Thirty Grand for 107 Miles

@FourWalls (86829)
United States
March 13, 2016 12:15pm CST
One of the ads (that isn't that lousy .gif click bait loop of some talk show diva crying) that popped up here was for a Nissan Leaf. Curiosity got the better of me and I clicked. WOW!!! You can go up to 107 miles on a single charge!!!! For a measly $30,000. (That's the starting price....you can go up to about $37,000.) Maybe it's because I drive a lot (I have 14,000 miles on a new car that I bought in August 2015), but I don't see the purpose of spending at least thirty grand on a car that won't even get you across town in a large city like Chicago or Atlanta. (And, if you've ever been in either of those cities, or Houston, Texas, you know that their traffic jams are legendary, meaning you're probably going to run out of electricity sitting on the Dan Ryan or the 285 or the Houston Tollway!) If I run out of gas I can call AAA and get a gallon of gas delivered to me. AAA, however, can not deliver a gallon of electricity. I understand the desire to be more eco friendly or just a desire to save money. (Gas prices have gone from $1.67 to $2.19 in the past ten days.). But dang. What is the point of spending that kind of money on a car that won't get you out of some cities without having to recharge the batteries? Not to mention that charging stations are still NOT ubiquitous. (My boss has an electric car and said that there is a whopping one charging station on I-65 between the Indiana border and Nashville, Tennessee. That's about 180 miles to drive on one charge.) If I were going to go the eco friendly route I'd look into a hybrid like a Prius (although I think the "classic" Prius may be one of the ugliest cars since the AMC Pacer [look that one up if you don't remember it....if you dare]) or a Honda Civic hybrid. But, to me, spending thirty grand to go 107 miles (maximum, mind you) is a colossal waste of money.
6 people like this
6 responses
@TheHorse (238349)
• Walnut Creek, California
13 Mar 16
I may be an eco-friendly ex-hippy musician, but give me my 21-mpg Nissan Xterra. Sorry. And yes, the Prius is about as ugly as a Pacer.
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (86829)
• United States
14 Mar 16
The Prius V isn't all that bad, looks-wise. A friend of mine owns a Prius and he says the layout causes a lot of blind spots, so I'm thinking the Prius V has solved some of them.
1 person likes this
@TheHorse (238349)
• Walnut Creek, California
14 Mar 16
@FourWalls I guess that's a good thing. But I wont be driving a Prius any time soon.
1 person likes this
@Morleyhunt (21741)
• Canada
14 Mar 16
No electric cars for me...I remember the AMC Pacer...aka, the fishbowl on wheels.
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (86829)
• United States
14 Mar 16
I always thought it kinda looked like two VW Beetles turned on their sides and glued together.
1 person likes this
@celticeagle (189957)
• Boise, Idaho
13 Mar 16
That's quite a ways.
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (382412)
• Rockingham, Australia
14 Mar 16
What you say is very true. We are gradually getting a few more charging stations in our state but there aren't a lot of electric cars around yet.
1 person likes this
@Mike197602 (15504)
• United Kingdom
13 Mar 16
They reviewed it on Top Gear and it didn't come out well if I remember correctly...but it probably wouldn't have even if it was amazing as they aren't exactly known for being environmentally friendly To make fully electric cars more user friendly battery technology needs to improve, there need to be way more charging stations and they need to be cheaper. I'd go for a blue motion vw as they're way cheaper.
1 person likes this
@teamfreak16 (43655)
• Denver, Colorado
13 Mar 16
Just think about driving in the mountains here in one of those. That would use a lot of juice, provided you could even make it to the top of any of our passes.
1 person likes this