To buy a petrol car

[Goldenbpineapple]

Buying a new car, we do not normally lease or pcp.
I can spend up to £40k but we will not be able to replace the car for at least 10 years, preferably longer.

Would i be stupid to buy a petrol car?

I think fully electric would be silly to buy outright as the range will be so much better in 4 or 5 years time, and an older electric battery will loose a lot of value.

My husband's new electric car makes me incredibly sick and I haven't been travel sick since I was a child.

It is apparently a "thing" and google threw up a report that it is an recognised problem with up to 30% of people affected! It would be worth making sure you are not one of them before buying. I had no idea.

For us, it's been a very expensive mistake.

Can you charge at home?

Better to get a diesel, no?

Depends on so many things. Like how many miles you do normally and whether you intend to do extended trips.

For electric you are paying "up front" for the fuel in terms of the battery costs.

Unless you are doing lots of miles, the costs of electric often don't stack up against petrol.

You are right that battery tech will improve over time. But there is no guarantee manufacturers will use it to extend range (for example they could just equip the car with half the battery instead) or that the new battery tech will be cheaper for years yet.

My current car is diesel and my next will be the same. I need plenty of range.

Most EV's are company cars because of the tax advantages, rather than private buyers.

"Would i be stupid to buy a petrol car?" surely the wiser question would be should I spend £40k on a brand new car that starts depreciating as soon as I drive it off the forecourt, roughly 30-40% of their value in the first one to two years?

Your money ofc @Goldenbpineapple so enjoy the exact spec you'd like and brand new always smells fab 😉

I was thinking more in terms of fuel availability/ taxation

And the value of the vehicle in 12 years time.....

DH was in the motor trade (vehicle technician) wouldn't have a fully electric car. They were just becoming popular when he retired. They had a Corsa batteries US, it was brand new, batteries cost £17k, and they couldn't fix it.We have a neighbour, electrical engineer on the railway..he's on his 3 electric car. First was a small Citroen, batteries US after 5 years, then a Nissan leaf,he was very unhappy with the mileage. That started breaking down after 5 years. He had a home charger and 16 solar panels. Now he has a Tesla. Each vehicle was bought brand new. With the Tesla,he had to fork out for a new different charger.. originally we had his diesel astra estate ,(2 border collies) it finally went to the scrapyard in the sky at 15 years old and 260k miles. He was debating a hybrid,fine for around town, but expensive compared to petrol and not a good enough run with the batteries. So we have a petrol Kia Sportage.

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I would buy a petrol car whilst they are still available especially if you keep your cars for 10 yrs plus. I think it’s the sensible choice.

You’re right about the battery tech not being quite there yet on electric cars. Battery lifespan is not 10 years and resale value is terrible because no wants electric cars with old batteries.

China is just starting to produce some very good electric cars but it’s still evolving tech.

Oh yes, I forgot about the nausea thing.. would never buy a new car of any description. You've lost at least £6 leaving the forecourt.

Wow thats interesting.

If you're going to keep it for 12 years, the value then is the lowest priority - all cars that age aren't worth very much.

Can you charge it at home? Also work and anywhere else you regularly travel to.

Do you do the right sort of mileage to benefit from the extra cost? You need to do enough mileage, but with few very long journeys where charging will be too time consuming or expensive - out on the road electricity can be up to ten times the cost of home charging on an EV tariff. Have you considered the proposed 3 p a mile tax?

How much do you value the environmental benefit?

Is there any congestion charging near you where an electric car is advantageous? Most places treat new petrol cars the same as electric cars, but a minority make a charge for all cars.

We’re the same as you , buy outright and keep for 10 years or so.

We had similar conversations and are sticking with petrol. There are very few benefits to electric at the moment so maybe consider it next time. I would get one as second car for local trips but not as a main car for long journeys.

I have a fully electric, hate it. The battery gets 140 miles fully charged, stick the heating, radio, etc and that goes right down. Its started making a crunching and whining sound when I reverse.

Watching the miles go down gives me anxiety, you have to plan ahead as to when you want to charge it if you are going to be going anywhere.

I just use the granny feed to charge it so takes about 12-14 hours to fully charge over night (I didn't realise how much a charger at the house would cost and really didn't do my research). I will be getting rid of it.

What is batteries US?

Luckily we can get a very large discount due to my DH job, so the first year depreciation doesn't matter.

The feeling sick in electric - does that maybe pass after getting used to the new way it moves?

We have off road parking so can install a charger. I do mainly under 50 miles a week, but occasional longer trips to universities are pending.

Did you think about petrol hybrid?

Woah, 140 miles isn't great. Is that what the manufacturer said when you bought it?

YANBU

I needed to buy a "new" (secondhand) car after my 2004 ford focus gave up at the start of last year.

I bought a 2023, manual, petrol kia sportage with 16k on the clock for £22k.

You probably don't need to spend £40k. That being said I did find manual sportages were about 10k cheaper!

No I wouldnt touch an electric car with a 10 foot barge pole. Ive heard of too many catching fire and I recently read a very distressing case of one going on fire while passengers aboard and they were trapped because the doors wouldnt open.
Also have a very poor resale value. Petrol all the way for me

I hate my electric car and all the hanging around charging it. Will def get a petrol next time

I’ve got an EV, it’s a Skoda Enyaq 85. I won’t go back to an ICE car. I can get from my house in South Yorkshire to DS2’s in Norfolk on less than a charge, even in the winter with the lights, heating, heated seats and heated steering wheel on. In the summer we got there on about 50%.

On our test drive, as a passenger, I felt as sick as a dog but as a driver I was fine. It’s theoretically “my” car so I wasn’t worried about the nausea thing, too much, and I spoke to the salesman who said it does tend to go away the more you travel in the car and get used to it, which it did.

My car has saved us an absolute fortune in fuel costs because we can charge it at home. According to my OHME app it’s cost us £239 in electricity so far, at home, and we’ve done just over 11000 miles. We’ve probably spent £100 on public charging at Tesla (we don’t have a Tesla but they’re the cheapest and nearest to DS2) when we’ve visited family.

Ignoring the usual rubbish being posted, but if you want to buy a petrol car, why not? You (probably) won't be able to after 2030, so this may be your last opportunity, depreciation is irrelevant if you're keeping it ten years, but who knows what the government will do to petrol car and fuel tax after 2030, that's unquantifiable.

Personally now I'd go for a petrol hybrid, but in time EV battery technology will improve hugely and range issues won't be a problem. When is the problem.

So do what you want, really (just don't buy diesel - dead in the water).

I have a petrol hybrid Toyota, love it.

I've just got a self charging hybrid, I think that's the next sensible thing to go for if you don't want to go fully EV yet.

supposed to be 150-160 miles, its a 40kwh. I think the most i've had out of a full charge is 144