Honest UK review of Tavascan early weeks of ownership. Basalt Grey V2.
Nearly a month into to ownership the car was filthy due to the gritting on the UK roads, so its time for a clean and to post some actual pictures of the car. I have driven the car more this week with some short journeys locally and a few motorway journeys. I drive the Car in B mode, in comfort setting. The weather in the UK has been cold!
I appreciate in my initial blog has more negative points than positive, I can only draw comparisons on our experiences with our previous Kia EV6 and the loan Kia Nero EV we had for a few months.
Lets start on a positive - the car looks great and I am still to see another on local roads - lots of people stare and wonder what it is. Having done a bit more driving this week, I love the way the car handles. It solid, responsive and a pleasure to drive, its accelerates well and handles really well, I've only been driving in comfort mode which doesn't seem to impact the cars sharp handling. The ride is firm but not crashy and the seats are comfortable and hold you well. I'm trying not to mention the brakes as this is a big negative , but more on that later. Basalt Grey is nice and looks amazing when clean - |I still prefer the Tavascan Blue if I had the chance again.
In terms of issues/niggles there have been a few things I/We have noticed - some of these may be due to my experience with the car and not knowing the correct way of doing things, so please comment/contact if you have the answer. I have been chatting to a few folk on the forums also.
So rather than moan - let me highlight things and see if people have fixes?
Sat Nav/Speed Warnings - The inbuilt sat nav doesn't recognise many locations in Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire (all I have driven so far). The main issue I have experienced this week is that you will get speed warnings on roads that aren't correct. On a 40 limit the car will think its a 30 and bong speed warnings at you. I had the functionality on the Kia and it was generally 100% accurate, there are roads near me with clear signage an it gets them wrong each time. If I ignore the sat nav and use car play - the car play displays the correct speed info but car still bongs in the background.
Planned a route to pick my son up in Bedford at the weekend as its the first time I had been there - sat nav lost where it was and offered me no direction, stating data unavailable for about 5 minutes which is plenty of time to get lost/go in wrong direction. Apple car play works better but speed limits displayed from car differ from that on car play.
HVAC- Heating and ventilation - the car dash looks amazing but where the vents are located its difficult to aim where you need it as the Driver. Also there are settings in the climate like "sync" driver and passenger and a few other settings that reset every time you start the car. The heated steering wheel takes an age to warm up - my Mrs does short journeys and is finding its not warmed until she gets to her destination. The Kia heated wheel was almost instant, kind of makes it redundant. Today I had the vent heating on full, stopped, turned the car off and locked it. When I returned to the car heating was still on full (like the car forgot to turn off when I got out) was only gone a few minutes - haven't had this before.
Door handles and unlocking. Yesterday I went to open the rear door, it has a weird two stage handle - if its unlocked you pull and the top section opens easily. If its locked and you open the handle the whole thing comes up which hurts your hand. Passengers commented on this and I didn't appreciate what they meant. The door didn't open and I had to open driver door. When I drove off I got ping messages to say the rear door was open event though it wasn't. The whole in door controls for windows, mirrors etc its an abomination - By abomination I mean I haven't read the instructions but Its not easy to use, the whole "rear" thing rather than adding 4 individual button thing is annoying for the windows,. Its variable whether the unlock doors button works or not (1 in 5?).
Brake pedal - here we go and I apologise in advance . I have been posting on the forums about this and although some say its spongy other seem to think its fine and that all elecric cars are like this (by the way they aren't). I have had lots of comments to say "you get used to it" but this car sits in a fairly premium space price wise. On top of that its manufacturer market Cupra and Tavascan as the sporty member of the VAG Family. Look I'm sure ill get "used" to it, like unfortunate people that loose a leg or an eye "get used to it". It does affect my confidence in driving this car in a sporty manner, I'm adjusting my style of driving when approaching a roundabout like you would in an old banger where you know the brakes are worn and past their best. This comment is just for me, in an I TOLD YOU SO manner - if we had gone BMW i4 , which we didn't, but if we had then I wouldn't be moaning about range or a spongy dodgy break pedal, and I would be paying less a month and I know the driving an ownership experience would be better. To confirm the issue the feel and what happens is inconsistent. You press the pedal and the car slows enough with the aid of regen. Sometimes you push the pedal expecting the car to slow and it doesn't, you then find yourself slamming on the breaks and stopping in an emergency fashion which you wouldn't have needed to do in a car with progressive pedal travel and breaking.
Range - Its cold in the UK and range on a full charge was about 160 miles , this is city car range and unacceptable. On the dash I see 1-2.1 miles per kwh. This battery has the same capacity as the EV6, and to be honest I never looked at the miles per kwh as I didn't need to. We are charging the Tavascan at least twice the amount in a week the EV6 would be charged. The total range on last full charge did creep up to under 200 this week. Just to confirm the car is driven in urban areas - we are driving at speed limit in comfort mode, we aren't hooning around at full speed in Cupra mode, and aren't maxing out on the motorway. I'm hoping this improves, but if range is important the EV6 is a 3.5-4 mile per khw car and will fast charge nearly twice quicker than the Tavascan.
Other bits -
Reverse camera quality poor (worse than the Kia EV6, ENiro and my 2017 Mercedes)
Every control housed in the screen, need to see if you can customise as there are few physical buttons, which I find myself prodding the screen whilst driving which cant be safe - EV6 had a nice blend of physical vs Screen buttons
Windscreen wiper control not lit at night
Door mirrors seem to take ages to defrost the mirror
Cupra app hit and miss on whether it connects to car - unable to see charge status, remote defrost and heat etc. Very intermittent and slow to connect. Kia System not much better but it 98% time connected - this more like 70%
As much as I moan this is a nice car, there are a few fundamental flaws that I'm sure will be addressed as we had with a new car platform like they did with the EV6. If you are reading about this and thinking of buying, them please do a thorough test drive and make sure you are happy. I'm not trying to put people off or slag of the car, I just want to share what I have found so far, We didn't get the opportunity to test drive before ordering, but that was down to our timescales. Mrs H has already said she likes the Cupra but isn't sure she would have one next time when we come to replace it (she would however have another EV6). Maybe that's damming enough on her perception this early on.
If they can do something (Software or recall) about the brake issue then I could forgive the niggles as it would be an amazing drivers car. It corners and handles well, if only it would stop consistently and provide a bit of driver confidence.
If you have similar experiences or want to advise how you are finding your Tavascan then please drop me a comment. If you have any workarounds or I'm doing things wrong likewise.
So to answer Tavascan or Tavascan't? I would suggest its currently Tavamaybe......
Think i4 you buy.................. ;-)
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