EV buying help

kinther, 3 months ago

I have a Chevy Bolt and I love it. I did a bunch of comparisons and found they were the best option at the time due to the federal and state incentives.

Mac, 3 months ago

Why are you leasing? That’s the opposite of what you should be doing if you don’t have a lot of money.

spongebue, 3 months ago

Also Audi? Volvo? F-150 Lightning? Those are not cheap cars!

OP, look at a used Bolt, ID.4, Polestar… They’re solid cars, and after a few years of payments you get to keep the car unlike a lease where you have zero equity.

Kit, 3 months ago

I also recommend the Bolt. I see plenty of used ones in my area under 20k miles for $15k.

spongebue, 3 months ago

There are a lot of buybacks from the battery recall hitting the market. Odds are, that was the only thing wrong with it (and should be fixed now) but they do have a lemon title. Just make sure it has DC fast charge unless you’re 100% sure it’ll be a local car only.

HollandJim, 3 months ago (edited 2 months ago)

I own an ID.3, smaller than what you’re after, so I’d suggest looking at an ID.4 or ID.5 (if you have the sedan where you live). They’re solid, reliable and the software is up to snuff now. My VW has never let me down in the last 3 years (gets paid-off next year - woohoo!).

The one thing - the cars you’re mentioning are not known for their range, unless you go for the largest batteries. They’re better than the Jaguar iPace, for example, but they’re not leaders in the range game…just big square boxes, and big square boxes suffer more range loss at high speeds where wind resistance is greater.

How much space do you need? Kids and carriages, or just for the looks of it?

bouldering_barista, 3 months ago

I’ve leased my last few vehicles and it’s worked great for me personally. I don’t mean to make it sound like I can’t afford it. Leasing isnt for everyone I totally understand.

In this case, I think leasing is especially something I want to do because the EV world will be changing over the next few years and by the time a 3 year lease runs out there should be more options (new and used) out there

Mac, 3 months ago

Ah, alright. Just making sure you know what you’re getting into. Clearly you do so enjoy. 🤙

fluckx, 3 months ago

From what I’ve heard the audi q4 range is horrendous. Depending on how far you’ll need to drive daily keep that in mind. About 200km/charge in real life scenarios. I see there’s two variants and I’m not sure which one it was ( might be the q4 35 ).

I don’t know anybody with an XC40 so I can’t comment on that.

melodious_thunk, 3 months ago

I know nothing of the Audi, but have a 2023 xc40 and love it. We got it just under the wire before the tax credit changed. It’s been very reliable for us.

pageflight, 3 months ago

Another XC40 owner. Mechanically/physically great, software is somewhat flaky. Still forgets seat positions sometimes, backup camera takes a while to boot, etc. And as others have said, range is moderate, and suffers in the cold. Definitely a very sleek vehicle though; we rented a Bolt recently and the XC40 does feel and sound much higher quality. The Bolt does have some features I envy though: flat floors / deep trunk, memory for the lift gate height so it doesn’t crash into our cargo pod, remote start / preconditioning just from the fob without a subscription.

Wooster, 3 months ago

The range of both vehicles is comparable, so I’d argue it boils down to which dealer is more convenient to visit for the odd maintenance.

(That aside, I’m personally dubious of opting for a lease, especially if money is tight long term. But I’m the sort of person who’d opt to get every damned mile out of a vehicle I could before begrudgingly admitting it’s time for a replacement.)