My wife and I are juggling with this decision here in the next few months. We have our 2012 iMiEV, which I use as my daily commuter car. Love it for that! We also have an old 2004 Toyota Sienna minivan we use for our longer trips, when we bring my in-laws along with our family (which is frequently), or when we need the extra cargo capacity (very often). The Sienna is really showing its age, and we intend to replace it later this year. We love the space and the more refined luxury appointments in our Sienna (it's the LXE Limited package). We don't want to give that up. However, we absolutely hate, Hate, HATE the gas-guzzling inefficiency of our minivan.
We would love to replace our Sienna with another minivan, but we do NOT want to get stuck with another gas-guzzling ICE vehicle. Thankfully, Chrysler will begin selling their PHEV Pacifica later this year. It has more refinements and features than our current Sienna and will get an estimated 80 MPGe! The downside is that it will come at a hefty price. After the massive depreciation hit we took after buying our Meepster brand new, we are very hesitant to buy another EV brand new. Plus, we are still making payments on our Meepster (have about another 1.5 years left). Our current working plan is to sell our Sienna via private party sale right at the time we intend to get the Pacifica. We will then lease the Pacifica and use the proceeds from the sale of the Sienna to make the monthly lease payments. Once our Meepster is fully paid off, we will save that money every month and potentially use it to purchase the Pacifica at lease end, depending on the buy out cost.
It's not the best plan and definitely not the most efficient use of our money. However, with the circumstances our family has, we really need the extra size and range that our Sienna affords when we need it. We can't and don't want to go with anything smaller. We've been holding out on replacing our Sienna for a long time now because there just weren't any viable options for a minivan that gets "good" gas mileage. All ICE minivans suck in that department! That's why we were so excited when Chrysler announced they would be offering a PHEV minivan!
We would love to replace our Sienna with another minivan, but we do NOT want to get stuck with another gas-guzzling ICE vehicle. Thankfully, Chrysler will begin selling their PHEV Pacifica later this year. It has more refinements and features than our current Sienna and will get an estimated 80 MPGe! The downside is that it will come at a hefty price. After the massive depreciation hit we took after buying our Meepster brand new, we are very hesitant to buy another EV brand new. Plus, we are still making payments on our Meepster (have about another 1.5 years left). Our current working plan is to sell our Sienna via private party sale right at the time we intend to get the Pacifica. We will then lease the Pacifica and use the proceeds from the sale of the Sienna to make the monthly lease payments. Once our Meepster is fully paid off, we will save that money every month and potentially use it to purchase the Pacifica at lease end, depending on the buy out cost.
It's not the best plan and definitely not the most efficient use of our money. However, with the circumstances our family has, we really need the extra size and range that our Sienna affords when we need it. We can't and don't want to go with anything smaller. We've been holding out on replacing our Sienna for a long time now because there just weren't any viable options for a minivan that gets "good" gas mileage. All ICE minivans suck in that department! That's why we were so excited when Chrysler announced they would be offering a PHEV minivan!
