Would you spend a good chunk of £ on a pure ICE car now?
Discussion
Hi all,
Probably been posted before, but I'm not sure. I'm currently in the market for a car - (this isn't another what car thread) & I'm hesitant in spending the ~£30k that it currently seems to cost to buy one that I'm interested in.
My hesitation comes from the fact that I'm based in London, going to be in a ULEZ zone pretty soon & I tend to keep my cars for 3-4 years at a time. I'm concerned that rules will change & as we get closer to 2030 the general public will be more and more careful with buying a pure ICE especially with all the messaging being pushed out by govt - which will only increase as we get closer & then I'll be stuck with an SUV that nobody wants to buy.
Part of me thinks when Euro7 comes in 2025, those in power will move the goalposts for ULEZ & other similar zones, whilst the other side of me thinks that there are a tonne of £100k+ motors (Range Rovers etc) being sold still that would fall foul of these regulations if pushed through & surely that can't happen. I'm also thinking fuel industry lobbyists will be working overtime and delaying/postponing the deadline. The country certainly isn't ready for everyone to be running on electric cars just yet - will we really be there in ~7 years? I'm not sure we will.
What do you think & what would you do in my position?
Thanks!
Probably been posted before, but I'm not sure. I'm currently in the market for a car - (this isn't another what car thread) & I'm hesitant in spending the ~£30k that it currently seems to cost to buy one that I'm interested in.
My hesitation comes from the fact that I'm based in London, going to be in a ULEZ zone pretty soon & I tend to keep my cars for 3-4 years at a time. I'm concerned that rules will change & as we get closer to 2030 the general public will be more and more careful with buying a pure ICE especially with all the messaging being pushed out by govt - which will only increase as we get closer & then I'll be stuck with an SUV that nobody wants to buy.
Part of me thinks when Euro7 comes in 2025, those in power will move the goalposts for ULEZ & other similar zones, whilst the other side of me thinks that there are a tonne of £100k+ motors (Range Rovers etc) being sold still that would fall foul of these regulations if pushed through & surely that can't happen. I'm also thinking fuel industry lobbyists will be working overtime and delaying/postponing the deadline. The country certainly isn't ready for everyone to be running on electric cars just yet - will we really be there in ~7 years? I'm not sure we will.
What do you think & what would you do in my position?
Thanks!
Why not lease a car, and let the leasing provider take the risk?
Offering low cost leasing is an appropriate way to push cars into the market without compromising the list price; and it is good practice for years: the first owner will have the car for the same cost for three years, that the then used car buyer will spend financing it after you're finished with it.
This of course does not work, if the demand is higher than the supply - no incentive for the car manufacturer to make good offers.
For orientation, every monthly leasing cost less than one percent of the list price is a good start.
Offering low cost leasing is an appropriate way to push cars into the market without compromising the list price; and it is good practice for years: the first owner will have the car for the same cost for three years, that the then used car buyer will spend financing it after you're finished with it.
This of course does not work, if the demand is higher than the supply - no incentive for the car manufacturer to make good offers.
For orientation, every monthly leasing cost less than one percent of the list price is a good start.
To answer the question, yes, I just did.
In terms of urban restrictions, Paris plans to ban all diesels from next January, and all ICE vehicles (petrol, diesel or hybrid) from 2030
https://urbanaccessregulations.eu/countries-mainme...
That's the most aggressive set of restrictions I'm aware of, all other cities seem a lot less strict.
So buying a Euro 6 petrol now and expecting to sell in 2027 seems fine to me. At least, I'd worry about a lot of other things before I worried about that. The idea of saying that people have to buy a basically brand new Euro 7 car to drive into London would be extreme, even with the current ULEZ implementation there are plenty of 15+ year old cheap cars you can get that are eligible.
I'm thinking of I were to buy another ICE car, that I'd but something small, simple and cheap to maintain. Larger toys are going to be tricky to keep on the road unless they're extremely coveted after... and my pockets aren't that deep. 
If I were wealthier I'd be looking for a low mileage BMW i8 or Alpine A110 in a tasteful colour and looking after it. I wouldn't expect either to depreciate much.
On my budget (Maybe £12-15k fit my next car?) I'm thinking about a desired-enough FWD bit hatch. I'll lose money but not my shirt if someone wants a track car.

If I were wealthier I'd be looking for a low mileage BMW i8 or Alpine A110 in a tasteful colour and looking after it. I wouldn't expect either to depreciate much.
On my budget (Maybe £12-15k fit my next car?) I'm thinking about a desired-enough FWD bit hatch. I'll lose money but not my shirt if someone wants a track car.
If I planned to stay in London, and continue driving there, I wouldn't be betting on a bright future for my ICE ride. It would depend on how rapidly I chopped and changed my vehicles.
Who knows how things will pan out, but I wouldn't want doubt hanging over a major purchase, and if an actual cutoff date does materialise it wouldn't really matter if it was years away. Subsequent buyers will pay accordingly.
Who knows how things will pan out, but I wouldn't want doubt hanging over a major purchase, and if an actual cutoff date does materialise it wouldn't really matter if it was years away. Subsequent buyers will pay accordingly.
I had a plugin hybrid Peugeot 3008 as a hire car last weekend, and its fuel economy was terrible. I know you're meant to charge them at home, but that wasn't an option for me so it had to run 100% on petrol as the battery was empty.
Interestingly I had a 'normal' Peugeot 3008 hire car in January, and that was brilliant. The rental invoices include the distance, so checking the fuel bills on my credit card and doing a bit of maths I was able to make a direct comparison: the pure ICE worked out at 7p/km but the plugin hybrid was 12p/km...!
Interestingly I had a 'normal' Peugeot 3008 hire car in January, and that was brilliant. The rental invoices include the distance, so checking the fuel bills on my credit card and doing a bit of maths I was able to make a direct comparison: the pure ICE worked out at 7p/km but the plugin hybrid was 12p/km...!
Yes, in fact I just have.
I do far too many miles and too many of my trips are long distance to do anything else.
I’m sure I’ll have an EV at some point in the next few years but they don’t make any sense for me right now.
ETA it’s a diesel and it replaced a hybrid! The mpg on the hybrid when doing distance didn’t work for me.
I do far too many miles and too many of my trips are long distance to do anything else.
I’m sure I’ll have an EV at some point in the next few years but they don’t make any sense for me right now.
ETA it’s a diesel and it replaced a hybrid! The mpg on the hybrid when doing distance didn’t work for me.
swamp said:
I had a plugin hybrid Peugeot 3008 as a hire car last weekend, and its fuel economy was terrible. I know you're meant to charge them at home, but that wasn't an option for me so it had to run 100% on petrol as the battery was empty.
Interestingly I had a 'normal' Peugeot 3008 hire car in January, and that was brilliant. The rental invoices include the distance, so checking the fuel bills on my credit card and doing a bit of maths I was able to make a direct comparison: the pure ICE worked out at 7p/km but the plugin hybrid was 12p/km...!
I've pondered hybrids. I've only really got two distances - 50 miles or several hundred miles. Interestingly I had a 'normal' Peugeot 3008 hire car in January, and that was brilliant. The rental invoices include the distance, so checking the fuel bills on my credit card and doing a bit of maths I was able to make a direct comparison: the pure ICE worked out at 7p/km but the plugin hybrid was 12p/km...!
I'm not sure whether the amount of 50 mile journeys will outweigh the thirst on a multi hundred mile trip.
Many of these hybrids seem to have fuel economy that would be ensure no one would buy them if they were stuck with the engine only.
And I do wish they'd drop the 'this BMW 7 series does 162 mpg. If you charge it every time you stop and only do 20 miles a time.'
Interestingly we've just sold a hybrid, a Lexus IS300h - & for our usage it was brilliant. 42+mpg pretty much throughout the 3 years we had it. Whilst the mpg isn't the greatest on a run, the excellent mpg locally more then makes up for it.
Now in the market for an SUV for the higher seating position & the vast majority of the nicer ones in my budget (Q5, X3, XC60 etc) are diesels. I'd go as far as saying <10% of these SUV's on the market are petrol.
I'm pretty convinced I'll be buying a Petrol or maybe another hybrid (Lexus NX?), but was just trying to gauge what fellow PHers are thinking with regards to going the ICE route vs all electric. Whilst we have a driveway & charging isn't a sticking point, we do 200+ mile journeys fairly often and we just don't fancy playing range roulette.
Trying to stay away from leasing, as the wait is pretty long for a new car. Very few cars are available quickly and I needed to get another car yesterday.
Now in the market for an SUV for the higher seating position & the vast majority of the nicer ones in my budget (Q5, X3, XC60 etc) are diesels. I'd go as far as saying <10% of these SUV's on the market are petrol.
I'm pretty convinced I'll be buying a Petrol or maybe another hybrid (Lexus NX?), but was just trying to gauge what fellow PHers are thinking with regards to going the ICE route vs all electric. Whilst we have a driveway & charging isn't a sticking point, we do 200+ mile journeys fairly often and we just don't fancy playing range roulette.
Trying to stay away from leasing, as the wait is pretty long for a new car. Very few cars are available quickly and I needed to get another car yesterday.
I want to lease an electric drive hybrid for 2 years(Honda ehev, Nissan e power). I think it will offer the best of both worlds for now, lots of short hop city driving with longer day trips on the weekend.
I exclusively brought outright before, but think car prices are going to drop alot in the next couple of years, especially as the new chip fabs commissioned during Covid start coming online in 2024.
I also don’t want to get into an electric car just yet because of all the nightmare charging network stories, but ideally would head this way sooner rather than later.
Also, the tech is all over the shop now. Everyone seems to be struggling with all the sensors and software. I also wonder how long they will support the software and provide updates. Just waiting for the first stories now about cars that someone hacked using a phone app and just drove away.
I was thinking leasing might be the best option until things start to shake out. The next 10 years are going to be very interesting for sure.
I exclusively brought outright before, but think car prices are going to drop alot in the next couple of years, especially as the new chip fabs commissioned during Covid start coming online in 2024.
I also don’t want to get into an electric car just yet because of all the nightmare charging network stories, but ideally would head this way sooner rather than later.
Also, the tech is all over the shop now. Everyone seems to be struggling with all the sensors and software. I also wonder how long they will support the software and provide updates. Just waiting for the first stories now about cars that someone hacked using a phone app and just drove away.
I was thinking leasing might be the best option until things start to shake out. The next 10 years are going to be very interesting for sure.
Well, I spent a good chunk only today on a ICE car - a used one, mind, but still over £20k. My view on fully electric cars is that we're too early in their lifecycle, which puts me off. There isn't the infrastructure and I'm not convinced about the technology just yet. I have finished for good with diesel, but can see myself sticking with petrol powered cars for some years to come, especially since I never drive in That London.
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