TOT: Hyundai Inster

No knowledge.

I too have been eyeing the electric cars available. Range, passenger comfort, boot size, drivability for those of us getting a licence in

Let us know how you progress.

I have a view on screen v switches. I have a Renault 5 which hasn't gone the whole way, with a lot of common functions still on switches. Trouble is there are so many of them these days that they are fiddlier to work than the on-screen buttons, especially at night. There's a row of 11 of them underneath the central screen.

Once I've learned the right things to say I find myself using the voice activation more than I expected to. Yes it's Google-based so you sell your soul but it's much easier to use than my old Ford used to be.

nib

Seems to be a head to head with the Renault 5. The Renault is more stylish, 'fun to drive' (whatever journalists mean by that), while the Inster interior is more practical. At a guess I might suspect residuals for the 5 might hold up better, but who knows? (check out lease deals: a cheap lease could mean the lessor reckons they be good when they come to sell it)

Question is what kind of deal you can get (lease, PCP, 0% whatever, pre-reg). Autotrader says cheapest new Inster is £17655, 5 is £18995 so already the 5s residuals are better. But it all comes down to what deal you can get.

Theo

The vehicle to avoid are those with a touch screen that put the most used controls 3 or more menu levels down

My ford uses voice control for some (limited) functions I use on a regular basis and it works well. However my current car still has switches and rotary controls for the most common of features.

When travelling in friend's cars that have mainly touch screen controls I do wonder if the designers of the software have ever driven a car or have ever tried to operate their software while on the move.

There's more than one trim level, and it's a bit of a trim level trap (to get you to pay more).

One thing to watch for, is the wheel choices. You should approach your tyre dealer, and ask them for the available wheel choices for the Inster, which wheel choices will be more difficult to find tyres for in future.

One of the wheel choices, forces you to use low profile tyres. The smaller wheels might allow regular profile tyres (fewer "pinch flats"). You might be able to buy winter tyres as well as all season, for the more practical wheel choice. Buying normal tyres will likely affect the range a bit, compared to BEV-specific tyres (LRR low rolling resistance). After some jokey tyre choices in my car career, I don't screw around with "novel tyres". Two cars back, the car came with "sticky tyres", which wore out quickly. I panic stopped so fast one day, the guy behind me nearly rear-ended me. Later tyre choices weren't sticky like that, and I was no longer stopping quite that abruptly.

The vehicle has a top speed of 150km/hr. It is likely to be a one speed (fixed final gear). The top speed is set by the RPM limit of the electric motor. It is hard to design a reliable "conventional transmission" for electric cars, which is why some of them come with just the final gear ratio, to trace off acceleration from a stop, versus what the top speed is.

With the options, the final gear on the various models can be a bit different ratio. Some brands, the pamphlet shows the final gear choice for all the trim levels. On this car, it is largely academic even if a bit different, on some other cars it affects top speed.

The range will likely drop to 66% in bitter cold weather. You should take that into account in your range calc and intended usage. A few vehicles claim no penalty for cold weather, but cheating is involved by holding back some capacity.

I don't like this "glue a tablet to the dash" cars, but what are you going to do ? At least some of them are an eye sore. But you do need some of this, because when you are highway driving, that interface is going to be listing potential recharge stations you could use. On more ordinary cars, you figure stuff like that out, on your own.

If you have plans for hauling cargo in it, the trim level with the fold down seats, might make the thing "more like a van". In the sense that the rear space available can be more useful. Then you have to compare that trim level, to the competition and their pricing. Without that, you can always put some cargo in the rear seats, the rest in the volume behind the seats.

Paul

I did that accidentally when I first had my Vitara. I plugged in my music Thumbdrive and was pushing buttons left right and centre to try and get it to play (I was parked in the drive at the time). Got nowhere then I heard this voice say something like "can I help" and in my frustration I said "yes, play the **** music" and it did.

I have used it for navigation since but you do need to know the terminology.