[Jrgunn5150]

Last week while on vacation, we got a lease deal notification that we could lease a Chevy Bolt for 225 a month.

Stopped in the dealer, drove it, it's mediocre at best... Think Chevy Cruze, Chevy Trax... Kept it over night, and bought it.

My pronouns are He/Him.

IDGAF where the electricity comes from, oil, coal, nuclear (I wish), blood of the innocent, my home solar panels, wtf ever.

IDGAF what happens when the battery dies, I won't own it.

IDGAF if it's not saving the earth.

At 4.50 a gallon the wifes Jeep was costing 25 cents a mile to drive. The Bolt costs 3.7 cents a mile to drive. I drive 48 miles to work, and 48 miles home. 24 dollars a day in the Jeep. 3.55 a day in the Bolt.

6,000 a year in fuel alone in the Jeep, 887 dollars in charging in the Bolt.

I'll never change the oil or put brakes on the Bolt.

Even adding in the lease payment, it's still a 4,000 a year win for us. FFS, I can fuel my generator for 9 hours to charge it for less than I can fill the tank on the Jeep.

It's out in the parking lot happily super slow charging on 110 right now lol. Idk why EV's have become politicized, and the right hates them, but I'm only sad we didn't get one sooner.

 

[wave_crusher]

IDGAF that's it's electric.

Leases are waste of money. Drive it like you stole it, but you get boned on every little thing that happens with it, and still paying 4-5,000 over 2 years to borrow it. I'd rather buy a compact gasser and get 40+ mpg, and damn the electric.

 

[sterlingfire]

I've said it from the start, if they can get me the same capabilities of my duramax, same price point, charging just as fast as i can fuel up, trip range of 550+ miles empty, 300+ miles fully loaded with trailer, and a decent plan for disposal of the poisonous lithium batteries, i would buy one. Until then, it's literally all about the Benjamin's.
I don't do many short trips, neither does my wife. If she could haul herself and 8 others around(we have kids and nieces/ nephews) and have all of my requests fulfilled from above for hers as well, she would get one. Also the charging stations at home would have to be pretty much installed for free... until then, fossil fields are my friends.

 

[Plato2k5]

Hopefully it gives you trouble free service.

 

[Jrgunn5150]

IDGAF that's it's electric.

Leases are waste of money. Drive it like you stole it, but you get boned on every little thing that happens with it, and still paying 4-5,000 over 2 years to borrow it. I'd rather buy a compact gasser and get 40+ mpg, and damn the electric.

I won't try to stop you lol

 

[wave_crusher]

I won't try to stop you lol

I do think that electric cars have their place, right now. It's just baffling how much they're trying to convince people to all buy electric all of a sudden. It's just more BS to try to muddy the waters with how shitty things are.

Just more of "well, this will solve the problem!", and after it doesn't, they'll move on to "oh, well, it just didn't work the way it should have, X reason, but 'THIS' will definitely solve the problem!"

etc etc....

 

[Jrgunn5150]

Idk where that comes from though.

No one tried to convince me. There were no protestors or picket lines lol.

The only deciding factor was my wife reading one of those right wing memes about how no one can afford an electric car and me saying, that's some bullshit, because you can buy a Chevy Bolt for 30k lol.

 

[Jrgunn5150]

I've said it from the start, if they can get me the same capabilities of my duramax, same price point, charging just as fast as i can fuel up, trip range of 550+ miles empty, 300+ miles fully loaded with trailer, and a decent plan for disposal of the poisonous lithium batteries, i would buy one. Until then, it's literally all about the Benjamin's.
I don't do many short trips, neither does my wife. If she could haul herself and 8 others around(we have kids and nieces/ nephews) and have all of my requests fulfilled from above for hers as well, she would get one. Also the charging stations at home would have to be pretty much installed for free... until then, fossil fields are my friends.

My home charging station is a dryer outlet lol.

I have 7 other vehicles and don't need anything from this one but to drive me back and forth to work. Since I can currently fuel my Ram for 97 cents a gallon, my wife is driving that also, I'd like to punt her stupid Jeep.

 

[greygoose]

where did you get this lease deal?

 

[whiterhino]

My neighbors on each side of me each have one. One guy is a self made millionaire at 40 years old. He's now 70, has a home in Arizona and here. He has a Bolt at each house. Why? Because it's cheap to drive and he doesn't care what others think - same as the OP. I think he got is lease last year for $199/mo.
My neighbor on the other side - also a retired guy who is doing OK - went out the following day and did the same thing for the same reason. There was a third Bolt on the lot. I regret not doing it.

RE a lease being a money pit, we have both bought and leased over the years. For a low mileage, low cost car - when you know you are going to have a cash flow payment, a lease is not a bad deal.

 

[Jrgunn5150]

where did you get this lease deal?

The specific dealer was Berger in GR

My neighbor on the other side - also a retired guy who is doing OK - went out the following day and did the same thing for the same reason. There was a third Bolt on the lot. I regret not doing it.

RE a lease being a money pit, we have both bought and leased over the years. For a low mileage, low cost car - when you know you are going to have a cash flow payment, a lease is not a bad deal.

Yeah, for me, this is strictly a go to work car. We drove it around the lake a bit and took the in laws and my nephew for rides, but the idea is to use this to go to work, and run around on the weekend.

I still have my Ram to haul things, although I'll sell it when my Ford is done, and we still have our Grand Cherokee if we want to take a long road trip and have the convenience of fueling.

Leasing a Bronco for 700 a month because you're still paying the fees on the last 3 cool things you leased and got out of early to be the coolest guy on the block is foolishness. Paying a 230/month fee to never have to deal with maintenance, oil changes, or the gas station, and ride by myself to work is worth it to me.

In the future, I see cars as a subscription really taking off, I'd happily pay a subscription fee to have a car show up and take me to work and trundle off somewhere else and not be my problem when I'm done with it.

 

[wave_crusher]

Idk where that comes from though.

No one tried to convince me. There were no protestors or picket lines lol.

The only deciding factor was my wife reading one of those right wing memes about how no one can afford an electric car and me saying, that's some bullshit, because you can buy a Chevy Bolt for 30k lol.

You didn't buy it though, you leased it. You're renting it

 

[wave_crusher]

The specific dealer was Berger in GR



Yeah, for me, this is strictly a go to work car. We drove it around the lake a bit and took the in laws and my nephew for rides, but the idea is to use this to go to work, and run around on the weekend.

I still have my Ram to haul things, although I'll sell it when my Ford is done, and we still have our Grand Cherokee if we want to take a long road trip and have the convenience of fueling.

Leasing a Bronco for 700 a month because you're still paying the fees on the last 3 cool things you leased and got out of early to be the coolest guy on the block is foolishness. Paying a 230/month fee to never have to deal with maintenance, oil changes, or the gas station, and ride by myself to work is worth it to me.

In the future, I see cars as a subscription really taking off, I'd happily pay a subscription fee to have a car show up and take me to work and trundle off somewhere else and not be my problem when I'm done with it.

That's really the main point. A cheap lease, like in your situation makes more sense than a $500+ lease payment on the newest and "greatest"

 

[Jrgunn5150]

Correct, we didn't want to own it.

The spurring point of the whole conversation was still some dumb right wing meme about how no one can afford an EV, when in fact they're quite affordable.

 

[wrath]

We lease sometimes, we buy sometimes. It largely comes out to residual value. Our current Equinox (she's had a 2013, 2015, and 2017) was a lease first, then we bought it at a discount. How? Well, we "turned it in" at the Chevy dealership and then switched who bought it the next day. GM Financial Hates Us for This One Simple Trick. Dealer even cut me a check for the $400 lease turn in fee...

I almost leased a Cadillac ELR for the same reason as why you got the Bolt. But my work switched the free charging stations to paid through a third party charging stations so the numbers didn't work out.

Once electric cars are no longer being subsidized they will lose their luster. Right now they are being subsidized everywhere except on tires.

If my wife has to start driving to work more we'll probably look at the numbers again. Especially if gas doesn't come back down. Right now we owe about $9k on her Equinox and it just had its first birthday. The interest rate is so low it is negligible. Insurance is cheap on it, plates are semi-affordable ($200), it gets OK gas mileage (averages 21), and it is plenty big for anything we want to do.

 

[JohnnyJ]

With the lease deal will they install the Level 2 charging in your home? I know they do with a purchase.

 

[Jrgunn5150]

With the lease deal will they install the Level 2 charging in your home? I know they do with a purchase.

Yeah, they refer you to a third party installer and cover it. I already have a 220 outlet in my home garage, and a pile in my shop, so all I have to do is take the dongle thingy out of the back and plug it in though.

 

[booblinker]

I personally am not against EV, I just wonder if the grid is ready for all that extra power use, especially when there were already reports of possible rolling blackouts due to electric shortage this summer. I think they are kind of cool, But at this point, couldn't imagine only having an EV, and not another vehicle. What I think is cool is the volt, If they had something like that, but with a 100+ mile range before it went onto the gas motor, maybe there is one of these, I haven't researched Hybrids.

 

[wrath]

Today manufacturers can't build cars fast enough to outpace what the electric grid can move. If all the cars being built went to one place it's a different story.

Electric generation is a different problem. The FERC through the NERC mandates that every balancing authority (MISO and SPP cover Michigan) require every load serving entity (distribution company, aka DTE or Consumers Energy for most of Michigan) have in place an ability to cover their entire load. The problem is that through history it has been "OK" for the utilities to cover their load with contracts from other entities. What happens if enough entities choose not to deliver on the contract or can't? What happened in Texas, Oklahoma, etc.

The regulating entities also made it so utilities could use "virtual power plants" to meet demand. Technically it's not a power plant at all. It's the thing that many people signed up for that allows the utility to turn off your air conditioner. There are other ways that they can help meet the peak, and that's by curtailing usage. For example, a utility can provide a better rate to an entity like a forge in exchange for tripping off the forge when asked. One induction forge plant uses about the same amount of power as a small city.

Michigan imports about half its electricity usage. This is because it is very expensive to make energy in Michigan.

 

[Jrgunn5150]

My factory extrudes aluminum, our power bill is about 100k a month lol.