Got an EV6

[Laconian]

Update: We drove the EV6, Ioniq5, and Bolt EUV yesterday. The EV6 was the winner as far as ergonomics, looks, and driving pleasure go. The Ioniq5 is certainly cool but the compromise it strikes is not quite as appealing as the EV6's. The EV6 feels like a really fast version of our old TSX Wagon, which is a good thing!

I spent the day wheeling and dealing on the phone and I put an order in for the EV6. $3k over MSRP and I might get it in as few as 3wks. The only way you can get close to MSRP is to be on 6+ mo waiting lists, and you might be stuck with a car that isn't a match to your spec. I found a dealer that was putting in their orders today and used a comp price from another dealer to talk him down from a $7k markup to a $3k one.

From an environmental point of view, it only makes the most sense to electrify cars which are used frequently. For us we put around 7 miles on the Subie for every 1 mile in the Miata. So if we're going to have an auxiliary car, it should still be gas, since it's more of a "pay/consume as you go" model for range. But who knows, maybe I might decide the EV6 is more of a fun car than the "fun car". It feels like driving a freakin' TIE fighter.

I actually honestly toyed with the idea of getting a GT. Another dealer had two unbought GTs at +$3k MSRP. In otherwords, for only a $3k premium, I could get 570hp, big brakes, a LSD, and 21" wheels. Sounds like an enthusiast's delight... but the range is just terrible, though - only 206 miles.

This will be a big car purchase for us. I'm still not quite comfortable with the idea of cutting a check that big, esp incl. taxes. But oh well, YOLO

[veeman]

Congratulations!

[Rich]

please for the love of god i hope it has color

[Laconian]

Congratulations!

I'll know more by Tuesday at the latest! The order has to be confirmed at the dock.

please for the love of god i hope it has color

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jgw207xz-s

Sick of white Model 3s?

[Rich]

thank teh baby jesus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ab2u-iGN3uk

[Laconian]

Baby Jesus hasn't rendered judgment yet, I still need to get word on whether they scored the unit.

If not then I have to wait 3mos.

[afty]

Congratulations! The EV6 is slick!

[Morris Minor]

Congratulations! I foresee the EV board in the 'SPIN getting busier than it is now.

[MrH]

Congrats!  Cool car.  I'm surprised you went for it over the Ioniq 5.

I can't believe how cramped the EV6 was when I drove it.  The space between H-point to roof was so little.  Tons of legroom though.

[AutobahnSHO]

Congratulations! I foresee the EV board in the 'SPIN getting busier than it is now.

We'll get much more people there soon enough!

[CALL_911]

Would've been awesome if you sprung for the GT, but I love the EV6 and would totally buy one.

[Morris Minor]

We'll get much more people there soon enough!

We're early adopters in the 'SPIN: EVs scratch the nerdy tech-fascinated itches. We're more likely than the general population to tolerate the bugs that come with something new. The car industry has had 120 years to cover every use case and to refine ICE technology to be the best it's ever been. EVs leveraged a lot of that tech, but still have only been around ten or so years... and I think developmentally are at ICE-equivalent level of cars just before the electric starter was invented.

[Laconian]

The pace of development is exciting but at some point you gotta jump in. Life's short and all that.

What is really crazy about EVs is how they they utterly commoditized some of the top selling points of high end executive cars. The quiet ride, explosive and smooth acceleration, and high end feature content that you get in a ~$50-60k car now would cost north of $150k+ in un-inflated 2008bucks. And then you'd be saddled with the joy of the care, maintenance, and depreciation of a V12 supersaloon.

After over a decade of platform shared, crossover-addled ICE mediocrity with only the occasional bone thrown to us from manufacturers.. I think EVs make it a good time to be a car enthusiast again.

[veeman]

The pace of development is exciting but at some point you gotta jump in. Life's short and all that.

What is really crazy about EVs is how they they utterly commoditized some of the top selling points of high end executive cars. The quiet ride, explosive and smooth acceleration, and high end feature content that you get in a ~$50-60k car now would cost north of $150k+ in un-inflated 2008bucks. And then you'd be saddled with the joy of the care, maintenance, and depreciation of a V12 supersaloon.

After over a decade of platform shared, crossover-addled ICE mediocrity with only the occasional bone thrown to us from manufacturers.. I think EVs make it a good time to be a car enthusiast again.

Well said!

I was seriously contemplating getting an EV car but I'm finding the 50-60k price hard to swallow.  You're right you're getting the equivalent of a 150k+ ICE car but it still costs 50-60k.  Two of my brother in laws, one who has a Model S and one who has a Model Y, keep telling me to jump in to the EV world but my left brain keeps overruling my right brain. I keep telling them I can wait and prices will go down but when that price decrease occurs is very uncertain. 2 years, 5 years, 20 years?

Anyways great car, great buy, congratulations! 

[Laconian]

Well said!

I was seriously contemplating getting an EV car but I'm finding the 50-60k price hard to swallow.  You're right you're getting the equivalent of a 150k+ ICE car but it still costs 50-60k.  Two of my brother in laws, one who has a Model S and one who has a Model Y, keep telling me to jump in to the EV world but my left brain keeps overruling my right brain. I keep telling them I can wait and prices will go down but when that price decrease occurs is very uncertain. 2 years, 5 years, 20 years?

Anyways great car, great buy, congratulations! 

My left brain realized that my right brain is turning 40 in a few months so it dialed back the prefrontal cortex a few notches.

I was going to say that I shouldn't count my chickens before they're hatched, but the dealership just called and said that I got the car. It should arrive the day after Christmas. "Great buy" is a bit debatable because I did pay over MSRP. The best time to buy is probably when supply and demand even out better. It took me 3 hours of calling dealerships to find this one, which is a 2 hour drive to my college town.. every other place was around $6k over MSRP plus a 3-6 month wait, which is just ridiculous.

[FoMoJo]

Congratulations.  I hope it's all you expect.

[heelntoe]

My left brain realized that my right brain is turning 40 in a few months so it dialed back the prefrontal cortex a few notches.

I was going to say that I shouldn't count my chickens before they're hatched, but the dealership just called and said that I got the car. It should arrive the day after Christmas. "Great buy" is a bit debatable because I did pay over MSRP. The best time to buy is probably when supply and demand even out better. It took me 3 hours of calling dealerships to find this one, which is a 2 hour drive to my college town.. every other place was around $6k over MSRP plus a 3-6 month wait, which is just ridiculous.

Congratulations!

[MrH]

My left brain realized that my right brain is turning 40 in a few months so it dialed back the prefrontal cortex a few notches.

I was going to say that I shouldn't count my chickens before they're hatched, but the dealership just called and said that I got the car. It should arrive the day after Christmas. "Great buy" is a bit debatable because I did pay over MSRP. The best time to buy is probably when supply and demand even out better. It took me 3 hours of calling dealerships to find this one, which is a 2 hour drive to my college town.. every other place was around $6k over MSRP plus a 3-6 month wait, which is just ridiculous.

I was going to mention you probably are in the minority, trying to buy an EV with no EV credit, but yeah, you're probably well outside the income limits anyways

[Morris Minor]

When I encounter EV owners I always ask them if they're happy with the choice, whether they'd do it again & what problems they've had. Possibly some post-purchase rationalization going on but the answers are always pretty much the same: they universally love them, have had no problems, & would buy again.

The shortcomings noted in magazine & YouTuber road tests just don't emerge for 99% of drivers; they're not shredding expensive summer tires, pulling 1.03g in corners, or running batteries down to zero.

[Laconian]

There's probably some survivor bias going on. They seem to work beautifully for a certain segment of the population. But for folks that rent, or live in an area that requires driving multiple hours at a time, they aren't a good fit. And they're on the pricey side. You're probably not going to be finding as many as those folks because they considered their needs and decided against going EV in the first place.

I really hope the Prius drives well and develops a cool cachet. It might be the car to beat for the superuser-but-not-EV-compatible use case. And if it raises the bar for hybrid performance, the next gen of hybridized ICEs could become a lot more interesting...

[GoCougs]

There's probably some survivor bias going on. They seem to work beautifully for a certain segment of the population. But for folks that rent, or live in an area that requires driving multiple hours at a time, they aren't a good fit. And they're on the pricey side. You're probably not going to be finding as many as those folks because they considered their needs and decided against going EV in the first place.

I really hope the Prius drives well and develops a cool cachet. It might be the car to beat for the superuser-but-not-EV-compatible use case. And if it raises the bar for hybrid performance, the next gen of hybridized ICEs could become a lot more interesting...

Especially that it is plug in, but IMO it's still weak on battery range - 38 miles. That's probably by design WRT the average short trip but still seems like it should be more - like 100 miles.

[Laconian]

Especially that it is plug in, but IMO it's still weak on battery range - 38 miles. That's probably by design WRT the average short trip but still seems like it should be more - like 100 miles.

At 4mi/kwh that's about 25kWh of battery, which is ~13 more than the upcoming Prius PHEV. 13kWh at $138 per kWh is +$1800. Definitely not a deal breaker in terms of price, but packaging is probably the bigger challenge. At 400Wh/L you have to contend with finding room for those 32.5L of extra batteries.

[giant_mtb]

The shortcomings noted in magazine & YouTuber road tests just don't emerge for 99% of drivers; they're not shredding expensive summer tires, pulling 1.03g in corners, or running batteries down to zero.

What are you talking about. The vast majority of people are concerned with only two things with an EV...its range and its charging, and that includes reviewers.  Range is so critical, especially if one doesn't have easy access to fast charging.

I can drive 3 minutes to the gas station and fill up my truck in another 5 minutes.  If I had an EV, I'd have to drive 15 minutes away to a charger and sit there for another half hour (at least), and drive back home.  An hour+ trip just to get a few days of driving? Fuck that.

Not to mention that range is severely hampered (upwards of 40%) by anything even resembling legitimately cold temperatures.  Another big no-go.

There are only three things that are keeping people from EVs and it has nothing to do with shredding tires or pulling g's:  Price, charging, and range.

[Laconian]

There are only three things that are keeping people from EVs and it has nothing to do with shredding tires or pulling g's:  Price, charging, and range.

All of that is true. EVs are amazing for some use cases, impractical for others. Hybrid's probably the best way to go forward. There is a broad spectrum of different implementations and price points. A good and cheap hybrid solution could get Europe off its addiction to lil' engines with turbos and cut down on urban pollution.

[giant_mtb]

All of that is true. EVs are amazing for some use cases, impractical for others. Hybrid's probably the best way to go forward. There is a broad spectrum of different implementations and price points. A good and cheap hybrid solution could get Europe off its addiction to lil' engines with turbos and cut down on urban pollution.

100%. I'm all for EVs where it makes sense. But this constant narrative of pushing EVs everywhere just doesn't make sense for so many people (like me...and everybody else living in a rural environment that's cold as shit for 5 months a year...).

[Laconian]

100%. I'm all for EVs where it makes sense. But this constant narrative of pushing EVs everywhere just doesn't make sense for so many people (like me...and everybody else living in a rural environment that's cold as shit for 5 months a year...).

Yeah I think the incentives are aligned more for max industry profit than ecological impact. We should put more money into hybrids and less into full BEVs. But honestly if we wanted to really drive down our transportation carbon footprint via incentives, we should also subsidize ebikes with some minor strings attached (e.g. you must use it a minimum of X miles or Y times over the course of a year in order to qualify for a writeoff). A tiny 1kWh battery can provide a TON of mobility to a single occupant. It would make people healthier too; studies show that ebike riding is actually a valid form of exercise, especially for older people, since it engages and uses balance muscles that normally atrophy in our lifestyle of moving from couch to couch.

[CaminoRacer]

So are you trading in the Miata or Subaru?

[Laconian]

So are you trading in the Miata or Subaru?

Childhood best friend is going to buy the Outback off us.

Miata will stay. Are there insurance providers that make it easy to flip on and off coverage with little notice?

[Soup DeVille]

Childhood best friend is going to buy the Outback off us.

Miata will stay. Are there insurance providers that make it easy to flip on and off coverage with little notice?

Hagerty will do that for classics- or more correctly switch between "storage" and "active" insurance. They have age limits though.

[giant_mtb]

Yeah I think the incentives are aligned more for max industry profit than ecological impact. We should put more money into hybrids and less into full BEVs. But honestly if we wanted to really drive down our transportation carbon footprint via incentives, we should also subsidize ebikes with some minor strings attached (e.g. you must use it a minimum of X miles or Y times over the course of a year in order to qualify for a writeoff). A tiny 1kWh battery can provide a TON of mobility to a single occupant. It would make people healthier too; studies show that ebike riding is actually a valid form of exercise, especially for older people, since it engages and uses balance muscles that normally atrophy in our lifestyle of moving from couch to couch.

lol. Ebikes. Literally the same push as EVs, literally the same useless-ness in inclement weather. Such a fucking stupid idea as far as commuting goes in rural areas.

And by rural I mean that probably 10k+ people per day move between my town and to/from the "big city" that's 10+ miles away...US-41. You literally are not legally allowed to be a nerd on a stupid ass scooter on the shoulder. Dumb as fuck, man. EVs make no sense here.

You want a scooter lane on your road, causing even more congestion?