My 2015 Subaru was running alright, got the recalls fixed and I always keep up on my oild changes. But the odometer had flipped over to 195,000 and it was starting to need stuff- a repair here, replace part there. I put a lot of hard miles on that car and it was starting to show. We had discussed it off and on for the past few months, a lot of people will tell you they believe in driving a car into the ground.. but you know what? The trade in value of a car that has been driven to death is not that great. But what to buy? Back in PA and WV 4 wheel drive is a must, especially if you work on the road, my absolute favorite memory as a visit nurse was a woman giving me directions to her house. She asked if I had 4 wheel drive, paused and then said, Well, you'll probably make it up the drive but you might want to take a running start at it. Here its very different, land is levelocated and weather is fairly mild, we had what's considered a bad snowstorm for this area - 5 inches of snow that lasted 2 days. Four wheel drive is nice, but not necessary.
David found a 2017 Volt for a very reasonable price - with the trade in, the stimulus check, our money back from taxes this year and an Oregon rebate for going green I got a 4 year old car with 40,000 miles and warrenty on it for less than $6,000. Not bad. It took a little getting used to it, I've been driving SUVs forever, this is pretty low to the ground but I think I've perfected hoisting myself out in a dignified manner pretty well. David ordered a spare - did you know something like 40% of all new cars don't have a spare? They give you a can of Fix a Flat and a small prayer book. (just kidding, about the prayer book - the FixAFlat is true). It apparently can park itself but I haven't braved that yet. The steering wheel reminds me a bit of the Enterprise and I have not braved it yet. The Blue tooth works great and that I'm enjoying. I have audiobooks from Overdrive so I can listen while I'm driving.
The plugging it in thing - the Volt is a hybrid which took me a few minutes to get comfortable with. It's gets 43 miles to the charge. I envisioned myself tooling along and running out of juice slowly coasting into a ditch like a stranded turtle. And crying. It charges overnight and when you use the 42 miles it switches by itself (there is not giant red button or anything you need to do) to the gas engine. It gets about 40 or 50 miles to the gallon -after 2 weeks I still have more than half a tank left, most days I don't use any gas at all. Our electric is very low out here so I'm curious what the bill will be next month. David talked to the solar panel people yesterday but the cost of it is prohibative as opposed to what we pay now - our bill would more than double. We put it on the If We Win The Lottery List. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with my new car - smaller than I'm used to but as I've only spent about $10 in two weeks on gas (I topped off the tank when I got it) that more than makes up for the lack of room.
