Hello from a Leaf

pipestem said:

I don't have that same level of trust in Nissan to say that Ariya will be truly competitive. We'll see. I also don't think it competes with BMW, more like Kia and Hyundai and VW.

Click to expand...

I think you misunderstood me. Price and spec wise the cars are comparable, but after test driving one before we turned to Kia EV6 for my wife. The Ariya is not comparable quality wise with neither the EV6 nor the i4. The Ariya has several serious bugs which I have seen already after a few minutes so they definitely have quality issues. Also the display is nothing to write home about in 2023. I also dislike the very small steering wheel adjustment possibilities and the fact that the steering wheel retracts every time you stop and get out of the car and after entering it will move to the saved position again, together with the seats. This may sound good and you might think it is practical for some, but it makes the drive start really very slow. There were other things also which I didn't like. After the test drive I made I have seen other reviews claiming a lot of other things which would definitely be a show stopper for us, even without those bugs and inconveniences I have identified during my very short test drive. In fact, I returned the car after only 10 minutes, because the bugs I have identified were definitely show stoppers for us, so there was no need for more tests from my side. The dealer was a bit surprised because of the very short time I had the car, but I just said as it was and left. That was the moment when we turned our backs to Nissan.

Also note that I used the word "comparable" not competitive. It is not competitive in my opinion at all, except for people who don't care about how a car looks or which qualities it has. In my opinion, the Ariya is pretty ugly, but none the less, it has many features my i4 will not have, but those are features I can live without. There is no way I am ready to pay the same price I am paying for my i4 (or the EV6) when the car has bugs and annoying features. We dismissed the ID.3 also because of bugs, and never even bothered to test the ID.4 because it most probably also have the same bugs, however, both the Ariya and the ID.4 / ID.5 are comparable with the i4 and the EV6 when it comes to features and price. That was the case back in October when we bought our cars, but in November BMW increased the price, but even today the difference is pretty small. Of course, Nissan has some really cheap models also with a small battery, but I am looking at the Tech package which is about the same as my own i4 configuration.

pipestem said:

@A_Camera I might doubt most BMW buyers cross shop a Kia but otherwise near total agreement😃

Click to expand...

I don't know what you mean by "cross shop". I mean, all brands have their fan boys, and they never look at anything else open mindedly, but if a person does not have any brand bias then he/she should look at other brand also. The EV6 is definitely a very viable option for unbiased people, the GT version is actually faster than the i4 M50 as far as I remember, and all EV6 models have more features than the i4 e40 at a slightly better price level. Also the warranty is considerably better for the Kia. I personally did a "cross shopping" and was not against the Kia EV6, might even bought one if my dealer wouldn't have given me a very good offer, or my wife wouldn't have needed a new car also. We didn't want two identical cars so two EV6 was out of the question. Anyway, which one is better in the end is something we will be able to answer in a few years time. Right now, both have some problems, especially with the 12V battery, but I am not worried. In my opinion, both cars have advantages and disadvantages. We have never had a Kia, so I hope the experience we will get is the same as we had from all our Mazda cars, which is only positive, after many years and four different Mazda models during 10 years. In fact, if Mazda would have had an EV back in 2018 we would have one now, or if they would have had a PHEV back in 2019 similar to my 330e then I would most probably have that car today. I like BMW, but I am open minded and like other cars also.

Anyway, like I said, price and feature wise they are comparable and in fact, the EV6 my wife is getting has some additional features, which I will not have, either because it is too expensive to get and I didn't see it was worth paying for, or because it is not available at all in any i4.