I’m looking at leasing an 80x sport line (or 85x).  Basically depends if the one they have waiting at the port suits my colour and spec choices.

 

I’m a bit confused at what is standard equipment on the sport line.  As far as I can tell, parking sensors are an option(!).  I’d expect them as a minimum on any car.  A car like the Enyaq, I’d expect AEB, traffic sign recognition, auto park, etc etc etc too.  I will get a full Spec from the dealer I’m sure.

 

I traded my Octavia VES for a discovery sport and TBH it’s been a bit of a mistake.  I love the discovery, but it’s had ‘a few’ issues and I don’t trust it really.  Plus it’s not a cheap car to run or own.

 

because I will get half the VAT back and save higher rate tax etc, the Enyaq (two year lease, averaging £500/month including the payment up front) will cost me Les than £300 net.  I’ll also save about £150 per month on fuel, and won’t have any road tax, servicing, etc (based on two year servicing at which point I’ll probably just get a new one at the end of the lease rather than device it).  That’s got to save me another £50 per month so all in it’ll cost me about £100 per month to rent a new car every two years.

 

so I’m almost certainly gonna do it anyway - but I’m interested to know peoples’ thoughts on their Enyaqs.  Although I rarely use the 4x4 capabilities of my current car, it is handy for the odd rough track, deep puddle or flooded road, parking on the grass, not getting stuck in the snow, etc.  although the Enyaq is 4WD I’m assuming this doesn’t give anything like the benefits I currently enjoy - or does it?

 

is there anything you added but wish you’d never bothered with - or did/didn’t get but now think is a must-have?  The whole point of this is cost saving so I don’t really want to add the max pack as it probably adds about another £100 per month to the net cost, but I also don’t want to be regretting a missed option and counting down the months til I can hop it in

AWD does what AWD should do, especially with an EV, but then the appropriate tyres are necessary. 

 

Are you charging at home or work on a off peak or cheap tariff & will you also need to be doing charging at public chargers? 

I’ll probably mainly charge at work between March and October as we have solar panels and generally have a spare 50kWh per day which we only get 15p per unit for.  Maybe at home if I can get power to the side of the house for a home charger without cabling being too visible but although it’ll curt the charging cost in half it’s a struggle to justify the cost of a charger on that basis.  In winter maybe a fair dose of public charging.  Very rarely at expensive fast chargers.

 

on the AWD front I’m wondering if it has much/any genuine off road capability or if it’s purely for the tarmac (tyres aside)

I love your arithmetic.

 

In fact, I find it unbelievable that anyone can run a car for £100 pm.

On 07/01/2024 at 20:44, BoxerBoy said:

I love your arithmetic.

 

In fact, I find it unbelievable that anyone can run a car for £100 pm.

Well obviously it’ll cost me about £300 per month for the lease (after VAT and tax back, but on an average so including the advanced rental).  However I’ll be saving over £200 per month by not having to pay for servicing, Insurance, MOTs, and as long as I home charge it at 7p per kWh in fuel savings.  So when all is said and done I’ll be at most £100 per month worse off, in the pocket, than I am now.  My current car loses a lot more than £100 each month in depreciation.  In fact most do, unless you’re running a car that’s lost most/all it’s value.

 

Of course if they increase the BIKs on company EV cars, it will change everything - but for now it’s a no-brainer.

 

(BTW there are some calculations where it works out pretty much ‘free’ - based on someone with two kids earning c£58k to £62k.  Now that’s some good maths)

So Skoda lent me an Enyaq last week, and picked it up today (perks of looking at a business lease is you get a seven day test drive albeit you have to arrange your own insurance for it).

 

really liked it.  It was the standard RWD 80 in suite trim and coupe body style.  Looks great from the side and rear, ok from the front.  It had ‘just enough’ power for me - I’d be happy as it is but as I’m looking at the 80x which should have a little bit more go-go to it, I’m assuming I  won’t be disappointed.

 

I managed about 2.8 m/kWh on average, albeit I was hooning it around quite a bit and it’s cold.  Quite a lot of my journeys came in Les than 2 so maybe I’d hope for 3 or so in ‘normal’ driving.  Having no home charger I had to go and have my pants pulled down at 85p/kWh at the local BP although it delivered 35kWh in 18 minutes so I guess you pay through the nose for convenience.  Public charging generally was expensive and frustrating but I’ll get a wall box and in the summer we have lots of spare electricity at the office from the solar (normally 30-50kw per day exported to the grid)  so hopefully charging costs can be kept low with only very occasional trips to a public charger.

 

lane assist, heated steering wheel and seats etc all there.  Full leather which was probably an option and preferable to the suede/leather of the sport line I’ll be getting, but not something I’d pay a lot extra for.  Still confused about which features come as standard though so I’ll need to get a full spec sheet from the dealer.  The adaptive cc and pre-emotive braking at junctions or in traffic was good.  Traffic sign recognition is ok but tiny, less than a quarter of the size of my current car or the wife’s Ford.  I’d have expected more cistomisation of the behind-wheel dash, and settings generally.  Some of the features like cc and settings aren’t exactly the most user friendly.  Still not sure what the push button on the right hand side scroll wheely thing does.

 

there were a couple of things that weren’t quite as premium as my current discovery sport - wipers, washers, etc and no illuminated door sills.   Not sure on the visible paint around door interior either.  Missed having a ‘turn the lights on’ button but that and the sills it being really picky.

only thing I felt was a bit poor was the braking.  I get that it’s all about regen but I didn’t have full confidence that in an emergency stop situation it’s perform anywhere near as well as other cars I’ve had.

 

pretty sure I’m going to be getting one - depends on the final numbers, what I get for (lose on) my car, and the final lease costs.  Also whether there is flexibility on extending the lease - a lot of EV cars have long lead times.  I don’t really want to be negotiating on/ordering my next car before I’ve really settled into this one and I feel like I’d need to do that if I was going into a two year lease.

 

still tempted by the BMW i4 but thinking a 2 (or 3) year Enyaq lease and then worry about what’s on the market afterwards.