GolfGTIforum.co.uk
Model specific boards => Golf mk8 => Topic started by: monkeyhanger on 09 May 2021, 13:49
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Well here it is, my collection day write-up for my ID3.
I get to Newcastle train station and there's announcements to say all trains are cancelled and to go home. The boards don't quite reflect that though, my Newcastle to Birmingham train is still on. So I'm able to get to Birmingham and then Worcester, but my final train to Evesham is cancelled, so I have to get the hourly bus.
At pick-up everything's great until I spot the inevitable BRIDGESTONE on the tyres. Some of these were coming through with Goodyear, but I've lucked out yet again.
The car drives very smoothly, the steering is very sharp and direct, the turning circle is tiny due to very little overhang of the wheels. It handles like a nimble light hatchback rather than the 1850kg lump that it is.
The seats were very comfy, considering I was in them for 3 hours straight, and then another hour immediately after the top up charge.
Acceleration is instant and gives a decent shove in the back, whether you're accelerating fron zero or 50mph.
There were a few annoyances on the way up, seemingly 1 glitch and nothing changing a few settings wouldn't fix:-
1. The glitch. The climate menu was greyed out and unavailable. I was about 10 miles into my journey when I felt I would be slightly more comfortable a little cooler and discovered I couldn't do a thing about it. Wasn't uncomfortable enough to want to stop. It sorted itself out after my charge stop. Hopefully a one off glitch for first time use.
2. Using ACC on the M1/A1, the speed signs recognition seemed overly sensitive, picking up speed signs on sliproads coming off the road I was on as I passed by, and reducing speed accordingly until I overrode the action.
3. The VW version of the satnav (I was also checking out the android auto Google maps nav) is tied in to charging prompts when running low. With an indicated 70 mikes range left, it was promoting me to charge up at the "next" point, but it was prompting me to backtrack rather than going forward. Which was senseless unless you were in a situation where you have 20 miles left and the next charger is much further away than the one you just passed.
Maybe people with MK8 Golfs have experienced 1 and 2 as the infotainment system seems largely the same.
180 miles into the journey I stopped for charge near Thirsk, between the A1 and getting onto the A19 with 37 miles range left. It was clear I couldn't make it home (236 miles without charging).
Rookie mistake, I plugged in the AC charger (which even at 42kWh, is desperately slow. So I finish up and used my contactless debit card on the charger again to use the DC rapid charger and the card's declined. I had no other cards with the dog having chewed my wallet and credit card to bits the day before. The petrol station cashier agreed to put a £10 charge on his card and I gave him a tenner.
An hour later and I'm home. Plugged the car into our charger and set the car to top to 80% (apparently you shouldn't make a habit of 100% charging unless just prior to a long journey, potentially affects battery longevity).
Someone at the workshop of Listers clearly has a sense of humour. I tidied the charging cable that came with the car into the tool kit recess under the boot floor (not officially a storage place for it, but it does fit), and there's a Castrol Edge 1L oil top up kit there!
Caned it this morning with no range anxiety and very pleased with the way it drives.
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I hope it works out, my neighbours picked theirs up at the end of 2020. It's been with VW for the last 6 weeks, while they drive round in the battered 18 plate Astra courtesy car!
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Congrats (once again!) MH!
It sounds like it was a reasonably eventful trip with cracked trains and chewed wallets!
Obviously in a different league to the Audi but how does the build quality and interior stack up next to the Polo?
And back to back performance?
Does yours have the super-light coloured interior?
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Pleased to hear you aren't stranded at a welcome break somewhere lol
A lot of id3's digested a bad ota update recently and needed to be unbricked.
The id3 has full ota updates unlike the mk8 where the second update channel is disabled at the moment.
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I hope it works out, my neighbours picked theirs up at the end of 2020. It's been with VW for the last 6 weeks, while they drive round in the battered 18 plate Astra courtesy car!
They would've been on the first effort software that was buggy as hell and probably upgraded to 2.0 via the dealership. Lost of failed upgrades from 2.0 to 2.1 reported. Mine was built with 2.1, so hopefully quite stable.
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Spent 5 minutes filling the tank, drove over 300 miles, had a laugh on the way.
No drama.
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Congrats (once again!) MH!
It sounds like it was a reasonably eventful trip with cracked trains and chewed wallets!
Obviously in a different league to the Audi but how does the build quality and interior stack up next to the Polo?
And back to back performance?
Does yours have the super-light coloured interior?
Thankfully I don't have the white dash and steering wheel. Everything is anthracite, even the headlining.
The door cards are softer and less shiny than those on the Polo, not as soft as the upper parts of the MK7 door cards, but softer than the lower parts of the Golf's door cards. The dash top is in 3 parts, with the one nearest the windscreen being hardest, with soft rubberised front top of the dash. The only bits I'm not keen on is the large piano black section of the door grab handle on all doors. Someone successfully wrapped those so they weren't the huge fingerprint magnets. It all ties in quite nicely, it's as easy to say "minimalist" as it is to say "cheap". Everything in there has a place, with nothing superfluous. You don't really get it from the pictures on the website,but in the flesh it seems justifiable when you see how much interior room the ID3 has. The kids have an extra 4 inches of legroom behind my desired seating position than they had on the Polo, which was only marginally less than the Golf.
It feels solidly built - not a squeak or rattle - perhaps there's more precautions taken to.minimise noises as you'll hear them all with the motor being so quiet.
The Irish VW website shows they have access to front sports seats as an option on the higher trims, for €1350. They look very retro, like they belong.on a 90s Porsche.
Performance wise, 0-62 feels like it's more in the realms of 6.5s than the official 7.3s. Torque is just instantly delivered - no turbo lag, no wheelspin/tramping or DSG gear engagement lag, so in gear acceleration feels even quicker than the Polo with no kickdown to take place. There's some YouTube reviewer that reckons the ID3 under review was quicker than the RS7 from 0-30mph.
Did 13 miles around the doors today and economy was much better, even though I was putting my foot down. Air resistance at motorway speeds seems to take a huge bite of fuel economy. 263 mile official range - I'd say you'll probably manage it above 15C if it's done in mixed driving.
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Spent 5 minutes filling the tank, drove over 300 miles, had a laugh on the way.
No drama.
That's the upside to the GTI/R. doing over 200 miles in one day is going to be an extremely rare event for me. The other side of the coin is that I could drive the ID3 like I stole it and still be paying less than 2p a mile in fuel on an overnight cheap rate charge.
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Pleased to hear you aren't stranded at a welcome break somewhere lol
A lot of id3's digested a bad ota update recently and needed to be unbricked.
The id3 has full ota updates unlike the mk8 where the second update channel is disabled at the moment.
I don't think any updates to the ID3 have been sent OTA to end users cars not in the workshop, but there's rumours that the next one will be.
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Spent 5 minutes filling the tank, drove over 300 miles, had a laugh on the way.
No drama.
That's the upside to the GTI/R. doing over 200 miles in one day is going to be an extremely rare event for me. The other side of the coin is that I could drive the ID3 like I stole it and still be paying less than 2p a mile in fuel on an overnight cheap rate charge.
An EV would be ideal for me, work from home, hardly ever go on long trips anymore and do about 3k pa, but I just find them soulless, probably an age thing.
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A car collection thread without any pictures?!!
Do quite like the ID3 in the right spec but so many of them I've seen in weird colour combos.
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Spent 5 minutes filling the tank, drove over 300 miles, had a laugh on the way.
No drama.
That's the upside to the GTI/R. doing over 200 miles in one day is going to be an extremely rare event for me. The other side of the coin is that I could drive the ID3 like I stole it and still be paying less than 2p a mile in fuel on an overnight cheap rate charge.
An EV would be ideal for me, work from home, hardly ever go on long trips anymore and do about 3k pa, but I just find them soulless, probably an age thing.
To be honest, I'm finding most modern cars soulless - that's the price of refinement and capability. Driving a GTI or an R at legal speeds is just too easy and uneventful. You kind of want to be in a car that handles well but be in a bit of fear it could bite if you do something stupid. Driving at 60-80 is as uneventful as driving along on a 40 road. My R wasn't an exciting drive, except that few seconds of hard acceleration from 5000-6500rpm (and that noise).
We're relinquishing more and more driver control and getting less out in driving experience.
I pity the kids getting into cars now, having never experienced a proper raw 90s hot hatch. My Cousin's kids around 20 years old have no interest in cars beyond being a means of getting from A to B. I can't ignore the practical aspects of the ID3 for the kids sake. If I want this kind of interior space elsewhere, it would have to be an SUV :sick:
It's pretty low on overall compromises (apart from range!). Drives nicely, but lack of noise is plain weird and if you do all your charging at home, you can run it for coppers. That won't last long!
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A car collection thread without any pictures?!!
Do quite like the ID3 in the right spec but so many of them I've seen in weird colour combos.
Was waiting for nice weather and the opportunity to prep it properly - managed the latter part yesterday and this morning - can't help the weather though!
Pics from the end of my street:-
(https://i.ibb.co/Mpf7q94/20210510-120358.jpg) (https://ibb.co/WF0fSsw)
(https://i.ibb.co/t2N8Bdv/20210510-120418.jpg) (https://ibb.co/QHqr95T)
jpg hosting (https://imgbb.com/)
(https://i.ibb.co/SxwxKV5/20210510-120424.jpg) (https://ibb.co/7ztzGrj)
(https://i.ibb.co/YDTrg9g/20210510-120707.jpg) (https://ibb.co/VHpK6y6)
(https://i.ibb.co/yn4z4Rp/20210510-120702.jpg) (https://ibb.co/GvHZHJ9)
Admittedly, the seat cloth is a bit 1989 MK2 Golf GL, but the drivers console means I'm not staring at a clowns face when driving (no dials/eyes).
The white paint seems a bit of a let down in that it is "Glacier White metallic", but it doesn't look metallic. Maybe I need an exceptionally sunny day for it to not look like a solid white.
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Spent 5 minutes filling the tank, drove over 300 miles, had a laugh on the way.
No drama.
That's the upside to the GTI/R. doing over 200 miles in one day is going to be an extremely rare event for me. The other side of the coin is that I could drive the ID3 like I stole it and still be paying less than 2p a mile in fuel on an overnight cheap rate charge.
An EV would be ideal for me, work from home, hardly ever go on long trips anymore and do about 3k pa, but I just find them soulless, probably an age thing.
To be honest, I'm finding most modern cars soulless - that's the price of refinement and capability. Driving a GTI or an R at legal speeds is just too easy and uneventful. You kind of want to be in a car that handles well but be in a bit of fear it could bite if you do something stupid. Driving at 60-80 is as uneventful as driving along on a 40 road. My R wasn't an exciting drive, except that few seconds of hard acceleration from 5000-6500rpm (and that noise).
You need a Morgan or a Caterham! :grin:
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Thankfully I don't have the white dash and steering wheel. Everything is anthracite, even the headlining.
The door cards are softer and less shiny than those on the Polo, not as soft as the upper parts of the MK7 door cards, but softer than the lower parts of the Golf's door cards. The dash top is in 3 parts, with the one nearest the windscreen being hardest, with soft rubberised front top of the dash. The only bits I'm not keen on is the large piano black section of the door grab handle on all doors. Someone successfully wrapped those so they weren't the huge fingerprint magnets. It all ties in quite nicely, it's as easy to say "minimalist" as it is to say "cheap". Everything in there has a place, with nothing superfluous. You don't really get it from the pictures on the website,but in the flesh it seems justifiable when you see how much interior room the ID3 has. The kids have an extra 4 inches of legroom behind my desired seating position than they had on the Polo, which was only marginally less than the Golf.
It feels solidly built - not a squeak or rattle - perhaps there's more precautions taken to.minimise noises as you'll hear them all with the motor being so quiet.
The Irish VW website shows they have access to front sports seats as an option on the higher trims, for €1350. They look very retro, like they belong.on a 90s Porsche.
Performance wise, 0-62 feels like it's more in the realms of 6.5s than the official 7.3s. Torque is just instantly delivered - no turbo lag, no wheelspin/tramping or DSG gear engagement lag, so in gear acceleration feels even quicker than the Polo with no kickdown to take place. There's some YouTube reviewer that reckons the ID3 under review was quicker than the RS7 from 0-30mph.
Did 13 miles around the doors today and economy was much better, even though I was putting my foot down. Air resistance at motorway speeds seems to take a huge bite of fuel economy. 263 mile official range - I'd say you'll probably manage it above 15C if it's done in mixed driving.
Thanks for that, really interesting to read.
I was wondering how a light interior would hold up with kids and dog but that’s obviously not a worry.
Really good to read that it has a dark headliner too. I’ve always had a dislike of light coloured headliners.
The car looks nice in the photos, I see a few white ones around locally and there’s a white ID.4 around the corner from me (that never ever seems to move!), the white/black theme suits the shapes of them well.
Agreed also on how nearly all modern cars lack soul.
Aside from the exhaust burble at startup and under heavy acceleration there’s not a huge amount of noise coming out of modern OPF equipped cars that can be heard in the cabin.
I’d settle for artificial 1960’s movie spaceship noises piped in rather than the fake Subaru with a misfire noises the Soundaktor treats us to.
There’s absolutely no reason a BEV can’t handle at least as well as ICE vehicles and acceleration should be better at normal road speeds. Bearing in mind your average motorist aspires to an SUV these days and the middle class chariot of choice is a huge Audi or Porsche 4WD SUV to make sure the world knows how wealthy the leasers are I can’t think of anything less suitable for these vehicles than a high revving petrol (often dragging round hybrid weight too). Instant electric torque and a battery under the floor keeping the centre of gravity low would surely be perfect?
And yes, not too many youngsters have any interest in cars these days aside from either being vessels to ferry their mates around in whilst plugged into CarPlay, or as status symbols for the lucky ones with huge Audi SUV owning parents.
I’m not one for rose tinted specs but I think the pre-OPF mk7 Golf era hot hatches were the pinnacle of affordable, comfy, classy, fast, good handling hatches. Or maybe the mk5 Golf actually as it was more solid and drove pretty much as well. But the world has moved on and the ID.3 would give a mk5/6/7 GTI a very good run for its money I’d bet.
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^ The MK5 was the pinnacle for me. The last truly mechanical Golf, solid, had the most sophisticated rear suspension set up ever seen on a Golf and no cheaping out by VW...all at a reasonable price (before rampant car RRP inflation). Little touches like the VW brushed stainless steel cup holder separator/bottle opener would be an extravagance too far now (still have mine from my 2007 GT Sport 170TDI PD).
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MH, I know they are probably more than up to the task, but are they drum brakes at the rear ?
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MH, I know they are probably more than up to the task, but are they drum brakes at the rear ?
Yep, drums on the rear, but the drums look huge and intricate vs the ones you'd see on a 1.2 Corsa. The very closed design of the steel wheels and all alloy variants means they're not very noticeable.
By and large, although we all want discs all round for aesthetics (when we can see them) the rear brakes aren't doing a lot on most cars, there for stability and parking brakes. On the ID3, all braking force to about 0.25g is handled by the regen device (like a bike dynamo) to put charge back in the battery. On normal use, about 90% of my braking isn't using the brakes at all. If you have to really step on the brakes then the front discs and rear drums are coming into play.
The braking via regen uses the satnav data passively to start slowing the car down when coming towards a roundabout if you've lifted off the accelerator.
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The predictive braking thing sounds exactly like the mk8 does on travel assist... Except for a different purpose on the id3.
There really is quite a lot of why the mk8 being like it is is down to commonality with the new bev range... Which is either sharing technology for cost reduction sake or to prime everyone for their electric future. Or maybe a bit of both.
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Just discovered a minor annoyances that I'm wondering if the MK8 Golf has, as a lot of the tech is the same...
Mirror dip on reverse is set, but as the new mirror switches forget you left it in "L" after every ignition cycle, you have to select L on every journey that you want the mirror dip to work.
The switch is more of a toggle to cycle left or right around the circular mirror options, it doesn't physically point to anything, your selection lights up when toggled, for the ignition cycle only.
Is this a thing on the MK8, or does it remember electric mirror adjustment switch position after an ignition cycle?
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I'll look this morning at that... I've got to have a look at it anyway as my dipping mirror has stopped dipping...
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I'll look this morning at that... I've got to have a look at it anyway as my dipping mirror has stopped dipping...
What does the MK8 wing mirror switchgear look like? Is it a click know that stays pointing at where you left it, or is is a free turning toggle switch like the ID3?
Such a daft little thing that could readily be resolved with a software update (toggle switch to remember it's last position). The only upside to that presumably is that you can't permanently leave the wing mirror heaters on, although there's a menu entry about timings for wing mirror defrosting.
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I'll look this morning at that... I've got to have a look at it anyway as my dipping mirror has stopped dipping...
Don't know if I can remember but is there a covering on the door handle for the key lock, mine is showing but I've not see it before, I can't remember if there was a plastic insert in
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I'll look this morning at that... I've got to have a look at it anyway as my dipping mirror has stopped dipping...
Don't know if I can remember but is there a covering on the door handle for the key lock, mine is showing but I've not see it before, I can't remember if there was a plastic insert in
No, no cover; the lock on the exterior driver’s door handle on the mk8 is exposed.
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I'll look this morning at that... I've got to have a look at it anyway as my dipping mirror has stopped dipping...
Don't know if I can remember but is there a covering on the door handle for the key lock, mine is showing but I've not see it before, I can't remember if there was a plastic insert in
Thanks I thought I was going mad 😂
No, no cover; the lock on the exterior driver’s door handle on the mk8 is exposed.
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Just thought i'd update on my EV experience. Buoyed by the ridiculously high used prices of the ID3 and the Born Cupra having exclusive access to the e-boost variant of the electric drivetrain (230ps, 0-62 6.6s official, 6.1s unofficial, vs he ID3's 204ps, 0-62 7.3s official, 6.7s unofficial), as well as the crazy wait times to consider my next one. I'm swapping for a Born next week.
There's a bit of dealership stock coming through on the Cupra Born, leapfrogging bona-fide customer orders and intended to be demos, but the cash strapped dealers are actually selling them. I'm collecting my Glacier White (metallic white that doesn't look metallic in the slightest, just like my ID3) V2 spec (there's only V1s and V2s in the first wave of demos, V3s don't seem to be coming through) 230ps e-boost Cupra Born on Wednesday.
Here's the actual car (someone I know through the ID3 forum went to look at it in Twickenham):-
(https://i.postimg.cc/R0NjdGTc/Cupra1.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/mcWX2YJD)
(https://i.postimg.cc/90tS0kWj/Cupra2.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/Cn5J6mBv)
(https://i.postimg.cc/kg5ZMwzk/Cupra3.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/HVf3B0p2)
(https://i.postimg.cc/m2LpV8Lt/Cupra4.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/t7cz4dVj)
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IMHO the Cupra Born looks so much better to my eyes than the rather gawky looking ID.3.
It looks as if Cupra have also refrained from using cheap looking glossy piano black trim on the interior - I could never understand why VW used such an impractical (scratch and swirl, fingerprint and dust magnet) material for the ID.3 interior door pulls :whistle:.
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Like the look of that.
Have you sat in a Born, and how does it compare to the ID3?
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Be interested to hear what you think of the two back to back
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Congrats MH! :cool:
What was it you said about the Born previously? :whistle:
Love the look of them myself, spoke to a couple of dealers to price up an e-boost as my fuel bill is pushing toward £300 a month some months now but can’t face selling the GTI so it stays.
Will be keen to read more on what you think of it.
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IMHO the Cupra Born looks so much better to my eyes than the rather gawky looking ID.3.
It looks as if Cupra have also refrained from using cheap looking glossy piano black trim on the interior - I could never understand why VW used such an impractical (scratch and swirl, fingerprint and dust magnet) material for the ID.3 interior door pulls :whistle:.
In truth, the interior looks sportier with the one piece seat backs, but the materials used are no more premium, same door card material, just the same amounts of cloth panels on those front door cards. They've been a bit sly in cheaping out on the rear door cards, but the ID3's rears are the same as the fronts (why do they cheapen the rear door cards for the sake of no adding a 50p swatch of trim cloth? Must save all of £1 per car - even if they added £20 to the list price, i;d pay it! Other little bits like door pocket linings missing on the Cupra too, the little bits that they don't think you'll notice
I think all the improvements are in the sportier seats, the proper centre console/armrest (rather than the flipdown airline style armrests of the ID3 - hate those, never used them), and the dash is differently styled but no better or worse - when you tot all that up, it doesn't seem like they've spent any more money on the Born's interior, it just looks more hot hatch. For me the main draws were the exterior improvements and the sports seats. On the ID3, I got some shell coverings in matt carbon for the black gloss door grabs and centre console cap - so the black gloss fingerprint considerations haven't been an issue - i've got to get them off before collection by the buyer though.
There are a few odd things - on the dash there's a light grey cloth surround to the drivers instrumentation screen, it looks like an oversized neck roll from certain angles.
I have already tested a local demo of the 230ps V2 Born (Pulman Sunderland have a Silver one). They've not improved the suspension or driving dynamics, the marginal improvements in the V2 over mine are by virtue of the 19" wheels with Conti Eco Contact 6 tyres vs mine on 18" wheels with Flintstones (I also drove a V1 on 18" wheels with Bridgestones as a direct comparison to mine, and it was exactly the same in handling). As you might expect, going up from 204ps to 230ps isn't a massive difference in performance, it was like taking a manual car to 50mph and putting your foot down in either 4th or 5th - noticeable but not huge.
To be honest, my main reason for the upgrade was in the crazy used prices of the ID3 making it cost me £4k to change my ID3 Life to the Born which has a current RRP of just £2k more for the Born - it's sold through Motorway for £7k more than I paid for it 13 months ago. In man maths the Born is only costing £2k more to change because its got a £2k higher list price.
My wife decided today that if i'm upgrading then so is she, so I found her the same car, but in the signature "Aurora blue" colour. Her ID3 has done even better, that's going for £10k more than the price we paid for it a year ago on Motorway, because her Family trim only cost me £800 more than my Life (RRP was £2500 higher, but it had a bigger discount at the time). Pick up on that one is probably a few weeks away.
These 230ps units intended for Demos are like rocking horse sh!te, and the factory fresh orders are a minimum of 30 weeks away while ID3 orders are a ridiculous 14 months right now, and only for the Life, the only car in the range that doesn't have Matrix lights - VAG don't seem to be able to get hold of them right now for VW, Audi or Skoda, and no Born variants have them.
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Like the look of that.
Have you sat in a Born, and how does it compare to the ID3?
The sports seats are as comfy as the ID3, its just a skin change really, the 2 cars drive exactly the same like for like (output/wheel size). The larger screen (12" vs 10" on the ID3) is a little better, and the HUD that's standard on the V2 and V3 Born trim is great. The centre console is bigger and surrounds you more, so feels a little less roomy than teh ID3, but practically it isn't, and there's no less legroom behind, so no compromises in practicality. It just felt very familiar, like someone had taken my ID3 and done a bit of retro fitting for new trim pieces and added Sports seats.
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Congrats MH! :cool:
What was it you said about the Born previously? :whistle:
Love the look of them myself, spoke to a couple of dealers to price up an e-boost as my fuel bill is pushing toward £300 a month some months now but can’t face selling the GTI so it stays.
Will be keen to read more on what you think of it.
I thought the Born was an ID3 with a Halfords makeover, and I still agree with that, but the Copper accents aren't offensive in the flesh as I thought they might be. Also, as the Cupra has access to the 230ps unit (the ID3 doesn't), it feels less of a sheep in wolfs clothing than the 204ps unit that both the ID3 and Born have access to.
I felt that the ID3 was more of an "honest" car in that respect, some people did expect the Born to be massively different in the handling stakes - but it isn't. The ID3 handles very well compared to what I would imagine a Golf GTI with 18 bags of cement on board would feel like. They've done a good job in dealing with that extra weight for both cars, but the handling feels more Audi A4 Avant than Golf GTI if you try to chuck them about. I don't think you can get away from that until battery tech changes radically with double the energy density and half the weight.
The instant response of the electric drivetrain in either car is just brilliant, but obviously there's faster EVs out there (at a minimum £55k+spend, Teslas and Polestars with decent outputs are now hideously expensive due to recent price rises). The cost of cars recently is no less daft than the rises we've seen in almost anything else you can buy.
My fuel bills are excellent - costing me 1.25p a mile to run it in the Summer, my tyre wear costs more than the fuelling.
I had a bit of good fortune on that front - last May I had a year's fix for 15p per kWh and 5p per kWh for my 4 hours window of cheap overnight charging, with 23p a day standing charge. I should've been moving up to 35p per kWh and 7.5p overnight rate with 48p standing charge, but I got an apologetic email from Octopus to say they should have given me 6 weeks notice my rate was shooting up, so they decided to let me keep my original rate to May 2023! Otherwise it would've been more like 2p per mile, still no hardship vs the pumps.
The last 2 months have been a bit of a rollercoaster for me. I am woefully underpaid in my current job, but love working from home so i'm not paying out a fortune in doggy day care and breakfast clubs for the kids.
I got a job for a £20k pay rise and generous company car allowance at the end of March, put my notice in, interviewed and appointed my successor, and then the company I was going to went bust! So over the last month i've been interviewing hard to secure another job, and last Wednesday I landed an even better job than the one I should've gone to (remote working and £30k more than i'm currently on, but no company car). That's when I decided to go with the Born and grab one of those briefly available stock Borns.
If anyone is after a born and doesn't want to wait a year for it I would get on with it now and grab one of these "demo" intended cars coming through as unallocated stock before they're gone. Autotrader is a good place to start seeing availability, but also try rining the bigger groups of dealerships like Listers, Heritage, Lookers, to see if they have anything available. You will not get a penny piece off list price, the dealers can sell these cars in days, and they know it. There's no deposit contributions either. Chances are though, whatever you're driving right now has given you a ridiculous amount of equity, so it shouldn't hurt too much not to get the 15%+ levels of discount we've historically been used to.
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Interesting - like you, I am changing jobs next month for a decent uplift and the job comes with a company car & no option to have a cash allowance unfortunately.
Keen to minimise the tax bill as far as I can by going EV and the ID3 always seemed a bit dreary to me....will see if the Born is available to pick from
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Interesting - like you, I am changing jobs next month for a decent uplift and the job comes with a company car & no option to have a cash allowance unfortunately.
Keen to minimise the tax bill as far as I can by going EV and the ID3 always seemed a bit dreary to me....will see if the Born is available to pick from
Get in touch and I’ll see if I can help….
Usually retailer allocated demo cars are only available to purchase and not available on lease agreements
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will do - the new employer is being a bit slow in coming forward with details of how they operate a car scheme, suppliers, etc
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Lots of useful & interesting info
Lots of interesting stuff there MH in those replies.
I’d seen mentioned before on the dedicated Born message boards that these cars landing at dealers were supposed to be demos but the three dealers I spoke to all had a good number of cars rather than an odd demo or two, some seemed to have nearly a dozen at their disposal they were either in the UK now or imminent. There was a strong rumour before launch that there was going to be a consignment available in a take it or leave it spec in March but these didn’t materialise and instead they allowed UK buyers on the mailing list (self included) chance to order 204PS models for approx a week at a March only price then jacked the list price up circa £2k on 1st April. These cars arriving at dealers now seem to be that consignment, just delayed.
Unfortunately instead of having a £30k payrise (I’d be queuing for an RS3 if I did!) I’m around £6k worse off now then last year and in real terms lots more than that but at least I get to work less hours.
In fact in my neck of the woods you’d do quite well go get a £30k job never mind one with a £30k payrise, and that’s in an area where you’d pay £300k for a rabbit hutch starter home. So good going there MH on the new job, maybe I need to up sticks! :grin:
For a V2 e-Boost Born like yours they wanted an extra £4K on the deposit to keep the monthlies anywhere near what I pay now on my Clubsport.
£4K plus the cost of a wall box pays for a lot of Momentum (I’ve just burned through a tank in five days even stretching it to over 38mpg lately due to warmer weather :rolleyes: ) so that’s a high price just to be rid of DSG and indeed any cog gearbox! 😁
By chance I was actually passing my nearest Cupra dealer today, Dales (80 plus miles away from home) and thanks to your posts I very nearly dropped in to have a look at a Born in the flesh. I decided I’d be sensible and keep any temptation out of the way so sailed on by.
£4K saved is £4K nearer retirement in my book. All I want to do these days is retire down by the sea.
But I’m still fascinated to hear how you get on with the Born, plus I’m keen to look at the Megane E-tech as these things are right up my street. If I had a company car allowance I’d be in an EV yesterday.
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Lots of useful & interesting info
Lots of interesting stuff there MH in those replies.
I’d seen mentioned before on the dedicated Born message boards that these cars landing at dealers were supposed to be demos but the three dealers I spoke to all had a good number of cars rather than an odd demo or two, some seemed to have nearly a dozen at their disposal they were either in the UK now or imminent. There was a strong rumour before launch that there was going to be a consignment available in a take it or leave it spec in March but these didn’t materialise and instead they allowed UK buyers on the mailing list (self included) chance to order 204PS models for approx a week at a March only price then jacked the list price up circa £2k on 1st April. These cars arriving at dealers now seem to be that consignment, just delayed.
Unfortunately instead of having a £30k payrise (I’d be queuing for an RS3 if I did!) I’m around £6k worse off now then last year and in real terms lots more than that but at least I get to work less hours.
In fact in my neck of the woods you’d do quite well go get a £30k job never mind one with a £30k payrise, and that’s in an area where you’d pay £300k for a rabbit hutch starter home. So good going there MH on the new job, maybe I need to up sticks! :grin:
For a V2 e-Boost Born like yours they wanted an extra £4K on the deposit to keep the monthlies anywhere near what I pay now on my Clubsport.
£4K plus the cost of a wall box pays for a lot of Momentum (I’ve just burned through a tank in five days even stretching it to over 38mpg lately due to warmer weather :rolleyes: ) so that’s a high price just to be rid of DSG and indeed any cog gearbox! 😁
By chance I was actually passing my nearest Cupra dealer today, Dales (80 plus miles away from home) and thanks to your posts I very nearly dropped in to have a look at a Born in the flesh. I decided I’d be sensible and keep any temptation out of the way so sailed on by.
£4K saved is £4K nearer retirement in my book. All I want to do these days is retire down by the sea.
But I’m still fascinated to hear how you get on with the Born, plus I’m keen to look at the Megane E-tech as these things are right up my street. If I had a company car allowance I’d be in an EV yesterday.
The RS3 route had crossed my mind, but these days i'm thinking that a hyper hatch like that may be less fun than a Golf GTI because you'll only be accelerating half the time before you're into license losing territory. Not only that, but funding 2 decent cars in the household, rather than blowing it all on something truly amazing and having a little crapbox in reserve (the only way I could justify spending so much on one car) gets quite expensive.
£30k sounds like a big increase, but in reality it is a dramatic increase - i'm on £35k currently, which is a woeful wage for what I do, but given I could work remotely and avoid paying for the kids to be in school breakfast club and the hound into doggy daycare, i'd have to be earning £10k more just to cover those expenses in my take-home pay. The new job is working remotely from Milton Keynes, so I suppose they're paying London money!
Yes, the house price differences are mad, our house has doubled in price in the last 9 years due to a lot of Southerners cashing in their overpriced houses and moving up to our coast, driving up prices.
Picking up the Born tomorrow at about 11am, but won't be back until silly o'clock following meeting the new team in person in Milton Keynes at 2pm, probably staying 1-2 hours and driving all the way back to North Tyneside. I am off on Thursday to get the car properly washed, treated with Iron X and then sealed with 2 coats of G-Techniq C2V3 (the closest I get to a proper detail). I will get some extensve photos out then.
If anyone is thinking of getting a Born soon, especially the 230ps variant, now is the time to try and secure one. The ID3 orders already in are running at 14+ months and were presumably pushed back to allow this launch tranche of Borns to get through before new orders find their place in the proper long queue with the ID3s, ID4s, Q4s and Enyaqs.
With my sensible head on, i'd probably avoid the Megane - these ridiculously expensive cars they've now become (remember when we were all moaning how expensive a £25k RRP MK7 GTD with some room for discount was only 9 years ago? :grin:) are only paletable with decent residuals, and Nissan/Renault residuals are generally crap, with the likes of the Nissan Leaf havng far worse residuals than the ID3.
The ID3 residuals are decent, both current actual and the ones VWFS anticipated in their calculated GFVs. The Cupra GFVs are a bit better than those even, as it seems that VAG are trying to establish the new order of prestige as: Audi>Cupra>VW>Seat>Skoda. Whether that reflects in real residuals remains to be seen, a lot of people will still see Cupra as Seat, despite the separation. However, if the 230ps variant doesn't make it to the ID3 and remains a relative rarity, i'd expect it to have noticeably better residuals than the ID3 204ps and Born 204ps variants.
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Good luck with the pick-up (and new job) MH.
You must be well practiced with long distance EV driving now.
I’m looking forward to hearing more on the Born once you’re familiarised with it (not that too much is different)
I happened to be following an ID.3 this morning and I do like how the brake lights are an X.
Aside from that and the fact the dealer network is even more far flung than public chargers in my primitive corner of the Earth I do prefer the Born on almost every aspect.
The E-Tech interests me in that it’s a real looker and the battery tech seems a bit more advanced on the face of it. Technology is galloping along quickly.
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What a long day! Out of the door at 4:30am, drove from Newcastle to Hounslow, London to drop the ID3 off (needed a top up charge just before Peterborough), Got there at 10am, got a lift to Twickenham to pick up the Born, away to Milton Keynes with 45 mins to spare to charge it back up to 95%. Met my new colleagues for 2 hours, and then Drove back up to Newcastle, with a stop at the Moto around York on the A1 and missed the last free charger by about 20 seconds and someone was just reversing into the space. Had to wait 25 mins for one to free up and then a 25 min charge to get me back to Newcastle with a safe margin of charge (20%).
Had a few boy racers gawping at the Born as they drove past me on the A1, probably wondering what the hell it was, and some bell end in an old S3 (2011, 265ps variant) was tailgating me, then moving out a lane, hoofing it into the high 90s, and then i'd pass him a mile later, having maintained a constant 75mph while he's dropped to 60mph up the road - this happened 3 times before he gave up.
Considering i've been sat in an ID3 for 5 hours, and a Born for almost 6 hours, my back is fine - so the seats are incredibly supportive and comfy. I think i've found my way around the infotainment system - completely different function layout.
Unfortunately, both the "Performance" function *equivalent to ID3s "Sport" mode and the "Cupra" mode that enables the E-boost act like they are in B mode, even when they are in D mode, with regen I didn't ask for when I lift off to maintain a slightly slower speed. Mildly annoying - i'll have to adjust my driving style to maintain access to the full 230ps, but I find that coasting when you lift off (as D mode should work, and does in the other normal modes) makes for smoother driving than the regen kicking in when you lift off (as B mode works in the normal modes) - it's like driving an older car, having accidentally left the manual handbrake on.
The slightly snugger interior has really grown on me, apart from that "neck pillow" on the dash that surrounds the drivers information screen - if there's one thing that might look tatty before its time, it'll be that.
Thoroughly glad I changed cars. 26C outside, sticking with 75mph, the car did 3.9 miles per kWh home, pretty good going.
Handling feels a bit sharper, but I think that's all in the 19" rubber, because the V1 demo on 18" wheels and Bridgestone tyres didn't feel any better than my ID3 on the same - there's nothing in the specs to suggest that V2 gets uprated suspension vs V1.
Got absolutely nothing from the dealer, not even a dealership keyring or a lightning/USB-C lead. There's no pump or gunk bottle with the Born V2, but maybe the Conti 6s have self sealing tyres, so they don't include them? I think that was the case with the ID3 with optioned larger wheels. It was a relief after 6 VWs in a row coming on sh!tty Bridgestones to finally get a set of decent shoes for the car! :grin:
The HUD is excellent, the sat nav is incredibly buggy. On stretches of road the verbal instructions announce leaving a roundabout that not only isn't there, but was never there The verbal instructions do seem to be taking about the right general location though. The visual instructions on the dash state the correct place, showing no roundabout and a correct distance to the next change of instructions - next turn off etc. It happened about 10 times over the day - I don't remember my ID3's being that bad, how is it on the MK8 Golf?
I have today off, so looking to get off the hundreds of squished bugs from the front, wash, Iron X, and 2 coats of G-Techniq C2V3.
The down side of long distance EV travel is when you stop at services only to find all the chargers full - I missed jumpng on the last available one - someone was backing into the space, so waited 20 mins for one to free up before a 25 min charge to get me from 19% to 60%, giving me plenty of juice to get back up from York A1 services to Newcastle.EV ownership has more than doubled in the last year, but the number of chargers at the service stations seem to have not really increased in line with that.
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Here's some pics...
(https://i.postimg.cc/jSn6vs9s/Born1.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/DSFbwKnD)
(https://i.postimg.cc/FHSc3Tdz/Born2.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/tsXYHtzG)
(https://i.postimg.cc/76KTwccs/Born3.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/1nNzKWyw)
(https://i.postimg.cc/ZYDyQG60/Born4.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/yWcdgrQz)
(https://i.postimg.cc/WbFJc578/Born5.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/9r2fGtKw)
(https://i.postimg.cc/R093f4xp/Born6.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/xXxTVrCL)
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As EV's go, I quite like that.
Did you choose white, or was it a case of going with whatever was available?
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As EV's go, I quite like that.
Did you choose white, or was it a case of going with whatever was available?
Whatever was available. There were 46 ID3s on Autotrader, only 37 were immediately or imminently (within a month) available, and only 3 of those were the e-Boost 230ps models with the standard size batteries. These are all intended for model launch demos, but presumably having next to nothing to sell for the last year, some were willing to sell - these are currently about 11 months lead time for a factory fresh order.
I do think that white and Aurora blue are the best Born colours available. Theres a metallic red, but I prefer my reds as solid colours, metallic red can sometimes come off as pinkish. There's a Silver - looks as good as the white, but are silver cars still a bugger to paint match if they need repairs? My favourite ID3 colour is the "manganese grey" very dark metallic grey, makes the ID3 look sleeker than it is, but it makes the Born look less sporty simehow. Not a fan of the denim blue metallic (or whatever Cupra's name is for it, and not a fan of bluetac/undercoat greys that are fashionable right now as they're the free colour for most marques.
We're getting another next week (same wheels, V2 spec and 230ps) to replace the Wife's ID3 Family, it's coming in the signature Aurora blue, here's a 204ps V1 spec one I saw when picking mine up:-
(https://i.postimg.cc/K8pDF0k8/BB1.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/PCZwQzQg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/xdkydLMy/BB2.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/Y4HmnGXh)
It looks a lot lighter than it actually is in less than ideal lighting.
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Really like that
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Looking good MH! :cool:
How is that lower front grille to clean? It looks quite ornate.
Very nice looking car.
Is it correct the e-Boost models have larger front brakes?
I’m surprised to read that the UI is so different to use compared the the ID.3, I’d have imagined it was similar with different font and graphics to Cuprafy it. It’s interesting that Cupra have redesigned it fully to their own spec.
It’ll be cool having two, one of the most rare/unusual cars in the UK and you’ll own two examples in the household!
I can but imagine how much interest the car must’ve generated on your trip home. Aside from EV enthusiasts and a few switched on people almost nobody will know what a Born is, that must be great fun.
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Looking good MH! :cool:
How is that lower front grille to clean? It looks quite ornate.
Very nice looking car.
Is it correct the e-Boost models have larger front brakes?
I’m surprised to read that the UI is so different to use compared the the ID.3, I’d have imagined it was similar with different font and graphics to Cuprafy it. It’s interesting that Cupra have redesigned it fully to their own spec.
It’ll be cool having two, one of the most rare/unusual cars in the UK and you’ll own two examples in the household!
I can but imagine how much interest the car must’ve generated on your trip home. Aside from EV enthusiasts and a few switched on people almost nobody will know what a Born is, that must be great fun.
I don't believe the e-boost has larger front discs. It looked like that might be the case when I saw a V1 204ps in the same showroom as the 230ps at Pulman Sunderland, but the differences looked so marginal, I couldn't tell for sure without getting a tape measure out. The salesperson said no, but we all know that the salespeople know bugger all about their products, so not sure i'd take their word for it. Either way, not changing up the brakes sounds feasable as the increase in power isn't huge.
The interest in the car seemed akin to my experiences of being a very early adopter of the Scirocco and not many people had seen those in the flesh out and about. As the dealership decided to put standard plates on, rather than those EV specific ones with the green area, presumably it's going to cause even greater confusion, because apart from the lack of visible tailpipes, there's no visual indicator that the car's an EV.
The front grille isn't too bad - I had to give it a good clean after 320 miles (almost exclusively motorway miles) on the road on pick up day, hundreds of splattered bugs - its a directionality thing, go with the flow. The ID3s front end was a lot worse, they had less of a front grille, but has diamond shaped dimples in the front bumper to replicate a bigger grille - they are an absolute bastard to clean.
Everything in the UI is also on the ID3, but the skins and structure are very different.
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The number of Borns on Autotrader for immediate delivery has increased, seemingly due to a wave of V3 demo stock coming through, so if you are looking to jump on these, especially for a 230ps e-boost, I would go and have a look now.
For me, the V2 is better value than the V3. The V3 moves to 20" wheels, but there's lots of plastic inserts on teh 20" wheels, which i'm not keen on in principle, and I don't like the designs as much. 20" ride might make DCC a necessity for some.
Apart from that, the V3 makes the front seats fully electric (but no driver profile memory seemingly), with a massage function, and the seats get an alcantara type material covering rather than the Seaqual cloth.The V3 is about £1900 more than the V2 If that interests anyone here, i'd be making those enquiries now while there's a bit of choice of colour, especially for the 230ps variant (there's not many of those in the mix).
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The V2 e-boost definitely the sweet spot in the range.
There do seem to be quite a few coming through at the moment and I’d agree with you on the point of getting one now even if a compromise in spec is required.
As with most cars that aren’t run of the mill dull stuff there’s quite a wait and discounts will be limited at best, so it’s either a case of being prepared for a long patient gestation or grabbing a stock car and being flexible on spec. Or buying used - which isn’t an option for just launched models.
How do you find the entertainment system, now you’re well used to it, not having rear speakers MH?
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The V2 e-boost definitely the sweet spot in the range.
There do seem to be quite a few coming through at the moment and I’d agree with you on the point of getting one now even if a compromise in spec is required.
As with most cars that aren’t run of the mill dull stuff there’s quite a wait and discounts will be limited at best, so it’s either a case of being prepared for a long patient gestation or grabbing a stock car and being flexible on spec. Or buying used - which isn’t an option for just launched models.
How do you find the entertainment system, now you’re well used to it, not having rear speakers MH?
The entertainment system is a marginally more complicated to navigate than the ID3 by default, but it's customisable (I think the later iterations of the ID3 software are too, but I never needed to customise- version 3.0 is on newly built cars, but not yet available to update).
The slightly bigger screen of the Born is a bit nicer to look at, and the audio sounds a bit better - not sure why, maybe a change in spec/supplier lately for the ID3/Born platform. It still astounds me tgat VAG took the decision to eliminate the rear speakers, for the cost savings to be made vs customer dismay over the decision. Its not really a bother if you never sit in the back, and the kids have their tablets.
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Just dropped off our second ID3 - sold for £9950 more than I paid for it new a year ago. Crazy!
Heading to Woking via London via train to pick up the Aurora Blue Cupra Born for the missus.
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Nevermind the new job, you've become a car hustler :cool:
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Martin Lewis has nothing on Monkeyhanger.
Good luck with the pick-up MH and I hope the trains were running ok.
Another bonus of the leccy power trains being no running in, so no taking the backroads home to vary the revs so the piston rings seal etc.
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MH was always this forum's shrewdest wheeler dealer!
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If only I could repeat the feat! How things have changed in a year - back then, you had a £2500 grant, a £1750 deposit contribution and about £2000 from the dealership's margin.
Now you're paying RRP with no negotiation and getting nothing from the dealership - for the white one I didn't even get so much as a dealership's keyring.
Here's the Aurora Blue one:
(https://i.postimg.cc/cJBNTh5y/20220623-063627.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/cKCjLRSX)
(https://i.postimg.cc/3NVMWcWp/20220623-063712.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/y3mpbnmY)
(https://i.postimg.cc/90vScwNY/20220623-063726.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/XBkx8qWr)
(https://i.postimg.cc/cJsz1ST2/20220623-111917.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/75W9XjFn)
It looks so blue there, the camera doesn't seem to capture the greeny tinge, or the purple tinges it has in poor light/shadows.
It's in at our local "Chips Away" as it picked up a 5 chip cluster on the bonnet surround on the drive back up! I was driving like a saint in terms of keeping distance and didn't see/hear a thing. You'd think a boulder had hit it from the chips, but in reality new water based paints are soft as chocolate. They seem to take 3 months after delivery to fully cure.
I enquired about PPF at our local specialist to prevent recurrence - £1350 for the front end of each car! I could get 2 full front end resprays for that. Prevention shouldn't be twice the price of the cure. Of course its nothing to a Ferrari owner, but this is a £39k car.
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What crap luck with the stonechips :sad:
Definitely not a financially enticing time to buy a car even without the 12 month plus wait that some people endure. PCP rates significantly higher now too on top of zero deposit contributions for those without huge cash reserves.
I’ve just stuck in my third tankful in under two weeks now at 200.9ppl for Momentum locally, bask in your electric smugness MH! 😁 (about £250)
Which colour do you prefer out of the white and blue Borns now you have both parked together?
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Oooh I like that blue 👍
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What crap luck with the stonechips :sad:
Definitely not a financially enticing time to buy a car even without the 12 month plus wait that some people endure. PCP rates significantly higher now too on top of zero deposit contributions for those without huge cash reserves.
I’ve just stuck in my third tankful in under two weeks now at 200.9ppl for Momentum locally, bask in your electric smugness MH! 😁 (about £250)
Which colour do you prefer out of the white and blue Borns now you have both parked together?
In all conditions, I prefer the white (mine) to the Aurora blue (the wife's). Most of the time, the car looks more of a teal colour, but for whatever reason, that shade doesn't seem to be captured on photos, they look a lot bluer than my eyes are telling me the car actually is.
That's a proper thumping at the pumps - with a heavy right foot and lots of aircon, I can't do any worse than 1.5p per mile in fuelling right now! Perhaps 2p a mile in the Winter when short journey battery heating takes its toll.
I will look to get a picture of the 2 together later, when the blue one returns from chips away.
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Did you go to DDB Matt about the PPF?
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IMHO Aurora Blue is a lovely colour and suits the Cupra Born really well :cool: - works well with the copper coloured accents. I think the Born in Cupra’s TV advertising is also Aurora Blue.
On quite a few ICE Cupra models, the diamond cut sections of the alloys have a copper tinted clear coat so they match the other copper accents such as badging. Interesting that Cupra didn’t do the same with the Born.
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Did you go to DDB Matt about the PPF?
I didn't try them, I tried "custom coats" behind the Silverlink, and was quoted £1350, i'd have just about gone with £400 - I think I need to adjust my expectations! I can't see DDB getting anywhere close to £400 for the front end.
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IMHO Aurora Blue is a lovely colour and suits the Cupra Born really well :cool: - works well with the copper coloured accents. I think the Born in Cupra’s TV advertising is also Aurora Blue.
On quite a few ICE Cupra models, the diamond cut sections of the alloys have a copper tinted clear coat so they match the other copper accents such as badging. Interesting that Cupra didn’t do the same with the Born.
The Born has those copper wheel variants as a £185 option, but given I jumped on a few in stock cars intended for demos, I had to go with what was available, and there were none coming through with those copper wheels. I prefer the silver/black ones anyway, so doubt i'd have ticked that option box.
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IMHO Aurora Blue is a lovely colour and suits the Cupra Born really well :cool: - works well with the copper coloured accents. I think the Born in Cupra’s TV advertising is also Aurora Blue.
On quite a few ICE Cupra models, the diamond cut sections of the alloys have a copper tinted clear coat so they match the other copper accents such as badging. Interesting that Cupra didn’t do the same with the Born.
The Born has those copper wheel variants as a £185 option, but given I jumped on a few in stock cars intended for demos, I had to go with what was available, and there were none coming through with those copper wheels. I prefer the silver/black ones anyway, so doubt i'd have ticked that option box.
I wouldn’t pay for copper wheel accents either as I’d probably swap the wheels anyway for something that isn’t diamond cut.
I’ve had my first sighting of a Cupra Born in the metal in my village - an Aurora Blue one :cool:. I must say it confirms my view on the Born being a nicer looking car than the ID.3. That’s just my opinion though.
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Our ID3s are getting a lot of looks, like when I had one of teh first Sciroccos out. Someone stopped me the other day in the works car park to ask what the hell it was (I had reversed into the space and you couldn't see the rear badge), not recognising the badge (which to me looks like the "Hex" symbols dotted throughout the Resident Evil 4 video game). It seems that not many people know that "Cupra" is apparently a separate brand now, even though they share the same dealership sites as Seat.
Apart from the Seat/Cupra dealer at Twickenham, where I picked our white orn up from, the other 2 i've been to lately (Woking and Sunderland) were pretty crappy looking places compared to most VW, Skoda and Audi dealerships. I've seen better looking petrol stations. If they want to big up the Cupra brand as premium, they need to spend a bit of money on those dealerships.
Just got the Aurora blue Born back from chips away - the chip cluster is now gone and the paint match looks perfect. The guy there did say it took 20 mins to figure out how to engage drive as it had no obvious gearstick and they weren't aware of the twisty switch next to the right hand stalks. He preferred his old School MK2 Escort!
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@MH, You'd be surprised. Try them 👍
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@MH, You'd be surprised. Try them 👍
Did you get your TCR wrapped by them? I was just aghast at the £1350 price quoted by the other place, i thought that must be close to the current "normal" rate post Covid, as everything else seems to have doubled in price.
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I’m not surprised the Born is getting a lot of looks!
The space age styling and lack of instant identity to an obvious brand will turn a few heads.
There’s an EV6 in my work car park that similarly gets lots of attention.
I’m certainly agreed on the state of SEAT dealerships which often look decidedly low rent and scruffy not just by VW group standards but also compared to Korean brands who would have previously taken bottom place honours. Or Fiat group come to think about it.