Ordered the exact same one (£6, Ali).
Anything to hide that ugly abomination that they call key.
Although by no means perfect (both tech and driving itself), particularly with all the discounts we got, .. probably by a huge margin the best lease we had, value wise.
Even took it to a public charger last night (to see how they even work).
Going from a Golf to this boat, my “aim” isn’t particularly great yet lol.
Electroverse makes charging shockingly easy.
It could not have been easier/more convenient. Plug in, press “go” on the app, throw the relaxation seats on for 10 minutes, press “stop” on the app, pull the charger out and off you go. Payment through the app/electricity bill.
How anyone would complain about that is beyond me. First full charge (at home) netted 351 miles range on the GoM, most drives in the rain currently end up between 3.8 and 4.2 m/kwh – though only done 150 miles since Thursday.
Niggly bits so far, the rear view camera is useless in rain (gets covered, view completely obstructed, might be able to help with RainX), the turning circle is pretty awful (although, can be partially excused by the fact that it’s equal to a medium sized aircraft carrier in size), the brakes are squeaky af (might settle), and the suspension is stiff/firm in an unsophisticated way – but that might settle a bit as well (it rides harsher than the GTE, which had the sports suspension). It’s okay at higher speeds, at low speeds it’s pretty awful currently. The infotainment is slow and laggy – not that big an issue since i don’t really interact with it much, but still worth pointing out.
One thing i really don’t like, and i don’t think that’ll fix itself, is the tendency for the car to chase after ruts. Slight tilt to the road, and the car pulls to the side. Undulating road? Better grab the wheel tight. I’ve never experienced this, to the point where we wonder if something is broken: our driveway has a slight decline, and is 90 degrees off the main road. When i turn in, the wheels actually turn themselves to full lock when they go over the crest. It’s so bad in fact that i almost had a bump in a car park – the Golf steered very differently. At full lock, letting go of the steering wheel (at low speeds) would immediately unwind the steering. Not so in this car: at full lock and low speed, the steering actually doesn’t return to centre, you have to actively unwind the steering. It very much reminds me of a car i drove 30 years ago (USDM Jeep Wrangler). Which took me by surprise in the Tesco parking lot, trying to let the wheel “slide” through my hand resulted in me almost hitting another parked car.
I can say with confidence, i despise electric power steering. There’s just no upside to it – it’s worse in every conceivable way. If you drive “relaxed”, one handed, you can actually feel a “notch” in the centre, which is rather distracting since you have to constantly adjust heading (since the steering is so light that it follows any road imperfection). Setting the steering to “sport” doesn’t do anything in that regard, it just increases resistance in the steering wheel.
Now. That all said: we actually love the car. Yeah it doesn’t drive anywhere near as good as the Golf, but we knew that beforehand. It certainly does have a considerably nicer interior, and my mother in law on her “test drive” sits half a mile behind us, so that’s great (it’s kind of ridiculous how much space you have in the rear seats lol).
We also tried the “auto parking” today, which i will never use again. Not because it doesn’t work, it does – both while sitting inside the car as well as being outside and letting the car park itself into a parallel bay – but because the car goes what feels like mach 3 in reverse. It’s perfectly fine, just scary. Though i will say, it’s a sight to behold, that huge yacht parking itself into a 90 degree bay, doing three point turns by itself etc while i stand next to it. Very alien feeling.
I know i pointed a lot of negatives out here, mainly in regards to driving – but this is partially due to coming from a hot hatch lease. Of course it’s going to steer better than the Ioniq.
That said: the car, while not a “drivers car”, is actually quite capable. The P-Zero E tyres are, at least in the dry, capable, allowing confidence-inspiring levels of grip in more spirited corners – though be warned that in the wet, in sport mode, the car does sidestep. Which, depending on your tendencies, is either good fun or quite scary.
The Sat Nav seems to be routing well, which is important since we probably have to use it quite a bit on longer tours (i prefer Maps for navigation, but if you route to a charger through Maps, the battery isn’t pre-conditioned for charging – that only happens if you route through the onboard Sat Nav to the charger). The Map wasn’t particularly up to date (was missing chargers that Zapmap and Electroverse showed) – but we did just have an OTA in that regard, haven’t checked since.
All in all: by no means perfect, but an absolute banger of a car if you’re confident enough to drive a 5m ferry – especially if you got a decent deal on it (after all said and done, we paid £985 for the car). Most of the issues i personally have are fixable (key, rear camera), or might fix themselves (brake squeal, suspension breaking in). Steering is.. well, probably decent enough, i am just spoiled from the car we had prior.
Which potentially might be the biggest downside of the car: an incredibly high bar for the next lease lol
Prior: SEAT Ateca Xcellence Lux 1.5 TSI DSG MY19, VW Golf GTE PHEV DSG MY23
Current: Hyundai Ioniq 6 Ultimate
Next: we'll see what's available in 2028.