This one was a long time coming with final stages that came together pretty quickly.
We had been operating as a single car family for a couple years at this point-- I had sold my minicooper relatively early in the home ownership adventure because street parking was a nightmare, it kept developing mysterious leaks the dealership couldn't diagnose but would happily charge for (later settled with a class action lawsuit), the tight 2 car garage/carriage house was full of previous owner junk and the diy home repairs required more elbow room to move anyway. Besides, we worked at the same place so sharing a commute and the carpool lane was win. Then we had the kid and our routes diverged, with a slight reprieve during the pandemic when DH was exclusively work from home. But as rumblings of office meetings began, and lobster season with its attendant diving itineraries loomed, we were having squabbles at increasing frequency about sharing the car. As the 13 month wait for a new garage and additional driveway parking wrapped up, we started to talk about what this mom-mobile would look like.
"Dude, if dino juice is on its way out, just get a Tesla..." "Aren't those like $40K? With a wait list? And the pick up is so ugly. I bet the stroller would never fit in their trunk... I was thinking of something more at the Tacoma's price point ($15K) since we're not even sure we'll *need* a second vehicle and our alternative at this point is the minor costs of the occasional uber or begging a carpool favor from a coworker."
A MIL raved about her friends who were serial RAV4 owners. It was a little more maneuverable than the Tacoma and had better gas mileage but shared Tacoma's reputation for rock solid low maintenance cost vehicles. I didn't want or need the towing capacity of the 4Runner that seemed to evoke appreciative "Tim the Toolman Taylor" grunts from DH. If he truly did splurge on a boat, it would probably be toward the end of the Tacoma's useful life and he could swap that. A few youtube car reviews later, I had widened the search to include CR-V's. A few trips through Craigslist later, we included Nissan Rogue which seemed to be on offer for a few $K less for similar specs.
Then we spent a date night at the Carmax. First a pitstop at a vegan Mexican joint, where DH grudgingly downed 1 taco and began googling what seemed like nosebleed-high prices of the used car market since our Tacoma purchase adventure. He concluded that our current ride may actually have appreciated in value since purchase, despite the increased age and mileage. After strolling the Carmax small SUV section of the lot, barely able to guess at the make of cars based on their hood decals, let alone the models, we narrowed our search down to 5 options. We were then paired with our salesperson, Carol, whose love for all things Japanese reminded me of my favorite entomologist lecturer, John Kabashima and my favorite nurseryman, Gary Matsuoka. I also was intrigued by the numerous Nissan Kicks on the lot and their striking facial resemblance to my old Mini. Carmax didn't want to disinfect more than 2 test drives, but did allow me to sit in 3.
Option 1: RAV4-- $24K for a 50K mileage and, we would learn, the only hybrid model in >100 miles (with Carol muttering about out of state registration fees before widening the search radius). I wasn't gung-ho on going electric for this particular purchase, but could see the wisdom of doing so Soon and figured the gassier options on Craigslist would probably handle the same, so a test drive would be instructive. Carol's daughter had been tempted by full electric RAVs but settled for a hybrid when warned that she might not be able to get home from her planned camping trip. Plus more trunk space than the full plug in.
Option 2: Rogue. Cockpit did not have as high quality of a finish and a PT Cruiser-esque feel of climbing into a mail truck and peering through portholes to check for blindspots. These drawbacks were not as pronounced on MIL's penultimate car, a Rogue which she had also recommended highly but ditched for a low mileage extended family car that came with a backup cam.
Option 3: Kicks. Better blindspot visibility than the Rogue and acceptable trunk space, but a quick search on the way back to the lobby revealed "Top X cars you should not buy..." largely because it was a new model and they hadn't quite worked the kinks out.
So we test drove the RAV4, setting off into the blinding sunset. The backup cam was a big help. It was so quiet, if perplexing as it swapped between battery and gas modes. I felt like I was in a Jetson's cartoon. It could take U-turns I would not attempt with the Tacoma.
We began rapid passenger seat research for the different types of hybrid-electric in the RAV line. RAV4 primes were all electric and possibly ideal for our use case of a few mile excursions from home with lots of urban mpg otherwise... but they came out last year and the inventory on any used car lot was nonexistent. Even if there were some, we probably wouldn't have been able to stomach the >$35K price points. The hybrids history extended back to '96, but it seemed there were 3 all gas RAVs for every hybrid listed. "Didn't you say that at some point Tesla had their tech sorted, but not auto manufacturing and they put Tesla engines in RAV4 bodies?"
This sparked DH into an evening of research, uncovering a RAV4 EV fan forum and some legit service dealership outside of San Diego. Working the math on how far it could go on a full charge, he took a field trip to a dealership 20 miles past MIL's pool (where DD spends Saturdays honing her swimming technique). A $19K line of credit from MIL later (our bank had just closed), she drives off the lot with a 2014 RAV EV with only 25K miles on it. "This is probably a terrible idea..." "It's a great story, only 3,000 in existence, a budget Tesla that actually fits our use case. This is a fun adventure." But we've learned that the drive unit is the thing most likely to fail (not the battery) and that we can buy a $5K Toyota warranty to cover it. We came back for it the next day, super charged up to 88 miles. I had some anxiety about our 40 mile trip home, heightened by the extra cup of coffee MIL and my reluctance to use the AC. But coasting downhill out of the mountains and quasi-drafting off DH's Tacoma, the trip only consumed about 26 miles of range.
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