jlv said:
It took two tries to get the Ford dealership to understand I wanted to test drive a Mach-e, and not any Mustang. :roll:
Today was the day of looking at the "punctuation" EVs: Mach-e, ID.4, and e-tron.
The Mach-e was most disappointing. They gave me the car with a setting enabled to make engine "vroom vroom" sounds. WTF is that for?
It's GOM was equally baffling, saying 163 miles remaining when the battery was at 91%. That's because the displayed range is based upon recently driving. When I brought the car back it was at 175 miles and 89%. And there are dozens of buttons all over the place, including a big round knob in the bottom center of the touch screen.
The Nav screen dated looking, reminding me of the one in my 2013 LEAF. I didn't even try to plot a long trip nor did I try lane keeping; I just wasn't interested at that point.
On the plus side, one-pedal driving was really nice and the car (Premium w/ large battery and eAWD) handled nicely. And it had a heated steering wheel. But those things didn't make up for the terrible controls.
The ID.4 was interesting. The interior was much nicer than the Mach-e and the controls far nicer. Just the right number of buttons (IMHO). The biggest annoyance was that the gear shifter was weird and in a weird location; I kept turning on the wipers. Driving modes were interesting with D/B adjusted by the mode setting (comfort, sport, and eco). The one-pedal driving did seem to brake harder than I'd like, but it was something I got used to quickly. The GOM was also based upon recently driving efficiency, and jumped around from 165 down to 125 and ended at 137 by the end of my trip, while the car was at about 45% SOC. The lane keeping was fine and worked well on a back country road.
I asked the Nav to plot a trip to Buffalo, NY. When I tried by voice, it asked if I wanted to go to Sommerville, MA. Huh!? Anyway, I pulled over and typed it into the Nav. It told me it would take 17 hours to make the 425 mile trip with just 2 charging stops: at a 50kW CCS at the MA/NY border for 4 hours and then at a 19kW CCS somewhere near Rochester NY for 7 hours. So I guess it doesn't have anything close to a comprehensive charging station database, because there are plenty of 175kW CCS on the way. My one big disappointment in the car.
There was no heated steering wheel. But it had a mechanized shade to cover the glass roof that was neat.
Overall the ID.4 seemed like a decent option. I could almost see myself driving it. For a small SUV it had a good sports car feel.
I struck out at 2 Audi dealerships with no e-trons of any type available to drive. I got to sit in a new one (still half covered in shipping wrap) just to see the inside. It had more buttons all over the inside than the ID.4, but nothing as silly as the Mach-e. I couldn't even power it up, so that's about all I can say. No GT around at all unless I wanted to see the $150K RS. And the delay was 4+ months if I ordered any of them. So I gave up on that.