Got this as a body shop courtesy car as my #E82Robin was being mended after an unfortunate incident with a deer in California. As you’d expect, this is pretty much as rental-spec as they go. Cloth manual seats, no sunroof, complete with plastic-covered steel rims, and with (yay!) a CVT gearbox. Oh bloody joy.
My first night picking up the car, I’ve had to drive through one of the worst winter storms in recent history. The roads were complete crap, and I was going at turtle-speed for almost half an hour.
You know what? This car is flippin’ fantastic.
The seats are reasonably comfortable, and there’s ample room inside for such a small hatchback. Heated seats are competent and Apple CarPlay + Android Auto worked wirelessly just as advertised. The ride is compliant, and torque is plenty for stop-and-go, even with the dreaded CVT. At idle, the engine is so quiet I thought it had auto start/stop. Special mention too to the set of Continental ProContacts - they are skinny, they have sidewalls, and they did wonders in the snow. They also probably contributed to the excellent fuel economy too — it averaged 7L/100km in that 90-minute crawl home in the snow.
In other words, it does pretty much everything you can ask for. The car has a early-2000s Volkswagen quality to it, which is not necessarily a bad thing (unless it falls apart like one).
Drawbacks? Errr, I suppose I would’ve preferred a manual? Heated steering wheel would also be nice. The engine does also sound a little hoarse when you step on it, but… maybe don’t? It’s not a sports car, nor does it try to be.
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For the MSRP of just barely over $20k CAD, you probably can’t do much better than this for a daily commuter. I suppose I do have a soft spot for small hatchbacks like these - they are just such a great package.
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