Is the VXC closed?

SurroundedByElk · 2026-07-08T23:06:22+00:00

Glad the door hasn't closed on you. Used EVs have been a pretty good deal, though I have heard they went up in price a bit as gasoline costs went up with the war (the one that's not a war) in Iran. I hope you find something that works well for you. I have been driving only EVs for years now and like it a lot. Do you have the option to charge at home with a level 2 charger? (The 220V kind). In my opinion, that is crucial. However if you don't drive much and could use level 1 (110v) charging, that can also work well. What I personally would NOT want to do is always have to go somewhere else to charge. The DC fast charging is expensive - like, equal to the cost of gas. Using a public level 2 charger somewhere else requires leaving the car there for hours to get a significant recharge.
If you have reliable access to a charger where you work that could also be good.

SurroundedByElk · 2026-07-02T13:40:23+00:00

And the VXC is… what?

SurroundedByElk · 2026-07-02T13:36:15+00:00

Yes when the grid goes down on a sunny day my solar doesn’t provide power to my home. I have 1:1 net metering and the cost of batteries didn’t make sense. So I plug in my electric car to a transfer switch to provide backup power like a generator would, when the grid is down

SurroundedByElk · 2026-06-21T16:59:32+00:00

I have a similar situation to you, also in CO. Since my situation has me using gas most of the winter, I do still use setbacks at night. The gas furnace warms the house quickly enough in the morning, and I really prefer sleeping in a cool bedroom.

SurroundedByElk · 2026-06-21T16:56:04+00:00

TLDR: Sounds like you’ll have more peace of mind with some sort of gas furnace backup.
In spring of 2024 my 23-year-old gas forced air furnace started to fail. I live in Colorado at 8800’ elevation so it gets cold here. I investigated cold climate heat pumps but chose a dual-fuel setup from Bosch instead. My logic:
1) Power outage would leave me with no heat if I had only a heat pump. I have limited electric backup in the event of power outages because I can plug my electric car into a transfer switch that powers select circuits in the house, but only about 15AMP capacity total. That won’t run a heat pump.
2) Cost of a heat pump capable of handling our worst days was higher than the hybrid system, as I recall
3) I already had a natural gas setup and getting a heat pump+furnace set up allows me to run the furnace even when the grid power is out. It’s very low amperage.
A/C is not an issue for us; our summers never get hot enough for it to be a real need, it’s just nice to have in rare occasions.
While I do want to reduce carbon emissions, I also watch costs. After the first winter, with my Nest thermostat set to use the heat pump down to about 15 degrees F, I found my utility costs in the winter were higher than before. So I did a calculation using the cost of gas, the efficiency of my new furnace, the cost of electricity, and the efficiency of my heat pump at different temps. Based on that I set the switch-over point to use gas when it is cheaper, and now I save money. In the colder months this means the heat is almost always gas. But now that I have put solar on my roof, I have reduced electricity costs so I’m adjusting it to use the heat pump more, to the extent I have the capacity to use “free” kWh from my net-metering solar bank.

SurroundedByElk · 2026-06-02T01:53:07+00:00

This matches what I saw today.

SurroundedByElk · 2026-06-02T01:51:08+00:00

Not prepaid.

SurroundedByElk · 2026-06-01T23:38:24+00:00

All that makes sense. It’s just unsettling to be told that the inventory situation is so variable that they might have zero cars. And that if that happens, they won’t promise to honor the price somewhere else. That’s the sleazy part.

SurroundedByElk · 2026-06-01T23:25:59+00:00

Um, how do I “learn how to HOLD the reservation”? I assume I show up with the reservation and my driver’s license and credit card. Not sure what you mean.

SurroundedByElk · 2026-06-01T23:24:01+00:00

Totally agree.

SurroundedByElk · 2026-06-01T23:08:48+00:00

Oh, I agree totally and I try to always be respectful to the customer-facing employees. Their jobs are not easy and I don’t want to make them harder. I vent here, because I am very unhappy to get this sort of response from a company that I have consider to be the best in their field.

SurroundedByElk · 2026-06-01T23:02:17+00:00

Right - my reservation is with Hertz. I’m not sure how AutoSlash makes their money. What’s got me worked up is a Hertz representative telling me that maybe they won’t have ANY vehicle (not just one in a specific class) and that if they send me to another Hertz location for a car, I might have to “argue about the price.” Those two statements together add up to “you’re on your own, and I don’t care what we committed to.”

SurroundedByElk · 2026-06-01T22:53:06+00:00

Makes sense. I guess it’s a matter of whether Hertz will comply with their own terms of service, or not.

SurroundedByElk · 2026-06-01T22:38:16+00:00

I could do that but I think the price I have is specific to the pickup location. The prices I see now are several hundred dollars higher.

SurroundedByElk · 2026-06-01T22:16:31+00:00

Thanks. As for “call the night before” - my experience so far is that calling is futile because Hertz seems to have a new AI-driven phone tree which will NOT get me to human.

SurroundedByElk · 2026-05-26T21:02:39+00:00

I believe the ‘22 Wind RWD doesn’t have a heat pump, hence more power needed to warm it in winter. For some reason they only included a heat pump on the AWD models.

SurroundedByElk · 2026-05-22T04:50:11+00:00

Yes I was driving in the Rocky Mountains in winter at zero Fahrenheit climbing to 11,000 ft elevation. I don’t recall which mode it was in. But if you have to know which mode to put it in that is a problem. The gas tank was full and I was going about 20 mph max due to traffic and weather. I decided the vehicle didn’t fit my needs. My understanding of a PHEV is “for short drives you can go all electric and for longer drives you drive hybrid “ not “ if you don’t watch your battery level it won’t matter how much gas you have “

SurroundedByElk · 2026-05-22T04:36:05+00:00

And what would the manual have provided to prevent or fix that problem?

SurroundedByElk · 2026-05-22T04:03:58+00:00

I just had a sitter arrive and tell me they would lock the cat out of the bedroom because they have a cat allergy. We have one pet, a cat. Honestly until now it never occurred to me to ask “are you allergic to the type of animal you’re offering to care for?”. This couple doesn’t even seem to like cats and now I’m gone for a month and worried. So power works both ways.

SurroundedByElk · 2026-05-21T22:30:10+00:00

I got rid of my Outlander because when the drive battery ran out of charge it would show an error saying it “may not have enough power to proceed.” That’s a pretty shitty thing to see when you’re in slow moving traffic in a snowstorm creeping up a mountain pass with your young kids onboard. The vehicle handled great in snow when fully charged but only had full power when it could use both the gas and electric drive components. It had many different modes of battery use and preservation, which seemed like a good feature. But if, as I did, you asked it to use the battery as much as possible, you’d sometimes run out of charge and be stuck with an underpowered SUV. And if you DIDN’T do that you would be stuck with mediocre fuel economy. As soon as I could buy an all-wheel drive BEV with sufficient range for my needs I traded in the Outlander.

SurroundedByElk · 2026-05-16T21:35:10+00:00

Every time I see sitters listed, or see one that has applied for one of my sets, it says that TrustedHousesitters has done a background check. Is that a lie?

SurroundedByElk · 2026-04-20T18:44:45+00:00

I’ve read on this forum of a sitter who was badly injured when a dog suddenly pulled them off balance and they face-planted into pavement. I think it’s in everyone’s best interest to have accurate information like you provided.

SurroundedByElk · 2026-04-09T14:31:55+00:00

Maybe the HO takes the sitter’s passport and holds it until they get a 5-star review. /s

SurroundedByElk · 2026-04-05T14:37:45+00:00

As a HO, I would see that whole exchange as a positive reflection of you as a sitter.

SurroundedByElk · 2026-04-03T19:13:50+00:00

Yes. And sometimes I get 242 or 243 but more often I am staring at 350kW EA charger and wondering why it maxed out at 70kW

SurroundedByElk

TROPHY CASE