So are we all going to end up buying our cars after our leases are up?

[BoltEV]

Thanks for the very detailed and authoritative report...

We have a 2017 Cajun Red Premier like yours. I should ask our dealer what it would cost to trade up, but ours has been so perfect, it may be asking for trouble to try a newer one.

jack vines

I agree!

My “out the door” of $36,500 on July 31st was primarily due to dealers in my area not offering their own discount at that time. I did still qualify for the higher $3,750 federal tax credit and higher $2,500 California rebate, so it’s somewhat a wash.

Be sure to “shop” other dealers. My best price came 50 miles away in Orange County, which I negotiated on the phone before I drove down to close the deal.

[gpsman]

Deals are amazing through at least Feb3.

I traded in my 2017 LT for a 2020 LT.

Payments are $100 less per month for the same terms as before.

After 6 years I will have paid 85% of MSRP for one car. Shopped around and there were no EV's I liked better. I'm SURE in 3 years there will be more choices.

As you all know, that last 10% of charge takes a long time. Now with the 10% larger battery I can stop at 90%, get the same range as before, and not worry about "trickle charging". It will charge at 20 kw rate on DCFC at 90%.

One change I DONT like is the climate control fan speed buttons will NOT turn the system off.
In 2017 you could press the speed down button ....3,2,1,0 with zero being system off. Now it stops at 1. It won't shut off the fan all the way.
I don't view that as an improvement.
Also the pedestrian warning sound is much louder and runs to a higher speed. Don't like that either.

[michaelbolt]

I have just leased two Bolts to replace two Volts with expiring leases. I always lease "zero driveaway" so it's easy to compare.

The current lease prices were right around $400 with 12K miles, zero driveaway, fully loaded Premiers. That's only slightly more than a few years back when the full $7500 was still in place.

In addition, we still get $2K from California, which effectively reduces the payment by about $60

We looked at Kia and didn't like it, plus the lease terms with horrific. I did seriously consider a Tesla 3, but recent circumstances have made that kind of expenditure out of the question for me.

There will be good alternatives over the next year or two, but for now the Bolt seemed the logical choice.

[BoltEV]

Good choice!