nullog

So I bought a new car; the interest started about two years ago but I kept finding reasons to hold off. When I first start looking the Prius Eco 2 was the top of my list, I liked it but I just didn’t like it enough and car shopping on the back burner.

In mid-to-late fall 2017 I started think I really should bring in my Prius for a tune up and look into getting a few lagging issues fixed. I also started to think more and more about the cost of replacing the Prius battery pack as it getting close to being 12 years old. What could it hurt if I looked around; I knew I once again wanted a hybrid, I wanted a car with CarPlay built in and I wanted a purpose built car.

Now lets go thru that list

• Hybrid
  1. Why not? Its “good” for the environment, saves on fuel and I like driving with an electric motor.
• Car Play
  1. I don’t use the radio, everything I listen to originalities from my phone. Why not have a ‘nice’ UI?
  2. I learned the built in GPS is pointless… the maps need to updated to keep the built in GPS useful. Using mapping applications built into the phone work far better, has traffic flow data, and up-to-date maps
• Purpose built
  1. I don’t want ’normal’ traditional car with hybrid technology dumped in as many aspects of a hybrid car are just dumped in and not designed into the cars creation.

That list crossed the Prius off the list of choices as it does’t have Car Play built in and the only place I knew was the Chevy Volt. Now my very first new car was a Chevy and I don’t have anything against them but wow GM cars, in my mind tend to have many many, issues. Doing some searching I came across the Ioniq and subsequently the Niro.

I gave the the Ioniq test drive and really did like it. I just wasn’t ready to buy a new car going into the winter months… salt, snow and Michigan roads who knows what a new car would like like in 2-3 months… not to mentions why learn the ins and out of a new car in the snow.

I held out to the late March when I noticed some nice financing rates where set to expire in a few weeks. I had a good sense of what I thought of the Ioniq and put most of my energy looking at other cars with quickly moved to the Niro. The Niro is Kia version of the Ioniq but built as a crossover. For some reason that was a really appealing idea and came really close to going with the Niro.

When it came down to the bottom line the Ioniq was a better value… lower cost with better milage. So now I have a Hyundai Inoniq Limited Ultimate… with built in GPS which happens to be one things I most dislike about the car but to get some of the things I wanted, emergency breaking, lane keep assist and adaptive cruise control the Limited Ultimate was really the only option (yes the SEL trim had them too).