Same, saw a yellow one on Saturday. Looked superb.
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EV general discussion
- Thread starter Ricochet J
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Same, saw a yellow one on Saturday. Looked superb.
I was wondering if I could get some opinions on the BYD Seal (Excellence version/AWD)? It seems to review well.
This will be my first EV and I was originally going to go with a Polestar 2 (Or 4 if I could stretch to it).
It's through Tusker with my Employer and it just seems to tick all the boxes (Very well spec'ed, quick and seemly well made) as well as being significantly cheaper than anything else that comes up.
I'll probably try to arrange a test drive this week but wondered if anyone owns one?
(Apologies if this has come up earlier in the thread but I couldn't find anything.)
This will be my first EV and I was originally going to go with a Polestar 2 (Or 4 if I could stretch to it).
It's through Tusker with my Employer and it just seems to tick all the boxes (Very well spec'ed, quick and seemly well made) as well as being significantly cheaper than anything else that comes up.
I'll probably try to arrange a test drive this week but wondered if anyone owns one?
(Apologies if this has come up earlier in the thread but I couldn't find anything.)
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Polestar is about as Chinese as the Seal so I'd say go for it - not owned one but seen a few and they look nice
Take an extended test drive of the Seal, reviews tend to give a good shake of the hardware but tend to gloss over the software and infotainment which can be one of the most annoying things in the car.
Driver assist/safety features can be rather intrusive and infotainment are usually the weak points on Chinese cars.
The above probably doesn’t apply to Polestar as it’s basically a Volvo (particularly the 2 which is an EX40/XC40 reskin).
Driver assist/safety features can be rather intrusive and infotainment are usually the weak points on Chinese cars.
The above probably doesn’t apply to Polestar as it’s basically a Volvo (particularly the 2 which is an EX40/XC40 reskin).
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Yeah I'll pop along to the garage and have a good poke around, but that's my take on it too from what I've read/seen. I'd sort of hope that feedback about these thing would trigger OTA updates to fix them over time.
I'd honestly prefer a P2 but with 16 weeks lead time (vs 4 for the Seal, Tusker basically have them in stock) and the Seal being about 15ish% cheaper on the monthly lease, I'm really re-thinking it.
I've certainly seen fewer of them on the roads.
Had a bit of experience with Maxus recently - the assist/safety features are... not good... so many false positives and it seems the system is designed to re-enable them automatically if it thinks the vehicle is being driven beyond certain limits (which again is rife with false positives) - so even going over a pothole or being decisive slotting into a gap on a roundabout, etc. will result in them being switched back on...
I took my Polestar 4 LRDM on its first decent drive this weekend, doing Northampton to Heathrow and Back and then Northampton to Stratford-upon-Avon and back. Up to that point it'd only really be on relatively short journeys, longest probably about 20 miles each way, so this was my first chance to drive it any real distance.
First thing I'll say is its a very quiet and comfortable long distance drive, it rides better than my iPace did on air suspension and is noticeably quieter. I have the Pilot pack so had a chance to play with that and it works great, made the journey in stop start traffic easy and tested the lane change management which work fine.
Sound system is very good, not quite up to the Meridian level in the iPace but not far enough away to really bother me, headlights are a significant improvement, and lit the M45 up for a long way when on full beam and not having to blank out other cars.
Journey to Heathrow and back used 44% battery and was about 145 miles, averaged 3.3 mile per kilowatt so pretty good. Journey to Stratford wasn't quite as good at about 3 mile per kw but it was dark. Overall I'm very pleased, the totals should see the car easily north of 300 miles from a charge on a long run and the fast charging makes it much better to live with when out and about.
First thing I'll say is its a very quiet and comfortable long distance drive, it rides better than my iPace did on air suspension and is noticeably quieter. I have the Pilot pack so had a chance to play with that and it works great, made the journey in stop start traffic easy and tested the lane change management which work fine.
Sound system is very good, not quite up to the Meridian level in the iPace but not far enough away to really bother me, headlights are a significant improvement, and lit the M45 up for a long way when on full beam and not having to blank out other cars.
Journey to Heathrow and back used 44% battery and was about 145 miles, averaged 3.3 mile per kilowatt so pretty good. Journey to Stratford wasn't quite as good at about 3 mile per kw but it was dark. Overall I'm very pleased, the totals should see the car easily north of 300 miles from a charge on a long run and the fast charging makes it much better to live with when out and about.
Ill see if I can arrange a test drive with a Seal tomorrow of the day after and report back. I'm not sure the what extent these features are mandated as opposed to just a quirk of Chinese cars.
I'm jealous - I've spec'd a P4 LRDM on Tusker with the pilot/plus packs/Storm and electroblah roof because, money no object, this is absolutely the car I want. It's 1081 gross (650 net) vs the Seal (792 gross/472 net). I'm trying to make the man math work but I just don't think I can.
It’s not that they are a quirk of Chinese cars, it’s more that these systems very quite significantly in quality and support. Software is just usually the weak point on a Chinese car.
Features developed overseas with limited testing on UK roads can be dire. This is particularly where local councils decide to do something ‘different’ with their road schemes.
For example when they paint solid white lines down the sides of the road and nothing in the middle. The issue is those solid white lines are 2 foot from the actual edge of the road so the lane departure system punts you into the middle of the road into oncoming traffic.
Narrow countryside roads can also be problematic.
They are on by default because of Euro NCAP scores. You only get the points if you set them to be on by default every time you get in the car. Turning the features off often requires you to go 4+ menus deep every time you get in the car.
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Eeeek! Not sure I like the sound of that. I'll definitely have a chat about stuff like that when I visit the dealer.
All a dealer is going to tell you is ‘no one’s ever reported that to me’.
Take it on a test drive, find from **** country roads and see what happens. It may well not be a problem on the BYD.
Soldato
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Not really much you can do about it. Pretty much every car has an over-zealous lane departure system on it now that can't be permanently disabled (without coding). You get used to turning it off whenever you get in the car if it bothers you that much.
Pre MOT inspection this morning on my Model Y from Cleevely - £300 including changing filters etc.
Report shows:
steering wheel starting to bubble/lift so needs replaced
NSF camber arm ball joint has excessive play
OSF camber arm ball joint has excessive play
Upper suspension arms need replaced on front. (lower arms already been done)
Booked into Tesla for it all to be done under warranty....
Worth £300 to find £2.5k worth of work to be done under warranty.
Also need 4 tyres after 27k and nearly 3 years so need to sort that.
Report shows:
steering wheel starting to bubble/lift so needs replaced
NSF camber arm ball joint has excessive play
OSF camber arm ball joint has excessive play
Upper suspension arms need replaced on front. (lower arms already been done)
Booked into Tesla for it all to be done under warranty....
Worth £300 to find £2.5k worth of work to be done under warranty.
Also need 4 tyres after 27k and nearly 3 years so need to sort that.
Lidar doesn’t prevent an overzealous lane departure system from being an overzealous lane departure system.
Many cars have a single button now.
It also doesn't work very well in bad weather. Not the best tech for use on a car tbh, especially in the UK
Soldato
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But you haven’t driven one and they also have RADAR.It also doesn't work very well in bad weather. Not the best tech for use on a car tbh, especially in the UK