Is this suited for me? SH Outlander PHEV

[AurelianR]

Hello Outlander PHEV people!

I need an advice for buying a used Outlander PHEV and some "inside" information from those who are kind to share them.

I will describe my use case.
I am a paraplegic and need a car that has automatic shifting for easy-to-use (It will need adaptation for brake and throttle, this is done relatively easily by specialised garage). I would like a bigger car as I'm a nature loving type and have a lot to carry when I go up the mountain on short trips 20 miles/35 km. I know this is not an off-road car and will not be used as such. The most part this car will be used is for comuting to work daily, a trip of 9 miles/14km. I intend to charge overnight at home. So most charge would be on grid electric, I hope in the future for some photovoltaic installation. Other use would be for one or two longer trips in a year for holiday that would be in the 450 miles/700km range, probably most on petrol. I live in a relatively cold place, with short summers, long moderate winters, but sadly this climate change has made a mess about the weather, I don't know what to expect for the future.
I drive 6.500 miles/10.000k km a year max.
The budget is maximum 13500£ or 15000€. I looked around in this budget and found nothing that is close to what a second hand Outlander can offer and by this I mean: electric or plug-in hybrid, big space, a decent interior, if I want to go new I'll have to go for a pure ICE from the budget category (aka. Dacia Sandero).
For the above price I found the folowing offers, usually imported from Netherlands with the characteristics:
- Year 2013,2014,2015 with millage between 90k miles/150k to 120k miles/190k km (no facelift)
- In this budget only two offers for the facelift 2016 with aproximatly same millage 115k miles/180k km (facelift)


I apologize if there are redundant questions, please ignore them, I'm going to study what is already writen on the forum.

If I buy, what should I check/pay attention to?
1. I'm planning to take the car for a chekup at a Mitsu dealer before purchase, I inquired them, they sad that mechanical end electrical check can be done but they can't do battery check because it's a longer procedure that implies several charge cycles and would take to much time (more than a day). If I will try to check battery healt myself by charging full and the driving EV until depleted is this relevant?
2. Should I search for a 2016 facelift version, is it worth the plus 2000£/3500€ effort?
3. What else should I consider to check on this second hand car? Frequent problems?
4. How much battery degradation should I expect in time? If I buy and I am lucky this car will need to be with me for the folowing 10 years at least, can this car age well along with me? Or as it's new technology there is no data to draw such a conclusion?
5. Am I blinded by emotions? I might be falling for the Outlander PHEV tho' some people are very against the PHEV concept and are calling for only electric, maybe possible if I wait another 5 years until charging infrastructure improves in my country and SH cars price comes down, but one can't put life on hold and my current car she's a 1998 Renault Megane falling apart tho she served me well until recently. I sort of need reliability, I rather walk, I rather run, maybe in another life

I'm waiting for your opinion/experience and thank you for the effort of sharing it.

 

[Regulo]

Hi, AurelianR.
For a commute of 9 miles, I think you'll find the car well-suited. The only drawback to buying early cars might be battery degradation. If you really want to keep it for 10 years, be prepared for a drop in battery range, which could be quite considerable, as the car ages. I have a 2014 model, which now gets about 22 miles on battery . . . IF I take it easy on the accelerator. Temperature has a quite marked effect on range, using the electric heater can drop about 4 miles off the range. Having said that, if you can find a good car, there's no reason to worry unduly, just keep in mind there's no guarantee on the battery after 8 years, so the risk is yours.

Can you buy from a Mitsu dealer? If so, insist on a battery report. Buying privately or non-Mitsu, you'd really need to get it checked to be sure, but as you've found, that's problematic. Although why they won't do it if you're offering to pay them, I can't quite understand.

 

[AurelianR]

Thank you Regulo!
I know I'm over thinking this, probably I should just jump for it, it usually goes well if I do this (hoping for a good karma)
I'm wondering if in a 5 year time frame there would be some after market upgrade battery, refurbished maybe, that would be some cool business! Even now if I calculate 12kwh x 156$= 1872$ for new cells plus another 1500$ for the servicing looks kind of good if car capacity on electric is as new. Maybe in this price in 5 years with new technology there could be a bigger battery pack, have no idea if BMU could handle that.
All wishful thinking in my head, going back to read the forum to familiarize myself with the Outlander.
For now I plan to find a car from 2016 with the facelift and take it from there.
Meanwhile I'm making a checklist, I will post it here for others to see/use when buying second hand Outy.

 

[AlexBorro]

Hi, AurelianR.

I will try to answer your questions:

1- About the battery, you can ask for a "Battery State of Health".. The internal computer that manages the battery (BMU) has this number and the dealer just need to read it. You can even do that with a ODB2 adapter. This "State of Health" (SoH) shows the current battery capacity, usually in "Ah". The nominal (brand new) capacity of the battery is 38Ah. My car is 4 years old and the SoH is 32.7Ah or 86%. It means that after 4 years, the my battery still has 86% of its original capacity, which is very good. With an OBD2 to Bluetooth adapter and a app like "Watchdog PHEV" you can gather a lot more information of the battery in a matter of seconds, like how many cycles was put in the battery, how many Ah was charged, the time since last battery reset (should match the car age), etc.

2- That is up to you. Besides the visual, there is not much difference between versions. Maybe it is worth spending this money on a older but more complete (higher) version.

3- As far as I'm following this forum and asked before buying, this is a very reliable car. I have heard about some old version (<=2014) with some issues in the brake calipers that was fixed by recall, so just pay attention if the car attended to all recalls. I - personally - would avoid at all costs a car with a battery that was submitted to a Battery Reset procedure; you can check this by the last battery reset time.

4- As I told before, my car is 4 years old and the SoH is 86%. With that capacity I can drive around 35Km in the main roads and around 45Km in the city. Bear in mind Netherlands is completely flat, which helps a little bit.

5- I'm an enthusiast of PHEV cars. Some pros in my stand point:
- Be able to drive pure EV in many situations, like in the city.
- Outlander PHEV has very strong motors and can drive the car up to 120Km/h without ICE support. So it is possible to drive on main roads without burning fuel.
- You can travel without getting on nerves looking for charging points. Just fill it up and drive.
- You can charge at home and usually the home electricity is a lot cheaper than fuel (here in NL it is around half the cost driving electric).

I hope I could shed some light on your questions.

Cheers.

Alex.

 

[AlexBorro]

Some pictures from PHEV Watchdog app:

 

[AurelianR]

Thank you Alex! This is a great forum and a great comunity, I supose the Outlander PHEV atracts a certain kind of people, the good people
The images from the application are very useful, until now I just heard about the battery birthday, now I can see the cake!
I have the application installed but without a dongle and most importantly a car there is not much to see.

Kind regards,
Aurelian

 

[greendwarf]

Thank you Regulo!
I know I'm over thinking this, probably I should just jump for it, it usually goes well if I do this (hoping for a good karma)
I'm wondering if in a 5 year time frame there would be some after market upgrade battery, refurbished maybe, that would be some cool business! Even now if I calculate 12kwh x 156$= 1872$ for new cells plus another 1500$ for the servicing looks kind of good if car capacity on electric is as new. Maybe in this price in 5 years with new technology there could be a bigger battery pack, have no idea if BMU could handle that.
All wishful thinking in my head, going back to read the forum to familiarize myself with the Outlander.
For now I plan to find a car from 2016 with the facelift and take it from there.
Meanwhile I'm making a checklist, I will post it here for others to see/use when buying second hand Outy.

If the possibilty of replacing the battery is part of your thinking then:-

1. AFAIK once the lithium is "used up" you can't refurbish due to physics

2. 1872$ looks very unrealistic - I've been working on a £8k figure and doubt if it would ever get below £5k

Personally, I would be willing to pay this to extend the life of a vehicle with relatively little wear compared to an ICE car but I have had mine since new in 2014, and there isn't a competitor that currently tempts me to change (other than the new EV Mustang :roll.

 

[ThudnBlundr]

It's the microscopic changes to the battery that cause degradation, so you can't really 'fix' a battery. A new battery is fairly expensive, and you'd still only have around a 25-mile range on an old car. On our Zoe, you can technically replace the 22kWh battery with the latest 51kWh battery, but it would cost more than the car is worth

 

[littlescrote]

Your use case sounds perfect for the Outlander.

The great thing about them from your perspective is that the accelerator pedal mapping can be changed by selecting Mode B5 (either with the paddle by the steering wheel or pulling back on the shifter lever twice), and in B5 the car can largely be driven using just one pedal (or whatever you adapt it to) as the regenerative braking is strong (at least when the battery is not full). You just need the brake 'pedal' for the final stop or for very hard unanticipated braking.

Also make sure you look for one with the auto opener on the tailgate, it makes life so much easier as it can be opened and closed from the key fob.