Vauxhall Ampera - anyone got one?

[Mr Gear]

I see a few about, but I'd be interested to hear any ownership experiences. I briefly drove a pre-production model and it was pleasant enough, but out of sheer curiosity, does anyone have any long-term opinions?

Are you ever putting any petrol in it? Has it gone wrong? etc.

[anonymous-user]

The interior is awful, as is the ride and handling. (because they spent all their cash on the powertrain, leaving only 37 pence (cents??) left over to finish the car with.........

If they had married the clever (ish) powertrain with a car of suitable European quality (i'm not talking Audi interior spec here, even just a "cooking" Ford Mondeo/focus level of quality and refinement would be nice) then it would be a much more serious contender, and the enormous cost of the thing could have been ignored to some degree.

[LuS1fer]

Max_Torque said:

The interior is awful, as is the ride and handling. (because they spent all their cash on the powertrain, leaving only 37 pence (cents??) left over to finish the car with.........

If they had married the clever (ish) powertrain with a car of suitable European quality (i'm not talking Audi interior spec here, even just a "cooking" Ford Mondeo/focus level of quality and refinement would be nice) then it would be a much more serious contender, and the enormous cost of the thing could have been ignored to some degree.

Is that why all the 5th Gear team gave it around 8 out of 10 then and to a man andd woman liked it, if not the price?

[Mr Gear]

Max_Torque said:

The interior is awful, as is the ride and handling. (because they spent all their cash on the powertrain, leaving only 37 pence (cents??) left over to finish the car with.........

If they had married the clever (ish) powertrain with a car of suitable European quality (i'm not talking Audi interior spec here, even just a "cooking" Ford Mondeo/focus level of quality and refinement would be nice) then it would be a much more serious contender, and the enormous cost of the thing could have been ignored to some degree.

Is that your ownership experience, or just something you pulled out of thin air? Having spent a (tiny) bit of time in one, I didn't pick up on any of those faults particularly.

[seopher]

I've had a go in one; I actually quite liked it. Spacious, decent looking, ride seemed decent and (predictably given it's an electric motor) torquey.

Vauxhall have got it the right way round with this, given it uses its electric charge whatever the speed until expended. 232mpg I believe too.

There's even a fairly handy fuel cost comparison calculator on the Vauxhall site to compare fuel costs:
https://www.vauxhallfleet.co.uk/toolbox/bik/fuelca...

[anonymous-user]

Mr Gear said:

Max_Torque said:

The interior is awful, as is the ride and handling. (because they spent all their cash on the powertrain, leaving only 37 pence (cents??) left over to finish the car with.........

If they had married the clever (ish) powertrain with a car of suitable European quality (i'm not talking Audi interior spec here, even just a "cooking" Ford Mondeo/focus level of quality and refinement would be nice) then it would be a much more serious contender, and the enormous cost of the thing could have been ignored to some degree.

Is that your ownership experience, or just something you pulled out of thin air? Having spent a (tiny) bit of time in one, I didn't pick up on any of those faults particularly.

I spent 4 months driving one for a project i worked on.

Not wanting to sound rude, but if you didn't notice the glaring deficit in quality compared to the best european offering in the same price bracket, then the good news is you really should probably buy one! ;-)

[anonymous-user]

LuS1fer said:

Is that why all the 5th Gear team gave it around 8 out of 10 then and to a man andd woman liked it, if not the price?

The problem is however, that you can't ignore the price. Yes, if you're a road test team, given the car to test for free, it's easy to say "i like the car, although it is expensive". Whereas, to someone actually spending their real money on one, you have to say, "what else can i buy for £30k to £35k", and suddenly, things like poor R&H, low interior quality, poor NVH, only 4 seats & a small boot start to really hit home. For the same money you could have say a 3series bmw, which in every objective and subjective area, except absolute fuel economy, absolutely blows the Ampera into the weeds.

[LuS1fer]

Max_Torque said:

The problem is however, that you can't ignore the price. Yes, if you're a road test team, given the car to test for free, it's easy to say "i like the car, although it is expensive". Whereas, to someone actually spending their real money on one, you have to say, "what else can i buy for £30k to £35k", and suddenly, things like poor R&H, low interior quality, poor NVH, only 4 seats & a small boot start to really hit home. For the same money you could have say a 3series bmw, which in every objective and subjective area, except absolute fuel economy, absolutely blows the Ampera into the weeds.

BMWs are ugly though and everyone has one. Not really a valid comparison unless you're going to factor in the very fuel economy you're ignoring which is it's raison d'etre, zero road tax etc etc over, say, 5 years.

[Mr Gear]

Max_Torque said:

I spent 4 months driving one for a project i worked on.

Not wanting to sound rude, but if you didn't notice the glaring deficit in quality compared to the best european offering in the same price bracket, then the good news is you really should probably buy one! ;-)

Well, as stated already, I'm not asking about it as a possible purchase- I don't do anywhere like the sort of miles required to justify it.

[anonymous-user]

LuS1fer said:

Max_Torque said:

The problem is however, that you can't ignore the price. Yes, if you're a road test team, given the car to test for free, it's easy to say "i like the car, although it is expensive". Whereas, to someone actually spending their real money on one, you have to say, "what else can i buy for £30k to £35k", and suddenly, things like poor R&H, low interior quality, poor NVH, only 4 seats & a small boot start to really hit home. For the same money you could have say a 3series bmw, which in every objective and subjective area, except absolute fuel economy, absolutely blows the Ampera into the weeds.

BMWs are ugly though and everyone has one. Not really a valid comparison unless you're going to factor in the very fuel economy you're ignoring which is it's raison d'etre, zero road tax etc etc over, say, 5 years.

Ugly is totally subjective, but in terms of the objective, the Ampera has a long way to go to meet up to the best European platforms in the price segment it is pitched!.

The problem with ultimate fuel economy, is that unless you are trying to minimise the £ per mile, it is pointless spending £30k on a car to save £3 a month! If you really really only cared about being as cheap as possible, then a very second hand Pug 106 diesel will do >60mpg all day long, only cost you £1k, and you could probably break it for parts for the same amount.

The only place that has a valid argument for the Ampera is when avoiding "artificial" taxes (such as the Greater London congestion charge) but again, it would be more cheaply avoided by using public transport, and quicker by just getting on your bike ;-)

[Dave Hedgehog]

Max_Torque said:

LuS1fer said:

Is that why all the 5th Gear team gave it around 8 out of 10 then and to a man andd woman liked it, if not the price?

The problem is however, that you can't ignore the price. Yes, if you're a road test team, given the car to test for free, it's easy to say "i like the car, although it is expensive". Whereas, to someone actually spending their real money on one, you have to say, "what else can i buy for £30k to £35k", and suddenly, things like poor R&H, low interior quality, poor NVH, only 4 seats & a small boot start to really hit home. For the same money you could have say a 3series bmw, which in every objective and subjective area, except absolute fuel economy, absolutely blows the Ampera into the weeds.

electric vauxhall POS or BMW 1M hmmmmm

[OLDS]

I have worked on a few, (Chevrolet Volts) and I have yet to see one with cloth seats but the reason the interior may be lacking is because everything is ultra lightweight.

The only limit to fuel mileage is the car itself. It will eventually burn the gas in the tank so it doesn't go bad.

Many cases of Volts going over 1000 mpg.