^My Model 3 has a small ding in the battery pack. I wonder if I can get it written off. :considered:

Sure it gets written off

But it will fall under collision insurance and rates will go up

With my private insurance I get one free at fault claim which protects me from increased premiums. I'm sure they would find a way to screw me down the road eventually.

When I was at Factor E getting my brake service done a couple months back, they were the ones that pointed it out..They said its just a small dent and should be fine. A puncture in the battery plating would require attention.

I've bottomed out pretty hard twice. First was a dark rainy night in a parking lot. I drove over a median and bottomed out just before the rear wheels. I was surprised the front end even cleared it. Second time was worse, was similar conditions, I was driving out of a curved driveway and ended up going straight and over the curb and it hit right in the middle..At this time my car was lowered. I was expecting the car to give me a battery fault message, but nope all good! It's been about 2 years since these incidents happened and the car has no battery issues. "knock on wood"

Other than a having few speed bump scrapes I was surprised the underbelly wasn't more fucked up.

You need to remember to wear your driving spectacles

:heckno:

I'm feeling a lot of anxiety for the Type-R in your signature right now.

Anyway now I finally understand why the reinforced underbody shield is an option on Rivians: it wasn't for off-roading, it was to save the asians from themselves. Good thing I got mine :D.

Both times were dark and raining hard af, and yes ive had my eye prescription updated since :D ITR will be fine..I never take it out in bad weather.

Any Tesla owners on Santa Mode?

I tried it and it was hilarious, people show up as elves

So during the holiday season my wife and I had some time to go around and poke around some electric SUVs being offered by European brands (actually, really only looked at Volvo and Audi. BMW looks too weird, MB is just outright too expensive for what they offer). These are only test drives so we didn't do any charging, and were obviously unable to form any long term impressions.

Audi Q4
We were doing a service on the Allroad and while waiting we took one out of a bit of a drive as well as climbing all around one in the showroom. Basically, this is an Audi SUV, electrified, and.... that's about it? If you had said that this was a Q5, it wouldn't be out of place. Drives very normal. Tons of space, more than the regular Q5, and very comfortable immediately as the interior is conventionally laid out. Much better controls than the ID4 as it has actual buttons (ish) and only the steering wheel has the dumb haptic touch button things. As a daily it would be very comfortable, and no weird things to get used to. Your parents could drive it no problem. Shifter is a little weird but eh.

Have driven it twice now, once at the launch event and once again here, and my impression still stands. If you want an electric SUV that doesn't really feel like one, here's your answer. Would be perfectly satisfied using this as a daily.

Pros
Conventional controls
Very nicely laid out cabin
Normal driving experience
Great ride and comfort
Adequate power (295hp/330tq)

Cons
Regen is non existent, one pedal driving is not really a thing (have to use shifter or paddles to regen)
Cheapish plastics on door cards - no soft touch there wtf Audi
Missing 360 cam - the holes are there but no cams! Again wtf Audi
Only adequate power

Volvo XC40
We then wandered over to Volvo as we have never really driven the XC40, just the Polestar 2 which we found to be a bit cramped. The XC40 is a good 10 inches shorter than the Q4 and it shows. The cabin is smaller, the rear seats have much less room, and the cargo area is correspondingly smaller. The dual motor has 400hp which is a lot for a vehicle this size, really, and it can really scoot. Does not turn all that well, and the UI/UX is not as intuitive as the Audi (the Pilot Assists needed some fiddling to understand/turn on). Wifey ended up really not liking the lack of buttons, and is now concerned about the EX30 have even less buttons. The seats are soooooo amazing though. They were hard but so supportive, and feel so good. I want them as office chairs I swear. The cabin is better quality than Audi, and the Scandi minimalist design is always nice to be in as it feels very airy and light.

Pros
Very nice cabin, nice materials
One pedal driving works pretty well, not too aggressive
Lots of power in a straight line
Super comfortable supportive seats
Small size means nimble

Cons
Smaller size might not work all that well if you have larger people in the back
UI/UX is not intuitive both in the dash and the central screen
Lack of hard buttons for climate
Cornering is not graceful, ride is a bit harsh for something that isn't sporty oriented

Conclusion
The Audi Q4 is a kinda halfway car which feels a bit weird. It's a Q5 with an electric drivetrain and some options taken away as cost cutting. Love the roomy back seats and the general cabin layout. Maybe the second gen or the refresh might be better? So annoying that the camera holes are there but not able to be optioned. Hard plastics high up on the door cards is disappointing.

The XC40 is a quirky little electric SUV which is Volvo, and some people like it and some people don't. The UI is such a letdown - the dash can be barely customized and the central screen is very eh. Wife is now kind of waffling on the EX30 so we will see when we get to actually drive one.

I saw a lot of the solterra subaru Toyota bz4x twins at the dealership. Looks like nobody wants these things. Discounts are getting up there

Yah I was looking for a regular gas RAV-4 for a buddy and went through Regency Toyota's inventory online... had to scroll through 3 pages of available BZ4X hahaha

What’s wrong with them anyways? Is it just the shitty range ? I thought they get like 300kms or something. Which seems to be good enough for city usage.

What's wrong with them? It's not a Tesla! :troll:

Shxtty range, mediocre power, not good at fast charging.

It's a 1st gen EV for Toyota, and it shows. Also doesn't help that the car looks like a$$.

I think they've publicly said they've cancelled the model already too haven't they? Also had the wheels falling off issue at launch lol

It also has the wrong charger type. For anyone looking to buy a non Tesla EV in the next 12-24 months, wait until your preferred vehicle has the NACS charger on it first.

How much are the discounts? Are they still asking for 9% financing?

4.99-5.99% for finance

true but that didn't stop the wackos from buying id4's/polestar and taycans before.

I didn't think the average consumer of Ev's was that picky. I thought they would pretty much just snatch up everything that toyota comes out with due to some misplaced belief that tis more reliable than anything else out there. :pokerface:

For AWD BZ4X, you can probaly get away with $6K to $8K in discount out the door.

The 300KM summer range is actually a big concern for most clients, as they are worried it will become 200KM summer range by its 10th Birthday. Problem with Toyota customers are that they are hoping to hold on to the car for the next 3 decades, and they don't want a 100KM range car (like the 1st gen leaf is) 15 years from now....

^ I am just looking at the Subaru site for shits and giggles the base solterra is AWD at $56805, top trim is $65305 not sure if you can get the full -$9000 but Max range stays the same at up to 360 km :pokerface::fulloffuck: as Elon says, I think they dug their graves on this one. I just watched the savage geese review and the range drops from 230 to 160 miles from turning on the heater. -60 miles.

Can you stretch your budget to a RZ450e? I test drove one and it's got the luxury and the infotainment is a good balance between touchscreen and physical controls. It drives really nice too - rides better than both the Audi and Volvo IMO.

How much does your wife drive per day on average? I do about 40-60km each day and had no issues darting around town with my 228km-range Soul and getting my charge back overnight. You already have an ICE car for longer journeys, so I wouldn't count out these slower fast-charging or shorter-range EV options.

I'm going out on a limb and encroaching on roastpuff's personal space, but if I recall, him and his wife are looking to trade or sell their A4 Allroad, so the EV/hybrid would be their primary vehicle.

The RZ is out of the running for a couple of reasons.

Range, notably - as bcrdukes mentioned this will be our primary vehicle. We only have space to keep two, and with the S2000 occupying one spot, the A4 will have to go. Another note is that we do not have charging at home. We have charging roughly 5 minutes walk away but that is Level 2. The Level 3 charger is 5 minutes drive away. I do have Level 1 charging at work and I do go in 2-3 times a week. Our complex is exploring installing shared Level 2 charging but that is yet to be finalized. I don't expect this to be in place for another year at the very soonest.

The fact that the RZ (along with the bz4x and the Solterra) have really bad range compared to their contemporaries means that they will require more charging occurrences. My wife takes transit to work and I drive to work, so I will be the primary driver. Work is approximately 12km away one-way. I figure on something between 40km to 60km daily normal usage depending on if I have to run errands/visit parents on both sides etc. We also do go down to Seattle to visit my brother, so less stopping on the road would be nice.

Second is price. Both the XC40 and the Q4 qualify for the rebates, which helps. They are also easily available used, which means that there is only 5% tax on them (or no tax if privately bought). RZ only qualifies for the federal rebate I think. Not sure if they are easily available used or not.

Apparently they charge stupid slow too

https://youtu.be/l2tzln6UD-Q?si=YROZcX5CwF_mPNrE