What prius do if buy

there really is no comparison. what does she like about the 08? what package is it?

i would bypas gen3, if you mean new to her. after that, does she want a spare tire?

i loved my 08, but the only things i miss are the spare and storage space. you can't get those back, but i did put a donut in the hatch.
awd is ow available, and of course phev

 

RAV4 Prime

 

I would encourage you not to discourage it.
1. Happy wife….Happy life.
2. If SHE wants it and it turns out to be a bag of a$$, then you’re in the clear. OTOH….
III. OP didn’t say Stevewoods inherited the cabbage….but rather his CFO did.

 

For starters, what cars are even available?

The RAV4 Prime is not available at your Seattle end, or anywhere in Washington State. Look at her Oregon end instead. While briefly in Salem a month ago, I stopped in a Toyota shop, and finally saw a real live RAV4 Prime. Prepped, locked up, and ready for the new owner to claim it the next morning. They had no unsold RAV4 Primes sitting on the lot anymore, all are pre-allocated to wait-listed buyers. In fact, they had no unsold new Toyotas on the lot that day, period. All twelve processed sales that day were vehicles just arrived on trucks, awaiting new owner pickup.

Good news: they were not charging any dealer markup on the Prime, per regional policy. Bad news: RAV4 Prime wait list was "about a year".

NB, I talked to only a single salescritter, and haven't yet shopped around to compare and contrast their stories.

 

^ That.

On paper the RAV4 prime is the perfect car for our family, but they are unobtanium right now.

So we bought a plain gas car instead. I had it down to a short list of cars that I liked well enough to buy. And my wife went gaga for one of them, so I bought it.

You know your family, is it worth waiting for lightning to strike a second time?

 

Have you tried to ask her which car model she prefers? I think the best answer should come from her, I am sure that she has a specific car in mind.

 

you'll have to test drive a gen4. it is nothing like gen3, and even less like gen2.

so, i'm still not sure what about the gen2 she likes. i believe you can turn off traction control in gen4, or get the awd model

 

You are unlikely to have much choice in new cars because most are literally sold out. A new Prius Prime might be found somewhere and you might get a tax credit. A normal Prius may be available. The new Toyota Venza is a car like hybrid if you can find one. Unlikely to find a suv with a quality manufacturer. A Rav4 Prime is the unicorn but everyone's favorite with 300 hp, 42 miles pure ev with standard hybrid to boot. Lexus is coming out with their version of the Rav4 Prime, eg the NX450. It "might" be worth going down to the Lexus dealer and attempt to preorder.

 

..... where the stealerships can gouge you for as much as $50k-$60k .... as opposed to the ICE version, just a couple years used, pick it up for maybe $15K. Maybe the $40k difference can go a long way towards gas, maintenance, breakdowns & such.

 

Toyotas usually last for about 10 years or some 200,000 miles given proper maintenance, even though most people prefer to trade them out sooner than that.
It's a life cycle thing.
That's why even if you're foolish enough to over pay for the extended warranty, the odds still favor the house.....just like Vegas and life insurance.

I'm thinking that since the OP's CFO lives on the left coast, and despite the fact that we're probably (as always) standing into a fuel price spike, an EV is the wrong kinda car given current (pun almost unintended) infrastructural immaturities, and a wireless car, while fuel efficient, has all of the other disadvantages of.....a car.
PHEVs are compliance vehicles.
All (or MOST) of the dot.gov cheese. SOME (even MOST) of the real-world EV bennies given the nearly useful EV range, and it will develop muscle memory for navigating the world of charging modalities without the hazards of range anxiety, or any of the other pitfalls that EVangelists are facing these days.

PHEVs are cheaper than EVs, type for type, and with the dot.gov kickbacks they often approach the real-world cost for wireless gassers, which is sorta the whole point of the tax kickbacks in the first place.
... yet another tax break for wealthier people.


A baby Ute is tons more USEFUL in the real world, which accounts for the "U" in CUV.
The only people that fold themselves into a small car are people who are COMPELLED to....for reasons that make that vehicle more appealing to them - and there ARE some.
They're easier to park.
They're cheaper.
Sometimes they're more fuel efficient.
Other times, they're a business expense (uber, fleet vehicle, rental car, etc.....)
Often, econo-boxes come with a hatch, which makes them incredibly versatile but about as chic as a minivan.
I really don't give a rats what people think of me, so I prefer cars.....but the ladies in my life feel otherwise. That's why I don't own one.

Like minivans, CUVs are unibody constructed, FWD (AWD for the suckers in the room,) have adult sized tires and ride height, and most have..........a hatch!
It's the perfect fan-dance of automotive styling that combines the utility of a minivan, full-sized Ute, and econo-hatch in a format that's palatable for soccer moms.
Some of them even have 3/4 or 4/5 the fuel economy of a sedan, and anybody who does the baseball statistics arguments for why this is not so is already sold on sedans anyway.

Since the OP's CFO probably isn't a hyper-commuter and they have 2 homes the Rav4 isn't going to be a budget buster.
Toyota knows this...which is why they sell a LOT more CUVs than they do small cars.
Ford knows this, which is why their FIRST BEV car wasn't really a car at all (ish...)

Seems kinda logical to me, but car buying isn't a logical thing at all.

YMMV

 

Low on fiber?

Supply and demand really works when one side of the equation is extremely unbalanced. The same reason a $15 piece of plywood now costs $75 (although it is going down).

When it comes to vehicles, very few buy new cars based on lowest cost of ownership. Maybe 1%.

 

Hmm "Traction Control," and not being able to turn it off and on with a button, Is interesting? If being able to turn Traction Control On and Off with a Button, is important? Then anything from Japan, that is not gonna happen.

You can't do that with the new Supra, and if you can't disable TC (in the BMW, in drag?) There is no way downline you can turn it off (Easily) in a Toyota. In the Gen Two, you can disable TC, with a dance between, the gas peddle, the power button and the brake. But it reengages TC, at power off.

Most likely it's the same deal in all the newer Toyota's?" But for the most part aside from Slamming the throttle at a dead stop? You won't know TC is there? Once your up and rolling, in the rain and on ice (to a point) TC is your friend.

 

Most other cars have an easy way of turning off traction control, because it can keep you from getting going in snow or on ice. Been in plenty of situations where TC would have left my Prius stranded. The Prius didn't have an easy off because TC was there to protect the transaxle, not help the driver.