Renault Zoe Mk1 – A Used Car Review!

Renault Zoe Mk1 – A Used Car Review!

10 years ago the Renault Zoe came out in the UK whilst we’ve got it we thought you know what we review very expensive new electric vehicles all the time so let’s review an old one and see if it stands up by today’s standards not just

In electric car world but just as a car in terms of looks refinement and just usability is it as good now as it was back in 2013 let’s start with the looks and to me it looks as good today as it did back when

It came out if it was new if it was a new model I don’t think anyone would argue that this doesn’t look modern it looks familiar which is why they had to facelift it but the fact that they barely touched it on the facelift suggests well it’s all right we didn’t

Need to change it if it’s not broken let’s not fix it the one thing that does date it is this rather appalling key card when it fits nicely in your pocket but it is pretty basic now the charging won’t a kill his heel of the Renault Zoe

The 22 K specifically because well it doesn’t DC rapid charge 22 Kow on AC which isn’t bad but it’s not really up to today’s standard or even close to it you could get the 43 KW version so there are two that you can get out there a

Second car or a partner car whatever you want to call it that’s what it did when it was new and that’s what it still does today again you’ve got that small French hat spack sort of approach it’s based on the Cleo you could probably see that in the dimensions here and you have

Something quite clever at least for its time they got narrow windows and that was to reduce the amount of load on the climate control because the more windows you have the less insulated it is and the more effort you have to put into heating or cooling the car down the

Other things that I’ve come to like as well after all owning this are plastic bumpers and wings because they’re not only you know don’t have to worry about in terms of rust they’re easily repaired not that one that one and well it’s just easily cleaned so it does stand up but in terms

Of looks again it’s modern there’s nothing wrong with this at all rear door not the most space in the rear but easy access to it at least the back you got these cute rear lights with all the wavy bless cuz it’s Eco and you’ve got the Zoe

Badge you’ve got again kind of a cute rear end it’s kind of bulbous but the one thing that the Zoe is much better for than I think a lot of people give it credit is its boot size 338 L and I’m just having a quick look around

According to this the Ford Focus as in the 2023 version has 273 l so although the shape you know it’s quite deep it’s not the easiest thing to get in and out of it’s a big boot but the fact that this is still sold to date 10 years

Later I’ll be in the facelift version well they got it right so let’s now have a look inside to see if that dates because the one thing that has increased significantly in the world it’s interior build quality right now steering wheel does date it a little bit you’ve got this uh

Well I won’t call it fake leather even I mean it’s it’s worn okay but it’s not exactly you know high-end but it was never designed to be you got some more Hardware materials you got the but which feel okay still more hard wearing materials on the door pretty much

Everywhere I mean everything important feels okay and solid enough but yeah you not you not got any uh fake leather or alcanta going on in the Zoe but again it was never designed for that around here again more hardwar and stuff but textured it’s not bad feels okay and

These have held up they’re still as good as they were from day one you’ve got this Dash binnacle here which gives you all the information you need apart from the percentage of course which is really annoying because when you turn the car on it gives you the percentage but it

Doesn’t when you’re driving it just tells you how many miles are left now the infotainment system that does date it a little bit so if I turn the car on it’s not the fastest but it’s not really slow I mean I’ve seen some Modern stuff which is about as fast as this you’ve

Got your Bluetooth you don’t have any Digital radio obviously you know the newer the model the more chance you’ve got of Digital radio and things like that no Android auto or apple carplay standard but I believe there is an upgrade for Android auto no iPhones though all the uh buttons again feel

About as good as you would expect from let’s say some other brands now down here again it does date it a little bit you got this gear lever which is actually very easy to use you have to look down the Eco button and the speed limiter and cruise control are on the

Wrong side of this because they didn’t bother switching over for right hand drive and left hand drive so that’s a bit annoying there’s nowhere to put a phone which I guess in some ways does data design uh a handbrake remember those natural handbrake it’s all automatic I presume that’s for a pen

Small cup holders which aren’t very useful but you do get a big one back here which I always leave in the car when I get out because it’s behind me do I get to you do yeah you do yeah yeah half of it’s missing I

Opened it in a quite deep but a lot of it’s missing isn’t it this feels quite nice that’s quite nice yeah yeah they’ve got a little bit of touches here and there aren’t it to bring it up ni contrast but it was always uh I I will

Say a budget EV yeah and it did just feel like that doesn’t it yeah so it is what it is and what you would expect but by today’s standards there are a few materials which I think would probably be well look at the facelift now it’s a

Lot better isn’t it even in the cars that have done lots of Miles which this clearly hasn’t they’re still as comfortable they haven’t you know they haven’t sagged or anything like that but the one thing I will say about the seats especially the drivers as well you can’t

Put them up or down because he sat on top of the batches not for full adults but kids in the back I mean it’s a small hatch kind of a nice place to be to be honest it don’t feel too bad with the seat in my position and the light panels

Up here the ceiling is makes it a bit brighter certainly I’d say you get three kids in the back of a or two smaller adults easily got quite a lot quite low down so you got to support the your your thigh yeah with those lovely legs by the

Way thank you very much um uh and there’s no USB in the back either for kids I guess that sort of dat that does dat it yeah definitely yeah so it’s been years since we last tested this I mean literally years it’s been years since our last sating one yeah you just see

Them on the road don’t you and don’t really give a you know a second look to them I think that’s why they’re so well a good option on the used EV Market 22 Kow espcially because so many of them relative to other EVS is either this all

Than the leaf yeah just the leaf is a bigger car if you yeah if yeah that that was why we chose it but there was no issues in terms of battery longevity because of it was a new car when we had it and we chose the leaf instead of that

Because of Rapid Charing charging I guess from from uh a new point of view the Leaf’s a better option these have got such a a good battery buffer in them cuz they got a larger total capacity compared to usable that you don’t really know there is no degradation i’ say for

The driver in this at all is it it’s 7 and a half years old well I’d say I mean at a push on a on a summer’s day I say we’re nearly getting a 100 out of it I I care about all my cars but it’s nice to

Driveing drive something where you don’t really think H I’m not sure if want to leave it there because someone might open their door onto mine well it’s completely under the radar nobody even knows yeah you could make a complete f yourself in this car and everyone’s going to go it’s all

Right another thing I really like about this is just that it’s it’s not as wide as as a lot of cars nowadays which means that I mean you really do notice it when you when you’re parking or when you’re going over over the tops over little

Roads over the tops of the country roads yeah yeah but you do lose a little bit of interior space not if you know there not there’s not much in the middle no there’s not no we’re not we’re not brushing shoulders so to speak but we are you probably see quite close I have

No real build quality issues no no no we we’ll knock that you know that French myth on the head they seem to go through the Springs more than other cars I have had to replace the spring on this car yeah um I think probably given its

Weight and I think it I might have this wrong cuz we haven’t really looked but I think it’s the same suspension setup as the car is based on the clear it heavier it would make sense wouldn’t it maybe they’ve just adjusted to Spring slightly

The one thing I I think we do need to bring up because it does come out on your Facebook searches y you know cuz that’s people only ask for help don’t when things go wrong yeah you never said oh she’s an amazing car yeah uh and it’s

Occasionally you do see ones where they say it can’t charge I mean we saw one that was faulty for sale that we missed out on I’m gutted about that it went like that didn’t it it so it couldn’t charge and you can repair these the trouble is people take it back to

Renault who replaced go well uh there’s something wrong with this unit it’s I know a couple of grand or something ridiculous like that to replace that whole unit whereas a he garage would find out what part of that unit’s wrong and for probably 3 4500 at most maybe I don’t know it’s

Hard to say yeah fix it so don’t ever think these have to go back to the main dealer only there’s more and more gar yeah h v a he that means that garage has got the tools and the know how to fix electric cars it is quiet isn’t it yeah

I mean the this has got cheap tires on it which I think also got all season tires on the front hasn’t it all winter tires there’s no rattles is there either no no no stands up it say as a as a modern car well yeah it’s no Ford you would mention the efficiency

Which is you press the button on the end 1,56 miles or we have 257 K hours we’ve used which equals screen 4.1 m per K and we’ve not been driving it economically everywhere at all and a lot of that’s you’ve been driving it back on the motorway would you to start with well

Yeah yeah yeah but it’s a small car which is why we like small cars and SUVs are anti- small anti- efficient mov it’s the perfect runaround it is the perfect commuter car that is it and it’s at a price now where it’s comparable to a petrol diesel alternative I mean they’ll

Do a l cheaper than the Cleo of the same age well yeah oh this was anyway I’m not saying all will be I mean they’ll do they’ll do a lot further to to fill up comparing them but I think for the majority of Journeys the majority of people do this

Is absolutely F yeah and he wouldn’t buy as an only car unless you lived in the city center or something like is this the best used electric car in terms of value absolutely in terms of value yeah without a doubt it has to be hasn’t it I mean a usable

Short range usable there’s much electric vehicle same as far as I’m concerned same range from new yeah there’s B to be good and bad examples of everything but there’s way more good than bad handling wise is it Reynold Spar no you’re all right if you drive normally but if you put any exuberance

In it all it leans a bit does it I got a little bit of tire squeal in that it but it’s very comfortable it is the only thing I would notice is that when you go up you know like the coming up to the end of the Dual Carriage where

Where you get them yellow lines go you feel it yeah a lot more than I expected or at least you hear it you know it’s like yeah yeah it whereas other cars would kind of yeah so it’s a soft suspension but it’s still a small car range as we’ said earli it’s the

Same as it was when it was new but I would put this would say 60 winter 80 summer I think that’s realistic normal driving you can you are going to be to get more out of it you will get less out of it if you f yeah yeah so in Winter I

Think everyone I speak to says are at least 60 and that’s we’re using the heater in all all sorts people are buying a a full electric brand new Mini that does what 100 miles yeah that 289 Grand this is they side likees so you don’t see everybody as you

As we’ said many times if you can charge at home it’ll suit most people most of the time I mean you’ve done the Maths for yourself haven’t you yeah how much do you get out of your um car with uh the focus I’m getting for for work J

Yeah for what for what we do so I’m using about 50 to 60 quid of fuel a week in that and doing about 200 miles each I know I reckon I’d go from 50 Quid a week to about let’s say5 a week and you’re on the right tariff to and charge home last

Night well yesterday did 50 miles and I put 10 kows in at 75 P 7.5 time so 75 P yeah yeah but I’m going to say a pound just to be yeah yeah cuz maybe losses so it cost you a quid make it easy yeah to go to work so

This it be cheaper for you to own with your car than not yeah than just your car alone even with extra insurance yeah I would say so yeah that’s Bonkers like I said I would have had this only for the fact that I’ve I’ve just done a car

Up yeah you got another second car already so yeah it’s just bad timing yeah it’s bad time if I had have had that I’d have jumped at this but I guess aru you could say well hav’t you got a more econom called main car because they’re fun and that’s not counting the

Fact that You’ save a fortune by not piling the miles on that other car which is a lot more expensive to maintain well 200 a corner for tires versus what I guess 60 70 quid on something like this well yeah yeah every mile you do on this

Is a mile that you don’t do on that yeah if you just want want a a second car or a short Journey care then for me people do yeah there’s no other option is really not in EV world no then the leaf is a bigger option youve got the rapid

Charging option but the degradation is a bigger risk factor personally I prefer the lock of this as well and for a car that’s between 10 and six years oldish at this battery size yeah and then obviously the 40 bigger battery version same interior virtually I can’t follow for the price

You pay I can’t follow yeah I think that that’s the fair estimate and on the used EV Market I can’t really think of anything else around the 5 to 10 G that gets you as much that does what this does now there are two options with this

A battery lease oh yeah and a battery owned the battery owned which is what this is effectively just it’s a it’s a normal car you buy the car and you car that doesn’t mean there is no warranty on the battery as well which is normally eight years yeah 100,000 miles on the

Battery in these cars so it’s quite long so if you buy a battery lease the car should be cheaper so let’s say if a six grand car comes with battery owned it’ll probably five yeah is um you can buy the battery lease out if you do buy a used one that is

Leased and it seems to be around anywhere from 500 quid to 1800 quid on the 22 K versions age and mileage it gets lower the older it is last question I guess would you get a battery leas version if it’s 9 10 years old or a battery owned version I think i’

Probably go for a battery leas because the cheaper and knowing me I’d keep it for a couple of years and therefore it’s not worth buying out if I could find a battery at reasonable price like somebody did I know then I jump at that yeah cuz the

Battery owned ones let’s say it’s 1,800 quid to buy the lease out the battery owner are only commanding about th000 pound premium yeah yeah yeah I guess you what you could do is buy the leas if you run sure about the battery if you’re a bit nervous and think right yep it’s

Fine and then you could buy it out um either way if you’re going to buy it out do it at the beginning of your ownership rather than six months later makes sense to do it from uh as early as possible doesn’t it really it’s 50 Quid month up

Uh for the lease right uh thank you for watching thank me for doing it thank you for doing it thanks for watching uh see you whenever maybe maybe I don’t know bye we probably never see them I don’t know might see at full person bye God thank

It’s been around over a decade and there are a lot to choose from, but does it stand up in todays EV market or is it just, dated?

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