What new (to me) car for £20k? Petrol Focus or Electric Niro?

[BrokenWing]

We had to sell our much loved never had a problem with it 10 year old Ford Focus Diesel Estate as I could no longer drive it to work in Glasgow (ULEZ) so we are now in the market for a "new" car and with electric cars coming into the mix it is so confusing.

We have £20k that we have been saving for the past 10 years for our next new car. We no longer need an estate as we recently also lost our dog and don't plan for a new one anytime soon, dh has a work van for any big loads so boot space also isn't a big issue. dc are grown (and 6ft plus tall!) so need reasonable space in the back. I have always had manual cars, but fancy an automatic this time. Commute to work 20miles each way mostly on motorway, otherwise fairly local trips with most family/friends in a 10-20mile radius. It would also be good if lower insurance group for ds(19) to drive occasionally (he has his own small older fiesta which he will prefer, but he might use occasionally if he is doing something and has friends in the back).

£20k is a big investment for us so we are looking for a car that is going to run and be reliable for the next 8-10 years.

I am swithering between a 1-2 year old petrol Ford Focus Ecoboost 1.0L (just because we like ford from past good experiences of fiesta, focus and Mondeo) or is it time to go electric with a Kia Niro, but looks like if we want 1-2 years old it would need to be the lowest range 39Khw Niro 2.

With our lower-ish budget it isn't really the time for us for electric is it? Or am I missing something?

Hi OP, what did you eventually decide.. asking as I am in similar boat with similar choices and budget.

Would you easily be able to charge an electric car at home? What a hybrid
as an interim option?

We changed our minds lots of times and eventually went for a used (9 month old 2,000 miles on clock) MG4 Trophy (long range). They have a 7 year warranty.

It cost just over £26k. We are getting a £15k used electric vehicle 0% interest loan repayable over 5 years from the energy savings trust to help pay for it and will get a £400 grant towards a home charger.

Still waiting for the final paperwork to be sorted but the plan is to pick it up from the dealer on Tuesday.

I am a bit excited, but also a bit scared. Hope we have done the right thing as it is a lot of money for us! 🤞🏼

We thought about the hybrid, but thought that would be a combustion engine and a electric car rolled into one so more to maintain or go wrong.

We dont do huge journeys so should only need to charge once a week or so to give us over 200 miles. We also have some local fast chargers (that are free 😃 and not that busy!) we can probably use easily until we get the home charging point put in (£1,000 - £400 grant = £600) and charge overnight at off peak prices.

I’m excited for you OP! You will LOVE it, I’m sure. I’ve had my MG4 since April and it’s an absolute dream to drive. I have a home charger and it costs me £3-4 to fill at home overnight on an EV tariff.

I’ve just been away on holiday to wales and used an Electroverse card to pay for public charging. It’s more expensive than home, but still wayyyy less than petrol! The most I spent on one was £17 which seemed a lot… until I remembered those £97 tanks of petrol. 🤣

You can also charge it at Tesla superchargers, and these are usually cheaper and faster than other chargers.

I had the same thought about hybrids - it seemed like washer-dryer. Neither a good washer nor dryer, just average at both! Not a great petrol or electric… just lots more to go wrong!

Thanks @Mexicocalling that sounds great. Lots of questions for you 🤣

What home charger do you have? That is what I am looking at now. The octopus ohme home pro seems to be popular to use with the Intelligent octopus (IO) tariff to charge overnight, but we have a SMETS1 smart meter which doesn't seem to be compatible with the IO app. I have been waiting 4 days for octopus to reply to my email asking if they would upgrade my smart meter if we changed to them (we are in a fixed deal with Scottish power until December).

Does not having a rear wiper (I know the new models just out now have one) cause any issues?

Did you get mudflaps fitted? Dh seems to think these will be needed?

More importantly what colour do you have? 🤣 We had a choice between the bright blue, white or black and went for boring black, the orange looks great and so does the dark grey but they weren't an option.

We have a Podpoint charger and have had no problems. We use Intelligent Octopus and it works out at 2p a mile. It's brilliant.
@Mexicocalling can you tell me more about the Electroverse card?

Hmm... Now getting confused. I thought I needed a ohme home pro to use IO? I might have read somewhere it is because it is a MG4 and it is not compatible directly with IO and needs some ohme home pro extra functionality to integrate properly.....

So much new stuff to learn for the technically challenged!

Sorry I can't help you with that. We had to tell Octopus which car and which charger we had. We have a Kia EV6.

Haha, no problem @BrokenWing 😁 the MG4 club is a super friendly one!

I’m #teamRed and love how shiny it is in the sun (when we have some). Mine is an SE,SR so the lovely #teamTango orange wasn’t an option for me either. If I didn’t have red I would’ve probably gone black, but I love the stormtrooper look of the white too.

My charger is actually a Tesla home charger as my partner (who earns far more than my teacher salary 🤣) has a lovely model X. The charger works with both cars quite happily and it’s his few years of Tesla driving that convinced me EV was the way to go. I was spending a fortune on fuel / servicing / maintenance and it just wasn’t sustainable.

We been with octopus energy since April but it’s been an absolute nightmare - we’re on the verge of switching away from them because it’s just so much hassle trying to get the smart meter to work properly. They’ve sent engineers out 5 times and nobody seems able to get it to work properly for IO. Really frustrating. My parents have Ohme and love it - we’re quite happy with ours though and see no reason to buy a more expensive one. The Tesla home chargers are £495 so much cheaper, but less snazzy features. I just use the car to schedule my charges rather than the charger, if that makes sense!?

Electroverse is fab @Oblahdeeoblahdoe. It’s part of octopus energy, but you can join it separately if you have a different supplier. Octopus customers get a 5% discount though 🙂

I have an RFID card (looks like a credit card) for it which I keep in the car. I can use it to pay for my charge at literally thousands of chargers all over the UK and Europe. All the big brands - shell, instavolt, osprey, etc. It means I don’t need a million apps to use each one, and don’t need to rely on wifi signal to get each charge started either.

The best part is you can set it up to bill the electroverse charges as part of your regular electricity bill, or have it set to pay separately from a debit card.

I’ve just ordered a V2L adaptor from eBay for £14 and will be taking my Nespresso out with me for day trips as soon as it arrives! II saw a couple at the beach using a kettle and thought his fab it was, then this picture popped up on my Facebook feed earlier and I knew I had to buy it immediately 🤣

I haven’t once missed a rear wiper (mine is an MY22) and haven’t fitted any mudflaps either. I haven’t missed them at all.

So far all I’ve bought is a type 2 to type 2 cable for charging out and about as it only came with a granny charger, and a set of floor mats.

Love this. A lot of EV6 drivers do this too. One chap on Facebook said he used his to cook a meal in a microwave, make a cup of tea and heat his house when he had a power cut 😁 Others use it to power their electric lawn mowers!
Thanks for the heads up on the Electroverse card- we use IO so should get the discount.

That is the same Nespresso we have 🤣 I have been perusing Ali Express (during a very boring zoom call today) as that seems to be the place to go for accessories.

I can't remember if ours came with car mats hopefully the previous owners mats are still there to begin with at least, they did say it does come with a 32amp (?) Type 2 cable the previous owner bought, but didn't mention if it had a granny charger.

My ChargePlace Scotland RFID card arrived today so at least I can use the local public chargers to start with! I've ordered a Electroverse card.

This is my Ali Express basket so far

• Armrest box looks good
• Sill guards
• I did look at a couple of V2L adapters possibly this one (I could use the Nespresso and Aeroccino at the same time!) but £14 sound much better. Can you let me know if the one you orders works ok when you get it and send me a link.
• Protector to stop the gear panel getting scratched? Do you think it needs it? I am not keen on the "carbon" look.
• Glass protector? Like you get on mobile phones, useful or unnecessary?

i think the armrest box looks good too, I’ve got one in my Ali Express basket at the moment too! I also quite like the door sill protectors.

I wouldn’t bother with the carbon gear stick thingy - I don’t think it needs it and I’m not keen on the carbon fibre look. I don’t think you’d need the glass screen thingy either really.

It’s great that the previous owner bought the type2 cable, and even better it’s the 32amp one (that lets you charge at a faster rate). The car should’ve been supplied from china with the granny charger so that should be there too.

Happy to report back on my eBay adapter when it arrives, it’s definitely a bargain so I’m hoping it’s all ok. It was recommended by someone on the Mg forum so I’m expecting it to all be alright 😊