I've been on this forum since last April, and I finally tried a short test drive today of the FE (very happy I didn't do it last April). Incomparably better than my 2001 PT Cruiser in every way! Less road noise, allows you to hear a little bit of intermittent wind noise that sounded like it was coming from the hood (but surely must be coming from the outside mirrors). I was a bit worried about noise as the background noise in video reviews seemed louder than other new cars. I ran it up to 80mph on the interstate, accelerated hard on the ramps, did some test panic stops, and dawdled on city streets in EV mode.
Acceleration plenty fast enough for me, but I have certainly owned more than my fair share of very slow cars (that I still drove at very fast speeds and still passed cars on two lanes) including a VW bug, a Datsun B210 plus (high mpg), and a Honda CRX-HF (very high mileage, and very very fun), all with 0-60 times far greater than the Niro: respectively 20, 18, and 12 seconds, with the Niro a big speedster at around 9 seconds in most reviews. Technically my PT is a bit faster at 8.5 seconds, but I couldn't feel the difference in my test drive other than the Niro was quieter even gunned. I seldom accelerate fast anyway as I have a motorcycle for that. Of course, most SUVs that people buy are much faster, but not the people that buy them! I have to laugh at 300 hp SUVs that cannot cross a road with 10 seconds of time.
I only found two quibbles with the car. One is that foot-off gas pedal deceleration is slow. No one pedal driving like a Tesla, Bolt, or even the plug-in Niro with paddles just to increase deceleration. I did put it into manual mode and increased deceleration by down shifting but I would have loved the even faster deceleration possible with increased battery charging.
Somewhat related is the crawl mode when you take your foot off the brake at a stoplight - simulating ordinary torque converter automatics. There might be a setting to change that behavior, but I remember a thread on that topic here or on an Ioniq forum saying no. So I will have to either leave my foot on the brake, or put it into park at long stoplights. That will take some getting used to as I have never owned an automatic car before - I know it will take weeks to months before I learn not to take my foot off the brake at lights.
Sometime in the next couple of weeks I'm getting an LX with tech package (and nothing else). Already negotiated an OK deal, $2,900 off MRSP (plus doc fee of $200) in writing, but I'm giving my local dealer a chance to match the price first. I could do up to $3,400 off 400 miles further away but getting there would eat up most of the savings.