Living with a BYD Seal 6 Touring: everything I love about this Chinese hybrid car, plus three things which drive me mad

When I was growing up, new dads went out and bought estate cars. They were the go-to transport for growing families, but these days SUVs are all the rage.

I took my son home from the hospital for the first time in my old BYD Seal U SUV, but over the last five months I’ve been sampling its wagon: the Seal 6 Touring. I was excited to see that a new brand was launching a good old-fashioned estate, and I’ve done a lot of miles in this car during my “ownership”.

There’s a lot to like about the Seal 6 Touring, but there are also some features which have driven me up the wall. Here are three cool things about this car, as well as three annoying things which you’ll want to take into account before parting with your cash.

Remember, you can buy a brand new or used car right here on Carwow. And you can sell your car, too. We’re here to help you through every step of your car-changing journey.

Three good things about the BYD Seal 6 Touring

Let’s start on the positives, because there’s plenty to like about this car.

1. The hybrid engine is great on fuel

This car (and all Seal 6s), is powered by a 1.5-litre petrol plug-in hybrid system. It’s the same basic engine as my old Seal U, and it’s been really fuel efficient.

I live in a terraced house, which makes charging the car quite tricky. This means I’ve not made the best use of this car’s 34-mile electric range, but it still gets 50mpg everywhere it goes. I can even get 60mpg from it on longer drives, and a full tank of fuel lasts 800 miles. It’s cheap as chips to run.

2. The screen is really good

My Seal 6 Touring is the base model, so it has a slightly smaller 12.8-inch screen compared to higher-spec models, but I don’t reckon you need anything bigger. It’s responsive and easy to use, without totally dominating your peripheral vision.

There are also some clever shortcuts. All of the car’s climate controls are operated through the screen, which is pretty annoying. But if you swipe up and down with three fingers you can change the temperature, and going side to side changes the fan speed. All without leaving Apple CarPlay. I’d still prefer proper knobs, but this is a neat solution.

3. It’s very practical

In many ways, my Seal 6 Touring is actually more practical than my old Seal U – despite being physically smaller. The boot is a really good size, 75 litres bigger than the Seal U, and there’s no load lip to haul heavy items over. The square shape makes it easier to load than the Seal U as well. I’ve made a few trips to Ikea with no fuss.

There’s also plenty of space in the back for my son’s bulky rear-facing child seat, and adults can stretch out in the rear as well. The Ski hatch is a nice touch as well, even if I don’t really use it. However, this does bring me onto the negatives.

Three annoying things about the BYD Seal 6 Touring

It’s not all rosy in this estate car – here are three things which have driven me wild.

1. The seating position

The plug-in hybrid batteries for this car live under the floor, and this means the seats have to be mounted really low. Not in a sporty, connected to the road kind of way. More of a “knees ‘round your ears” kind of way.

I’ve been fiddling with the seat for five months and I still can’t find a comfortable driving position. My knees sit really high, and it’s even worse in the back. This makes long journeys quite uncomfortable.

2. Irritating tech

While the infotainment system is generally good, there are a few annoying quirks as well. Turning off the speed limit warning and lane-keeping assist is easy, you just swipe down and press a button, but the driver attention monitor is buried in a sea of menus. It’s also the most annoying system, beeping away if you so much as glance at your mirrors.

A recent update also messed with the “hey BYD” voice assistant. It now butts in when I try to use Siri on my phone, like a jealous middle child fighting for attention. Hopefully another software update will fix this soon.

3. The suspension

I will say that the BYD Seal 6 Touring is more comfortable than my old Seal U. Being lower to the ground means it doesn’t wallow around as much through corners or over bumps, but it’s still way off alternatives like the Peugeot 308 SW.

It’s firm over bumps, despite being on the smallest alloy wheels with larger side walls, and the steering is really light and vague. It doesn’t inspire much confidence through bends, and it’s also pretty noisy on the motorway which makes long trips a bit of a slog.

However, whenever something like this annoys me I just have to think of the price. At £35,000 it’s almost £9,000 cheaper than a plug-in hybrid Volkswagen Passat, and that makes it easier to forgive its foibles.

My time with the BYD Seal 6 Touring is coming to an end soon, so make sure you check back for my final verdict in the coming weeks.

BYD Seal 6 Touring second report: April 2026

I never thought my first time driving in a Carwow drag race would be in a budget-friendly Chinese hybrid car, but here we are. We recently raced all of our long term test cars, and my BYD Seal 6 Touring was the second-slowest car on the fleet.

But in my defence, I was up against cars such as an Audi S5, a BMW M5 Touring and a 455hp Volvo, so I won’t hold the BYD’s performance against it. Away from the drag strip, it’s been a pretty good daily driver.

You can check out my introduction to the Seal 6 Touring for a full rundown on the specs, but for now here are some first impressions.

Whenever I get into this car, I have to remind myself that it only costs £35,000 – it feels like a much more expensive car.

I quite like the simple dashboard layout, and the materials all look and feel high-quality as well. The 12.8-inch infotainment screen is also brilliant. It’s responsive and easy to navigate, although I would still like a few more physical buttons for things like the climate control.

But at least you do have a handy drop-down menu which you can customise to put all your frequently-used features in one place. I have it set up with the controls to turn the speed limit and lane departure warnings off, making it easy to do when you get in the car.

I’m not totally convinced by the design though. I love an estate car, but this one looks a bit bland to my eye. I don’t think the bog-standard white paint helps, it makes the car look like it’s run by a big fleet and the manager was pinching pennies.

The driving position isn’t ideal either. I find that the seat is too low to the floor, which means my legs are bent at a funny angle. It’s not the most comfortable on long journeys.

Speaking of comfort, the suspension is also quite unsettled at any speed. It jiggles over broken surfaces, and on motorways it can get a bit bouncy over bumps.

But on the plus side, it’s been a really practical car for ferrying my son around, as well as carting kit to and from shoots. There’s loads of rear seat space, and the 500-litre boot is a nice, square shape which is easy to load.

It’s also been really economical so far. BYD claims it’ll do 839 miles on a full tank of fuel and a full hybrid battery, and I’ve been easily getting 700 miles out of it. I’ve also been seeing 60mpg on the motorway and 50mpg around town; it’s a really cheap car to run.

So my first month with the BYD Seal 6 Touring has been a bit of a mixed bag. I like the interior and tech, and it’s economical, but the driving experience lets it down. Maybe this is something I’ll get used to over the coming months – keep an eye on our long term test car updates to find out.

BYD Seal 6 Touring second report: February 2026

After spending six months with a BYD Seal U, the brand’s plug-in hybrid SUV, it’s now been taken away and I’ve been handed the keys to something a bit different. This is my new BYD Seal 6 Touring, and it’s the only Chinese estate car currently on sale in the UK.

I’m going to show you around the Seal 6 Touring, as well as explain why I was keen to try this car out for a few months and give you some first impressions after a couple of weeks with it.

Remember, you can buy a brand new or used car right here on Carwow. And you can sell your car, too. We’re here to help you through every step of your car-changing journey.

My BYD Seal 6 Touring is as basic as they come. It’s the entry-level Boost trim, finished in no-cost white paint and there are no options fitted to it.

Despite this, it still has a decent amount of standard equipment. I have a 12.8-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, adaptive cruise control and 17-inch alloy wheels. Heated seats would be nice during the cold winter months, but you have to step up a trim to get them.

Under the bonnet you’ll find the same 1.5-litre plug-in hybrid petrol engine as I had in my old Seal U SUV, only I’ve now got the version with the smaller of two battery options. This means it has an all-electric range of 31 miles, as opposed to 62 miles if you get the larger pack.

All in, this car will cost you £35,000, however you can save an average of almost £2,500 on a new Seal 6 Touring right now through Carwow. Even before any savings, this car is around £6,500 cheaper than a plug-in hybrid Skoda Superb, and it’s a whopping £8,700 less than a Volkswagen Passat E-Hybrid.

Why am I living with the BYD Seal 6 Touring?

One of my biggest gripes with my old Seal U was the boot, because it wasn’t all that big and the sloping roofline made it hard to load all the way up. In theory, a boxy estate car should be more practical thanks to the flat rear window, and the Seal 6 Touring has 75 more litres compared to the Seal U as well.

I’ve also got an eight-month-old boy to ferry around, and when I was that age estate cars were the go-to family haulers. SUVs have since overtaken in popularity, but I’m interested to compare the two bodystyles back-to-back.

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