Just spinning off this discussion from the retirement thread and I do think it applies to folks who aren’t retirees as well.
I’ll start. I’m next up for a new car. Most likely, it will be an all electric car. I’m looking at the new Subaru, so I’m being patient. No rush. My current car is a 2012, but it had a new engine dropped into it by Volvo 60,000 miles ago…and I really love the car.
Then next up will be DH. His car “only” has 92,000 on it and is 5 years old. When we replace his, it will be with a hybrid.
Of course, when the time comes for me, I will look at the hybrids too, and maybe I’ll get that and the DH will get the all electric.
We want one car with a longer range (the hybrid) and one for our more local driving or shorter trips.
Of course we also hope the infrastructure for charging stations will increase by the time we make the electric purchase.
We have two hybrids and are very happy with both of them. My husband really wants a self-driving car, but I’m not ready for that yet. In any event given how long we hold on to cars, we don’t know yet whether we’ll go all electric or not.
I would not buy electric. Our utility company keeps lighting our state on fire, so their solution when it’s windy is to shut off the power. Our neighborhood isn’t always hit, but I have friends who have blackouts several days every fall. I don’t feel like we can count on our electric grid. I wish I could bank my rooftop solar. I would buy a hybrid, that seems like the most reliable solution.
Not me, I just bought 3 brand new cars in 2021, all non EV nor hybrid. I only drive 3000 miles a year, even if I drive 30 more years, that would be 90,000 miles. My husband has a small sport car and he likes to drive the stick shift because it’s more fun, but the car is small so not expensive to run. My car is mostly for long distance trip. The difference in money we have to pay up for an EV car and the gas money we have to pay for the non EV car doesn’t make sense right now. I hope this is it, the last cars we have to buy. Maybe my daughters will change to hybrid or EV car eventually, but not for us.
We just bought a new car a couple of weeks ago. I really, really wanted a hybrid (was looking at hyundai elantra and kia niro), but there were none to be found in any dealership lot within a 100 mile radius of my home. Super disappointing. Next time, I will not wait until my car is on its last legs to start looking, and for sure, will be buying a hybrid.
As mentioned in another thread: I had a Lexus CT200 hybrid for 10 years (bought new in 2012) and loved that car. I admit I only put about 60,000 miles on it as it was my commuting/getting around town car. Sold it when we moved to an area of the country which gets a lot of snow.
Car has been replaced with a similar hybrid - Lexus UX. I had to wait a few months to get and H was very persistent with calling the car dealer. I like the new car, it’s a bit larger though.
Definitely considered an EV this time but mostly was concerned about availability of charging stations in rural areas when visiting family.
We have had a Tesla for almost 4 years now which we fueled by plugging into a vanilla 110 outlet, but just had a Wallbox installed. Solar system is next. We opted not to “bank” the power we will be generating, but if the utility co creates any hassles, we will go with batteries. We made several longish trips from Seattle to Eugene OR and to the eastern part of our state and had no issues at the Superchargers. It was nice to go grab some coffee and use the restroom after 3 hours of driving. We planned on doing a trip to San Diego, but don’t have the luxury of time.
That said, our next car will likely be not a Tesla. It is not about Elon or his stupid moves; it is mostly about lack of service and support. Where we live, every tenth car is a Tesla, and there is only one service center/showroom. Glad we only had minor issues, but it was annoying to use an app instead of talking to a person when there was no appropriate box to check for our issue in that app.
Right now both our cars are not hybrid or electric but I did have a hybrid car previously and liked it.
If I was buying a car soon - I would probably consider hybrid but not electric…yet.
@thumper1 what is the Subaru electric coming out???
I drive a Ford C-Max hybrid and it’s terrific. Another family member with a Lexus UX hybrid (which they loved, and with pretty much all city driving only put gas in it every two months), and then another family member bought the all electric Mustang last summer - I’ve driven it and it takes off like a rocket and is really fun to drive
I’d originally gone with a hybrid in 2014 as the ranges at that time weren’t going to work for a monthly trip I take. But now it’s not uncommon to see 280+ mile ranges in EVs and that works for me. So my next car is absolutely going to be an EV.
It’s this. It’s out now, but not very readily available. Our dealership gets one, and it’s like renting an apartment in NYC…take your checkbook with you IF you can even get to test drive.
How large are the blackout regions? If they are only neighborhood size, you can drive the electric vehicle to a public charger to get more if needed.
Regarding your rooftop solar, you can bank it with a home battery. A few electric vehicles can supply power to a house, so they can function as the home battery as well as a vehicle. You may want to watch to see if that feature becomes more common in the near future.
It’s not uncommon for me to waiting at a left turn only lane, for example, and have 3-4 white Teslas in front of me and a couple behind me, here locally.
I’m not an Elon fan either, but the Tesla is just WAY too popular and lack any aesthetics that I desire for me to buy one. I think at this point, we’re going with our Toyota hybrids until they become too old and expensive to repair.
Within the past few months, we helped our D buy a new car, a Mazda CX-5. We were lucky, it was the car she wanted and had just arrived on the dealer’s lot a day earlier, had not been dealer prepped and only had 3 miles on it. Otherwise inventory at several dealerships were non-existent.
We have leased solar, so I don’t think we can bank it per our agreement. No idea how they determine which areas or neighborhoods to black out, but I wouldn’t want my ability to drive tied to my electric grid.
We have several cars and one is a plug in hybrid Subaru Crosstrek. It only gets 18 miles on an electric charge which wouldn’t work for many people. The electric miles work for my husband for his work day. He can get to work, do a few errands and go to his noonday exercise and home on a charge. We have 110 in our garage and he has the car scheduled to charge at 9pm and it’s ready in the morning. If he has an abnormal amount of work driving he can top off his charge at work. If he was doing it again he would still buy a plug in but would go with something with a longer range.
I will likely go all electric with my next car. My present car is over 7 years old and only has 42,000 miles, it gets 25 mpg in the city. I don’t see replacing it anytime soon. We also have a larger gas SUV that we rarely drive.
My son-in-law bought a used Chevy Volt last year and he is happy with his choice. Like @BunsenBurner and @sushiritto I have tons of Tesla cars driving in my community.
We really love our Toyota RAV4 Prime. It’s a plug in hybrid, and we end up going about the first 45 miles on the electric charge, then it switches to gas. If we never do long trips, we never use gas, but it’s there with a good sized tank if you need it. Quiet, comfortable, roomy, great in the snow. Easy to drive. $7500 federal tax credit (of course, who knows what will be renewed for 2023). The way we drive, we’re getting 85 mpg.
D had a new 2010 Honda Civic Hybrid. Not as reliable as it should have been. Hoping they improved it. Since sold.
We have had solar panels for years and get credit from the electric company. Our Tesla 3 with a charger in the garage is 4 years old and has not had any problems at all. It gets about 300 miles to a charge depending on your driving style and inclines/declines. We had to stop at chargers for longer trips (1000 miles) a couple of times.Our large dog rides well in the back seat and the cooling while parked is nice while we wait in the car.
D recently bought a Toyota Rav 4 Hybrid after ordering it last fall and really likes it. She really wanted a Toyota Rav 4 Prime electric but she had trouble even trying to order it. She said next time she’s going to try all electric.
Overall I think in the next few years the all electric will improve in mileage, have more AWD and higher clearance options.
