Gary H

This is something else (amongst a plethora of other issues) which currently puts me off EV ownership - stolen cables. 

Knowing my luck, I would be the unlucky so-and-so who'd plug it in somewhere miles from home, go off to do my business and come back a few hours later to see the cable was ripped out of it about three minutes after I walked away. 😕 I'd then be left with a car which wouldn't be able to drive far and no way of charging the thing up...

On 5/9/2024 at 9:45 AM, dutchie01 said:

So many lost opportunities in sales it is frightening. A courtesy car is a once in a ownership lifetime opportunity to sell a car. Come in with a Q4, give a Q5 etc. prepare an offer and when the customer returns the car go for it. It just seems not recognized or is too much trouble. I received dirty cars with personal belongings ( Jenna from admin normally drives this sir) or empty tanks, so i had to fill up, car parked in between others so i had to wrestle my way out. In all cases the sales department was not envolved they did not even know i was there. Only with Lexus this was different got a nice RX when bringing my IS in for service

Indeed, I couldn't agree more. It all appears to be about the accounts 'counting the coppers' for dealers these days. They want to sell new cars, but don't want to give existing owners the opportunity to have a decent courtesy car for the day when theirs is in for servicing e.t.c... It used to be a nice perk to have and I don't think they appreciate that's how future sales can also be generated. Giving owners a 'bobby basic' courtesy car really doesn't do them any favours and in my case as I said in my previous post on this, that was one of a few reasons why I decided to move away from Audi. They weren't interested in keeping you 'part of the family' any more. A completely different experience to how they were during the 2000s. 

I was reading up on this only the other week. I really don't know why we are continuing to follow EU law, when we're supposed to be getting away from this lunacy. 

In my opinion, speed limiting technology also has quite a serious downside which I think would make our roads more dangerous. I can't imagine overtaking will be much 'fun' if the only way to get around the technology (without turning it off manually every time you start the car) would be to floor the throttle and wait for it to be overridden. It would be like HGV 'elephant races'. 

Not to mention another point that the technology that reads speed limit signs isn't always reliable. For instance on my NX (and UX before that...) I can think of two specific examples on my daily commute where it will advise a lower speed limit than what the road actually is. In cases like this if I hadn't turned the technology off, I'd have to floor the throttle to get the car up to the (already low) speed limit. 

As and when I do change my car again at some point in the future, I will make sure I'll do like what I used to do with 'stop-start' technology. Start the car, put on my seatbelt and deactivate the interference. 

It all depends on how you intend on looking after the car, in my humble opinion. Personally speaking, it's not something I'd opt for because I'm someone who likes a clean car anyway, studies car cleaning/protection products and rarely it goes more than a fortnight (three weeks at most) without a wash. 

In my experience, I can achieve the same level of finish as the dealer's products, at a much lower cost, after the first month or so. Sure, the protection may not last as long but as a 'car washer', it's topped up often enough by the frequency of car cleaning I do! 

Obviously if you don't wash your car that often, then what the dealer offers is indeed something I would be looking at. 

That's the biggest problem with those touchscreens - inevitable greasy finger marks! 

With my NX, I have so far kept to using the dry microfibre black cloth provided to me with the car. Sometimes it takes moderate rubbing to remove some of the marks but so far, so good. I've not personally needed anything else so far. 

I usually give mine a wipe over once every couple of weeks. I try not to do it too often, unless the screen looks really bad. 

I rarely use the app. Beyond the 'home page' showing the car, mileage, fuel level e.t.c, hardly anything else works on it. It's been very hit and miss for me since day one, so I generally don't bother with it. 

One thing mine has a habit of doing is randomly logging me out and on occasion it wants me to add a vehicle from scratch (as if it's never had one on there). Then I have to completely close the app on my phone, go back onto it and log in again. 

As already suggested, the easiest way of keeping the mirrors out/unfolded is to basically unlock the car, open one of the doors and then the car will remain unlocked. 

Whatever you do though, don't leave the key in the car. After a few minutes, the car will start doing those 'long peeps' at you! Especially if you go near the door handles! I tend to leave the key on the nearest window sill. I'm staying with the car anyway, so it's not a problem. 

On a slightly different subject whilst still remaining on 'car washing', I've had to develop a knack when it comes to drying. Once I've dried the bootlid, I'll then open it whilst drying the rest of the car. It tends to hold quite a bit of water in the channels and will leave those annoying 'drips' running down the rear bumper and rear quarters! By the time you've dried the rest of the car forwards of the rear quarter, it's mostly 'drained' itself...!

I hope you enjoy the Takumi. I've had mine for nine months now and it's proven to be an excellent dual carriageway and motorway 'wafter'. I can think of only a few other cars I've owned to have had this ability of munching away miles whilst you remain refreshed at the end of a long drive. 

I just passed the 6000 mile mark in mine last Friday evening on the way home from Work. 

I waited just shy of six months for my second key. A letter was sent from head office to inform me. I contacted the dealer who, to no surprise at all, knew nothing about it and had to go away and check before coming back to me to book me in. 

I had my father take the car in for me (he's fully insured on it anyway) whilst I was away from home for a few days, as I had no intentions on returning to that place. He told me he was there for about an hour and three quarters in total. He was given free coffee whilst he waited, but no valet was carried out. 

On the upside, they'd also fitted the locking wheel bolts which were also missing on delivery. I had no contact with either the dealer or head office over them being available, but hey-ho. At least it was done there and then. 

On 5/14/2024 at 3:46 PM, Steve Oliver said:

Oh yes! I hadn't noticed the Takumi F-Sport option at the bottom - I'm used to Takumi being a "pack" that you add on later. Can't see at first glance any option for a Pan Roof on the "Takumi F-Sport" or even ML audio.... seems the "Panoramic Roof" option disappears on the F-Sport Takumi. 😞 Not even sure it gets a sunroof anymore.

Yes - I noticed the other day on the website that there's now a 'Takumi F-Sport' being the range topper rather than the Takumi. Which, I have to say is a bit gutting as someone who waited 16 months to get what was then the range-topper Takumi.  I also remember a 'Takumi Pack' being available on the F-Sport and I'm glad you've more or less confirmed my memory is not mistaken!

I'm sure there was a time around the back end of last year when I tried to spec my car again, there wasn't even an option for the Panoramic Roof any more - but obviously I must have missed it somewhere, because it's in @Xez's picture above... 

Unfortunately I wouldn't touch a Stellantis-based Vauxhall and now it's a brand I purposefully avoid for that reason. It pains me to say that because they're a brand which I spent quite some time growing up with (with the factory nearby) and of course, friends and family who worked there for decades. My late grandfather was in the first batch of employees at the Ellesmere Port factory. I've owned a few, my father has owned several and both of us together have driven countless Vauxhalls and enjoyed them over the years. A Stellantis Vauxhall though? No. Sorry. They're poorer products after the takeover (obviously being little more than a mildly re-styled Peugeot/Citroen) and those 1.2 Puretech engines are showing themselves in their earlier French stablemates to not age very well at all. 

I don't understand car-pricing these days. We're seeing Fords, Vauxhalls, Kias, Hyundais e.t.c all trying to sell cars for premium prices. It's ludicrous. 

Speaking of hire cars, about six years ago I owned an Audi Q5. A fabulous car which unfortunately the nearside rear door ended up with a stone flicking up onto it whilst the grass was being cut in the unit next to ours (I was at work). It ended up putting what resembled an air-rifle like pellet dent right in the middle of the panel. So, I popped along to Audi for the repair only to be told all their cars which need repairs like that go to Volkswagen. Fair enough - the parent company. So, I drove along to the VW dealer where indeed repair the door flawlessly. Full credit to them. The problem? I was given a base model VW Up! as a hire car. 

Now, I'm generally not a snob. A hire car is a hire car at the end of the day, but surely if you take a mid-size SUV in for three/four days, surely someone there must have some sort of common sense to assume the smallest city car wouldn't be a suitable replacement? I would have been perfectly happy with a Golf or a Passat. But no - a dinky city car. A car which was fine pottering around town in, but back and forth to work (involving two motorway journeys a day) was a real chore. When I first started dealing with Audi on a personal basis in 2008 - you were basically given a courtesy car of similar size/spec to what you took in. For instance, when I had an Audi A4, they always given me an A4 at servicing time. On one occasion they given me an A6 Avant. I even managed to get an A3 Cabriolet and a TT coupe (with the Golf GTi 2.0TFSI engine) on other occasions. It was only in that final 18 months or so during my time with Audi they seemed to care much less and it was one of the main reasons why I moved. 

I have to say once or twice a month I'm asked on the car's screen to log in, with a Qwerty keyboard coming up. It's a rare enough occurrence that it doesn't bother me too much.

Ever since it's had it's second key, I'm always getting the blue 'terms and conditions' screen which I have to accept each and every time I start the car (regardless of what key used). It's something I'm going to be bringing up at servicing time in September. 

I'd like to see the interior of this before giving at least an 'in pictures' verdict. I have to admit - I'm a sad person and I've always got a soft spot for a brown or a beige car, so this naturally appeals to me! 😉

I wonder what model this is based on? With 'only' 18" alloys, the base one? With a 15mm increased suspension, I'd imagine this to be a bit softer and more 'wallowy' than a regular NX, but of course I'm willing to be corrected on that if proven wrong. 

Interesting, nevertheless... 

I burst out laughing when I saw this - as my infamous dealer is highlighted as an 'award winner'. 😳🤣

It would get an award from me alright - for being the worst dealer I've ever had the displeasure of dealing with in my 21 years of purchasing new cars and a place I couldn't possibly recommend to anyone for anything other than standard servicing. 

I only ever used adaptive cruise control when I had my UX. 

Indeed, the 5mph increments were annoying because in all the cars I had prior to that with cruise control were able to be adjusted by the usual 1mph. 

One method I adapted was if I wanted to reduce by 1mph, was to take cruise off and put it back on almost immediately - to account for a 1mph drop, if you know where I'm coming from. Alternatively if I wanted to increase by 1mph, I'd remain on cruise control whilst I gently pressed the throttle to gain that additional 1mph. Then I'd turn off the cruise control and immediately put it on again. A bit of a faff, but I quickly got used to it. 

I'd rather not know to be honest - not after the 16 month wait I endured...

Rest assured, I won't be going through that again. 

Occasionally I get eight consecutive beeps when I lock my car - which if I'm in a car park or similar has caused other people to look around, which is a bit embarrassing. There's no rhyme or reason to when it does it - probably once every seven or eight times I get out the car and lock it. 

I believe it's something to do with having to check what's on the back seat (I'll stand corrected on that if anyone knows differently), but literally the only thing that's on it is a neatly folded up picnic rug! 

Speaking of which, I always get a 'check back seat' warning message that comes up in my speedo when I turn the car off. I'd understand this if there was something lying on the back seat or there were passengers there but again - five out of the seven days of the week there's nothing there barring the picnic rug! 

Many thanks for the update, I was wondering about this thread only the other day and where we were up to with the case... 

I had a feeling that steaming the seat wouldn't really work but didn't want to say anything at the time in case I was proven wrong. I could imagine a steamer flattening out the creases for sure, but not actually doing anything with regards to the marks caused by the creases - which looks to be the case judging from your pictures. 

I'm happy that they suggested it as an option to begin with but now it's become clear it really needs a new cover (I'm surprised to hear that they are just covers...). This is something that I would be perusing, personally. 

I wasn't given a handbook with mine unfortunately, Steve... That would have been my first port of call, otherwise. 

Indeed - it's something I'll note down when it's due it's first service in September and see what they say. It could very well be 'normal', but I can't say I've been beind any other NX's braking in order to comment. Certainly not one that I've noticed, anyway! 

The brake lights themselves work fine and as they should, so there's no worries there. It's just odd that the brake pedal also activates the rear 'night lights' at the same time with it if it's not dark enough to have them on properly! 

Hi folks. Here's a bit of an odd one for you which I only noticed yesterday...

Coming home from work I was in the usual rush-hour queue. There was a bus behind me and obviously with my foot on the brake, my brake lights were on. I happen to look in the rear view mirror and saw they were lit in the bus's windscreen as they should be. However...I also noticed the taillights were also lit. By that, I mean all the red lights - the light bar across the bootlid e.t.c. - as if it was dark and I had my lights on. I naturally looked to the dashboard but they weren't on - confirmed by no headlights of mine reflecting from the car I was behind... 

So, I released the footbrake when the traffic ahead started moving whilst looking at the bus and everything went out. The brake lights and taillights together... The next time I had to brake, I noticed both the brake lights and taillights/night lights came on together again... 🤔

I got home and had a mess around. The brake lights work on their own if I physically turn the lights of the car on. The night time lights at the back stay on as they should. However, when the lights are off, both the night lights and brake lights seem to work together. 

So basically my question is that is this normal or do I have some sort of weird electrical glitch which makes my rear night time taillights work in conjunction with the brake lights during daylight hours?! I can't say I've ever noticed this on another NX before, although on my way into work this morning I was behind a Mazda CX-5 which seem to perform the same 'trick'. Maybe it's normal and a 'Japanese' thing but I can't say it's something I've ever noticed before... 

There are some truly shocking roads out and around my neck of the woods at the moment. Two examples spring to mind immediately:

Firstly, the street next to the one I live on. It's a side-street but is on a bus route. This has been poorly maintained for not far off a decade, now. It's surface-dressed (yuck) but all that done was turn a very lumpy and uneven surface into a coarse, lumpy and uneven surface. Naturally, most of that surface dressing has either broken apart or worn completely away. It was never replaced. Since then, it's had literally dozens of small potholes open up on it. One by one, the worst ones are filled in by the council - so the surface now has a rough 'patchwork quit' effect for much of it's length. It's still lumpy and uneven. Over time, some of those potholes have opened back up and new ones have appeared. The whole lot has needed ripping up and resurfacing properly for the last couple of years, now. 

Secondly, there's a semi-rural lane about a mile from where I live and forms part of my route home from work (well, the route that avoids the worst of the traffic). Until recent months, there was a 50yd or so stretch which genuinely resembled what I can only describe as a ploughed field and was often swerved around by driving on the opposite side of the lane when possible. I first complained to the council about it's deteriorating condition at least four years ago but was told "it's up to standard". 🤷‍♂️ For a tractor or monster truck maybe, but not a road car. Fortunately that's now been resurfaced properly. However, there's a good quarter of a mile stretch shortly before this which now has now become a slalom-course for motorists. Random holes have been opening up in places. So, the only real way to navigate it in relative 'smoothness' is to drive with a combination of your passenger wheels literally on the white line before the soft verge, and sometimes with your offside wheels just over the centre line markings. 

I honestly wouldn't bother with the EV button as others have suggested. 

Something I've said in the past is that it just seems to be a button which either 'pleeps' to tell you it hasn't worked or if it does, the moment your right foot does anything order than rest on the throttle, 'pleeps' at you to tell you it's deactivated! 

In mine, it'll work from standing up to 20/21mph - providing you're light on the throttle. After that, it'll automatically deactivate. 

The only time I've found it kind-of works is in the final mile or so running into work - which is just over the border into North Wales and of course, unfortunately part of the new 20mph zones. I can get it running completely in EV mode in that particular circumstance but that is literally it. 

From my experience, as quite a gentle driver anyway, I can actually get better (and more sustained) use out of the Battery in hybrid mode at higher speeds. 

I don't know if mine has run an update or whether it's down to now having the second key - but literally all my settings are up the wall at the moment. 

Firstly, it started by my seat not sliding forwards when starting the car. I had to press my memory seat button to get it to wake up. Luckily, this is an issue which hasn't repeated since.

Next issue is that the climate control knobs now work in tandem with one another rather than separately. For instance, if I put the drivers side to 23oC - the passenger side will mirror it.

I'm classed as a 'guest' in my own car, no matter how many times I go into the settings and select my phone (which it accepts). As soon as I leave the car and jump back in, I'm a 'guest' again. 

Similar to the above (assuming it's phone related) - I'm now having the blue 'terms and conditions' screen appear each and every time I start the car. It now won't automatically skip past this as it always used to.  

What on earth have they done!? 

I think a dealer visit is in order as I really don't have the patience to deal with this. 

I can certainly not my head in agreement to certain things in your opening post @Bill Dawes! 

The parcel shelf - well, boot cover, is indeed flimsy. Nothing more than a flexible frame with a thin fabric covering. I'm assuming that's down to a lack of boot space, so loads can still be at least obscured as bags e.t.c. 'push up' against the fabric from underneath. If it was a solid shelf, I'd imagine that would worsen the already poor boot space. I agree that the attaching loops are incredibly fiddly things. Fortunately, I found myself only having to remove it a couple of times when I had it. The NX still doesn't have a solid parcel shelf, but is certainly an improvement over the design of the UX one. 

Yes - I also thought it was very odd that were were no pockets, even small ones, in the rear door panels. Mine was a 2020 model (so fairly early) and I'd imagined it would have been tweaked by now (like the gearstick was, removing the touch pad gubbins e.t.c...) but was surprised to see that's still the case. Obviously it never really effected me as I was driving it upwards of 90% of the time, but it did feel a bit impractical on the few times I found myself in the rear.

Otherwise I do think it's a neatly packaged and stylish car. I did overall enjoy the three and a half years I had with mine. The only thing which did bother me during my ownership was that poor boot space. It was absolutely fine during weekday commutes but when it came to weekends, days away or holidays - the back seats regularly had to become an extension to the boot. 

I noticed that this morning when I tried mine - 20 minutes is now allowed rather than 10. 🤔

I have the 350h, so it doesn't seem to matter whether it's a 350h or 450h. 

All I can say is that the engine was running when I went out to the car this morning. I honestly couldn't tell you if the engine was always running or not during the process. However, I know for a fact mine used to alternate between the Battery and engine when it was 10 minutes.