General Comments:
How many cars on the road get 50 mpg in regular driving?
The mileage goes down to maybe 44-45 mpg with 4 passengers.
The instrumentation on this car takes some getting used to, but after a short period of time you realize that while unusual, it is convenient and mostly of a safe design. The heads up type display especially keeps your eyes on road. The steering wheel controls take practice to remember where each control is and they are difficult to see in the dark. The center console is really not that distracting to me as after driving you realize, that the bar graph that gives your real-time mileage is all you need to maximize your mpg's without holding up traffic.
Basically you learn to occasionally ease up on the gas pedal to kick the car into ev mode. This probably gains you 4-5 mpg. Secondly, your commute has to be a minimum of 2 miles to really get excellent mileage. The batteries apparently require a period of warm-up.
Performance is really not a problem. It's not a sports car, but electric motors give you tremendous torque so it is easy to pull right into traffic.
While the car has some road noise, it has very little wind noise at highway speeds and is quieter than most cars. The bluetooth phone feature is highly desirable as once set up you just get in the car and the car is ready to call or take calls. The smart key feature is very convenient. Your car opens and starts as long as your key is in your pocket and you can't lock the key in your car. The car won't lock with a key inside.
The auto air is pure genius. It clearly minimizes the energy cost of ac by automatically using interior air and maximum fan to quickly cool down your car to the set temp then going to outside air and minimum fan, keeping your compartment cool, quiet, and well-ventilated without costing much in mileage depending of course on how cool you like it.
The car is loaded with secret compartments and the double glove compartment is OK to although stuff in there can rattle.
The stereo is OK, but it could sure use a subwoofer to up the bass. To me the cd changer is old technology that should abandoned in favor of a flash card mp3 player so I wouldn't have to always bring my I-pod.
26th Sep 2007, 21:37
Maybe you should have that checked out. A faulty fuel indicator can be fixed.