Zactly. Buy for the fat part of your envelope, not the corner cases.
I dealt with that regularly when buying houses or condos. Friends wanted to buy one with an extra guest room. I didn’t buy that wasted room, but put my guests up at the Ritz Carlton. I spent much less per year than they did on accomodating friends. And my friends got a real treat.
If you need it every day, buy it. If you need it 10 days a year, rent it. Period.
Minor counter point, though I agree with you on the greater points, and admitted so in my prior PHEV/BV thread. A PHEV can (notice can, not is) be the best of all worlds, while simultaneously being the worst of all worlds. A lot depends on where you live, the charging infrastructure, the sort of home you live in and lots of other real world factors.
We bought a PHEV when our previous plans (getting a BEV while having the remaining ICE until we traded that on a PHEV) for the long trips we take of 10-15 days of the year fell victim of a separate issue not quite addressed in your comment. The at-home charging option.
For us, we found out that our home (built 1982) had a quite out-of-date panel, and to get a level 2 charger, meant a cost of $8-$13k and a wait on inspections, code confirmation, etc. And my car was dying, so a PHEV is worthwhile choice IF you’re limited to level one charging. And, by that standard, the PHEV premium is lower than needed work. But of course, we’d have gotten a fully upgraded panel out of it, the level 2 charger by itself would have been around $2k. And of course, you can charge a BEV over level one as well, but a bit more planning is involved.
A similar but slightly more severe issue applies to a friend who wanted a BEV. He (at the time twoish years ago) rented an enclosed garage from his apartment complex. And they had power outlets in the garage (only one) but of course, he couldn’t have put in a level 2 charger there. So a PHEV was one of his top options, though he ended up going with a conventional hybrid, since he was planning on moving to a place without a private garage.
So, I said it was a -minor- counter. Because if the PHEV you’re looking at has very limited all-electric range, I agree, the Premium you pay for such features is absurd (looking at the PHEV Crosstrek with judging eyes!). Longer end of all electric (the 42+ of our Rav4) for example, and it makes more sense, though I wouldn’t give it a strong preference. Combine it with any number of issues (our personal issues with charging at home, our medium terrible local and regional charging issues, and Trump’s nuking of incentives to create and maintain such infrastructure?) and it becomes, quite literally a YMMV situation!
Is that the tubular steel thingy behind the tailgate in the high-five pic?
And high-five on the new household wheels!
Welcome!
A few other resources that were really helpful for us:
Edmunds.com (as @madmonk28 pointed out, thanks for that!)
The Edmunds YouTube Channel is also very good, with clear and to-the-point videos without the fluff and HEY GUYS of your average YouTuber. They’re much higher quality.
Carsized.com was very helpful for visually comparing different car sizes, like this Solterra vs EV9 comparison:
Yeah, exactly! If the prices of the PHEVs and BEVs were closer (both upfront and over time, as in maintenance), we would’ve preferred the PHEV. I didn’t realize they were quite a bit more expensive, and harder to find.
Thanks!
And no, lol, that’s just a coincidentally positioned ski lift chair at the dealership.
The actual bike rack we have is a Kuat Piston Pro X, which is really good. But I need to get a hitch on the Solterra first. It has no towing capacity, unlike most Subarus, but can hold a tongue weight of up to 300 lbs or so. Good enough for a bike rack.
Har! I wrote, deleted, wrote, edited, deleted, rewrote and posted the question since it looked like a shopping cart corral mounted to the tailgate and I wasn’t sure how to politely ask why you wanted that rusty POS bike rack put on her new car.
Yesterday I came home with a 2022 Ioniq 5, and I think I’m happy about it.
The bad:
The good:
I was also going to recommend Mazda. My CX-5 (gas only) is now nine years old and I’ve had zero problems with it. Great engine with excellent acceleration when needed. It looks like the newer hybrids get good reviews, also.
I’m not sure about EVs, but my KIA Niro PHEV’s charger was regularly shutting itself off unexpectedly. It turns out that there is a secret button on the back that allows you to change the amperage draw from the outlet. My charger was set at the highest (12 amp) setting. I reduced it to 8 amps & no more problems, but it takes all night to charge.
Maybe your charger was set at the lowest current by the previous user? If Hyundai’s manuals are as woefully inadequate as Kia’s (despite being roughly the size of the King James bible) you will probably have to Google the model of charger you have to find the secret button.
4 miles per hour seems about right from a normal outlet.
While it’s possible for many to make that work, it would be frustrating for me, even though I don’t put on a lot of miles. It was fine for our PHEVs, but once we switched to pure EV, I was very glad we have Level 2.
Hey congrats all on the new stuff — myself also in this process. Having moved back to PR, if you’ve read news about us lately, I am not going for EV nor PHEV just out of the unreliability of the grid especially in hurricane season.
Though their first-year in-house plug-ins apparently had teething problems, but I am also looking there. I always assume we should stay away from first-year-new models anyway because something always comes up.
As someone who bought a Polestar 2 last December (I have a local dealer and got a crackin deal – 20k after rebate for a 2 year old car with 36k miles) I can assure you that you made the right decision about avoiding Polestar (I assume you looked at the Polestar 3, currently available with a 399/month lease with 5k cash down for a RWD model).
While the driving experience is very good, the reliability is poor, with a number of infotainment related issues that years of work can’t seem to resolve. People have issues with the heat/AC not working, rear camera not working, and I can attest on the PS2 that random shit works one way today and will work the opposite tomorrow. Are they slowly resolving issues? Sure, but it’s 2025 (3 years after release of my car) and I still can’t depend on the rear camera, the radio is sometimes on when you start the car, sometimes not, the interface is super-laggy….it’s tolerable if you are a tolerant person who wants a cheap EV AND you have a local service area. If not, I’d advise to stay away.
That sounds about right for charging off a regular 110 outlet. As you probably know, the only option is to find a way to provide a 220 outlet near the car.
Check your electric utilities web page and see if they have any incentives or discounts related to installing a level 2 charger.
Before looking at any outside the box options, get a couple of quotes from electricians for installing a 220 outlet or level 2 charger. It may be within your budget, and if so is going to be the easiest option. 30 amps (really, even 20) is plenty if you are limited by the available power or budget. If your electrical panel can support it, and the price difference is small, then go for 50 or 60 amps.
Next, there are some outside the box options available if there are reasons not to install a 220 line. These are things like devices that will let your car share with an existing 220 outlet, like a dryer. If multiple 110 circuits are available, and they are on different legs of your power you can get setups to combine them into a 220 circuit.
You should also familiarize yourself with local level 2 chargers. Apps like Plugshare, or just Google Maps can help. Free ones aren’t as common anymore, but still exist. Usually, they’re going to be much cheaper than level 3 chargers (but not always, check the price!), so might occasionally be useful when you can do things like leave the car there for 8 hours to get a full charge.
I’m on my second Mazda3, they’ve been remarkably reliable. The Big Two enjoy the better reputation in the segment but I enjoy the lower cost. It’s comforting to know that, when I need to shop for a car again (not too soon), it’s just a matter of finding a Mazda3 deal.
You might even find a free one. There are several in our area. (one at a grocery store, one at a restaurant.)
Apparently the Ionic 5 has a similar control, as discussed here.
My only beef with my car is that the suspension is too stiff; I feel every bump in the road. But on the plus side, it has the best AWD control of any car I’ve owned. Better than Jeep, better than my Chrysler, better than Honda. It’s really hard to make the car spin out in snow, and I’ve tried.
My son is on his 2nd Mazda and he loves them. First one was a CX-5 and it is surprising it lasted as long as it did given the lack of maintenance from the previous owner. He bought a new CX-30 last year and it is great. I think they are sneaky reliable meaning no one talks about their reliability like they do about Toyota & Honda but I think Mazdas rank right up with them.
Absolutely and especially at the low-mid compact tier my 3 is in. I think the CX-30 & 50 are probably excellent in their class and would reflexively start looking there if I was shopping for more of a trucky thing. I know a CX-50 and Mazda2 owners and they seem happy.
That’s the Zoom-Zoom, another little secret among us Mazdapeeps. Great value, A+ dependabliliy, a little more pep in the step than a Tercel.
Yeah–this is where I’m at now. I just had an electrician out to do some work, including updating our ancient fuse box, with an eye toward a level 2 charger. We’re prepped, but he didn’t want to install a charger until I knew what kind of EV I would get. I was literally at the bank finalizing the loan when he called to say he’d finished all the other work and was leaving, so I’ll need to call the estimator back out and get it installed. Meanwhile there are two free L2 chargers a five-minute walk from where I work, at the Chamber of Commerce; I may see if I can park there once a week while I work so it can charge back up.
I already checked this, and it’s at the 12 amp charge now. Which is good, because I’m not seeing any response to my clicking the hidden button. Maybe it needs to be unplugged when I click it? In any case, since it’s working, just slowly, I’ll leave it be.
Consumer Reports and other car rankers love Mazda. The only one that’s been somewhat problematic was the original CX-9, I don’t think that’s continued to the 90.
Their stock tires are pretty mediocre though, upgrade those at some point.