own ICE cars, wish you didn't?

[skeptic]

I'm guessing almost everyone here still has an ICE vehicles, short of a range extender or lots of hassle it's still the best option for longer trips. I know we all wish charging times and charging infrastructure was better, but until then ICE is a near requirement for many of us.

Right now I have:
'17 i3 rex.

'81 Corvette - almost completely stock and promised to my oldest son when he gets out of the military and goes to college so I can't just sell it. It's also fun to drive when the weather is nice and I can take the T-tops off.

'77 Celica - I've put an embarrassing amount of money into this car over the last 15+ years. It's in the shop getting a second engine swap. Beyond that, it's been upgraded, modified and modernized in almost every way. After all the time and money put into it, I don't know how I'd ever be able to walk away from it. I sometimes wish I had never bought it, it's so far over budget, it's been a non-stop stream of problems. I'll never get even half the money out of it that I have into it... If this latest engine swap doesn't finally get it reliable I don't know what I'll do. If it turns out as good as I hope, I'll probably keep it as is until the last local gas station closes down or gas hits $10/gallon. EVs have instant torque and 4cyl turbos have lag, but 300+ hp to the rear wheels of a 2,600lb car is blast to drive no matter how you look at it.

'04 Jeep Grand Cherokee. Of course I had to buy the H.O. v8 because I'm a dumbass and decided 20HP over the standard v8 was worth "requiring" premium fuel. It's comfortable, nice enough to drive, has a pretty decent aftermarket sound system (with android auto/apple carplay), and is now the house car that anyone can use for whatever. Great for Home Depot runs, carrying kayaks, camping (I do less and less every year), etc. Not much point selling it until I'm ready to replace it with an EV pick-up.

'12 (I think) Hyundai Sonata turbo something or another - wife's car. Dunno, my wife bought it from her mother. I pretty much dislike it and avoid driving it whenever possible. I have taken it on a couple long trips 'cause it gets good mpg, but otherwise I'm not a fan. Even my wife prefers to drive the Jeep. Good news is she plans to sell it. So-so news is she has her heart set on replacing it with an Audi TT. Could be worse, but it's basically trading one ICE vehicle for another.


So what ICE vehicles do you guys have and why not sell or replace with an EV?

 

[Anonymous]

So what ICE vehicles do you guys have and why not sell or replace with an EV?

None - i3 REx, only car.

Previously owned a Honda Element (daily driver) and a Saab 9.3 that sat in the driveway collecting dust, as rarely either I or my wife drove it at all. Usually sat so long between 'trips' that the battery was dead when we did go to start it. Oh, and a 1972 MGB that I restored, and then sold to a Real Estate Agent in Tampa.

 

[jadnashuanh]

In addition to my BEV, I have a 2011 535GT. In the summer, on a trip, I can get over 30mpg out of this 4700# beast. I don't drive it around town, as it could be in the order of 18mpg...the i3 works well and is my daily driver (well, I don't drive daily much any more!).

I'm seriously considering the 2021 X5 hybrid. Supposed to get 40-50 miles of all electric range, and then have the 6-cylinder engine as a backup should I want to go somewhere further. If I do end up with that, I'll sell both of my current vehicles, as that would work for 95% of my normal driving using electric only in town.

Living in the NE, the charging infrastructure is going to still take years to develop for EV only use without a lot of compromise. The energy density of gasoline is still king for flexibility and speed of recharge (refueling). Now, if they had hydrogen filling stations as readily available as gasoline, that would be another story!

For those that may live in larger cities, the curtailment of all of the ICE vehicles driving around, is a big reality check about how important clean vehicles are, which seems to be lost on the current administration. The generally clear skies in places like China and parts of Europe, where diesel is still prevalent, really show what cleaning things up would help. FWIW, one study said that the CORONA virus uses some of those pollutants to stay airborne longer. Now, isn't that a kick in the teeth!

 

[alohart]

I won't buy another ICE vehicle. I'm done with the required maintenance, the inefficiency, the pollution, the noise, etc. It has been 18 years since I bought an ICE vehicle, a used 2000 Honda Insight hybrid. Although it was a mild hybrid that could not propel itself by its electric motor only, I could feel its electric motor's instance torque and was sold on electric propulsion.

Our first EV was a new 2012 Mitsubishi i-MiEV which worked well for urban Honolulu driving. When we relocated from central to east Oʻahu, our i-MiEV's 80-mile range was insufficient to drive to the North Shore and back without several minutes of AC Level 2 charging en route. Public charging stations could not be counted on to be functional and available, so our i-MiEV limited our activities somewhat.

In 2014, I told our BMW dealer that if I could circumnavigate the island (~100 miles) in an i3 BEV without stopping to charge, I would be interested in replacing our i-MiEV with an i3 BEV. He allowed us to demo an i3 BEV for 24 hours during which I was able circumnavigate the island without stopping to charge, so I replaced our i-MiEV with a 2014 i3 BEV that we still drive as our only vehicle.

 

[CharonPDX]

Around here, DC rapid charging has improved tons just in the last 12-18 months.

When I bought my i3 REx in mid 2018, I couldn't take many reasonable usual-for-me "nearby road trips" (trips of 150-200 miles) without using the REx. Now I can take all of those same trips just fine. And this is on a 2015 small-60Ah-battery i3. A new 120Ah i3 would be able to handle those same trips no problem, even before the addition of more rapid chargers recently.

Yes, the i3 isn't the greatest for longer road trips where you're driving 8 hours or more each day; but it can do it.

That said, we currently own two other ICE vehicles:

late '90s Subaru - inherited from my in-laws in mid-00s.

late '90s diesel Ford pickup - bought specifically to haul a pickup camper, which was bought at the same time, because buying the pickup+camper for a trip we were making was cheaper than hotels for the same amount of time. (We had a "campground membership" at the time that made the stays at campgrounds free.) Was bought in 2015, used sporadically in '16-'17, has basically been used only once a year since. We're about to move houses, and will probably sell or donate the pickup+camper when we do.

Note that our i3 replaced a 2004 Prius. When we bought that Prius, I told myself I would never again purchase another gasoline powered vehicle. (At a time that there were no mass-market EVs available!). The Subaru was inherited, and replaced a bigger SUV as our "secondary vehicle" (it's a mid '90s, and has less than 90,000 miles on it!) The pickup is a diesel. So while we did acquire two more vehicles since my pledge, we didn't "buy" a gasoline vehicle... Yeah, nitpicking to the extreme.

But I've bought a second EV since the i3, too, so....

 

[Fisher99]

In addition to the i3/Rex:

2011 BMW 535i xDrive. I would sell both the i3 and the 535 and replace both of them with a single Tesla dual motor, long range Model 3 or Model Y, but it's my wife's car and she loves it and says "no way", so it will stick around for a while. I have to admit that it's an amazing road trip car. 500+ mile range at freeway cruising speed. But I'll keep working on her. She may cave someday. Maybe a new i4 electric will sway her once it's available... Although I concur with jadnashuanh that the new X5 hybrid with longer electric range is a very tempting package. It would meet most of my daily needs in electric mode and be a great road trip car as well.

2013 Ram 2500 Limited with the 6.7L Cummins diesel engine and 6 speed automatic. Tows my 10k+, 34' travel trailer like it's not even back there. All the amenities including heated and cooled seats and is as quiet and comfortable cruising at 75 mph as any car I've ever owned. And when not pulling, it can get 20+ mpg on cruise control at 75 mph on the freeway. Pretty amazing for a vehicle with 360 hp, 800 lb/ft of torque, and weighing 4 tons. I will own this truck at least until I quit towing a big heavy travel trailer. I know that there are about a half dozen electric pickups on the horizon, and while I may ultimately be tempted, I'm guessing I will own this truck for a LONG time.

 

[skeptic]

I know that there are about a half dozen electric pickups on the horizon, and while I may ultimately be tempted, I'm guessing I will own this truck for a LONG time.

I suspect my next vehicle (not including whatever my wife buys) will be an electric pick-up and it will replace my i3 and Jeep. The one I'm most interested in is the GMC Hummer, and full reveal isn't until next month. The funny part is I've owned 3 different Hummer models, and up until about a year and a half ago my daily driver was a Hummer H2. To be fair, I worked from home from 2005 until this last November and probably burned less gas than your average prius driver. It would be funny if I went Hummer H2 -> Jeep -> i3 -> Hummer.

 

[eNate]

My 2nd is a 2013 Ford Flex. It wasn't intended to be a back-up car, but after purchasing it in 2012 to taxi our two youngsters and my in-laws, I decided to try to chill out on putting miles on it, and it was too big a car as a daily driver. So I stuck with My Subaru Legacy, then a very short stint with an Acura wagon, then on to an allroad, and finally the i3. The Flex sits parked. A lot. But it's awesome on road trips, carrying my 90 year old father-in-law and the kids, when out-of-towners come to visit, and, #1 of them all, class field trips I love having 6 excited kids as company on the way to a museum or historical site. It carries a tandem, can be slept in, and tows a trailer. I hope it lasts forever because I don't intend to ever buy something this large -- or gasoline powered -- again.

My wife drives around an S60 but I imagine when the time comes we'll replace that with a used Model 3 or something similarly sized -- but that's a few years off.

 

[Kristian]

Currently doing about 20,000 miles a year in my 94Ah i3 BEV.
My wife's car is a BMW 320D (diesel) Tourer which has done 120,000 miles but now doing about 3000 miles a year - mostly short trips while I'm at work and then longer trips when taking kids to and from university which requires lots of boot space and longer range.

Will most likely replace 320D with a 320i as can't justify the cost of a BEV which will only get used occasionally.
A 330E hybrid would be nice but they are not cheap to buy and maintenance would be expensive with basically 2 drivetrains in there.

 

[flynt]

My wife and our 3 year old twin girls currently have :

14 i3 REX - We do 95% of our driving in this car. I commute 13 miles each way in southern california. Been driving the car mostly but working up to 3 days a week on a bicycle. We take this car everywhere on the weekends, wife runs errands in it in the evenings. Put about 10k miles on it in the past year. Makes the other cars feel ridiculous.

85 911 Carrera - I rebuilt this one from the crank up - it's a brand new car. I'll always have one fun car, and it'll likely always be an aircooled Porsche. Drove about 4k miles in the past year, mostly to Porsche events/car meets. The i3 will not do when I want to drive the Carrera, and vice-versa. Nothing will replace this car short of another aircooled 911. Maybe an F355 if I can find the right one for the right price (a car with needs). I am a lifelong car nut.

11 Audi Q5 S-line - Wife's car. Replaced our 10 Touareg TDI which we sold back to VW. We loved the Touareg, the Q5 is fine. This is our road-trip car. Drove maybe 2k miles last year. The i3 makes this one feel like a Cadillac.. tall, heavy steering, terrible brakes, noisy with the engine always running.. Judged on it's own it's not a bad car, but when you're used to the i3, it just feels ancient. May replace this one with a Panamera or Cayenne Turbo.

99 Dodge Cummins pickup - I'm the third generation owner (grandpa bought new) of this big dumb truck and I can never sell it. Don't need it, barely use it, but when I need to use it, I really appreciate it.

Basically the i3 is the perfect car for us for most things. I think we'll always have one electric car for most of our driving. It can't replace my fun car and it won't replace our family road-trip car.

 

[Obioban]

17 i3. Absorbs all the not fun and not long distance driving, which ends up being ~70% of our total miles.
05 M3. My weekend/track car. IMO one of the best cars ever made. 3071 lbs (with full interior), 352 rwhp (NA) at 8200rpm, 6mt, CSL airbox makes it sounds like a supercar without being annoying (not loud or droney). Every drive in it is a glorious event and I will never sell it.
04 M3 wagon. This is the DD of whoever isn't DDing the i3 that day. I love this car-- drives like a stock M3, but hugely practical with the wagon form.
01 M5. When we need to transport 4 adults in comfort. We mostly keep it because my wife just loves it. Too big/torquey/heavy for what I really like in a car. That said, it's pretty freaking amazing for long distance high speed trips in comfort. It feels more in control and faster (accelerating) at 150mph than the i3 does at 94mph.
03 Suburban. Barely gets used-- averaging ~300 miles per year. Used if we need to tow something or transport 5-7 people. Will probably be selling. I hate driving this car, but it has practical benefits that can't really be matched by anything else. That said, I kind of want to replace it with a Jeep Gladiator Rubicon, as I think overlanding could be a fun family activity to get into, and it could still handle our limited towing and deep snow needs.

So, no... not planning to get off the ICE any time soon, even though the majority of our miles are EV in the i3. All the good/fun miles are in ICE cars.

ICE money shot: