Should I get a Prius type vehicle?

I am thinking the same thing . 
 I travel 12miles one way to a small town .
I also like to fish every other morning April to October and travel 8/10 miles in the spring and 16/18 miles in late summer and fall .
 My road is impassable by car 5/6 months a year . 
  We all drive heavy duty trucks now .
  I think it’s a great idea for summer use even if you need to add some more solar .

I had a Chevy Volt here again this summer and I would like something like it. All electric for 50 miles and then a gas engine comes on. Easy to charge on 120 or 240. Chevy Bolt now as the Volt is gone now. Plenty of used ones.

I really want something a bit more like a Civic where the back seat folds flat and 48x62 inch solar panels can fit in. This is nice because you could sleep back there in a pinch. Sometimes I have to go up into the mountains and can get stuck with weather. 

Guessing a small truck with 100 miles range would be nice. At that point one could lose the gas engine and save some money.

All of these vehicles are a bit scary in how they expose you to getting hurt in an accident. I would not want one in the Bay area for sure. Lots of people do.

 Great for rural, in my opinion. You hear everything.

I've had a used Nissan Leaf for almost 4 years.  Depending upon your range needs (essentially the  battery condition), you might find one for well under $6000.  Most of the really cheap ones will have around 10, maybe up to 15 kWh left in the battery - at 4 miles/kWh, with 90% charging (max), you will get 30 to 45 miles - but no steep mountain climbs!  Easy to charge overnight with the included 120 VAC charge controller - or set up your own direct solar charger.  Just a thought as they are a great reliable, fun car.  I live in suburbia, and it's essentially the only car we use (we have an older SUV), plus it has paid for itself.

softdown said:

Buying to save money on gas isn't too likely to work out unless one spends a lot less than $3000. Insurance, maintenance, plates, tires etc. 

I've done a detailed cost comparison including all that you have mentioned, plus depreciation and have saved several thousand dollars.  HOWEVER, my situation involves a large SUV, that I do need for business purposes and is quite a bit more expensive to operate.  Also, I am able to extend (reliably) the life of the SUV - so I delayed the purchase of a new one for several years ($$$'s).  Bottom line, it may not be for everyone, however, for me, not one regret driving around a large go-cart (again, think fun) rather than the behemoth Suburban (and I can park in one shot).  

The main purpose in buying was to experiment with the battery for energy storage for my solar system (cheapest Li battery at the time by far), but two things happened.  It was a like-new car that was useful and fun, plus solar charging was worked out, however, getting the energy back is a much more difficult proposition (unlike the PriUPS).  With bi-directional CHAdeMO protocols, this is about to change (commercially).

A little off topic..maybe, but one of the great bargains out there are Nissan Leafs off lease!  They are great cars if you only need 50 mile range (second car?). They can be had a few years old of 1/3 the price of new, still with lots of warrantee left.  I would buy one in a heart beat if Susan’s Prius were in need of replacement. (175,000 trouble free KMS). If I lived in town full time it would be a no brainer with a grid tied system.  Transport cost, even at market rate KWH is far cheaper than and ICE car, and if you get those kwh from your PV it is nearly free.

Tony

Dave,

I heard the same about early edition Leafs.  The newer ones seem to have a better record, and Nissan warrants them well, even in the used market.  All that said, they are so dirt cheap (used) for what you get off lease in particular, if if some battery issues are present. A new factory fresh Leaf battery is ~$5k, not cheap, but if you get a $30k for 10, with 85% of it’s battery life left, even budgeting a new battery in future, it still is a bargain.  Other costs of operation are so minimal.  Tires, brakes very rarely, and odds and ends.  Compared to almost anything else on the road, dollar for dollar, per mile I bet it would be hard to beat.
The reason they “depreciate” so fast is that people buy them for the tax credit, and with the current “cheap” price of fuel, people want Explorers to grocery shop!
A sample AutoTrader page:https://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale/Used+Cars/Nissan/Leaf/Bellingham+WA-98225?makeCodeList=NISSAN&listingTypes=USED&searchRadius=100&modelCodeList=LEAF&zip=98225&startYear=1981&endYear=2020&sortBy=relevance&numRecords=25&firstRecord=0&marketExtension=true

I think a leaf makes sense for a real urbanite, or as a second car.  If I only could afford on car, I would buy a good Corolla over anything else!  Tony

softdown said:

I think an little old econo box may be my best bet. 

softdown said:

Buying to save money on gas isn't too likely to work out unless one spends a lot less than $3000. Insurance, maintenance, plates, tires etc. 

If you think about buying an econo box, I can not recommend more highly the Toyota Echo.

I had 2 of them from 2004 -  2018, One had 42K when I bought it the other had 112K. the first one was a 2002 purchased in 2004 and I drove it almost 10 years, it had over 240K when I parked it, The motor and drive train were still fine and I had recently driven it to Florida from Missouri, Lots of other issues but mostly cosmetic. This was a 5 speed manual, I regularly got close to 50 mpg!!! I managed 50+ on one trip to Florida from Central Missouri. Just before parking it I had driven to Fort Collins CO. I had to stop and get gas in Junction City KS. I say I had to, but I was just under 1/4 tank showing and I had traveled almost 520 miles. Literally down hill and with a 30mph tall wind, and me upset (services for an uncle) I was driving slow. I filled the tank the next day and over the 2 tanks I got 58 MPG! After having my new car for 3 years and it sitting in the yard only moved a couple times and not started in over a year. Stripped of its good tires,  I jumped it off on 3yr old gas   and drove it on 2 donuts and 2 tires with separated belts to a guy's party where they put 10#  of cordite(?) under it and taught it to fly!

It flew fine, but didn't land well.


The 2nd Echo had 120K when I got it and in 2004 and I drove it 120K over 4 years and sold it running, have recently gone to Florida Thanksgiving and Christmas. I had kept it for 6 months to see how my Scion XB (basically a tall boxy Toyota Echo until 2009) It  was an automatic and never got the dramatic gas mileage, but  40-42 regularly.  I never did any mechanical work to the engines,  drive train. I drove many miles on gravel roads and didn't even have wheel problems. Just general maintenance. The coils do go out on these and I replaced all 4 on the original, the 2nd never had a problem, though I stole a coil off it for the Scion (same motor) so I would  consider that a 'known problem'.

If you can find one of these little econoboxes, the economy will impress you.

Estragon said:

Not getting much change back from $3k on replacing a timing chain on my ICE car tomorrow. 

BTW - A real oil soaked timing chain, didn't touch it in either car! Not a timing belt often found in small cars.

Sienna mini van if a mini van works for you.  Great vehicle, comfortable, good mileage, not cheap to buy but cheap to run.  Also available in AWD butyou pay a huge price and fuel penalty for and AWD one.  Followed closely by the Honda Odessey.

Tony