The interiors of these were truly, exceptionally unpleasant tactile experiences when just a few years old, I can’t imagine how bad they feel by now. 

Exactly. The engine hump takes up half the passenger foot-well. The switch-gear is from GM’s “Fisher-Price” era (honestly the toys are made better). The door latches are really clunky. That being said though, the configuration was unique. Not quite a full-size van, but also not a minivan. Too bad the execution was so…

Theses were stunningly shitty vans. I drove plenty. Craptacular quality control and noisy.

I do know. My Pacifica AWD lease is up, and I’m currently shopping for another.

Today, we have two ways to spend too much for an AWD minivan: $70,000 for an electric volkswagen with the wireless Google maps set towards the future, or $25,000 for a tealish green leather clad time machine with the dial set straight back to the good old days.

To be fair, the original owner bought this in 1997 not 2024.

Your life was simple and carefree in the ‘90s because you were a baby. 

that money’s not gonna launder itself

Because kids that grew up riding around in one of these death traps now have money to burn (clearly) and want to relive their youth. This is a awful automobile and is legit junk. My parents had one in the early 90's and it fell apart within 2 years. If you want to see something fun pull up a crash test on one of these…

3rd gear: I wonder how long its going to take for us to realize that maybe, just maybe, the USA is not as great a place to live as we’ve been told.

I’ve got several ex-pat friends in various European countries. None of them left the US because they hated it here- a couple got assigned to europe for work, a couple got…

For every article the says people hate PHEVs there’s an article for saying people love them. Both are true because it depends on how you use the car and how much you know about the car going into the purchase. If you’re going into it to just save money, or thinking you’ll plug in just when it’s super convenient or not…

I purchased a phev this may and absolutely love it. I bought a 2024 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV and the range is great!  I fill up every 1k miles or more and appreciate the ability to plug in at home with a 110v outlet.  We've taken this on long trips and loved never having to search for a charger while  traveling and…

I used to blame GM for the failure to sell the Volt. Sell as in advertise and educate. I still do but on the other hand the public won’t learn and most probably can’t learn. That doesn’t mean PHEV’s are flawless on practical terms or in terms of cost.

One thing you have to realize is that J.D. Power numbers are complete garbage. EV buyers are still typically very excited and proud to be on the EV bandwagon and thus will generally look at their purchases through rose colored glasses compared to normies driving a PHEV or HEV.

Overall satisfaction on a 1,000-point scale with PHEVs is 669 while mass-market satisfaction with BEVs is 716, according to J.D. Power consumer satisfaction data. Satisfaction with premium EVs is 738 on a 1,000-point scale.

I’ve had a RAV4 Prime for about 10 months and I love it. It gets charged on a Type 1 home charger every day. I WFH so I don’t commute to work. It gets 47 miles on battery around town, about 32 at highway speeds. I’ve put gas in the tank once since I bought it. And they key for me, the reason I didn’t go full EV: I…

We bought a PVEH Sorento a couple months ago. My wife drives it daily to work, and a few times a week to the next town up for errands. We’ve driven it a handful of times on longer trips—say 60 miles round trip. She’s filled the tank once. We didn’t need to install a charging station in our house—we plug it in…

So where’s the beef here? “Owners are disappointed.” OK, why? Was plugging in at home such a hateful waste of 10 seconds per day? Do I have to visit JD Power for that information?

It’s pretty enlightening that conventional hybrids seem to be so much better received. It seems pretty clear that the issue with PHEVs is in how they are presented. They aren’t a ‘best of both worlds’ with all the advantages of both gas and EV, but they do remove the worst of both worlds - your gas mileage sitting in…

i love my jeep 4XE, i’m paying less for gas and having to get the oil changed less too. It was also comforting knowing gas could run out here in florida but i could still get around because we have power.