@matigo That is true. It is just a bit annoying that there are these issues pretty much immediately we got the car.
We have had the new car for 4 days now. The issues we have had so far:
1. The driver’s side back tyre was almost flat.2. There is a crack in the windshield. This was not mentioned anywhere in the advert, and we spotted that after the delivery and after the car got washed.3. Today there was a note under the windshield wiper that someone had bumped into our car and had managed to crack the plastic cover on the right backside of the car.
Luckily 1 seems to be ”fixable” by inflating it again. 3 will be paid by the person(’s insurance) who did it. 2 is something I will negotiate with the leasing company, I am not willing to shed 200€ (the amount we would need to pay) for a thing that was not mentioned in the advert.
Took the new car’s tires to a storage and got the car washed. Now it looks like what it ”should”.
@matigo That is a good point. Usually our drives are pretty short, so a plug-in hybrid or an all-electric could be a good option as well. Unfortunately they are way out of the price range we can manage (even when leased), so we have not considered them. Yet. Maybe the next one, which no longer need to be a 7-seater, could be one of those.
@matigo Here in Finland the network of charging stations is not that great yet, so a self-charging hybrid like this Prius+ was pretty optimal for us. With the current gas prices I won’t mind getting a lot better mileage than with the old car1.
We are mostly driving in urban areas, and the old Zafira was chugging whopping 10 l / 100 km. That was a lot.
@matigo Yep. I had that already when coming to the first lights I had to stop at. I was preparing to shift and push the clutch down but there was no stick where it used to be. That made me panic for a moment. 😆
Also, one ”weird” thing with driving a hybrid car with automatic transmission after almost 4 years on manual is that I need to retrain my brain to let go of the coupling between the engine sound and the speed I am driving. With the previous car I knew that if the gear is so and so and the engine sounds like that, I am driving at about that speed. Now that is totally off as the car might be using the electric motor instead.
@variablepulserate Huge is an understatement. While that Zafira was a good car (for our needs), it started showing its age. Also, while it had some nice features, it was lacking a lot of things I personally like to have in a car.
Then again, this Prius+ does not seem to have a parking camera or even radar that the Zafira had, but it is a nice-to-have feature in my books. I want to ”learn” the car well enough to know where its corners are going at all times.
Got the ”new” car1 delivered today. The old car2 was taken by the guy who delivered the new one.
Took the new one for a brief spin. It was, umm, different. It will take a while to get used to it. Especially the automatic transmission is something that caused some confusion first, I was so used to shifting manually on the old car.
A 2020 Toyota Prius+, a 7-seater hybrid.
A 2011 Opel Zafira, another 7-seater with manual transmission.
@matigo Yep. There are benefits, regardless of the ”trigger”. Sleeping better (especially without snoring) would not only benefit me but also my wife. 😆
// @phoneboy