How you liking it? Any issues or unplanned trips back to dealer? How many miles on it so far?
Love it.
No trips back to the dealer have been needed in the 12,800 miles I’ve put on it so far!
Just a couple of small annoyances with it:
The gas tank is small. At 12.4 gallons, my range is only a little over 300 miles between fillups at the 27 MPG I’m getting.
Octane learning (actually, lack thereof). This car is detuned until such time as the ECU determines that the grade of fuel being used, is high enough for full ignition timing and boost.
The way it’s supposed to work, is that the “octane learning” is reset when the car is refueled, then, you go through a process to let the car “learn” the octane rating. If it’s determined to meet requirements, the car switches to the full-boost, full timing mapping.
If not, the ECU limits max boost to 15 psi. Nice if you know you’re only going to be commuting, and don’t care about the extra 30-40 HP.
Sounds easy enough, however, in reality, it rarely actually gets “octane learned”, and is almost always, it seems, limited to 15 psi. And although it’s supposed to “keep” the octane learning for the duration of the tank of fuel, it nearly always “forgets” and reverts to the limited boost after 1 or 2 key cycles.
When it’s actually octane learned, the car feels genuinely quick to me. But when it’s not, the power just feels adequate. So, the extra 2-5 psi of boost you get when octane learned (the ECU calculates how much boost to provide, based on a torque “target”) does actually make a big difference.
It’s pretty aggravating if you think about it. But outside of that, it’s a really great car that actually excels at what I mostly use it for - a commuter car that is a lot of fun to drive daily (when it’s warm enough - I haven’t swapped out the summer tires it came with, so I don’t drive it when it’s really cold and nasty, like it is here now).
Just a baseline “stage zero” tune gets rid of the octane learning, unlocking full boost all the time (you just need to, obviously, keep hi-test in the tank all the time, which, I do anyway). But then you risk a denial of the excellent 10-year powertrain warranty, so it’s not really worth it.
And then it has absolutely firewall-banging wheel hop when you overwhelm the front tires. But it’s easy enough to avoid, and only happens when you intentionally spin up the tires in low-grip situations. And there are aftermarket bushings for the engine and transmission as well as front suspension, that greatly reduce or eliminate the problem. I think I’m going to get the aftermarket bushings this spring.
But those are really my only gripes with the car. I really enjoy it.
I need to sit down and write a full review and post it.
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