After driving my new Ioniq 5 for a few days, tonight I drove my wife's 2019 Honda Pilot to pick up groceries while mine was charging. it was like going back in history--and not in a good way. I had always enjoyed driving the Pilot, because it has a good blind-spot monitor in comparison to the stupid camera on the right mirror only on my Clarity. And the Pilot's blind spot monitor really is accurate at warning you when someone is in your blind spot. But the Ioniq warns you when someone is either in or soon will be in your blind spot. I still think it factors in the speed of the car overtaking you, but I'm not absolutely sure about that. And the steering of the pilot gave me little feel for the road--kind of like driving my father's 1962 Olds 98, which was more like steering a boat. The Ioniq handles a little like my 1957 Plymouth V8 straight shift, which was the closest thing I ever had to a sports car. But the real difference tonight was when I took my foot off the accelerator. It felt like being on a downhill run in a bobsled. Yeah, I know that the brakes still worked fine, but it just felt a little out of control. I had always liked the regenerative braking of my Clarity, but it is so much better in the Ioniq. I have even come to love the I-Pedal and now I almost never use the brake at all. I-Pedal even takes the place of the brake hold on the Clarity. Tomorrow morning Carvana is coming to pick up my Clarity. It will be a little sad seeing her ride down the driveway--like the feeling when you finally throw away a comfortable old shoe. The Ioniq 5 does have a few quirks that I am having to get used to, but I'm not looking back.
Will you take your Ioniq 5 or the Pilot when you go on long trips? From the experience you described and the soaring price of gasoline these days, I'll guess you'll be taking the I5 for any long trips from now on. How does your wife like driving your I5 compared to her Pilot? I remember back in the pre-pandemic days when my family used to take long trips. I wonder when we'll feel comfortable doing that again?
I think I'm ready to take a long trip without gas. Actually, it's pretty nice sitting in the car for 20 minutes with nothing to do but listen to the radio. Very relaxing. So far, I haven't been able to talk my wife into driving the Ioniq. She says it has too many geegaws. I tried to tell her that I set up a profile for her with nothing turned on except blind-spot monitor. I think she would like it if I can talk her into it. Come to think, I don't think she ever drove the Clarity either. A few years ago she drove an old RV across the country and over the continental divide. One would think that anyone who could do that could drive a regular car with a few extra features.
When my wife first drive my Kona, I just told her to drive it like a normal car and just ignore that in it's an EV. She did and she loved it. She never used the left paddle stop and she doesn't like the ipedal in the Ioniq 5. But she loves the EV experience now. Unfortunately there are no cheap city car EVs in the US so for now she still drives her Honda Fit. Someday she'll get an EV.
It's too bad MINI just dropped the under-$30K Signature model of their all-electric MINI Cooper SE. With incentives, some people paid only about $20K for one. I love my SE--it's the perfect EV city car. The all-new 2024 SE from MINI and Great Wall Motor in China will offer more than my SE's 110-mile range, but the price is still TBD.
