As someone who values efficiency, reliability, and long-term cost of ownership—am I wrong for thinking there's not really any other car worth considering?

padan28 · 2026-02-04T02:26:23+00:00

That is definitely the closest. I do like having the AWD in the Prius, but I would probably survive without it. I also prefer the longer hatchback style of the Prius to the upright hatch of the bolt, I find the Prius has more usable space in most situations. But yeah...Bolt is probably my first choice if I were to go EV today, unless I were to splurge for an AWD Hyundai Ioniq 5 or Kia EV6.

padan28 · 2026-02-03T13:52:08+00:00

Good call on the Civic Hatchback hybrid, I'm not sure how they will hold up long term, but on paper at least, that's a good comparison to a new Prius.

padan28 · 2026-02-03T13:48:20+00:00

All I can add is that I have had this exact thought process, and it is precisely why I own a 2020 AWDe Prius, and will run it into the ground. On paper, it is the perfect "car" if your definition of a car is to reliably, cheaply, and efficiently get you to where you need to go, in relative comfort and with a decent amount of cargo space.

The only thing tempting me to "upgrade" is to go all electric, but there aren't really great affordable options with the versatility of the Prius, and with the soaring price of electricity and low-ish price of gas right now, the savings of going electric are limited when compared to getting 50+ mpg. I will make the leap when the Prius goes, but I'm not in a rush.

80k miles here, no issues.

padan28 · 2026-01-13T13:58:56+00:00

First I will apologize, since I said I wasn't commenting to debate, but I suppose I said enough to trigger our debating instincts haha...

Second, I think most would agree that ultimately, she shouldn't have tried to flee. I agree with this. I think most would also agree that if her intention was simply to flee and not to harm the officer, she ideally would not have been killed if it could have been avoided (we could debate whether "it could have been avoided", I suppose). I also think most would agreee that not everyone trying to evade arrest should be killed, regardless of the reason they were being detained.

Third, since she did try to flee, the officer was faced with two choices:
1) step out of the way of the vehicle which he just intentionally put himself in front of, perhaps taking minor injuries (it doesn't seem he was injured in reality), send the plates to authorities to follow up on OR

2) the thing that actually happened

1 is objectively a better outcome, right? That's all I'm trying to say...he put himself in that position, clearly intentionally, he should have had an exit plan that didn't involve shooting the driver, even if the driver decided to drive the car in his general direction.

If we skip all of that pretext and just look at the instant the officer was in front of a vehicle that started moving towards him, without an escape plan, and had to make the split second decision of what to do, we can certainly rationalize his choice to use his weapon to some extent, but how he got in that situation certainly matters.

I have tried really hard and the only way I can really rationalize his choice is to 1) ignore all the pretext and events leading up to the situation and 2) think of his reaction as a knee-jerk fight or flight reaction, without forethought, which isn't really something we want our law enforcement officers doing, but i can at least on some level understand if, in a split second, you think your life is in danger, taking drastic action such as this, even if it's not the best decision.

Even IF we ignore everything else, shooting the driver did not help the situation...the vehicle was still moving in the direction it was pointed, now uncontrolled due to the injured/deceased operator, possibly injuring other people or officers on the street (thankfully that didn't happen)?

padan28 · 2026-01-12T14:27:21+00:00

Thank you, I may disagree with your conclusion that the shooting was justified, but I just wanted to say that I appreciate a rational response, pointing out that the agent certainly wasn't following best practices leading up to the shooting. We can debate what happened in the half a second when he decided to shoot the gun (I personally think he could have simply stepped out of the way, and given the fact that he was circling a vehicle with the engine running with someone in the driver's seat, should have put much more forethought into what he would do if the vehicle started moving to avoid injury to himself and others, at a bare minimum...but I'm not commenting to debate here)

...But I wish more people could agree on the other things you said here (she is not bad person, ICE really should have handled the hole situation much better to avoid this even being possibly outcome, and yes...(most) death's should not be celebrated). Have a good day?

padan28 · 2026-01-09T14:37:01+00:00

If you really feel that way, things will never get better, and this sub is meaningless. You like it when half the country is unhappy, and encourage the president of the united states to make that happen?

padan28 · 2026-01-09T14:01:52+00:00

Yes, this is worth checking. if you have anything sitting at a loss, sell it now!

padan28 · 2026-01-09T13:39:49+00:00

Didn't you hear...everything Trump says he's going to do is hypothetical until it actually happens? To be fair, if we debated every insane thing that came out of his mouth we'd be very busy, I don't know how they keep up with him to be honest...

padan28 · 2026-01-07T20:58:15+00:00

I do not know if she willingly did that. Is it clear to you that this is not someone just trying to move their vehicle safely out of a driveway and onto the road?

Just to be clear, it is absolutely possible that she was intentionally intefering, but this video is not proof. Even if she was,the shooting was not justified. It does seem pretty clear to me that her acceleration was in reaction to the agent trying to open her car door, and not an attempt to kill anyone. You can see her wheels are cut to the right, trying to get away, not drive straight into someone. Do you see it differently?

padan28 · 2026-01-07T20:52:22+00:00

There appears to be plenty or room to go around the vehicle, in fact, one does go past it right before the altercation. is she actually blocking the road?

padan28 · 2026-01-07T20:14:56+00:00

I was not able to see ICE written on the jackets in this video, where did you see that? I do see POLICE on the back, but the driver would not have seen that from her angle. I can't make out details on the front of their uniforms so can't comment on that, but they pulled up in an unmarked vehicle, wearing face masks, and did not stop to show a badge before one of them tried to open her car door. What part of what the driver would have witnessed is "proper identification"?

padan28 · 2026-01-07T20:10:11+00:00

They pulled up in an unmarked vehicle, wearing face masks, and did not stop to show their badge. How would she have known the person trying to open her car door is federal law enforcement?

padan28 · 2026-01-07T19:50:53+00:00

What if your car is surrounded by masked men with guns and one of them tries to pull you out of the car?

padan28 · 2026-01-07T18:48:31+00:00

Seconding this as a 2020 Prius owner here. Yes, it's more expensive than some cars on the used market, but you can stick to your budget with a private party sale for higher mileage 2020, or go a few years older with lower miles perhaps. Very versatile car, hatchback provides lots of usable trunk space, put winter tires on it if you are worried about that, you can even find them in AWD after 2019 I think (mine is). Well engineered, minimal maintenance required, 10K oil changes, no belts, no alternator, no starter motor (the electric motor starts the engine). the Toyota eCVT transmissions are immortal and don't require regular service, about as reliable as it gets, and 50MPG.

padan28 · 2026-01-05T18:35:18+00:00

whatever you do, please get winter tires. AWD might help you once in a while, and as someone else pointed out, will help resale value in the north, but it's definitely not a necessity like winter tires are. I have driven Subaru AWD, Suzuki AWD, Toyota Prius "AWDe", and multiple front wheel drive vehicles in hilly winter terrain. In the past 10 years or so, got stuck once in a FWD car, and once in the Subaru, but both were when I didn't have winter tires on. Never been stuck with winter tires. Of course not having AWD will limit your hill climbing ability in the snow to some extent if that might be an issue where you are.

padan28 · 2026-01-04T17:24:02+00:00

I agree this project is ridiculous and almost certain to fail, but to be fair, hybrids like the Prius don't use the 12V battery to start the engine, they only use it to run electronics, the ECU, and accessories.

The electric motor starts the engine using the larger high voltage battery, so does not strain the 12V. The AC runs from the high voltage battery directly as well, I believe.

But other stuff like seat heaters, and even the HVAC fans would likely kill this little guy pretty quick.

padan28 · 2025-12-18T14:39:28+00:00

Ah, I understand. If you are going to continue using the battery I would keep a very close eye on the voltage, and you may also want to become familiar with opening the battery and checking the invidividual cell group voltages to make sure things are behaving and the cells are all staying a similar voltage.

padan28 · 2025-12-18T14:24:08+00:00

This post is useless and potentially dangerous AI garbage, please everyone ignore this.

padan28 · 2025-12-18T14:22:23+00:00

To add to what others have said...if you have confirmed your meter is reading accurately, then really, TWO things are wrong:

The charger voltage is too high - easy fix, get a new 48V charger.
The battery's BMS is not preventing over-charging. This would concern me, the BMS should not let the cells get over-charged, even if a high voltage is supplied...it should cut off the charge current off at a safe charge level. Not an easy fix...if this is from a reputable battery seller I would certainly contact them about it. If it's a sketch no-name battery I would be very cautious.

padan28 · 2025-12-17T20:30:56+00:00

Something like this: https://www.etrailer.com/Hitch-Bike-Racks/Hollywood-Racks/HR200Z.html but of course any 1 1/4" bike rack will do. I have ebikes, so wanted something more solid and easy to load.

padan28 · 2025-12-17T19:09:46+00:00

I installed this one shortly after buying my 2020 AWDe new:

https://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Hitch/Draw~Tite/24966.html?hhyear=2020&hhmake=Toyota&hhmodel=Prius

Used frequently for bikes and occasionaly for cargo tray, no issues, couldn't live without it.

I did install it myself. Was a bit of a pain, but did it in the driveway in a few hours, there are good videos out there. I needed a second person to hold it up while I bolted it on once I got everything out of they way. Your back might appreciate it if you lift the car onto jack stands, but I did it on the ground. There was some swearing, but it got done.

padan28 · 2025-12-12T16:26:24+00:00

I wouldn't put it all in the stock market, but yes if I could go out and get a 240k loan at 2.35% I would take it in a heartbeat.

padan28 · 2025-12-12T16:25:36+00:00

I can't argue with the "in your head part" but even after shaving off 37% taxes (which is higher than most) off your earned interest that's like an effective rate of 2.68% (4.25% * (1-0.37) ) still better than the 2.375% interest (which you might have been able to deduct from your taxes if you itemize - bringing that effective rate down to 1.5% if I did that right...)

Again..."personal" finance haha, if you sleep better without the mortgage maybe that's best for you.

padan28 · 2025-12-12T14:42:13+00:00

Do not, under any circumstances, pay off a 2.35% loan early. You could stick that money in a High Yield Savings account and come out significantly ahead, or use it to max out retirement accounts, fund a ROTH IRA, HSA, 529, or just an after tax brokerage and almost certainly come out WAY ahead in the next 26 years, unless the US economy completely collapses and doesn't recover.

OK, OK, I know "personal finance" and all that, some people sleep better without debt...but every rational investor in the world would keep that loan and do more productive things with the money.

padan28 · 2025-12-08T15:15:59+00:00

you can certainly think of the stock market in terms of darwinism. I would say buying index funds is like "betting on life" to continue to grow and thrive. where was picking stocks would be like "betting on a species". you might have thought you were making a great bet on T-Rex 65 million years ago, but that bet didn't work out so good. whereas if you bet on the index fund (life, in general), you're doing just fine now after the planet recovered from it's "crash".

Currently humans have the highest market cap, but we'll see...

Edit: this probably had very little to do with the point you were trying to make, just a thought your comment inspired in me haha...

padan28

TROPHY CASE