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Here’s the starting point for me deciding what my next car will be. I’ve some set criteria:
Electric – if you don’t like them, good for you but this will be my 4th, I’m not going back now.
Comfortable seats – Both myself and my wife have spinal issues, sitting on the wrong chairs can be incredibly painful and rather quickly too. I’d hate to have a car that I can only drive locally because after half an hour I can’t actually get out of the damn thing. Heating and Cooling seats would be good, heated is essential though, it’s amazing how that can help the back.
Electric tailgate – again with the back issues, stretching up to pull a boot door down, especially if the gas struts put up some resistance, is a problem.
HUD – I’ve gotten used to it now, I can’t remember the last time I looked at the dash to see how fast I’m going.
Wireless Apple Carplay – Pretty much all I listen to is on the phone, it’s either music or audio books but I rarely listen to the radio as it’s usually crap down here.
As you can imagine the current selection is rather lengthy. I’ve barely began whittling them down so here we go, in no particular order:
Ioniq 5
Enyaq
Elroq
Capri (I know but it’s not a bad car)
Grandland
Scenic
Mach E
Ariya
Budget depends on just how much I can save, which means it won’t be excessive, so that will drop a lot off the list. Currently to replace what I have, thanks to the model changes, would cost something around £6.5k, which isn’t happening. If I could save that in 3 years, I’d be much richer than I am in reality.
Front runners based on budget and equipment are either of the Skodas and the Scenic at the moment. I don’t care about the Elroq dropping off the scheme next quarter, it’ll be back before it matters to me. I’m still hoping the EV3 comes onto scheme and sticks around, that’d be a nice option, although I expect KIA pricing will put it higher than the Fords.
I’ve learnt some lessons from my last search, so the infamous spreadsheet is being updated each quarter, with a new tab holding the new quarter’s pricing and leaving previous quarters for reference. I’m hoping this may provide some interesting insights once the car is chosen, looking at where prices and models have come/gone.
I’ll update as I start to whittle out some options and as new quarters add a new perspective on the search. If there’s anything anyone wishes to add, I’m always open to opinions.
I'm Autistic, if I say something you find offensive, please let me know, I can guarantee it was unintentional.
I'll try to give my honest opinion but am always open to learning.Mark
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The MGS6 was on my list until I convinced Mrs F to sit in one. For some reason it was dead and, rather than trying to do something about it, the only sales guy around tried to convince me it had been set for the showroom, so nothing worked. At that point, she was uncomfortable in the car and left, with me tagging along behind.
I'm Autistic, if I say something you find offensive, please let me know, I can guarantee it was unintentional.
I'll try to give my honest opinion but am always open to learning.Mark
Thats a shame, as it just came to me when I was reading your previous comment.
I was quite hopeful. The materials were rather nice, a proper soft feel where elbows would rest. The tech was everything we needed and seats were comfortable. Second time it was utterly dead, which is a problem when you’ve electric seats.
I'm Autistic, if I say something you find offensive, please let me know, I can guarantee it was unintentional.
I'll try to give my honest opinion but am always open to learning.Mark
I was quite hopeful. The materials were rather nice, a proper soft feel where elbows would rest. The tech was everything we needed and seats were comfortable. Second time it was utterly dead, which is a problem when you’ve electric seats.
We have 2 MG dealers virtually withing 2 miles of each other. One has recently added a huge MG dealership in the area, where as prior they were next county each direction c40min. The other one resembles a backstreet garage and is small by dealership standards.
When we were first looking at the first Tucson, we called into the small dealer to take a look at the HS. Asked the sole salesman who said it was used model they had on the lot if we’d like to look, asked for keys and it was like asking him to climb everest, it was chure. Mind you Ive had the same with a satalite Ford dealer!
So we decided we would go a drive down to the larger dealer and visit McArthur Glen as it was in the area. The difference night and day, the sales chap even took us to one outside and said take it we close at 5.30. At that time we were only looking but let slip early I was for Motability. Absolutely no change in attitude, went and got us a drink of choice and had a general chat about nowt really. They rate 4.7 for sales and servicing last time I looked and would have no qaulms getting an MG frome here.
If theres another dealer close enough, give them a visit!
We’re limited for choice down here. There’s 4 main group dealerships, Dales does Seat, Cupra, Renault, Vauxhall and Leapmotor, Hawkins has MG, Nissan, Citroen, Peugeot, KIA and Hyundai, Vospers does Ford, Fiat, Omoda, Jaecoo plus a couple of others and Yeoman’s does VW, Skoda. Other than that it’s single dealerships for Mercedes, Audi BMW etc.
There are 2 Hawkins MG close but in different directions, the one we went to has the Hyundai there too, the other has Peugeot and KIA. It’s usually the latter we go to as it’s fractionally closer. I can try there again, they are usually better. There’s a place half an hour away that has several dealerships together, more like you find in cities, there’s Hawkins and Yoemans within a few hundred metres of each other. That means I can quickly compare the Enyaq and EV5 against each other, otherwise it’s a 20 minute drive between them.
The joys of being rural.
There’s the Leaf due soon, although I expect space to be an issue, and there’s Xpeng supposed to be out soon with the G9 and Zeekr at the end of the year although that may be a touch late.
Fortunately I’m not in a terrible hurry, although I could be happy stopping now with the EV5 and see what happens over the next 3 years. We all know prices and availability could easily make this all very different in 3 quarters time.
I'm Autistic, if I say something you find offensive, please let me know, I can guarantee it was unintentional.
I'll try to give my honest opinion but am always open to learning.Mark
Doubt you’d go wrong with what the EV5 has to offer.
Not as I’m a fan of Whatcar and advise waiting for more reviews to come through , but…
Doubt you’d go wrong with what the EV5 has to offer. Not as I’m a fan of Whatcar and advise waiting for more reviews to come through , but… https://youtu.be/SNIupgb6mh8
Linking to What car from a Which site.😁
Im getting annoyed by numbers. I thought I’d find shoulder room for each of the cars, including ones yet to be released here and it’s making little sense. I might have to stick with overall width and see what that shows.
The long list is
EV5
Zeekr 7x
Xpeng g6 while I keep an eye on whether thee g9 looks like a potential option
Leaf
Enyaq
and the new Atto 3 if big enough.
I'm Autistic, if I say something you find offensive, please let me know, I can guarantee it was unintentional.
I'll try to give my honest opinion but am always open to learning.Mark
Looking at width and shoulder width/internal width as a guide for what should have sufficient room is an interesting exercise. In terms of width (all excluding wing mirrors) there’s 8cm difference between the narrowest and widest, that’s around 3 inches for the old school. Internally the shoulder width has a 10cm difference, nearly an inch more and the order is different.
Here’s the detail:
Width cm
Zeekr 7X 193
Xpeng G6 192
HI5 189
Enyaq 187.9
EV5 187.5
Explorer 187
Tavascan 186.1
Ariya 185
EV3 185Shoulder Width
Tavascan 154.5
7X 152.5
Enyaq 151.8
G6 149.2
EV5 146.5
Ioniq 5 146.5
Explorer 146
Ariya 145
EV3 144.3Seeing as we can assume nothing about what joins the scheme, the 7X would be worth keeping an eye on in case it joins but the Tavascan is definitely worth sitting in to see if the seats are sufficiently comfortable as the width should be plenty. It’s also interesting to see that the Ioniq 5 is the widest of the selection currently available but drops significantly internally and that the Tavascan isn’t that wide, beating only the EV3 and Ariya externally yet is the widest internally.
If I add the internal difference in comparison to the HI5 into the overall score, it changes the order slightly, the Tavascan overtakes the Explorer. However, once I sit in it again and see what the width does for comfort, I’ll see whether it’s the bucket seats or the lack of space that matters. If it’s comfortable, it could jump considerably.
I'm Autistic, if I say something you find offensive, please let me know, I can guarantee it was unintentional.
I'll try to give my honest opinion but am always open to learning.Mark
I’m not sure on shoulder width and the site which should be best (RIDC), is hopeless imo, as many newer cars aren’t covered from what I can see.
What I do like in my Tucson is the centre console doesn’t meet the dashboard at full height, which gives me not only the feeling of more room, but more room to open my legs, particularly the left leg. The same can be said about the EV’s from Hyundai & Kia.
The Taviscan would be more restricted in this way due to part of the centre console sloping up to the centre airvents just below the touchscreen. Whils’t the Enyak doesn’t have a gap like Hyundai/Kia, its centre console doesn’t slope up, as with the Taviscan, do in theory would be less restricting and not as coccooned?
I’ve found the lack of something to push my left leg against has meant that cornering when my knee is particularly bad has been a painful experience. The EV5 has enough for support in that regard but sufficiently little that it wasn’t an all consuming cocoon. The likes of the IM6 had a big enough centre console to fit a whole screen but the car was also big enough that there’s no problem. The Jaecoo/Omoda e5 have sufficient a console that there’s seats appear very narrow, to the point I almost bounced when trying it.
I'm Autistic, if I say something you find offensive, please let me know, I can guarantee it was unintentional.
I'll try to give my honest opinion but am always open to learning.Mark
I have a painful left knee, and 33 to 34″ inside legs!
I find the Enyaq (and previous Ateca) are OK for driving with it, my previous Kuga was horrible, hard plastic exactly in the wrong place. I ended up sticking a 2″ thick fleece/sponge pad to the side of the centre console.
Please excuse spelling/typos. Apart from being a clot it turns out I had one on my cerebellum that's now causing various problems!
I have a painful left knee, and 33 to 34″ inside legs! I find the Enyaq (and previous Ateca) are OK for driving with it, my previous Kuga was horrible, hard plastic exactly in the wrong place. I ended up sticking a 2″ thick fleece/sponge pad to the side of the centre console.
Yes, it’s a tricky balance between having the support you want where it needs to be and that support causing a pain if its own.
So far, the EV5 has the perfect compromise, it supports along the thigh but has gone before it gets to the knee and, in my case, catheter bag. I can lean and brace that leg without the discomfort of leaning against plastics.
Bizarrely, I’ve found if I accelerate too hard, the change in weight distribution can trigger pain in the same knee, I’m glad I’ve not tried the Tesla performance models, I’d be crippled. 😁
I'm Autistic, if I say something you find offensive, please let me know, I can guarantee it was unintentional.
I'll try to give my honest opinion but am always open to learning.Mark
The Jaecoo/Omoda e5 have sufficient a console that there’s seats appear very narrow, to the point I almost bounced when trying it.
I watched a Watson review of the Jake Who E5 last night and whils’ I think it will be popular for school mums who cant stretch to an Evoque, I couldn’t help but think why BEV’s need such centre consoles. In reality an BEV could bring back 50s/60’s bench seat configuration for 2 front passengers (2000’s Honda FRV also had them).
Are the Jaecoo and Omoda e5s built on a dedicated EV platform? If not that may explain why the tunnel is necessary.
I'm Autistic, if I say something you find offensive, please let me know, I can guarantee it was unintentional.
I'll try to give my honest opinion but am always open to learning.Mark
Are the Jaecoo and Omoda e5s built on a dedicated EV platform? If not that may explain why the tunnel is necessary.
I think they sit on Chery’s TIX / T1X? platform, which is used across the range
I had a quick look at the Omoda and Jaecoo EV’s, while they’re certainly big enough for me the extra £5000+ difference in the AP’s compared to the petrol versions meant they were simply a non-starter 🙁
Please excuse spelling/typos. Apart from being a clot it turns out I had one on my cerebellum that's now causing various problems!
I expect we have a long wait due to popularity for the £27,000 base Renault 4s stupid high AP of £4,995 to come down to a more realistic level and the £31,000 top spec AP is a huge £6,495 lol
It will also be nice to see the popular Ford Puma Gen-E back on the scheme
On the plus side the longer the wait the fewer the gremlins
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