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Old 02-10-2020, 09:26 AM   #1
FC
Solving problems
 
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Join Date: Oct 2003
Carmudgeonly Ride: M5 / 718 GTS / Cooper S / GTI / LR4
Location: Metro Boston
Posts: 25,209
Plug-in hybrids

My wife is in talks to potentially take a new position that will require her to take some day trips within New England. Although the sane and almost certain thing to do is to wait several months to a year to properly gauge the frequency and length of these trips, her immediate reaction was "I am not taking the Miata on those trips," which I completely understand. It sucks in the highway.

The reasonable thing to do is to simply have her take the LR4 if the trips are relatively infrequent (2-3 times a month), which is the likely scenario. But she would need to park in city parking garages which makes the LR4 an annoying choice at least.

The desire to shield the M3 from gross weather and the relative expense of using the LR4 sometimes makes us use the Miata more than we should. We also do several very short, in-town drives, which makes firing up the LR4 or M3 kind of annoying and if I am going to abuse a car with 1-mile drives I prefer the Miata suffer. This is where the eGolf was so great.

Thinking about potential cars to replace the Miata (I know it's cheap, but keeping it as a 4th car is a bit nuts), after a bunch of thinking and reading I wound up looking at the upcoming GLC 350e. Not that we are seriously thinking of one, but it's small while still being able to seat all 4 of us in comfort, has a decent cargo area for stuff or dog, is comfortable and upscale for her, but importantly will also have enough electric-only range to handle all the annoying in-town errands without firing up the ICE. It's nice and all but also $50K new, which is pretty crazy. Admittedly the LR4 would be 7+ yo by the time we make a decision and the M3 2+ yo, but still.

To be clear, the LR4 is going nowhere. We love it, it's roomy, and it's now at a point where depreciation is bottoming out. The LR4 should start to transition into what was the plan all along: that it would become the 3rd car to be used when weather/vacations/towing/cargo volume/carrying 5+ passengers is needed. The M3 is clearly also staying.

The broader point is that I think a reasonably practical plug-in hybrid (that my wife likes) makes a lot of sense for us, and would be a great fit no matter what, but even more if my wife takes this new job.

The Miata is great, but since my wife does not touch the M3 and has grown tired of driving the Miata except for the occasional weekend errand, the Miata is a very cramped and impractical toy car. I dropped off my son this morning and his sax took up the entire trunk, forcing him (12yo and growing) to cram into his seat with both his and my backpack.

We could keep it as a 4th car, but I think that is pushing it, and I rather save the brownie points for a used Boxster down the line. I dunno.
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