BYD Seal

I collected mine yesterday. RWD. Indicator stalks on the left. Wasn't something I was concerned with either way. I was surprised with it.

Very happy with it. Enjoying driving. Regen is weaker than previous car but already getting used to that.

Getting used to the various assists quickly, turning on and off things as I please. Have done well over 100km and reckon range looking at about 500 with mixed driving without been economical. Having some fun in my first days of course. Will be doing a round trip of 400km, 95% motorway on Thursday. More optimistic it will cover it without needing to drop my normal speed (speed limit ISH) now than I was a few days ago.

Mine are ECs where was the other ones advertised ? What's the difference? Have over 1200k on it now and they're a good tyre lots of grip and sure footed.

I've been buying pilot sports on previous cars .

SportContact 7 clear as day in the brochure! Worth mentioning I wonder?

If anyone is wondering about range on the AWD, I drove 270km the other morning from meath to cork and used pretty much my whole battery, about 90%. On motorway at 130kph with cruise control on and ac set to 22 degrees.

The dynamic "range left" display was never accurate and constantly overestimated my range throughout the journey. Wouldn't have made it past 300km total range.

Impacted by wind maybe?

My efficiency was much worse doing Dublin-Cork against the wind than it was a few days earlier doing Cork-Dublin.

Range going north was approx 440km.

Range going south was approx 380km.

(RWD).

What colour ! Some are easier to clean than others 🫠

Wasn't covered in muck or anything, in case the owner is here 😂 just the usual muck on the bottom half. Common enough, especially travelling the back roads here

Price for 4 tyres from oponeo.ie, fitting excluded.

Michelin Pilot Sport EV 235/45 R19 99 W XL B B B 71 dB €688

Continental EcoContact 6 235/45 R19 99 V XL, VOL A A B 72 dB €888

Continental SportContact 7 235/45 R19 95 Y FR, ContiSilent C A B 71 dB €1,060

If the car is supposed to have SC7s, that is a near €200 cheaper set actually on it.

Is that cos we go up to Dublin 😀

Done a good bit of driving in the Seal now. Here's my list of observations so far

- In general lane keep and TSR(Speeding alerts basically) don't actually bother me so I leave them on. Also TSR can be quickly turned off via the pull down menu shortcut if it picks up wrong speed for the area you're in(only happened me once so far due to speed sign obscured by a branch). One thing is though I have got warning bongs occasionally but then it's not clear why, maybe some icon does flash up on the dash for a second but by the time I look down it's gone. It's definitely not speeding because it's quite clear when that's what the warning is for.

- On the subject of TSR the junction ahead sign seems to pop up a lot, I think it's a little buggy and misinterpreting Irish road signs because I've seen it pop up a few times when there definitely isn't a junction ahead. Not a big deal, just something of note.

- BSD(Blind Spot Detection) button on the center console is a bit of a waste of space imo, how often do you want to turn that on or off. Something like rear window defogger would be much more useful imo.

- Only 2 options for the dashboard display, classic isn't great because current speed limit sign is in the top right and it's partially blocked by the steering wheel if you're tall like me. Simple is better because the various icons are grouped more centrally but they seem to be randomly spread around with no intuitive sense to the layout. I'm getting used to it now though. Hopefully they bring some more dashboard styles in future updates.

- Can't control the volume of parking sounds, in my Peugeot you can set the reversing beeps volume quite low so whatever you're listening to isn't completely drowned out. Annoying if you're listening to an audiobook/podcast and you then need to go back 30 seconds to listen again.

- Android Auto volume is known to be much lower than a cars audio like radio. Because of this I have to turn the volume up on podcasts I'm listening to through AA but if I forget to turn the volume down again before I turn the car off I get very high volume radio when turning the car back on. Some cars will have separate volume settings for external sources like AA or Apple Carplay but BYD doesn't unfortunately.

- Android Auto can't be set to not open automatically, this option has to be set through the car options but it's not available for BYD from what I can tell. I'd rather normal infotainment come on and if I want to open AA I can select it from the home screen, much handier for short drives where I probably just want to set AC/listen to the radio.

- UI for the radio could be better, can't rearrange favourites and using the steering wheel to go forward and back from station to station seems to only bring you to the next station on 'the dial', would be better if you was next station in your favourites list.

- ICC(Intelligent cruise control). It keeps you in lane but doesn't do a great job, even on gentle bends I feel very nervous as it strays too close to the other lane. Probably only useful on a proper motorway but even then I'd still be a bit nervous. ACC(Adaptive cruise control) which is where you steer yourself and it keeps whatever distance you select(1-5) between you and the car in front is much better but I feel it breaks a little too late. 

- EPB(Emergency Parking Break) has been incorrectly triggered once already when I was coming out of a shopping center. The road I was pulling out into was not in great condition so I think with the nose tilted down it picked up the road as an obstacle. I know it can be turned off but EPB has saved me a few times in the past on other cars I had it on.

- I found breaking to be a little unresponsive/slow then I figured out it was because 'Break Assist Mode' was set to Sport. Set it to Comfort and it was more responsive, for me anyway. It's strange I would have thought 'Pport' would be the more responsive breaking?

- Eircodes don't seem to be recognised by in-built navigation which is a huge oversight. I'd be happy to give it a chance if it did but that's a deal breaker.

- Already discussed a lot but I really hope they bring some more clever/user friendly way to change the preset seating positions. I'm taller than my wife so I have to squeeze into her seating position/move it back using the seat button, start the car, navigate through the menus, select my saved seating position. 

Don't get me wrong overall I'm very happy with decision to get this car, the positives which I've not bothered to list far outweigh any of these little niggles. In fact most of these problems I've had(and worse) on other cars anyway.

I only post these issues in case someone has some suggestions like the AA stuff in particular?

NCT not required until the car is 4 years old. Interesting to note that the disc holder that came on my car only has two slots so will need to get a 3 slot holder in 4 years time

These disc holders don’t last long esp ones that dealers stick onto your windscreen. You will likely replace it before you need extra pocket for NCT in 4 years time .

Weirdest nit pick. And the obvious position for a boot open button. 😃 it's visible clear and not some hidden place you have to be shown.

Someone not cleaning their car is a separate thing

Hi Lads,

What is the general feeling about the Seal at this stage now that a few of you have been driving for the last few weeks ? How does it compare to the Germans in terms of drivability, comfort, and overall quality ? Is there anything that you would change or dislike about it ?

I currently have an i4 M40 that I bought with a Trade-in (330e) and Cash from Joe Duffy, Jan 23. While I do like the car, I don't love it. I have a home charger and do small usually city miles, so range is not a factor, more the owner experience if you get me.