[Caveman]

Hi

I am in the process of changing my existing car and my heart would like to go for the MX30, whilst my head tells me that it just isn't practical for my family. I have two pre-teenagers at 5ft 7 and 5ft 5 and I'm not on the small side either at 6ft 1 (my wife at 5ft 7 would be the front passenger). We had a short test drive in the mx30 and my son complained of being cramped in the back, we then followed that up with another visit today and it appeared my son had slightly more room.

I also worry about the range although on a recent trip we stopped every 80 miles and took a 40 minute break to see what our experience would be like. We stay rural and to get to the nearest shopping centre we would cover a 40-60 Mike round trip including motor way driving.

This will be our only car.

My questions are:
1. What is everyone's experience of having backseat passengers in the car.
2. How have you found the car when using the motorway (input from UK owners would be most appreciated on this)

 

[Milkfloat]

On this one the answer is very clear. Much as I love my little car, go with your head. I can also advise that your sons will get bigger!

 

[Thebriggie]

Back seat for teenagers - OK for short hops but not any distance , too claustrophobic especially with no opening windows. Sunroof lightens it up but still dark.

Motorway journeys are fine, the car handles motorway speeds well and will accelerate nicely which is great for overtaking. Cruise control is also brilliant.

 

[AJDT10000]

Hi

I am in the process of changing my existing car and my heart would like to go for the MX30, whilst my head tells me that it just isn't practical for my family. I have two pre-teenagers at 5ft 7 and 5ft 5 and I'm not on the small side either at 6ft 1 (my wife at 5ft 7 would be the front passenger). We had a short test drive in the mx30 and my son complained of being cramped in the back, we then followed that up with another visit today and it appeared my son had slightly more room.

I also worry about the range although on a recent trip we stopped every 80 miles and took a 40 minute break to see what our experience would be like. We stay rural and to get to the nearest shopping centre we would cover a 40-60 Mike round trip including motor way driving.

This will be our only car.

My questions are:
1. What is everyone's experience of having backseat passengers in the car.
2. How have you found the car when using the motorway (input from UK owners would be most appreciated on this)

On only motorway, at 70mph, I usually get a maximum 100 miles of driving. (Lovely to drive on motorway)

Off the motorway the range is better. I drove to North Wales last week through the Peak District and then some motorway. I got 136 miles of driving.

For motorways, I use zap-map to make sure I have at least two charging options. I’ve got as low as 5% charge but in the knowledge there were two different rapid chargers available. Gridserve are replacing all the electric highway chargers in the UK and are very reliable. InstaVolt are usually just off the motorway - usually next to a Starbucks or McDonald’s. Charging up to 60% when battery is warm is approx 10 miles every 5 mins on a rapid charger then slows.

Backseats - my 6ft son has sat in the back but only for short journeys. Not sure how comfortable they would be for longer journeys.

 

[Caveman]

Thanks - I think the kids will be fine it ticks so many boxes for me. I have had a go in another couple of electric cars that we were interested in and the driving position of the mx30 is so much better than anything else we have tried.

 

[VivaMazda]

Hi

I am in the process of changing my existing car and my heart would like to go for the MX30, whilst my head tells me that it just isn't practical for my family. I have two pre-teenagers at 5ft 7 and 5ft 5 and I'm not on the small side either at 6ft 1 (my wife at 5ft 7 would be the front passenger). We had a short test drive in the mx30 and my son complained of being cramped in the back, we then followed that up with another visit today and it appeared my son had slightly more room.

I also worry about the range although on a recent trip we stopped every 80 miles and took a 40 minute break to see what our experience would be like. We stay rural and to get to the nearest shopping centre we would cover a 40-60 Mike round trip including motor way driving.

This will be our only car.

My questions are:
1. What is everyone's experience of having backseat passengers in the car.
2. How have you found the car when using the motorway (input from UK owners would be most appreciated on this)

Really sorry but but with your height and your relatively tall kids it just wont work. If its your only car. Second car go for it, I d say. Also at least in this country, Sweden, kids can and even will get grumpy. Especially If they re not happy. Also in the interest of self preservation, they could strangle you from behind you know. Hockey trunks, sports gear you guys just need more space.

 

[VivaMazda]

Hi

I am in the process of changing my existing car and my heart would like to go for the MX30, whilst my head tells me that it just isn't practical for my family. I have two pre-teenagers at 5ft 7 and 5ft 5 and I'm not on the small side either at 6ft 1 (my wife at 5ft 7 would be the front passenger). We had a short test drive in the mx30 and my son complained of being cramped in the back, we then followed that up with another visit today and it appeared my son had slightly more room.

I also worry about the range although on a recent trip we stopped every 80 miles and took a 40 minute break to see what our experience would be like. We stay rural and to get to the nearest shopping centre we would cover a 40-60 Mike round trip including motor way driving.

This will be our only car.

My questions are:
1. What is everyone's experience of having backseat passengers in the car.
2. How have you found the car when using the motorway (input from UK owners would be most appreciated on this)

What you really need is something big and you want to go electric. Problem is it gets pricey and whats on offer is pretty limited. Skoda Enyaq is surprisingly spacious and not super expensive. The boot seems huge.
The obvious option is to find a big plug in hybrid. Loads of options. If you charge every night and it does at least 25 miles electric you it could be a great choice. Sadly Mazda sells no bigger EVs and not a single PHEV. Other big EVs like Tesla model X, Audi etron are expensive even second hand. There is the MG5 estate EV but have never seen it in real life. Its cheap and maybe worth checking out??? Good luck!

 

[aljshep]

If it is your only car I think it would be too small for a family of four. We use ours for short trips and have another bigger (petrol) Mazda for the longer ones. Do not expect to get a full charge in 40 mins on longer trips. I know that there might be ways to get a fast charge but it usually takes me 5 hours on a 22kWh charger.
I have done a long trip (as a passenger) in the MG5 estate EV. More room and more range. It is ok but basic when compared to the Mazda. But there are massive discounts on the model now being phased out. I do not know how the discounts will be on the incoming model.

 

[AJDT10000]

If it is your only car I think it would be too small for a family of four. We use ours for short trips and have another bigger (petrol) Mazda for the longer ones. Do not expect to get a full charge in 40 mins on longer trips. I know that there might be ways to get a fast charge but it usually takes me 5 hours on a 22kWh charger.
I have done a long trip (as a passenger) in the MG5 estate EV. More room and more range. It is ok but basic when compared to the Mazda. But there are massive discounts on the model now being phased out. I do not know how the discounts will be on the incoming model.

Totally agree with you. We have the same set up. We use a CX 5 for longer journeys with all four of us. We have only ever used the MX30 with four of us for short trips.

The biggest surprise to us is that when only two people are in the car, we now use the MX30 for almost every journey (rather than the CX 5). We just have to plan ahead a little to ensure there are rapid chargers on route.

40 min charge - can get around 75% charge using a rapid charger. (stopped for breakfast in the example below )
5 hrs using a 7kw charger.

 

[aljshep]

I did consider that, if we go down to one car, we would use the MX-30 for 99% of journeys (we are a two person retired family) and hire a more suitable model once or twice a year for far-away UK holidays.

 

[mikedt55]

Hi

I am in the process of changing my existing car and my heart would like to go for the MX30, whilst my head tells me that it just isn't practical for my family. I have two pre-teenagers at 5ft 7 and 5ft 5 and I'm not on the small side either at 6ft 1 (my wife at 5ft 7 would be the front passenger). We had a short test drive in the mx30 and my son complained of being cramped in the back, we then followed that up with another visit today and it appeared my son had slightly more room.

I also worry about the range although on a recent trip we stopped every 80 miles and took a 40 minute break to see what our experience would be like. We stay rural and to get to the nearest shopping centre we would cover a 40-60 Mike round trip including motor way driving.

This will be our only car.

My questions are:
1. What is everyone's experience of having backseat passengers in the car.
2. How have you found the car when using the motorway (input from UK owners would be most appreciated on this)

Hi,

Our MX30 is our only car, we don't have the same size issue as yourselves for the backseat, but we are average height (whatever that is!) and we can cope with it, can get a bit stuffy in the back so be prepared to use the air con on long distances or open the windows, but you will struggle to hear the radio or chat if you open the windows.

We live in Kent and use our car for local trips which works out really well, we went to London last weekend, that results in a little motorway driving and its a dream to drive on the motorway. I did have a range issue as its around 60+ miles to our location once you have overcome roadworks, missed junctions and the thrill of driving in London! When we arrived my first mission was to find a charge point in order to get home, that was my main worry when planning this trip. The Satnav does show you the nearest charge points where you are parked, but they were not the ones I had planned to use, and some of them were looking a bit worse for wear, cable ends left in puddles and not rapid chargers. I needed a rapid charger because of time restraints. I had downloaded some apps and created accounts for the charge suppliers I had planned to use and in the end I used one of them for the nearest location around 1.6 miles away, it was easy to use via the app, I had already created my account so payment was not an issue, I had around 40% battery left, I fully charged the battery for £5.56 and it took around 48 minutes.

Your probably aware of all the apps you can use to find charge points that are not being used and working. Now I know how easy it is to charge away from our home the anxiety levels are reduced, and our next trip will be planned to military precision, although you must expect the unexpected. I will work on having around 40% battery life available to find the next charge point, that gives me wiggle room should we come across a charge point that is not working or being used.

We love the car, our home charge point is fantastic, you do have to plan your driving requirements a little differently, but that's a small price to pay.

good luck with your decision.

Mike

 

[Baz1964]

Hi

I am in the process of changing my existing car and my heart would like to go for the MX30, whilst my head tells me that it just isn't practical for my family. I have two pre-teenagers at 5ft 7 and 5ft 5 and I'm not on the small side either at 6ft 1 (my wife at 5ft 7 would be the front passenger). We had a short test drive in the mx30 and my son complained of being cramped in the back, we then followed that up with another visit today and it appeared my son had slightly more room.

I also worry about the range although on a recent trip we stopped every 80 miles and took a 40 minute break to see what our experience would be like. We stay rural and to get to the nearest shopping centre we would cover a 40-60 Mike round trip including motor way driving.

This will be our only car.

My questions are:
1. What is everyone's experience of having backseat passengers in the car.
2. How have you found the car when using the motorway (input from UK owners would be most appreciated on this)

Similar to you, we have two boys, one around 5' 9" and one much younger/shorter - just about still in a car seat. We run the MX-30 as a second car for school runs with bags, cricket gear and so on and local activities, some of which include dual carriageway/ motorway driving, while retaining our Kia Sorento for longer trips/ holidays. Since getting the MX30 in June, the Kia has been off the driveway twice - once for a weeks family camping holiday that needed the load space and once for a run up to B&Q when the Mazda was already in use, so the Mazda can cope with all the day to day stuff quite easily.

If the kids are in the back the taller one hasn't found it a problem, but he's not had to suffer anything of great distance/ time.

At motorway speed, the MX-30 does need careful driving and planning for recharging based on my experience running back and forth on the A6 especially when you have long gradients; the 40 - 60 mile R/T you describe shouldn't be a problem if you're charged up to about 70%+ and are comfortable with 70 or less for speed; I'm getting 126 miles prediction on a full charge and the accuracy is very good in mixed round town driving, less so on longer higher speed distances, though this could be down to the fact that I'm not using it on long runs as much so this may impact the prediction software.

Other commenters on the forums have made the point that fast charging on public points can be problematic in terms of speed, though these have mainly been in Europe I think. I also have no experience of cold weather so can't comment on that.

For our use case it's an ideal second car and if we didn't need the Kia for towing, then I could see having the Mazda and possibly renting something for longer trips. I would say for your use case it's much more marginal and if I were in your shoes, I would be looking to either something with a longer range - maybe the E-Niro or Kona - (both are effectively the same cars under the skin), if the budget can stretch, an Ioniq 5 or alternatively a hybrid.

Bear in mind when looking at the cost, the savings on running a BEV are substantial. I swapped in an old Honda Civic for the MX-30. That cost approx 16p per mile for road tax and fuel, whereas the MX-30 is costing about 3p/ mile based on home charging. Effectively, that means that over the last two months, the 2000 miles we've driven would have cost me £320 (probably more as it's taken miles from the Kia as well as the Civic and that runs to 23p per mile) whereas I've spent £64.46 on electricity for the distance/ period, so while my monthly payment is about £314, in reality I'm only spending £186 extra per month for the car.

Good Luck!

 

[Caveman]

Similar to you, we have two boys, one around 5' 9" and one much younger/shorter - just about still in a car seat. We run the MX-30 as a second car for school runs with bags, cricket gear and so on and local activities, some of which include dual carriageway/ motorway driving, while retaining our Kia Sorento for longer trips/ holidays. Since getting the MX30 in June, the Kia has been off the driveway twice - once for a weeks family camping holiday that needed the load space and once for a run up to B&Q when the Mazda was already in use, so the Mazda can cope with all the day to day stuff quite easily.

If the kids are in the back the taller one hasn't found it a problem, but he's not had to suffer anything of great distance/ time.

At motorway speed, the MX-30 does need careful driving and planning for recharging based on my experience running back and forth on the A6 especially when you have long gradients; the 40 - 60 mile R/T you describe shouldn't be a problem if you're charged up to about 70%+ and are comfortable with 70 or less for speed; I'm getting 126 miles prediction on a full charge and the accuracy is very good in mixed round town driving, less so on longer higher speed distances, though this could be down to the fact that I'm not using it on long runs as much so this may impact the prediction software.

Other commenters on the forums have made the point that fast charging on public points can be problematic in terms of speed, though these have mainly been in Europe I think. I also have no experience of cold weather so can't comment on that.

For our use case it's an ideal second car and if we didn't need the Kia for towing, then I could see having the Mazda and possibly renting something for longer trips. I would say for your use case it's much more marginal and if I were in your shoes, I would be looking to either something with a longer range - maybe the E-Niro or Kona - (both are effectively the same cars under the skin), if the budget can stretch, an Ioniq 5 or alternatively a hybrid.

Bear in mind when looking at the cost, the savings on running a BEV are substantial. I swapped in an old Honda Civic for the MX-30. That cost approx 16p per mile for road tax and fuel, whereas the MX-30 is costing about 3p/ mile based on home charging. Effectively, that means that over the last two months, the 2000 miles we've driven would have cost me £320 (probably more as it's taken miles from the Kia as well as the Civic and that runs to 23p per mile) whereas I've spent £64.46 on electricity for the distance/ period, so while my monthly payment is about £314, in reality I'm only spending £186 extra per month for the car.

Good Luck!

Hi we took the plunge this week and ordered the mx30 everything going smoothly we will pick it up on the 1st of September. Thanks everyone for your input .

 

[Paul]

Hi a little late with this reply but I would still like to give my opinion. I am retired & don’t do that many miles a year. I would class this car as a 4/2 door. We took a lot of time in buying this car. We don’t often have people in the back so that was a plus for us. We do mainly local journeys also a plus. We also have an MX5 nd just as gorgeous as the MX30. But use that for long outings mainly in the summer. Had I been young with a young family I’m not sure that I would have bought this car. Having said that I love this car perfect for us but maybe not for other people. Just trying to be honest.

 

[Ciprotim]

Hi

I am in the process of changing my existing car and my heart would like to go for the MX30, whilst my head tells me that it just isn't practical for my family. I have two pre-teenagers at 5ft 7 and 5ft 5 and I'm not on the small side either at 6ft 1 (my wife at 5ft 7 would be the front passenger). We had a short test drive in the mx30 and my son complained of being cramped in the back, we then followed that up with another visit today and it appeared my son had slightly more room.

I also worry about the range although on a recent trip we stopped every 80 miles and took a 40 minute break to see what our experience would be like. We stay rural and to get to the nearest shopping centre we would cover a 40-60 Mike round trip including motor way driving.

This will be our only car.

My questions are:
1. What is everyone's experience of having backseat passengers in the car.
2. How have you found the car when using the motorway (input from UK owners would be most appreciated on this)

hi we only have grandchildren in the back 99%of the time and we have purchased the as a second use because of the range, the back is a little tight and you think you are in a aeroplane seat because of the window the seats are firm and the ride good on the motorway