The Silverado EV, which will be built on the new platform used for the Hummer EV, looks promising with a 400 mile estimated range. If it falls under the $60,000 price limit of the proposed tax credit (which I suspect it will based on the Ford Lightning pricing) it would make a good DD for me, moving the "fun" car into the second weekend/road trip slot. Looks like it could solve your 3 car "problem" as well.

Right now, I'm looking at having to replace the 86 within the next 5 years as it will pass 200K miles about this time next year. That makes the timing for the Silverado plausible.

The Leafs (Leaves?) at that price are the <80mile range ones. it, and the Chevy Spark, which are typically the lowest priced used EVs are non-starters for me. There are work days I drive as much as 120 miles.

Just looking at Carvana, the lowest price EV that get's close to what I need (excluding the Volt, which for some reason Carvana considers and "electric" car) is the BMW i3 at $15,000ish US. No thanks, at that price you are into used Bolt range (I've seen them on Carvana from $14.5K and up).

it's just too bad that gm is one of the worst offenders in breaking my first rule. i need to be able to drive the vehicle with no radio installed for a week without issues that would affect drivability or convenience of any other feature(like HVAC not working)

the volt is an electric car with a backup gasoline generator that charges the batteries whenever they get below 50%. it's different than other typical hybrid setups in the fact that the gas motor is not physically connected to the driveline.

I understand that, it has basically the same technology as the diesel/electric engine used in locomotives. I guess Carvana is really using "electric" to mean EV.

Of course GM calls it an EV and you are correct, even in extended range mode it runs off of electricity except in some rare occasions where the ICE connects to the drivetrain to assist rather than purely driving the batteries.

I almost bought one when they first came out. Had the range been 100 miles I would have (it would have covered my standard commute).

What I would like is a full range EV (200+ miles) with the generator.

I think that ship may have sailed. Pretty much any EV breaks that rule, and huge number of ICE do these days. That's partially due to the amount of buyers that don't care anything about the headunit except that it does Carplay or Android Auto.

and that's why i intend to keep what i got for as impossibly long as possible.

You guys realize that when you need a truck you can...rent one:thumbup:

I live in NC (land of the Carolina Squat - ugh) and I can probably list on one hand the number of people I know that own trucks and actually use them for what they can do.

(I'm all for people to buy whatever they want, but the justification of "needing" the utility of a fullsize pickup is pretty funny).

Ive seen this argument and i think its valid if you barely use the truck for truck things.

But not everyone wants to or cares to constantly spend money renting something to do something when they rather have the thing themselves.

That is pretty much true of anything you don't use on a daily/weekly basis though. Heck I have a shop full of tools I might use once or twice a year that I could probably rent instead. As @Sasquachulator says, sometimes you just prefer to use your own tools for the job.

In the end though, I agree with you that 1) you should be able to own what you want to own and 2) what you own doesn't always make sense for the mission you have.

…which is the vast majority of truck owners. Seems like the majority of people could rent a truck to tow or rent an ICE for a speedier cross country trip. The rest of the year they could save money on gas, on higher insurance and the higher cost of purchasing a truck. People just like their big trucks though.

https://www.thedrive.com/news/26907/...cowboy-costume

Maybe we need to revive the El Camino.

I would love if they did that, but the same argument applies.

Ask the right questions and it also applies to Sports Cars, minivans, luxury sedans, hypercars, motorized scooters, bicycles, Air Jordans......

Why don't you just rent a fast car when you don't just need to commute from point a to point b in traffic? Would be much more cost effective than owning and operating one yourself, and having to fix it when the engine goes ;)

Also, it definitely depends on where you live how much trucks get used for truck things. I know of many truck owners that tow stuff or haul stuff multiple times a month. They are pretty useful in winter too.

Well I would imagine most people in sporty cars use the handling and performance every day. They may not track the car, but they experience the improved acceleration and handling daily. I’m sure most minivan owners are taking advantage of the convenience of a minivan when driving their kids around daily. Etc. I get what you are trying to say, but I don’t think it is equally as bad.