Fast family hybrids - worst of both worlds or worth a look?

[Fiisch]

I feel I need to start this post by qualifying that I'm a full-blooded bonafide petrolhead. The smell of petrol, the sound of a combustion engine gives me the fizz. My ideal car is analogue, manual, loud and performance-focused.

With that out the way, I also feel the need to admit that we bought a Nissan Leaf last year, and have been blown away by it's utility - for the boring, short journeys, I feel the case for EVs is compelling. At the very least, I am reluctantly forced to accept they have their place alongside the combustion engine, if not the longer term replacement.

My wife's car (soon to be leased EV) will do the bulk of our miles as a family, which frees me up to get something a bit more interesting than my current Skoda Superb. Budget is in the region of £30k (£15k if I keep the Leaf and consider a weekend car).

The obvious choices - Alfa Giulia QV, Audi RS4, BMW M3 - feel a little out of budget for the age/mileage I would ideally like. I also like driving something that is very rare, one of a kind in a car park. My initial thought was to buy (another) blobeye Subaru Impreza WRX STI, but as a dad of 2 small children I don't think I'll get the time to use it. I've done the whole weekend car thing before and it did end up gathering dust in the garage - I'm sure I'll do it again, but not for a few years.

So a daily for the full budget seems to be the more sensible choice. I tend to buy a car very much on looks, and two that have caught my eye is the Peugeot 508 Sport Engineered and the Volvo S/V60 Polestar Engineered. Nothing to do with the hybrid drivetrain, purely based on how I like the aesthetics, they both come with about 400bhp and on paper are very quick. Both have some funny quirks and are a very rare sight. My mileage is likely to only be 4-5000 miles/year - do these cars compare to the obvious choices in the performance saloon market? In the real world, is there any tangible benefits on running costs? Has anyone owned/driven one or similar - thoughts? Am I being totally daft considering a hybrid, and should I look more to the standard M3?

[jamesbilluk]

I used to have a 2017 Panamera 4 E hybrid, certainly an impressive car, but with charging it at home, and then filling it up with fuel eventually, I didn't find it that cheap to run, although wafting around in EV mode was nice.

Performance wise, it has 462hp, but it never really felt it, and because of the batteries in the boot floor, it never felt balanced in the corners.

I do like the look of the Sport engineered 508, and the Polestar though,

I would be very tempted by a Giulia quadrifoglio though!

[CG2020UK]

My wife has a 330e hybrid.

I really like it and it’s fantastic as a daily driver.

However it’s not remotely sporting to drive at all and any “performance EV” I’ve driven is similar. Rightly so as the target market don’t want that.

I’d still say go a full M3 or Alfa QF.

I’m a huge Peugeot fan but the depreciation on the 508 PS will be scary which would give me pause.

[Jamescrs]

I can only comment on the Peugeot 508 you are looking at OP as we have one on fleet at work, and maybe usefully for comparison I drive an F82 M4. I can confirm they are in no way comparable from a performance or build quality view, the Peugeot is a long way behind any decent performance car, I'd go as far as to say a 340i would be a better performance car over all.

The Peugeot looks quite good on the outside from a styling point of view and initially the interior looks good but IMO it is only skin deep and when driving it you quickly realise it is lacking in a number of areas. The performance is no where close to a proper performance saloon it feels quite numb to drive, like any other modern Peugeot at it's roots I guess.

I think if you bought one you would soon be looking to trade it in for something else and you would then take a bath on the PX value too