Hybrid car recommendations? (Under £15k)

Posted 10th May 2023

Hi all,

Does anyone have any hybrid car recommendations?
The in-laws are looking to replace their old petrol car and currently dont want to go electric so a hybrid seems to be the best fit for them.
Not sure what we should be looking at for the price (anything under 15k, the lower the better).

Thanks

23 Comments

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17 h, 52 m ago
hybrid cars are just pointless. you cant actually drive on electric power alone so you arent making any savings. might as well just get an economical petrol car and be done with it.

either get a PHEW but for 15k the battery will also be on its legs given the age and usage or fully electric (as you say mainly london so it makes the most sense)
11 h, 3 m ago
You can drive on electricity with a full hybrid. Not super long distances but up to 3 miles at a time… Not that this is the point. It’s more that you’re constantly charging and discharging the battery to make the most efficient use of what’s available to you at the time. Brake to a stop using regen and pull away ok electricity rather than the increased power demand on the engine.

I suspect you’re thinking of the 48V ‘Mild’ Hybrid cars? These ones will only provide short bursts of electrical power assistance. You can’t drive on electricity alone at all.

For the record. I’m not anti-EV. I own one myself and love it. But I do appreciate that full electric isn’t for everyone. And I’ve seen for myself that under specific circumstances that hybrids can do better than just an efficient car with a small engine.
10th May
lease until the 2nd hand market calms down a bit.
10th May
A Lot of people here are suggesting Toyota. But I would personally go down a slightly different route and say the Hyundai Ioniq. Very similar to the Prius, but you get more toys and features for your money, as well as a dual clutch auto gearbox rather than the awful CVT Transmission that Toyota have in their cars. If you're buying a recent enough model too I would also say that Hyundai tend to stand by their warranty more than Toyota do.

I've had both Toyota and Hyundai in the past. There's not a great deal of difference between the two but in the time where I had a Prius and Ioniq side by side to use each day, I naturally gravitated towards the Hyundai the vast majority of the days.
22 h, 10 m ago
Electric are more or less the similar price as Hybrid or slightly more for newer ones don't see the point of a hybrid unless you have issues with charging it,
10th May
What size are they after?
Are they tends to do a lot of short journey?
I have 2018 Toyota Yaris Hybrid, it is only doing 57 mpg. I would say it doesn't worth the extra unless doing a lot of local journey. (edited)
10th May
A self charging hybrid won't necessarily work best for ONLY short, local journeys, as it never gets the opportunity to charge up the battery and run on regenerated power. You get the real advantage on long journeys with motorway runs.
Mind you 57 mpg doesn't sound bad to me, for a petrol engine. Maybe similar MPG to a diesel, but petrol is cheaper, and you don't get the DPF issues.
10th May
Toyota Prius or anything Toyota would be safest bet.
10th May
Wife has a 2012 (last of the old rounded shape) Auris hybrid. Hasn't missed a beat. She's ordered a new CH-R and then it'll be my runaround for the next few years

How much space / big a car do they need? (edited)
Author
10th May
Thanks for the comments everyone! Mostly driving within London and the odd trip a bit outside but its not often at all!

I think ideally something crossover sized? They would like the position of a small-ish SUV but still something to manoeuver easily as it is London. The CH-R looks like an interesting option!
10th May
Suzuki Vitara?
Kia Niro?
23 h, 14 m ago
Depends if they want plug in hybrid or not. There our Toyota but I’m not a huge fan, Hyundai do some fantastic ranges with a lot of tech as standard or Suzuki would be another good route.
21 h, 40 m ago
Plug-in hybrids are the only distinction worth making, assuming they're planning to use it for mostly electric-only miles.

Other hybrids are just some energy recovery systems added to a petrol engine, but there's so much variability in both engine and hybrid system efficiency that a hybrid car can often be less efficient than a rival non-hybrid. So it makes sense to ignore whether a car is technically a hybrid and buy just based on real world fuel efficiency figures.
Author
5 h, 29 m ago
Main reason to consider a hybrid for my in-laws is the ease of them just simply going to a petrol station and refilling when (and if) they need to.
They're not the most savvy of people so would just find this easier in their day to day!
2 h, 53 m ago
Why not a petrol car?
4 m ago
Lexus is300