Feeling Conflicted with my 2020 Limited....

I am starting to feel the same way. I picked up my 2020 Prime in October and get sad every time EV runs out. I catch myself spec'ing out Model 3 regularly although I street park my car and don't have access to charge at home (which is the main reason I picked Prime over Model 3). My work has chargers that are occupied most times, but in hindsight I could charge a Model 3 fully at least once a week without too much of a hassle.

 

funny, I drove a Leaf for about 2 years before buying my Prime Limited. The Leaf is a great car, very comfortable and actually fun to drive, but I constantly had range anxiety. I could essentially drive to work and back before I had to charge. Forget about going too far from that route without stopping to charge. However, my Leaf is a 2015, so only had ~82 miles of range. The newer models, including the Plus, will give you a lot more, and would undoubtedly be a fantastic car to drive. For my needs, I wanted to be able to go much longer distances than any battery only car is capable of providing, so I went with the Prime (which I'm really happy with!). I gave my Leaf to my wife, who only drives about 8 miles per day at the most, and we're still having to charge it twice a week (probably because she has the heat on high most of the time).

 

Ummmmmm .... lemme think about that.

True, but the only time that ever happened with us was on a November visit to Ohio.

 

I actually did what you're planning to do. I traded my 17 Prime Premium for a 19 Leaf SL 40 kWh 14 months ago. It ended up being about an even trade after all the incentives. I have 30,000 miles on it now. I live in TX and been using free DC charging almost daily so my battery life is lower than normal. It's at 90% now, but the loss won't be linear. Since you live in the NE and won't DC charge, you'll be fine. I've only had one problem so far and that was a dead 12V battery at the 1 year mark. I just used my USB battery pack jumper to start it. Things I like about the Leaf are: much faster acceleration, no oil changes, much better adaptive cruise control and lane centering for commuting, e-Pedal, more luggage capacity, 360 degree camera, tire pressure display, Infotainment easier to use. That's all I can think of for now. Stated range for my model is 151 miles, but I can only get that if I drive at 55 mph between 50F and 100F. You will lose about 1/4 to 1/3 of your range when it's below 32F. When I drive at 70 mph for my 110 mile commute without traffic, it will use up 80% of the battery. If there's traffic, it will only use 70%, so traffic is good for the battery, except when it's below freezing. PM me if you have any questions.

 

Be careful when you are calculating the true cost of swapping cars. It's not just sales price of the new car and trade-in value of the old car your have to think about.

I did a hard calculation on swapping my 2017 PRIME with a new 2020 PRIME. Using the best possible numbers for the sale price of the car (including all the incentives, credit and rebates) and trade in value the dealer may give me, there is a possibility of getting a new car with very little money or even some money back in my pocket. But, when I considered associated higher excise tax and insurance premium on a new car, it was clear that the swapping to a new car would cost more money than keeping the old one. I can do a similar calculation with other new cars with deep incentives, but if I change to a different car than what I drive now, then I will also have to consider a new purchase of set of snow tires with rims (unless they are the same size as old car) and other vehicle specific accessories that would not transfer from the previous car. For example, a BEV like LEAF would require me to install L2 EVSE at home. That would bump the total cost of new car ownership much higher.

 

Dumping a brand-new 5-month-old car for another brand new car isn't what I would call 'financially prudent' but it's sounds like you're really into getting EXACTLY what you want in a car and you have L2 charging at work.

The real answer here depends on how much value you place in the $5,000 or so that you'll blow through in depreciation, extra taxes, etc...and that's something only YOU will be able to answer with the help of maybe a financial planner.

What's your debt loading?
What's your retirement plan?
Are you on the front nine of your working career?
Is your house paid off?
Single or married?
Kids/college?

You seem to be one of those rare people whose needs can be met with a BEV....and you also enjoy driving one.
This informs me that your next car probably SHOULD be a BEV.

When and what that next car is depends on your situation, but if I had to do a snap-shot based on your OP....I'm guessing that you're asking the question because you're unsure.
That's usually a warning sign.

Best of luck!
Let us know what you decide....

 

PHEV is not for everyone IMO.

In order to be the most efficient and use a bit of gas, a lot of EV/HV manual flipping is a must. I will never drain my battery to zero to kick in ICE (other than cold temperature (below -11C) and heat-auto flip to ICE)

BEV uphill is a killer. Tesla/Leaf with bigger battery are great but same theory when it goes uphill, the kwh/100km is extremely high.

I prefer to carry a smaller battery instead of a heavy battery (dead weights) around.

I would really consider a BEV when Solid State Battery is being used as my primary car.

To the OP, if I were you, I would keep the Prime but it is also your decision to make being at your comfort zone level

 

OP stated "The math comes out to roughly even and I may end up with extra sales tax back in my pocket." This is quite true for many PRIME owners in our area. Many PRIME owners have traded in 2017 PRIME to 2018 PRIME and again 2018 PRIME to 2019 PRIME, now for 2020 PRIME and made profit doing so. Or some may have paid a little to upgrade. This is all because of a deep discount with incentives and tax credits they offer on this car. That being said. Sometimes one have to dig deeper to calculate true cost of swapping cars that early as I pointed out in comment above.

 

Did you even consider Bolt?

 

I find it a little difficult to believe that you could 'wait several months' for a $35,000 car, pay TTL, drive it for several months and then trade it back in for another new $35,000 car and pay TTL and "come out even."

EVEN If that were true, I would likely still be driving an 11 year old vehicle to work because making more than one car payment isn't my idea of being financially prudent.
By 'one car payment'....I mean the payment that you make when you buy the car.

Many people who are far more financially astute than I am manage to be wealthy by maintaining large debt loading.
If, for example, you can make 8-percent in the market with $30,000 cash and banks only charge 4-percent interest for a new car loan then obviously only chumps pay cash for cars - right?
(Zero-percent APR deals are for usually for people who do not know how to buy cars)

---maybe.
...of course, sometimes smart people get burned (or Berned) in the market, so I like to keep things nice and simple.
"Simpletons" like me usually pay for stuff with cash.
That way we know we can afford it.

As always....
YMMV

 

Yeah, that is almost always true for any new car purchase. But for PRIME (and maybe true for some other EVs) with deep incentives and tax credit, if you play the cards right, you could have made profit by buying 2017 PRIME and trading it in for 2018 PRIME following year, and year after for 2019, and again year after for 2020.

In my case, if I can trade in my 2017 PRIME, which I paid $19,899 2.5 years ago, at KBB average trade-in value of $19,025 and buy 2020 PRIME new, I actually come ahead when I get $4502 tax credit back next year. Even at the KBB low trade-in price of $18,010, I am very close to be even if the sales price on2020 is similar to what I got on 2017. There were quite few people in PRIME price thread who has done this. The only thing is that, I have to wait whole year to get the tax credit, and with increased excise tax and insurance premium, the profit may not be very big or negative even if I can strike the best price on a new PRIME.

 

I'm the opposite, everything on airline credit card. They give me a companion air fare as well as cash, really appreciate it when we travel.
I lease my vehicles with the term coordinated with warranties. I pick a number I can afford short-term while waiting for auto technology to get better. Right now electric is becoming more prevalent, although not so much where I live, and then there's hydrogen coming. Leasing makes it simple to upgrade.

 

Who is buying these 1-3 year old Primes for the same price as a new one after tax credits? And if that's the trade-in price, the dealer has to sell it for probably $1000 more to make it worth their while. It seems like most people buying a $20,000 car should have enough income to be able to take advantage of most of the full $4500 tax credit. In Colorado the $5000 state tax credit is refundable (so you get the full benefit even if you don't normally owe $5000 in taxes).

 

The number I used is a trade-in value at a dealer. I may be able to buy a new 2020 PRIME at ~$19K, but the dealer I am buying it from is selling the car at $28K. The difference is paid by tax credit, incentive, and Toyota rebate. The $18K - $19K used PRIME they buy is most likely sold at location other than NE where there is no Toyota rebates exist, at much higher price.

 

Is the 2020 car any good?