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Nah, not defensive, just giving my experiences with the same car (slightly worse consumption due to AWD). Been EV since mid 2021, not going back unless it becomes crazy expensive.
If you can charge at home its a great saving over petrol prices, I was paying £3500 a year on diesel when I went EV in 2021, my first years bills were just over a 1/4 of the cost.
DumfriesDik is correct, the load shifting of household electric along with charging has seen me average 16.5p per kw since moving to Octopus. That’s better than I was getting on a fixed deal in 2019.
In life, it's not who you know that's important, it's how your wife found out.
If you are charging at home on a smart tariff, then your overall fuel costs compared to ICE is very low, even with the odd long trip and exorbitant public charging fees.
I’ve done 10,000 miles in my Ioniq 5 84kw AWD this year, that includes two long trips of around 2000 in total, one to the lake district and one to the South of England from NE Scotland. My total “fuel” bill is just under £500. Your bill in your 1.2 petrol 500 mile for £60 car is £1200. My car’s average consumption is 3.2 m/kw, but I don’t drive below 70 on main dual/motorway routes, usually sit at 75 or above. All my refuelling was done at Tesla (without subscription) except one Gridserve fill in Ashford, Kent (no nearby Tesla units).
We’ve also done a lot of 2-300 mile jaunts where I’ve just charged up, driven to the likes of Glasgow and back (240 mile trip) and arrived home with plenty left. I was surprised at one such trip in summer, covered 265 miles and arrived home with 84 miles left. Admittedly it was hot, the route was mostly 60mph A & B quiet Scottish roads, but still impressed).
Your example is also flawed if you have home charging, you set off full, so your first 200-250 miles are covered by your initial £5.60 home fill.
In life, it's not who you know that's important, it's how your wife found out.
I don’t really use mine much, prefer mirrors and eyeballs, but then I’m an old fart, so learned to drive before electric windows and central locking became a thing, let alone cameras and parking sensors.
Having said that, had a reversing camera on all my cars since 2005, 360 deg this time.
In life, it's not who you know that's important, it's how your wife found out.
Not sure what we will do, we can easily buy a car outright, new or used (prob 1-2 yrs old, same as we used to before Motability came along) will see what the scheme looks like in 2 years time. Hell, at this rate, average AP will be £10k, except for the Dacia Spring. Wife’s salary sacrifice is Tusker – not cheap, they are a rip off, so that’s unlikely.
It will be interesting to see how they “promote” British built – artificially high AP’s on everything else I expect.
In life, it's not who you know that's important, it's how your wife found out.
If I spill a drink in my car that’d be the only time I’d done so in my 60 years on this earth. I’ve always “strongly discouraged” eating and drinking in all of my cars, family know we don’t do drive-thrus. Been that way since my first car. Funnily enough my father was the same – EEK, I’m becoming him….arrgh.
In life, it's not who you know that's important, it's how your wife found out.
I’ve had 9 tyres in one lease – Grand Picasso returned at 74,000 miles 3 years and 3 months old. never got asked about it and never knew there was a limit.
3x punctures. Kwikfit said couldn’t be repaired. Worn out 2 sets of new fronts and a set of rears.
As for EV’s chewing tyres, that’s daft. Kia Soul EV, 42,000 miles, two fronts only at 34,000 worn out. Pretty much the same sort of mileage I got from the S-Max that followed it. They were much the same power/weight wise as well. Current Ioniq 5 at 10,000 miles, tyres still well over 1/2 tread. I’d expect mid 20,000s at a minimum.
In life, it's not who you know that's important, it's how your wife found out.
You’ll be fine Joss, had my Ioniq 5 for nearly a year now, 10,000 miles in and no issues other than the silly rattly boot (there is a Hyundai warranty fix for that – but why has it not been rectified at the factory!) which I fixed with 2 2″ bits of Velcro and a 1″ bit of duct tape in under 2 minutes. Saved me 2x 1 hour trips to the dealer (nearest is 30 miles away) for something so simple.
Car’s been great.
In life, it's not who you know that's important, it's how your wife found out.
Having organised the add-on contracts for my employers HR I can tell you that the only unusual and incidentally worthwhile items on there are the non-contributory pension (usually reserved solely for upper management – nice to see it cover everyone) and the free health insurance – ditto on usually free for upper management, screw the rest of ’em typical PLC approach.
The employee discount scheme is a crock of shite, but costs the firm nothing, companies approach you to offer this to your staff. Subsidised gym, Cycle to work, health schemes aside from free private healthcare/wellbeing are all part of any half decent firm’s HR offering nowadays & again are pennies to offer. Salary sacrifice is common too – every man and his dog offer it – take a look at Tusker though, the costs on a lease are stupidly high and only make sense if you are on a huge salary looking to offload as much 40% tax hit as possible. We actually want all staff to use this as it reduces Motability’s NI contribution so actually lowers costs for them (and subsequently us).
Son works for an American plc, gets all of the above, free gym, except the non-contributory pension. He does, however, gets a free £15 deliveroo voucher each day for lunch. He bought his own car as it was loads less than the same offering via salary sacrifice. As for wages, the lowest paid member of his firms staff earns £36k per annum (the receptionist I think).
The health screening/dental care is roped in with the private healthcare, it’s only a few quid more per annum for the firm. Wife used to have it in her old job – she got free glasses too if I recall. That was a small architects firm.
I’m not standing up for Motability, just letting you know that a lot of these perks are pretty standard in modern plc’s and indeed the public sector. My wife is a teacher, her employer, the local council, offer all of the above apart from free healthcare and pensions (the death in service is only 3x her salary, not 4…). Thats how I know about Tusker as thats her work salary sacrifice scheme lease firm.
In life, it's not who you know that's important, it's how your wife found out.
I’d take one over a Dacia Spring – better built and more tech, bigger battery, more power…but otherwise no. Yes its cheap, but so is a 3yr old Suzuki S-Cross with 7 years warranty left. It might cost a wee bit more to run, but let’s face it, you’d not buy a Leapmotor T03 for big annual mileages, so the cost difference wouldn’t be that great.
In life, it's not who you know that's important, it's how your wife found out.
Does seem weird, just got quotes on the Meerkat site with £100 voluntary excess & 10k miles a year for:
’23 plate Suzuki Across, 23k value, 323hp, £410 with AA (or £466 with Hastings Direct).
’24 plate Model Y Long Range RWD, £25k value, 384hp, £612 with Hastings Direct.
’23 plate Skoda Superb Sportline Estate 2.0tdi £23k value 200hp, £389 with Hastings Direct.
’24 plate Toyota Bz4X Motion RWD, £23 Value, 200hp, £415 with Hastings Direct.
All with 9 yrs no claims, but even with 3 years NCD, the BZ4x goes up to £475 on Hastings Direct (lowest quote £404 with Axa). Something seems very off for you to get quotes so sky high.
As for travel insurance, would never step foot out of the UK without it. I’ve never claimed but you are braver than me going to USA without insurance, small simple treatments can be astronomic without it, let alone major issues or repatriation costs.
In life, it's not who you know that's important, it's how your wife found out.
If they do it like NZ have, then you voluntarily buy miles online either upfront or as you go (in 600 mile blocks there), against the reg or VIN of the car. Then, when MOT’d the mileage is checked, if you are over the paid for mileage you have to pay the difference in x days or get a fine added. Sell car, same thing happens. Payment dodgers via crooked MOT garages/car clocking, as now, are a small % of total mileage covered by the populace.
In NZ there are different mileage charges for diesels, EV’s & plug in hybrids. They also apply to different weight class vehicles over 3.5T, but that’s not relevant here. It’s all been working for ages (they started with diesels in 1978!). They have a bit more common sense than here, so the revenue collected goes into the National Land Transport Fund, which pays for road maintenance, road improvements, public transport and road safety.
It will not be done using cameras on the roads as some suggest. The cost would run into billions & how do you cover the whole road network. A black box would work – but may meet stiff resistance on the “you are tracking me and what I do” front & also a lot of costs either to be absorbed or passed on.
It will not be by your charger/electricity company, you could fill by 240v plug or solar and escape the fees. Also it would then be by KW not mileage covered and it would be impossible to roll out to selected vehicles later…as it probably will be…Net Zero, no more diesel etc etc…
In life, it's not who you know that's important, it's how your wife found out.
I didn’t think to post – at least, not till its a reality. In any case, it’s been on the cards for years, falling fuel duty revenues must be filled by something. It will get more expensive too over time, 3p today, 7p or more by 2030 I think.
Perhaps one way to bolster EV sales – impose the rate on everyone. Tried the carrot to shift to EV, now here’s the stick…
It does raise affordability questions, especially now longer range plug-in hybrids exist, we could get by happy with a plug-in that did 60 or more miles electric & decent MPG the rest of the time, the differences in cost would be negligible or even a saving over our 10,000 miles per annum.
Of course, we may be leaving the scheme due to possible end of the month news, so who knows what we will end up driving. I always preferred big engined cars, so 3ltr sixes are back on my menu!
In life, it's not who you know that's important, it's how your wife found out.
I would not take a Stellantis product, too many software and weird hardware issues, just go look at the eC3 forum, it’s the same car and software dressed up as a Vauxhall. Issues abound from frozen screens to weird drive failures. Bjorn Nyland had numerous issues inc. charging problems during his time testing the car.
The Suzuki eVitara ( rebadged Toyota Urban Cruiser) is new to market, however, Toyota has not had any issues with their ev’s other than their unrealistic mileage claims for the early bz4x models, subsequently sorted.
In life, it's not who you know that's important, it's how your wife found out.
She might well though, restricting eligibility pays to the “I got a free Merc and all I had to do was say I am anxious” newspaper nonsense and removing said Merc (insert other “luxury” brands of choice here) and other knee-jerk policies play to the outraged Reform voters they are desperately seeking to woo.
It matters not a jot that we get to keep the same Govt cash, it’s all about the optics of being seen to be doing something about it. It is unlikely, as the backlash would be pretty harsh from her backbenchers and from other core voters – not least the disabled who are being restricted/given poorer choices. Then again, rational decisions and politicians are polar opposites!
In life, it's not who you know that's important, it's how your wife found out.
I’d put money on a replacement – likely Ioniq 3, their version of the EV3, appearing in 2026. It probably won’t have a small battery version to start with, given the EV 3 is 58 or 81kw, so they will continue to offer the Kona as a low cost entry model before ending production as an EV entirely.
In life, it's not who you know that's important, it's how your wife found out.
Just seems like throwing away money for some limited convenience.
I did 288kw of charging in Sept. I’m not on a smart tariff as I don’t have a smart charger. So I use Octopus Go at 8.5p per kw, 5hrs a night. My Sept. charge cost for 288kw was £24.48.
I’ve done 7000 miles in my car in the 9 months of 2025, I’ve fast charged it twice at Tesla Gretna Green, 115kw in total, cost £66.82. My average consumption is 3.2m/kw, if I remove the mileage covered by the Tesla charges, then I’ve spent £175 to charge my car, or, if included, £242. Your DD would have cost £535 over the same period. Over double the cost.
Ok, you get a bit more public charging, about 50kw or so, call it a single charge at Tesla, but it simply doesn’t add up. Intelligent Go or EON would save you even more and allow peak charging if that was definitely required – and it wouldn’t be KW limited like the Ovo offering.
So, over say 3 years, you’d save £900-1000 – something to put towards the next AP.
In life, it's not who you know that's important, it's how your wife found out.
Check out the owners forums, the Ora has not had a blemish free introduction. Issues with infotainment, chargers & software. Not brilliant build quality.
Also test drive one yourself, especially with all of the safety aids you are keen on turned on. Many Chinese cars are not very good at lane keep assist, either bouncing between lanes or veering off to one side – Bjorn Nyland (he’s on you tube) is a good source of objective reviews on this sort of thing and other issues like charging times etc as he does long distance tests.
Not trying to put you off at all, just making sure you go in with your eyes open. Yes, it’s better than a clapped out C1, but so are a great many other cars out there for the same or less cash.
I agree with what you are trying to do, we did the same with our son some years back. Convinced him to get a new Citigo after his test, it was a brilliant first car and he had 4 years & over 50,000 trouble free miles out of it, rather than a clapped out £1500 banger (especially given his daily 52 mile commute to his work).
In life, it's not who you know that's important, it's how your wife found out.
My ’25 Ioniq 5 came with the 5m Type 2 and a granny charger. I took the granny out and only keep the type 2 in the car. No V2L adaptor, they dropped that as a standard item and ask silly prices for it. There are plenty of Hyundai/Kia ones on ebay if you fancy one.
Done over 50,000 miles in EV’s over 4 years now, not used the granny or the type 2 cable yet (I have a tethered charger at home).
In life, it's not who you know that's important, it's how your wife found out.
I’m on Smarty, sim only, powered by Three, currently paying £8 a month for 50GB (it’s a 16GB deal with a free hike to 50GB for 12 mths, 7 mths remain) free EU roaming up to 12GB fair use. Monthly contract, no annual price rises and no credit check.
Been great, was with Three for yonks, mostly because of the worldwide roaming, but the annual hikes made it increasingly expensive. Smarty has been £8 for me for nearly 2 years & has been faultless.
In life, it's not who you know that's important, it's how your wife found out.
When did the ioniq 5 n line s disappear I missed that
Still on when I do a search, £4499 AP though.
In life, it's not who you know that's important, it's how your wife found out.
The fault is pretty severe, it’s the wonky scoring which allows 4 stars, given NCAP had never seen a failure like this in over 28 years of crash testing. I’d not be keen on purchasing an MG3 without the issues being fixed. No car is perfect, but failures like this should really lead to a recall of affected vehicles rather than an “oh look, it may be an issue for you at some point” advisory.
Autocar wrote…
In Euro NCAP’s frontal offset crash test (in which 40% of the car’s front end collides with a barrier), it found the 3’s seat latching mechanism failed, causing the driver’s seat to twist during the impact. This caused a more severe impact on the crash test dummy’s right leg than if the seat had remained in place, resulting in a “poor” score for protection of the driver’s right femur. The organisation added that MG implemented changes to reinforce the mechanism in August.
Euro NCAP also found that the driver’s head could “bottom out” through the airbag in a crash, meaning it graded the 3’s head protection as only adequate. MG promised to tweak the airbag in October. However, the seat and airbag changes won’t be applied to 3s that have already been delivered to customers since the model’s launch last year.
Following the findings, Euro NCAP said it will implement changes to how it scores crash tests; it doesn’t currently have a mechanism for penalising cars in the event of component failures, so the 3 scored four stars out of five. “This is an almost unheard-of occurrence, but one that Euro NCAP will address through changes to our protocols and scoring so we can reflect any failure,” they said.
In life, it's not who you know that's important, it's how your wife found out.
Wot He Said (DumfriesDik) Not my car, not my problem. Also, not anything I can do about it, so, Meh.
In life, it's not who you know that's important, it's how your wife found out.
I updated to Win11 pretty much as soon as it was available, we’d changed to Win11 at work and I wanted the same interface at home. It’s been painless for me, no issues, no problems. My wife left her PC on Win10 – as she was worried about stability. It was upgraded about a month ago, no issues, no problems other than her having to learn the slightly different layout.
In life, it's not who you know that's important, it's how your wife found out.
Motability are probably scared that an extended EV at 5 years old, would not be attractive at auction to dealers and raise buttons in sales profit. They are suffering as it is from the value of 3yr old EVs vs what their calculations were back in 2022. Add on 3 year warranty, so any issues year 4 & 5 are on their dime…
Hmmm, you could always choose a car with a daft lead time, Enyaqs are about 12 months just now (according to Carwow’s lead time chart), so that’s a 4 year lease…and order it the day before your 3 year deadline.
In life, it's not who you know that's important, it's how your wife found out.
I’ve always booked a courtesy car, since the dealers are always a 70+ mile round trip. Never been an issue till I used Arnold Clark in Aberdeen for a Kia service (the usual closer dealer had no slots for ages and the 10k service was due -silly interval! – as well as an impending 1500 mile trip so really needed it done). Booked a car, turned up 8.30am on the day for a service and the recall battery coolant change. Only to be told they had no record of a car booking, no cars available, please go away as we don’t know when during the day we will get to your car. Car was ready at 4.45pm, unwashed.
No apology, no assistance & no car. Luckily I an the named driver, not the disabled recipient, so a long walk to the bus station (and reverse at the end of the day).
As I was leaving, there was a lady customer getting the same “you didn’t book it…yes I did…the computer says no…argument.
I did have an issue at a Citroen dealer once, back in 2017, three of their courtesy cars were damaged overnight. They simply put me in a demonstrator for the day, simple, no hassle and bonus of a better car than their usual base model courtesy car.
In life, it's not who you know that's important, it's how your wife found out.
