#cars Did you learn anything from buying your electric car

[brightstardust@mastodon.social]

@ohmu My cousin had a Leaf and it bricked itself while he was driving (no one got hurt thankfully). I forget the details but apparently the Leaf (specifically the Leaf, so not all EVs!) engine/electrical/something is complete shit.

[alextheuxguy@fosstodon.org]

@ohmu positives are I love regenerative braking, almost no maintenance needed, free chargers are awesome and not going to gas stations is great. Negatives are battery degradation (lost 50 miles in 6 years), insane registration fees (Ohio) that are 2-4 times more than the gas tax they are “making up” for, massive resale depreciation and frequent charges on road trips.

[ohmu@social.seattle.wa.us]

@brightstardust
Ooh. That's the first I've heard of this.
My employer has a while fleet of Leafs. I'll ask if any of them have had this issue. It occurs to me it might be a particular model year.

[ohmu@social.seattle.wa.us]

@greg_harvey
You're the third to mention the charging plug type.
I'll keep an eye on that. Thank you!

[eedly@mindly.social]

@ohmu Leasing our Mach-E turned out to be a better deal than buying it (spouse's car, so I don't know the details). Ford paid for most, if not all, of our charger installation too.

I currently use a 60mpg motorcycle with about 100 liters of luggage space for most around-town stuff*; I'm considering swapping it for a Can Am Origin (electric motorcycle), but that's still very hypothetical.

___
* Teenager sometimes allows herself to be shuttled from place to place on it, but not as often as I'd like.

[ohmu@social.seattle.wa.us]

@eedly
All good info.

[sarae@ecoevo.social]

@ohmu still loving the Bolt, glad I got the most-rapidly-charging one I could

I am glad to have a level 2 plug at the CB house but use the 110 at the other house and yeah, if you're parking it overnight you should mostly be fine, but a 50amp/220volt plug isn't too expensive and should be forward compatible

my range issues are mostly days when I want to go to Eugene and back in a single day in the winter, because there aren't a ton of non-Tesla rapid chargers near restaurants I like

[kevinfreitas@mastodon.social]

@ohmu AND conversations can be much easier when not competing with engine noise. (at least it was for us coming from a 2002 Subaru to a 2018 EV)

[ohmu@social.seattle.wa.us]

@sarae
The Bolt owner I was hoping to hear from .

[pussreboots@sfba.social]

@ohmu Charging up a car is about half the cost of fueling a car... even with needing to charge up a couple times during longer road trips.

Those necessary charging stops are something we look forward to as it forces us to slow down with our long haul trips.

[ohmu@social.seattle.wa.us]

@KevinFreitas
Interesting.
You and I both live in Seattle. In my experience, there is nothing as loud as the road noise from the highways (I-5, 520, 99, West Seattle Freeway) running through town.
But you noticed a big difference...

[ohmu@social.seattle.wa.us]

@pussreboots
I hadn't thought of that perspective.
Has it changed how you plan road trips?

[kevinfreitas@mastodon.social]

@ohmu Here are all those Ars articles:

$5K https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/01/how-far-does-5000-go-when-you-want-an-electric-car/
<$10K https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/02/chevy-bolt-bmw-i3-or-something-else-at-10k-you-have-lots-of-ev-options/
<$15K https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/03/there-are-plenty-of-great-choices-if-you-want-to-spend-less-than-15k-on-an-ev/
$20K https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/03/youve-got-20000-to-spend-on-an-ev-here-are-some-options/
$25K https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/04/25000-buys-plenty-of-used-evs-here-are-some-options/

#ev #usedevs #arstechnica

[greg_harvey@tooting.ch]

@ohmu Welcome! I suppose in the US you lack our Chinese options. The go to Leaf-like car that gives you a bit more for the buck here is the SAIC MG4, but I don't imagine that's an option? I'd opt for early Kia / Hyundai stuff on a budget. First gen Kia Niro, or Hyundai Kona, both solid reputation and decent range. Maybe early VW ID.3 too?

[greg_harvey@tooting.ch]

@ohmu I have a first gen ID EV, the haptic buttons are a bit annoying but you totally get used to them. Nowhere near as bad as reviewers who have the car for an afternoon make out.

[greg_harvey@tooting.ch]

@ohmu If you can live with the CEO, second hand Model 3s seem pretty good too. I wouldn't personally, but they seem to be ageing well, especially the batteries.

Edit: and my reasons are political.

[sarae@ecoevo.social]

@ohmu it's just a surprisingly well designed car for a Chevy

(spouse's work truck is a Colorado and we agree it's a pain in the ass compared to the good design of the electric car)

my only complaint is that yesterday I was vacuuming it out and putting in new rubber floor mats and it was parked on a little slope under the garage and I clocked my head on the underside of the rear hatch

so if you're tall and parking on a slope be careful

here it is slow charging off the solar array

[ohmu@social.seattle.wa.us]

@greg_harvey
All info is good.
But yeah. NFW.