BYD Seal - what is it like to own one?

car is fantastic. luckily I haven't had to deal with service much but the 3 month complimentary service went fine

I got my premium seal on the 30th of March so almost a month coming. I’ve got about 650 kms on it and I gotta say, it’s so fun to drive. It makes me want to leave the house more. For charging, I just put the car on slow charge during work hours, since I don’t need to take the Seal to the train station. No complaints from the car itself. Just don’t expect world class customer service like you can get at Tesla.

[10,000km review ](https://youtu.be/kOiAyV96MLg) [20,000km review ](https://youtu.be/eIomYfLhQUc) I've owned the BYD seal premium for almost exactly a year now. I've posted up two videos of my ownership experience during that time and go over how the car feels and drives as well as dealing with BYD along the way

Have the 2025 Seal and loving it. Service ok. Think they suffer from growing pains. Be prepared to wait 3 months on parts if you ever need them. Driving the car is a pleasure. Everything feels solid in the car. Everyone who has stepped in the car as a passenger is amazed by the inside space. There is always room for improvement and looking at the negatives is the easy way. I just look at what I gained from previous car which was a Tuscon. Loved that car too when I got it. But to me nothing to what I drive now. I don’t compare it to any other car anymore because I picked this one. No point. There always be new ones that will be better and more efficient etc. Just drive it and enjoy it.

How much have you spent so far on service costs ?

Awesome, good to know! Sounds like a solid start. Fingers crossed I will have the same experience.

**Love hearing that! Charging during work hours sounds super convenient, but it won’t be an option for me. Thanks heaps for sharing!**

**I’m with you — it’s a beautiful car! Loved it when I test drove it.** **I’m a little concerned about the service side though, since I’ll be using it to commute every day. Fingers crossed it’ll be smooth! Thanks heaps for sharing your thoughts.**

I love mine but have one complaint, there is no parking radar at the front.

We just put the initial deposit for a Sealion 7 as my wife loved it over the Seal (more space for kids stuff) when we test drove both but I was completely sold on the Seal, I truly loved it… enjoy mate

**Hi Dave, Awesome videos, thanks heaps for sharing! Really great to hear a real-world experience after a year. Super helpful for me. I will subscript to your channel. Also loved hearing about your** insurance **experience in another video! Sounds like it worked out well. Mind sharing where you got it from?**

Good choice :)

Love mine. Goes well. No issues. Best car I've ever owned.

Car is fun and feels solid, infotainment could use some better UI design and breadth of features. Still has that Chinese software vibe you get with stuff that gets iterated on too often to get polished to the degree you might find with other brands.

Had mine since Dec 23. Almost at 30,000km now. I've never had any issues with the car except the rear passenger side door handle not popping out once. Pleasure to drive, no vibrations from the interior trim etc.

Same. On a year the 20k service was $165.....love the car!

Just about to tick over 12 months and 16,000km. My previous car that I most compare it to in build quality and handling is my old E46 BMW. I’m not going to sit here and tell you that it’s equivalent to that tightly-built package, but it’s bloody well in the ballpark.

Solid Camry equivalent EV. Takes some getting used to all the safety beeps (which they let you customise now after customer feedback that it was too aggressive). Turn is very sharp as well. Watch out for the blind spots on the left and right rear - cameras will protect you at the front and back but not the diagonal back. Also it feels like it was designed for people under 6 foot, so make sure to test drive it once or twice. I am 5 foot 10 and the leg room in the driver's seat has my left leg brushing against the huge centre screen every now and again. Also you'll have to order the BYD dashcam from a third party and install yourself (there are tutorials on Youtube) which is a pain for those not inclined to mess with the camera housing on the windscreen.

Why not the performance out of curiosity?

It’s a dream car seriously love it!

that's not bad, what's the economy of your Seal & what trim do you have ?

Fingers crossed I will have the same experience :)

That is awesome to hear. If it is even in the same ballpark as an E46, that is really impressive.

Really appreciate for sharing all this - super useful. Good to know about the dashcam situation too. Thanks heaps :)

That's awesome. I hope my dream comes true soon too :).

Awesome.

Ah, that is a bummer.

My wallet said no to the performance ;)

If you can manage it, we'll worth mid spec Premium. HuD, slightly faster charging, more range and lil more power.

1% battery to 5km. Premium.

Car servicing prices have gone up which sucks. I thought it would've been capped pricing.

Car = fantastic Warranty support = comprehensively shit

Yeah, I noticed that too. BYD shows the service prices year by year on the website, but just wondering was the actual cost at the service center different from what was listed online?

Yikes, that doesn't sound great. Mind sharing what happed with the warranty support? I am planning to use it as my daily driver, so would really appreciate the heads-up - don't want to be without a car for months.

Hmm I will think about it.

Have had the seal performance for a couple of months now.... Pros? Great car to drive, not to EVey so easy to adapt from normal car. Very nice inside, no issues so far other than a sensor error. Dealership was also quite good exp even though they obviously want to maximise how much u spend... Cons? The after sales support is very patchy. Im in Sydney and while the team is very nice and supportive they just take ages to do 'anything'... like get back to you for info or with service. Service is another thing, most places are 'overbooked' so difficult to get a booking. Overall while the car is great, i think they just need better infrastracture or system in place for after sales support. Another comment is right when they said 'growing pains'... Hope this helps!

Really appreciate the heads-up - very helpful

i own Seal Performance for past 12 months.  overall pretty happy with car. it represents good value for money. but does have some lacking features.  software is not great. however you can “hack” it and install things you’re not meant to, which i like.  it in terms of software design, functionality and capabilities, i envy Tesla in this regard.  Tesla also has API access and Siri integration so you can create your own shortcuts and neat software tricks. BYD’s app is very limited and no API access.  also Tesla Sentry mode is a huge plus that the BYD doesn’t have.  the ADAS hardware Seal uses isn’t great either. it’s over sensitivity and laggy. yes software updates have helped improve this over time,   but i still turn it off every time i get in car.  acceleration and handling is good, but having recently driven Model 3 Performance, makes the Seal Performance feel sluggish and handle like a boat. Model 3 Performance feels like a go-kart on steroids in comparison and much more thrilling drive overall.  had the Model 3 Performance Highland revision been available at time of my Seal purchase, in hindsight i should’ve waited and done the Model 3… but the Seal does still represent good value even though it lacks in most areas.

Sorry for the late reply. Haven't been checking this account often enough! I'm insured with RACV

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Does the 2025 Seal have Lidar sensors?

How did you do with the handle? It's the only problem I've had too.

Sorry didn't see your message. I just repeatably opened it and it stopped sticking

where might one find the seal hacking community?

I didn’t know the M3 performance is so good. How would you compare the BMW M3 comp which is twice more expensive than the Tesla?

$0 I paid the $165 using Flybuys Dollars at MyCar.