I collected my c4month old Formentor PHEV VZ2 just over a week ago and am enjoying it a lot. Pleased to find this website/forum and I hope to learn a lot from it.
For what it's worth my previous car was BMW330e which I had from new for six years so I am used to a PHEV. I do a lot of short journeys so often use just battery power, switching to Hybrid for longer trips and I am already finding that the Formentor's Hybrid mode seems very efficient.
Why did I choose the Formentor? Well the BMW had £4800 of repairs last summer (2x tyres, 2 x wheels and new diff) and was well out of guarantee. The tipping point was in Autumn when a replacement passenger door lock cost another £720. I decided to change before anything else went wrong, eg 12v battery. My replacement list was eclectic:
Lexus NX450+ phev, BMW X1 xdrive phev and Formentor. The Lexus appealed because of the ten year,100K miles warranty - subject to Lexus dealer services - but soon went when insurance quotes came in at over £1000 (10K miles pa, garaged every night, my age 78). The BMW appealed because of shape and previous brand knowledge but both copies I tried had a very unpleasant noise from the running gear. Also the BMW servicing costs over 10 years plus extended warranties came out higher than the costs for the Lexus. The Formentor - smaller "footprint" than the others, great drive and handling, good battery range, a five year warranty and a "cost to change" about £8k less than the others for cars of a similar age. I'm hoping that I avoid some of the problems that I have read about from other Formentor owners but exchange of views face to face with other owners has been all positive.
Hope this isn't too long - and is helpful to someone!
For what it's worth my previous car was BMW330e which I had from new for six years so I am used to a PHEV. I do a lot of short journeys so often use just battery power, switching to Hybrid for longer trips and I am already finding that the Formentor's Hybrid mode seems very efficient.
Why did I choose the Formentor? Well the BMW had £4800 of repairs last summer (2x tyres, 2 x wheels and new diff) and was well out of guarantee. The tipping point was in Autumn when a replacement passenger door lock cost another £720. I decided to change before anything else went wrong, eg 12v battery. My replacement list was eclectic:
Lexus NX450+ phev, BMW X1 xdrive phev and Formentor. The Lexus appealed because of the ten year,100K miles warranty - subject to Lexus dealer services - but soon went when insurance quotes came in at over £1000 (10K miles pa, garaged every night, my age 78). The BMW appealed because of shape and previous brand knowledge but both copies I tried had a very unpleasant noise from the running gear. Also the BMW servicing costs over 10 years plus extended warranties came out higher than the costs for the Lexus. The Formentor - smaller "footprint" than the others, great drive and handling, good battery range, a five year warranty and a "cost to change" about £8k less than the others for cars of a similar age. I'm hoping that I avoid some of the problems that I have read about from other Formentor owners but exchange of views face to face with other owners has been all positive.
Hope this isn't too long - and is helpful to someone!
