[axion]

Waiting for THE phone call from my dealer. Any time now... today... tomorrow...???
Parting from my 1.5 years old Honda Civic 5D 1.8 petrol and getting i30 CW (wagon, estate, we call it "farmer's" here in Finland) 1.6 CRDi manual in steel gray.

WOW! Just got that phone call in the middle of writing this! Tomorrow 3 o'clock I'm proud owner of new Hyundai and say bye bye Honda.

Getting "winter package" for free. That is winter tyres, motor heater and interior heater. Also getting two sets of carpets and tull tank without extra cost.

Cars are bloody expensive here in Finland, mainly because of mad vechile tax.
Diesel engine is 500 euros (about $950 AUD) more expensive than 1.6 petrol, diesel fuel is cheaper than petrol but we have to pay fuel tax (what a great government) about 400 euros per year if using diesel car.

-axion

[Shambles]

Hey axion! Welcome to the club  

[Dazzler]

Welcome Axion... Your English is very good...

I like the candour of your first post (that might test your vocabulary  

[teamgeorge]

Welcome to the club!

I'm still waiting for mine! you choose the correct colour   is a diesel tax like vehicle registration?

[axion]

Welcome to the club!
I'm still waiting for mine! you choose the correct colour   is a diesel tax like vehicle registration?

No, it's something extra we have to pay if the fuel is diesel. It's based on gross weight of a car. And, of course, it comes on top of "normal" annual fees and taxes.
As we are part of Europan Union, we should not have these weird taxes anymore. Maybe some day... Diesel tax is currently keeping the per liter price of diesel slightly lower than petrol, but diesel owners have to drive certain amount of kms per year to actually benefit the per litre price difference.
I do not drive a lot but just fell in love with high torque of the CRDi. High rev, low torque engines (like in current car) are not my cup of tea.

[axion]

I like the candour of your first post (that might test your vocabulary   )

Luckily there is some online translation pages I can use. I had to check 'candour', but now I know - and thanks for the comment!

[bumpkin]

Welcome to the club Axion!!

As a rally fan, I am aware of how you Finns love to drive fast on gravel sideways, which I believe is due to the fact that a lot of your road network is on hard packed gravel.  Let us know how good the ESP is (if yours has it fitted)

Cheers
Brian

[Hemmi]

Hi axion and welcome  

[axion]

Welcome to the club Axion!!

As a rally fan, I am aware of how you Finns love to drive fast on gravel sideways, which I believe is due to the fact that a lot of your road network is on hard packed gravel.  Let us know how good the ESP is (if yours has it fitted)

Cheers
Brian

Yeah, we are the Flying Finns, or "world's fastest nation". 14 Finnish WRC wins and 3 Formula 1 championships etc.
I drive like a snail though and I'm not biggest fan of motorsports, but of course I'm proud of our drivers.
ESP is needed in winter time on icy roads. But climate is really changing here in southern Finland. Snow and ice comes and goes, it's wet and dark most of the time. Things were different 15-20 years ago: we used to have proper winters with lots of snow and arctic temperatures.

[eye30]

Getting "winter package" for free. That is winter tyres, motor heater and interior heater. Also getting two sets of carpets and tull tank without extra cost.

Welcome axion

Seems that you got a good deal on the extra's.

Enjoy the ride.

[axion]

Got it! Bye bye good old Civic. Well, not so good... or old.
It's my birthday today, good timing eh?
Cannot take my family to ride because our baby is in high fever. So not much driving yet.

[Shambles]

Splendid ax.. great result and happy birthday!

(Sorry to hear about your baby - hope she/he gets better soon, then it'll be up up and away )

[Dazzler]

Hi again Axion...Happy birthday (glad you liked your present) Sorry about bub being sick....

[piper]

Happy Birthday from the other side of the Baltic! Good luck with your new wheels!

[Hemmi]

Happy birthday axion  

[axion]

Thanks everybody!
Oh what a bliss. I can actually go in the car, turn the engine on AND THEN fasten my seatbelt without b****y beeping. And I can leave the key in ignition AND open door without beeping. I realise now how much I hated those nagging beeps of the Honda.
Two minor issues: the user manual is in Swedish (official languages in Finland are Finnish and Swedish, I speak Finnish like 92% of all Finns) and interior heater is lower wattage than promised. Should not be difficult to replace those.

And for the records: I had to wait only 2 weeks to get the car. It was already in the country. The dealer said yesterday that cars ordered from the factory are further delayed to March-April. And he said that all the cars are coming from Korea, not Czech. To Finland, that is.

[axion]

It's been emotional rollercoaster last three days. Wonderful new car but really sick baby. The fever turned out to be infection in the kidneys. She was in the hospital and got iv antibiotics. She is home now and being like newer been sick.

Anyways, I have a question to our scandinavian friends. For the headlights, do you leave the switch to 'lights on' setting all the time (where the lights turn off when ignition is off and driver's door is opened) or do you turn the switch to 'lights off' when leaving the car?

[Dazzler]

It's been emotional rollercoaster last three days. Wonderful new car but really sick baby. The fever turned out to be infection in the kidneys. She was in the hospital and got iv antibiotics. She is home now and being like newer been sick.

Anyways, I have a question to our scandinavian friends. For the headlights, do you leave the switch to 'lights on' setting all the time (where the lights turn off when ignition is off and driver's door is opened) or do you turn the switch to 'lights off' when leaving the car?

Glad to hear the baby is better now (not nice to have a very sick baby)

We don't have a lot of regular scaninavian members so pending their answer I'll give my opinion. I drive with my lights on pretty much all the time here in Tassie and apart from occasionally turning them off absentmindedly I usually just leave the switch to on and let the car turn them off when I open the door (great feature although I have to remember the Tiida doesn't do that when I drive the wifes car)

[Hemmi]

Here in Iceland you have to have the lights on all the time, so I have them on, and when I remove the key from the ignition they're off.