Ioniq 5 Ultimate 73kWh RWD

Slowly bedding in my knowledge. The intuitive stuff is easy. The stuff embedded in the menus takes more time. But the silence and smoothness are wonderful.

Went up the motorway this morning for a handful of miles. Radar cruise control and 'hands free driving' are excellent but you still need to have your wits about you.

The multi-storey car park we use has tight turns but this car was easy as it is no wider and certainly shorter than the Merc. Other drivers in smaller cars have way more trouble, but then they are FWD.

The ICE cars on our drive now are very noisy!

There are trips I prefer not to do in the CLS for reasons of size, mainly girth. Reading station is one; threading it through the chicanes to the pick-up parking spaces is a buttock-clencher I can do without.

Some of the narrow roads through Greek villages is somewhere I'd not want to take a 2m wide car.

First car I had was a Fiesta and initially for work I'd park it in the "Nynex" arena car park... Plenty of paint scrapes on the downward ramps because originally the space to turn as you went down was small. They eventually changed so that was an enlarged space to swing the car around before you went down one of the ramps. The Fiesta was fine but I think a lot of cars got damaged.

Note I parked there because it was pretty much the cheapest for all day parking which I claimed back. I soon had a pass for the Arndale car park - floor 13. That wasn't fun to get out of near Christmas time - huge queues with us starting from the top.

No, and it was OK in my S211 E (1,822mm). But the CLS is, perhaps unnecessarily, 60mm wider in the body (1,881mm) and at wheel level. Not much but it eats into real and perceived safety margins.

Or an i3 (1,775mm but feels slimmer) Or an Aygo (1,613mm) if you’re meeting one person without much luggage — or hearing.

First long trip today. A gentle waft to an estate just north of Wrexham. About 60 miles each way. Set off with 97% charge and returned with 50%. Real world range of 250 miles with a/c and ventilated seats running and phone charging.

Comfortable, smooth, quiet (although the radio does not seem to increase in volume as ambient sound rises despite having the button ticked in the menu), and all the cruise type toys work well. When I was leaving the appointment the boot opened as I walked up to the car and I put my briefcase inside and then closed the boot. My keys were in the case! Despite the car beeping to tell me the keys were inside all doors and the boot were locked. Thankfully one of the clients has a Tesla and advised me to use the phone app to unlock the car... which worked. But what would have happened if my phone was in the briefcase as well!

Need to get Espadrille's phone connected...

Oh boy. That's odd. It's impossible to lock my Leaf if the car is switched off and the keys are detected inside the vehicle. Won't let you do it. Beeps at you in annoyance.