Save money with new Golf deals from What Car? The i3 has a rare quality for an electric car: multi-faceted appeal. You might want one because of the way it looks, or for the spritely, involving way it drives; and either way, you might not actually care much that it’s electric, such is the power of the car’s various lures. While the i3’s short wheelbase can make it feel a touch nervous on motorways, its keen handling ensures it thrives in the urban environment for which it’s designed. That’s helped by its innovative carbonfibre-reinforced plastic chassis, which ensures the car is remarkably light. The 168bhp electric motor (rising to 181bhp for the i3S) offers peak torque at zero revs; and so, although the car’s top speed is only 99mph, it has strong performance getting there which wouldn’t shame a warm hatchback. Using that performance does impact on the car’s true electric range, although the addition of a 42.2kWh battery at the beginning of 2019 has finally taken the i3 through the 150-mile barrier on real-world range. Save money with new i3 deals from What Car? The Hyundai Ioniq is a bit of a rarity amongst family hatchbacks in that it’s available with choice of electric, petrol-electric hybrid and plug-in hybrid powertains. The EV version does without the independent multi-link rear suspension of the others, in order to pack in a 28kWh lithium ion battery pack which makes for a real-world range in the region of 120 miles. The Ioniq EV produces just 118bhp, but with 218lb ft of torque it can reach 62mph in under 10 seconds. Driving dynamics aren’t bad, but won’t set your pulse racing: the steering has reasonable weight but is somewhat vague, and this is a car happiest being driven well within its limits.
Bottom line: This car is a piece of crap. I will not pay a cent to fix what should never have broken. Volkswagen obviously does not stand behind their product. Fine, that's their choice. My relentless campaign to make sure that anyone who considers buying a Volkswagen is aware that they might as well burn their money is my choice. VW replied within a few hours. Thank you for your response, I’m sorry to hear you are now experiencing shifting concerns. Due to the nature of your concerns, I recommend making an appointment at your local dealership. It is difficult to make proper repair recommendations without being able to take a good look at your Jetta. Once the dealership has properly diagnosed the concern, they will be in the best position to determine if any repairs that may be necessary are covered under the Powertrain Limited Warranty. We’d like the opportunity to follow up on your diagnosis and repairs. If you’d like for us to do that, please reply to this email with the name of your servicing dealership and your appointment date. I look forward to hearing from you. I bet she does look forward to hearing from me.
Who doesn't enjoy a nicely scathing, sarcastic email? True to form, the Jetta decided that temporarily malfunctioning wasn't sufficient. When I turned the car on last night, it was not displaying what gear I was in. Instead, it lit up the engine light and the wrench symbol by the odometer. Apparently displaying the gear was too much trouble, on top of the engine light and wrench symbol. It can only put forth so much effort, and coming up with new things to break requires a lot of work. Once in drive, the car would not shift gears. I don't know what gear it was in, as Jetta seems to feel that is confidential information. I'm assuming it was stuck in 3rd, as that's what it's been getting stuck in. On the one hand, I find it unlikely that the car would bother to pick a new gear; on the other hand, I wouldn't put it past Jetta to screw up as frequently and as variably as possible.
I had a fun drive home, going 25mph in 55mph zones to keep the tachometer from going into the red zone. Thankfully it was fairly late, so I didn't have a hoard of angry drivers honking at me. I woke up a couple hours earlier than normal so I could get the car to the dealership as soon as they opened. It was shifting, but the bad lights are still on and the gear light is still off. So now I'm driving a loaner (yay! a car that is not a VW!!!) until the dealership is able to figure out what is wrong. This had better be covered under warranty, or I will be very displeased. Lucifer will tremble in the wake of my fury. Because contrary to Volkswagen's belief, vehicles that are 2 years (and 1 month and 1 day) in use should not break. On the bright side, it was rather entertaining to watch someone else try to start the vehicle.
Hey, that's an idea--I should bring the car to Volkswagen's headquarters and ask the head of the company to start it. If s/he is able to start the car on the first try, I'll go away. If not, I get a new car that's not a useless piece of crap. I would be more than happy to the scrap the vehicle if that would be easier, because I know how much VW likes doing things the easy way. Just let me know so I can get my things out. Moral of the story: DO NOT BUY A VOLKSWAGEN! There is absolutely NO excuse for a car with 2 years of use and 55,000 miles having so many problems. Well, I wait to find out what's wrong with my car. In the meantime, I'll spread the word far and wide. Ford Pinto springs to mind. I made a mistake. I believed the image Volkswagen presents about their vehicles. I didn't do enough research and I didn't look into the warranty well enough. Foolish me, I believed that a new car would work well enough that I wouldn't need the warranty.
