paulgipe said:
PackardV8 said:
paulgipe said:
From these forums we learned that the technology is changing so fast that it made sense to lease.
paulgipe said:
Also, as a US resident with a low income, the federal subsidies were useless to us, so leasing became the best strategy. . . . We got a hell of a deal on our lease ($250 USD/mo total) so it's unlikely buying it will be wise as the residual should be fairly high.
Without knowing your details; how much down, miles allowed,
et al, that does seem like a great lease deal. We'd have definitely considered one of those, but GM and our dealer were nowhere near that. IIRC, it was on the order of $5000 down and $335 a month. We were also able to use the tax credit, so buying worked for us.
jack vines
Jack,
Details of the lease deal are at
Our Lease of a Chevy Bolt and What it Cost Us and an update at
Net Cost of a Lease for a 2018-2019 Chevy Bolt EV in the San Joaquin Valley
Here's the gist.
10,000 miles
0 down, 0 drive off
three year lease (required by California)
$250/mo for 36 mos.
But yes, if we decide we want to keep this Bolt at the end of the lease it won't make sense financially as the residual will be too high. We'll have to buy another used Bolt with all that entails.
Paul
Paul! Hallelujah and thanks for getting back on topic.
I did some snooping around on the internets and I'm seeing KBB values for the Bolt at around 25-26K as well. What I'm wondering is if congress will swoop in and bring back the EV credit so the American (ahem...Korean) car doesn't get crushed by the Korean cars....hm.....
Funny nobody's mentioning the Focus electric :lol: which I know NOTHING about, although seeing as how horrible the C-MAX is, I'm not surprised it's not a topic.
Would they bring back a credit for Tesla's sake? Are they really the only other American EV maker?
Having had a Spark EV before the Bolt, I'm glad I leased that time. I was expecting a far more incremental improvement, but the Bolt was MILES ahead of the Spark EV. But in the beginning, it looked like everybody had 80 mile cars, now everybody's got 240 mile cars, but what's next?
I'll say this... I LIKE the Bolt, it works, we can take it on road trips. I wish it charged faster, but the pit stops aren't bad, and more chargers are popping up every day. What I WOULD like to do is to be able to PULL things. I want a trailer hitch on my car, I'd like V2G capability so that some day I can have cold beer after the big one hits, I'd like a little more ground clearance, I'd like a slightly larger trunk, I'd like the stupid Keypass notification to stop popping up, little things. And the other Kona / eNiro are unproven. "Yeah but it's a Kia" they say, not that the Bolt isn't mostly plastic too...
What would be stupid is if everybody just kept moving, car to car to whoever had federal tax credits left. On the other hand, will GM get their **** together and stop whining about the amazing price of batteries (sub $150 per kWh TWO YEARS AGO) and start marking their cars down so they can compete against "those overseas companies" or will perhaps they just continue bitching that "consumers don't want electric cars" when all the while they haven't aired one damn commercial.
At the end of my lease, what I was thinking, was that prices of used will be UP because there will be no more federal subsidy, and there will be no incentive to just NOT keep the car. Plus with how crazy simple a battery change is to do in a Bolt (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3G8JGsEjPA) I would wager that we can probably count on kick-ass aftermarket batteries being available in 10 years when range fade starts to really sting. More likely though, since I was one of the first doofuses to ever lease a Bolt in California, I might just TURO somebody's beat up 2013 Leaf with it's 50 mile range for a year to the tune of way less than my lease and insurance, and see what comes waddling by the dealership. Otherwise they have me over the barrel because I can't be car-less, and there won't be any lease return Bolts on the lot when I need one. I got mine January 2017.
OR maybe I'll strike it rich and just buy a Rivian and have my dream of dragging my airstream up a mountain and making crepes on an induction stove powered by the battery. Only time will tell, but what do other people think?