It must take a lot of guts to buy a used Ev car ...

[dogtag]

or a lack of brains. Talk about a Pig in a Poke, meaning
the real possibility of hidden problems. The big concern
would be the health of the battery among other things.
How do you test it ? Under the hood is a mystery.
Seeing as how you'd have to take out a mortgage in
order to replace the battery, it's probably worth thinking
about looking for a nice gas guzzler instead.
"Better to buy a technology you know than one you don't "

[JohnMOhio]

dogtag, I would have to agree with you. The only test would be if the battery has a full charge or not. I don't think there is a way to determine the useful life it has remaining. That is unless you can say that the battery is good for a specific number of miles. Probably the same for the "motor."

[Allen]

On laptop computers the lithium battery can be checked as to how much life is left in it. Not amount of charge but actual life left.

I'm sure there's programs to check expensive EV batteries as well. Something else to consider is: less life = shorter driving distance and shorter intervals to recharge. So taking a trip would require more recharging stops.

[dryheat]

Batteries are interesting. The old D and C alkaline batts were a big improvement over having a carbine lamp on your miners helment. The Ni-Cad came along which, hard to believe, was initially developed clear back in 1899. Lots of work went into improving them. Those were the batteries that we used in our early mirrorless cameras and lots of other devices. I had about fifteen of them on different chargers all the time. They were kind of a pain. Then came Nikel-metal-hydride(hydroxide) that we use now for all types of things. Cars ran on them too. Then Lithium. Some countries have rules about what and how many different kinds of batteries are allowed. I think there are some couontries that still use NIMH. Lithium is expensive.

[Allen]

The Ni-Cad came along which, hard to believe, was initially developed clear back in 1899.

My Dad served during WW2. He often spoke about the batteries the military used that had nickel plates and how long they lasted. He didn't elaborate on what they were used in.

[Major Tom]

I will never ever buy an EV auto of any make or model! I recently bought a battery powered string trimmer which does an excellent job and is lighter in weight than my cantankerous old gas trimmer. My 30 year old Husqvarna lawn mower is showing signs of discontent (major repair). Next Summer I will be looking at electric lawn mowers.

[Allen]

I will never ever buy an EV auto of any make or model! I recently bought a battery powered string trimmer which does an excellent job and is lighter in weight than my cantankerous old gas trimmer. My 30 year old Husqvarna lawn mower is showing signs of discontent (major repair). Next Summer I will be looking at electric lawn mowers.

I see a lot of batt push mowers for sale and a lot of used ones for sale on Craigslist. Fill in the blanks.

As far as riding mowers go I don't feel they are there yet. The zero batt powered mowers are expensive and so are the batteries.

It all depends upon how large your yard is and if you want to continue to mow it yourself. As stated before, I am turning to batt tools too but for the larger tougher jobs they fall behind gas and elec.

[dryheat]

I see battery powered shop tools everywhere. It seems so handy. I finally bought a pair of Milwaukee drills. They are pretty light weight but came with batteries and one extra plus the charger. All for about $200.
Watch out buying them piece by piece: The tool is $100, the battery is $100 and the charger will be around $80.
Oh, and beware buying used. You might not be able to find those batteries. They change after a while. I think Ryobi is known for keeping batteries pretty standard.

[Allen]

Also avoid buying a number of different brands. DeWalt, Black & Decker (same company), Makita, Craftsman, Old Milwalki, Ryobi and others. The batteries should but don't interchange. Try to buy from one or two brands so you can use the same batt in multiple tools.

Personally I like DeWalt for the quality and Hart (Walmart) for the price. Both take diff batt's of course.

[oscars]

I bought an Eggo blower last year and regret it. Number one problem is the weight and balance. It weighs a bit over 11 lbs which double that of my Stihl. It is horribly uncomfortable to us with just one hand/arm.

[bruce]

Bought a 2016 LEAF. It was about one year old. Local car. My wife happily drove it all over creation without a care in the world. When we needed to make a road trip, I cranked up the gas car. When my job moved me, we sold it b/c we were no longer in a city. Sold it back to the dealer for $500 less than paid. Ran it a little over 12,000 miles. Never made any difference in our electric bill. Amazing. Net cost for owning and driving the car was the $500. No other expenses. If we ever again live in a city/urban area, we will certainly look real hard at at least a hybrid or full electric. Sincerely. bruce.

[Allen]

Bought a 2016 LEAF. It was about one year old. Local car. My wife happily drove it all over creation without a care in the world. When we needed to make a road trip, I cranked up the gas car. When my job moved me, we sold it b/c we were no longer in a city. Sold it back to the dealer for $500 less than paid. Ran it a little over 12,000 miles. Never made any difference in our electric bill. Amazing. Net cost for owning and driving the car was the $500. No other expenses. If we ever again live in a city/urban area, we will certainly look real hard at least a hybrid or full electric. Sincerely. bruce.

I think the timing worked out for you. You bought it used avoiding the depreciation and sold it back while the market was probably rising (on EV's). You didn't have any repairs or maintenance like tires. Most importantly, you didn't keep it long.

If I lived in a city (Lord help me) this is the route I would consider too.

[Johnny P]

The EV batteries are just like all batteries. Each time it is charged it loses a small amount of capacity. Not covered by warranty unless something like in excess of 30% loss during warranty period.

[PWC]

Had a people powered push mower, still do in the shed. Got stationed remote in Alaska. Wife and kids let the yards get ahead of them and couldn't mow. My father and neighbors told her to get a gas mower; she called and I said to get an electric. I didn't want her messing with the gass and oil in the garage plus pulling and pulling the starter.

She did, and bless her heart she put it together by herself and began mowing the yards. After 16 mo. I retired and came home. First weekend back my neighbor spent the whole time I mowed the front yard, trying to get his gas mower started. Gone thru 2 since 1984, always corded. Grandson hasn't learned yet the "finesse" of how to flip the cord out of the way for the next pass.

[jon_norstog]

You could say the same about buying a diesel-powered vehicle used. As a snipe in the USCG I learned a lot about diesels, and especially that you have GOT to keep up on maintenance and that means by a mechanic technician who knows what they are doing. Buy new or don't buy at all.

jn

[Allen]

Something that faces all EV's sometime. Overall, they don't make batteries yet that last as long proportionally as long as a gas or diesel engine. Engines can be replaced with new, used, or reman units and for most makes are common and plentiful. Batteries need to be new and for EV's they will be dealer items for some time yet.

Then there's the actual motors, wiring and endless electrical gizmo's that can fail at any time w/o notice.

[jon_norstog]

We bought my wife's 2007 Prius new. It has close to 180,000 miles on it. Batteries are still good, hard to tell though. The 2nd gen Prius has been very reliable in taxi service. Bi8ggest problem we had was the coolant pump for the inverter went out on a road trip. That was almost $1,000.00; the car's warning system is kind of hyperactive and my wife was convinced I would burn down the car driving it 100 miles to the Spokane Toyota dealer's.

I probably could have fixed it myself if we were at home. A couple things I like about the car: gas mileage is still consistently 45 mpg. The energy savings is from the car generating electricity when it decelerates, instead of heating up the brakes. Other thing I like is max torque is at 0 RPM. The car is fast off the line. It acts like it has positraction, too. I have friends who drive these cars on snow and ice in the woods, just using tire chains. They do OK except for the ground clearance.

Last thing I like about the car is the seats are good.

jn

[lyman]

I bought an Eggo blower last year and regret it. Number one problem is the weight and balance. It weighs a bit over 11 lbs which double that of my Stihl. It is horribly uncomfortable to us with just one hand/arm.


I still run Stihl weed eater and leaf blower, and may buy another leaf blower this season (mine is a 90's vintage and just about worn out,)

re the EV cars,

I know a guy up in the Baltimore area that bought a new Tesla, it was a better deal for him than a used one, and he is happy so far, even tho he has to plan his day around a charging station, (he uses 110 drop cord at home)

and I worked with a guy that was looking for a used older Prius,, because he found out you can replace individual cells of the battery pack vs the entire battery, and the older hybids were cheap,

[Johnny P]

Tesla says that their battery should maintain at least 70% of it charge capacity during the warranty period. It's a fact that the batteries degrade, and if the car doesn't self combust first, at some time the battery will have to be replaced.