Sell it or keep it?

My 2013 plug-in, bought 5 or 6 years ago for 18K, now, bought with 38 K miles on it, has 113 K miles on it. All totally trouble free, and all I've done is rotate the Michelin Ice X tires every 5 K (left on year round, got 40 K+ miles out of the last set, great in the winter) and change the oil every 10K. It's the best car I've ever owned, and I'm 74, but I say that about every Toyota I've owned. The thing is, I NEED AWD in the winter, it's not a convenience or a safety issue, but a gotta have due to the mountain I live on, with a 1200' descent down, and then back up every day. Since I've had the Prius, I've also had a '99 RAV4, which sits idle for much of the year, except for when I HAVE to drive it, if I want to make it home that night. No way do I want to drive the RAV only, high 20 MPG's sounds good, except to us Prius drivers, I call it the gas hog, my 1 ton flatbed truck I don't even want to talk about.

My daily commute is 13 miles one way, the trip into town downhill, the trip back uphill, I've been averaging high 50's to high 60's MPG, now and then into the 70's, with the expected decrease during the winter months. It recently occured to me that the price of the Toyota RAV4 plugins has by now gotten to where I can justify it, having let the first owner take the big depreciation hit. I'd never buy new, though I could. With the 40 mile range in E mode they seem to have, even though they get less mileage that my Prius when in gasser mode, with my commute it looks like I could go 100% EV both down and up the mountain. I have a surplus of free electricity at home (wind, hydro, and PV, all grid tied, plus solar at my owned work place in town, though not a surplus) so the charge expense is not really a factor. Right now the RAV and flatbed are parked in my shop, the daily driver Prius parked in my out building, though it's not in the way most times, I wouldn't mind having one less rig in the shop. I'm looking at a 2021 RAV4 Prime, with only 21 K miles, AWD, it would allow me to sell both other rigs, and have an immediate drop in my fuel bill, small though it currently is. I am pretty sure I could call it a business vehicle, as I'd be using it for getting back and forth to my crane yard, plus checking out upcoming jobs, so there may be a write off. No more insurance and registration costs on the rarely driven.except on the worst winter days '99 RAV, though that's only about $400.00 per year. Buying the newer RAV4 and being able to make my daily commute with using NO gas is attractive to me, if my Prius had a 40 mile EV range it'd be a game changer. I suppose I should also consider the AWD version of the Prius, but it's not available in a Prime version. One thing I don't like is the RAV weighs 4300 pounds V. the Prius's 3100, just to haul almost exclusively just my skinny nice person up and down the mountain, that offends my sense of efficiency. In fact, I wish my Prius was a bit smaller and weighed less. I need to re-register the RAV soon, plus it needs a new power steering pump and a battery, having one rig instead of two in my situation is making more and more sense.

 

I think my next move is to check with, of all of people, my accountant! My miles the last few years are almost all back and forth to my crane yard, in town. The rest in the crane while traveling to jobs. My need/use of a business vehicle is legit near as I can tell. The thing about my '13 plug in is, is that the range is not just a bit more, it's got me hooked on E power (not hard, having 3 e bikes and a e dirt bike, AND a e snow bike) and the RAV would scratch that itch. Plus, and I hate to say this and only do so in jest, it doesn't look like a Prius! Actually part of the fun for me of being a Prius driver is going against type, driving unlike what is expected from a Prius driver by the gen pub. Like when merging on an uphill onramp, with oncoming truck traffic, and I know the trucker is thinking "oh man this darn Prius is going to make me slow down, as I'm blocked in." Next thing he thinks is "wow, I didn't know a Prius could accelerate like that!" Driving a big rig myself, AND a Prius, has been great fun and gives me a unique aspect I think, and I would miss that driving a "normal" looking RAV4.
Don't see why I couldn't drive it on the St. Anthony dunes, if I chose too, still the wild west here in many ways.