[SML] OT -Vehicle Leasing

[Pat Kight]

Dave Tosti-Lane via Stagecraft wrote:
> Every time I've explored the idea of leasing, I've wound up going with a
> purchase because of the mileage issue, and because I tend to keep cars
> for around 10 years anyway. We have both a gas and an all electric
> vehicle now.
>
> Electric works for us for a regular daily 100 mile commute that my wife
> drives - but our electric has 280 mile range and charges overnight at
> home - actually, at 80 Amps 240 volts, it generally takes less than two
> hours to charge overnight. On a trip, the free superchargers charge even
> faster - Linda needed to pick up a little extra range on a recent long
> trip, and stopped at a supercharger for roughly 15 minutes to pick up
> over 100 miles additional range. She's done several 400 mile trips that
> happily involve routes with superchargers at the destination point.
> Where the charging would drag would be on a trip where you wanted to do
> 800 or 1000 miles in a day, as you would need to build in 2-3 30 to 40
> minute charge stops (arguably good points for lunch and dinner, but
> admittedly annoying if you really want to make tracks)

One reason I'm looking at all-electric, besides a desire to get off the 
dinosaur juice, is that I simply can't drive long hauls any more - more 
than about 100 miles triggers my otherwise dormant sciatica. For the 
kind of daily driving I do - a 24mi roundtrip commute, occasional jaunts 
up to Portland or the coast - it would work really well, especially now 
that Oregon's system of free public charging stations is getting built 
out to places other than the I-5 corridor.

Whatever I buy will likely be my last car; I drive cars for 15 years or 
longer, and in 15 years, frankly, I'll be at an age when I probably 
shouldn't be driving.

I just got a $900 estimate for not-quite-urgent-but-pretty-soon brake 
work on my '98 Beetle, which means it's getting well past the 
nickel-and-diming point and into serious money. That $900 would go a 
good way toward a down payment...

-- 
Pat Kight
kightp at peak.org