Denza B5

The car is wonderful. Despite the anti-Chinese car rhetoric, decided to take the plunge on a BYD owned vehicle. Did the research and took for a 2 hour test drive. The car is as advertised. Daily commute to work is purely EV and by changing my electricity plan and using scheduled charging, costs are minimal to use - huge saving over previous Everest, especially with the Trump diesel increase. Taken to Newcastle and Canberra (high speed) and mild offroad. Tyres are very road biased and battery quickly depletes at high speed (to be expected). Fuel consumption only shows "last 50 kms" to hard to determine, but high speed road travel is between 8 and 11 l/100km - not bad for a 3t beast. Internally the ride is quiet and comfortable and an initial bugbear of the car not "remembering" settings from the last trip has been resolved via an OTA update. (Had to turn radio on each time, synch with car play etc. Now this is automated.) 3500km of driving has cost about $250 in E10 fuel. Electricity minimal due to solar / Tesla battery / scheduled 8¢ midnight to 6am charging. Have not yet charged at public charging station as cannot see the point of a 1000% increase over domestic charging. Now the downside ... ... In QLD there are 4 dealerships. In NSW only 1. The sales process was smooth, but upon delievery of the vehicle, damage where somebody had reversed into something solid, scratches on left hand side, no Windows tinted and a dealer that never calls back to resolve issues. I'd suggest the sales has been a significant success and too much for the dealership to handle, but p-poor post sales service. six weeks into ownership and despite numerouse phone calls and escalation, the silence is deafening. Such a shame for such a good product. Denza is trying to compete with the luxury brands, but the service response is far from this level.

I hope to amend this negativity in coming months as I am hoping this is a teething / gearing-up issue and not a sign of the way they do business.