Owner
Ian Laird
Kilometres travelled
25,000 - 50,000 km
Did you buy this car new or used?
New
How much did you pay? (including all on-road costs)
$53,000
What were your needs when you bought this car? Has it fulfilled those needs?
400km + range
Full EV
5 seat
Reasonable boot space
Range depends very much on terrain and how you drive, other than that it meets all our other needs.
What were your initial thoughts about the car? Tell us why it appealed to you.
Quirky
Nice to drive
Simple to operate
Liked the design
Met our range expectations
We poured over reviews for the BYD, Opel Mokka, MG and other cars at the low end. BYD seemed the best at the time.
What have you discovered since owning the car?
Never ever run the battery to flat.
A little awkward finding all the vehicle settings
Could do with a larger battery and another 100km or so range
So far it's been excellent no faults and still drives like the day we picked it up
What do you like/dislike about the car?
Likes
We are still discovering tricks and settings that improve the car especially after an operating system upgrade.
Like the way it drives handles and stops. It isn't a sports car but is an honest family car.
Voice control is good.
Sun roof excellent
The app is great for getting the interior hot/cool before you get in and great for monitoring charging.
Learnt how to stretch the range and not invoke range anxiety.
Dislikes:
Front screen fogs up and is hard to clear on cool mornings and the A/C is not powerful enough and heating marginal.
Cruise control is unusable. It jumps on and off the power way too aggressively and gives a jerky ride bad enough to give us sore necks.
Lane assist is equally appalling. Pushes the steering quite powerfully and at times dangerously. We can turn this crap off but it always resets and is permanently on when using cruise control. It may work on 3 lane motorways but NOT on the narrow bumpy country roads of Taranaki.
Any other comments on the car?
EV is not as cheap as we expected but significantly better than our ICE Mazda was. RUC will make a significant dent in the operating viability possibly making HEV the better option.
EV owners are being screwed by Chargenet price of 85c per kWh when household rates are 25-30c per kWh.
We recomend a home wall charger that makes EV viable as a commuter.
Reliability
* * * * *
Features/technology
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Performance/economy
* * * *
Value for money
* * * *
Overall rating
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Lastly, would you buy this vehicle again?
No
Why would/wouldn't you buy it again?
There are better options out now with better range and sharper pricing.
We would still go EV despite the RUC cost and maybe still BYD but not the Atto3.