[Hersbird]

Finally got into the game with a Pacifica today. It's the most basic hybrid Pacifica you can get, the Touring, with just one option, the cold weather package so heated seats. I really hope they up the game a bit on the tax rebates ($10,000 not limited by tax liability) but if not I should be able to get close to the $7500, I maybe need to adjust my IRA to a Roth to put it over the top. There were $5000 in Chrysler incentives as well. I paid full MSRP but they game me a little more on the trade. I traded the Touareg TDI. That was the nicest car I have ever owned but it hasn't been confidence building in it's repairs up to now. Not that a Pacifica might be any better but at least I don't have to worry about anything for the first 3 years.

I took delivery with less than 1% battery energy and 20 miles on it after a 10 mile test drive. It's really seamless, I almost wish there was more I could force like EV only or more brake regen, but it seems it's just made to operate no different than our 2011 Town and Country (which I still have also, maybe for my teenage daughter, maybe I'll sell it and use the money for something compact.) What it did do is 39 mpg on the drive home (45 max speed, stop and go) according to the computer and like I said, that was with <1% battery charge. I plugged it in to 110 when I got home and it's shows 12 hr 45 min to full charge. We have 220 in out garage so I may invest in a level 2 charger. It will be primarily my wife's car and most days if I can convince her to plug it in at home she probably won't use much gas. We can't force EV so I don't know how light we need to be on the throttle to keep the gas from kicking on. I also don't know how smart it is with the remote start at using the plug in when connected to pre condition the interior.

We shopped a 2021 Sienna as well, and even looked at the 2021 Honda for grins as well. The Honda seems to have no good reason to buy it right now IMO. It was easily the most expensive, doesn't get better mileage than our 20 year old Chrysler, and is pretty plain in the inside. The Toyota is better on the interior than all of them and at MSRP is similar cost for similar features, but they have no tax rebate, and had a $1500 rebate vs $5000 rebate. That makes the Chrysler much less. We thought we might want the AWD available on the Sienna but we have gotten by just fine without AWD for many years now on the van, so it seemed like a good idea to save the $2000 premium for AWD along with saving another $11,000 because of tax and incentives. Come on Toyota, make it a plug in like the other Prime hybrids you make and I'd have a Toyota today.

Pretty happy. Pretty shocked to spend that much on a car, but carp we were at Costco today and refrigerators seem to cost $3-4k. So a van for 10 refrigerators doesn't see out of line. I also figured out that our old T&C is about 10 years old and almost exactly 100k on it. It has gotten pretty consistently 18-20 average overall. So 100,000 miles at 19 mpg is 5263 gallons at probably an average of around $3/gallon. If that had been a 30 mph hybrid, that would have been 3,333 gallons, or a $5,800 savings. If gas goes back to $5 or more or we end up getting much better than 30 mpg by plugging it in, then that's probably worst case savings. It's not going to really be able to save us money considering that initial purchase, but it certainly make more sense than a Honda for us at least. Just wish me luck on the Chrysler being a little new at this stuff. Our T&C has been 100% flawless in it's life so I can't knock the foundation of what's in the Pacifica and the hybrid part has a longer warranty.