Pros Driving Get behind the wheel of the SE and even mundane trips can be fun. More than the zippiness, which I expected, I am impressed by how planted it feels. The low center of gravity, relatively long wheelbase, and well-tuned suspension make it feel really solid on the road. I actually got the opportunity …
Continue reading Review of the 2023 Mini Cooper SE Signature
Pretty early on in my second round of shopping the Mini Cooper SE caught my eye. From the moment it entered my radar part of me wanted it to be the one. It seemed unique and fun, yet a surprisingly good value. The base model had an MSRP of $30k, which came out to $34k …
Continue reading Shopping Round 2: Mini Cooper SE – We Have a New Winner!
I was still concerned about the lack of active cooling of the Leaf's battery, but with it being the most affordable mainstream option, I had to reconsider it. So this time I actually went to drive one. On paper it really did seem compelling. Part of my issue with the Bolt was the lack of …
So after just 4 short months of ownership I sold my 2020 Bolt EV Premier back to GM. I don't believe that specific Bolt was the best purchase I could have made, so I was glad to have a do-over, but I was not excited to be in the market again. Things had certainly not …
Continue reading Shopping Round 2: Back to the Drawing Board
I got my Bolt on July 1, 2021. Less than two months later, on August 20, 2021, GM expanded the Bolt battery recall to include my 2020 model. For those of you who don't know, over a period of 6 or so months GM issued several recalls for the high-voltage batteries in the Bolts, eventually …
If you haven't read my posts leading up to this, in July of 2021 I bought a new 2020 Bolt EV Premier. I talk more about the electric-specific aspects of it in the previous post, but this will be a more general review of the Bolt as a car. (Note: I will try to indicate …
Eventually I got around to trying the Bolt, which, despite my baseless prejudice toward Chevrolet, already seemed very compelling. It's true that compared to all of the new EVs, and even some of it's older peers like the Niro and Kona, its charging speed of 50kW was unimpressive. And it was a miss that the …
Continue reading Shopping: Chevy Bolt EV – We Have a Winner!
The Niro was never a strong contender for me mainly due to price. I just couldn't understand why it cost so much more than something like the Bolt. Faster charging seemed like the main advantage, but that wasn't an important factor to me at the time. I did end up test driving one. What I …
The i3 was actually the front-runner for a while. The full-electric version (which gives + or - 100 miles, depending on the battery) did not have the range I wanted, but they made a range-extender version with a scooter engine in the back to recharge the battery for extra range. You could technically keep filling …
Within my original budget of $10-15k I could really only afford an old Nissan Leaf, so that would have been that. The battery would have probably degraded enough that it would have just been for in-town use and we would have kept borrowing a car or bought a cheap gas car for longer trips. However, …
Miniwatt Auto 