Dave's Not Here

After my car accident, I got to drive a prius for a couple of weeks. And, at the gas pump, I was really annoyed . . . in my Jeep Grand Cherokee, it costs me > $80 to fill the 23 gallon tank. That gets me somewhere around 322 miles of range at 14MPG. The Prius had an 8 gallon tank. It cost me about $20 to fill, and I got over 400 miles of range (450, iirc)

I have thought about electrics and hybrids in the past, and I really want one. However, I have other needs too:

• I have to have all wheel drive or 4 wheel drive to get up the mountain.
• I have to be able to pull a 4000lb trailer.

And, if I’m going to bother with an electric, my goal would be to use zero gas to get to and from work — but, it needs to have range, and, at a minimum, a gas backup plan.

So, I have a vehicle worth about $30k, and I need to buy two vehicles, since the above criteria does not exist in one vehicle.

Looking at available used hybrids / electrics, I think the are the way to go. They have a plug in option, and can go 11 miles on electric alone — my commute is 4.1 miles.

Cost of a used one: ~ $25k

And, then there’s the truck. . . I can’t afford a $70k nice one, so, just something that’s 4×4 and can tow something decent is about the same $15k. So, the question becomes: is it worth $10k to save the planet?

Now, the hard part — the truck.