Dear Alex,
Our 2006 Vauxhall Astra has been run into the ground, so we are thinking of replacing it with an electric car or a hybrid costing up to £25,000.
Most of our journeys are quite short but we also undertake longer trips, and we have off-street parking where we could charge an electric vehicle. Comfort on longer journeys is important, as my husband has lower back pain.
As we’ve been used to a 2006 dashboard, we would like the new car to be as simple as possible. What are the pros and cons of electric vs hybrid? Which cars should we consider?
–MB
Dear MB,
If you can afford to buy an electric car and can install a charging point at home, an electric vehicle makes sense because it will save you money in the long run. If you can’t satisfy both of those conditions, you’re probably better off with a hybrid.
While an electric car still isn’t cheap to buy, it will pay for itself if you can charge it at a reasonably low rate. Given that public charging is so pricey in the UK, that usually means doing so at home.
If, on the other hand, you can only use public charging, running costs become roughly equivalent to those of one of the more fuel-efficient petrol hybrids.
From what you’ve said, an electric car would make sense for your needs. For your budget, I suggest a Hyundai Kona Electric. As it happens, my parents have had a Kona Electric for almost a year and love it. They get about 250 miles from a full charge (probably nearer 200 in the worst of winter) and have recently driven to south-west France and back. Its compact size makes it ideal for urban use, too. The easy-to-use, button-heavy interior minimises the amount of interaction with the touchscreen.
I found a year-old ex-demonstrator N Line with only 4,500 miles for £24,500. That will have four years of the original warranty remaining. Hyundai might even be willing to extend it for an extra fee.
Yet if you decide an electric car isn’t for you, your budget just affords a Lexus LBX. This compact hybrid SUV offers a plush interior with comfortable seats and physical buttons for the most regularly used functions. The hybrid power train isn’t the quietest, but it’s certainly frugal, while the LBX is as happy on motorways as it is around town. What’s more, Lexus will give you a year’s extra warranty each time you use a main dealer for annual servicing, until it’s 10 years old.
Can I ignore a DSG gearbox fault?
Dear Alex,
I have owned my 2020 Skoda Kamiq from new. I was very pleased with it until last September, when the DSG (direct-shift gearbox) automatic gearbox went into “emergency mode” and I could only use gears two, four and six.
The main dealer replaced the Mechatronic control unit under the extended warranty. The problem recurred in May, but the dealer said the issue was different: a clutch pack adjustment, which would not be covered. The likely cost is between £1,500 and £3,000.
I have contested this, but my main question is: when I restart the car, the problem goes away. Could this therefore be a software rather than a mechanical fault? Could I safely ignore it, switching off and restarting each time it occurs?
–DW
Dear DW,
Ignoring the problem and resetting it each time isn’t a wise move. In my experience, faults such as this can cause wear or even failure of other components within the gearbox.
A garage owner once told me the salutary tale of a customer who tried this very tactic to avoid the very expensive repairs usually associated with the well-documented failures of the DSG dual-clutch automatic gearbox in VW Group cars. It worked for a short while, but after a few months more fault codes started cropping up, and eventually he had to pay for a complete new gearbox, so it proved to be a false economy.
I’m afraid you’ve encountered one of the many issues surrounding DSGs and warranties, which is that while mechanical failure is covered by an extended warranty, wear and tear or adjustment isn’t.
If the clutch packs wear or need to be adjusted, that counts as the latter and isn’t covered, regardless of the fact that any job involving the clutches on the DSG is usually a gearbox-out job that requires several hours of labour. That means a hefty bill even if replacement parts are not required. If the gearbox is removed and a new clutch pack is deemed necessary, the cost can easily double.
Skoda might be willing to offer some goodwill given that your car has been serviced at a main dealer and had an extended warranty. Keep in contact with Skoda UK and push for a contribution of some kind.
If none, or only a desultory amount, is forthcoming, you might be better off trying an independent VW Group specialist, which will cost less in labour, if not parts. Besides, a second opinion wouldn’t hurt.
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