Car Advice: Used EV/PHEV or just keep the 15 year old Toyota?

[cincystache]

Is the 4,000 used EV tax credit likely to go away in January? If so, looking for advice on whether or not we should get a qualifying vehicle in the next month to take advantage or just keep it simple and keep driving our functioning cars.

I have a 2010 Rav4 with 145k miles in pretty good shape but feeling slight transmission slip and at 15 years old I've started renting a car for our quarterly visits to family (250 miles away). I could probably get 7-10k as a trade-in. Our other (and primary) car is a Nissan leaf that we are very happy with thus far and plan to keep long term, we drive each car about 7,000 miles per year.

The Rav4 is primarily used as a daily commuter car for me (32 miles round-trip 5 days per week).

Should I just keep the Rav4 and hope to get another 4+ years out of it or trade it towards a 2-4 year old used EV/PHEV that will hopefully last 10-15 years?

Any advice on which qualifying EV/PHEV is the best value in terms of price and reliability? I like Toyota reliability but that usually comes with a higher price so the Prius prime comes to mind but I'm open to any and all suggestions.

[41_swish]

I just blew the transmission on my Subaru Forester and bit the bullet and bought a used Toyota Camry.

Before that I was playing with the idea of getting a PHEV, but the math just did not make sense, at least for me. Gas is usually always about the national average in Colorado. Spending 45-50k to get 60 miles of range didn't make a lot of sense to me. The tech is cool, I don't deny that. I just don't see how that small of range will make up the increased cost over the life of the car unless you live on the west coast where fuel prices are high.

If you want to try out an EV, leasing isn't a bad optional at all in a lot of states.

[SweatingInAR]

I expect that the EV tax credit will persist through the end of 2025, but I did some poking around and this article believes that it is possible for the new administration to kill it retroactively. Unlikely, but possible.
https://www.fastcompany.com/91229165/if-trump-kills-the-ev-tax-credit-what-happens-if-you-buy-an-ev-in-early-2025

You're in an interesting position, since you already don't trust your Rav4 with a 250 mile trip. You're basically treating it like an only-charge-at-home EV. What is it worth on your local used market? Could you sell it, buy a Bolt (or another Leaf), and come out ahead? Hertz has a bunch of Bolts for sale around the country under $15k with ~50k miles.
https://www.hertzcarsales.com/used-cars-for-sale.htm?normalFuelType=Electric

My situation sounds pretty similar. We have a 2020 Chevy Bolt for SO's commute and occasional trips to the city 80 miles away. We have a 2012 "Plug-in" Prius (10 mile EV range lol) for my own errands and for longer trips, including a ~2x per year 2000 mile road trip. I'm considering upgrading the Prius to something newer with a bigger plug-in range, and am primarily looking at Prius Prime, Escape PHEV, and Honda Clarity.

Prius, because it's the gold standard for a hybrid transmission.
Escape, because Ford licensed Toyota tech for the Escape PHEV. It has a bigger plug-in range than a Prius Prime, a tow rating, but lower highway MPG.
Clarity, because it has a great plug-in range, good highway MPG, and is a Honda. Both Escape and Clarity are cheaper than Prius Primes. That said, I have been toying with upgrading it for a year but keep kicking the can down the road because the cars I want are too expensive and I like having this "beater" Prius that runs perfectly fine while I abuse like a pickup truck.


When you rent for your road trips, what size vehicle do you get?

[cincystache]

Thanks for the replies.

@Fru-Gal : 10 years ago I would totally agree and probably do that. Now that I have 2 young kids I think I have a higher standard for a car to transport them longer distances. I also stress out at every single noise and lurch when we're away from home. Renting cars has solved that road-trip problem so I might indeed just keep driving the Toyota until it eventually dies but keep my kids riding in newer cars.

@SweatingInAR : I typically rent a small SUV or sometimes a Camry-sized sedan if we don't  have a bunch of stuff. Now that the kids are a bit older we don't travel with so much stuff.

Thanks for the heads up on the escape PHEV, I wouldn't have thought of that one but I like that it uses Toyota's hybrid drivetrain I'll look into that.

As far as hertz. I'm very interested in the bolt. Do you have any concerns with it being a former rental car? I know EVs are generally more robust than ICE cars but would you feel good buying a 2022 bolt from them? Also, do you know if they do point of sale tax credits, ie, I only need to pay 11,000 cash for the car (15,000-4,000) or do I need to get the money in my tax return? Lastly, are the battery issues all fixed for the 22 model year or do I need to somehow check if the battery got replaced on the particular car I'm looking to buy? I could probably get 8-10k for my Rav4 which is wild to me given that it is 15 years old.

@41_swish : 45-50k is way outside my price range and I agree it would be silly to drop that much for 30 miles of EV range. However, the used market is a different story and certain models are selling below 20k (minus an additional 4k).

[Paper Chaser]

Here's a Gen 2 Chevy Volt for $10k:

https://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale/all-cars/chevrolet/volt/columbus-in?searchRadius=0&sortBy=derivedpriceASC&startYear=2017

They're supposed to qualify for the $4k rebate, which would give you a safe, modern PHEV with ~53 miles of EV range and zero range anxiety for your family trips for the princely sum of $6k. Considering your trade in and the rebate, you could actually be money ahead by doing a deal like that.

[RWD]

Here's a Gen 2 Chevy Volt for $10k:

https://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale/all-cars/chevrolet/volt/columbus-in?searchRadius=0&sortBy=derivedpriceASC&startYear=2017

They're supposed to qualify for the $4k rebate, which would give you a safe, modern PHEV with ~53 miles of EV range and zero range anxiety for your family trips for the princely sum of $6k. Considering your trade in and the rebate, you could actually be money ahead by doing a deal like that.

I believe the maximum used EV credit is 30% of the sale price, so $3k if you buy a $10k Volt.
https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/used-clean-vehicle-credit

[jrhampt]

Have to read the fine print on these - as I've discovered while browsing the used car ads, lots of the advertised sale prices actually include the credit already.  So you need to make sure that you qualify, first of all, and then realize that you pay more upfront before you get the rebate (if the rebate is not instantaneous, that is, not sure how it works).

[GilesMM]

Don't let the tax tail wag the dog.  If the credit were going away in January and I needed an EV now, I would make sure to purchase in time to get the credit.  Otherwise, just carry on.    Drive the RAV4 into the ground!

[GuitarStv]

The credit is money in the bank for Elon Musk.  Persistence of the credit will therefore depend on how friendly Musk and Trump remain into the new presidency.  Given Trump's history as president, he usually seems to get upset with people he was previously friends with at some point between one and fifty weeks of working with them.  Almost everyone he works with eventually faces his ire though.

My guess would be that the EV is thus likely to go away within the first year of Trump's presidency, but probably not right away in January.

[VanillaGorilla]

Why not have a mechanic diagnose the transmission and give the whole car a once-over? Those RAV4s are capable of a lot more than 145k miles, statistically speaking. New cars are guaranteed money pits.

[HeadedWest2029]

I had a 2003 Honda Accord with 190,000+ miles.  I just bought a 2022 Chevy Bolt EUV Premier that was eligible for federal used EV credit of $4,000 and the VIN is also eligible for our state EV credit (Illinois) of another $4,000.  So 2.5 years of depreciation, plus $8k in state and federal incentives made the cost ~16k before sales tax vs the original MSRP of $38k.  So a combination of knowing that my car was probably on it's last legs, the killer incentives and concern those incentives would likely go away all made me pull the trigger.  We still have a regular gas car for family road trips.  I look forward to no oil changes or trips to the gas station in the winter!

But if I was still a hard-core mustachian I may have kept the Accord going until I truly encountered a crippling repair cost.