Trade in for a Nissan Leaf or stick with my Prius?

Oh silly me looks like you decided to keep your Prius. Smart Move !

 

Atta boy. Just imagine what the EV landscape will look like in 3-4 years. The Gen 4 Prius Plug in will be out with more EV range than its pitiful 11 miles today. I don't see how they could outfit the car with any less than 21 miles EV to match the C-Max. The Tesla Gen 3 model will come out hopefully for its $30k promised price point and 200 miles range. The Gen 2 Volt would also be on the horizon hopefully with a 5th seat this time.

You can see I am bullish on EV. There's just nowhere else to go. Gas prices will only go up. Hydrogen costs more energy to produce than you get out of it. Natural gas can be ignored unless you're Honda or a bus.

 

i'm still hung up on the car equity comment... a house has equity.. a car is a liability.

when it's paid off, it's a good time to run it into the ground till it's completely dead.. not dig yourself another hole. when i studied real estate and accounting i learned that Americans have this nasty habit of mixing a liability and asset. a house is an asset and can raise or low value accordingly... a car does nothing but drop in value. save the money for your house and run that car into the ground. then buy used. the pretty bow on top isn't worth the sticker price. (i'll never buy new again, unless i win the lotto)

 

Assets - liabilities = equity.

I have had one car a Honda Civic I purchased new from the dealer on a 5 year loan. Drove it for 12 years accumulated 250,000 miles and sold it for $500.

 

It makes perfect sense to me. It reminds me a coworker who got a new truck for hauling stuff. The old truck was beat up pretty good. He was paranoid about someone scratching the pretty new truck. (Un?)fortunately, his son had a slingshot misfire and put a really good dent on the side. After that he mentioned the ding had transformed it from a trophy vehicle into transportation vehicle.

 

Leaf for sure in your situation. You'd make money and never pay for gas based on your driving needs. No brainer. Best wishes.

 

Thanks for that. I couldn't believe what I was reading when someone from the NY area couldn't remember the recent huge lines at gas stations that were pictured all around the World, yet felt fit to ridicule an EV user for having to charge up.

Amazing how selective memory can be eh?

 

If we take the "green" view of things, consuming the resources needed to manufacture a car -any car- will always be a negative. The cost of a new car (and not just the cost in $ to you) will always be greater than keeping any vehicle you have, as long as it's reliable and serviceable. Note that this applies to the majority of conventional vehicles, too, not just hybrids......

 

You made a good choice. I'd hang onto your TSS car until the new stuff in 2015 rolls out.

 

FWIW, the Leaf has been in the news lately for a pending price drop, and modest increase in range. You might want to wait 'till the dust settles.

There's also reports from hot climates of the battery capacity falling off, faster then expected. Not precipitously, but enough to be troubling.

Personally, range concerns would govern for me: I can't see getting into a full electric vehicle for a while.

 

It's a liability, but it still has value that is partly or wholly yours depending on how much you owe...that must be considered if you're going to sell or trade it. Selling a car that you're upside-down on is a lot different than selling a car that you own outright or at least owe less than its worth. One is boneheaded, the other is just not very frugal, which is fine if you've got the money to spend.

Personally, I'll never buy used again as long as I'm financially able to do so. I'm happy to buy a new car and drive it for 10+ years, but I'm willing to spend some extra money to know exactly how its been driven and maintained for its entire lifespan.

 

I had 24 gallons (plus another 25+ in my boat gas tank which I could have siphoned out) of gas stored in my shed in advance of the hurricane.
As of two weeks after the storm when most gas stations had gas again I still had three of the six gallon gas tanks left- that's 18 gallons in ready reserve. I never, repeat never needed to wait on one of those gas lines. I had enough fuel stored up for a month's worth of commutes to work. It's called 'being prepared'. One of the reasons I bought the PIP rather than a pure electric vehicle is for it's dual fuel capability. During the two week period after hurricane Sandy- those with pure electric vehicles suffered, those with pure gasoline vehicles suffered- but those with gas/electric hybrid vehicles had it pretty easy.
We're having a Nor-easter today- I have 24+ gallons of gas in my shed as of last night. My generator is full, both snow blowers are full, both cars are filled up, we have gas heat and stove and I have a roof antenna that gets NYC stations in case cable goes out. Again, being prepared- not 'hoping' such and such doesn't happen.

 

Man, it's great to live in CA. I have an emergency supply kit bucket from Costco in the garage in case of an earthquake and two tanks of propane for the grill. No worries at all.

 

I wait in line every time I fill up at Costco!

 

Ha, ha I guess you are right. There are situations; especially for the Sandy victims. I never even realized that aspect. Also, please understand that I was referring to a national fuel shortage crisis. With the Sandy tragedy there wasn't even electricity to charge up a Nissan Leaf. It's hard for me to visualize a long long line of Leafs waiting in line at the one and only charging station...if there were even one available.

 

My wife said you want to renew the Costco Membership. I said I just don't get why I have to pay a yearly membership fee to enter a store with a concrete floor and steel racks and buy in bulk more stuff that I ever need. It just proves that Consumers are so silly. I can go to other stores and they carpeting and never pay an entrance fee. So I ended my Costco membership probaly 5 years ago and never missed it.

 

You have the same thing with Direct TV, Dish, and all the others. You pay an exorbitant fee to watch 40% commercials of company's trying to sell you everything from soup to nuts. Imagine!!! YOU are paying them!!! Only in America. Sorry for the rant. Now back to our Nissan Leaf commercial.

 

Cable TV is such a load of bull, you have to pay for channels you never watch. I get basic cable 30 channels, Netflix for movies, and use Redbox for new releases. Manage to keep it under $50 per month. DSL well thats another story. I digress. Back to the Leaf !

 

well as long as you dont have to make a quick trip to florida youll be okay. im sticking to good ole prius until the leaf becomes a hundred mile hybrid

 

After sandy, when there were really long gas lines (because many stations were off-line becuase they had no eletricity), EV owners would not be able to charge. A PiP or Volt would still be able to get around.