Matt - I've been reading your thread since finding it a a few weeks ago & the information that you - and others - have provided have been very helpful to me.
I bought an RS-V wagon back in June '23 and have been VERY impressed with it... admittedly, I had been driving a BF Falcon e-gas wagon for the past 15 years so ANYTHING was going to be better than that! LOL!!! Although a touch over 4 yrs old, the RS-V only had 40800km on it and I was amazed by how "new" the body & the interior still appeared.
I agree with you about the headlights though - like you said, they are at best 'adequate' but as I was unsure about going to HID's, I opted for halogen +50% lamps and they have been better around town. Adjusting the headlights to be a bit higher also made a difference on the highest adjustment setting. I'm getting a light bar fitted in a few weeks as I do a lot of country driving to visit family in the NE Vic region. Speaking of which, I regularly get between 7.0 and 7.3 lt/100km on those round trips of around 540km up & back on the Hume.
One of the questions I read from someone was about the boot liner / mat - I bought one from Rubbertree but even though it was a little dearer than others I saw at Supercheap, Autobarn, etc... the quality & perfect fit was worth the extra $$$. I also bought the bumper protector (see attached pic).
You also mentioned the rake of the windscreen affecting reading the display due to reflection. It might sound like I work for Rubbertree (LOL!) but I bought a form fit grey dash mat (same colour as the interior) from them with the HUD cutout and it's fits perfectly. I like the leather-look dash so I only use the dash mat during the summer months. The bound edge fits tightly between the dash & the windscreen so I didn't even need to use the velcro pads & sticky pads to keep it in place.
* edit: just having a look at the Black Friday sales at Rubbertree - it doesn't look like they offer the ZB moulded HUD dash mats anymore
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Going from the standard 4-speed transmission to this new 9-speed one took a bit of getting used to but once I did, it is really smooth around town. I do tend to be heavy footed around town (so I ignore the economy! LOL) but I love the handling & ride of the hiper strut suspension with the AWD... it's a very firm ride but LOTS of fun for a car that weighs 1600+kg.
I look forward to reading more of your thread as time progresses. Cheers!!
(p.s. I've attached pics of the boot liner & the economy on my last country run)