car buying these days...

[VJ]

We spent some time in Milan. It is surprising how many miniscule cars are driving around. But really miniscule: things like the Citroen AMI (also labelled as a Fiat over there), or many extremely small 2 person Chinese cars. Then there is the brand dr, which is an Italian brand that rebadges some Chinese brands (Dongfeng, Baic, Jac, ..). While some of those small cars are probably in car-sharing systems, they are not very visibly labelled as such. But if people don't leave Milan, traffic and streets are such that such small cars are almost the only ones that you can park (they are small enough to be parked perpendicular in places where you should parallel park).

After our trip, we had to boost our Subaru to start it, but this time round a number of alarm lights went on afterwards (dealer told us this can happen). It was standing for just over 2 weeks, which apparently is not too bad for modern cars. Several people told us that they also need to boost their cars after one week of not being used. We went to the dealer to reset them. In the process, they also tested the battery and said that the battery itself is healthy but fully discharged. They recommended us to charge it. We have such a charger, but can only use it at my in-laws or at work (no private parking space near our apartment, so no socket). Our usage of the car is rather a-typical: either is does not drive for a number of days (barring some short distances), or it does hundreds of kilometers in a day - one or the other. After the previous long trip, two weeks of standing still was not an issue (even with -10 C temperatures), but this time round it was. We'll now take the habit of charging it at work or at my in-laws every couple of weeks, to avoid the need for boosting as much as possible.

[VJ]

It is interesting that the brands are a bit different than 15 years go. Now, I would not dismiss Kia (colleague leases an EV6 - looks nice!) or Hyundai (Ionic 5 or 6), but I'm not too sure about the traditional European brands at this time, esp. for electric - Porsche seem like the nicest ones, but with prices that go with it; BMW designs are improving I think. Volvo is now Chinese, and in that sense there also is Polestar, with modern designs that seem to work.
From current experience, I would not dismiss Subaru - their electric car is almost the same as a Toyota - but I know that in Belgium and Netherlands they are not popular and dealers are not common. And it is a small rather independent manufacturer, which to some extent also carries a risk.

[Umfriend]

Yeah, it is really big for Europe (dwarfed by the Chevy Suburban I got to drive when I was in the US which was weirdly nice). We have a 17yo V70 now. In all likelihood, we'll end up with an EX30/EX40 though. But we should at such time really look at other brands (not Tesla) as well.

[VJ]

Whole week was around 10-14°C, and still above 6°C at night. Tonight will be the first night of frost (-1°C) - let's see if the car will start tomorrow . We've driven around 30-40 km since jump-starting it, so it should be enough to charge the battery.
My father was making fun of it the first time: the Subaru has 2 12V batteries (one for the starter, one for the stop-start) and a lithium battery for the hybrid drive - my father joked "three batteries and you still cannot start it"

edit1: it started! (night temperature went down to -3°C).

edit2: The ex90 looks nice... but big... depends on your situation of course... Still, seeing what is happening in the car-industry (e.g. Volkswagen), and with the policies (some ideas of rolling back the ban on combustion-fuel card, lez's, ...), it will be interesting to see how the car market plays out in the 5 years from now... Still happy that we got the Subaru when we got it; we are at 39000 km and still love the car.

[Umfriend]

What temps do you have now?

I am eyeing the Volvo EX90. Way to dear but as a 2nd hand in 4 years maybe?

[VJ]

The car had its next service interval, and we mentioned the battery issue to the dealer. They said that for modern cars, standing still for 2 weeks gets problematic for the battery, due to the current electronics drawing power. The battery appeared still fine, so we did not replace it.

Last month, after not having driven for 2 weeks, we again had a drained battery - the car was dead and we had to open it with a mechanical key. We used a Noco Genius 5, which we gave my father-in-law as a birthday present in August (he was using a very old device with partly exposed cables, a danger to look at), and it worked very well. After half an hour, it already showed a green light and the car started without problems.
Today, we got to use our booster: the car had been standing for 1 week, and while the car opened with the remote, it refused to start. The Topdon V2200Plus did a great job. We just were too slow at first: you should just connect it and try to start the car. By being too slow, it stopped boosting so our first start attempt failed (apparently you have the try immediately). Following the instructions, we disconnected, reconnected and tried again, and the car just came to life.

Now we are thinking about the winter: if we would need to boost it more, we'll just change the battery and hope it will help (the current one is still the factory battery, which is weaker than most replacements).

[VJ]

I went for a Topdon V2200plus jump starter. There were not that many reviews, but all reviews on the brand were positive and especially so on the support. I got it as it was a promotion, and for a similar price as the others it included a storage bag and as an added feature it doubles as a battery-tester (through an app).
Haven't used it yet as a jump starter, but as a powerbank it is fantastic: it offers 60W on USB-C using the PD standard (it charges my laptop, and my Samsung recognizes it as a superfast charger), and has two USB ports (both offering the QC standard and supply 18W). A full charge is able to charge my laptop completely while still having some reserve. And the powerbank itself fast charges using the USB-C connector and a laptop charger. The device is a bit bigger than a powerbank of this size would be (feels very rugged and solidly built though), the fact that the module with the jumpstarter-cables disconnects (and is a tester on its own) is nice as it makes the powerbank more portable. So, so far, not a bad powerbank!

[VJ]

The battery in the Subaru died for the second time... First time was last winter, when we left the car parked for just over two weeks at my inlaws. The temperature then went below -10⁰C and the day we wanted to start it also was similarly cold, we connected a charger and let it charge the battery for a few hours. This time, the car was parked for 3 weeks, but temperatures were never below 0⁰C. Despite that, the car is now completely dead (even the locks don't open). We'll again plug it in for a few hours to charge the battery, but it is annoying. I hope we manage to open the door with the emergency key, although it seems many people have issues with it.
I've found online that the car comes with quite a weak battery from the factory, but this is a bit ridiculous to happen again. My Polo only once had that problem and it was with a 5 year old battery in winter (and even then I could start it after giving it a few hours rest). Ok, Polo probably has less power draw (only its alarm), the Subaru has the wireless door opening and an anti-theft tracking system. The battery in the Polo was wrapped in a thermal blanket and well protected in its own box; in the Subaru you just see it sitting out in the open under the hood.
Probably we'll get the battery replaced soon, but we also plan to get an emergency booster, as it just gets too risky (we don't have a chance to connect a battery charger where we normally park)
edit: we suspect my mother-in-law may have something to do with it. She tends to "ventilate"cars by opening the doors (but does not use the ventilation while driving), the dome lights and dashboard probably drained the battery...

It is a funny market for portable jump-starter devices... I was looking at CTEK and NOCO, two brands that are quite highly rated for battery chargers, however their jumpstarters are a more of a mixed bunch... The CTEK CS Free seems ok, but the manual is such an unreadable mess that you are not sure of the possibilities. Reviews of users are also quite mixed. The NOCO GBX range gets a lot of positive reviews on Amazon, etc, but the negative ones all point out similar weaknesses regarding it discharging fast or not charging after some time... Currently considering Topdon...

[VJ]

Small update... We decided to sell the 11 year old Hyundai i10 and keep the 20 year old Polo. We were still doubting, but my mother-in-laws broken right elbow earlier this year made the decision for us: the Polo is an automatic, so she'll be much faster able to drive it (she already is able to drive it). The i10 went for quite a nice price, about 1/3rd of its new price 11 years ago, much more than the Polo would go for.

Meanwhile, Polo did have 2 expensive fixings that were quite blocking for using the car. First was the siren of the alarm (which started going at random times - but because it is tied in with the central locking, there was no easy way of bypassing it, so you could not leave the car locked somewhere), second was a broken wiper motor (front wipers) which rendered the wipers non-functional. Let's hope these were two quirks, and that now it starts behaving. Both these fixings were problematic as the wait for parts was quite long and we could not use the car in the mean time.

The Subaru goes to its second service, it now has close to 28000 km (service interval is every 15000 km, we went earlier to the first service as we needed the car for a long drive). Still very satisfied with it, long drives are so relaxing with it.

One tip: tinted rear windows are surprisingly useful. They not only hide very well what is in the back of the car, but they really prevent the car from heating up in the sun (esp. when you can park it with the back towards the sun). We were not convinced about it when looking for a car, but it came standard on the version we bought.

[VJ]

Forgot to mention the first service. Very smooth, quite a big checklist of things that were done: apart from the normal things (such as oil change - the boxer takes 6 l, various filters changes including cabin filter), there are weirder things such as taking apart the brakes, cleaning them; checking locks and doorhandles.

[UtwigMU]

My Civic has digital only speedo but it's only speedo and cannot change, while display seems to constantly change on Puma. Today one girl who often car polls with me said the Civic is better car than Puma.

[VJ]

Yes, the implementation of the rear camera can make such a difference. In my parents' Opel Mokka, it also starts beeping very early; I've heard similar complaints about BMW, with the owner commenting "I don't need it to go full red at about 0.5m, I need it to judge closer than 10 cm". The Subaru has it very well implemented: the first time it starts beeping (showing green indicators on the screen) is probably around 30cm, when it beeps fast and shows red indicators, you really have centimeters left to spare.

I started forcing myself to use the analog speedo more than the digital one: the digital one is not available during a call, and I noticed it bothered me. So now I tend to focus less on the digital one - even having it show else than the speed, but then you loose the speed-limit indication (but I can have that one show on the center top screen).

[UtwigMU]

Put my car in service for hailstorm damage repairs this week.

It will take ~2 weeks. I got a Ford Puma as a replacement. Not a bad car: mild hybrid, 5-gear stick shift and real handbrake. Quite zippy in town.

Ford Puma costs 25k and is about the size of Golf. Car prices are crazy.

New features are a bit useless: If I use camera to reverse park it's not 100% accurate so I park too close or too far to adjacent car. So I have to ignore camera and use mirrors. Beeping all the time even when far so it's distracting.

Cars with no beeps, analog speedo and proper handbrake are becoming a luxury.

[VJ]

Setting the appointment for the first service-interval. It should be at 1 year or 15000 km; we are at 13000 km and have two long trips planned - more than 3000 km - with the first one in October. Probably they won't have the door-panel yet... so we'll have to go again for that.

Overall, very satisfied with the car. It may not be that futuristic (no app control, quite classic looking dashboard with analog speed and rpm gauges, with a screen between them), but we are very happy and like the look, both inside and outside. We mainly had longer drives (often 400 km, but we did up to 1400 km in a day) and it is not tiresome. As intended, it became our number one choice to go from Poland to Belgium; esp. with all the ongoing issues with airlines. It of course has it quirks like any car (e.g. when there is a call ongoing, you no longer have the digital speed-gauge on the center screen, just a "call ongoing" message which you cannot clear; when you switch off the car there is no grace-period to fold mirrors or raise windows); but nothing very annoying.

[UtwigMU]

Happens on the Honda, didn't happen on Polo. I guess it's down to seal or maybe pressure valve.