Rejoining the fossil fueled automobile world

Last night I didn't expect to buy a car. I stopped at a dealership to look and see what was out there, in the hopes of buying something later this year. On the advice of a good friend, I checked out a Honda dealership last night. I knew next to nothing about Hondas, as I have owned GM cars exclusively since high school. The sort-of exception to this was my Isuzu Ascender, which was basically a GMC Envoy and was made by GM in Ohio.

My Chevy Volt has been a great car. I enjoyed it for most of the time I owned it. I went from 27k to 81k on the mileage. But since moving to an apartment, there have been some significant downside that has made itself very apparent. Firstly, since my knee replacement surgery last year it has been difficult to get into such a compact car. I have had to get in butt first, then sit on the seat and swing my legs into the car. This has been termed the "old man flop" by those who see me the most. Also, I've gotten into camping, and when I go I ended up packing the Volt to the ceiling with stuff. But perhaps the biggest was that I have nowhere convenient to charge the car anymore! I cant charge at the apartment, and the nearest high level charger is nearly 2 miles away. I can walk 20 minutes to a charger at work, but that's been weather dependent. So I was basically running my electric car on gas nearly all the time for the last year and getting about 35 MPG. Not great. I had been averaging near 80 when I was plugging in every day.

So I went in looking for a smaller, fuel efficient SUV. I wanted to be a little higher off the ground, since curbs and I didn't get along in the Volt, and if I could get close to my gas MPG I'd be happy. I was shown the Honda CRV, and wondered where it had been all my life! It had all wheel drive, a power seat that gave me everything I had in the Volt plus the stuff I had in the Ascender that I missed, a trunk with a spare tire and a jack (very important as I've spent the last two months dealing with tire issues and the Volt had no jack or spare), fold down seats, dual zone climate control, and basically all the tech I could ever want standard. I was voice texting within minutes with the integrated Apple Car Play. It has adaptive cruise control so it slows down if you come up on someone who is going too slow and follows at a safe distance and speed. And the silliest, but so far most useful thing I never know I needed but won't want to live without anymore - automatic high beam headlights. I turns them back to normal when it sees lights in front of you. It's amazing. All that and it gets about 33 MPG. Not a great loss from the Volt that I was running on gas the entire time anyway.

So we went back in, worked all the background stuff, they got it to where the price was where I wanted it, and bought it. So goodbye Volt, you were a good car. I enjoyed you very much, but you weren't right for my current life. I'd still recommend a Volt to anyone who has access to charging since electric is great and having the gas backup worked really well. But it just wasn't right for me anymore. But this new car feels super right, and I can't wait to take it on a long trip.