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Thanks Joe

Thanks for that Joe. Does it clear all the vulnerable bits in the engine bay? I read that some brands of gas strut can cause rubbing issues

Oooh, good shout. Is it easy to change? I think it’s such a dangerous thing not to have a gas strut. The risk of broken hands/wrists is too high.

I’m waiting for my new CS at the moment, so will order one if they are an easy DIY’er fit.

Hi
Didn’t want to jump on the other post re decisions. I’m looking at replacing my car in May. It’s 5 years old then and although it’s got low mileage and is in good condition I feel even with the All In Plan which comes to the end also in May  it’s time to say goodbye.
I am mulling over
MK 8.5 GTI which could be the car I was hoping for back in 2021 and didn’t get!
What are peoples thoughts on the ID3 GTX performance?  Electric cars in general?
Luxury car tax, didn’t apply in 2021 and is a factor to consider in especially with more changes in April to VED.
Other alternatives I.e. non performance cars,  what have people gone for if not VW.
Sorry for so many questions

Just dipped my toes into EV with company car, a Cupra Terramar 272PS PHEV which was due to the company mandating PHEV/EV as choice plus incentives, plus the huge fall in BIK so a lot of up front saving £ - Seeing it as a free hit to test out the EV world for potential future own car purchase

However, do not have a drive and having to use the local chargers and using the 150KWH - 360KWH charges are super expensive, 15KWH costs £13.14 at 83p a KW and 0.39p session fee, which took the battery charge from zero to 80% in about 30 mins

You really would not want to charge an EV at them rates, as be way more than tanking up an ICE.

There is the lesser options of 21-24KW chargers, which is about half that price, but the trade off is having to wait a whole lot longer, and even more so with the 7KW chargers out there.

If use chargers outside of your drive, you going to be spending a lot of time waiting, or multiple top ups to get batteries up to the 80% mark which is recommended for battery health (you likely only go to 100% if going on a longer journey)

Was given a £700 charging voucher so none of this is costing me money at the moment so have settled on using the 24KW chargers to get as much bang for buck from that, and spending an hour at the dedicated charging station which is set up with lots of huddles and working areas and has a Costa, so its no different from having a coffee out as wait for it to charge.

Payment is super easy, presently just waving an RFID card at machine, but you do same with contactless, or you can sign up to something like Gridserve at £7.99 a month and get 25% off each session.

When go pure EV the 65 miles range it gives you goes super quick, couple of run outs and you back charging! so have settled on hybrid which still seems to run the battery down pretty quick, so do use the preserve battery option, which for me gives a nice blend of EV and ICE, as yes you use more petrol, but having a well topped up battery allows you to use the performance modes to fullest and put the full 272PS on tap, with the EV boost its certainly no slouch for an SUV.

Did run it at 0% for a while and it does reserve hidden battery as you do get EV 'boost' but predominantly ICE which is a 1.5 ltr engine producing 172BHP which to be honest you can poodle around in without really noticing any difference aside from getaways not being as brisk.

Averaging just short of 50MPG on ICE. Usually put in £160-£180 a month in the outgoing petrol. Can see, with taking the EV charging into account monthly spend will be about £100 but only done 700 miles so need to give a few months to see if that's reality.

I have been translating this experience to what living with a full EV would be like, and i would 100% want to charge at home to get best cost and avoid long waits (if mine takes 30 mins on 360KW chargers, what would a pure ICE be?) or multiple trips to charge.

Think those who have EV can give you a full description of what it is like to live with one but based on my experience with a PHEV i am definitely out till cost and experience is at least equal to an ICE on a forecourt.

PHEV is perfect for me now though, saving me a load of £ and Cupra Terramar is a super impressive car, and as its a lease and likely to be retiring in next 12-18 months will just hand it back without any of the depreciation concerns.

The venerable Golf is still the Levi’s/Heinz beans of hot hatches though, and hopefully can still fight its own corner for a good few years yet.

I saw an interesting thing the other day.... the markets had been for a number of years saying that "peak oil" will be in 2030.... they have changed that in the last few weeks to 2050 at the earliest.

What this means is that the consensus is that electrification of the world is not happening as fast.

This message will sink in with car OEM's I am sure.