For months now I’ve been torn between buying a Model Y and buying one of Hyundai’s Ioniq models. Today I pulled the trigger and bought my first EV, an Ioniq 6 SEL. Overall I just felt like I was getting more car for the same price. I’m absolutely blown away at how much Hyundai has turned their brand around compared to 5 years ago. The 5 year 60k mile bumper to bumper and the 10/100k battery with two years free charging and 3 years free maintenance is what ultimately sold me. But dang if those Tesla seats aren’t the most comfortable things in the world.
I test drove the I5. It was tempting, but I couldn’t get over the ugliness of the dash. The little plastic buttons. The smaller LCD. The way it’s mounted. I honestly don’t know why people like it, interior-wise. Feels very…Asian? Like in a Chinese video game kind of way. Like a Pokeman car? IDK. Just something about it.
The I6 is very nice. But for me, I’m a bit too tall and it felt confining in the cockpit. But it was tempting. However, I didn’t really consider it, given the local dealers were marking them up $7-10k when I was looking at them a year ago. Pissed me off.
I sold my Bolt EUV Premier, which was a fantastic car, but I wanted something different after driving them for 8 years, and bought a 2023 Model Y Long Range AWD 3 weeks ago. 330 mile range. Awesome in every way except no top-down 360 parking assist - like my $20,000 less Bolt had. And also a much worse cross traffic alert. Really, it’s like driving a 1980 anything, with no serious help for perking. No front bumper camera(!!!). It HAD radar sensors but Tesla took them out to save a few bucks. Aaaarrrrgggghhhh. But… It’s a great car besides that HUGE HUGE HUGE bummer.
1980’s is good description of Tesla/Musk’s war on low cost proven safety tech.