Swopping my diesel Berlingo for a petrol model

[johnsago48]

I live in London and no longer drive fast at all, as a result my cat converter has had to be replaced. Since the replacement I've been taking my diesel for a fast drive regularly, but I live well inside London and it takes up too much time to reach a fast road. I'm planning to buy a Feel 1.2 Puretech M Berlingo, and have gound a 3 year old one, 30K for what seems like a good price. I've always had diesels, so I'm wondering what I should look out in the way of weak points of the petrol model are. Thanks.

[geoff]

https://www.berlingoforum.com/thread-202...2+puretech

[Multispacer]

I live in London and no longer drive fast at all, as a result my cat converter has had to be replaced. Since the replacement I've been taking my diesel for a fast drive regularly, but I live well inside London and it takes up too much time to reach a fast road. I'm planning to buy a Feel 1.2 Puretech M Berlingo, and have gound a 3 year old one, 30K for what seems like a good price. I've always had diesels, so I'm wondering what I should look out in the way of weak points of the petrol model are. Thanks.

Personally, having seen all the bad press about the 1.2 Puretech engines, fitted in numerous vehicles, I wouldn't go near one. Whoever thought putting a belt in oil was a good idea? There have been numerous reports of early failure of the engines due to clogged oil ways as the belts were shedding material which lead to the early engine failure. The latest engines have been modified and the 'Puretech' name has now been dropped from the engine name and in all the latest advertising of new vehicles. 

I think if I lived in London, where as you say you cannot go fast and if not doing a lot of long journeys and needed a Berlingo, I would actually go for an e-Berlingo.

[evdama]

Is there any way you can do the inevitable ( for us all) adjustment early and get an electric one?
Im desperately hanging on to my b9 in the hope I can skip the current horrors of more modern fossil powered engines

[Chrome Molly]

Is there any way you can do the inevitable ( for us all) adjustment early and get an electric one?
Im desperately hanging on to my b9 in the hope I can skip the current horrors of more modern fossil powered engines

I wouldn't touch electric for any money.

[Multispacer]

Is there any way you can do the inevitable ( for us all) adjustment early and get an electric one?
Im desperately hanging on to my b9 in the hope I can skip the current horrors of more modern fossil powered engines

I wouldn't touch electric for any money.

Any reason why? I don't drive an electric vehicle but views from a few work colleagues that do drive them, if you don't do long journeys and live in town/cities where average speeds tend to be lower anyway, I really cannot see why you would not go for an electric vehicle? The work colleagues that did have them, one being a very early adpoter with a early version of Nissan Leaf [which he later upgraded to a later version] stated that there was a lot less that ever needed servicing on them. Infact I think it was just brakes and tyres. 

The OP lives in London where traffic crawls mosts of the time even in the suburbs.

Manufacturers now are recognising that there is a need for resaonbly priced electric vehicles, that are as simple as possible [keeps costs and problems down] that have a reasonable range [200+ miles] 

Like any mode of transport there will be some vehicles that are better than others in the electric vehicle field, in the same way there are some better petrol/diesel vehicles than others. I would have gone for an electric vehicle when my last diesel Berlingo went but for me and I suspect many people, the main stopper[s] on electric vehicles at the moment are initial cost of both new and used electric vehicles, cost of insurance and charging infrastructure, if you don't have your own driveway.

The thing is, modern petrol and especially modern diesels are so laden with sensors/systems to combat emissions that makes them more problematic than older vehicles. Modern diesels especially do not like only doing short, city type journeys.

[Tree]

Living in London, I would go electric too. The pros absolutly outweigh the cons for it. Used vehicles are a bargain to buy now.

I swapped out just over a year ago, mostly for tax reasons but since getting the Model X and e-dispatch, I wont be going back to ICE vehicles anytime soon.

I drive over 30k miles a year and have saved over £3400 alone in fuel costs. My electric costs for the year on the Tesla alone was just £1800 for 30k miles.

Ok, tyres are more expensive and do wear faster but i am driving a Perfomance SUV so its expected - tyres for the van were about £180 each but the previous tyres had already done 34,000 miles.

if you can charge at home or at work, i would 100% say go electric.

[Chrome Molly]

I live in the country, so my concerns are probably not the same as yours.

Reasons I currently wouldn't touch electric.

Initial new cost and precipitous depreciation.
Hertz has all but abandoned EV's due to depreciation and high cost of repair.
The few people I know who bought one have gone back to ICE.
Battery safety issues and cost of replacement.
Complexity
Range.
The huge environmental impact of mining lithium / cobalt, etc

That some of the charging stations have been outed as running off diesel generators, makes me think that it's just another con* by some bought and paid for politicians.

*Same as the 15 minute cities nonsense.

I don't know if fuel cells will ever be viable, but that could sway me.

[Multispacer]

I live in the country, so my concerns are probably not the same as yours.

Reasons I currently wouldn't touch electric.

Initial new cost and precipitous depreciation.
Hertz has all but abandoned EV's due to depreciation and high cost of repair.
The few people I know who bought one have gone back to ICE.
Battery safety issues and cost of replacement.
Complexity
Range.
The huge environmental impact of mining lithium / cobalt, etc

That some of the charging stations have been outed as running off diesel generators, makes me think that it's just another con* by some bought and paid for politicians.

*Same as the 15 minute cities nonsense.

I don't know if fuel cells will ever be viable, but that could sway me.

Mostly valid reasons, especially the depreciation and high insurance costs due to the fact many insurers tend to write-off EVs rather than repair but the OP was asking based on living in London and that is what I [and other] posters have based their answers on.

As for complexity, as I stated most modern ICE engines now are so complex that the amount of maintenance that can be carried out by the average person is pretty low nowadays, as you are finding out in trying to fix your Eolys system, which I hope you manage to find a solution for. 

With regard to battery safety [I'm assuming you mean fires?] That is actually a bit of media hype that a lot of the news outlets jumped on in the past but the actual figures do not reflect that. Electric vehicles (EVs) are significantly less likely to catch fire compared to internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, with only about 25 fires per 100,000 EVs reported, compared to approximately 1,500 fires per 100,000 ICE vehicles annually. The main fire risks in EVs typically stem from battery-related issues, while ICE vehicles often face risks from fuel leaks and electrical malfunctions. 

As I say, I'm not an EV driver but that is mainly due to the cost of EVs at the moment.

Electric vehicles (EVs) are significantly less likely to catch fire compared to internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, with only about 25 fires per 100,000 EVs reported, compared to approximately 1,500 fires per 100,000 ICE vehicles annually. The main fire risks in EVs typically stem from battery-related issues, while ICE vehicles often face risks from fuel leaks and electrical malfunctions.

Electric vehicles (EVs) are significantly less likely to catch fire compared to internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, with only about 25 fires per 100,000 EVs reported, compared to approximately 1,500 fires per 100,000 ICE vehicles annually. The main fire risks in EVs typically stem from battery-related issues, while ICE vehicles often face risks from fuel leaks and electrical malfunctions.

[Tree]

I live in the country, smack bang in the middle of the Southdowns.

My commute everyday is an 80 mile round trip, swapping out to an EV was a huge gamble for me.

I agree, initial cost is very expensive. For me it was £33500 for a new van that would be worth less than 7-8k by the time i was done with it. My Tesla on the other hand albeit being 6 years old but only 12,000 miles on the clock was £38,500, a car that was originally £120,000 new. I certainly wouldn't buy new either. After the first year of ownership, I am already better off.

I would without doubt make a concious decision what my next EV will be, almost certainly another Tesla although i do like the Mercedes EQS and the Porsche Taycan but with the Tesla there is zero servicing. In fact they encourage you to work on the car yourself, the manual is built into the car not unlike a modern Haynes manual.

With regards to the fear of catching fire, I have seen numerous vehicle fires the past year. Not one has been an EV I am pleased to say.

Swapping out batteries isn't a concern either, its all media hype. My battery has lost between 6-7% in the seven years the car has been built - that equates to around 10 miles of range. The battery is expected to last over 500,000 miles and if it were needing replacing then its just individual cells, not the whole thing. By which time there will be more and more independants available that can do this at half the cost of main dealers. You wouldn't go and replace your ICE car engine with new at a main dealer if the car had 100,000 miles on would you?

The technology gets better and better everyday. Charging speeds are mental now with up to 350kw which means a full charge in around 15 minutes on a supercharger if you need to (I have spent less than 15 minutes supercharging in the last year). Range has got so much better now, My model X averages around 2.5-3 miles per Kw but the current Model Y will return 4.

I perfectly understand your concerns but the media plays up a lot of hype. I fully believe that we hit peak on ICE 4-5 years back. Manufacturers have squeezed everything out of the internal combustion engine to be within regulation and demand. To me EV is over its infancy now and will really start to flourish in the next five years.