In 2008 I converted my wife’s Prius to a plug-in hybrid. I really enjoyed it for 3 days…but then was frustrated by the gas engine constantly coming on.
So I purchased my first BEV in March 2009. It was a 2003 Toyota RAV4-EV that I bought on Ebay. I really enjoyed it for 3 weeks…then my wife performed a hostile takeover, because she could easily tell that it was a nicer car than her PHEV Prius.
I wanted to sell the Prius and get another BEV. As it would be our second BEV, I knew it had to have a lot of range. The only PEV option at the time was the Roadster. I loved the thought of owning a Roadster, but…man. Every gas car I had ever owned was under $20k. Tesla was having financial difficulties. Everybody I talked to tried to talk me out of it – was I even sure I would get the Roadster? (You had to pay in advance).
It took me until July 2009 to wrap my head around paying that much for a car. Placing that order was a very big deal for me. But – no regrets! Since then, we’ve been familiar faces at the Tesla store. In 2012 my wife traded her RAV4 for an S.
