What is it worth through a private party sale? Trading in is a good way to lose a lot of money.
KBB says a shade under $38k for private sale. Can I sell it privately with an outstanding loan on it? With that amount of money at stake, I'd also be pretty scared of anything going awry.
My kids are big teenagers now, very rarely in the car all together so I don't need 3 rows of seats just to keep them separate. Also when we are in the car together en famille, one of them can sit in the front.
There are loads of Leafs in Austin, the electric company makes it v cheap to charge them up and there are chargingstations all over the place. Take your point about the a/c running down the battery so I will ask about that on the local Austin forum.
The other thing that leaves me slightly concerned about the leaf though is that it won't be my second family car it will be the main one and so even going to visit one of the local state parks may be beyond it's return range.
Hybrid? Not especially cheap...