Recent content by Zathras

Sorry I didn’t see this earlier. Just in case it is still useful… We also used a Schwab PAL when building. The rate was good, and the whole process worked very smoothly. No early payoff penalties or other shenanigans ;)

+1 I have no trouble with restaurants, or any other merchant, charging less for cash. As said above, credit card fees are a business cost. I find it more equitable that the credit card fees should be paid by the CC users, not everyone.

Bricking really only happened with very early BEVs (about 15 years ago). I don’t believe that happens to any BEV anymore. I don’t believe that ever happened to PHEVs. If you are leaving the car at home, I would suggest plugging it in. Think of it as a battery tender. 3-5 months seems like a...

I don’t know about an official list. The two times I was at a dealer this year, both knew about it. A good source of info for you may be your states EV owners club. These are present in many states. The one in Minnesota has a presence on facebook as well as a web site...

Rebates, as of this year, can be taken at the dealer. I don’t believe you need any tax liability to get the discount off the price. Used vehicles only qualify if the sale price is under $25k (I would expect any used Bolt would be).

Works great for us. Each of our cars is generally at home for 4-6 hours of peak solar production. Even on a cloudy day, we produce enough for our house plus a bit for the cars if needed. It takes a downright stormy day to block the panels completely.

Thank you for the work going into this!

We have two Teslas, solar and Tesla Powerwalls (batteries). The Teslas are not set up to feed power to the house. Some EVs can be set up to do that (Ford Lightning for example). As others have mentioned, there is a setting in our Tesla to only charge off solar. We are both home most days, so...

And with Tesla vehicles, there will be video of thhe event. So if it is clear that a pedestrian saw the vehicle, stepped out in front of it anyway, well that will be clear in court as well.

This is a Podcast I heard years ago. Very well done, IMO. https://www.thisamericanlife.org/513/129-cars It is a look inside a car dealership working towards their monthly quota.

I applaud you for walking away. Dealers act like this because they are allowed to and it works often enough. My last purchase, without a dealer, took 10 minutes. No question about the price at any step, cash or finance.

Not on Medicare yet. We have a 8k Max OOP, 13k Premiums and a few thousand in uncovered expenses. Most people don’t truly appreciate how expensive it can get even with good insurance. I am sure if I didn’t earn as much I would get assistance with the premiums. That being said. I agree with...

I would not have been able to retire on $1 Million. My medical bills alone are $22k - $30k a year. For those blessed with good health, I applaud you. If medical issues weren’t what they are, I would probably be comfortable with less.

The internet shopping is a good idea. The more information you have before you walk into a dealer the batter. Another possibility is a Tesla Model Y. Tesla is apparently drastically cutting prices on Model Ys. If that form factor works for you that may be a good option...

I like small cars as well. It is the reason I bought a MINI SE a couple years ago. If the Smart EV had been available I would have bought that. Sadly, there was too much I missed about the Tesla, so I recently picked up a new Model 3. I would love to have more options for small EVs.