@Glos-Guy Maybe too low – Cupra Formenter PHEV 245. How did it go today?
Hi @kezo Well it’s been a frustrating but also very interesting day! Grab a cuppa, make yourself comfortable and here goes ?
We started off at the Bristol Mazda dealership (which is in a god awful location) and my wife missed the wheelchair getting out our car and I had to grab her and take her whole weight to stop her falling on the floor. Thankfully she’s not my size, but taking someone’s entire body weight at a difficult angle when they can’t support themselves at all could have been catastrophic for both of us ??
First up we looked at the CX-60. My wife liked the exterior (the Soul Red one I sat in last week had been moved outside and replaced with a grey one) but, like me, didn’t like the interior of the top of the range Takumi. The cloth dashboard and yellow wood scream at each other and neither looks good. So if we were to go for one it would be a Homura with a black interior. I put the passenger seat on the lowest setting and I thought it looked no higher than the seat on our X1, but it was just a bit higher and my wife couldn’t get into it, as it would mean pulling herself up slightly, which she can’t do. So the CX-60 was sadly immediately eliminated. Shame as I was quite keen on it, but having watched a number of mixed reviews last night we might have dodged a bullet!
Thinking that the CX-5 would be fine, as it’s more like the X1, we immediately hit another snag with that as well. There is no proper interior grab handle on the door, it’s just a tiny indentation in the door armrest. It’s not deep enough, or shaped, to allow a firm enough hold for my wife to pull herself up from the wheelchair, so that car was also immediately eliminated. So within 10 minutes we had eliminated both Mazdas and, by definition, 50% of the cars on our short list ? In fact we spent longer in the poorly equipped disabled loo (only one grab handle on one side) than we did looking at the cars!
So, at this point, if we stay with Motability, we are now down to just the BMW iX1 and the Hyundai Tucson PHEV.
My wife tires very easily, so I thought that would be it for the day, but she said she felt up to trying one other dealership, so we went to our (fairly) local Hyundai dealership on the way home to look at the Tucson. We’d already looked at the X1 in Cheltenham and know that access is fine, but much as I love BMWs and our current X1 has been superb, both of us have reservations about going EV due to the poor range and not wishing to be faffing about with charging stops on long journeys. Convenience is significantly more important to us than running costs.
As we walked in, one of the salesmen instantly recognised me, as I’ve bought 2 new private i20s there for one of my daughters. He’s a really helpful, and knowledgeable, young guy and nothing is too much trouble. He showed us an N-Line Tucson in the showroom but when I said that we would be interested in the Ultimate he went and found a brand new unregistered one and drove it around to the outside of the dealership and let us loose on it. Even though it was brand new, he was quite happy with me trying the wheelchair in the boot. On paper the boot is bigger than the X1 but it seemed no bigger, possibly even a tad smaller, but the wheelchair fits ?
When we opened the passenger door, my heart sank as it has the same setup as the Cx-5. No proper grab handle that you can get your hand all the way around, but a recess in the armrest. However, the hole was wider, deeper and had some shape to it, so my wife was able to get in OK. Phew! First impressions were that the interior quality, whilst not bad, was below the Mazda and significantly below our BMW. Not a show stopper, but very noticeably a few steps down. This wasn’t a surprise to me though as I’m very familiar with the brand.
Obviously the selling point of Hyundai’s are the standard kit and obviously in that respect the Ultimate delivers in spades. My worry would be that the infotainment and driver aids may not work as well as the same systems in the BMW. I had that issue with our last VW. It had all the kit and driver aid systems, but none of them worked as well as the same systems in BMWs. I also felt that the infotainment system looked very dated compared to the latest generation cars and, as is the case with so many cars these days (including the new X1 and iX1), it’s all touchscreen. Daft and dangerous IMHO. My wife liked it and I didn’t dislike it, but it’s going to feel like a big step down.
However, the sales guy then tells us that Hyundai have stopped taking orders of the current Tucson as production is switching to a facelifted model. They can source current model cars that are already built but anticipate it being some weeks until they can take orders on the facelift. If we placed a Motability order with him though he would make sure that we get the facelift at the current price (which was reduced £900 yesterday). I told you he was good! I wouldn’t want to order until the detailed spec is released though and certainly not before having test driven the current PHEV, so I’m prepared to risk that it might disappear off the list or the AP may rise by then. Besides, our order window doesn’t open for another 3 weeks.
He then showed us some photos of the facelift model. The exterior is a bit ‘spot the difference’, but does look a bit better (I’m not a fan of Hyundai styling). However, the interior is transformed. The facelift model has the long continuous dashboard display panel with 12.5” instrument cluster running seemlessly into another 12.5” infotainment screen. Looks near identical to the latest BMW screen (and probably the Sportage) and the interface is a lot better than the current setup. Still some way short of BMWs latest system (but then again everything is), but perfectly liveable. The facelift will also have matrix adapted headlights and head-up display available. No spec details are released yet, so I don’t know if these will be standard on the Ultimate or cost options, but Hyundai option prices are usually quite reasonable.
They don’t have a PHEV demonstrator at present, but he’s expecting some in a few weeks time so is going to register one then and call me, when I can have it for at least half a day.
So, if we stay in the scheme the facelifted Tucson may be an option. As you know, I’m very open to leaving the scheme, but we had to eliminate my first choice (BMW X5) as it’s too high and the split tailgate would be a nightmare with the wheelchair. That leaves the BMW X3 and Porsche Macan, but after today my wife feels that both will be too high. She really can’t cope with anything higher than the X1 / Tucson. Also, there’s the cost. Whilst we can afford a new X3 or Macan, my wife (who is quite in to cars as well) feels that it’s daft to spend circa £60k on a car, given our low usage nowadays. In all fairness, she has a point. If the Tucson doesn’t work out and we revert to the X1 – and we both remain nervous about getting an EV – I might raise the subject of us buying a petrol X1 privately. However, with the spec I’d want that’s going to be approaching £50k, so the same issue will arise.
So, that’s where we are. Frustrating in many respects, but we continue to narrow down our choices and feel like we might be getting somewhere, but it’s not going to be an outcome that I would have predicted!