Ex Honda Mechanic here. Those were some of the best vehicles of that era. Especially with a manual. It totally transforms the driving experience. If I didn’t need a heavier duty vehicle I would have bought one in a second. I did steer several friends towards them.

2006 Honda Civic SiR. Peak Civic.

2 years ago I would have happily bought a brand new Astro van if I could get one. Same thing. Minimal luxury, maximum utility.

100 miles of city range? Electrics get far better city than highway range so I am guessing 70 miles of highway if you are lucky?

A mid size?!? The perfect size! Full size vans are stupid in cities. The mid size van market was brilliant. But the auto makers stopped making them so they could sell us big giant stupid vans. The last full size new chevy van I was driving was getting 22l/100km in stop and go city driving and 13l/100km on the highway.…

The lack of electric van interest from the manufacturers is sad and pathetic. I’m spending $500-$600/mo CAD dumping fuel into my trades van. A $1000/mo payment on a $50k van would be a bargain.

Do you know what would be even better? A mechanical device that locks the steering so you can’t push the car around a corner and strip it.

The Astro van is the AK47 of vehicles. Crude, out of date, made to run with sloppy build quality and surprisingly effective. There is a reason there is still a ton of them running around.

You aren’t going 500 miles with 118kWh. The chevy is going 400 miles with 200kWh. The cybertruck is estimated to be around 200kWh for 500 miles but who knows.

Get an electric van. Start and stop duty actually gets MORE range than advertised as over 90% of the braking energy is recaptured. Making a gas postal van is just idiotic.

The Brightdrop EV600 is an electric delivery van that meets or is easily modified to meet most of their specs and it is available right now. I’d imagine a van with 250 miles of electric only range and 4wd can probably handle 85% of all postal needs. Keep in mind that electric range actually improves with stop and go…

Just don’t look at all the oil consumption lawsuits. 1-2L every 1000 miles? Is that a problem?

Canada here. We had one look at the covid antibody numbers ramping up in the sewage samples taken across the country and LOL’d when we saw the mask removal ruling. Covid numbers are on the way up, not headed down.

Most Hondas/Toyotas will have little issue crossing 400,000km (250,000 miles) in a non rust area. Domestics get a bit dodgy after 300,000km (180k mi). Under no circumstances do you want to own an aging European luxury brand over 200,000km (120k mi).

THIS is $5000 in China. Yes it’s a crap box but it can do 62mph / 100kph and has air conditioning. For a 2 car family it would be the perfect second car even in North America. Crash standards will need to be met however, but don’t underestimate China.

Traction problems proves that front wheel drive and a mid battery SUCKS. Auto makers are stuck with old ways of thinking. Consumers want front wheel drive at all costs, right? Well front wheel drive was only good when the weight was over the drive tires. Add a big fat battery in the middle and with the weight transfer…

Watch this video clip, then tell me that this car wouldn’t sell out in minutes like it did in the EU.

There’s no lithium shortage. It only takes 7kg to make a tesla. Bolivia has lakes of the stuff just sitting there. As does several places. Cobalt and Nickel on the other hand. Those are in short supplies. But we’ll need all of that, and copper, and a boat load of aluminum and all the other rare earth metals used in…

GET AN OIL ANALYSIS DONE! I can not stress this enough. Manufacturers (Like BMW, I’m looking at you) are setting oil change intervals wayyyyyy too long and pretending modern cars have super long maintenance intervals. Talk to the technicians, the oil coming out is ‘like gasoline’. Don’t believe for a second that a…

Insurance generally covers a loaner car if you are hit. Is it not the same in this area?