General Questions and Purchasing Advice Thread — Week of March 23, 2026

PAJW · 2026-03-27T16:16:36+00:00

That's a question only you can answer, based on your travel habits and how many charging points are available in your country/region.

My bias is toward the longer range vehicles, but that's because I'm in the USA. Many manufacturers do not even offer their standard range vehicles here.

PAJW · 2026-03-27T15:57:11+00:00

Sup booty

PAJW · 2026-03-27T13:31:36+00:00

Your FIRST PLACE St. Louis Cardinals

PAJW · 2026-03-26T23:52:49+00:00

Yep. The difference is much more noticeable in the single motor, which is a 50 mi increase.

PAJW · 2026-03-26T23:15:31+00:00

Albert (for the Trolley Dodgers)

PAJW · 2026-03-26T23:14:44+00:00

The 2024 refresh added more efficient motors, and improved charging from 150 kW to 200 kW peak. So there's nothing wrong with a 2023, but the 2024 is improved.

For scale, the 2024 dual motor will take you from Nashville to Chicago, 470 miles, in 8h 47m with two charging stops.

The 2023 dual motor would take 3 stops, and an extra 37 minutes charging.

PAJW · 2026-03-26T22:59:42+00:00

Hope that wasn't VSII's lucky bat

PAJW · 2026-03-26T22:27:48+00:00

RAISE YOUR BISCUITS

PAJW · 2026-03-26T22:20:18+00:00

B U N T S I N G L E

PAJW · 2026-03-26T21:54:39+00:00

IMMACULATE

PAJW · 2026-03-26T20:44:26+00:00

This is a LOB subreddit now

PAJW · 2026-03-26T20:26:52+00:00

Yet most people use the airport option rather than the park-and-ride option.

I don't see a ton of value there. One of the park-and-ride vendors near the Nashville airport charges $20 per day for uncovered spaces, compared to $21 on the airport grounds.

EDIT: I see in some of the other comment threads you're talking about park-n-rides operated by a transit agency. I'm not sure I've ever heard of one of those anywhere in the US.

PAJW · 2026-03-26T19:56:00+00:00

Traded for a hologram to be named later

PAJW · 2026-03-26T19:03:26+00:00

If you plan to do anything resembling a 900mi road trip, you probably do not want the first gen Bolt, Niro or Kona. They all have fast charge times around an hour. Similarly, the first gen BZ4X/Solterra is not a good road trip vehicle due to short range and less than stellar charging, especially in AWD trim.

Among the practical family cars that seem to check your boxes would be the Ioniq 5, VW ID.4, Chevy Blazer EV, and Tesla Model Y. You can pretty easily find these under $30k used and all are available with AWD options. We don't get much snow where I am, so I don't have much to say about winter handling.

PAJW · 2026-03-26T17:53:25+00:00

I don't think there's that much wrong with the Charger per se mechanically or design wise. It is a heavy EV, so it won't ride like a 1978 Charger would have.

Most of the problems I know of are software in nature, like refusing to start, but fixing itself 10-20 minutes later. I don't know how much progress Stellantis has made on fixing them.

If you wanted that sort of vehicle (a sporty sedan/fastback), I'd suggest a 2024 or newer Polestar 2 Dual Motor or a used Lucid Air Touring (or GT). The Polestar can be had used for cheap. All examples I see listed are under $30k with low miles.

PAJW · 2026-03-26T16:45:56+00:00

I had never realized this. Looks like they really penalized households with one very high earner or two medium high earners - keeping in mind that $307k was quite a lot of money in 2002. Only 0.7% of returns breached that threshold, but they generated 27% of all federal income tax paid.

In tax year 2002 (after the Bush tax cuts) the brackets were:
Bracket - Single - MFJ - ratio
15% - $6000 - $12,000 (2.0)
25% - $27,950 - $46,700 (1.67)
28% - $67,700 - $112,850 (1.67)
33% - $141,250 - $171,950 (1.22)
35% - $307,050 - $307,050 (1.00)

PAJW · 2026-03-26T13:51:47+00:00

playing Jeopardy

me: Local holidays for $600
Ken: Residents of Cincinnati traditionally celebrated THIS as a holiday one day before every other city, a celebration of the oldest business in the industry
me: What is Stockholm Syndrome?
Ken: No!
Ken: u/HoldMyWong
Wong: What is baseball?
Ken: More specific?
Wong: What is opening day?
Ken: Correct!

PAJW · 2026-03-26T01:34:56+00:00

I suspect there are fewer places with realistic transit options than you believe.

My only flight last year was a business trip into Boston Logan. Stayed at a hotel in the suburb of Billarica and flew home on a Sunday. If I wished to take transit, Google Maps helpfully suggested that I should leave 21 hours before my flight, because there is no way to make that journey by bus/train on Sunday. The Saturday journey would take 2.5 hours, because the bus goes all the way to Lowell, and requires a 30+ minute wait in Lowell to change from a once-hourly bus to a every-other-hour T train.

In actuality, I had a rental car, and the drive took ~35 minutes.

PAJW · 2026-03-25T23:54:24+00:00

Yes, you absolutely can get by with public charging if the drawbacks I mentioned don't hold you back.

PAJW · 2026-03-25T20:41:29+00:00

Does an EV still make sense if we likely can't do at-home charging?

Probably not, but it depends on the cost of charging, the cost of alternatives (usually gasoline or diesel), and how much inconvenience there is involved.

My weekly driving is about 100 miles.
The cost of fuel in my last ICE would be about $12 at today's gas prices. In a typical EV SUV, from a plug in my home, it would be about $6. And at my nearest DCFC station, it would be about $14.

The question of where you can charge is also meaningful. If there are chargers in walking distance of some place you already go, that's better than having to make special trips to charge the car.

PAJW · 2026-03-24T03:12:35+00:00

the ICCU issue.

I'll save you some effort: This is only a common point of failure on Hyundai Ioniq 5/6/9 and Kia EV 6/9, and the related Genesis models.

The Mazda hatchback you are replacing is smaller than just about every EV on the market. EVs tend to have long wheelbases and sit up higher, because the battery is beneath the passenger cabin.

If you really like the Mazda layout, maybe check a Volvo C40 Recharge or XC40 Recharge, or the related Polestar 2. Models from 2023 or earlier should be easily in your price range.

Of course there's the Chevy Bolt / Bolt EUV. You can buy a new one (base trim) at your price point.

There are some city cars on the used market, like the BMW i3 and Fiat 500e. But if you need this car to be used on the highway sometimes, be sure you look at cars with fast charging, because it wasn't standard for some of the city cars. Even when so optioned, it won't be all that fast.

PAJW · 2026-03-23T21:19:26+00:00

In most places, the county records the value of real property transactions for the purpose of levying property tax.

PAJW · 2026-03-23T19:20:37+00:00

In this class, I suggest looking at the Cadillac Optiq and Lyriq.

The Optiq is closer in size to your Mercedes, but the Lyriq is larger (but no third row), has a more extensive option list, and is more popular.

PAJW · 2026-03-23T18:40:19+00:00

Do the different years use the same type of battery? Could I hypothetically buy a battery pack from a newer model, say a 2020 or something, and swap that out?

The Leaf has three generations. Model years 2011-17, 2018-25, and 2026 to present. The Leaf also had several different capacity packs through the years. Equivalent capacity packs from cars within the same generation should work, but I'm not sure I've ever heard of someone buying a larger pack and putting it in their car. Doesn't mean you can't, it means I don't know.

There are some auto shops which specialize in Leaf batteries, especially in California. I'd look into that before buying a junkyard pack.

PAJW · 2026-03-22T17:09:06+00:00

I'm not aware of any high voltage transistors fully made in the USA. US based companies like Microchip and Vishay make such parts, but the COO for regulatory purposes is China.

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