[Shedman]

Good points:

• The quietness
• zen-like ambience: for somebody who has always liked driving fast, I don’t feel the same urge to put my foot down in this car
• Infotainment: I have a MY14 so enjoy Bluetooth audio streaming & have incoming text messages read out, better sat nav,
• front collision warning
• The looks: still think the ampera/volt looks the business 9 yrs after they first went on sale (in (USA)

-The ingenious drive train/lack of range anxiety

• sport mode: love the way the car instantly sharpens up.
• handling: for a heavy car I think it still offers a certain something on twisty country roads.

Build quality: although the car’s interior feels a little cheap, it also seems really solid.
- heated seats (but...)

Bad points:

• Seat comfort is really poor: I find the lack of lumber support staggering in a car at this price point
• Bose stereo is very underwhelming: really don’t see what all the fuss is about, but if anyone has settings which may help change my mind, I’m all ears, as it were.

Front arm rest is set too far back and the leather is so slippery that your arm slides off it anyway.
Stereo has an annoying intermittent habit of tuning itself to a vacant bit of FM bandwidth upon startup, regardless of what input it was on when I switched the car off.

• surprised to find the wing mirrors are fixed, and can’t be pushed in manually, let alone electrically.
• I already knew that the wipers were not auto from reading up on the car here, but I still find that strange: every car (modest brands) I’ve owned since 2004 has had this function.

But I love the car overall and so do the wife & kids, they get positively annoyed if we head out as a family in the other (ICE) car instead now.

 

[Jaime Branco]

surprised to find the wing mirrors are fixed, and can’t be pushed in manually, let alone electrically.

You can close them by hand....

 

[Jaime Branco]

The bad thing for me is the engine noise and vibration when the ice is on ....... Is like when the car was developed .... People we forget the engine let's see what we have in stock, ok put this one ... Let's tune the engine no no time we have to sell the car ....

 

[h8ten]

The mirrors should be able to fold in manually although part of the mounting pivot corrodes badly and will probably have seized.

 

[HandyAndy]

The bad thing for me is the engine noise and vibration when the ice is on ...

Agreed! I find it's rather objectionable when going up hills on long trips. It's one reason I use Mountain Mode on such trips, to keep a sizeable 15 mile reserve; when I meet a hill climb I can simply drop into Normal to do it silently, and I'll revert to MM on the way down, and the car then doesn't have to rev excessively as it's basically freewheeling or even regennning a bit.

In my experience, the way the ICE gets run during a bit of MM driving is exactly the same as during Hold mode when you're in the ICE section; I've switched between MM and Hold during such ICE moments and not detected any change in engine revs, so I see use of MM+Normal during long trips as being essentially the same thing as Hold mode, only you have a bit more control over juust where the engine noise happens. Oh, and just watch out for the reduced acceleration in MM when you press the loud pedal, just the car trying to be extra-economical in this particular mode!

 

[Shedman]

The mirrors should be able to fold in manually although part of the mounting pivot corrodes badly and will probably have seized.

Thanks- That’s what’s happened. Passenger side will fold in as normal but the driver side won’t budge. Will a squirt of WD40 be enough to loosen it up?

 

[h8ten]

You could give it a try, don't use too much force but letting the WD40 work in for a few days driving might help too.

 

[donald]

Thanks- That’s what’s happened. Passenger side will fold in as normal but the driver side won’t budge. Will a squirt of WD40 be enough to loosen it up?

Yup. That's what they do.

The hinge is within the mirror enclosure, nothing to squirt, unless you first disassemble the mirror, which might be what you do if you really feel a need to rectify it.

At your own risk, get a very good coverage to the back of the mirror with both palms of your hand to spread the load you are about to apply, then jam your body into it a few times. It took more force than I thought it might need to break it the first time I did this, but it was robust enough to survive that. It was always stiff but at least it did move after that. Of course, mine had had two years of corrosion from lack of use and yours might be facing 7 years so stuff might break. Go easy. Good luck with that.

 

[RunningStrong]

WD40 if you've got it, but GT85 or PlusGas are more suitable.

 

[HandyAndy]

Thanks for the reminder, I've just placed a re-order for Wurth saBesto Motorcycle Chain Wax 500 ml, £11.16 at amazon. This is a dry lubricant with some sort of solventy-propellant stuff, and I find it invaluable for lubricating things you don't want to be oily/greasy. E.g. door-hinges inside the house, etc. WD-40 is useful stuff, but is not a lubricant, though it generally does a good job of redistributing prexisting oil/grease in whatever you're attacking! My door mirror hinge areas are going to get a squirt of saBesto as soon as it arrives.

 

[Peter Cittern]

I'm not sure if I was conning myself but I think mine ran slightly more quietly on the ICE when I switched to Shell V power.

 

[modo]

I always found the engine rather well insulated actually. That's because whenever the engine gets any use its on the motorway, when it's barely audible above the tyre roar etc. I actually find the car generally very well insulated at all speeds. Certainly quieter than a Honda Accord or Mondeo I've used. But also on par with an F11 BMW and BMW i3 I've driven. It makes the noises I seem to be getting lately from the tailgate area all the more annoying. Must work out what is causing them... Might be my dashcam wiring.