I have 2 upcoming car purchases coming up. We need to replace my wife's 2015 e-Golf (lease is coming to an end) - she loves driving an electric car, so probably another one, the new e-Golf has more range (125 miles) so this is the likely replacement, but we will go look at the new Leaf as well. There is no way to get a Model 3 in time - although the one that I have seen was very cool. Maybe the one car after that one will be one of those. Also, my oldest is going to take her driving test in a couple of months, and assuming she passes - we probably would need to get a cheapo car for her to drive around, as my wife needs her car and we do not want her to drive one of the old crocks that I keep as my drivers. Maybe I will come up to Portland and find her an old lifted Subaru with a snorkel (she does not need one, but I would love to have a small lifted car based thing to bomb around on dirt tracks)
We have the 2016 e-golf as well. Have nothing but good things to say about it. My wife uses it to commute to work. Gets about 110 Miles/Charge on it, though it's not rated for that. The new VW ID Hatchback to go into production November 2019
Ours is actually a 2015 - we got an early one. It is rated at 83 and used to get close to 100 - but after almost 3 years, the range certainly is not that great anymore - it is a 75 miles car now when it is warm. I think the only issue I have with the e-Golf is that because it is not active cooling for the batteries - they lose range, or at least ours did. That's why you lease new technology I guess. Other than that - it is really an excellent car. Yeah, I do not think the better half is willing to wait. We either get a stop-gap car or she drives our long-distance family car daily (we have an old Lexus GX470 that is almost never used, other than long trips / all family driving). I suspect that we will just get another lease, and look at maybe buying the car after that one - with the hope that batteries are better and it makes sense to do so. FWIW - I am still driving my 1993 Mazda Miata as my daily driver. That car looks like a barbie car, but it is one of the toughest little cars ever made. That thing just keeps on ticking, despite living outside and acting as my race car back in the day (for 5 years it did maybe 10,000 miles in PIR swapping paint). In more than 20 years it never once had any unscheduled work other than a radiator replacement I did a couple of years ago when it started to slowly leak. I changed the water pump at the same time. I suspect that this car will continue to go for a long time. Only thing I can think that might stop it is smog. At 25 years old for an engine that has never been opened once, it must have some carbon buildup that a simple change of the cat will not fix. If it ever fails - I might just make it a project car and drop an old LS engine there and go terrorizing the neighborhood.
We leased the e-golf exactly because when the lease is up the tech in the newer models would be that much better. It's rated 85, too. A 2 year lease would get you to the new VW Id car. Or a 3 year lease would get you to 2nd year model, which might be better. The new bus looks fantastic, too, but won't be available until later.
Is it bad of me to not want an electric car. Or the fact that we don’t ever even know what our MPG is. We recycle our asses off, but thats about where it stops. I have a V8 and love it. Sorry.
We did not get an EV because we needed to hug trees. It was a combination of professional need to know for my wife (her company does things in this area including EV infrastructure planning) and interest in the technology. Having experienced it, we will continue to use an EV because we just love the experience. It makes an awful lot of sense for a city car. No noise, excellent acceleration, no services needed (no oil changes, the every year dealership service consists of rotating the tires, nothing more), no need to stop at gas stations (she charges at home over-night). Our other cars include old vintage race cars and a big V8 SUV as our family car, so it's not like we live the granola life, but it is nice to be good to the environment when we can and enjoy the perks of an EV as a city car (and there are real advantages, as I listed above).
2003 Audi A6 4.2L ......absolutely love everything about it. Getting old, but paid for. My brother works on German cars, so it is well taken care of and is amazing on the road. All Wheel Drive, it’s great in the snow and the V8 is fantastic. Just handed down our 1999 4Runner to our son who now drives and had to get The Mrs. HCP a new ride, so I don’t think I will be getting anything anytime soon.......and I’m cool with that.
It's a GTI, right? (not an R). They seem to have some crazy deals blowing GTIs off the lots. Might be the best new car deal out there at this time. Excellent car, fantastic fun, big discounts.
It's a Hybrid, so not a real EV, also - it is super low and has really wide seals - making it a lousy daily driver- getting in and out of it is a real pain. It is pretty, however.
GTI Autobahn, 220 HP stock, ~310 HP with the stage 1 tune. Yeah, it is a hellofalotta fun. The downside is the front wheel drive. The thing has so much torque, it chirps the tires in first and second gear. Get it rolling just a little and it takes off. If I had to do it again, I'd do the R. It's not the fastest car on the road, but for a hatch back, it's deceptively fast, the interior is hand stitched leather and otherwise awesome, fun to drive, and useful for hauling groceries.
