If you run out of gas in a traditional (I almost said "normal") car, you can walk to a gas station and bring back a can, or call somebody to bring one to you. If you run out of juice in an all-electric car, what happens? Can a service truck provide a quick charge? Or do you have to be towed to a charging station and wait hours?
All-electric cars are not sold as long-distance runners. They are expressly meant for commutes of 40-60 miles total on a single charge. Presumably, all-electric buyers know that and will plan their driving accordingly. Otherwise, I suppose, you call a tow truck.
Do you want to be off the dependence of foreign oil until you have to go over 15 miles, or 35 miles? I did a piece for KCRA in Sacramento about the difference between an electric, or a Chevy Volt or a Toyota Plug-in Prius
http://www.drivingthenation.com/?p=5018
Look at the charts and you will see the breakdown between 50 miles and 100 miles of driving.
Email back if you have more questions.
Cost-effectiveness depends on current gasoline prices, which fluctuate. At any rate, it will take you a couple of years to recoupe the extra $3,000 to $6,000 (depending on model) you pay for gas-electric hybrids. So, yes, you are paying a premium to be more environmentally friendly. We thank you.
The best family hybrids are from Toyota (Prius and Camry), Ford (Fusion), GM ((Chevrolet Volt). My favorite is the Volt because you can run all week on no gasoline and easily do a trip of several hundred miles thanks to a gasoline fueled engine/generator.
Both the BMW 3-series and Cadillac ATS are on the North American Car of the Year (NACTOY).
BMW has a long history of ride and handling that is hard to beat, but the ATS is making customers take a second look. the turbo is great, no lag.
Here's me going around a track in Atlanta in the ATS
http://www.drivingthenation.com/?p=5302
and me going around Laguna Seca with Joey Hand in a BMW 335
Several chats ago, someone asked if electric cars are more environmentally sound than internal combustion engines, or is the source just moved. A dozen years or so ago, I posed the same question to the late Noel Perrin, an Environmental Studies professor emeritus and early adopter of an electric car, which he wrote about in a book, Solo: Life with an Electric Car (1992). As any good professor would do, he made me do my homework. We went over the numbers together and came up with the answer; it depends. Specifically, it depends on where you usually plug in your car and the source of the electricity coming to that outlet. The numbers have probably changed since then, but at that time, you were better off, from an environmental standpoint, driving an efficient gas engine car if you lived in Northern Virginia. Ned lived in Vermont where a significant percentage of the electricity comes from the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant and from hydroelectric dams, so his use of the electric car made sense.
Mr. Perrin is right if you're looking at a well-to-wheel basis, including where the energy comes from and how it is made.
People don't like nuclear because of the melt-down issues and the plutonium issues. If any of our readers know much about using thorium instead of uranium I'd like to hear from them.
Did you consider well-to-wheel if you used solar energy?
Here's Bill Reinert, Toyota, talking about well-to-wheel
http://www.drivingthenation.com/?p=107
Any reactions to that recent article?: http://m.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121030/BIZ/210300305&template=wapart
That is what CR found among its self-selected interviewees, who are CR readers and subscribers and longtime loyal buyers of all cars Japanese. I disagree. Recent, public evidence indicates that the Japanese (Toyota, Nissan, Mitsubishi and sometimes Honda) make as many mistakes as anyone else. Duhh. They are human, too.
Overall global vehicle quality has improved greatly. Still, there is no such thing as "perfect."
I always say think of gasoline as the variable interest rate on your mortgage. Since I only take out a loan with a fixed interest rate you can see that I am conservative when it comes to the volatility of gasoline prices.
But I am also just as concerned with comfort and safety. You say you keep your cars for 10 years or more and that you have two children. Those children are going to get bigger and have more "stuff" in the next ten years.
If the only cost you have to take a trip is the extra price of gasoline I would look for a car with a bit more room for the furture growth of said children.
Your second car should be your commute car that is more gasoline conservative when the whole family is not in the car.
The thickness, quality, and cleanliness of the CD (and your CD player) can make a difference. But, I must admit, I smiled when I read this. All of my electronic books and stored music are now on iPod or info stick. I haven't used automotive CDs in year...largely for reasons akin to your complaint.
Are you looking for SUV hybrids? The Audi Q5 and VW Tiguan are hybrids.
Check out the Prius V hybrid wagon. My prayers and best wishes for you and your husband.
Warren, Lou Ann, Do you think that today's announcement of Hyundai/Kia's settlement for inflating MPG numbers on cars sold in the US will blunt the companies' sales in the future? Hyundai especially has made a meteoric rise by satisfying customers and building trust-- does one incident destroy all that?
There is more technology being brought out by Hyundai and Kia that will bring those numbers back up. I vaguely remember talking to someone at Hyundai/Kia and they said the percentage of warranty issues was so small that offering a 10 year 100,000 was a no brainer.
I don't think the Hyundai-Kia screw-up with mpg will hurt the duo's sales. They seem to have handled it in a straightforward manner--admitting fault and profusely apologizing for the error. The overall mileage difference--closer to 37 mpg instead of the advertised 40 mpg--isn't horrific. Also, there's this: The overall quality of Hyundai-Kia vehicles is real. The price of those models is super-competitive. Hyundai-Kia just need to get rid of their current crop of distaff marketers, who seem carried away with a corporate success they had little to do with.
On the Xterra, 25-28 mpg hwy is what I've hear. Have to check. But YOU should check out the 2013 Ford Escape--completely and excellently redone and about 3o mpg hwy.
Yes. It's called "dealer exchange" in the business. You might pay a tad more for the "exchange."
Distaff marketers: Car companies routinely hire outside advertising agencies--distaff marketers--to push their products. Some of these agencies push too hard. Some don't push hard enough. Some give awfully bad advice. Others perform at the top of their game. Fire the bad ones.
I appreciate that you want to buy a hybrid for fuel savings.
Sometimes the market demand hans't been as great as the supply was thought to be. If that happens the manufacturer might decide to discontinue a product if it's not profitable.
The Ford Escape has been discontinued as a hybrid, but Ford is still around, they're still making Escapes and they're still making hybrids. Those are all good things.
Hybrids and electrics, plug-ins, range extenders, whatever you call them - only amount to less than 3% of sales. Yet, according to bloomberg we are using less gasoline because of new technology, which includes these cars.
Buy the Escape hybrid - Ford will be here for quite sometime.
You might catch a break on a Hyundai Santa Fe, circa 2009-to-2012, which is being replaced by an all-new 2013 model. Or a Chevrolet Equinox used. Try those.
What I thought is what I wrote: It's a Point A-to-Point B compact economy car that has been around for 40 years. It's reliable, well-made, but essentially boring, which is why so many rivals have surpassed it in likability, if not actual sales. It will improve in likability because it sells too well for Toyota to abandon it.
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