Hyundai Ioniq 5

Seems to be very limited stock till Mar/Apr next year.

Par for the course with the chip shortage that is hitting everyone, including your Kuga. (Also a nice looking car, enjoy it).

I rang a Skoda dealer about the Enyak and was shocked at the level of total disinterest in talking to me. Called another and he told me he was blue in the face talking about a car he couldnt sell, couldnt order and was basically unavailable till next March, despite the fact his sales targets would not change.

I suspect the video linked from the guy in Kildare ( i think ) is intended to do the same.

Either way, it looks like a lot of car for the money and in a country where we prize size over performance or dynamic ability of any sort this is likely to be a big seller ( not that its not dynamically competent - just most folk wont care )

Just saw one about half an hour ago on the walkinstown road on dealer plates. It's bigger than I imagined. I saw it coming towards me and was like "whoa what is that"!!

And then the penny dropped for Hyundai.

I don’t know if we will see decent spec cars at that price again. The true entry level ID.3 with poverty spec will be the yardstick. Probably closer to €30k than €25k though.

I was in my local dealer earlier today and was surprised to hear there would be a coue of ioniq 5s to take home next week.

Is there any downside from buying so soon on a first model? Understand will be no flexibility in price but the idea of getting one in the next few weeks is pretty appealing

Oooh, Toyota wouldnt like to hear you using that phrase for the Koreans! That is Toyota's slogan!

I'd agree with you though.... Korean build quality is as good as any.

So I test drove the Hyundai Ioniq 5 today. In the flesh, it looked exactly like I thought it would. It is big. The standard size 19" wheels look bigger than that if anything. Build quality was excellent. Korean cars have been the best built cars in the world for a few years now and it shows. Tesla could learn a thing or two here. Talk of Tesla and Hyundai clearly had a good look at the Tesla Model 3 while designing this car. The retracting aerodynamic door handles are a straight copy. And they took the gear selection onto a stalk on the steering wheel. A massive improvement on the button between the seats that was in the original Ioniq. In that car you needed to look down to select the right gear in that setup, which is far from ideal

Very spacious car. I'm over 6'1 and when I set the drivers seat in a very comfortable position, I could still sit "behind myself" in the back seat with well over an inch to spare in legroom and several inches to spare in head room. And that was before I moved the rear seats to the back position. They recline too, a very good feature for those who want to take a nap in the back!

Boot space was a bit disappointing, the boot is not very deep, although there is a layer beneath. There is a significant size frunk. But you have to pull the lever from within the cabin to open it. And then you still have to open it manually as in a typical ICE car. I guess it is grand for storing cables and the like, but not near a par with the Teslas where you can open the frunk from the app or from the key and it is opened automatically

As soon as I drove off, I noticed the ride was horribly firm, something not quite right. I checked the tyre pressures and they were all at 51, when they should have been at 36. Poor from the Hyundai dealer, it could very well turn people off the car. What didn't help either was that the SOC was 21% when I got it. I'm not quite sure if that affected performance, but in some EVs it does. I explained to the dealer that they should sort these things before letting any other people drive the car. It was accepted and the dealer was keen to book me in for another test drive with these issues sorted

The car drove well, the rear wheel drive makes a pleasant change from the front wheel drive that the vast majority of (budget) cars have come with over the last 50 or so years. It was nippy but not particularly fast for an EV. The level 2 autonomous driving system that is standard on all versions worked fine. Some small improvements over the original (2016) Ioniq - like the nagging if the system does not detect your hands on the wheel - is not as quick to tell you off, which is helpful

Unlike some people here have reported, prices and availability are quite good. This dealer has cars coming in for December, for very early 2022 delivery. Also the on the road price was confirmed to me as €38,995 which is very good value in my book for a car this size with a good range, super fast charging and a 58kWh battery

A unique feature of Ioniq 5 is the Vehicle to Load (V2L) feature, the car can supply 3.6kW of AC power through an outlet. No other car on the market has this. The Honda E has something similar, but limited to 1.5kW. This option is standard only on the top of the range model, which is a pity. The dealer couldn't tell me if it is an optional extra on any of the other cars, he promised to get back to me

All in all, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 is an excellent proposition. If you think that a year ago, the Kia eNiro cost the same as this. Two years ago the Hyundai Kona cost the same as this. This Hyundai has a direct competitor in the similarly entry price level Volkswagen ID.4. but this car is superior in pretty much every way.

Highly recommended.

One of the review videos I saw had the tyres at 51 as well which looked a bit high.

Great review Unkel

I should have mentioned that! It was the Premium 58kWh RWD