Company Phev suggestions

Author
Discussion

24valve

Original Poster:

96 posts

209 months

Thursday 7th June 2018
quotequote all
Hi All

I'm after a bit of advice. I currently drive a 2016 320d estate business edition with a fair amount of bells and whistles (sports leather, radar cruise, dark windows, auto paddle shift, proper nav etc).

My mileage has gone overboard, so we need to send it back and pay the penalty and move on pretty swiftly. My colleagues who both drove 320d's have gone down the merc c350 hybrid estates, and I think they are quite nice, offer a good level of spec (not quite up to what mine was) and importantly the car tax is significantly reduced by having one.

Their gripes with it though are poor range and poor sat nav. I think the nav in the BMW is fantasic, but they constantly complain that it mis-guides you, is slow to load routes and frequently gets confused as to where you are.

with that in mind, can anyone suggest any other estatey phev's for me to look at? - comfort is a fair priority - need to be c class 3 series type, as opposed to E class, 5 series.

Finally, am I barking up the wrong tree specifying phev now, or should I be considering something else to minimse tax? I spent a lot of time in the car on business, so need to make the right decision.

cheers in advance

Neil.

craig1912

3,273 posts

111 months

Thursday 7th June 2018
quotequote all
Happy with my BMW 3 series plug in. Doesn’t have a great range but that’s not the point for me as it saves a shedload of BIK tax.

24valve

Original Poster:

96 posts

209 months

Thursday 7th June 2018
quotequote all
craig1912 said:
Happy with my BMW 3 series plug in. Doesn’t have a great range but that’s not the point for me as it saves a shedload of BIK tax.
Annoyingly though, they don't do an estate version otherwise I would have considered one.

clarkey

1,365 posts

283 months

Friday 8th June 2018
quotequote all
The Mercedes C-class hybrid isn't available to order until the autumn either.

I've just ordered a 530e for September delivery (so they say). Nearly £55k RRP for about £560 a month including maintenance and 15k miles per year. I'd have preferred an estate too but choice is limited at the moment.

WestyCarl

3,217 posts

124 months

Saturday 9th June 2018
quotequote all
I think the Pasast is the only PHEV estate. Seemed OK and reasonably well specced when I test drove one

AnotherClarkey

3,589 posts

188 months

Saturday 9th June 2018
quotequote all
There is the Kia Optima PHEV estate too.

EVLATECOMER

144 posts

76 months

Sunday 10th June 2018
quotequote all
You're going to struggle to order any of the cars mentioned as they have all stopped taking orders over the past 3 or 4 months due to the changes to emissions testing with WLTP.

There are some pipeline orders and used examples at dealers, but many lease companies have taken them off their ordering systems; hopefully you'll get something sorted if not wait until September for the WLTP mess to clear up.

24valve

Original Poster:

96 posts

209 months

Tuesday 12th June 2018
quotequote all
EVLATECOMER said:
You're going to struggle to order any of the cars mentioned as they have all stopped taking orders over the past 3 or 4 months due to the changes to emissions testing with WLTP.

There are some pipeline orders and used examples at dealers, but many lease companies have taken them off their ordering systems; hopefully you'll get something sorted if not wait until September for the WLTP mess to clear up.
thanks for the info - I hadn't read up on that until now.

This was also backed up by the Merc dealer who basically said forget it until September. My only concern is that if I wait until then I my tax implications might be more than they are now for a hybrid, so I wonder if it is worthwhile trying to hunt something down.

Volvo called and said they might be able to get me a v90 hybrid if I acted quickly.

af84

12 posts

79 months

Tuesday 12th June 2018
quotequote all
24valve said:
thanks for the info - I hadn't read up on that until now.

This was also backed up by the Merc dealer who basically said forget it until September. My only concern is that if I wait until then I my tax implications might be more than they are now for a hybrid, so I wonder if it is worthwhile trying to hunt something down.

Volvo called and said they might be able to get me a v90 hybrid if I acted quickly.
Tax implications might be more than they are now??

How so?

oop north

1,592 posts

127 months

Tuesday 12th June 2018
quotequote all
af84 said:
Tax implications might be more than they are now??

How so?
If they get reassessed as being over 50g/km (I think that has happened with the xc90 T8 for example) then you are out of the ultra low emissions tax banding (haven’t looked to see what the effect is though)

SidJames

1,399 posts

232 months

Wednesday 13th June 2018
quotequote all
There is a Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV which I looked at.

Fairly good spec but woefully lacking in grunt!

24valve

Original Poster:

96 posts

209 months

Thursday 14th June 2018
quotequote all
oop north said:
If they get reassessed as being over 50g/km (I think that has happened with the xc90 T8 for example) then you are out of the ultra low emissions tax banding (haven’t looked to see what the effect is though)
exactly, which is why its important to sort it now before the re-assessment.

Been offered a merc c350e estate and Volvo v90 r-design pro hybrid, both stock cars so could have them now. both give me great BIK savings. quite fancy the Volvo now given the spec, but it is a fair bit more expensive (57k)

caseys

305 posts

167 months

Thursday 14th June 2018
quotequote all
For day to day use, including getting irate at different user interfaces / how each manufacturer does things, I'd go with (based on my own experiences) of PHEVs:

BMW 530e/330e (or x5e)
Passat GTE
Merc C350e / E350e
Volvo XC60 T8

Then again I'm more familiar with BMW and VWs. I didn't like the Mercedes Command system, and it felt a lot heavier having driven both the saloon and the estate and the Passat estate. If I could get a revised 330e/530e with more range that's what I'd be going for next if I had to have a PHEV. I'm instead going EV (as I can with my use case).

The XC60 T8 I had on a 3 day test drive the other week, 4 times it false positive'd emergency braked on me - once due to a car being in a layby I was going past, once with me going by a T-junction with flowing traffic where I had right of way but people were waiting to turn out/turn in and twice I have no idea why it decided to slam on the brakes. Also with the large touch-screen the controls aren't in the right place on the UI to have eliminated most of the physical controls. Oh and the seats weren't comfortable. It looked nice though... oh and one day I averaged 20mpg :P

I haven't driven the other PHEVs on the market as our company car scheme doesn't have them as vendors.

jonobigblind

754 posts

81 months

Saturday 16th June 2018
quotequote all
If you’re doing high mileage you may be better off sticking with a diesel (for the ease / convenience of getting places without needing to fill up).

I had a Merc C250d and averaged 51MPG over 3 years and then swapped to a Mini Hybrid with an average of 49MPG. Any motorway trips returned around 30-35MPG so the small tank emptied pretty quickly.

The only saving grace was the slashing of BiK that made it palatable from a financial point of view.

Heres Johnny

7,177 posts

123 months

Saturday 16th June 2018
quotequote all
oop north said:
If they get reassessed as being over 50g/km (I think that has happened with the xc90 T8 for example) then you are out of the ultra low emissions tax banding (haven’t looked to see what the effect is though)
Just on this point, I think the Merc C class was below 50g/km or whatever the magic number was, but if you optioned different wheels you ended up over. You could easily get caught out by ticking an options box


RicksAlfas

13,355 posts

243 months

Wednesday 20th June 2018
quotequote all
24valve said:
Merc sat nav...
Their gripes with it though are poor range and poor sat nav. I think the nav in the BMW is fantasic, but they constantly complain that it mis-guides you, is slow to load routes and frequently gets confused as to where you are.
The basic Merc sat nav (Garmin) is poor as your colleagues have found. The optional COMAND system is completely different and uses TomTom software. I won't say it's perfect, but it's much better than the standard setup.

24valve

Original Poster:

96 posts

209 months

Wednesday 20th June 2018
quotequote all
RicksAlfas said:
The basic Merc sat nav (Garmin) is poor as your colleagues have found. The optional COMAND system is completely different and uses TomTom software. I won't say it's perfect, but it's much better than the standard setup.
Do you know if it is upgradable to the TomTom software?

Leggy

1,018 posts

221 months

Wednesday 20th June 2018
quotequote all
I’ve had a C350e Estate for a couple of years. Been a good car overall. BIK obviously the main reason as massive savings in tax.

RicksAlfas

13,355 posts

243 months

Thursday 21st June 2018
quotequote all
24valve said:
RicksAlfas said:
The basic Merc sat nav (Garmin) is poor as your colleagues have found. The optional COMAND system is completely different and uses TomTom software. I won't say it's perfect, but it's much better than the standard setup.
Do you know if it is upgradable to the TomTom software?
No. It's a completely different media system unfortunately.
It's called "COMAND ONLINE" and comes with the (expensive) Premium or (very expensive) Premium Plus pack.

24valve

Original Poster:

96 posts

209 months

Thursday 21st June 2018
quotequote all
RicksAlfas said:
No. It's a completely different media system unfortunately.
It's called "COMAND ONLINE" and comes with the (expensive) Premium or (very expensive) Premium Plus pack.
Hmm. The model I have on order as of yesterday is an obsidian black over black c350e sport premium estate.