Barons Bonus Sept. 1st Update

This is a bonus post just about our new car. We basically bought a new car in a few hours. Kind of scary . . .

Here’s why we did what we did –

• First of all, we heard from the other guy’s insurance that they are going to take responsibility but we still haven’t heard if it will be totaled or not. We feel quite confident it will be, but if it isn’t then we know it will probably take like two months to get it fixed and we often could use three cars and Megan and Tyler would both be happy to buy it from us in a year or so when they move out.
• I also didn’t want to bother with a rental and all that if not necessary if we were just going to buy a car anyway.
• We set out knowing we really liked our Toyota Prius C but given the chance to buy a new car we said we would like something fuel-efficient with that had a little more room and clearance and less than 50k miles so it will last a long time.
• The car market is crazy right now so we realized we couldn’t be too picky and needed to be open-minded about the purchase.
• We also knew we were going to have to spend a lot more than we would like. Pretty much any car under $10k has a salvaged title or rebuilt engine, etc. I was surprised by how many cars there were with rebuilt titles. We had someone tell us that’s because they “total” a lot of cars that really aren’t that bad so people buy them at auctions really cheap and fix them up and make a good profit.
• Most cars in the $15k range either have 200k miles if they are a more expensive model or 100k miles for the more affordable models.
• To get something with less than 50k miles they are generally $25k or more.
• Dealerships often say they have a bunch of new cars but when you get looking, they have very few actually in stock. We’re talking like every dealership has like 5 cars actually on their lot. Some of the larger dealerships may have 20 cars but they are almost always $60k and up.
• The cheapest new cars we could find were $25k but they were tiny, with terrible gas mileage, bad reviews, etc.
• Norm has had his eye on a Ford Maverick, which is a hybrid smaller truck that gets like 44 mpg and starts around $25k. They just came out this year and apparently Norm isn’t the only one that likes it. Every dealership we called that said they had some in stock online said they actually weren’t in stock but were on order for a customer. I don’t understand why they don’t just hide those from their website. Some dealerships do. We did find one Maverick in stock because it was a trade-in and just came on their lot that day and it only had like 10k miles but it was $40k. They said there was going to be a window of time open in a few months when we could order a Maverick and it would take 1 1/2 to 2 years to get here. I don’t think so . . .
• So we decided to look at used cars since especially new hybrids are so hard to find right now because of chip shortages and battery shortages.
• Used hybrids and electrical vehicles are very hard to find too. We went to Clean Fuels Utah since they have been in business for years and are close to us and they specialize in vehicles with clean fuels. They have like three vehicles in stock in Orem but like 10 in stock in SLC, which is way more hybrids and electric vehicles than anyone else has. He was also really knowledgeable and helpful and not pushy.
• After talking to him we realized we didn’t want natural gas since that was an alternative fuel that never really took off, we couldn’t afford a Tesla since the most affordable used ones are $44k and you are mostly paying for a bunch of fancy features we would never use. We sat in one and it does not feel like a family car. I mean, the one we sat in had white leather seats. White? Seriously?
• Long story short, the salesman said he thought the best value was the Chevrolet Bolt since it is almost as good as a Tesla but costs half as much. He said they always sell out of them really fast and they had a good history of happy owners. They had one in stock but it was red $29k with 32k miles, which isn’t a bad deal but I wanted to see if I could find a better deal. I also read good reviews about them online.
• He said electric vehicles generally last a long time, like up to 300k miles since they have a lot less things that can break down.
• I searched all of Utah and it so happened that the best deal I could find as far as the miles-to-cost ratio was at Forrest Motors in Orem. The bonus is that it was at a good dealership close to home! We decided to just buy it before it sold. It just felt right and we really needed a vehicle soon. We bought it on Monday, so after only a few hours and one test drive. There just aren’t a lot of other vehicles to even test drive that fit our criteria.

Here are the selling points to me of this Chevy Bolt –

• It’s almost new with 8k miles and $32k. It still has the new car smell and is a 2021 that was leased for a little over a year by someone in California with a clean title history.
• It’s all electric.
• I never have to pay for gas or go to a gas station with it.
• It needs very little maintenance since it doesn’t have a gas motor. No oil changes or any of that. About the only thing to maintain are things like the tires, windshield wipers, coolant, etc. until the first recommended service at 100k miles. That will save me a lot of time and money.
• I had all sorts of questions about charging it and figure you do too, so here’s the deal – it comes standard with a regular 110 outlet charger but that didn’t work in our garage since the charger said our outlet wasn’t properly grounded. That’s fine because it takes three days to charge it that way and that’s a bit ridiculous.
• So I got on Amazon and found a charger for $300 that fits in our 220 dryer outlet in our garage that my Grandpa put in years ago for his dryer and charges it in like 10 hours? I think it may be less. We plugged it in for three hours I think and it charged it about halfway.
• It can go about 250 miles on a full “tank” in optimal conditions. It charges up to 200 miles but then because of regenerative charging you can add up to 50 more miles. Regenerative charging is the same as our hybrid was. When you are not using the pedal or braking the tires charge the battery.
• You can get better mileage in the city since you are braking more often and not going as fast but we figure it will mostly be a great car to drive around town and we probably won’t take it on trips most of the time anyway since it’s too small to fit all of us, especially with our luggage.
• I wondered if it would make our electric bill go up a ton so I calculated how much it would cost to fully charge it from empty and it’s about $7. Not free, but a lot less than a tank of gas. We shouldn’t have to fill it more than 2-3 times a month, depending on how much we drive.
• You can also charge it at a charging station. There are some that will charge it in like 1/2 to 1 hour but they cost about 25 cents a kwh and the cost at our house is 11 cents a kwh so you would only want to do that if you are traveling.
• But there are a lot of charging stations around that let you charge it for free. They don’t charge it as fast but free power is a good price. The practicality of driving your car to a charging station just to charge it and sitting there waiting for it to charge doesn’t make a lot of sense but if there is one close to somewhere you are already going and you can charge it while you are shopping, etc. then that makes a lot of sense.
• There is an app called PlugShare and it lets me filter to find free stations that have my plug type and there are quite a few around Utah County. I was surprised at how many there are. There happens to be one right next to Tyler’s school where I sit outside and wait for him to do his tutoring for an hour every week so we may as well charge it there since we are there anyway. I think some business owner probably put it there to charge his vehicle but he lets people use it when he isn’t. There are also ones at pretty much every car dealership, UDOT has some, UVU, some hotels, hospitals and random businesses. I predict that pretty soon a lot of restaurant chains and grocery stores will have them to try to get you to go there and charge your vehicle while you eat or shop.
• The car always gives you an estimate of how many more miles you can go, with a low and high estimate so if you plan ahead a little you shouldn’t ever run out of battery.
• About this actual vehicle – it’s pretty much the base model, which is a lot of what made it affordable. But nowadays the base models have so many features it’s still pretty cool. It has these cool things –
  • Alarm System
  • Keyless Entry
  • Push Button Start
  • Infotainment System with Backup Camera
  • DC Fast charge
  • Full manufacturer warranty
• So what’s cool is you carry around the key fob and as long as you have it then you just push this button on the handle and the door unlocks. To start it, you put your foot on the brake and push the start button. You can set it up to lock automatically when the fob is so far from the car.
• It has Apple Car Play, which means you can plug in your phone and use a lot of the apps on screen. I mostly just use the map apps and hands-free talking and texting on occasion.
• The backup camera is really good. It’s large, clear, and the lines move as you move your vehicle.
• It’s quite a bit taller than our Prius, which is nice because I had to get in our Prius a certain way or I would bump my head.
• The back seat has several more inches of legroom than the Prius and another inch or two for the middle person in the back.
• The truck is huge for this size of a car and like three times larger than the Prius trunk. Ruby can fit in just fine with enough room to shut it. It is open to the main car and you can put the back seats down and fit even more things in if you want. I guess that’s called a hatchback.
• It’s a gray color, which is kind of cool because it’s silver but not really so it’s unique and is a good neutral color that won’t be too hot and won’t look super dirty.
• Driving an electric car is a little different than a gas car. Surprisingly, it has really good acceleration. You push on the pedal and it can really get up to speed fast. It also slows down quickly. It is really fun and easy to drive and park.
• We would love to give you a drive so you can experience it for yourself!

Here are some photos that the dealer took –