Hybrid Cars

midlandsmissus

I was looking at cars in my price range, and i saw a car I liked, and then noticed it was advertised as a Hybrid car.

I know this vaguely means it's more fuel efficent, but apart from that I'm in the dark. Are they a good buy? And what fuel do you put into them? Under fuel it says hybrid aswell.

Thanks for any info.

colm_mcm

There are only a handful of family hybrids available;

Honda Civic IMA original model
Uses a conventional manual gearbox and an electric motor to assist the petrol engine. it can only run with the engine and motor at the same time or with the engine on its own.
The battery is sandwiched behind the rear seats so you can't fold them down. looks pretty much like a standard saloon car.

Toyota Prius original model
Like the Civic it uses battery motor and engine, but the motor can drive the car at low speeds with the engine shut off. Looks like a Nissan Tiida. good enough on fuel but small enough inside (Clio sized pretty much) Oddball looks put most people off.

Civic IMA current model
A development of the old model, but only available in automatic. generous standard equipment and decent looks.

Prius (up to 2009 model)
Available only in automatic. 5 star NCAP, good spec, loads of safety gear. batteries under the boot, so boot space not great. hatchback only.

Because all these cars fall into low emissions categories and get up to €2500 off VRT so importing is very attractive. VRT on an 07 Civic IMA is a few hundred € for example.

Both the Honda and Toyota get long warranties on hybrid components.

mickdw

petrol engine with battery packs. You put petrol in, but these cars have electrical generators taking power from the wheels when slowing down etc and feeding this power back in making the car more efficient overall. A good diesel is easily a match efficiency wise though.
I personally wouldnt buy an older hybrid. Any fault would certainly be a dealer repair and I coould imagine them getting expensive in that regard. Most of them are pretty pointless but I wouldnt mind a lexus GS450h. 3.5L petrol + electric motors making for a very powerful car.

colm_mcm

Similarly any common rail diesel could need a set of injectors or a high pressure fuel pump, which could be thousands to repair.
The nice thing about batteries is that you only have to plug them in. the cells in hybrid batteries are replacable individually and the car would work even if most of them were defective.

Seweryn

midlandsmissus wrote: »

I was looking at cars in my price range, and i saw a car I liked, and then noticed it was advertised as a Hybrid car.

I know this vaguely means it's more fuel efficent, but apart from that I'm in the dark. Are they a good buy? And what fuel do you put into them? Under fuel it says hybrid aswell.

Thanks for any info.

Hybrid cars are cars that are petrol engined with an additional electric motor, which helps improving fuel economy and makes the car a lot more complicated. So, you put petrol into the tank and the car uses on a long run more less the same amount of petrol than pure petrol equivalent car. The main advantage would be city driving with start-stop driving style, as the electric generator (motor) generates electricity during braking and stores it in the batteries for later use.
Are they a good buy? Personally I wouldn't touch it and if I need good fuel economy in a car, I would buy a Diesel engined car which is the most economical of them all.

Good Luck with your choice.

JHMEG

colm_mcm wrote: »

Similarly any common rail diesel could need a set of injectors of a high pressure fuel pump, which could be thousands to repair.

Or more likely a turbo. Very much more likely. In fact almost guaranteed. And unlike a battery pack you can't swap out a turbo in 30 seconds with no tools.

Opinions around here on hybrids are like ar$eholes - everyone has one. There are very few hybrid owners tho (I'm one - I own a Civic IMA - PM me if you would like to discuss offline)

Lanciahead

The new model Prius is seriously impressive to drive - looks great too. Definitely worth checking out. The new model Honda Insight is also a big improvement - and significantly cheaper

colm_mcm

To be fair the new Insight is like a Prius done on the cheap. Saying it's a big improvement on the old one is easy. the old one was wildly impractical and odd looking.