Help buying a new car. Petrol? Hybrid? Electric?

[camaleon]

We have a Volvo XC60. We bought it newish 6 years ago, and it is by far the most expensive car we have ever had. It has not been great because it has cost a fortune to service and maitain.

We are about to get another huge bill for something wrong after we paid over £10000 for the 60000 miles service.

So thinking about getting a new car. We use it mainly on WE for football training and other sport activities of our kids. We travel once a year back to my home country (around 3000 kms each way).

I want something reliable and safe that is not super expensive.

Now there is also the question of hybrid/electric, etc. I am totally lost.

Any advice welcome

Forgot to say that I am not sure about budget at all. I would have to finance it, but I guess we can go up to 15 or 20 thousand pounds.

I think my mate got Ford puma which looks nice and part hybrid/petrol and I think it charges itself overnight.
Look into it

I think it is 300 pounds a month

I've just bought an Audi Q7, but I now wish we'd bought a hybrid!!

My boss has the hybrid version of the Q7 (mine's older, but less mileage) and I don't think I'd get one but I really like the look of Audi A6's.

Is £10k for the service a typo?!?

We are currently having the same debate. for full electric we decided against. it's hard to get change for £35k with a fully electric and we figured within the next few years they are gonna get cheaper and have better reach on a single charge. it's also hard to find them second hand as they are relatively new and those that are second had have a very short milege before needing to be charged.

We also don't drive enough that we would make up the extra expense in not buying petrol.

Think we are gonna get a cheap second hand petrol car for now and look into a fully electric in 3-5 years when i think they will be cheaper and better quality.

Toyota RAV4

We looked at loads. In the end have ordered a Toyota RAV 4. Why? The battery is recharged by the engine so no plugging in. Load space one of best in class. Toyota superb record for reliability. Technology has been out for a few years now and Toyota pioneered it, so proven. And best of all they have just changed warranty to 10 years plus 15 on the battery which beats everything else hands down. Downside of electric is that the charging infrastructure is not fully in place yet so if you were to take your car away to Spain for instance you would potentially struggle to find charging points. My first RAV was a 2006 bought new which I kept for 13 years. Only ever had 1 issue which was a flat battery. The car is still going!

To be clear I talking about the self charging hybrid as they’ve just brought out a plug in.

I would be getting a plug-in hybrid if I was buying new now. I have a non-plug-in hybrid at the moment (just conserves energy from braking and downhills, so uses massively less petrol) and I love it. Hybrids do cost more up front but they are massively cheaper to run as one tank of petrol seems to last for months.

Buying a new or nearly new car now, if you are expecting to be able to trade in what you buy now when you next buy in a few years time, you need to have in mind that by the time you want to sell it on, the deadline for the planned switchover for all new cars to be electric or hybrid in 2030 will be pretty close and I suspect that non-hybrid fully-petrol/diesel cars will begin to lose their value. It will be still legal to sell and own them second hand after the deadline but they will be seen as approaching obsolesence by then. Whereas a good quality hybrid bought now will retain much more of its value.

I'd check figures carefully before assuming that hybrids use less fuel. I often get sent them as work hire cars and so far most of them use significantly more fuel than my 13 YO petrol Mini.

I can see old petrol and diesel cars actually retaining or gaining value due to there being more demand for reducing supply amongst people who are unable to use a plug in car, where paying the premium isn't worth it due to low mileage or as a commodity for scrappage schemes.

@eurochick

Is £10k for the service a typo?!?

Sorry, I could not answer earlier. Yes it is a typo

Thank you very much for the suggestions.

The service is above 2000 as it has turned out. Still unsure about what to do. Have to answer by Friday so your messages are particularly useful.
Thanks again