Questions, Coffee & Cars #62 // Hybrid or Plug-in hybrid?
Welcome to the motormouth YouTube channel I’m Zach I’m Andrea and we do full length car reviews each and every week halfway through we stop for a segment called questions coffee cars we’ve spun it off we’re at number 62 how do you get a question in follow along on Instagram at motormouth Andrea every
Sunday morning at 7 a.m. Pacific time I put a post out it’s only up for a short time Once We Gather our questions the post is deleted and we start the show time now for questions coffee and cars your questions from Instagram why haven’t more manufacturers jumped on
Board with the small third row like Kia offers in the sarento I’d love to see a small bonus Row in the Rav 4 redesign any chance of Toyota ever doing that well uh Nissan did it with the Rogue and uh they got rid of it and I think the
Reason that car companies do this is in the compact space um there’s only the Mitsubishi Outland and also available for about 1,500 bucks is the Volkswagen Tiguan um but the other ones everything else they want you to move up to a bigger vehicle I think it’s the ladder
This isn’t good enough for you oh don’t worry if you’re only $100 more a month you can have the bigger one with the three rows yeah it’s all about the grade walk I mean you look at Toyota right now with the grand Highlander and you’ve got the Highlander and some of you are
Asking are they even going to keep the Highlander around the Highlander doesn’t actually have a big third row so if you’re looking for a smaller vehicle I think that the Highlander would be an okay option to use the third row in a pinch they will I don’t believe they
Will ever put a third row in the rout four I’m just looking there’s a car parked right there that used to sell incredibly well and it did have a small third row it was the Dodge Journey and that was one that sold very well for uh stellantis FCA Chrysler why did they get
Rid of it CU it was a piece of junk I guess it didn’t sell as well it sold very well yeah maybe maybe at that time when the journey was out there weren’t a lot of three row offerings like even a small third row so I guess I
Can see why it may have been a hit but you certainly don’t see many of those on the road today cheap it was cheap what do you think Infinity could do to become competitive again outside of the QX60 the brand is dead oh but wait but wait
You just have to wait Andrea get some Intel on this I think that you’re not wrong on that the QX60 was a big one for the brand when they released it I mean even Zach and I said man this one is got to be a hit for Infinity unfortunately
Their vehicles they have left them for too long I don’t like that they have included a CVT in some of their models and old old head units yeah like they just haven’t updated it well they are coming out with a new QX80 they are about to launch this it looks really
Good they are hoping when I say they Infinity says to their dealerships uh this is through Automotive news has actually quoted them on this they said that they believe with this new QX80 that they will get 75% new buyers to the brand brand well that’s not hard if you have no buyers
It’s easy to get new buyers they’re hoping to get you know they’re hoping to get people from the Lincoln brand or Cadillac um they are also kind of going up scale where they are looking at buyers that have a yearly income of over $250,000 but what they desperately need
Is an updated qx50 that’s the meat of the market I don’t think there’s any plans for that yet well I think they have like a read design but I don’t know if it’s going to be all new and now they’re also focusing on electric vehicles so they’re about to show a new
Um EV sedan they’re also going to have an EV SUV and a crossover Coupe style SUV as well so they have a lot coming up I really hope that the brand reinvents itself you know so do the dealers cuz the dealers have been left with old old
Old inventory so so what Infinity is saying is they really want to separate itself from Nissan so maybe that means that they’re not going to share some of the same things like you can see with the QX60 that it has a lot of the Pathfinder in it right I mean that’s
Pretty obvious but you got to remember they also have the relationship with um Nissan Renault so there might be some vehicles that Renault has developed that won’t look anything like a Nissan that they can turn into an Infinity that gives them that upscale feel anyway it’s exciting they have things in the
Pipeline coming up so I look forward to seeing it love the show and love your married couple banter we definitely banter what are the advantages of a plug-in hybrid versus a non-plug-in hybrid well a lot of people are confused about the terminology we throw it around all the time thinking everybody knows
But they don’t a hybrid is just a regular car that has electric assist you do not plug it in you go to the gas station and you fill it up less often and you can get some very very good mileage and you don’t have to pay a lot
To get a hybrid over a regular gas car so that’s kind of like a regular car the plugin part is exactly in the title it’s a plugin you need to have access to a plug you need to plug it in every night and you get X number of electric miles
Or kilometers typically anywhere from 40 to about 70 kilometers of electric range and then it switches to what I just talked about the old hybrids so that’s the terminology so hybrids have a smaller battery than plugin hybrids and the way that a battery in a hybrid is charged is through regen braking or
Through the gas engine a plug-in hybrid has a much bigger battery and you get the most benefits from a plug-in hybrid if you plug it in and drive it in pure electric mode now the minute your battery is depleted the fuel economy is not as good is what you would get in a
Hybrid so if you do decide that you want a plug-in hybrid make sure you plug it in every day you can do it with a level one charger you don’t need to invest in a level two charger at all so so level two let’s back up the terminology on
That level one is a regular wall plug like you plug your hair dryer in level two is is actually a Clos dryer you need that extra U voltage to get it going so I think either are great options but if you are not going to plug in your
PH we don’t recommend it then get the hybrid hybrids are easy because you just start them up and you go and when you need fuel you put fuel in so great fuel economy yeah so one of the the two detriments for plugin hybrids over the regular hybrids they’re much more
Expensive to buy so the price tag is is way higher so you have to run the numbers on how much do you actually drive in a year how much do you pay in fuel or the difference between the hybrid and the plug-in hybrid and it
Might not be worth it for you to spend that extra money to get the plugin you can just drive a regular hybrid and actually save some money overall costs and then the other part of it is that they’re heavier and when the as Andrea mentioned when the batter is depleted
The fuel economy isn’t as good the good news about a plug hybrid like in Canada it qualifies for the federal EV rebate of $5,000 if it gets 50 kilm plus of range if it gets lower than that you only qualify for half of that so that can
Bring the price down and you know something like the PRS plug-in hybrid the prime or the PRS when you start looking at pricing and you add in that rebate you actually get a better deal on the prime than you do on the regular Prius so you’ve got to kind of run your
Number on that that’s one of the problems about anything new technology and electrified it’s not about this any longer it’s like oh it’s the shiny red car it’s a convertible it’s sounds good I want it great stereo it’s all this it’s spreadsheet stuff and it’s kind of
Making a lot of cars soulless because of it I did say to Zach earlier before we started this I’m not talking about the zero emissions mandate for Canada luck for 2035 in this video but now I have to bring it up what bothers me is that hybrids not plug-in hybrids hybrids are
Not included in that mandate and I really believe that they need to be there because I think that they work for a lot of people and plug-in hybrids are going to need 70 kilometers of range and above to qualify okay what is the ultimate we’re getting into the EV
Mandate and here we go I know what is the goal the goal is to reduce greenhouse gases the goal isn’t to make um regulations more comp licated for everybody manufacturers and consumers to deal with the goal is just let’s get the CO2 out of the atmosphere as much as we
Possibly can so if hybrids we talked about it in our last video um are are really taking off in terms of popularity well you’re going to be reducing greenhouse gases a lot so why they’re not included in the Mandate makes no sense so why don’t they just come up
With a calculation that says okay uh for every four hybrids it qualifies as one pure EV or one plug-in hybrid say plug-in hybrid you’re not going to go pure EV but say for every four hybrids you sell that that basically adds up to one pH put that in the calculation so if
The goal is to bring down CO2 why don’t we promote the vehicles that bring down CO2 and right now most people are comfortable and able to afford just regular hybrids and off the top of my head I think that the Ralph 4 hybrid has a 1.87 KW hour battery I don’t think it’s
Even that big I think it’s 1.4 but anyway it’s very small okay so you have that battery size how many of those hybrids can you make if you compare it to a 77.5 KW hour battery a whole lot more well all we need is a calculator Andrea we could probably run those numbers
Somebody will do it for type below watch your videos thanks for the Insight I’m looking to buy a new 24 Onyx cross trck versus is a 23 Nissan cash Kai SL live near Toronto safety is a huge concern which would you recommend and why so the cash Kai by the way is
The Nissan Rogue sport that’s no longer sold in the US but still sold in Canada and it’s actually a nice size vehicle one thing about cash Kai uh nice interior they haven’t really done much to it and we’re hoping to get an updated model that has been released in Europe
Um nice interior for its class the subc compact class it’s really quite roomy but I just think that the cross track in my opinion is so hard to beat the one thing though is cross trk prices have gone they’ve gone way up Nissan seems to be maybe a little more disciplined with
Their pricing so resale value then you add in and the cross Trek is the clear winner because those things hold their value my feeling is the cash Kai isn’t going to be around for long in Canada now that the Rogue sport is gone in the US but we’ll see what happens if you
Compare both trims they’re really about the same price price but you get more with the cross Trek Onyx because you get the larger engine in that that 2.5 l so you’ve got more horsepower and more torque than the cash Kai and you get more features in the Onyx you have the
Larger 11.6 in touchcreen with Wireless Apple carplay Android auto it’s wired in the cash gu so I I think that there’s just more value with the cross Trek you’ve got a terrific all-wheel drive system we know subor safety is great not to say that Nissan’s isn’t they have a
Great one as well yeah they’ve got their eyesight system and I believe they have the new uh third camera I’m trying to remember which models get it but anyway it’s uh it’s advanced technology I I just think cross Trek really is tough to beat in that class hello from Toronto
Love your channel thank you I currently have a 2020 CRV and looking to change to something puppy and yet efficient my Lookouts are the Tiguan the atlas cross sport Q3 or Q5 looking for your recommendation it’s kind of a big mix it’s a bit of a big mix the thing about
The Q5 is a premium gas Drinker and that’s going to cost you a lot more money about 20 cents more per liter will use um um metric here because you’re in Canada uh the Q3 no that uses regular gas uh same engine as the tigan uh but
More power in the in the Q3 um so I don’t know crossport so big and the atlas crossport uses the same engine as well but it’s got more power so you’ve got three engines you’ve got the tigan engine you’ve got the Q3 engine and you’ve got the atlas cross sport engine
All using the same engine this little one has the least power this little one has more and this one went all the way home I and this what piggy went you know what I think I’d probably go for look at all of them except for the Q5 I would
Say has got plenty of plastic hard plastic inside the interior okay I’m going I’m going to do 3 two one 3 two one wait a sec give me a moment give me a moment I really have to put myself myself and what would I drive what would
I drive I know what I’m going to say okay 3 2 1 TIG one TIG one Q3 that’s what I’m going for so there you go you can take the titig one or the Q3 I know what i’ be in one one more thing before we move on
Volkswagen and Canada offers a four-year warranty Audi offers a four-year warranty you’re not getting more warranty because it’s a premium brand yeah so and it uses regular gas reliability wise love your show your interactions with each other make for fun reviews thank you anyway I’m looking for a daily
That’s good on gas fun to drive and reliable oh gosh fun to drive reliable and good on gas typically fun to drive is not good on gas but anyway my GTI was getting expensive running premium so I okay I’m going come back we’re going to go back to that I’m looking used and
Cheap like me this will be my 39 nth car so hopefully I can try to keep it a little longer thanks for the advice so I’m not sure why you’re putting premium gas in the GTI there I think there were some um marks of GTI that did require
Premium gas I don’t know the full history of what was of I I’m doing this for memory um but if your car does not require premium gas you do not need to put it in there some people like putting the spendy gas in because it doesn’t
Have ethanol and they don’t want to they want to try and mitigate things like carbon buildup and I that um so you want to have a fun to drive car I would go it’s fuel efficient fuel efficient I would go if you’re a GTI driver I’m
Hoping you drive stick I would go for a used Honda Civic sport hatchback o I like that good that a lot I like that a lot or how about a use GLI well maybe he doesn’t want maybe he doesn’t want a Volkswagen anymore but you get to use GTI but you know what
Honda Civic so good Si would be another good choice if you can get not very many of those around Honda Civic hatchback what about like an A4 but you’ve got premium fuel again I’m trying to think of something that doesn’t oh what about a WRX manual transmission I’m trying to remember it
Needs premium gas the turbo oo I think I think it’s I think it’s recommended remember we asked Subaru about this at at the launch of the WRX they said we recommend premium but you can use regular WRX is off the Li listen I would go you know to your point
If you like the GTI you could get a newer one the Mark 7 which was the last gen that came was sold until 2021 so you could look for a three-year-old car now um did not require premium gas so if you like the GTI and we love the GTI that
Might be a good one to go for GLI is another one here’s a quick story I just have to tell it because we were talking about the Civic so our son drives the Civic and we have a Civic that we bought for the boys to learn to drive on yeah
And he’s always like oh my gosh it’s like no power on the highway and it’s kind of boring to drive it’s perfectly slow for new drivers awesome we say gosh that’s the best car you could get Charlie every day you get up and you go
To work and you get in that car and it starts and he’s like this hm so when he was in school there was um someone in the school he’s studying he’s he’s he’s doing his apprenticeship right now for electri yeah so there’s a broad range of
Ages in his class this person that he was talking to was older than him Charlie is only 18 um and he had a Ram pickup and he really got Charlie thinking about pickups and then he was all about his Ram was all about his Ram I would never change anything the Ram’s
The best blah blah blah anyway just text Charlie there’s no longer in school because they’re doing their level one hours right now and he says to Charlie I bought the Civic I bought your car you know why because it was costing him $800 a month for the ram in fuel I bet
You he’s just like wow what a savings I bet you the difference in fuel makes the car payment if he’s spending $800 a month and he’s now spending probably two 250 a month and he’s got $500 left over that would pay for the car payment and there so Charlie is now thinking the
Civic’s pretty great right pretty great is his friend from school who had the big Ram now bought a Civic but here’s another cute quick story there is a Toyota Tacoma Charlie loves pickup track in this beautiful blue color following Charlie everywhere just happens to be everywhere Charlie looks this truck
Islie taking pictures I think it lives in our neighborhood so when he goes to the gym and he drives around our neighborhood he sees it and he loves it and he keeps he’s taking pictures look at it it’s here again I said wow that thing’s really following you around so
What did he do he went on auto trader and had a quick look and he goes whoa these things are expensive w we said yeah they sure are Charlie maybe you should just keep driving the Civic he likes the Civic may maybe Mom and Pop’s
Uh we paid for it that’s the best car you can drive the free one he’s appreciating it more today now after he checked out the prices when do you guys get the new Chevy Traverse love your reviews well oh yeah yeah I just got an email from uh General Motors Canada and
They say the Cadillac uh xt4 is coming in I can’t wait for that one yeah I really like the xt4 uh there was some pickup trucks coming in oh there was a Denali um that’s coming in that we’re going to get but there was no mention of
That and we’re really wanting to drive it cuz it looks good so good and that’s one of the biggest in in it’s class it’s got a great third row plenty of cargo space behind that third row so looking forward to that unfortunately we don’t know one more question I usually have a
50 kilometer run daily mostly on kids Duty which SUV 7 Cedar is nice to have would you suggest in the 70 to 80 kilometer range will it make sense to go with a p HV I I think certainly because you only do 50 kilm a day you would love
A plug-in hybrid but there really aren’t many seven passenger plug-in hybrids you can get the sarento plug-in hybrid but that’s only a six passenger but it does have a third row you got to go premium unfortunately or you got to go pure EV and get that ev9 from Kia I suggest that
You maybe look at a premium brand like you could get a Volvo XC90 y um that’s something you can consider that’s a plugin yeah but there aren’t a lot in that category you’ve got the TX is going to be coming out with a plug-in hybrid
At some point but nothing yet I I bet you we’re about a year away for that TX plugin you know what listen if you’re doing kid duty and you’re running around the hybrid version of the grand Highlander is very Thrifty on fuel and um Highlander Hybrid Highlander Hybrid
But good luck getting one of those I think that grand Highlander is going to be uh un obamium did you say it right un un obamium for a while you’re not be able to get it unobtainable well it’s a it’s a joke it’s a like it’s like a it’s
Like a material on the periodic table called unium I don’t think I said it right unab un team type below let us know thank God you’re there for us I mean I’d love it because you guys type below and you let us let us know all
Warts and all there you go thanks for watching how do you get a question in follow along on Instagram at motormouth Andrea every Sunday morning at 7:00 a.m. Pacific time I put a post out once we gather our questions the post is deleted and we start the show we’ll see you then
Thanks for watching
This is a Motormouth couple car video answering your questions from Instagram, like: Compact SUV with three-rows? Is Infiniti dead? Best 3-row SUV for 70-80K? When do you get the Chevy Traverse? Inexpensive car to replace GTI? Audi Q3, Audi Q5 or VW Tiguan or VW Atlas Cross Sport? Nissan Qashqai or Subaru Crosstrek? Hybrid or plug-in hybrid?
0:00 Intro
0:28 Compact SUV with three-rows?
2:02 Is Infiniti dead?
4:26 Hybrid or plug-in hybrid?
9:53 Nissan Qashqai or Subaru Crosstrek?
11:42 Audi Q3, Audi Q5 or VW Tiguan or VW Atlas Cross Sport?
13:35 Inexpensive car to replace GTI?
18:08 When do you get the Chevy Traverse
18:46 Best 3-row SUV for 70-80K?
Andrea Instagram https://www.instagram.com/motormouth_andrea/
Zack Instagram https://www.instagram.com/motormouth_auto/
