Broke down and bought a second ICE car.

[kieranmullen]

We have a minivan that we have to keep to haul our camping trailer and occasionally for work although I have a used uhaul as well. However Good Sam Insurance /National General Insurance allows us to put vehicles in and out of storage on a 30 day basis.

Other options would be to rent your vehicle back out with relayrides and getaround.com and pay per mile insurance with metromile.

 

[philkatz]

We went the PHEV route and bought a Volt last Labor Day weekend. 40+ miles EV highway and 40+mpg highway thereafter. It's used electricity for all but 10% of the miles we've put on it during the last 10 months.

Yeah that's pretty much the experience we have w/ our Volt. All electric in town (on very cheap municipally-owned hydro). My 2-3 road trips/mo are mostly 80 - 150 miles RT, so the 40 miles on electric , leaving the driveway, is a significant fraction of the trip.

When I put 1-2 gal of gas in 2x-3x/mo and calculate (miles since last fill) / (gallons put in) it comes out 90, 110, and every once in a while in the low 200's miles/gal. On longer freeway trips (ca 62-63 mph) once reaching "gas only", mode, the regen-reuse feature (switches to battery-only when charge indicator reaches 1 bar/10) results in about 50 mpg (miles between fill-ups/gallons put in).

By alternating use of the one PHEV whenever possible, and sending it always on the longer trip when we're travelling separately, we've saved a documented $80-95/mo in gasoline. Which we're throwing back into the car purchase and repair savings fund.

 

[kieranmullen]

I understood the volt to take only premium gas and gets pretty poor gas only mileage?

We went the PHEV route and bought a Volt last Labor Day weekend. 40+ miles EV highway and 40+mpg highway thereafter. It's used electricity for all but 10% of the miles we've put on it during the last 10 months.

Yeah that's pretty much the experience we have w/ our Volt. All electric in town (on very cheap municipally-owned hydro). My 2-3 road trips/mo are mostly 80 - 150 miles RT, so the 40 miles on electric , leaving the driveway, is a significant fraction of the trip.

When I put 1-2 gal of gas in 2x-3x/mo and calculate (miles since last fill) / (gallons put in) it comes out 90, 110, and every once in a while in the low 200's miles/gal. On longer freeway trips (ca 62-63 mph) once reaching "gas only", mode, the regen-reuse feature (switches to battery-only when charge indicator reaches 1 bar/10) results in about 50 mpg (miles between fill-ups/gallons put in).

By alternating use of the one PHEV whenever possible, and sending it always on the longer trip when we're travelling separately, we've saved a documented $80-95/mo in gasoline. Which we're throwing back into the car purchase and repair savings fund.

 

[uwskier20]

We have a '12 Subaru Impreza for longer trips (averaging 30 or so MPG), as well as trips to the ski slope or out on forest roads for hiking (though I bet our LEAF could handle it, the Impreza is better-equipped). Didn't get much use until my daughter arrived and my wife went on maternity leave, so now I use the LEAF for my 50-mile r/t commute while she uses the Subaru for short errands.

 

[asimba2]

My wife and I have an SUV that gets used once a week for trips that our other cars just can't do. (Towing, need roof or large interior volume, or need the 4WD). dgpcolorado's post touched on many of the same reasons we can't part with ours.

When it came time for a commuter, the Leaf was the easy choice for us. With a 57 mile roundtrip commute the Plug in Prius would barely get us out of the neighborhood on electric, nevermind the weak 18kw motor and 65 mph top speed in EV mode. I won't even talk about the CVT style transmission and the boring driving dynamics of this car. My wife and I are automotive enthusiasts, so we do want something decent to drive.

The Volt could do substantially more of our commute on electricity than the Prius, but it would still use fuel. The driving experience was much better than the Prius, with no CVT, no weaksauce motor (111kw vs 18kw) and no 65 mph limit. But the interior is cramped and we couldn't use the car to carry our mountain bikes. (That's about 25+ miles a week of driving right there.)

The Leaf had it all for us. Nice quiet electric drive, good acceleration, it does our full commute on electricity without worrying about oil changes, stale gas, exhaust systems, etc., and has the space to carry people and my mountain bike. Oh, and it cost half to drive what the other cars do.

We love our Leaf. Not just for what it doesn't do to the environment and our pocketbooks, but because it's a fantastic car to DRIVE.

 

[LeftieBiker]

As "enthusiasts" it might interest you to know that the Prius has no CVT.

 

[johnrhansen]

As "enthusiasts" it might interest you to know that the Prius has no CVT.

The way I remember the prius uses a combination of a planetary gear and motors and generators to manipulate torques and rpms, I know it's not a cvt in technical terms, but isnt the end result the same a transmission that has infinite number of ratios between the engine and the wheels.

 

[padamson1]

We have a '12 Subaru Impreza for longer trips (averaging 30 or so MPG), as well as trips to the ski slope or out on forest roads for hiking (though I bet our LEAF could handle it, the Impreza is better-equipped). Didn't get much use until my daughter arrived and my wife went on maternity leave, so now I use the LEAF for my 50-mile r/t commute while she uses the Subaru for short errands.

We have the exact same setup, Impreza for long trips and snow conditions, LEAF for daily driving. The nice thing about the Impreza is that it gets 35mpg on the highway, which is pretty amazing for a AWD.

 

[LeftieBiker]

As "enthusiasts" it might interest you to know that the Prius has no CVT.

The way I remember the prius uses a combination of a planetary gear and motors and generators to manipulate torques and rpms, I know it's not a cvt in technical terms, but isnt the end result the same a transmission that has infinite number of ratios between the engine and the wheels.

As I understand it, not exactly. You have an electric motor and an ICE: each can power the transmission-thing (power splitter?), but the electric motor can also supplement the ICE, in addition to powering the wheels directly. So you get not just variable virtual ratios, but variable power sources (motors) as well.

 

[johnrhansen]

Yes indeed. More than a CVT. Quite an ingenious idea actually.

 

[asimba2]

While it may not technically be a CVT, it has all of the driving characteristics of one. Part of what makes a car feel like it's accelerating quickly is the continual raise in engine rpm, followed by a shift to the next gear. The harder you push a car with a CVT (and this includes the Prius), the less rewarding it is. The RPMs jump up and stay at a high RPM, and not only does an Atkinson cycle 4 cylinder sound thrashy at high RPMs, but with the RPMs staying steady at a fixed level, it makes the car feel even slower than it really is. No one will ever claim a Prius is a driver's car, but I quickly get tired of the thrashing sound when getting up to speed on a metered onramp. It makes me really appreciate driving the Leaf.

I can certainly appreciate the OP's need for another vehicle. My Leaf works for 90% of my mileage, which is commuting to work. But the 10% of the time I drive my SUV, it's for getting away from work and doing fun things. It may seem counter intuitive to drive a 19mpg vehicle on the longest trips, but no one makes an affordable high range electric SUV that can tow 5,000 pounds and that has the ground clearance for demanding offroad travel. Electric drive would be awesome for rock crawling too.

It's amazing how much electric drive spoils you. It makes the thought of pistons and transmissions of any type seem so archaic.

 

[mctom987]

I don't know about 5000 lbs, but you should be able to tow 4000lbs without a problem on a Rav4 EV. Not that I'm endorsing it, just that the frame and motor output are sufficient.

Electrics have their advantages, but long range isn't one of them. Even Tesla's claimed 300mi range is nothing compared to an even 20 year-old diesel. There are even a few non-hybrids that get ~1000mi on a tank. Specifically, the TDI Diesel option on the VW Passat gets ~800mi on a tank.

 

[LeftieBiker]

Part of what makes a car feel like it's accelerating quickly is the continual raise in engine rpm, followed by a shift to the next gear.

None of which occurs perceptibly with the Leaf. ;-)

 

[asimba2]

None of which occurs perceptibly with the Leaf. ;-)

It's almost hard to imagine having 320kw on tap as in Tesla. I'm sure that is quite satisfying.

 

[pkulak]

Yes indeed. More than a CVT. Quite an ingenious idea actually.

Yeah, when you really look into how it works, it's almost like Toyota just added a battery and a couple motors so they could have a really nice CVT. If you can get a CVT by just using a single planetary gear, that's an achievement. Back then, 5-speed automatic transmissions were a big deal, and the 4-speeds were not even that reliable due to the complexity. Now we are getting CVTs in ICE-only cars, but I don't even want to image the complexity involved in that. After you drive a CVT for a while, a normal ICE shifting feels really archaic.