Goodbye Steve. Sold our 2005 Prius

After 18 years and ~212000 miles, today we said goodbye to Steve (named after a mishearing of "steed"), our beloved 2005 black gen 2 Prius.

We did some fixup to make sure the new owner can have more good miles and years with Steve:

• New headlights and bulbs - original 2005 ballasts still going strong.
• New OEM fog lights, with yellow LED bulbs.
• LED marker bulbs.
• New (used) head unit -- old one was flakey and booting "Lexus".
• New clockspring -- some steering wheel buttons had stopped working.
• New speakers (4x) -- one was blown.
• New coolant (engine and electronic).
• New brakes (first time), new brake fluid.
• Spark plugs, oil change, etc.
• New 12v battery

Still running the original traction battery. Engine uses a little oil. A bit more noise than when it was new.



Our new ride? A Kia (!) EV-6, appropriately named stEV-6 (rhymes with Stevie Nicks):

 

It is new

The Kia kinda blew us out of the water. MsBaxsie liked the looks and the color. I liked the driver assistance and HUD.

There is essentially no cost for fuel at home. If I charge from 0% to 100% it would cost ~$5. Typical nightly charge after running a few errands is10% ~ 20% -- so $0.50 to $1.00 cost. On the road, fast chargers are more expensive. The worst case we saw, the cost was about equivalent to gas -- typically about 1/2 the cost of gas. There are fewer charging stations than gas stations, so you need to plan your charging a bit.

The Kia EV-6 is fast (my video shows 5.1 seconds 0-60) and very nice inside. Car and Driver agrees: 2023 EV-6 gets 10/10

As a long-time Toyota fan, if someone would have told me a month before that I'd be driving a Kia in a month, I would have thought "Maybe I crash the Toyota and the Kia is a rental?"

We just took the Kia in for it's "8000 mile service" - grand total of $0. There just is not much that gets consumed in an EV.

 

"The Kia-6 (same platform as the Hyundai Ioniq 5 . . . "

FTFY

Also Genesis GV60:

Kia EV6 Vs Hyundai Ioniq 5 Vs Genesis GV60: Which Tesla Rival Is Best?

They all share the same EGMP base. The EGMP is pretty cool. 800v architecture, but with a 100KW 400v to 800v charger built in that allows reasonably quick charging at older 400v fast chargers.

I was "meh" on the Ioniq 5 styling. MsBaxsie was a solid "no". On the other hand she loved the EV-6 and I am fine with it's looks -- if they are a bit "swoopy".



(image from: Kia EV6 Vs Hyundai Ioniq 5: Who Wins The On-Paper Battle? | Carscoops )

We test drove an EV-6 GT. Truly head snapping performance with 576BHP. Oh, and drift mode. But my hot-rod days are far behind and I liked the higher trim of the limited GT-Line.