An ICE based car as a second car...

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Herm said:
DaveinOlyWA said:
he was averaging about 1300 mpg on his reckoning.

This guy could have made a Leaf work for him :D
Tell me about it. He states he is occasionally required to use his POV for work purposes but lately there has been a state vehicle available and he hasn't used the Volt one single time.
 
DaveinOlyWA said:
Herm said:
DaveinOlyWA said:
he was averaging about 1300 mpg on his reckoning.

This guy could have made a Leaf work for him :D
Tell me about it. He states he is occasionally required to use his POV for work purposes but lately there has been a state vehicle available and he hasn't used the Volt one single time.

This is a good example of the fear that needs to be overcome if EVs are going to really take off. Probably a topic for another string. :oops:
 
actually his situation is a microcosm of how the US is going. 2 years ago he stated he was taking at least 2-3 times a month and always using POVs and he was driving an old pickup and some trips were 200+ miles RT. he was reimbursed but had serious doubts about being able to make some of the longer trips plus he was burning a quart every other week or so.

so that is why he got the Volt. if not for that he would have gotten the LEAF or MiEV.

now, the State budget aint what it used to be so the need to use a state vehicle has been reduced along with the # of state workers and it has always been the policy that you only use your POV if a state vehicle was NA which used to be the case.

now, not so much. in fact, he states he usually has a choice of half a dozen vehicles to choose from
 
Finally able to back this trip to Santa Ysabel without need for an ICEd based car cos the DCQC is finally installed:

20121117110630.jpg


eHelmholtz said:
Here's hoping that the LEAF can make this trip and back easily with the DC charger in place soon near this location in Santa Ysabel. For now, it's the ICE.

Santa%2520Ysabel_Z4.jpg
Of course, the windy roads still beacon my roadster.
 
I wonder if the new members on this forum have a second car whether for fun or to extend the range.
 
My wife's previous car, 2012 Mits Lanser GT, is now my driver, with my wife taking the Leaf. It is also our driver for longer trips. She fell in love with the Leaf so I only get to drive it when we go somewhere together.

My old car, 2000 Hyundai Sonata GLS, is now the spare which lately has been on loan. I was thinking of selling it, but I will probably end up donating it where it could be used by someone that really needs a reliable car.
 
Lexus IS 250 here as the secondary car. Ever since we got our Leaf a month ago I avoid the Ice car like a vampire avoids garlic :)

Blue Leaf in Markham Ontario
 
My wife and I generally buy our cars and keep them for 200,000+ miles, but for the last couple of years we have been doing some car-shuffling trying to position ourselves for a car like the Leaf. We started by selling our older Volvo 940 turbo and 850 turbo for our first new car, a 2012 Acura TSX Sportwagon. It's a great car for driving across the country and gets 35 mpg. We also have a 2000 Toyota 4Runner SUV that is lifted and supercharged and it works great for skiing, hauling tons of gear, off-roading and towing. It still gets 19-20 mpg despite all the modifications we have done to it.

Once we sold off our other cars, we finally picked up our Leaf early this year. I commute it everyday and it has become our primary car. In the past three months we have driven the 4Runner twice to go skiing and once to get into the backcountry and my wife commutes the Acura, but that's only on days I have the Leaf. The Leaf is always the first vehicle choice for many reasons beyond the low cost to operate.

For our lifestyles, having the Leaf, a comfortable high-mileage wagon (Acura) for cross country trips + a 4WD SUV for literally everything else is a nice mix.
 
I bought the Leaf last summer and the other two vehicles have definitely become the second cars.

Last summer, 3 weeks after I placed a factory order for my Leaf SV, the 2003 Doge Ram 1500 pickup threw a rod (on a trip a 300 miles from home), so I took it to a local engine shop to get a new engine installed. The same day that the Leaf arrived in town, the pickup came back from the engine shop. Since that time, mileage on my three vehicles has been:

2013 Leaf SV - 9,100 miles

2003 Dodge Ram 1500 - 800 miles (350 of that was a round trip to Kansas City for a wedding, 100 miles was towing the 16' trailer to haul stuff around town, and possibly 200 miles have been loaning it to friends that needed a pickup for a day.

2006 Ariel Atom 2 - 600 miles. For the last three years, I put 2,200 to 2,900 miles/year on the Atom. Part of this was just wanting to drive the Atom, but it was also a wretched Fall and Winter, so it has been parked for a while. It's just barely getting to where it's nice enough in the morning to drive it to work now.

I'm sort of toying with the idea of selling the Leaf and Atom and buying a Model S to replace them. If the prices on used Tesla Roadsters had dropped a little faster than they had, I would have purchased one of them instead of the Atom.
 
What's an Ariel Atom? (I'm at work and can't search as easily.) Anyway, we have a different arrangement: my housemate's Prius PHEV is my second car, which I've used exactly twice: once for range and once for more cargo space, to buy an electric bicycle. She, OTOH, thinks the Leaf is Evil, and won't drive it unless I'm with her, so she has no second car.
 
The Tesla roadster instead of the atom? It looks like the Atom is fun on a different level!

Here's what Jeremy Clarkson has to say:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WaWoo82zNUA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 
LeftieBiker said:
What's an Ariel Atom? (I'm at work and can't search as easily.) Anyway, we have a different arrangement: my housemate's Prius PHEV is my second car, which I've used exactly twice: once for range and once for more cargo space, to buy an electric bicycle. She, OTOH, thinks the Leaf is Evil, and won't drive it unless I'm with her, so she has no second car.

from wiki

The Ariel Atom is a road legal high performance sports car made by the Ariel Motor Company based in Crewkerne, Somerset, England and under licence in North America by TMI Autotech, Inc. at Virginia International Raceway in Alton, Virginia.

The Ariel Atom is unusual in that it is exoskeletal — the chassis is prominently visible from the outside — and therefore lacks a roof, windows and other features normally found on road cars although a small windscreen is available as an optional extra. The chassis design leads to a relatively high drag coefficient of 0.40 in comparison to more aerodynamic road cars.[3]
 
Oddly enough, the only reason I have the Atom is because of my long-standing interest in electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids. Back in 2006, there weren't really any production options available. I was intrigued by one-off vehicles like the T-Zero as well as contemplating conversions like the homegrown Plug-In Prius conversions. I eventually came across the Wrightspeed X1, which was designed by a former Tesla engineer and used a drivetrain from AC Propulsion (like the one used on the T-Zero) and which also was apparently the start of the drive train on the Tesla Roadster. I eventually found out the source of the chassis on the X1, an Atom, and found they had an AtomFest scheduled in the fall of 2006, where 35+ Atoms arrived for a 4-day track event in Hallett, OK. After getting a passenger ride in the Atom on the track at AtomFest in 2006, I "had to have one", and eventually found the right one on eBay, getting rid of the motorcycle to help pay for the Atom.
 
Things have changed a bit since the 2011 LEAF days. As EVs have more range, there's little need for an ICE based car as a second car but I still have my roadster for the weekends.
 
There are still quite a few folks here in CO that need/want a 'real' 4WD vehicle. I was just on a road this weekend that was at the limits of my Subaru Outback. I doubt any Tesla would have the clearance to make it and while an Outback isn't that serious a 4WD car either, it is cheap enough that I didn't mind testing the limits of it as I wouldn't really care if I dented the bottom or tore a CV boot, etc.
 
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