Resurrecting this to say that after 13 years of driving my GD Premium (diesel) I too am in the process of moving on to an EV (the Kia EV3).
This is the car I've had the longest, buying it just shortly after starting a new job. It's done over 200,000K during that time (mostly highway) and the engine has only just started to show its age (developed a slow oil leak).
I've had a few major issues over the time I had it.
- The sunroof developed a leak that got fixed under warranty
- The AC gas leaked within the first 18 months
- The AC leaked again just after the warranty expired, only this time there was also a heater block issue that required a more intensive repair
- The AC blower shattered/exploded
- The rear internal sunroof shade broke (the hooks holding it on the rails that retract it got brittle and after several years of never using it (and full sunlight exposure over my 9-5 job) they shattered when I went to use it; never got around to fixing this because I just didn't care about it
- The engine recently developed a slow oil leak
- The driver side wing-mirror motor died so the wing-mirror motor would spin whenever you tried to retract/extend the wing mirrors (this also hadn't been fixed)
- The driver side door latch assembly died, so I'd been using the key to lock/unlock
Both the wing-mirror and door latch were repairs I just didn't care to waste money on, and with fuel prices soaring I decided that it was finally time to move on.
I'm going to miss my little blue i30, but also, I'm not.
So long and thanks for all the fish mileage.
