Light when the back hatch is open?? Spare tire advice??

AND - nobody ever test drives a car during the night, so you don't notice the deficiency till you buy, get it home and take it out that night.

 

Well replacing them shouldn't be an issue and relatively easy to do without destroying anything, so this is something I will consider in the near future...

 

If it doesn't come on automatically, that's a downgrade from the 3rd generation, on which there's a switch that let's you chose between it coming on automatically when the hatch is open, or it staying off all the time. (However, leaving the hatch open a sufficientlly long time will still kill the battery even if that light is off.) Yeah, the light is dim and poorly located. My much older and cheaper Mazda had far more effective hatch illumination, even though the bulb wattage was the same.

 

It turns on/off automatically if the switch is on. That's the only modern thing about it.

 

I was mistaken. The light does come on, and goes off when opening/closing the hatch. As long as you leave the switch in the "on" position. (I always have mine off.)

 

What are those dull little orange "footwell" lights for? When I first got the car, they seemed to stay on all the time when driving at night. Now they fade out after a few seconds... Am I going nuts, or what?!

 

The footwell lights are orange LEDs that are dimmed once the ignition is on. There is a dealer/Carista setting one can change to setup their behaviour. I don't mind them and hardly notice them. They could have chosen another color like blue to mimic the dashboard buttons color, but....

 

or, as I did, got the space saver tyre, the hold down bolt and the 3 foam parts as fitted on the models with the spare tyre.

 

brilliant!