Okay, I'll go first!
We were going to buy one. We liked the looks of it. It single-handedly kicked off the through process of actually making the move to an EV from our ICE Arona. In fact we had already emailed the
dealership to be informed when they got a demonstrator, something they still haven't got as I write this.
Long story short, a few things put us off. Simple things, but important to us:
- Those doorhandles. Tesla just had a recall for cars with retracting doorhandles. My concern is the winter. Even our relatively mild winters here in rural Ireland, sometimes even opening the door on our Arona is tricky. The thought of stuck doorhandles worried me.
- Depreciation. Any new EV will lose €10k as soon as it leaves the showroom. I don't change my cars that often, but its been shown that the best option is to buy a 3 year old with good battery health. The worst depreciation is over. For many, cost is not the primary issue, and we thank you for that as if it wasn't for you, people like me can't have good pre-owned cars!
- Personal. In the end we saw a Series 1 Cupra Born in Aurora Blue and really loved the way it looked. Even compared to the Series 2 Born (for us) we thought it was a good looking car. The
Raval, yes, but oddly we still preferred the Born 1.
But I will add that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and it is a good looking car, as is the Born 2. Would I own one; yes absolutely, but I would wait for a good used one to come along in a couple of year's time.
-The salesman. When we talked of the
Raval, the "Cupra Master" told us he's been to Barcelona for the launch and driven it. He liked it, but still preferred the Born (before we started talking about used Borns). He said the
Raval was mainly aimed at being a city car, and the entry level car had quite a small battery (perfect for town use). As a result, and because he had an Aurora Blue Born 1 sitting there which we were quickly falling in love with the looks of, we decided to save what was an enormous amount of cash and buy a used Born 1. We ended up with a V2 77kWh eboost, collection this Friday!
Notwithstanding, the
Raval is a good-looking car and yes, I would be proud to own one, just not yet!
