Drew Dowdell

@knightfan26917 believes that something like RWD or FWD, EV or Gas, is something that is a defining characteristic of a nameplate. I don't agree. I don't think that changing which wheels drive the car necessarily ruing the spirit of the nameplate.... maybe on something like a Corvette... but a vehicle like the Riviera or Eldorado has been RWD and FWD and the FWD models are arguably the best ones of the bunch. I'm still miffed at Chevy for not calling the Silverado EV the Avalanche since it is so clearly a design descendant of the name, but Cort would disagree with me there because it's an EV and not gas powered.

It's a bit of a selection bias there. R&D dollars have been poured into EVs over the last 10 years while R&D for ICEs has been drastically cut. I don't remember exactly when it was, but somewhere about 5 or 6 years ago, several automakers including VW and MB came out and said they were no longer developing new engine platforms and were just going to let their current (at the time) engines live out their useful production cycle with minor refinements. Now, I'm sure that policy has changed since then, but it shows where the development dollars were flowing at the time. Additionally, EVs also had the most room for improvement, and selecting 2 years is cherry picking at its worst. Those 2 years ALSO happen to be the switch over from 2nd gen EVs on primarily gas platforms to 3rd gen EVs on dedicated EV platforms. The 4th gen is just starting now with the Stellantis and MB platforms that can easily do both. Walmart is motivated solely by profit and Amazon has already proven that delivery vans with 150 mile range are a perfect use case for home delivery. They aren't providing chargers out of benevolence, they are building charging stations, paid for in large part by state and federal rebate checks, for the primary purpose of powering their home delivery fleet. Amazon may have led the field with mass deployment of EV delivery vans, but Walmart is going a step further in getting tax dollars to build out their infrastructure. I'm sure if it wasn't a requirement of the tax rebates, Walmart would rather you didn't use their chargers at all.

Yeah, $1200 a year is too high. I'll just pocket the money and keep building it up in the maintenance and repair fund I have that part of our expense checks go into. I'm going to leave it active till about September or October and then kill it. The car has largely been solid, but we did have some major repairs for a differential and an internal oil leak. The warranty did pay for itself there and I'm sure is a factor on why they raised my plan so much this renewal. I'd honestly buy another one if I wasn't set on an EV. For a long distance comfort cruiser, it's been a great car for the $23k we paid for it. We did a getway over the holiday weekend out to Columbus, Ohio and managed 29 mpg out of it. I've driven the Wagonner S a couple times. It's on the list because it's around 300 mile range and it's the size and shape Albert wants. He wants the Acura more though. I want the Lyriq more. I want the G80 EV the most, but I'd have to put the Avalanche into storage for that because he still wants a crossover for himself.

I don't think old tech / new tech is going to matter to him on the charging front. He's going to charge at home on Level 2 mostly and spending a lot of extra money to charge 7 minutes faster a couple times a year isn't a good ROI. He's gonna kill the vehicle on mileage, so by the time his kids are bigger it will be time for a replacement vehicle anyway.

Yeah, it sounds like it's purely a spreadsheet decision for you plus having a few niceties. I'm very much in the same boat right now. Chrysler just increased the monthly payment on my extended warranty to $100/m from $60/m. We own the car outright, but now that warranty is getting to be too high when you consider it's also a $250 deductible for a repair claim, so we're gonna start shopping soon once some respective job changes settle down. I'm looking hard at used Lyriqs for now because I would really love having Super Cruise for all the highway travel I do. He won't be driving much at all anymore because his new place he can get to by bus. He likes the look of the ZDX and Wagoneer S. I want to like the Mach-E but I'm meh on the interior. He doesn't want something EV9 or Ioniq 9 sized. There's no equation for us that makes buying an EV financially better than keeping our 300C, but it's got 105k miles on it and that's typically when we start looking to trade. That said, I've been banking 50% of both of our monthly mileage checks for a while now so between the trade in value and a sizable down payment fund, we should be good when the time comes.

Yea, at those numbers an EV9 doesn't break even. It depends on what kind of capability you're looking for if you need that kind of hauling capabilities. I think your Prologue / Blazer idea is pretty sound and you might even pull off a slight monthly savings that way if you can find a deal on one and drop the Navi.

You both have points kinda. The Kia is going to depreciate, but with the mileage you're doing, everything is going to depreciate. You're gonna get killed on whatever you buy or you're gonna get killed fueling the Navigator. If you're making payments on the Navigator, you might end up netting out to the same monthly on an EV9 after subtracting fuel costs, but having a substantially newer vehicle. That said, $25k for a near full-size crossover in this economy means it's gonna have 75k miles or more if you find an amazing deal, so at $40k, you're just buying lower mileage regardless of how it's powered. A Kia Telluride with 15k miles is... $42k. A Kia EV9 with 15k miles is... $43k.

When you have an hour, go test drive one. Put it into sport mode and beat on it a little. You'll be surprised. Yeah it's only like 220hp or whatever, but the torque is instant.

Keeping the Navigator brings me back to the 2016+ Volt idea. https://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale/vehicle/784272025 And I know they're not the best looking, but they ride great and they're remarkably fun to drive. https://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale/vehicle/784844959 Or, if you want a bit of style: https://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale/vehicle/766048516

I was just looking for an affordable commuter scooter that would save more than your gas bill per month in the Navigator.

Undetermined at this time. Just that BMW trademarked it.

https://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale/vehicle/782297241

They have the X7 and eventually an X8.

I'm old enough to remember when there were Xes on the eyes of cartoon characters, that meant they were dead.

That brings up another good point. This may seem obvious, but the calculus for an EV works better the worse the mileage of the equivalent gas vehicle is. I remember a while ago people trying to compare the Hummer EVs to a Corolla and saying it didn't make financial sense for the Hummer. But the real comparison is probably something more like an Escalade. A Hummer EV may not be a great savings compared to a Corolla, but it blows away an Escalade.