The beast has left the building...

So I traded-in the 4Runner. It has been a 2 years journey and 30.000 miles long.
The good: solid vehicle, unmatched 4x4, reliable, well built, i would say quality materials, impressive resale value, fancy rear-window.
The bad: not a highway car, wobbly drive at high speeds, steering shimmy, awful fuel economy, especially for short drives. The Falkens are noisy compared to a regular tire, especially when they are towards the end of their life, awful headlights, subpar infotainment system.
I learned that I am not as big on 4 wheeling as i thought, more-so with my daily driver that I paid a lot of money for. All them battle scars are fine, but they look painful on a 6 months old car. I do not know how to use all the off-road features, this car knows way more than I am willing to put it through.
All the above combined with the $6.50/gal prices add up to about $800-$1000/month in gas alone.....and she was traded-in today for a Tesla Model Y LR. A new world for us, willing to put with the charge times and all the other different things. I hope she lands in good hands.

Cheers boys, it was fun on this forum. Boring though, nothing ever breaks

 

I got rid of mine last Dec and I'm still here. Doesn't mean you have to go completely.

I bet some wish I would go too.

 

Enjoy them $22,000 battery replacement and frequent tire replacements

 

Sounds like you made a logical and rational decision. Best wishes to you.

 

Feel free to hang out! Let us know how the Tesla works out for you. I hope you enjoy it!

Not me!

 

That is fantastic. You are already in the future of automotive. Have fun..

 

I hope you enjoy your Tesla. I think they are neat.

 

You lost me at “Tesla”

 

Why get rid of one for the other - best of both worlds!

 

Congratulations Canadian Bacon. Hope you enjoy the Tesla and hope it serves you well. Hopefully you hang out on here once and while.

 

Don't forget to let us know how tesla feels after few months. Would be interesting to hear 4Runner owner opinion.

 

Good luck, and I agree, stick around, I’d love to hear updates on the Tesla, particularly during the winter.

 

@obz sweet setup you got there
Oh, we had long discussions about this....the wifey loves the 4R and she had a hard time letting it go.

@Braumeister
I totally understand where you are coming from.
Is it all EVs or just Tesla in particular ? I looked at the other EVs, but looking at the state of the software, performance, charging network, nothing comes close or is really available on the market. I really dont' give a rats ass on elons actions, I just dont want to pay for gas anymore ; and not like the other ceo's are any better. All ford dealers charge an arm and a leg over the msrp. I said not on my dime, assholes. Hyundai will tell you they have a demo, when you get there, omg, it just got sent o another dealer for demo, a customer just took home for the day, but look, try this sonata, its very good on gas, no worries. VW has nothing till 2023. BMW, yea, whatever. Mazda has 100 miles range. Toyota recalled them all cause the wheels are falling off and the damn thing wont charge at 32F... not really other choices there. The Audi looks good though. Cant buy one.
It was a waste in my hands anyway, that car can go places I cant even dream of, like having a gorgeous girlfriend, but you only kiss her on the cheeks...
We also do a lot of highway, so that's that.

 

My buddy had very similar combo. But now Tesla was changed to a different vehicle.
(Screen cap from one of my videos)

 

For sure. Coming soon - the cold months, reduced range, heat pump issues, it is a whole new world, new to us as well. Something tells me the 4Runner will be more reliable than the Tesla, I guess time will tell.
But I hate the fluctuating gas prices so much, eff them all, not anymore.
Coming spring months and summer, this will tow our popup trailer. I know, losing 30%-40% range...whatever, it costs me 7$ to charge the car overnight at home.

And now we are looking into these two words: range anxiety so i will have another beer and meh

So far the acceleration is simply insane - i haven't heard the wife screaming like that in a long time....

edit: when we ordered the tesla back in march, gas was (here) $8.2/gal - even if i can afford it, it's nasty. Math is better viewed from the other angle: in 6 years we spend over $45.000 in gas alone.

 

There's no way you were spending $1000/month on gas.

At 30K miles in two years. That's 15K miles a year or 1250 miles a month.

Assume your 4Runner gets 15 MPG, that's 84 gallons a month.

At $6.50/gallon you're spending $546/month on gas.

Nearly half of what you claim...

 

@Lockdown Some months more, some months less. A weekend out camping gets expensive, pulling the trailer too. Not a big one, but it adds up. A recent trip around the area (in-laws visited a few touristy spots) put me at almost $1000 in less than two weeks. Visiting a friend for a few beers, about 60 miles away (1 hour drive is common and expected in the GTA area) is about 13.5/100km (or 17.4mpg). 13.5l * 1.65/l= $22.27/one way. That’s almost $50 to go drink $10 worth of beer. That’s 200$ a month just to see my buddy. Add work to that, sitting in traffic, cold weather, a weekend camping…you get the idea.
Obviously, I would remember the high peaks, not the COVID months when we stayed at home. Gas was the cheapest in the past 10 years about 2.26/gal and the most expensive around 8.45/gal. Now around 6-6.50/gal, depending which yacht the Saudi wants to buy.

@hallcs I don’t do this for the planet. I eat red meat, I barely recycle, had 4 V8s in my life and I have campfires as often as I can. I am not the problem with pollution. Remember what George Carlin said: the planet is fine, the people are f#%ked. I just don’t want to play their game anymore. Will it be short lived ? Who knows ? I’ll enjoy NOW, life is short, can’t worry about problems I don’t have yet !

 

Forgot to mention: we got the 4Runner in Sept 2020, we were in full lockdown at the time, couldn't go anywhere, not even camping. Picked up the car outside, only 1 dealer employee present. A big portion of these 30.000 miles were done mostly in the end of 2021 and 2022. If you assume I drove 20.000 miles the second year, you are already looking at over 700$ a month in gas alone. We probably did about 5000 miles back in 2020-2021 and around 25.000 miles in 2021-2022. We did a lot of these miles when gas was over $8/gal. I had fill-ups at $160 and I drove around 300 miles.
I am not saying it is like this now; it is not like this all the time, but I got sick of it. Instead of giving the saudis or other oil tycoons my money, for the firs time, I have another choice.

 

what did yota recall because of wheels? We have had our RAV4 Prime for over a year now, 15k miles, and consider it a good purchase. Most days it uses zero gas, and my wife loves not going to the gas station.

I am curious about the Tesla and winter months, with the rav we need to use the engine more often for heat, although the electric heated steering wheel and seats are great, it’s the windshield defroster that sometimes needs the engine.

 

Toyota will resume bZ4X EV sales following safety recall concerning its wheels falling off

 

That’s right, I forgot that, thanks.

 

Honestly you'll love your Tesla. This is my 7th in about as many years. Very different experiences between them. My S is a Plaid and the grins are insane. That said, you get used to the torque and start feeling like it's "slow" eventually. Then the conveniences (or lack thereof) start kicking in. I've always had 2 gas cars and 2 electric. Right now we've got the Plaid and an F150 Lightning (sold our model X). But while I love EV's for the performance and around town driving (including my commute to work) long distance will always be a "Gas" endeavor for me. I've driven our S and X out to California (from Utah) multiple times and the extra 3 hours adds up quick.

Oh and one more gratuitous pic of my Plaid.

 

The math simply just does not add up.


If you drove 20K miles in one year. That's 1667 miles per month.
Assume you get 15 MPG that's 111 gallons.

At $6.50 / gallon that's only $721. You're still not close to the $1,000/month you claim to spend on gas.


Let's work the reverse; to actually spend $1,000 on gas a month at 15 MPG...You would need to drive around 2307 miles per month.

 

Wife wants an EV. I am not there yet.

 

We were considering a Tesla as a close relative was a engineer at the Fremont plant. Two things turned us off…..the assembly line quality horror stories and the upcoming solid state battery technology which are about two years away will make the current “wet” electrolyte batteries obsolete.

 

@2ndGen22re Mine came spotless, no panel gaps, no scratches, they gotten those quality issues under a better control.
I was looking at other brands too, but you cant get anything at all.
I am not the one to wait for a promised technology years out. And then what? Imagine what the next 10 years of active development will bring.
I made the switch now and maybe I can trade-in and get the new one.
Maybe the switch is not even a match for me, I wont know till i live with it

 

@canadian.bacon - just curious - what type of electrical connection is necessary to charge at home? Should the need for an EV ever arise, I would like to see what additional $$ is needed on top of the vehicle purchase for a charging setup.

 

Like I said, some months were less, some months were more. Some months we do 4 weekends camping, some other none. I said between 800$-1000$ as a ball park, since the current numbers are based on both of us still WFH partially.
I am not even sure why we argue about 200$ or 300$ more or less a month in gas, even $500-$600 a month is a lot for a vehicle that is not used to what it can actually do. Sounds a lot like them boys in town with F150s 6" lifted to the sky with 35s or 38s and complaining how expensive the gas is.
The math for us is easier this way: $500 on a good month is $6000/year = $30.000 in 5 years in gas alone. Plus the oil changes, transmission oil changes, transfer cases, etc, I am not even taking that into account.
Rumor has it has will go to about $3 a liter - about $11.3/gal, starting in Alberta/BC. Every time the gas goes up, the value of my 4R goes down a little.

No matter how you slice and dice it, it is a pig on gas. Beautiful, reliable pig, but still a pig. My previous Ram 1500 hemi crewcab on 20s was more efficient than the 4Runner.

 

A data point for you (anec-data):

I bought a VW e-Golf in 2018.

It has been back to the dealer for service ZERO times.
It has ZERO problems.
It is fast, quiet, and comfortable.

I paid $25K for it new, less the $10K rebate from gov, and sold my older Golf (2007) for $5k.

I'm a motor head and own more than ten vehicles (mostly motorcycles) and did not think I'd like electric. I was wrong. More speed. Less noise.

If it fits your use case (mine is daily commuting within the range of the vehicle) they can be a phenomenal solution. Definitely not a touring machine though.

Jason