Moving to Laughlin, NV. Mechanic?

Frustration abounds. I don't have much in the way of good things to say about First American Title Company. Here we are, having to move by Friday and they're dragging their feet. They got our $100k down payment on Monday. This morning they insisted they didn't have it and it was our lender's fault for not sending it (they did). The lady at FAT has pretty poor customer service skills and doesn't seem to care much about getting her job done and she's blamed our lender, us, and a host of other people because she won't do her flipping job in a timely manner. Every excuse she's come up with blames other people and we proved with documentation and having those other people contact her directly that it's her fault. Our lender called after we hung up with her and without hesitation she told them they received it at the time the lender said they sent it.

We had let FAT know on at least four different occasions we were even willing to drive to Nevada to sign papers to expedite things. So today she calls us and tells us she'll have a notary drive down here for signatures tomorrow " if I can schedule one on such short notice". Then the notary would have to drive them back and the final close wouldn't happen until Friday. They have an office within 5 miles of here but they can't handle it and save half the time?

She was shocked when we told her we will BE in her office in Henderson, NV at 9 a.m. tomorrow and she had not only have everything ready for us to sign but she'd better have them filed with the proper government office by tomorrow at the close of business. So far today we, our realtor, our loan company and who knows else have called her and gotten on her case.

Moving to another state and buying a new home is stressful enough without having to deal with a title company that is so big they no longer care about the customer.

 

Believe it or not, there are no Prius taxis out here. I talked to a couple of taxi drivers and the local taxi company uses older, pretty beat up Buick Century cars because there is a Chevy/Buick dealer locally. There was a medical transport company that used Prii but it went out of business a few years ago. It ran its cars the 42 miles to the Lake Havasu Toyota dealership for service. Driving around, there are almost no Prii with local plates on them. Even my real estate agent (He drives a Prius V) gets his serviced up in the Las Vegas area, coordinating it with either some real estate business or a shopping trip he can accomplish on the same trip.

With my HV battery nearing a "It's time to replace it" point we can

1) keep the car, replace the battery pack, coordinate servicing with out-of-town shopping trips. Because of our frequent long interstate trips we already have upgraded AAA towing service that covers towing all the way to Havasu or Vegas if something major happens, or

2) replace the car with a more conventional used Toyota (Camry or 2017-2018 Corolla XLE) and have it serviced by a good local mechanic who is only five miles away, or

3) replace the car with a small GM SUV like a Buick Encore, giving us more comfort as we continue to get older and we'd have a local car dealership to work with when we need one.

I'm leaning towards options #1 or 2 while my wife is leaning to option #3. One consideration is that whatever we drive is most likely going to see 15,000+ miles per year.

 

Well, it's a compromise of #s 1 and 3. Monday I'm having my hybrid mechanic in California replace the both the HV and 12v batteries with Toyota OEM ones. The Prius will continue to be our "long distance driver". Between the Battery Tender for the 12v and the Prolong system for the HV pack it should be good electrically for years despite the heat out here in the summer. I'll coordinate other maintenance with trips to Havasu or Vegas for shopping and doctors' visits.

We're going to replace my wife's 2007 Yaris sedan with a used compact or midsize SUV for us to use as our primary daily driver around here. Even if we give up some mpg the impact on our wallets will be minimal since gas is quite a bit cheaper on the Arizona side of the river. We get the comfort and room of the SUV around town and the efficiency of the Prius on open highway trips.
I'm leaning toward a used Toyota Rav-4, Honda CR-V or Subaru Forester. My wife sat in a Volkswagen Tiguan and fell in love with it. To be honest, I have kind of disregarded VWs over the years. I do know they cost more than the others to maintain but I'm ignorant when it comes to the Tiguan's reliability and durability. The SUV purchase is not something that has to happen quickly so I have time to pound the keyboard researching vehicles.

We know we're investing a lot in the Prius but it's been a good car and we're very comfortable keeping it in the garage.