Hello. Asking a question in Off-Ramp since it’s not lease-/finance-related.
I’m thinking of getting a new car in the latter half of this year. My main driving (5–6 days/wk) is a 3-mile (each way) commute to/from work on city streets. It takes ~15 mins each way. It’s not quite stop/go, but there are lots of stop signs/lights, so hitting 35MPH would be rather unusual.
My analog fuel temp gauge indicates the engine gets fully warm, but the digital readout for the engine temp indicates that it does not.
Is there any significant advantage, fuel-economy wise, in getting a conventional hybrid (vs. my current fully-ICE car), given my use case?
I’m not so worried about the difference in running costs. I guess my question was more, is the superior fuel economy of a conventional hybrid (esp in the city) greatly reduced when the commute isn’t long enough for the gas engine to fully warm up?
I’m assuming, perhaps incorrectly, that the programming of a hybrid generally keeps the engine running, even while braking and idling, until the engine reaches some min temp.
A colleague I DETEST at the workplace drives a 500e, so it’ll have to be a Mini for me.
I’m actually very much interested in seeing what the heavily revised ID.4/ID.Tiguan looks like, esp sinc the current ID.4 has a super tight turning radius. My workplace has very tight parking spots.