I'd buy one, just for the Polaroid.

 

That looks like the inster has been teleported back to 1962...

 

Yes it reminds me a little of my old Fiat 126

 

I was really torn between the Inster and the Renault 5 I ultimately plumped for. I don't honestly think either would have been in any way a bad option. Glad it's looking after you well, so far! 😊

 

Absolutely! I confess this was very much an impulse buy on our part (no regrets). Had we spent more time over it, we may well have considered the Renault.

 

Like the presenter, I’m torn between these two cars (or will be when I next change car ), but for me the width of the Renault 5 at 1808mm https://www.speakev.com/posts/3707245/ excluding mirrors puts me off. https://www.speakev.com/threads/mor.../threads/more-than-150-car-models-too-big-for-regular-uk-parking-spaces.179716/ I prefer the narrower Inster‘s width. However, the R5 is definitely the better looking car externally and I find reviewers attempts at talking up the Inster‘s styling a bit much. It’s dull. The Inster also lacks a bit in acceleration compared to most cars I’ve owned. I’d want about 8 or 9 seconds 0-60.

Both car specifications have their frustrations. The R5 for instance doesn’t have heater seats unless you buy the top of the range model and I believe that blind spot monitoring only comes on the Inster with the top specification cross version, which I don’t like.

 

Blind spot monitoring is only on Iconic or as part of the advanced safety pack on the R5, too. Honestly, width wise, it's been fine, and I live quite close to Sintra, Portugal, where there are all manner of tiny, winding roads. The cabin does feel that bit more spacious for two front passengers, too, which is a plus.

 

1 month later we're still loving the Inster. The high up driving position and good amount of space for (2) passengers in the back really suits us, and it's so easy to drive (as would many EVs be to be fair, but this is our first EV).

We've averaged 4.86 miles/kWh over 1,400 miles.

We've not seen another Inster "in the wild" yet, but then again I've not seen a Renault 5 yet either.

 

Picked up our Inster Cross middle of July. Went for the cross to get blind spot monitoring and surround view camera. Love the car and its size suits us very well. My only two niggles are the radio reception is poor, dealer checked it and said can’t find any fault and the tire pressure monitor doesn’t show individual tyre pressures as on all other cars I’ve owned.

 

Now you come to mention it, yes I think radio reception isn't quite up to what we had on the Bayon, but pretty close to it.

I'm glad you're enjoying the Inster. I'm always surprised whenever I open one of the back doors just how much room there is in there!

 

Had our Inster 02 for a month now, bought as a second car to be used for mainly urban and short journeys. Very impressed with the car, ride is comfortable and it is tardis like in its interior space. With the rear seats set back there is limousine like knee room in the back and plenty of headroom. We like the elevated driving position and performance is more than adequate for our use, quick get away from rest to urban driving speeds. Cabin is bright and welcoming - we chose the light interior feeling that the dark interior was too bland for a car like the Inster. Have used it once on the motorway and it was fine, accelerated up to M way speed without problem and cruised at that speed relatively quietly; would I like to take a 250 mile+ motorway journey in it? Probably not as our petrol Mini Countryman would be more suited to long distance high speed driving - however I think the Inster would be quite acceptable for long journeys apart from having to recharge at less than 200 mile range at motorway speeds. That is the same problem with the vast majority of EV’s and is the reason why my nephew who has a Tesla chooses to take his wife’s diesel car on any longish journeys - a 3 hour wait at Exeter services was the convincing factor!
The Inster is adaptable and ideally suited for urban use yet has the “toys” - heated front seats, heated steering wheel, adaptable cruise control, distance and lane keeping assistance etc. we have got used to.
It might not be as “sexy” as the Renault 5 but in terms of practicality it can’t be beaten. And practicality with a city/urban car is what we, and I suspect, most people need.
Using Octopus Intelligent Go with an OHME charge point kept charge costs to an absolute minimum, especially when Octopus offers 1/2 price overnight charging - that’s 3.5p per KwHr - so fuel costs are negligible. Range charged to 80% is about 200 miles which seems to be fairly accurate even with A/C in these hot summer days.
So overall we are very pleased with the Inster and would recommend it to anyone.

 

Great review and completely agree with all you say about the Inster. We are with eon next drive and thought our overnight rate of 6.9 pence pkwh was good until I saw yours, but still very cheap running costs as over first 750 miles we are getting 4.9 miles per kw.

 

It’s just a great little car, review in this weeks AutoExpress versus BYD Dolphin Surf came down marginally in favour of BYD because it was cheaper even though the reviewer admitted the Inster was a better car! They obviously missed the announcement that Hyundai have reduced the price of the Inster so even on a financial basis the Inster wins. However, reviews which base their findings on price are highly suspect in my opinion. You have to live with the car for 3+ years so why would you choose a lesser car to save a few pennies a month?