I still think the Land Cruiser is the best answer to the question that I asked , even if I asked the wrong question, as it turns out. I'll probably keep it around, parked on the street, despite my musing about selling it.
Upon reflection, I don't think its would be profitable unless I invested a lot of precious time into selling each car private party. Selling to Carmax would probably result in a yearly "loss"/positive cost to own and run, and selling private party for an EV that's difficult to ship and not super attractive to the locals once the Colorado tax credit has been cashed in, as it were, would be dicey.
I saw someone with two cars in their tiny garage on my alley today! Newer Jetta and last gen Outback iirc, the latter tucked far right.
Oof: ebay motors completed listings suggest that $16k might be all that a year old SV would fetch realistically:
at least wait until snow season is over before you sell it....
Definitely. If I do anything it'll be in June or so, before registration renewal. Snow season will not be a big deal, as I don't foresee getting up to the slopes much with then 2-year old Mariko and potential Thing 2 on the way.
I figured out expenses vs expected income, and the short answer is that I can't afford everything I want. Something will have to give, and I can't will myself to make more money and am not willing to save less than 20% (including employer match) towards retirement.
By then, though, student loans will be gone, cars long paid off, and house hopefully largely paid off, plus I'll be making a bit more via promotions (two by then, to full Professor, per my plan) and bonuses.
System arrived on Friday and I set it up today after my sleepless 24-hours-in-Cincinnati trip. It was about as painless as could be. Since we are only in this house for a limited time I used the included double sided tape rather than screws to mount the keypad, sensors, etc.
So Jessica's insistence on another EV to replace the LEAF may be weakening. Today we test-sat, Mariko in tow, in a Jeep Cherokee, a Grand Cherokee, and a new (as opposed to the still on-sale old-ass Classic design) Nissan Rogue.
Count so far is one, and the police were not summoned: the monitoring company called and she remembered our code word so the hounds were called off.
The above was in mid-August. We visited the model home again yesterday, father in law in tow, and found out some very welcome news: due to slow sales the builder cut the non-negotiable per master developer covenant base price by $45,000! That plus not checking a few option boxes would cut the net price $65-95k, and that in turn makes the finances totally doable, even short term with car loans and Mariko in paid preschool.
The implied message in this above post is that there indeed will be at least another kid in our future. We're still some weeks from announce-to-Facebook stage after determining proper number of chromosomes and such, but the initial ultrasound is done and Thing 2 is indeed inside the uterus, with a heartbeat, both necessary conditions for future kid-ness.
I like numbers. MOAR NUMBERZ!
Cons:
I'm glad that I drove it, as I'd wonder about it otherwise, but with its small size and high price it's not worth it to me as compared to the LEAF, which is actually a smoking deal after tax credits in states like mine. It's pretty and it has a huge windshield, but that's about it.
An update to my latest ill-fated plan: wife may have nuked the idea by getting stereotypical anti-minivan cold feet. "I don't know if I'm ready to have a minivan yet", says she.
Takeaway points: [...] there's not a ton of money to be saved by me going from my Land Cruiser to anything short of a true liability-only beater.
With regard to the perennial RAV4 EV thought:
I'm currently in Telluride, halfway through a solo marathon see-the-state-through-car-window whirlwind tour designed to fit in this weekend when I'm sans wife and kid.
