[Indalo]

Yesterday, just as I was about to exit my car, I spotted a message in the information panel in the instrument binnacle which informed me that the key fob battery was low.

As luck would have it, I had a recently purchased CR2032 remaining from a 2-pack I bought when I replaced my door bell battery a couple of weeks ago. It took all of two minutes to complete the task on the fob as I had replaced one in my previous Hyundai shortly before I traded it for the Optima and knew how simple the task is.

On reflection, I had noticed that, on occasions recently, the bleeps and flashes hadn't occurred as I approached the tailgate of the locked car and I had to step away and approach again for the mechanism to kick in. I just put it down to the cold weather at the time but now I know what it was!

I don't know whether other owners have had to change that battery yet but just for information, my car is 3 years and 7 weeks old and has always been locked and unlocked using the door handle button, rather than the fob which is always in my pocket.

 

[Trunka]

It just so happens I had the same low battery message appear on my display yesterday. My car is now 3 years 3 months old. I did start to notice the buttons weren't as responsive a couple of weeks leading up to this.

 

[Indalo]

It just so happens I had the same low battery message appear on my display yesterday. My car is now 3 years 3 months old. I did start to notice the buttons weren't as responsive a couple of weeks leading up to this.

The warning is a nice touch by KIA as it would be a real faff to approach the car one day….in torrential rain (sod's law) and find that the fob doesn't work and then having to remove the end piece of the driver's door handle and insert the key……if you successfully removed the end-piece!

I have the 4th of 5 pre-paid services coming up in November, after which I may look to part-ex against something new. As it looks as though there won't be any new Optima Sportwagons coming to the UK and not particularly liking the rest of the range, I don't know what I might replace the SW with, come the time to decide. All the estate cars that I like are rather expensive (for me) and I won't be able to go full-electric or PHEV as I have to street park, quite a long way from the house.

That leaves regular hybrid or more of the same, be it diesel (my preference) or petrol and the know-nothing politicians have demonised the former, probably forever more…….or until the next science-based review of vehicle emissions reveals that petrol cars are actually only marginally better than diesel in that regard.

Meanwhile, the SW remains a nice place in which to cover the miles safely, with space for everything I need to shift.

 

[Trunka]

I'm in the same boat as you. I'll look to keep the car for a couple more years, its currently on 50k miles. I would of loved to get the new Optima SW, especially after seeing the pictures of it

I'll probably look at getting a PHEV, with my favourites currently being the new Peugeot 508 SW or a Volvo V60. The only issue is making sure the next car has all the luxuries that I am now used to with the Optima....