Vauxhall Ampera

The road test i have seen suggest it doesnt deliver any better economy that a decent diesel car in normal use, while costing more in comparison.

I suppose if its short trips with access to a power point it will make sense, but I dont see what you save buy paying a huge amount of money to save very little when the car isnt used that much.
 
I agree with the cost but as it's through motability scheme that doesn't really matter. Sure there is a higher initial deposit than a normal hatchback but he won't have to worry about residuals or battery life as it gets handed back after 3 years.

Just for comparison a vehicle with the same initial deposit on the scheme is a bottom of the range Audi Q3 2.0 diesel.

All this depends on how easy the car is to access however, he usually has larger 4x4/suv car as they are easier to get in and out.
 
atpbx said:
The road test i have seen suggest it doesnt deliver any better economy that a decent diesel car in normal use, while costing more in comparison.

I suppose if its short trips with access to a power point it will make sense, but I dont see what you save buy paying a huge amount of money to save very little when the car isnt used that much.
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35 miles each way isn't 'little use'. Advantage is that it's not a diesel... Full stop!
 
What MPG do you get if you were running just the range extender, ignoring the battery entirely?

EDIT: Answer:

http://www.which.co.uk/news/2012/01/vauxhall-ampera-is-urban-fuel-champion-277055/

However, when driving with the battery depleted and the petrol engine running much more, fuel consumption rises dramatically. In this scenario, we measured the equivalent of 70.6mpg in urban use, 51.4mpg extra-urban and 43.5mpg motorway in our tests. The overall tested average is 51.4mpg - worse than many diesel-engined large cars, and way off the official EC figure of 235.4mpg.
Click to expand...
 
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At the end of the day with most PHEV cars, your fuel economy will range from silly high all the way up to infinite-mpg if you plug in and have short trips.

The standard NEDC is a bit of a cheat for plug-in cars (well all cars these days), and is never a good gauge of real world range or fuel economy.
 
Why would you buy a plug in car and then not plug it in. I hate this whole 'not as good a diesel yet they will be comparing it to a diesel yaris or something. It's not supposed to be as good as a Diesel engine when the engine is used.. That's why it hasn't got one.

They state efficient but no so much when on longer runs.... Well durr.
 
Did you read the rest of the article? :confused:

It talks about all aspects of the economy. I quoted that part as you rarely get to understand the worst part of the economy, and they stated what you'd get. Say you needed to travel 500 miles, what MPG would you get for the last 450 miles? Not sure why it's retarded. Irony. :o
 
£30k including the £5k discount. I think I'd hold out for this though :o

(Yes unfortunately a different league, but seems far more accomplished all round)
 
Sorry for the bump, but I've had my Ampera for a week now and am thoroughly impressed with it (I got this through Motability).
I've driven 300 miles in the last week and used exactly 0.6 litre of petrol, which is fantastic. My 16amp charge point was installed too, so it takes around four hours to recharge, meaning I can do multiple longer journeys a day if necessary.
As a car it has its compromises, but generally it has exceeded expectations, which is impressive. Coming from my 2010 Volvo XC70, I'm impressed with its solid build and smooth ride - not one creak, groan or rattle from the interior, which is most unexpected. It also rides over our broken roads with excellent composure. This all adds to the serenity of driving everywhere (mostly) on battery power - it's quite surreal in traffic as it's totally silent.
Please do ask any questions!
 
I'll do that tomorrow, no problems :) The touch-sensitive buttons certainly aren't to my taste, but it's a comfy and relaxing place to be. I'm getting around 45 miles per charge, so I'm very happy with that.
 
Here are some pics:
Showing the charge point and Ampera plugged in.
RI95Kv0l.jpg

Interior views:

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HJDHVWBl.jpg

Showing hand controls (for those that are interested!)
63ETectl.jpg
 
Thanks for taking the snaps it certainly looks interesting. Might take a trip to a dealer to see how it drives compared to the prius I had and the I-miev I tried.
 
alexthecheese said:
Did you read the rest of the article? :confused:

It talks about all aspects of the economy. I quoted that part as you rarely get to understand the worst part of the economy, and they stated what you'd get. Say you needed to travel 500 miles, what MPG would you get for the last 450 miles? Not sure why it's retarded. Irony. :o
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The "500 mile trip" scenario is so far from the general usage pattern of your average driver it is irrelevant though. In nearly 14 years of driving my longest trip has been 490 miles. Would that once every few years event effect the car I buy? No because over 200 days a year I drive 30 miles each way to work. That is far more important than a once every few years cross Europe trip. I can rent a car to do that if I need to.

They don't suit everyone but they do suit the majority of people IMHO. Much more so that Mr & Mrs OAP who do an average of 60 miles a week in their 1.6TDCi Fiesta that they bought for the MPG figure in the brochure.
 
Waved goodbye to mine recently.

The lifetime average was around 65mpg because we ended up using it for lots of long-distance stuff where it effectively functioned as a 1.4-litre petrol automatic, thus would return only around 45mpg on those trips. If you can keep it charged and are only doing short trips you'll be OK though, if you can't then you shouldn't really bother - just feels like you're doing it a massive disservice then. Damn those buttons as well! :D

 
That's interesting, Lashout. How long did you have it, and how many miles?

I chose not to have the Air-dam(n) which seems to be the right choice considering all the bad-press it gets. My miles per charge are never lower than 45, so I'm very pleased with that. My usage should work quite well with this, as our only regular long trips are up to Newcastle, and that's only once a year (and we can charge up there too, which helps).

I'm still very impressed with how well it's built, and how refined it feels - it certainly rides better and has fewer rattles and creaks than the outgoing XC70. The instant torque, with no gear-change pauses are quite addictive :)

The touch-senstive buttons are awful. Having to take your eyes off the road to locate a button, and then check the screen to see if it has registered is appalling. With all the nanny-state interference these days, I wonder how long before these are outlawed?

I'm glad you enjoyed your time with it though.
 
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