mplaczek

Well the time has come.... the congestion charge is going to be on my doorstep

If I drive up my little dead end of a road to the main road and turn right. I'll be in the extended zone
That would be fine... except I turn right for all the closest supermarkets, to visit my Mum, Brother, to go to work... both campuses I work on... all my wife and my favorite restaurants, cinema, our local high street, everything basically... the only time I turn left is when I am heading out of London on the rarest of occasion

I'm thinking of trading in for a hybrid.

Does anyone have any thoughts or experience concerning the civic and primus?

At the moment I am leaning towards the civic as I prefer the looks, and the two honda's I have had in the past have been great...

Additionally I heard a while back that you could get a grant or something if you were thinking about a hybrid car?!? Might be rubbish, but thought perhaps someone may also have heard of something?!

Anyone???

TopBanana

I think you also beat the charge with an LPG conversion

MJW

Are you a mormon ?!?!

Brendan Hughes

Does a Lexus RX400h count?

stilover

Unlike the rest of Britain, London has a transport system.

Catch a ******* Bus.

Hope that helps

lightning101

I wouldn't like to carry £150 of shopping on public transport on my own, or come out of a cinema at 11.30pm and stand around a city centre waiting for a bus

KiwiGTI

Home delivery or do your shopping outside the congestion charging hours like in the evenings or at the weekend.

Toyota is the cooler car.

misty

MOVE HOUSE!!!!!!
dave

John57

I spoke to a guy at work a couple of days ago ... he said the Prius was built better and had a seamless transfer between electric and petrol. He said the Honda had a kind of pause between the two which when on a slope made you feel like it was momentarily going backwards ! Whether you were or not is another matter, just that he wasn't so keen on the Honda as the Toyota didn't do this.

We've had the Toyotas for about a year and I've never heard a bad word about them.

Just what he said to me FWIW .....

I've never driven one though.

Reffro

Yes the Lexus RX400h is exempt, along with GS450h and the soon the released LS600h.

Jamescsti

Had a Pirus on trial last week, the MPG was worse than my Mondeo TDCi, and not what you could call an exciting car to drive either.
Nothing to really recommend them, apart from avoiding a congestion charge, IMO

De Warrenne

Prius' (or is that Priii ) rarely acheive more that 50mph, its an interesting development, but they aint diesel beaters yet

mynickers

The Honda is the more superior for sure. But both are not for the keen driver.

lozgti

If a car manufacturer comes up with anything that doesn't look so ugly I would consider helping the environment

Good luck with choosing though

lightning101

I though both cars ran on 'smugness' anyway not fuel

Brendan Hughes

When Ken sees this is exempt, he'll have a heart attack!

Steve Lawson

I have to comment on this as I work for Toyota GB now.

Firstly its Prius not Primus lol.

Its pronounced Pri Us not the stupid way Clarkson says it.

All the Lexus variants including the LS are NOT exempt you still have to pay the CC.

Drive both and see what you think,Toyota are now on their second generation of Hybrid technology and have very fairly well sorted.The Honda is not a true Hybrid it is only marketed as such.

I was avereging 53mpg the other day whilst driving one on my journey home from work in the rush hour and yes its true they are not a diesel beater by any means but they never claimed to be.

They are just a stop gap till we have have fuel cell cars anyway

If you have any questions ask me offline as I just lurk nowadays and have only logged to reply to this.

Steve

330uk

get a motorbike.. zzr1400

BOB.T

A Primus, earlier

Shark Man

Hmm, It's interesting to note that I was thrashing teh hell out of a Honda Jazz the other day which returned 44.8mpg on the trip during city driving, insanely econmical

Certainly makes me wonder if the extra cost is worth actually it. Ok 5-10mpg maybe alot to some but then the Jazz still beats a Scoob by nearly 23mpg

The major factor is the overall annual cost of the CC +tax +cheaper small diesel city car + depreciation + fuel costs Vs. The same for the costs of an Exempt vehicle. Not having done the maths I wouldn't know how big the difference,is but it would be intersting to know whatthe overall differnce actually is if you chose say, a 2nd Hand Lupo diesel instead.