid4/), where the IC engine drives the front and electric the rear, so you can choose between either or both for 4x4 is needed. There are quite a few interesting ideas coming out; swappable batteries, high-speed recharge, range extenders, different battery technologies - it will be interesting to see what the market decides. For me I need a town car for very occasional use - in fact in some regards I don't need a car at all, but a weekly trip from Stevenage to Watford to drop my son back means I do need one. I must say the plugin makes a difference, in my mind, to having an electric vehicle - having a battery that needs an engine to charge seems to be missing the point somewhat, so for a purely town car you need the plug-in feature to make it worthwhile. I shudder to think what the second-hand market is going to be like though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted November 24, 2013 Report Share Posted November 24, 2013 Out of interest how secure are the batteries in these cars?..... Meaning if they are Lithium then they are very valuable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
parthiban Posted November 25, 2013 Report Share Posted November 25, 2013 Out of interest how secure are the batteries in these cars?..... Meaning if they are Lithium then they are very valuable. I think it's fairly difficult to get at them, not like stealing a cat for example. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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