Which PHEV?

[sawman]

Just had a play on the firms lease car calculator, they have some deals on golf GTE's last week, but they seem to have all gone,

put salary sacrifice quotes together for these phevs:
Golf GTE - £330
Volvo V60 - £346
BMW 330e sport - £339
Merc C350e estate sport - £352
outlander 4hs -£364

I was surprised that the outlander was most expensive and how similar the others were. Which is the best drive?
I have heard that there is a long lead in for BMW.
They all seem to have similar electric ranges, but whats the best overall efficiency with say 50/50 mix of ICE/elec use

[sawman]

went to try a golf today, but there was a mix up and it wasnt at the dealer when I arrived, have a test of the volvo v60 twin engine later in the week. might go and have a look at the merc also,

I am not drawn to the BMW - unless they have a touring waiting to be released.....

[sawman]

jason61c said:

golf, small and expensive, not very well resolved.
330e, nice to look at, ok on fuel, very common looking
c350e, nice motorway drive, nice spec, not great on fuel
v60 d5 twin engine, 50+mpg motorway use, nice spec,

pretty much agree with that - I dropped into the volvo shop today and had a chat, unfortunately their V60 was out for the day, so had a punt around in a regular V60 - just to see how the seat felt etc, back later in the week for a go in the hybrid - the volvo works out at more or less the same cost to me as the golf would be, so bigger car, possibly better non electric economy? seems like a no brainer

[sawman]

s111dpc said:

I have the Merc 350e as a company car. Done about 7k miles in it now and averaging 55mpg real world, which for the quality, speed and ride I think is great. Happy to recommend.

Thats interesting, whats the profile of your usage? are you charging it frequently?

[sawman]

Gb908010 said:

Volvo is a great car as I have a diesel v60 now but the phev is very expensive for the r design phev

The D6 twin engines are pretty dear, but the D5 is more reasonable.
playing with the configurator at the dealers the other day, the cost for a similarly specced D5 twinengine, and a v60 crosscountry they turned out to be more or less the same, but there is a nearly 4k discount on the crosscountry if you take volvo finance

[sawman]

Managed to get a test drive in golf gte today, i quite liked it actually, gathering speed on to dual carriage way smoother than the volvo i tried last week, steering feel ok and the actual wheel much nicer, seats comfortable but possible not so much as the volvo. So for an extra 20 quid a month will the volvo diesel be any nore economical? I can charge at work most days. Awd might be nice, but overall the golf swemed a decent steer and the gte button is entertaining

[sawman]

jason61c said:

Which volvo did you try? The golf gte and a3 etron were some of the worse PHEV's for smoothness.

D5 twin engine - i think part of the volvos issue is the clattery diesel, i have never had a diesel and the tone is unfamiliar, i think the dsg box in the vw helps it along

Edited by sawman on Saturday 23 July 12:10

[sawman]

jason61c said:

see, I'm not a big fan of the DSG box, it shouldn't be clattery, the 5 cyl engine sounds quite nice. I guess its about getting something that suits your needs.

maybe clattery isnt the word - Gruff more like. my current car is a super smooth petrol flat 6 so I think the 5 cyl diesel is just a different character, whereas the vw 4 pot it less alien to my ears

I have been mulling it over all afternoon and I am still torn, both of them suit my purpose ( i dont really need the extra space of the volvo), but it has the advantage of AWD which might be useful in the winter up in Northumberland, whilst the golf seemed a bit more nimble. they are more or less the same cost to me, but the volvo may be cheaper to run overall.

[sawman]

the C class is a nice place to sit - apart from the fact that someone seems to have screwed an ipad on the dash

[sawman]

The Beaver King said:

Same here; it seems like quite an obvious pairing for hybrid technology, all the long range cruising ability of diesel coupled with electric for those stop/start moments. I'm wondering why it hasn't been picked up or already launched by any of the big players yet (VAG/Merc/GM/BMW/Toyota)? There must be a technical reason and, no offence to Volvo, but they're hardly at the forefront of innovation these days.

The Japanese have been pushing really hard on eco-hybrids* for a few years, so why haven't they released any diesel hybrids?

• By eco-hybrid, I mean the type that focus purely on best mpg return (most of the Japanese manufacturers, for example). The Germans seem to be more focused on performance-hybrids.

Been pondering this myself, volvo are the only ones as far as i can see that have mated diesel to hybrid, and possibly more telling the new xc90 has a petrol ice. The japanese always seem to have been relatively shy of diesel, but one would imagine the germans would have done diesel if it was the all around best option ( cost/nvh etc). Having driven the d5 twin engine i am not entirely convinced that silent electric and 5pot diesel are comfortable bedfellows. Regards dpf the volvo sales chap said that volvo as a whole havent had much of a problem with dpf.