[Edinburra]

I'm considering a 5 Series Hybrid, should I?

[The Beast]

A guy called Hasser on this forum has one, he currently has an active post on the main forum. I haven't driven one however having looked at the extra weight this car carries around for him on his post yesterday I personally would be dubious about having one, unless the addition of the batteries provides some kind of other fiscal benefit such as congestion charge savings, etc, etc.

If your after a petrol car I'd probably go for a standard 535i and add the JB tuning boxes that are so popular with our American buddies over on the main forum.

You'll get more power than the active hybrid with less weight, around 300kg less...

[Moo00]

I've had one for a year and it's a lovely car, yes it is more weight than a standard 5 but the 5's are big cars anyway. When you need the power you are getting all the 535 + the electric and really comes to life. It will never be a rally car but eats the miles. I've done around 25k in a year with no issues. The AH standard specs are high with lots of options standard compares to the non hybrid.

For my commute the hybrid works, 40 miles of mainly motorway that is stop start... Very nice to glide along in a traffic jam. I'm getting about 34 mpg and I'm not hanging about. If you want highest mpg go diesel but for a big petrol, I think it's doing well. They are rare so it nice to have something different but servicing is going to be a main dealer job.

Anything in particular you want to know about it?
Mark

[HighlandPete]

Originally Posted by Edinburra

I'm considering a 5 Series Hybrid, should I?

Interested to know the buying criteria. I assume the driving profile suits the hybrid technology, or is it cheap to buy?

[HighlandPete]

Originally Posted by Moo00

I've had one for a year and it's a lovely car, yes it is more weight than a standard 5 but the 5's are big cars anyway. When you need the power you are getting all the 535 + the electric and really comes to life. It will never be a rally car but eats the miles. I've done around 25k in a year with no issues. The AH standard specs are high with lots of options standard compares to the non hybrid.

For my commute the hybrid works, 40 miles of mainly motorway that is stop start... Very nice to glide along in a traffic jam. I'm getting about 34 mpg and I'm not hanging about. If you want highest mpg go diesel but for a big petrol, I think it's doing well. They are rare so it nice to have something different but servicing is going to be a main dealer job.

Anything in particular you want to know about it?
Mark

Good to read you are happy with your example, and it works for your commute.

I often wonder what the mpg comparison would be against a standard 535i. Identical trips I mean, I've looked for comparison testing, real world experience, (not the NEDC test as that favours the hybrid as we would expect). Can't find any ActiveHybrid 5 vs. 535i results. Would be such a simple test to perform, guess the motor mags are not interested in such an honest comparison. There only appears to be anecdotal evidence that unless the driving profile really suits the Hybrid, there is nothing in it.

The extra weight kills any extra performance, BMW performance figures are near identical, so it does seem the efficiencies are almost swallowed up with the extra weight penalty.

I note the EPA test (more representative than our NEDC test) only favours the hybrid on the highway cycle by 1mpg (US). City cycle is 3mpg. Only 2mpg combined.

On costs, the 535i wins hands down. Has to be bought for other reasons than pence per mile (ppm).

Great idea, I want to buy into it, but a 'plug-in' has to be where savings really come into play.

[Edinburra]

Originally Posted by HighlandPete

Interested to know the buying criteria. I assume the driving profile suits the hybrid technology, or is it cheap to buy?

Bit of both really. What intrigues me is why so inexpensive so soon. Year old examples 20k below original list. I don't do the miles, 8000 pa, that actual fuel consumption means too much. It's the concept that interests me most.

[Edinburra]

Originally Posted by Moo00

I've had one for a year and it's a lovely car, yes it is more weight than a standard 5 but the 5's are big cars anyway. When you need the power you are getting all the 535 + the electric and really comes to life. It will never be a rally car but eats the miles. I've done around 25k in a year with no issues. The AH standard specs are high with lots of options standard compares to the non hybrid.

For my commute the hybrid works, 40 miles of mainly motorway that is stop start... Very nice to glide along in a traffic jam. I'm getting about 34 mpg and I'm not hanging about. If you want highest mpg go diesel but for a big petrol, I think it's doing well. They are rare so it nice to have something different but servicing is going to be a main dealer job.

Anything in particular you want to know about it?
Mark

Yes it's the servicing that's of interest and the long term battery life.

[Hasser]

i bought an Active Hybrid 5 in July 2014, the car was first registered on 23rd December 2013 so was a 2014 MY and the LCI.

The car was a dealer ex demo so had only 2,000 miles on it.

List price was £51,000!! you do get extras as standard that you would have to pay for on any other model ie. professional sat nav and extended air con with rear aircon to name two.

I didnt actually realise until afterwards how much boot space you lose due to the battery being behind the rear seats, and tgat means you cant fold them down to load through.

my fuel consumption is rubbish - car now has 8,500 miles - majority of my driving is stop / start urban driving short journeys - max journey distance is probably about 30 miles. i am only returning 22 mpg!!
although i didnt buy it for the fuelconsumption, i thought i would be getting more than that.

i like the car and the hybrid drive train has been good with no problems so far.

i would have preferred a standard 535i, the reason i bought the hybrid was because it was available at the time i was looking and where i live there is limited choice, although if i had been patient and searched and really wanted to i could have got a 535i for the same price i paid for the activehybrid.


i see now on the BMW uk used website they are similar cars now to when i bought mine for less.

dont let the hybrid designation put you off, if a car is available to buy and the price is right then buy one - the only disappoint for me is the boot space or lack of.

[Hasser]

Originally Posted by Edinburra

Yes it's the servicing that's of interest and the long term battery life.

i dont think they have been around for that long yet to really determine this in regards to battery life.

[Hasser]

Originally Posted by HighlandPete

Good to read you are happy with your example, and it works for your commute.

I often wonder what the mpg comparison would be against a standard 535i. Identical trips I mean, I've looked for comparison testing, real world experience, (not the NEDC test as that favours the hybrid as we would expect). Can't find any ActiveHybrid 5 vs. 535i results. Would be such a simple test to perform, guess the motor mags are not interested in such an honest comparison. There only appears to be anecdotal evidence that unless the driving profile really suits the Hybrid, there is nothing in it.

The extra weight kills any extra performance, BMW performance figures are near identical, so it does seem the efficiencies are almost swallowed up with the extra weight penalty.

I note the EPA test (more representative than our NEDC test) only favours the hybrid on the highway cycle by 1mpg (US). City cycle is 3mpg. Only 2mpg combined.

On costs, the 535i wins hands down. Has to be bought for other reasons than pence per mile (ppm).

Great idea, I want to buy into it, but a 'plug-in' has to be where savings really come into play.

the real savings will be with the new PHEVs, the 3 series, 7 series and X5.

i think this activehybrid was just the first step for BMW hybrid technology and not the final article as can be seen from the new PHEVs, although you will not get the same performance from these models.

[Fox530]

I've always found these interesting but when puts me off is the battery life and the fact BMW say batteries are not covered under the insured warranty and the battery warranty for the Ah5 is 5 years. So what happens after then? Who can replace them? How much?

It seems like a big worry - the used market seems to hate them and they hang around with dealers for months, a local dealer has had the same one for a year now.

A shame, on paper I love the idea and being able to crawl through traffic with no engine on sounds amazing but I'm terrified of buying into a car nobody will buy in the future because of the fears around batteries etc.

I don't know why BMW didn't take these cars more seriously, nobody seems to know anything about them or can provide any assurance on them.

Realistically what do they do on a 70mph Motorway run? I had a 335i once that did almost 40mpg, can the AH5 top that?

[dippo]

There's only one showing on spritmonitor, and that's averaged 24.8 mpg over 2,300 miles.

[Edinburra]

Originally Posted by Fox530

I've always found these interesting but when puts me off is the battery life and the fact BMW say batteries are not covered under the insured warranty and the battery warranty for the Ah5 is 5 years. So what happens after then? Who can replace them? How much?

It seems like a big worry - the used market seems to hate them and they hang around with dealers for months, a local dealer has had the same one for a year now.

A shame, on paper I love the idea and being able to crawl through traffic with no engine on sounds amazing but I'm terrified of buying into a car nobody will buy in the future because of the fears around batteries etc.

I don't know why BMW didn't take these cars more seriously, nobody seems to know anything about them or can provide any assurance on them.

Realistically what do they do on a 70mph Motorway run? I had a 335i once that did almost 40mpg, can the AH5 top that?

What you've said pretty much covers my suspicions about hybrids. Thank you

[Moo00]

I did want a hybrid but cost had a big part to play in my choice, mine was a 3 month old ex dealer model for over £20k off list...

[Fox530]

Realistically Moo00, what sort of fuel economy do you manage on a long Motorway journey at around the speed limit?