I have the iV SEL estate, so I thought I would share my experience even tho' its too late.

I got it on 5th of October 2003 (2 years after I ordered it)  - its really a great car from my perspective, my commute is ~60 miles a day + some longer trips once a month or so, maybe towing a trailer or boats very occasionaly.

Recording my expenditure on fuel I'm getting 18 miles per litre or 83 miles to the gallon over all on average (just done 14k miles).  The car is charged every night, typically from zero charge - I use Octopus who charge £0.07 per KWh overnight, which is less than £1 a day.

The boot has reduced capacity as the battery lifts the boot floor by around 4 inches or 100mm - mostly thats fine, until it isn't!  but for me that is rare.

The car is not the best handling vehicle I've owned, but its OK - just not a racing car.  my previous car a MkIII TSi was much better and my Skoda Rapid 130 was hoot back in the 80's .

Acceleration is rapid in sport mode - the down side is the front tires often spin,  in fact I've had to change the front tyres yesterday ... after 14k miles, thats expensive so I'm going to take it easy from now on, also when I drive on the A40 I get over excited over taking and find myself doing 120 .. . .

The electric drive is not efficient above about 50mph so if i'm motorway driving I switch off automode to preserve the battery - in fact the car does (gently) put regen charge into the battery over time, so you still can get some extra miles of E driving at the other end of the journey.

2 hours ago, RAPID_130 said:

The boot has reduced capacity as the battery lifts the boot floor by around 4 inches or 100mm

Actually, it's the fuel tank that is raising the boot floor; the HV battery is sitting if front of the rear axle, and the fuel tank is behind the rear axle.

 

2 hours ago, RAPID_130 said:

The car is not the best handling vehicle I've owned

The mass distribution front-rear should be better than that of non-hybrid cars, but the extra weight is clearly there...

 

2 hours ago, RAPID_130 said:

the down side is the front tires often spin,

That's a common downside over all the VAG PHEVs - I can't imagine what they are thinking! when you move from a standstill, if you press the accelerator a little harder, the E-motor delivers directly all the 330 Nm of torque. I find that the traction control implementation in EV mode is a poor joke! But I've learnt to manage the tire-spin by controlling the pedal-pressure for the initial movement of the wheels; after 3-5 km/h you can accelerate with full confidence...

 

2 hours ago, RAPID_130 said:

The car is charged every night, typically from zero charge

👍 
the PHEV is not for those not charging too often. Otherwise it simply becomes a HEV with extra-weight.