More to report after Nicola allowed us to cross the border.

We did 1022 miles in the week so a perfectly normal holiday. Filled the tank and charged before departing. Set the car in hybrid mode with the "Auto" box ticked (the car decides the best use of the available charge). Surprised me when the battery lasted just over 300 miles before dropping to zero and this was cruising with the ACC set at 72 mph for the whole 300 miles. We covered the 430 mile journey to the lodge in just under 7 hours driving time (both ways), pretty good average of 62 mph.

Got there perfectly relaxed, just like we did in the 1.4 TSi.

We were aware of several "free" charge points in the area and on day 2 went for a coffee and walk round whilst it charged a bit. Discovered that whilst it is theoretically free there is a £20 a year registration fee, no way we would get our monies worth so abandoned idea of charging. The company that runs the points is changing the rules from July and changing the £20 a year fee to a once only registration but no indication what this will cost, might be better, might not, we will see.

Did local trips all week, between 4 and 25 miles each time so no long sight seeing outings this time, too wet for that, and refuelled on the Thursday for returning Saturday. Calculated the mpg for the trip (including the cost of electric for the pre-trip charge) and Mr Libre Office (I don't pay for software if I can avoid it) said 55.7 mpg (the dash said 55.4 mpg so pretty close). Very happy with that considering the fact that we could not easily charge the car. Looking at the eco display when we got home showed the car had run 14% of the 430 mile return trip on battery, not bad when we started off with zero miles, shows it recoups a fair bit of power.

Comparing that figure to the mpg we got from the 1.4 TSi manual the first time we did the trip is a good comparison. Both cars had covered just over 2000 miles on departure so both still not bedded in really. The 1.4 TSi managed 47 mpg for the week which I was very happy with. To get over 55 mpg from a heavier car with an auto box with zero opportunity to charge is way better than I expected. Last year (3.5 years old by then) on the same trip the 1.4 TSi did 53 mpg for the week so lets hope that the iV loosens up with the miles like that did.

Should add that the average "mpg" so far (including the cost of electricity used) is 56 mpg. By this mileage the 1.4 TSi had averaged about 44 mpg, like I said above very happy so far.

We are now on the Octopus Go tariff which gives us 4hours "cheap" electricity every night (5 pence a kWh). It a good tariff at peak rate as well, less than the rate we had been paying EDF for 18 months which at the time was the best out there. Charging at that rate should lower costs even further.

Will it be cheaper to run over 4 years than the 1.4 TSi, doubt it but its a better drive and we like it. The price we bought it for softens the blow of course, probably be less enthusiastic if we had paid £8500 more. Compared to the purchase price and running costs of the V60 T4 we were considering its certainly a good buy.