A car with character

[DangerousDoug]

All, we've had our ZS EV now since January, and have clocked up nearly 8000 miles in that time. In late July I took delivery of a Kia e-Niro which I'd ordered back in December, before even we ordered the MG (which arrived in two weeks!!). The MG was our first electric car, and this forum has been extremely helpful to me in getting to grips with electric motoring (which I LOVE - I'm NEVER GOING BACK TO FOSSIL!!). I've been an active member and look forward to reading members' comments, engaging in debates regarding bongs, screen lagging, scheduled charging, etc.
To the point of my post - I fully expected to do the same for the Kia, and joined the e-Niro forums in preparation. HOWEVER, I find that I'm not at all engaged with the Kia forums, as the car is basically a coldly efficient machine with no quirks or character worthy of forum discussion. It's a lovely car, with great equipment, luxury feel and superb performance, but it just doesn't have "character" in the way the MG has. I love the Kia and love driving it, but it's shown up how much character the MG actually has . Has anyone else had this experience?

 

[shikoku14]

One man's character is another's irksome quirk I know what you mean about Kia's. Our Kia Soul was absolutely faultless but I would never say I was affectionate about it as a car. The Leaf we had, despite its aging interior plastics and switch gear and 90's future tech guages had way more charachter (if you ignored the frog eyes and dumpy rear end, basically wear a blind fold or never seek to admire a gen 1 Leaf!).

 

[Dave S]

@DangerousDoug
Re the car, I can't say as the MG is the only EV I've owned. I really like it! When I compare the build, equipment and driving experience to my previous diesel SEATs, (which, at the time, I loved) I think I've got a great car for the money.

As you've heard me say before, I suffer from 24/7 range anxiety, so any drive of over 100 miles (not uncommon up here in the North of Scotland) does fill me with some apprehension. Planning helps!

Re the forum, I too have gained a great deal from it, really enjoy hearing what others say about the car, and gaining tips on so many things, and thank all the contributors for their input.

 

[DangerousDoug]

Hi Dave, thanks for your comment - it's interesting that you mention range anxiety. Before we had the MG, all my thinking regarding electric cars revolved around range, and range anxiety. The reason we went for the MG was that it was the first car in that price bracket with a "reasonable" range - I thought we couldn't possibly sanction a car with less than 200 miles range, so it was in trepidation that I ordered the MG with "only" 160 miles stated range. The single biggest culture shock we got (it's nominally my wife's car - mine is the Kia) after owning the car for a short time, was how little range entered our thinking. Once we established that with the MG the GOM was basically accurate, and you could safely take the car down to 10 miles remaining, we simply stopped worrying about range. If your journey (there and back) was less than approx 140 miles (and they pretty much all are) then we simply don't worry about range! We took the car on holiday to cumbria this summer, driving around the very sparsely populated areas of north pennines, yorkshire dales, borders, etc, with absolutely no range concerns at all, as all our journeys were less than 70 miles outbound (140 round-trip) from the holiday cottage, where we charged overnight. 70 miles is actually a long way, and we travelled widely around the entire region. In Scotland I believe you have free charging in most counsil locations, so I'm guessing that for you the key is to start trusting the GOM and allowing the car to drop down to 10-20 miles remaining, without worrying. I wish you many miles of anxiety-free motoring .