What hybrid (plugin hybrid) or EV for my wife that can't deal with Model 3

[mswlogo]

My wife used to drive a VW CC (stick) and loved it.

Part of hat pushed us towards Model 3 was she was slightly handicapped and getting worse and should not be driving a stick any more. Thought FSD might help one day. Well that was a figment of my imagination.

Well, the nice guy I was, I took the Model 3 and gave her my Jeep. She hates the Jeep, but she prefers the "cheaper" car (less worry, she'll park any where), but to big. She also isn't keen on the Model 3. She fumbles with Wipers and HVAC on the Screen. So both Jeep and Model 3 are going. X is coming (mainly for me/family, she will occasionally drive it).

But I need to get her something. It would kill me to buy a pure ICE. She does not drive all that much. ~4K miles a year.

We prefer not spend much more than $30K.

I was thinking of Prius, Plugin Prius (gosh, could they make them any uglier).

I noticed you can get deeply discounted Volt's (premier trim) for around $30k. But is that to risky with them being discontinued? We both like the volt. She would probably be 99% on battery

What about Leaf or Bolt. Probably way to much money, to hard to justify. Nissan is in really bad shape, so I think I'll skip them.

VW's are off my list since Diesel Gate, I will never let them get another dime of my money. Their Direct Fuel injection is a joke too.

Ideas?

 

[ewoodrick]

The Leaf may be an option. The true one-pedal driving (except for emergency stops), along with adaptive cruise control and lane guidance (not as good as Tesla's) make driving the Leaf pretty easy.

 

[Petrocelli]

Check out the Honda Clarity PHEV. You can get great deals and a $7500 tax credit.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

There's still some Volt inventory sitting around.
Gen 2 Volts have manual controls.

Generally, don't just look at the MSRP on PEVs. There are always deals on them.

 

[Brando]

USED for sure:

i3, Bolt, LEAF and many other EVs.
Let her pick one. Most women like to shop, right? You can evaluate and give your opinions. (after she asks?)

good luck

 

[cwerdna]

What about Leaf or Bolt. Probably way to much money, to hard to justify. Nissan is in really bad shape, so I think I'll skip them.

As someone who bought a new '19 Bolt Premier earlier this year and also has a Leaf (been a Leaf driver for over 6 years), Bolts are heavily discounted here. Example (I bought from this dealer): Fremont - New Chevrolet Bolt EV Vehicles for Sale

I know nothing about this dealer and how much of the discounting is legit, but I found this in your state: New Chevy Vehicles in MA at Quirk Chevy MA. It currently claims Bolt LT's MSRP $37,495 start at $23,745 and Premiers (MSRP $43,735) start at $29,985. Yes, the MSRPs are now nutty in light of pricing on Model 3 pricing, but hey, NOBODY's been paying MSRPs on Bolts for a LONG time.

If you the DC FC inlet (SAE Combo), it is a $750 option on both trims (LT and Premier). Try checking other Chevy dealers in your region. You might be surprised. Unfortunately, pickings are going to get slim as the new inventory seems to be really dwindling probably to make way for the 2020 which is supposed to get a slight boost in EPA range rating to 259 miles due to a 66 kWh battery instead of 60.

Federal tax credit on GM EVs/PHEVs is down to $3750 though and will be $1875 on 10/1/19. Nissan still has the full amount. (Tax credit situation at Federal Tax Credits for Electric and Plug-in Hybrid Cars.)

Bolt also has 1 pedal driving by shifting into L mode. However, there is NO adaptive cruise control on Bolt at all nor anything similar to ProPilot Assist/Tesla Autopilot. LKA/LDW suck and are virtually useless. I can speak to that.

As for your statement about Nissan, yes, well, yeah, their profits plunged (Nissan to slash 10% of global workforce after worse-than-expected 99% profit plunge | The Japan Times) and they seem somewhat rudderless after Carlos Ghosn was ousted but hey... Tesla's laid off people left and right numerous times, has had very few profitable quarters and has racked up over $7 billion in losses (even taking into account their few profitable quarters). That obviously didn't stop you and hundreds of thousands of others from buying/leasing Teslas...

(From page 5 of SEC Filing | Tesla, Inc., Tesla lost $1.1 billion for the 1st 6 months of 2019...)

 

[cwerdna]

USED for sure:

i3, Bolt, LEAF and many other EVs.
Let her pick one. Most women like to shop, right? You can evaluate and give your opinions. (after she asks?)

In the past (when I was in the market beginning of this year and a few months after), there were no good deals on used Bolts to be had. They were simply way too pricey vs. buying a heavily discounted new one and taking the (then $7500) Federal tax credit. I hear that GM was only doing 3 year leases and the Bolt began shipping in Dec 2016. Will be interesting when they all start coming off lease at the end of their term. A few have been returned early by people trading up.

See earlier post by me for example of Bolt discounting.

Leafs, OTOH have terrible resale value and are thus good for a used buyer.

 

[seattlite2004]

I'm thinking 2017 Bolt LT's could be under 20k soon: Used Bolt Market Tracking : BoltEV

 

[mswlogo]

We were noticing the deep discount on Bolts too. We can get Employee discount too. 2019 is supposed to get ACC. Not sure it’s out yet. But it has Assisted Emergency braking, Blind Spot, Rear Cross Path, Car Play, Bose etc. So I thought it might.

Neither of us care that much about 1 pedal driving. It’s a plus, but no biggy. ACC and other safety features are more important.

Given how ugly some of the other cars are these days, the Bolt now looks good to me. Geesh.

 

[seattlite2004]

We were noticing the deep discount on Bolts too. We can get Employee discount too. 2019 is supposed to get ACC. Not sure it’s out yet. But it has Assisted Emergency braking, Blind Spot, Rear Cross Path, Car Play, Bose etc. So I thought it might.

Neither of us care that much about 1 pedal driving. It’s a plus, but no biggy. ACC and other safety features are more important.

Given how ugly some of the other cars are these days, the Bolt now looks good to me. Geesh.

Current Bolts, 2016-19, don't have adaptive cruise control...if you need/want that...then cross the Bolt off your list.

 

[cwerdna]

Current Bolts, 2016-19, don't have adaptive cruise control...if you need/want that...then cross the Bolt off your list.

100% correct. I have a '19 Bolt Premier w/driver confidence II, infotainment package and DC FC inlet. There basically is no more fully loaded '19 Bolt except for "interior protection package", all-weather kits, cargo organizer (I think), floor mats and cosmetic crap like black Chevy bowties or post-factory installed stuff like an illuminated charge port.

From indications like 2020 Chevrolet Bolt EV to Offer 259 Miles of Range, Chevrolet Raises the Bar: 2020 Bolt EV to Offer Impressive 259 miles of Range and earlier (months ago) links to the Canadian 2020 Bolt info, it looks like it's not coming for 2020 either.

Search Exclusive: Inside The Chevrolet Bolt With Its Chief Engineer - New Details for adaptive as to the explanation about why Bolt doesn't have it. Some folks have noted this is a step backwards from their Volts.

I'm guessing we'll have to wait for the next gen for hope of it coming but it's possible the next gen will be an "EUV"/crossover.

Probably the #1 complaint (or at least in the top 5) of the Bolt is about front seat comfort. I got a cover that I pointed to at CIDRAM that has solved that prob but has a downside, as well.

 

[mswlogo]

Just bought my wife a Volt Premium.

$25k (with tax credits).

It has rear cross path (model 3 does not)
It has Auto High beams, let’s not go there.
It has Auto Wipers, let’s not go there either.
True Radar based blind spot
CarPlay
Cool button on the wheel for boosting aggressive Regen
53 miles on battery (400 with gas), she will be 99% electric. I’m just gonna use 120V to charge. Plug is already near where she parks.
It has a nice hatch. Something Model 3 should have had.
Crash Test scores perfect

I would have considered a Bolt but the lack of ACC was a deal breaker.

Leaf was getting into Model 3 price range.

one car rear seats didn’t fold down.

what convinced me on the volt was an article on the history of the volt on one of the EV sites. they claim there was some GM Employee that has a Volt with 470,000 miles and the battery is still good. He has 165k on exclusive battery.

Edmunds had a great page on all cars with tax incentives and a list of pros and cons. We went through everything that we consider reputable. Then looked up each one one cars.com and sorted by price with 100 miles. Volt was 2nd cheapest, best reviews, best crash tests.

 

[compu85]

GM is *very* conservative with their battery management and drivetrain loading. The Volt is a solid platform. (Also, we currently own an ELR... the Cadillac of Chevrolet Volts...)

 

[Jeff N]

Search Exclusive: Inside The Chevrolet Bolt With Its Chief Engineer - New Details for adaptive as to the explanation about why Bolt doesn't have it. Some folks have noted this is a step backwards from their Volts.

I’m personally skeptical of the explanation in that article for why the Bolt doesn’t have ACC.

 

[mswlogo]

I’m personally skeptical of the explanation in that article for why the Bolt doesn’t have ACC.

Exactly. The Volt would have exactly the same engineering needed but does offer ACC.

 

[mswlogo]

If you think buying a Tesla is painful (and many of us know it can be at times) try buying a GM Vehicle !!

Un F'n believable

Asked Dealer 4 different ways to confirm the Volt had ACC.
Turns out he had no idea what he was selling and the options are very confusing.
I also asked if 2018 vs 2019 was the same or not. He said it was the same, the one I put a deposit on was 2018

Canceled that (with out issue because he knew he had no idea what he was selling).

If they can't understand and sell ACC how the hell could they understand and sell a plugin hybrid, no wonder they killed the Volt. They know their sales force is stupid.

I find another one, this one was 2019 with ACC and only a couple K more.

Put deposit by credit card over phone. They said finance guy would call back to arrange payment within a couple hours.
5 hours later, no call. I call them. Oops we sold it and credited the deposit back.

I think they honestly knew they made a big mistake, because they did help locate every one and found one even closer for similar price.

Call them up, great price exactly what we want (except color, black which is ok). They WILL NOT ACCEPT a down payment with a credit card.

It's 4 hours away. So I have to call, that I'm on the way and they will hold it while I drive or will take an email confirmation of a plane ticket !!

I didn't want to waste anyone else's time driving down with me so I booked a ticket.

One other idiot place has the EXACT same car in my back yard and refuses to budge on the price. He wants like $6k more and it's the older 2018 with ACC. I was willing to pay $2k more for the convenience and older 2018 but he wouldn't budge. Even the guy earlier that canceled on me said he's an idiot.

Unbelievable. Absolute morons. I almost didn't buy the car because they are so stupid.

And you wouldn't believe the haggle game they played on the first car (that didn't have ACC).

It's the perfect car for my wife. Not overkill, safe, green and cheap. But she's not happy with black, I can't win.
The one that was canceled was white and she was excited about it.
I found a Pearl one but she didn't like the gorgeous two tone black and tan interior.

I'm exhausted.

 

[cwerdna]

^^^
Shrug. I did visit 3 dealers before buying my Bolt. One (Fremont) was what Consumer Reports sent me to (their car buying service is affiliated w/TrueCar). I think I went to two others via Edmunds (one sorta on the way home and the other closest to me). Where I bought from (the first one) was a painless experience. The one closest to me told me they couldn't match the price the CR/Truecar price that Fremont was listing it for.

Fortunately, at the time, MANY Chevy dealers had plenty of Bolt inventory. At the time, Fremont Chevy allegedly had somewhere of 150 Bolts on the lot (viewable via their web site). I'd seen as many as over 200 before but it's dwindled long ago.

I've never tried configuring a Volt with ACC before nor done it recently but if you go to Volt for Sale: 2019 Volt Pricing | Chevrolet, choose Premier trim and go to 5 for interior, it's there. Most/all Chevy dealers I've seen when you view their inventory let you view the window sticker to see what options are on each car.

 

[mknox]

Same boat. Had a Model 3 reservation, but my wife didn't like it. She doesn't like low sedans as she has trouble with her knees and likes something that sits a little higher... like my Model X (she didn't like my former Model S for the same reason).

She was also concerned about "forgetting to charge" and so forth.

Ended up with a Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV. She can do pretty much 100% of her daily driving on electric, and has the gas to rely on when going out of town to, for example, visit family. Reviews are mixed. I'm okay with it but she finds some of the quirky Mitsubishi controls and such a bit annoying.

 

[mswlogo]

Finally got the Volt today. 2019 with ACC. We both love it.

A real shame they discontinued it.