Thanks for the idea, I have seen people driving golf-carts around before !
Though I am retired, my wife wants to keep working for a while, and while an electric go-cart sounds fun, it might be a challenge hauling a weeks worth of groceries from the store
(not to mention if you want to stop by a few local stores and need to leave stuff in your vehicle)
While our local travelling being in a small town could be on electric only, the times we need to travel about 25-30 miles each way to the city the hybrid mode (using both gas and electric) with it's super MPG would save us a whole lot on gas expense.
We are using our 2015 Kia Soul at least until our new Prius Prime XLE is delivered in a few months, at that time we will decide whether to keep the Kia or sell it as we could get at least $10,000 selling our Kia according to KBB.
The other potential factor I want to be prepared for is gas prices going up and/or gas shortages like what happened in the past. It seems gas supplies and prices are very sensitive to when there are conflicts overseas, and if a major conflict causes gas prices to go way up and supply to be limited, those who have a plug-in hybrid will be very glad they do.
Thanks, we already love it even though we don't have it yet
My wife tends to be the conservative one when it comes to spending and I am the one who has to be careful to keep my spending in check
so it surprised me last year when my wife mentioned wanting to get a new car after we paid off our Kia and wanted it to be a Toyota because a friend of hers has a Toyota which they so far put about 350,000 miles on and it's still running great, it does seem Toyota has a rep for dependable cars that hold up very well.
So months ago I started doing a lot of research to decide which Toyota we would want to get, and yes, many Toyotas seem to be somewhat pricier than some other brands econo models, but you usually get what you pay for, anyhow, when I saw the price of a model we would want to get (hatchback) and then saw it would only be so much more to get a plug-in hybrid, I figured why not pay a little more and get what you really want, one that has the money saving benefits of a plug-in hybrid, which would also help make up for the extra cost over time.
I appreciate that tastes on how a vehicle looks is subjective as a personal preference, but we really do like the look of the Prius Prime, kinda a futuristic look, and the Magnetism Blue color is cool, I've read an owner's comment that that color makes it easy to spot their car in a parking lot
Thanks, yep, that is what my research online from Prius owners has shown - they are indeed reliable !
Yes, they are pricey compared to an average car, but as far as plug-in hybrids go the Prius Prime seems to be about the most affordable compared to other plug-in hybrids as well as electric-only vehicles which can cost as much as $10,000 more than a Prius Prime and even more than that for some models.
What helps us is that we have enough saved up to make a very good down payment so the amount needed to be financed is not as much, I also factor in how we will be spending a lot less on gas after we get it.
Now this will only benefit those who pay a lot in federal taxes each year, but there is a federal tax incentive of $4500 off your federal income taxes when you buy a Prius Prime (see the Toyota web site for a tax form to print out and include with your tax return), not sure how much longer that will be available, I think they phase it out after so many are sold.
Another option some people do when they are not ready to get a new one is to buy a used Prius, you'll get it cheaper than new, but Prius cars seems to hold a good resale value so it won't be as cheap as a regular used car unless you just happen to find a good deal, maybe someone who wants to sell theirs fast because they want to upgrade to the newest model soon. (always do research when buying used though, like checking the vehicle history with Carfax or something to make sure it has not been in a flood or badly damaged in the past)
Whether buying new or used, never accept the advertised price, that should only be your starting point, if the dealer sees you are ready to walk out and go elsewhere you might find they are more flexible in the price
When the total cost was a little too much and we also wanted assurance of keeping our loan APR under 3% my wife told the salesman we'll think about it and that we were ready to leave, the salesman immediately got his manager over to us and he not only got the total cost down by almost $1500 ($150 off the base price that we were previously assured of over the phone and almost $1200 off a required addendum) we also got assurances that he could pull strings to help keep our loan APR under 3%. So be ready to walk out and you might be surprised at how much "wiggle room" they have in the price, I'm sure they allow for that, and ultimately they would prefer making a sale with a little less profit rather than not make a sale at all.