Are you doing anything unusual this summer?

Guitart -- I was being sarcastic with my answer (amusing myself, as I realize it wasn’t obvious that I was joking). Electric cars are too expensive to solve your problem.

However, I was discussing this very issue with my daughter just a few days ago. She recently paid off a 2012 Prius (a hybrid), and she is concerned that the battery may fail sometime soon (still on the original battery and running fine with 110,000 miles). We looked it up and her car is selling at retail for 13K dollars. I suggested that she could refinance her car for enough money to replace the battery if the battery fails. It’s a Toyota, after all, and should be good for at least another 100,000 miles otherwise. A neighbor of mine, a banker, confirmed to me that she would be able to refinance her car relatively easily.

So, you might keep that in mind. A hybrid (especially a Prius -- they have excellent reputations) might be worth a small gamble. If you do need a battery, maybe it won’t be for several years, and then you can use the car to finance that battery purchase.

Just a thought.

 

I have a 2013 Prius that I bought in 2017 and can confirm that it's 100% worth the slight markup for a hybrid. My gas mileage even on the highway is fantastic (20-40mpg depending on how aggressively I'm driving), and in the city/side streets I average 50-60mpg. I went from filling up weekly in a Honda Fit to maybe every 3 weeks in the Prius.

 

There might be other less expensive Toyota hybrids than the Prius. I think you pay a.premium for the model name. They started making hybrid Corollas 2 or 3 years ago.

 

Hybrid battery replacement: I would never take out a loan to fix my car. Maybe my Chevelle, but that car actually increases in value every year.

I'm seeing a pattern with the used hybrids. All of them are 10+ years old and 100K miles. Owners are getting rid of them before the big battery repair bill. None of the dealerships have any info on recent battery replacement.

 

That sounds like a lot of fun but also very stressful! Good luck!

 

My husband and I went to Greece!