What car should I buy?

[Hobbes39]

We have 2 cars due to living in a village with no real public transport and both of us working from home and having to go out to meetings means there are times we need a second car, but it's not every day. Anyway, both cars are now getting old - 2007 & 2011... both diesel, neither 4x4.
We would be looking to replace the older one in the next year (it's pretty much worthless in terms of part exchange) and trying to figure it what would be best for us....
Considerations are -

• I'd like to move away from diesel due to emissions
• we need a good sized boot for a medium sized dog & stuff for children
• we live in the countryside, driving along country roads every day, they are proper roads, but full of potholes and lots of tractors so v muddy.
• I do approx 25 miles most days, with once a week that being probably doubled if not a bit more.
• once off our (fast) country roads it's motorway driving for a bit before getting anywhere & about 4 times a eat we do long 300mile journeys (600m return) and would want a comfortable ride.

Would something like the the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV suit this? Or would we not be using the electric enough to make it efficient?

Thanks

A quick Google suggests that the battery range is only 22 miles and the MPG is 25. That doesn't sound good. Maybe a plugin hybrid estate?

www.carkeys.co.uk/guides/best-hybrid-estate-cars-2018

Hi, thanks for the reply. I'm confused where you get 25mpg from - everything I've seen about t is much better than this? (52 being minimum). Plus the data I've seen for electric range is more like 30miles?

A client of mine has one of these. He likes it, but he lives in a city and does shorter journeys; mainly urban driving. He bought one because he fancied a Prius but didn't want to be mistaken for an Uber driver!

Mitsubishi quote about 32 miles on battery power alone but you only get near that if you stay below 40mph. If you go over, the range drops - and you end up somewhere around 25 miles. Can be as low as 20.

The ride isn't brilliant, surprisingly. My client says it's a bit crashy over potholes.

It sounds like you do about 10,000 miles a year so you're probably right that diesel wouldn't be worth the extra. But you might not do enough low-speed miles to make a hybrid worth having either. Especially considering how much extra they cost.

If it were me, I'd look at an efficient ordinary petrol. Mazda's petrol engines are pretty good - you could look at the CX-5, or the 6 Tourer. Skoda Kodiaq (awful name) could be good too. Or a Superb estate.

I can't seem to repeat that search, but I have found one of the articles. The 25mpg figure from the headline seems to be for running on petrol only and it's US gallons, so that would be 30 MPG using imperial gallons. Obviously I didn't look closely enough and you should do better than that.

The 22 mile figure is the US govt figure, not the Mitsubishi figure. I don't know how they got the 22 mile range, but I would expect the Mitsubishi figure to be a touch optimistic.

@PlausibleSuit - thanks - that's useful - I wasn't sure if they type of driving I generally do would warrant a hybrid or not, so sounds like maybe not.. and interesting about the outlander not dealing with potholes - that's one of the reasons we would be looking potentially at a more suv type car as potholes round here are pretty awful and our current main car (Skoda Octavia estate) is great in many ways but doesn't cope with the potholes well at all and has needed various repairs due to them! The problem I have is that I think we need something a bit beefier but then hate the idea of being even worse environmentally that we are at the moment! Not sure what's the best balance... !

Oh don't get me started on potholes, Hobbes, inadvertently driving over one in my OH's Audi cost us over a grand a few months ago - for a single wheel.

Don't get me wrong, the Outlander would cope and would probably be better than the Skoda over the holes. But as SUVs go, there are better rides out there. The thing with the Outlander is that it's a 3/5 car with a 5/5 engine - but only if the kind of driving you do suits the engine, if that makes sense. If you're not making the most of the electric/battery bit, it's no less environmentally impactful than any other large car (I think the oily part is a straightforward 2.0 petrol).

You could take a closer look at the Outlander, but maybe compare to a regular petrol SUV too - if it were me, I'd look at a Mazda CX-5 or Honda CRV. Anything that doesn't have low-profile tyres will be better over bumpy, potholed roads.

It seems hard to find good information, but this might be useful?

www.lovemoney.com/news/13985/uks-most-pothole-proof-car

There seems to be a consensus that Honda's CRV is a good choice for potholed roads. There is even a hybrid CRV in the 2018 range, if you are buying new.

Thanks @CruelAndUnusualParenting - will have a look... I'm not sure we can afford a brand new car, but would love to... we've never bought new before, always 2nd hand and any cars we've owned have been sold for scrap eventually..! As i expect we won't buy another new one for years, running cost is a high priority too...
Will check out Honda CRV.

Hybrid CRV is not here until 2019.

Have you looked at scrappage schemes? You could maybe get £1000+ for your car.
Toyota Rav4 do a hybrid version which might fit your requirements.

Easy either a Octavia Scout or a yeti. 1.4 tsi