blueacid

Hi everyone, thank you all for your warm welcome and for taking the time to reply! Seems very strange that Britprius is getting really good looking fuel economy whereas Odysseus hasn't managed such good figures, hopefully Odysseus's vehicle is an outlier and it isn't the case that you roll the dice with each vehicle as to what kind of fuel economy you'll manage! I haven't yet driven one, I figured that rather than waste any of the dealers / private sellers time I'd do some research first; however having driven a couple of electric vehicles where there's no gearbox at all to speak of, I'd presume that the CVT in the Lexus is similar to drive? Of course, if anyone's in the North West and would be willing to show off your car in exchange for some fuel money & a few beers..! I'm happy to wrangle a spanner to fix bits, i saw a thread where that pump bearing can be repaired. Looks like I need to keep an eye on the exhaust and be prepared for the cost of new shocks (or be lucky and find a car with a recent receipt for new suspension!) Am I right in thinking that a facelift car will have the marginally larger boot? Is there a thread somewhere with the details of what changed in the facelift, and how to spot a facelift car from pictures? Cheers!

Oh and one more question, since I've heard a lot of conflicting views on the matter! What sort of fuel economy should I expect when on a long motorway run? Both cruising slowish (65-70) and when pressing on (75-90, not sparing the horses?) Reading around it seems that I could expect highish 30s when being relaxed and low 30s perhaps maybe high 20s when in more of a hurry; sound about right?

Hi Everyone, I'm currently the owner of a 2004 Volvo diesel. It's still running well, but at 150k on the clock (85k of which were by me) I'm getting a bit bored of it and looking for a change. The GS450H has caught my eye; since I live in a city, the whole diesel pollution issue is pretty important to me, and the fact that even Euro6 diesels (while allowed in the London ULEZ) are potentially still very filthy. I'm not yet willing to spend the money on a full electric or plug-in hybrid; they're still too expensive for how much I want to spend on a car: the volvo cost me less than £3k at 10 years old, and has really not needed much beyond a suspension refresh and then basic servicing - totally reasonable that all the rubbery bits needed replacing on a car that's travelled so far. The oily bits have worked faultlessly. So I'm in the research stage for my next car - at this point (2019), what's the general consensus on these vehicles? They look to offer incredible performance, a very good spec and impressive fuel economy for what's effectively a large petrol saloon. What I've so far learned is: Largely, they are mostly reliable, but there are some stories of the hybrid battery needing some attention; the entire pack is a few grand, but often individual modules are what have failed. Companies exist that'll refurb the traction battery for ~£800 by replacing the out-of-spec modules in the battery The 2007 model onwards had aux-in connections on the radio, so 06/56 plate vehicles need an adaptor to play anything other than CD/Tape/radio The SE-L model pre-2008 had adaptive cruise, after 2008 you can easily spot it because it was 'linked' on the order form with vehicles that also had a sunroof (so that makes spotting the adaptive cruise quite easy on autotrader pictures) After August 2008, the boot got a lot bigger thanks to a redesign of the hybrid battery, making it take less space but having the same capacity.. does this mean that a 58 plate onward should have a larger boot? Is all of that fair to say? Since any of the vehicles I'd be looking at (2007-2009ish) would probably be out of warranty, is this a relatively safe bet, or should I be buying a load of brave pills and preparing for the worst? Obviously, reading around this forum there are a few threads telling sad stories of various bits failing; is this quite a widespread issue, or is this the effect of the owners club / review site coming through where you only hear the bad news and seldom hear the good? Thanks for any advice you can all give!