Does this seem odd?

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Dave13

Member
Joined
Apr 14, 2015
Messages
16
Location
Washington Tyne & Wear
After three weeks of PHEV life climbed back into our other car today, (56 plate xtrail Columbia ) no worries about EV range, no buttons to press, actually had to turn a key the start the thing, how bloody old fashioned is that!! Much as I love the new car it felt nice getting into the old lady again, that lovely diesel sound when cold, me deciding when to change gear not the car, and about 30mpg if I'm lucky.

I suppose the point of this post is that whilst the PHEV in my opinion is a nice car, does what it says on the tin, sort of, I'm not sure that I'll ever feel like I do about other cars I've had.

Does this seem odd?
 
Very - after 8 months I still love the smug feeling I get every time I hear a diesel clatter by, catch the whiff of acrid exhaust fumes or catch sight of another "dead-end" Prius. I have absolutely no desire to return to my antique motor in with which I spent a third of my 50 year driving life. :D
 
Not odd at all. After 9 months ownership and 9k miles I still miss my SWB Shogun Warrior. Yes - it was noisier and less economical but was much faster (chipped), handled way better and felt a lot more robust.

I love driving on battery power for local trips and the PHEV is quiet and smooth on the motorway but a few recent journeys highlighted its limitations of power and handling. The journeys were quite long and involved very windy hilly roads and yes I did all the button palaver that we do before hills but still had the engine screaming away at me trying to cope for 50 miles.

I used to look forward to packing up my Shogun and heading up to the wilds of Scotland/Islands with the bikes on the back. I just can't get the same enthusiasm for the trip with the PHEV.

The PHEV is comfortable (my passengers all love it), it is efficient, it "does what it says on the tin" and is the future - but for me it is utilitarian, soulless and boring. I'm hoping the Shogun PHEV, which is rumoured, is a better alternative - if not - then a VW Touareg or even an R32 Golf Estate is probably next on the list. I need to be able to look forward to the journey as well as the destination.
 
I have a somewhat ambiguous view of the PHEV - on one hand, I hate mechanical gearboxes and clutches and far prefer the mechanically simple electric drive train of the Outlander, but on the other hand it will take me a long time to have confidence in the car. The Outlander is a very comfortable car to drive - plenty of automation and it cruises quietly without obvious effort. It has a good turn of speed - better than anything I've had since my 3.5l V8 SWB Landrover - that was a beast, but horribly unreliable. I still miss the Landrovers, even though they were very unreliable - but I've grown out of driving over ploughed fields and up mountain sides. I would not take the Outlander further off-road than the gymkhana field, but it's a nice enough car for soft-roading.

Would I buy another? That will depend on how long this one lasts... Would I buy another EV? Certainly not a pure EV - they are far too limiting and likely to stay that way for a long time yet. Another hybrid? Quite possibly - I love the electric transmission.
 
Nope

Funny thing is that I still prefer my 43yo Jag, yes it only does 25l/100km, yes I have to pull a choke and turn a key to get it started, yes it only has three gears but by god it sounds and looks good!
 
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