With the Honda EV going later this month, I thought it only right to start a new ownership diary with the Born. The two year EV experiment was a successful one, so much so that Mrs W decided to buy the next one outright. Bonus for my wallet! After speaking to a few dealers we whittled the competition down to a Born, and it needed to be in V2 spec to get the heated seats. Weirdly the lower spec version comes with a heated steering wheel but no heated seats, odd. The main dealer in Stoke had a silver and a black V2 for sale, both unregistered. Mrs W was smitten with the black one, even after my protestations as to the cleaning of it…. A deal was struck and we collected the car a few weeks ago. My first job was to get the paintwork sorted out and a good ceramic coat on there, it will make my life easier in the future. Glenn (the same chap who did my M340i) spent all day (9:30-6:30) on the car Tuesday of this week. A bit of a challenge given the sun, but he has a massive canopy that he uses to cover the car, so as the afternoon sun came onto the drive I helped him to get the car under cover. The results speak for themselves, one very, very shiny black car. There were a few imperfections in the paint, a lot of tile mopping and polishing these out before the ceramic went on. Once these were corrected the car looked amazing, I’ve nicknamed it Batmans daily….. The paint relay comes alive in the sun, looks a solid black in the shade, but then the bronze sparkle comes out. I managed to get a decent drive in the car this week, have to say I’m impressed. Given it’s on 19” wheels and has a sporty suspension set up, it still manages a decent ride quality. Handling is purposeful, I can definitely feel the RWD when pushing the car a little, CUPRA mode is very entertaining! The quality of materials is good, everything feels well put together, only one tiny rattle in the drivers door to investigation. As it is the V2 it also has a HUD, really impressive set up, reminds me how I miss this on my current BMW. My into complaint is the seat. The upright is very good, fits the contours of my back well, but the lower seat is just too short for my legs. I ended up with thigh ache after 20 mins of driving. Apart from that all is good in EV world! As part of the deal we have a charger install booked for two weeks time, that will be a game changer in terms of keeping the car juiced up, easier and quicker. The ability to remote air condition the car before getting in is brilliant, more so in this weather! We’ve used it quite a few times. The Born is going to stay with us for 4-5 years, all being well, so the 5 year warranty is definitely useful, unlike the poxy 3 year one VW offer on the iD3, which is basically the same car.
The range on the Born is 270 (I believe) with a 59Kwh battery. Unlike the Honda, this one has a heat pump (is that what they are called?), so I'm looking forward to seeing how this changes the winter range. The car is weirdly bigger than it first seems, really good leg room in the rear, decent sized boot, all rather spacious. Looks to be a practical vehicle with a wee bit of fun thrown in for good measure.
I have ended up with exactly the same car, we went to look for a replacement for Lesley’s Golf and she fell in love with a CUPRA Terramar. As we didn’t need two SUVs and I had had loads of issues with my X3 with the final straw being rear ended I had kind fallen out of love with it, as well as that we were keen on our daly runner being an EV so what started with a suggestion of looking at a Hybrid Leon rather than another Golf ended up being a Born and a Terramer. We both love the Born and it’s a constant who gets there first, the whole thing is just amazing as is the running costs, we now get more cheap rate overnight hours which fills our house batteries and charges the car so our bills have not gone up so whilst it costs 2p a mile to run it kind of feels like its free motoring. The Terramar, well that’s not so good, it’s the 2ltr 265hp petrol, it’s the only model that car tow 2200kg, mpg is embarrassing, performance is not great handling okay, safety features are just a joke, keeps doing emergency stops and giving you a telling off for everything, it sits on the drive unless we are going on a long trip or towing the boat but this will be gone as soon as we are half way through the PCP.
You have the grey colour that Mrs W wanted, we just couldn't find a V2 that was new in that one. I'd slowly coming round to the black, it does look good when clean. The bings/bongs are easily turned off in the Born, swipe down the screen and press the speed warning and lane "assist" and they are off.
No problem with turning the warnings off in the Born, despite the Terramar supposedly having the same system it’s just got a mind of its own regards emergency stops and warnings for everything going off constantly.
Great job, and looks fantastic. Sensible thing to ceramic coat a new black car! Hopefully it will keep it cleaner with no swirl marks. I like the look of the new smaller Cupra Raval which is about to come to market - the VW ID Polo, Polo Cross and Skoda Epiq will also use the same platform. Smaller than the Born but still with big boots (over 450 litres iirc) We may take a look at the lower end versions of these in the near future as a 2nd car.
