As an owner of 2 EVs my advice for our electric future is this:

This is probably too on-brand, but I visited the Alfa Romeo museum at the former factory site in Arese near Milan about a decade ago. It wasn’t so much “stumbled across” as much as “went way out of my way to visit” but it was still pretty fantastic.

This must have been just before the bar breakdown. David and Brandon dropped off the truck and I could tell they were both running on fumes. David actually offered to let me take the Grail for a spin but I declined for two reasons.

What would you pay for a Fit with twice the power and 3x the MPG? Cause that’s basically what the Bolt is.

Short answer? It rocks. Much more fun to  drive than the Leaf, even leaving the frankly silly amount of immediate torque out of the equation. It has a much sportier suspension than the Leaf, which is tuned for comfort. Try one.

Agreed - Kona / Niro are better options. I have a 2015 Leaf in addition to the Bolt and fully expected to upgrade to the longer range Leaf once it was available, but when I checked out the new model I was underwhelmed. It’s almost exactly the same as the 1st gen in most ways, just with new sheet metal and a bigger…

I’m not sure where you’re getting a $7365 Federal rebate from. That starts at $7500 and phases out to $3750, then $1875, then zero.

It’s not that loud, actually. I keep telling myself I’ll take it to the shop if anyone complains, but that hasn’t happened yet.

I have to say, I did NOT have “My beater pickup featured in a Jalopnik article” on my 2019 Bingo card but it’s a funny old world, innit?

Aw, thanks. TBH I’d be happy to just get out of the grays.

Spoiler alert - he didn’t.

Counterpoint - electric cars ARE cheap. I bought a 2015 Leaf about 4 years ago and a 2019 Bolt last month, both bought new. Between the state and federal tax credits and some crazy discounts I’ve paid less than the Leaf sticker price for both cars - combined. Leaf stickered at $33k and I got it for under $13k all in,…

I had the Mazda version back in the day and put my kid back there once. I took off somewhat abruptly when she wasn’t ready and heard her head thump against the back window.

I had the same response but I figured it out - the first number in the chart is kilograms, the second is pounds. So it’s 11000 / 2500(ish) kg - which is a whole. lot. of. pounds.

Yes, this sounds like a much better idea than, say, buying the nicest Suzuki Grand Vitara you can afford and driving trouble free for the next 5+ years.

I bought a Leaf SV in 2015 in Colorado. The old credit was based on a formula up to $6k depending on the BASE MSRP of the cheapest version of the car, less the federal tax credit and any factory rebates. That ended up being a bit less than $4k when I bought, and would have been the same whether it was the el strippo S…

I drove that stretch from Amarillo to Raton in a ‘71 Lancia Fulvia 1600HF last year. At night. With a flaky headlight relay that would occasionally pitch me into complete darkness.

I've heard there were several in the movie. Karen MacGowan at Alfas West in Colorado has one of them, converted back in the day into a race car.

I had a green 2002 Protege ES (sport package with 4 wheel discs, upgraded suspension, 2.0 engine) and I loved that little car. I added an intake and exhaust, Mazdaspeed springs / swaybars, adjustable Tokico shocks, Hawk HP pads and Enkei RP-F1 wheels with Falken Azenis 615s.

I rented one of these once. It handled horribly and though I enjoyed scaring the hell out of our CTO by driving this wallowing cow of a car with a monster engine like a Miata, I honestly didn't get the point. What exactly are you supposed to do with a LSXFTW engine in a package like that? In a ... rental ... car.......