Feature
BYD Sealion 5 long-term test: report 3
Our senior photographer needs an economical, practical car that's relaxing on long trips and shrugs off big, bulky loads. Is the Sealion 5 a capable performer? Let's find out
The car BYD Sealion 5 DM-i Design Run by John Bradshaw, chief photographer
Why it’s here To find out if this family SUV combines economy and convenience.
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Needs to Be economical and relaxing on long trips, and endlessly practical.
Mileage 2463 List price £32,995 Best Price £29,990 Price as tested £32,995 Official economy 134.5mpg Test economy 41.5mpg
1 August 2026 – Introducing Hyacinth
My BYD Sealion 5 has me thinking of the BBC comedy series Keeping Up Appearances. Readers of a certain age will remember Richard, the hen-pecked husband, cautiously driving his pride and joy. And all the while, his concentration is marred by Hyacynth, his matriarchal spouse, drawing his attention to every conceivable hazard in or near the road ahead.
I might adopt Hyacinth as a nickname for my Sealion 5, actually, because I have a real temptation to don a pair of ear defenders for a break from all its nagging. Especially when it’s so keen to remind me of my own time-worn, ruined state. Literally, I get in the car, start the engine, gingerly manoeuvre out of my drive and chicane around all the haphazardly parked cars, and the driver attention monitoring system tells me that I’m tired before I reach the end of my road.
John Bradshaw
Updated: 1 August 2026
Car reviews
MG HS
BYD Sealion 5
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Now, the Sealion 5 is far from the only car with overzealous attention monitoring, but it is a particularly frustrating one. Especially when it admonishes me for being distracted by the car’s own infotainment system.
It would have a valid point if I was using it to watch a movie or something (it won’t let you do that, by the way), but I’m much more likely to be changing the radio station or adjusting the temperature. And – as with so many cars – the Sealion 5 forgoes physical buttons (which can usually be located by touch alone) in favour of placing such controls on the screen. Then it tells me off for using it!
Similarly, is the verbal “Please fasten your seatbelt” reminder strictly necessary? I mean, I suppose anything that promotes responsible driving is a plus, but it would be clever (and so easy) if the system could recognise times when the warning really isn’t necessary. Such as, for example, when I’m manoeuvring in an open field for a photo shoot, with the sat-nav having already told me that I’m 'off road'.
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More positively, the lane-keeping assistance doesn’t tug at the wheel as violently (and off-puttingly) as in some other cars I’ve driven (the MG HS springs to mind), and the rear Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) isn’t overly draconian; in the Genesis Electrified GV70, by contrast, reversing is abruptly interrupted when it detects weeds growing through the road and mistakes them for more sinister hazards, whereas the Leapmotor B10 manages to utilize its 12 high-precision sensors to coordinate 17 Advanced Driver Assistance Systems without such sudden, dramatic stops.
In a final irony, the other day, when a blip caused all the driver assistance systems to go offline, the Sealion 5 subjected me to a regular warning bong to remind me that they weren’t there. In other words, it was nagging me about the fact that it wasn’t able to nag me.
Having said all that, there is one area in which I wish my car was more inclined to speak up, and that's the indicators. These are rather quieter than I’d like them to be, meaning I sometimes forget to cancel them.
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