Hybrid cars, and which ones are available these days

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#2886029 14-Mar-2022 15:32

alasta:

Those waiting times must be a nightmare for anyone who has written their car off and desperately needs a new one!

Would insurance even cover you with a loaner for that long? I have only had them for a very short time while the car was being assessed and then they decided it was a write off, then it was all bring the car back here is your money less the excess less what you had remaining on the policy less this and that.

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RobDickinson

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#2886035 14-Mar-2022 15:41

They'd just pay you out cash valuation and off you go

yann

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#2886106 14-Mar-2022 17:47

I got my Corolla hybrid just before the first lockdown, but it took 3-4 months from ordering before it got delivered. The RAV4 hybrid my folks got took about 6 months and they got theirs a little before mine.

I think as had been mentioned above, that some of the models cannot be ordered at the moment.

Also from the look on Trademe, some folk as well as dealerships look to be selling second hand vehicles of these, but sometimes in excess of the new price, given the scarcity and delivery time. I think there are Corollas selling $5k more than a new one (if available), and $10k more for a RAV4. All a bit bizarre in a way but that's the way it works if people don't want to wait etc.

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#2886164 14-Mar-2022 18:40

yann:
I got my Corolla hybrid just before the first lockdown, but it took 3-4 months from ordering before it got delivered.

How is the real world mileage?

quickymart

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#2886186 14-Mar-2022 20:12

I saw a Honda Fit(?) hybrid while out tonight, never seen one of those before.

Scott3

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#2886194 14-Mar-2022 20:23

Eva888: What would be the best advice as to timing to sell the VW and buy a hybrid? It will be a second car and ideally would like to trade in, but the last dealer that appraised for a direct buy shocked me with the low price offered. Am possibly looking at a Prius rather than an Aqua for more room and power for a longer trip.

TBH I don’t like trying to sell privately as I was inundated with a lot of unsavoury pushy types last time we sold a car and the person we sold it to very cheaply, tried to knock half the price off again after the sale and while he had ownership. It was such an unnerving experience so I may be stuck with using a dealer.

If you are after a new toyota hybrid, the best time for buying is ASAP as the bulk of them have long wait lists, and likely incoming price hikes. Likely delivery will be after the clean car discount come into play for non plug in cars anyway.

If you are after a used Toyota hybrid (Likely given you mention the aqua and prius, both models no longer sold new except the Prius prime), you will need to balance the Clean Car discount on used fresh imports (cira $1700, starting 1 april), with potential fuel savings between now and then, and potential inflation of used car values between now and then. Obviously there has been a surge of interest since petrol broke through $3/L, so pickings won't be quite as good as 3 weeks ago. My gut would say waiting is the best bet.

In terms of selling your VW, Good used cars are in tight supply at the moment (impacts of new car shortage's, combines with logistics issues, less used cars being auctioned in japan, and more people wanting cars to due pandemic - both for health reasons, and from money saved during lock-downs, and due to no international travel). So now would be good. If it is super thirsty (v8 petrol touareg etc.), perhaps waiting a few weeks for the fuel price situation to stabilize could help (but that could go the other way too). As a general rule there seem to be plenty of people around that ignore running costs in their purchasing decisions anyway.

In terms of how to sell, listing it yourself via trademe will net you by far the most money. Obviously a bit of a pain meeting and negotiating with buyers, but the last car I sold went in the first 24 hours. If you don't want to negotiate on price, you could consider running an auction and letting the market decide the value.

Otherwise you can trade in at a dealer, Send it to the auctions (turners), sell to turners via cashnow, sell to a dealer, have a dealer sell it on your behalf for a fee, or use a park and sell service, so you don't need to deal with buyers in person. Quicker and easier options will net you less money. I think turners cash-now offers 80% of what they think they can get for the car at their wholesale actions.

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#2886196 14-Mar-2022 20:27

quickymart:

I saw a Honda Fit(?) hybrid while out tonight, never seen one of those before.

Getting pretty common. 247 of them on trade me at the moment. But still way less popular than the Toyota aqua (980 on trade-me)

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#2886222 14-Mar-2022 22:02

@Scott3 Thanks for the thoughtful response. I was surprised to hear cars are hard to come by now. The VW is older but beautiful deep charcoal leather interior. We hardly use it anymore. I might get a neighbour to front for the car via trade me and give him something for his troubles. Also hadn’t thought of Turners so thanks.

I do want a Hybrid that is a bit bigger than the Aqua which is small and can’t carry much. It replaced a small station wagon which is really missed especially when buying something long or bulky. Also it doesn’t do hills very well. AA recommended it as a sensible buy which it definitely is. It’s got wheels and is plain boring without one feature I would rave about but, very cheap to run.

We probably don’t need a second car anymore but it gives us security in case the other packs up. Am done with European cars now, that bird has flown. Had nice cars in the past that I really enjoyed driving. Nothing beats a petrol engine IMHO. Now it’s sensible and reliable with easy to find parts and that I don’t need to keep replacing snapped off badges and waiting months for small parts that cost as much as a new fridge.

So am watching this thread for ideas.

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#2886228 14-Mar-2022 22:17

Eva888: @Scott3 Thanks for the thoughtful response. I was surprised to hear cars are hard to come by now. The VW is older but beautiful deep charcoal leather interior. We hardly use it anymore. I might get a neighbour to front for the car via trade me and give him something for his troubles. Also hadn’t thought of Turners so thanks.

I do want a Hybrid that is a bit bigger than the Aqua which is small and can’t carry much. It replaced a small station wagon which is really missed especially when buying something long or bulky. Also it doesn’t do hills very well. AA recommended it as a sensible buy which it definitely is. It’s got wheels and is plain boring without one feature I would rave about but, very cheap to run.

We probably don’t need a second car anymore but it gives us security in case the other packs up. Am done with European cars now, that bird has flown. Had nice cars in the past that I really enjoyed driving. Nothing beats a petrol engine IMHO. Now it’s sensible and reliable with easy to find parts and that I don’t need to keep replacing snapped off badges and waiting months for small parts that cost as much as a new fridge.

So am watching this thread for ideas.

I got a Honda Fit Hybrid a few weeks ago because of the boot space and how you can configure the seats.

Check out the configurations of the seats in this video: https://youtu.be/Y5oSP4h1Utc

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#2886231 14-Mar-2022 22:36

They seem quite pricey. Is there much of a second-hand market for them?

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#2886232 14-Mar-2022 22:37

quickymart:
They seem quite pricey. Is there much of a second-hand market for them?

The old folks love them

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#2886237 14-Mar-2022 23:20

quickymart:

They seem quite pricey. Is there much of a second-hand market for them?

Are you taking about New cars?

If so, what is sold in japan as the Fit is sold in NZ as the Jazz.

As with many other smaller Japanese cars (Swift, aqua / prius C etc), there is a thriving used market, but the presence of large volumes of used imports from japan does depress the value some what.

In terms of the cost. yes the $7000 jump over the base petrol jazz seems is a lot more than the premium that Toyota charges for it's hybrids, but it does have better trim like leather seats bundled with the powertrain. But even at a $7k premium, at rated fuel consumption (5.4 vs 2.8L/100km), and $3/L fuel (both run 91), the payback period for the hybrid is just 78,000km.

Just looked up 2019 petrol Jazz cars. many asking around $23k or $24k. In that light a brand new Jazz at $28k +ORC seems like great value. Only a few thousand more to get the new shape, brand new, warranty, new consumables like tires etc. No wait times on he new one either.

As others have mentioned, the Jazz / Fit are well loved, especially their interior packaging. Have extended family members that had a long succession of jazz's, upgraded every few years. Ultimately only changed model due to mobility issues of one person, requiring a car with a sliding front passenger door (Porte / Spade is pritty much the only car on the market with this configuration), and then when that person passed a move to an electric car.

yann

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#2886239 14-Mar-2022 23:43

mudguard:
yann:

I got my Corolla hybrid just before the first lockdown, but it took 3-4 months from ordering before it got delivered.

How is the real world mileage?

I've actually got very little use in a sense, given the lockdowns and working from home for a lot of that time. So compared to a lot of people here it seems like I hardly drive. When I am actually in the office when not working from home, my commute is about a 9km round trip, so pretty close.

So I'm pretty much on two years of ownership, and my odometer flicked over 9000km this month I think. Use has been mainly been city driving and short trips (100km-200km). Overall less driving than normal given the working from home and travel limitations. But overall, I think I'm roughly around the 4.5L/100km range, maybe slightly higher for my mileage. I think specs had it at around 4.2, so I'm not too far off with the varied terrain etc.

Yann

Scott3

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#2886240 15-Mar-2022 00:16

Eva888: @Scott3 Thanks for the thoughtful response. I was surprised to hear cars are hard to come by now. The VW is older but beautiful deep charcoal leather interior. We hardly use it anymore. I might get a neighbour to front for the car via trade me and give him something for his troubles. Also hadn’t thought of Turners so thanks.

I do want a Hybrid that is a bit bigger than the Aqua which is small and can’t carry much. It replaced a small station wagon which is really missed especially when buying something long or bulky. Also it doesn’t do hills very well. AA recommended it as a sensible buy which it definitely is. It’s got wheels and is plain boring without one feature I would rave about but, very cheap to run.

We probably don’t need a second car anymore but it gives us security in case the other packs up. Am done with European cars now, that bird has flown. Had nice cars in the past that I really enjoyed driving. Nothing beats a petrol engine IMHO. Now it’s sensible and reliable with easy to find parts and that I don’t need to keep replacing snapped off badges and waiting months for small parts that cost as much as a new fridge.

So am watching this thread for ideas.

Should note the situation with used cars fetching higher prices than 2 years back is likely to stick around for a while. Chip shortages & logistics issues seem like they will be hampering new car sales for at least another year. Given you are barely running the thirsty car, not really any particular need to make the change to a hybrid in the midst of a fuel price surge. Obviously not much fuel savings to be had from little running.

I mentioned all the hybrids I could think of many pages back:

https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=162&topicid=293225&page_no=2#2845093

When comparing the aqua / Prius C to the 3rd gen Prius, basically the only things the aqua / prius C have going for them is low price (and smaller size for parking). The 3rd Gen prius is larger, more powerfull and gets about the same economy (0.1L/100km more efficient on paper).

Other cars you could consider:

Lexus CT200h. 3rd gen Prius drive-train with luxury features, sound deadening and a flasher body. Prius like economy and reliability, with a nice cabin.... That said, that sound insulation is heavy so it is a touch slower than the prius, and the body is not areo optimised, so economy is a touch worse.

Feilder hybrid: Basically the aqua power-train in a small station wagon.

Prius Alpha 5 seater / Prius V: large wagon version of the prius. Much more interior space than my fairly large SUV. Same drive-train as the prius pushing around a bigger body so like the lexus CT-200h will be a touch slower than the Prius.

Honda Fit shuttle hybrid - basically a honda fit / jazz hatchback stretched into a station wagon. Get the raved about jazz interior design, with a extended boot.

Another thought. Choosing to own two car's but only really needing one, sounds like a perfect setup to combine a cheaper Nissan leaf for city use, with something large and powerful for out of town trips. Pritty much our setup (24kWh leaf + Lexus RX400h). Leaf does most of our Auckland region running. But we break out the lexus when we need two cars at once, want more cargo space, want AWD to drive on the beach, or want to tow something (didn't pay for a towbar on the leaf), or if the range of the leaf would be an issue.

For us it was worth it, but should note that having two cars when you only need one is a luxury that comes at a cost. Time based maintenance, insurance & age based depreciation all add up. That money can pay for a fair few uber rides etc.

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#2886332 15-Mar-2022 09:26

Side note which I think I've seen mentioned earlier, but the Fit only has a 2 star safety rating so isn't eligible for the current clean car subsidy. Just something to consider.

That subsidy runs out soon, at least in it's current form. Will be interesting to see if it's extended or expanded upon to cover more vehicle types etc.

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