We're on our sixth electric vehicle

I've been trying to get over the untimely demise of our Model 3, Hygge (you can name them, you know), and maybe it helps a little that we got the replacement today. The new one, Sven, is a Model Y, basically the three-years-newer version of our other car. In terms of EV's, it was the best deal, and certainly we knew what to expect. There are also little things that Diana said she's hate to go back to, like keys, fobs and power on buttons, instead of just having your phone, which is already on you, be the thing. The Model 3/Y is a safe, reliable car. Yeah, one could take issue with Tesla's CEO (and it's a damn shame what he's turned into), but 130,000 people work for an American company making these cars, and I'd rather support that than something else when it's possible and practical.

There are a number of changes since we bought the last one. First off, the fit and finish appears better, with more consistent panel alignment. They added a trunk privacy shelf, which mine does not have so you can look right in. I missed the newer center console by a month or so. There is no piano black plastic anywhere, and they've added some Alcantara accents here and there. They also ship with biohazard defense mode, which means there's a huge HEPA filter now to clean the air.

The other thing that has changed is price. Adjusting for the same options, the car is about $3,500 less than it was, and add another $7,500 off for the federal tax credit, which is mercifully applied at the time of purchase. We were originally looking at the rear-wheel drive model with about 50 miles less range (260 I think), but decided that it may retain more value if we go AWD and 310 miles of range. The difference in cost was only $2k among inventory cars, which is weird because factory ordered it's $5k. They appear to be adjusting thee long-range a lot more.

We ended up getting $27k for the wrecked car, which is far more than I ever expected for a car that was $51,000 six years ago. I can't even believe that it retained that much value. I was just a few months away from having no car payment, but if there is a silver lining, at least the new one is $150 less, and it's only a five-year loan instead of six (remember, interest rates were near zero back in the day).

This is our sixth electric car, which is hard to believe. We leased a Nissan Leaf in 2015 and had it for four years. Tesla Model S in 2015, had it for three and sold it. That was replaced by the now-totaled Model 3 in 2018. The second leased Nissan Leaf came in 2018 as well, and was totaled in December 2020, about six months short of the end of its lease. That was replaced by the first Model Y in 2021, which is about three-years-old now. We've been all-electric now for about eight years. It's hard to imagine having a gasoline car. The convenience and relative lack of maintenance on an EV is huge.