Alright, the latest MMM EV post inspired me to submit our family's car situation to the Mustachian community and see what people think we should do, in the mustachian fashion. I'm a big fan of EVs, and love the Tesla S.
We currently own an all paid for 2002 Nissan Altima. It's now oldish, having 10 years, and 150 000 km on the odometer. Until last year, it hadn't cost us a penny in repairs, but we are now on our second year of 2000$ repairs, and lining up for a possible third year of such. Nothing with the drive train though, it's all direction, brakes, some undercarriage bodywork, suspension, and trinkets. We don't put a lot of mileage on it, since I bike everywhere and my wife takes the bus to work. Even started using the baby's bike trailer for groceries.
Nonetheless, these repairs prompted us to start looking for a possible replacement (we had started looking before shelling out for the repairs, but ended up deciding it would cost us less to repair the car than to get a new one). Being all eco conscious, we were only looking at hybrids and even EVs. We were looking at new vehicles for low financing, since we don't have the cash for a used vehicle. Now since reading the MMM, I'm realizing it's not the way to go. Nonetheless, the only way we could replace the car right now would be through financing, or getting a used one on springy debt.
Now here's where it gets interesting. I would've been ok with a Leaf, or even a Prius. But the wife hates them. She has a blockage on the car looks, and she has this bug that many people have where they feel 'safer' in bigger cars. She also has a fairly big fear of driving, motivating the interest in bigger cars. (She even found the Lexus CT200h too small). And at the same time, she has this thing where she doesn't want to buy used, or feels like she has to 'upgrade' from the level of car we have right now. (I'm perfectly fine with used cars, and small cars, with roof cargo like Yule).
So with all these constaints, the one car we both rather liked a lot, that fit all that, is the Tesla Model S. But the price tag is so anti-mustachian it's not funny, and it would definitely be a financing thing. In any case, it's not available yet, nothing was really fitting what she wanted, so we decided to get the car fixed and keep it for at least a few more years.
The one car format works well for our family, we don't need two (though I miss my motorcycle). It's me, the wife and a 1 year old baby. Our driving is pretty limited, though we do a Ottawa-Montreal drive once a month to visit family, so that's a 250-300 km range trip. (The Leaf was iffy for this, until the quickcharge stations get up midway). Electricity is pretty cheap here, being all hydro-electric.
So there's the dilemma. First of all, is a 10 year old car like this worth keeping longer? Is a 2002 Altima TOO much of a car to have to be mustachian, even (MPG and all)? Yearly repair costs are still cheaper than financing a new one.
If it's to be replaced now, or in a few years, should we go the used route and work on convincing my wife that the Prius isn't all that ugly and get a plugin conversion? Should we bite it and encourage the technology and get the Tesla S? WWMMMD? (What Would MMM Do)
