Thanks for quick reply.

I need to change cars soon as 1998 c class is beginning to rust again!!! so was thinking that CT 200h would be cheaper to run than Gs overall but reviews re ride are not great and/but GS looks a lot of car for the money.

I would be spending approx £18,000 for either car so probably 4 year old GS or 1 year old CT .

Lexus have good reputation for reliability but who knows on newer CT.

Will obviously test drive both but fuel saving of 30 vs 50 mpg will be £300 and tax £250 so fun vs finance is the issue.

Realistically I could buy a lot of taxis for the £2000 per year in depreciation tax and extra fuel but you cannot really put a price on the convenience of your own car although my take would be around the £2500 per year mark

I believe that 8 years is the replacement point for the Toyota/Lexus batteries - some second-hand ones are close to that now and even a more recent one will be by the time it's sold on. They're not going to be cheap so you'd need to factor the cost of replacing them, or take the hit at trade-in time as dealers will factor that in!

I agree with Unthrottled, spending money to reduce VED is self-defeating - differences in VED only matters when all else is equal.

The CT200 comes a consistent last in magazine group tests. Poor ride, poor space, expensive but cheap on company car tax.

At 4000 miles a year get a petrol 3 series. People on here will hate it because its a BMW but its simply the best car in the small executive class.

Happy retirement OP, me jealous, never..:-)

I love the GS450h, but its in a different league entirely, its a high performance large car that will leave a Porsche yet still return 30mpg general running in total refinement, without the need to have a tractor engine rattling away under the bonnet.

I don't get the new CT200, other than its Toyotas answer to BMW 1 series and Audi A3, its as ugly as hell at the back what were they thinking.

Given your budget could you scrape another couple of grand together and try the new latest shape Auris Hybrid, if you stick to sensible probably 16" wheels it should have a decent ride.

Another one you could consider which would have good ride would be the RX 400h.

Toyotas Hybrid batteries don't automatically need changing at 8 years, research finds a shortage of anyone who's had to renew them ever despite some serious mileages being covered they are proving remarkably reliable and durable.

Unlike most here i like the Toyota hybrid drive, a smoother more refined transmission and almost undetectable point of the engine assisting you'll struggle to find, hybrid isn't just about fuel economy its also about quiet refinement, something decidedly lacking from almost any comparable Diesel given the usual hell automated manual or other jerky gearboxes that are invariably mated to the tractor engines, MB and BMW excluded.

On the other hand if its smooth driving quiet autos you want without the fuel penalty then there's a third alternative, LPG, got two now and seriosuly doubt i'll ever be going back to Diesel.

When it comes to bad images you don't get worse than a large car/SUV with a hybrid badge proubly emblazened onto the tail gate. Nothing screams "sanctimonious token-gesture environmentalist" more loudly.

"Am too old to be a BMW driver as I will wait to get out at junctions"

How I hate these strerotypes that people keep repeating. I drive a BMW and drive it just like I have driven any car. Not all BMW drivers are t*****s.

As for a car with a duracell under the back seat being environmentally friendly that is a joke. Reality check, its got a 4 litre (or possibly bigger) engine under the bonnet.

If you absolutely have to have the GS450h or CT200h, then after driving both you will pick the GS - there's no comparison.

As others have said, there's so many other good cars around at £18k. As someone else suggested, you can get a very good IS250 petrol which for your annual mileage has everything you want without the Hybrid technology.

Am I missing the point with hybrids.

They use a normal petrol engine and a battery of some description that charges while you are driving. In town you can use a full battery to drive about 15 miles if you are lucky and don't want to accelerate quickly or go much above 20 mph. Once out of town you have a normal petrol engine and inefficient CVT gearbox that gets suplemented by the battery if you want a bit more go (a CVT and a bit more go are not words that are normally used together).

Thus at 70 mph a CT200H is using just as much petrol as any 2 litre petrol.

And at 70 mph a 4.5 litre GS450H is using just as much petrol as any 4.5 litre petrol.

And they are more complicated than a standard petrol.

And the batteries don't last forever.

As I said, am I missing the point.

No, but the man wants one!

As I said, am I missing the point.

You're not missing the point at all - all taxis and delivery vans should be hybrids - they work very well in stop-start situations, but badly in open road scenarios.

Hybrids are at their best in town, so if you live in a big town or city and seldom venture on motorways, one might suit you well

But surely if you only use a Hybrid in town the battery will discharge after a few miles and then have to revert to the petrol engine to drive the car and charge the battery. At that point you have an ordinary 2 litre or 4.5 litre petrol car but one that is driving a huge alternator that must be using even more power to charge the batteries.

Its lost on me.

>>>>"Am too old to be a BMW driver as I will wait to get out at junctions"

I think BMW drivers still claim preferential rights over the outside lane but the citizens motoring charter now dictates that it is Audi drivers who shall be delayed at every opportunity from charging around and cutting up everyone in the course of going about their self important business and must whenever possible not be let out at junctions.

A 330i as suggested above would IMO be a terrific retirement car. No turbo, dpf, dmf, batteries. That engine <drools> Or a Prius <yawns> if you want to advertise your retirement.

Edited by oldtoffee on 30/12/2012 at 11:01