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.

I will likely go hybrid next time I buy , which will be in the next year or so , mainly because of the lack of choice of petrol cars in the price range I’m prepared to spend . I will not go fully electric until it becomes the only option .

I only drive petrol, and until that option is removed i will continue to drive petrol.
No interest in electric at all.

We’ve just bought a petrol car, not brand new but 25 reg with a couple of thousand on the clock. Pleased with it.

I will buy petrol cars for as long as I can. The range of electric cars is unacceptable at the moment. Also, charging stations are so few and far between here in central Europe that it would be an absolute nuisancee.
I'll switch to electric when the quality of the cars, the battery life and the range improves drastically and when the infrastructure is there to recharge them efficiently on longer journeys.
We seem to be miles away from that here.

'Mild hybrid"?

I personally wouldn’t buy anything except petrol. But I’d get something Japanese (Toyota, Honda, Lexus) and a few years old that’s done most of its depreciation already.

OP are you aware that the EU have just adjuated 2035 target allowing manufacturers to continue to make petrol cars. I think people are expecting the UK to follow suit and drop the 2030 deadline. With the new rules announced in the budget eg 1.5p per mile charge, they aren’t very attractive now and I believe resale value isn’t good. Theres also the luxury car tax which you need to watch out for.

I’d be looking at a 1-2 year old less than £40k new price petrol car.

A petrol car makes sense to me. Doubt you need as large a car as your budget suggests.

Even if they do make the 2030 deadline to stop selling petrol cars, which is unlikely, they'll still be available second hand for 20/30 years afterwards. Just look at all the cars of that age on the roads now, still running around in decent condition.

In fact, now is probably a good time to buy a (nearly) new petrol car as in 10/20 years time it will likely become a commodity - in demand from people unable to swap to electric for whatever reason, cost, required range or lack of charging facilities. Or there will likely be decent scrappage deals, where you can trade it in if you are ready for an electric car.

I would buy a 1 year+ petrol car. The drop in price is astonishing but it’s still basically new!

We were undecided. The finance director at the garage said don’t buy an electric car, lease one as battery technology is likely to develop rapidly in the next few years. We wanted to buy outright and hold onto the car for 7 years so went for a petrol mild hybrid. It’s a very difficult decision though. If

I’d buy a nearly new petrol car. The infrastructure just isn’t in place for EVs yet. I wouldn’t be spending £40k on any car! You can easily get something fabulous well under that budget.

I’d get a hybrid.

EV advocate here, recent convert.

Perfect for me

• I do mostly short local journeys
• I can charge at home

So it's much cheaper to run than a petrol was for me. 2p/mile on fuel vs 15p/mile for my little fiesta.

The travel sickness thing is mostly when you use regenerative braking apparently, which you don't have to use all the time. I haven't had any complaints.

I think the "they'll be better in 5 years" argument is a bit outdated - if you're interested in EV have a proper look at what you can get for your money now and make a considered choice.

So it's much cheaper to run than a petrol was for me. 2p/mile on fuel vs 15p/mile for my little fiesta

Did your work out how long it would take for the saving in running costs to overtake the higher cost of an electric one?

I did, it was about 12 years. So I stuck with petrol - this is a comparison between a 2 YO petrol Citigo for £8k and a nearly 2 YO electric Citigo for £19k, which was the choice I faced when I needed a new car. My mileage ins't that low either, about 8k pa.

No full hybrid - Mazda 2

Toyota Yaris Hybrid- so cheap to run but second hand ones can get snapped up quick.

If you’re planning to keep it for at least 10 years, why are you worrying about the EV depreciating faster? If you mean you’re worried about it losing its battery capacity rather than value, the battery degradation of modern EVs is much slower than the earlier models. The battery will be under warranty for 7 of those years anyway, but barely anyone ever needs to claim under warranty for battery degradation because batteries last a lot longer than originally expected. But do what you want for whatever suits you best, just don’t fall for all the anti-EV claptrap put out by people who’ve never had one. As demonstrated by the PP comment about them catching fire more frequently BEVs are less likely to catch fire than any other type of car (petrol, diesel or hybrid).

My car at the moment is diesel and my next one will be . Electric cars have no appeal to me .

Consider one of the Toyota self charging (not plugin) petrol hybrids. Top reliability and very economical and comes with a 10 year warranty if serviced by Toyota.
The hybrid battery has a 15 year warranty and is tested every year.

You do a low weekly mileage and have a need to make long journeys. Both of those facts are things that would make a petrol car a better option.

(An electric car can be economical when the savings from a long commute five days a week add up, but that's not your scenario.)

The low mileage probably also means petrol is better than diesel, diesel's slightly greater fuel efficiency is irrelevant.

We've just bought a new petrol car. The reason for this is that we do 500 miles to visit family; the Highlands and the Hebrides don't have the number of public EV charging points to guarantee we won't get stranded; we don't want to have to hang around waiting for the car to charge when it's already a 12 journey (don't worry, we share the driving and take breaks)

I have a petrol after having to get rid of my diesel I wasn’t doing enough mileage to warrant having it and was slowly killing it.
I knew that I never wanted an electric car with having two young DCs I wanted to just be able to jump in my car and travel without stressing about if it had enough charge in it or would we need to be sat in some motor way services charging it half way through a journey.
At least with a petrol car I can get fuel anywhere and I find it just as good if not better than my diesel car on fuel.

Same. Saves me about a third or so (slightly more) on fuel costs. Battery life less of an issue because it’s constantly recharging. I love mine.