Some of the dealers have a demo car provided by Hyundai so if you are interested this is a good time to take a test drive with no nagging sales pitch. This was a Preferred Long Range rear wheel drive model. All I can say is that our new car can't come fast enough. Deposit firmly in place. I did notice Richmond Hyundai had several I5s on the lot today.
Not in BC but Ontario here. Took a test drive just now. Preferred LR Lucid Blue. Impressions: Car looks great from the outside. Not nearly as "huge" as it's been described. Larger but not ungainly. Black plastic trim in abundance. But it doesn't look bad at all. Interior: Spartan bordering on sterile. Tester was black, black, black. Maybe a bit cheap feeling? Seats are fine. Standard Hyundai comfortable. Steering wheel adjustable but blocked significant parts of the dash. Speed and range both blocked with no way around it despite trying numerous adjustments. Very quiet. Like tomb-quiet. (So much so that I now think something is SERIOUSLY wrong with my Kona drive train!) Good acceleration but not neck snapping. Feels like a boat, smooth and rolling with soft suspension. Repeatedly hit steering wheel controls with the fat part of my palm. Set cruise control to 65kph without knowing. I thought the car was broken because it wouldn't accelerate anymore! Once I figured out what had happened I could resume a normal drive. I'm a bit torn as I think the car in the Ultimate trim and white (grey) interior might be a TOTALLY different cabin experience. And the heads-up display might alleviate the troublesome steering wheel location too. I have a bit of time until my build and delivery date to decide but I'm on the fence. I wanted to be blown away but wasn't. My Kona has better range and promises to continue to serve me well once I get the new battery and (maybe) drive train. I've got some thinking to do.
The Ionic5 seems to be the best EV value for the time being. I would prefer a sportier N line, but after driving the RWD version I came away with the impression that this would be a better car than my Kona EV for the amount and type of driving that I do. That said I am going to wait for the Ultimate version as I think it offers some decent tech plus AWD is a wise choice for the Canadian roads. The Kona is a great car, but there are two outstanding things I don't like about it. Suspension and front wheel drive. This Ionic5 doesn't have a great suspension but it is better than the Kona. It feels like a nice platform to do long drives. On the I5, I am not sold on the color of the cladding for the Ultimate trim. The lower models cladding is black and looks excellent with all of the colors that I have seen. In my opinion the silver gray cladding won't age well. Sent from my SM-N970W using Tapatalk
