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Finally no longer un_born!

Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2022 11:17 pm
by un_born
After being one of the first to place my £500 deposit in January, we finally got to drive our (2nd) Born in early October.

We had a call from the dealer in late May to say our car had finished production and expect to be collecting in 2-3weeks. June came, July... August.... September....

After pressure I guess from Cupra UK, the Sales Manager of the dealer agreed that my car had disappeared into thin air and thus would allocate another car to us (hence the 2nd Born). This car arrived on schedule 3rd week September...
... Only to discover on handover it had a 'steering in-operative' error displayed. It was bad enough we got no information during AWOL of the first one, let alone to have paid in full for the 2nd one and not being able to even take it home.

No contact from the dealer at all during this period, even Cupra UK couldn't get info. Took 4 weeks to get a new module installed and touch wood, everything is good so far.

I'm not going to mention the Dealer as I guess it's a dealer's worst nightmare too. I've seen others post with good experience from the same dealer and I'll let it slide. Cupra UK have conceeded to a first service voucher and £200 gift voucher for the inconvenience caused, I did push for much more £1k+ but this was their final offer, which was accepted.

Rant over... It was nice to finally get the car. First EV for us and it wasn't such a big change from ICE as we had expected. We always drive in B mode and we adapted like ducks to water.

Here are a couple of pics of it after a decontamination and sealant with Sonax Polymer Net Shield. There are better products on the market nowadays for sure but I had it in the garage and it's worked well for me over the past 6years. In conjunction with Sonax Brilliant Shine Detailer after every wash with Meguairs NXT Car Wash, I normally don't need to redo the Sonax PNS until around 18months.

born-front.jpg

born-rear.jpg


Fitted the Dashcam (fitcamX style) and later on may do the rear speaker mod with a 11ch DSP. To be honest, we only do town driving in the Born and the sound system although could sound much better, is fine for day to day driving.

frontcam.jpg

Enjoy your Born's and for those that are waiting, the wait seemed to be worth it so far for us.

Re: Finally no longer un_born!

Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2022 6:30 am
by TheBornIDentity
Looks great, enjoy!

I’ve been driving electric since March. Had an ID3 but switched to the Born because I much prefer the interior. Found the switch really easy from a driving point of view.

I drove a petrol car again for the first time since a few weeks back. It was new with about 200 miles on the clock and it was like a bloody steam train. It felt unbelievably out of date and clunky. It was automatic too! Don’t think there is any going back lol

Re: Finally no longer un_born!

Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2022 8:25 am
by un_born
As this is the Mrs car, I still have a ICE as my own, a Tarraco 2.0TSI. I rarely drive it around town anymore, as I'll take the Born if its not being used. On longer journeys, I must admit I prefer the Tarraco for the larger size and higher cruising speed.

Re: Finally no longer un_born!

Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2022 9:06 am
by daern
un_born wrote: Fri Nov 18, 2022 8:25 am On longer journeys, I must admit I prefer the Tarraco for the larger size and higher cruising speed.
I know the Born will only do 99mph, but do you really cruise around faster than this in the UK...?

(Nice polishing job, BTW!)

Re: Finally no longer un_born!

Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2022 12:18 pm
by un_born
haha... Good point but the faster you go, the less distance you have before you need to charge. For example I need to make a 5hr (250miles) round trip tomorrow and although the Born could make it with a rapid charge at the destination, it's just not worth the hassle. The Tarraco will do the return without the need to fill up. Save the Born for town driving!

Re: Finally no longer un_born!

Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2022 12:30 pm
by daern
un_born wrote: Fri Nov 18, 2022 12:18 pm haha... Good point but the faster you go, the less distance you have before you need to charge. For example I need to make a 5hr (250miles) round trip tomorrow and although the Born could make it with a rapid charge at the destination, it's just not worth the hassle. The Tarraco will do the return without the need to fill up. Save the Born for town driving!
Yeah, get this. For me, I get scalped by the current government limits on reclaiming mileage for work in EVs, so would actually struggle to cover costs using the EV, whereas my big, stinking diesel will at least get its costs covered. Work have had a few moans about this and have now started paying against charge receipts for those that aren't happy with the standard mileage rate. Another big element would be if you have a lease with a fixed mileage, so piling a load of miles on the car might be undesirable. That said, I did a trip to Derby and back in ours last month. I could have managed it on a single charge, but would have needed a serious amount of frugality to achieve. In the end, I chucked £10 in from a rapid charger at a pub while having lunch and this made the return trip far more relaxing :)

I've found that I can usually manage 1/3 of my recharges for free without trying too hard (or taking the mickey like the i8 parked at our local Aldi for 7 hours every Saturday!) and the rest is done at home on an overnight tariff, so I try not to get too worried if I end up having to stick a few quid in at an expensive charger.