Gx4hs

Great if you can use it for lots of local trips

We bought this to replace a diesel 7-seater as the kids are moving on to uni this year. We wanted something mainly for local journeys, but which also cope with long distances fully-loaded. This fits the bill perfectly, and is considerably cheaper and more plentiful secondhand than other PHEVs out there from firms like VW or Hyundai. There's lots of choice out there. This is to complement our 22kWh Renault Zoe, which only has a realistic range of around 80 miles and requires a lot more planning for a long trip

For us, the PHEV is ideal. We can set it to charge it up during the day for free using solar power, so much of the time we're "running on sunshine". We use the "granny lead" charger that comes with the car - it has 13A plug, but it only charges at 10A for sustained periods like every other granny lead. We could charge 1/3 faster if we bought a 16A cable, but we haven't needed to charge quicker yet. It's very economical for us, and our last fill-up was at almost 100mpg - it would have been more, but I was using a money-off voucher before it expired and had to fill up before the tank was empty. On longer journeys, the mpg will drop, but it's still equivalent to our last diesel 7-seater, and much better than the previous petrol one. But it cruises happily on the motorway when required, and is often quieter than most other cars we've owned - you often can't tell when the engine starts unless you have the graphic on the dashboard.

It's very roomy and comfortable, with lots of gadgets on this higher-range model. But even the "base" model has most things you could want. You pays your money...

If you're buying secondhand, be aware that cars registered after 1st January 2015 have 5 years warranty, and 8 years warranty on the EV system. Prior to this date, it was 3 and 5 years respectively. It means that there can be some pricing anomalies for '64' plate cars as not all car dealers are aware of this. Also note that the basic GX3h model doesn't have an electric heater, so has to run the petrol engine to heat the car. Every other model does, from GX3h+ and Juro upwards. That's important if you want to heat the car on a cold morning via the mains, so that it's warm with windscreen clear when you set off, and you don't have to use the engine at all.

We looked at several models, and found that black paint could look very scratched. Like white, it also looks dirty very quickly, which isn't good if you drive on country lanes like we do. Ours is silver, and the paint looks good, especially for a 40k mile, 3-year-old car. During the recent hot weather, the aircon wasn't very cold, but it was fixed within a coupe of days by the dealer under warranty

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