smackaholic wrote: ↑Thu Jan 19, 2023 3:53 pm
Miguel,
How's your Hyundai EV working out for you?
Contrary to what you enviro-fascists may think, I am actually a big fan of EVs for short range transportation. I am a bigger fan of plug in hybrids as they can cover a far wider range of trans needs. I am also a big fan of my Jetta Sportwagen TDI. Just turned over 200K. Can turn in an effortless 700 mile day and still gets 45 mpg. Ginormous cargo capacity. Also, it actually feels like a well built, almost luxury Nazi built ride, which is something a Prius will never achieve. No knock on the Prius. It is a fantastic car.
Lil' Miss Smack in looking at the Hyundai Ioniq. Any thoughts on it? IMO, it gives a bit more band for the buck that the Toy Hybrids.
Still driving it. It's by far the funnest car to drive that I've ever owned. I looks like a boring little crossover hatchback but it blows most other vehicles away at stoplights and it's pretty nimble in traffic. I think I've been leaving some pissed of drivers. It's not a Tesla but the low end torque is very much in evidence. The thing that limits its acceleration most is the low resistance tires. My three year lease came up last May and I wanted to trade it in on one of the new Hyundai EVs, the Ioniq 5, but they were still in short supply back then and all the dealers were tacking on at least a $5000 "adjustment." Plus if you wanted to lease, Hyundai Finance would pocket the $7500 tax credit. When I leased mine in 2019 they took it off the MSRP. Now, Hyundais don't qualify for the tax credit because they aren't assembled in the US. So fuck that. I bought out the lease.
When I originally leased it I figured that in three years time there would be plenty of different EVs on the market, but they're all pretty slow to come out. I had my eye on a Rivian R1T or R1S, which are pretty amazing vehicles, but they're a couple of years behind in production and they've raised their prices. I will never buy (or lease) a Tesla, and I've said that almost from the start. I only had about 20,000 miles on the Kona EV when the lease came up, because of the lockdown, then commuting two or three days for a year or so, and now retired. I actually had about $7000 or $8000 equity on the 36,000 mile lease based on market value at the time, so I just bought it out for about $19K, and I'll hold onto it until something better comes along. Cheap as hell to drive. Periodic maintenance is rotate the tires every 5000 miles and change the cabin air filter every 10,000. I don't need to make any 700 mile trips in it, but it has a 300 mile range which is more than enough to get me to LA and back. Then I charge it overnight for almost nothing.
I drove an Ioniq hybrid for about a month a couple of years ago when the Kona was getting its battery replaced. It was OK, but definitely a step down from the Kona EV in terms of power, handling, ride and interior noise. I don't know much about the Toyota hybrids, but the Prius has always been butt ugly IMO.
