Any BYD Seal Owners or Critics?

[esmozz]

I'm seriously considering a BYD Seal and wondered what past or present owners think of them.

I think it's a good looking car, better looking than any Tesla or the BMW i4 but that's my opinion of course so don't hate me . It has great performance and average efficiency at a much more affordable price than it's competitors, spec for spec.

I've watched many reviews and they praise it highly but the youtube video from JayEmm about BYD throws the impartialness of online reviews in to question, perhaps unfairly.

My nearest BYD dealer is 140 miles away so I've not arranged a test drive as yet. That distance is also a concern should anything need to fixed and serviced.

Interested in other peoples thoughts and experiences.

I have a Seal AWD Excellence. It was only delivered two days ago so my experience with it is limited. But so far, I think it's a fantastic car and astonishingly quick. Interior is nice and feels more premium that my Volvo XC40. I also find it very pleasant to drive. Obviously, I can't say yet if there are any long term issues.

Software is a bit meh, but wireless carplay is flawless and I only ever use that. It's my first EV and I'm having more problems figuring out the best way of charging.

Edit: Just to add, I'd definitely recommend a test drive if you can.

 

[Fr0dders]

I agree with some of the above but it doesn't apply to me here as I'm not buying new nor leasing. The Seal isn't a SUV and I think you've compared it unfairly and not like for like, not that I'm here to defend it or anything!

Just because it's not new doesn't mean your immune to depreciation. Cars will continue to depreciate and the floor of chinese EVs is an unknown at this point. What point will the depreciation stop ? I know you're planning on buying a 1-2 year old one, let's say you keep the car for another 3 years or so before selling and moving on - what does the value of a 5 year old BYD look like ? does it continue to depreciate even more ? There's a BYD dealership near me in leeds, and they currently have a 2023 10k mile seal design for sale for £30k, the list price for these is £45k so it's lost £15k in it's first 18 months or so.

What does the value of a 5 year old seal look like, £10k ? £5k ? the value of these are unknown - could easily see these go down below £15k and lose over half its value and makes a lease of a brand new EV looks much more appealing. You get a brand new car under warranty, and away from a chinese EV you'll probably have better confidence as there will be more data around availability and hopefully a closer dealer if anything does go wrong.

If you're making a passion purchase, and you really love the Q6 e-tron and just want one because you love it and have enough money not to care then fair play, you do you, as long as you're happy.

But chinese EVs don't strike me as a passion purchase, and don't make sense in either type of ownership experience (buying nearly new with plenty of depreciation to come or leasing). For me - EVs make sense in two scenarios. One you're leasing a brand new one and treat it as throwaway tech that you'll just get rid of in 3 years, and you have the money to afford to throw away and enjoy the convenience of a new car on a lease OR ... you buy an EV that's much further along it's depreciation curve and hasn't got much left to go. 6 year old tesla model 3 with 70k miles can be had for about the £13k mark - these have almost no depreciation left and seem to have a floor about £10k and as something to keep for a few years and sell on afterwards seem like a relatively safe bet if you don't drive big miles and could probably be sold on before a battery replacement was needed.

Still though, you do you, but nearly new used chinese EVs don't make sense for me. Maybe in a few more years when you get one at the bottom of it's depreciation curve like the model 3. A £10k 5 year old BYD would make a lot of sense.

 

[Mysterae_]

Really nice vehicle for the money, but there aren't tons of options on the market as comparatives once you already rules out Tesla and BMW. With regards to local BYD dealers to you, they are opening at a pretty rapid pace so if you are looking long term ownership I wouldn't be surprised to find one much more local to you a couple of years from now as their market share climbs quickly.

I've ruled out Tesla because available Model S's are a bit too old now and I don't like the exterior or interior of the Model 3, there's minimalism and then there's bland. The BMW i4 is still very much in consideration as I have BMW currently so I know and like the brand. I'm not hot on it's looks but if I can see past that I think it could be the better car to drive.
BYD are certainly expanding at a pace, there are already eight showrooms (four service centres) in Scotland (just not in Inverness) but some caution should applied as they are all Arnold Clark franchises.

Other considerations/choices Hyundai Ioniq 6 (marmite looks) but you can get a 24-plate Ultimate spec for under £26k, and if you want the AWD 350hp+ version a little more, its got all the gadgets, heated and cooled seats, steering wheel, heat pump, V2L, sunroof/panoroof, HUD, very fast charging, decent range, long warranty etc.

Marmite looks for sure! Not for me.

If you care about depreciation and are looking to limit your overall total cost, then you could look at the predicted future value of a Seal Design, seems that a 73-plate in 24 months would be valued at a predictive value of £19,700, and they seem to cost ~£32k now, meaning you could likely lease a new one for 24 months for a similar total cost if you then wanted to buy one after those 2 years. Actually looking around, after I wrote that, seems you can PCH one with 15k miles PA for ~£12.6k total, so you get a new car with the likely chance of not needing any tyres, servicing, or MOT's in the time you'd have it. Depending on how you were planning on financing your car as well, the cost for PCH would be brought down if you were planning on pay outright, as opportunity cost over 24 months would be a net interest loss of ~£2,200 on a fixed deal count for the removal of the car payment per month, so an effect £10.4k cost for 24 months, only if you are buying with cash, if you are paying HP then the is HP calculations etc to do.

That's an interesting way of calculating the total cost, thanks for the detailed insight. I'm running my numbers again to see my options are.

I usually keep my cars for quite a while and dislike the current "you'll own nothing and be happy" trend that leasing encourages. Once you're on the leasing merry-go-round it's expensive to get off it.

 

[IC3]

I've seen 3 since yesterday, all of them were that light blue colour.

 

[Mysterae_]

I have a Seal AWD Excellence. It was only delivered two days ago so my experience with it is limited. But so far, I think it's a fantastic car and astonishingly quick. Interior is nice and feels more premium that my Volvo XC40. I also find it very pleasant to drive. Obviously, I can't say yet if there are any long term issues.

Software is a bit meh, but wireless carplay is flawless and I only ever use that. It's my first EV and I'm having more problems figuring out the best way of charging.

Edit: Just to add, I'd definitely recommend a test drive if you can.

Good to hear from an actual owner! I'll have a test drive booked in a few weeks as well as a BMW i4, it'll be an interesting comparison.

Just because it's not new doesn't mean your immune to depreciation. Cars will continue to depreciate and the floor of chinese EVs is an unknown at this point. What point will the depreciation stop ? I know you're planning on buying a 1-2 year old one, let's say you keep the car for another 3 years or so before selling and moving on - what does the value of a 5 year old BYD look like ? does it continue to depreciate even more ? There's a BYD dealership near me in leeds, and they currently have a 2023 10k mile seal design for sale for £30k, the list price for these is £45k so it's lost £15k in it's first 18 months or so.

What does the value of a 5 year old seal look like, £10k ? £5k ? the value of these are unknown - could easily see these go down below £15k and lose over half its value and makes a lease of a brand new EV looks much more appealing. You get a brand new car under warranty, and away from a chinese EV you'll probably have better confidence as there will be more data around availability and hopefully a closer dealer if anything does go wrong.

If you're making a passion purchase, and you really love the Q6 e-tron and just want one because you love it and have enough money not to care then fair play, you do you, as long as you're happy.

But chinese EVs don't strike me as a passion purchase, and don't make sense in either type of ownership experience (buying nearly new with plenty of depreciation to come or leasing). For me - EVs make sense in two scenarios. One you're leasing a brand new one and treat it as throwaway tech that you'll just get rid of in 3 years, and you have the money to afford to throw away and enjoy the convenience of a new car on a lease OR ... you buy an EV that's much further along it's depreciation curve and hasn't got much left to go. 6 year old tesla model 3 with 70k miles can be had for about the £13k mark - these have almost no depreciation left and seem to have a floor about £10k and as something to keep for a few years and sell on afterwards seem like a relatively safe bet if you don't drive big miles and could probably be sold on before a battery replacement was needed.

Still though, you do you, but nearly new used chinese EVs don't make sense for me. Maybe in a few more years when you get one at the bottom of it's depreciation curve like the model 3. A £10k 5 year old BYD would make a lot of sense.

As a ballpark for my calculations I'm using Autotrader's Depreciation Curve for EVs which is:

New - 100% - £47,000
1 Year Old - 75% - £35,250
2 Years Old - 65% - £30,550
3 Years Old - 55% - £25,850
4 Years Old - 45% - £21,150
5 Years Old - 37% - £17,390
6 Years Old - 32% - £15,040

That could be complete fabrication for Chinese EVs but it can't be much worse than the German brands which seem to drop quicker than a burning Messerschmitt. You mention the Q6 e-tron but that's not on my radar, perhaps you were just using that as an example.

It doesn't have to make sense to you, only to me and I don't even know if it makes sense . Thanks for the comments though, food for thought.

 

[b0rn2sk8]

The other ‘obvious’ competitor not mentioned is the Polestar 2.

You should get facelifted versions in this price range now. Nice, very capable cars.

The only real downside is the interior space is a bit compromised compared to a ground up EV as it’s on an ICE platform.

Servicing is at Volvo dealers.

 

[Mysterae_]

The other ‘obvious’ competitor not mentioned is the Polestar 2.

You should get facelifted versions in this price range now. Nice, very capable cars.

The only real downside is the interior space is a bit compromised compared to a ground up EV as it’s on an ICE platform.

Servicing is at Volvo dealers.

I agree, it should be a contender but I can't say why I'm not considering one. Sometimes you just don't feel it.

 

[cuke2u]

I agree, it should be a contender but I can't say why I'm not considering one. Sometimes you just don't feel it.

I know exactly what you mean, I test drove a twin motor version, whilst it did everything well and was fairly rapid, there was just something missing...

 

[cuke2u]

Before I forget, here is a group test of the six rivals. Unfortunately the Seal doesn't do too well https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/company-cars/363005/tesla-model-3-vs-its-five-biggest-rivals

 

[Mysterae_]

Before I forget, here is a group test of the six rivals. Unfortunately the Seal doesn't do too well https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/company-cars/363005/tesla-model-3-vs-its-five-biggest-rivals

I'll go and have a read...

 

[esmozz]

Before I forget, here is a group test of the six rivals. Unfortunately the Seal doesn't do too well https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/company-cars/363005/tesla-model-3-vs-its-five-biggest-rivals

I must as admit, as a Seal owner I didn't really recognise much of what the reviewer was talking about in that article. The throttle response is very much in line with a normal modern ICE car. I've driven the old school turbos I think he's referring to back in the 90s (Fiat Uno Turbo/Renault 5 GT Turbo) and the power surge is much more pronounced on those. As somebody who's coming from only ever having driven an ICE car, the throttle response to me is just fine. It seems to scale more or less linearly with the amount you depress the pedal. And we've just had the hottest day of the year so far and I can honestly say I noticed no difference in the power output, perhaps it's different when cold. It's probably less instantaneous than a Tesla for example, but I prefer that. Apparently that can give some people motion sickness.

Also the brakes are fine - I'm not a car reviewer but they're just a good as any other car I've driven and feel the same - I honestly have no idea what he's referring to when he mentions a step between energy recovery and mechanical friction.

Regarding the roll, I have two other cars at the moment. A Merc GLA220 and a Volvo XC40 (The GLA is going). The Volvo has way more body roll than the Seal, the GLA is similar. There's a really crappy road on my way to work and the Seal is far more comfortable on it than either of them. Not being a car reviewer I can only really compare it to the two cars above and I much prefer the Seal as an all round driving experience.

Regarding stability control - you need it. Unused to the power, I hammered the accelerator round a corner, the tail started to slide out of line and the car brought it nicely back in. I'm not entirely sure what the system was curtailing for the reviewer in that article. Maybe on a racetrack.

Of course, I've never driven any of the other cars in that review so can't compare. But I've noticed over the years that car reviewers do tend to talk a lot of waffle which has very little relevance to actually owning the car.

With respect to charging, particularly fast charging, I haven't had a chance to test that yet and regarding efficiency - with the aircon going in this hot weather (plus ten minutes prior to setting off starting a cooldown) I've calculated a realistic range is going to be about 260-270 miles. But I've only had the car a week and not properly tested it on motorways, so that could go up or down.

As with any car - a test drive is key to see if it's for you.

 

[Mysterae_]

I must as admit, as a Seal owner I didn't really recognise much of what the reviewer was talking about in that article. The throttle response is very much in line with a normal modern ICE car. I've driven the old school turbos I think he's referring to back in the 90s (Fiat Uno Turbo/Renault 5 GT Turbo) and the power surge is much more pronounced on those. As somebody who's coming from only ever having driven an ICE car, the throttle response to me is just fine. It seems to scale more or less linearly with the amount you depress the pedal. And we've just had the hottest day of the year so far and I can honestly say I noticed no difference in the power output, perhaps it's different when cold. It's probably less instantaneous than a Tesla for example, but I prefer that. Apparently that can give some people motion sickness.

Also the brakes are fine - I'm not a car reviewer but they're just a good as any other car I've driven and feel the same - I honestly have no idea what he's referring to when he mentions a step between energy recovery and mechanical friction.

Regarding the roll, I have two other cars at the moment. A Merc GLA220 and a Volvo XC40 (The GLA is going). The Volvo has way more body roll than the Seal, the GLA is similar. There's a really crappy road on my way to work and the Seal is far more comfortable on it than either of them. Not being a car reviewer I can only really compare it to the two cars above and I much prefer the Seal as an all round driving experience.

Regarding stability control - you need it. Unused to the power, I hammered the accelerator round a corner, the tail started to slide out of line and the car brought it nicely back in. I'm not entirely sure what the system was curtailing for the reviewer in that article. Maybe on a racetrack.

Of course, I've never driven any of the other cars in that review so can't compare. But I've noticed over the years that car reviewers do tend to talk a lot of waffle which has very little relevance to actually owning the car.

With respect to charging, particularly fast charging, I haven't had a chance to test that yet and regarding efficiency - with the aircon going in this hot weather (plus ten minutes prior to setting off starting a cooldown) I've calculated a realistic range is going to be about 260-270 miles. But I've only had the car a week and not properly tested it on motorways, so that could go up or down.

As with any car - a test drive is key to see if it's for you.

Thanks for sharing your experience, reassuring to know. I forgot to respond after reading that article, which I found amusing when the Seal was in last place as it was somewhat contradictory to what a later WhatCar review said. You're right about car reviews, in general they are great for understanding a car's features and functionality but they soon embellish it with their own subjectiveness and driving styles. That's fine in most cases unless there's a bias, unconscious or otherwise.

What made you decide to get a Seal, did you have shortlist @esmozz?

 

[esmozz]

Thanks for sharing your experience, reassuring to know. I forgot to respond after reading that article, which I found amusing when the Seal was in last place as it was somewhat contradictory to what a later WhatCar review said. You're right about car reviews, in general they are great for understanding a car's features and functionality but they soon embellish it with their own subjectiveness and driving styles. That's fine in most cases unless there's a bias, unconscious or otherwise.

What made you decide to get a Seal, did you have shortlist @esmozz?

In all honesty, I got the Seal because it was significantly cheaper than everything else on my list. But I'm leasing it through an EV scheme at work and I think BYD must be pushing hard to get them out on the road by offering deals to the leasing companies because it was about 20% cheaper than the next one up on my list. That being said - I did the test drive and ordered the car the minute I got home due to being so impressed. I couldn't see how paying the extra money would be worth it.

I considered the BYD Seal, Polestar 2 (AWD) and 4(AWD) and Tesla M3 LR AWD.

The Seal also had everything as standard as opposed to being optional extras (The HUD is particularly good).

That being said, if I was going second hand or nearly new, the finances might work out differently and I'd go for something else.

Second hand prices on Tesla seem particularly good from what I can see, and the software on those seems a lot more polished.

 

[ZXSpectrum]

I will be seriously interested in a I4 edrive40 when i change mine.. However i wish they did it in the standard Couple version rather than the Grand Coupe... I dont really need a 4 Door and the true coupe 4 series looks a lot nicer in my opinion.

 

[Mysterae_]

I will be seriously interested in a I4 edrive40 when i change mine.. However i wish they did it in the standard Couple version rather than the Grand Coupe... I dont really need a 4 Door and the true coupe 4 series looks a lot nicer in my opinion.

I agree, a true coupe always looks nicer than the 4 door model, take the 640D (F13) that I'm coming from for example. IMO the best looking BMW bar the M1 (E26), but in grand coupe form it loses something. However, time marches on and I now need a 4 doors and actual usable space in the back.

 

[cuke2u]

I agree, a true coupe always looks nicer than the 4 door model, take the 640D (F13) that I'm coming from for example. IMO the best looking BMW bar the M1 (E26), but in grand coupe form it loses something. However, time marches on and I now need a 4 doors and actual usable space in the back.

For someone who has now owned two gran coupe's, a series 2 m235i and now the i4 edrive40, it is often stated to me a four door is never a true coupe, but at the end of the day it is the manufacturer that labels it, not us. Personally I'm not bothered and feel the four door is a more balanced car to look at, plus I believe the front doors are smaller with a four door thus not so much of a tight fit in parking bays.

 

[Mysterae_]

For someone who has now owned two gran coupe's, a series 2 m235i and now the i4 edrive40, it is often stated to me a four door is never a true coupe, but at the end of the day it is the manufacturer that labels it, not us. Personally I'm not bothered and feel the four door is a more balanced car to look at, plus I believe the front doors are smaller with a four door thus not so much of a tight fit in parking bays.

The doors on the 640D are long but I'm used to the vertical limbo body manoeuvre you have to do to get out of tight parking spaces , the pillarless doors do help though. When getting in to a 4 door car it strangely takes me by surprise how short they are. Smaller door are much more practical though and my aging body will appreciate it more as will my family!

 

[cuke2u]

The doors on the 640D are long but I'm used to the vertical limbo body manoeuvre you have to do to get out of tight parking spaces , the pillarless doors do help though. When getting in to a 4 door car it strangely takes me by surprise how short they are. Smaller door are much more practical though and my aging body will appreciate it more as will my family!

One of the more interesting technologies of the i4 that in the 360 parking camera mode is that it shows a graphic from above of how far the doors will open, thus easier to tell if the bay is a bit tight once in.

 

[ajgoodfellow]

I test drove a BYD Seal a few months ago. I was very impressed - light years ahead of MG (I have owned three Chinese-era MGs, and all were terrible, with massive quality and reliability issues).

The car felt very solid and the light blue interior is much nicer (to me) than the black. Perceived quality was good - the doors shut with a nice thunk, everything was dampened and the car felt solid. Software is an issue - everything was on the screen and BYD's voice control was...not great.

I test drove the AWD Excellence, so it had the active suspension. Very fast and handled nicely (to me). It compared very well to my current Megane E-Tech, and I preferred it to both a Tesla Model 3 and Model Y. The Polestar 2 is probably the closest competitor, but I preferred the Seal. The throttle response on the Polestar is awful.

I found some good lease deals. For the Design (2WD model), I found 10k per annum, £4.5k down and then £360pm for two years. This is the same that I'm paying for my Megane E-Tech.

I haven't driven an i4, so cannot offer a comparison to that!

 

[esmozz]

I've had the Seal for about 2 weeks now / 1000 miles so I thought I'd just pen a few thoughts.

The main one is that I'm now a 100% EV convert. There will be no going back to ICE cars now - the Seal (and I suspect EVs in general) is such a nice car to drive. It just whispers along effortlessly and has enormous power on tap - you really notice the gear changes and engine revving once you go back to driving an ICE car, it's almost tiring to listen to how hard the car seems to have to work. As a driving experience it's much nicer than any ICE car I have driven.

Regarding range and charging, I am a little disappointed here. I regularly do a 190 mile round trip for work. Typically it has about 25% battery left at the end of it. But it seems the temperature has a far greater effect than I realised. Setting off early in the morning for the first 95 miles leg (Temperature about 12c) uses I'd say about 8% more battery than the return leg (Temperature about 25). I do need to test this more though. The car reckons 29.5KWh per 100 miles so far, so 279 miles but for motorway driving (or lower temperatures, I'm not sure) I reckon it's less.

Octopus intelligent go and an Ohme home pro charger can only effectively charge 50-60% of the battery over night (say from 1800 to 0800) at the cheap 7p KWh rate. If you need more than this you'll have to charge at peak rate - that being said, it's still cheaper than petrol. I haven't tried fast charging yet although I understand it's not that impressive. An 82.5Kwh battery at 7p KWh is £5.77.

The cabin feels very nice and is well put together - it definitely has a premium feel.

It comes with two normal keys for starting etc, but also a credit card type thing or you can use the app on your phone. The app, although pretty basic, does everything you want it to, and has worked flawlessly so far.

The car has a variety of bings and bongs which are very mild and will tell you if speed limit changes and a variety of other things. They're almost inaudible and not remotely obtrusive.

Aircon is great and despite the glass roof handles the recent hot weather just fine. Being able to turn it on via the app is a godsend. It also has ventilated seats which is a first for me and I'm impressed.

It also comes with vehicle to load, i.e a 3 pin, 4 way extension lead which plugs onto the battery port, and if I understand correctly, provides 240V 50Hz mains power up to 3.2Kw from the battery. This should prove very useful for our camping trips later in the year but I haven't tried it out yet.

The blind spot indicators are very useful, particularly if you're reversing (like I do out of my drive where visibility is limited) - it gives a good timely warning if traffic is coming. The all round cameras are very good as well.

There are some minor niggles.

The intelligent cruise control is very clever and will keep a set distance from the car in front, but the automatic lane keeping lulls you into a false sense of security before trying to drive you off the road - in the short time I've tried it, I figured that I'll never use it again.

The lane keeping assist will try to keep you in lane if you drift across without indicating. It reasonably gently steers you back but is easy to steer through - it almost feels like there is a slight raised bump running along the lane marking. It does tend to encourage you to indicate properly and I've only seen it work on motorways. I can't decide if I like it or not but so far it's not a big deal.

The auto headlights come on every time you pass from bright sunlight to shadow (say under a bridge), this then dims the screens in the car far too much. If there's a way to adjust this I haven't figured it out.

It's not all good though. Twice now I've had the car slam on the brakes hard. Once was low speed in a car park and it thought someone was going to turn across in front of me - not really a big deal. The second was when I doing about 40 and another car came over the brow of a hill on a corner in the opposite direction (fast) and I guess the Seal thought it was heading right for me. It absolutely hammered the brakes and scared the life out of me. I understand this is mandated for the NCAP safety rating but how anyone thinks this is a good idea I don't know.

You can turn all this stuff off but it's a bit of a faff and it resets every time you turn the car on. That being said I think I have an older software version in the car (I can't figure out how to update but from the youtube videos I've seen a newer version is available, maybe only in other countries for now) and I think this is something that is being worked on.

But overall I'm very happy with it and can see it's something that's going to be easy to live with. I do quite a high mileage and the fuel saving alone will be very significant for me.

Edit: AWD Excellence.