Car Shopping Chronicles, Season 3, Part 1

A few weeks back I got an email from Tesla with details about the approaching end of my Model Y lease. It was a check list of standard stuff most auto companies send out near the end of a contract.

I was already thinking about that date, but the email prompted me to think about pulling the award winning Car Shopping Chronicles series from the shelf, blowing off the dust, and cranking it up for season three! I’m not sure if any of you are as excited about that as me, but it definitely put a little extra pep in my step that day.1

My lease is up in mid-April. I will not be replacing it with another Tesla. For multiple reasons, most of them pretty obvious. That’s a shame, as I have really enjoyed the car. No car is perfect but it is as close as I’ve come in my years of car ownership. If it was a high schooler I would give it somewhere between a 90 and 94.

I doubt my little, one-man protest will have any effect on the world. I’ve only stayed with the manufacturer twice since I started buying my own cars, so this really isn’t that big of a deal.2 Regardless of the reasoning behind the move, I will be driving something new and (hopefully) exciting in about six months.

S drives a Kia Telluride. It is very nice, has three rows, can haul a lot of crap when the back two rows are down, and she loves it.3 It fills a clear role in a family of five, and gives me some freedom to not go in the same direction.

We are also actively subtracting kids from the house. And hopefully the payroll too, assuming M can find employment after she graduates. That opens up more options.

My Way Too Early list of potential cars began like this:

  • Rivian R2. No surprise, as this has been my target vehicle for three years and I’ve mentioned it here often. The R2s have been rolling off the assembly lines since June. Reviews are mostly excellent. There have been some expected bugs and bumps in the earliest models, but my expectation is that by April many of those will be ironed out. Only the highest end trim level is currently available, though, which is not ideal. (Car and Driver rating: 9/10, #3 in class)

  • Honda Passport TrailSport. A good friend of mine got one of these earlier this year and loves it. I’ve been in it several times and have been surprised by how much I liked it, especially the exterior design language. It looks cooler and tougher than a Honda should. It is another two-row SUV that’s not too big but still has plenty of room for taking another couple to dinner or hauling kid shit around. The base trim is pretty affordable, but they get expensive quick if you consider the more feature packed models. Let’s be real: I’m 55 and am not giving up heated seats and steering wheels unless I absolutely have to. The rub here is that not only would I be going back to a gas-powered vehicle, but the TrailSport’s fuel performance is shockingly bad. S gets mid-20s in her Telluride. The Honda sits right around 20 MPG. Yeesh. In this economy!?!?! (C/D: 10/10, #1 in class)

Those are the two larger vehicles. I’m also considering going smaller to counter the size of the Telluride in our garage.

  • Volkswagen Tiguan. I looked long and hard at these three years ago. Had there not been the EV incentives, I may have ended up in one. They are slightly dumbed down versions of my old Audi Q5.4 They have improved a lot of the maddening user interface choices that plagued the early 2020s models, and added some really nice features like massaging seats that make them feel more premium than the mid-$40K price tag would indicate. Downside? They are German, which means they are over-engineered and expensive to service. We’ve owned two VWs over the years and the nearest dealer can be a little annoying when it comes to customer service. Fuel economy, while not as bad as the TrailSport, is pretty pedestrian for its class. (C/D: 9/10, #4 in class)

  • Honda CR-V Hybrid. Here is the classic practical old man car. Honda has the best hybrid engine setup going, so good that many reviewers say it drives very much like an EV.5 The 40 mpg fuel economy is fantastic. I could buy one and drive it for 10 years and be perfectly happy while making the wisest financial choice of my candidates. No issues getting parts for repairs, or finding non-dealer shops that can do maintenance. The highest level trim is actually pretty nice, if a bit vanilla. The only downsides are that they are rather basic, there are millions of them on the road, and they feel a bit small for me. We’ve been dealing with a warranty issue on L’s Kia Sportage that has forced me to drive it to the dealer a couple times, and I feel all crammed into it. I think it would be the same in the CR-V. It’s probably ok to drive in short spurts, but would I be comfortable driving it to Cincinnati, Bloomington, etc? (C/D: 10/10, #1 in class)

That is where my list begins, here in mid-October 2026. I’m open to adding more candidates as I continue my research. If there are any new lines added to my car buying spreadsheet, I would bet they are vehicles similar in size, style, and price to the four listed above. I’m not going to be adding a Corvette or Escalade.

I should mention that the Hyundai and Kia EVs (EV6 and Ioniq 5) continue to get wonderful reviews, and are extremely well priced. However, the Koreans have still not solved their electrical issues. While they seem to affect a very small number of users, if/when they strike a car, you can find yourself stranded on the side of the road with a non-functional car. And Hyundai/Kia’s service for their EVs continues to be lacking. So they will NOT be on my list.

Some of you may be asking the same question, “Why are you sharing this now, six months before you need a new car?”

Great question! Normally I would have waited a few months to get started. It is the perfect project for the cold months of Indiana winter.

However, one key element of this process required a quick decision. Because of that, last week I took my first test drive! Be looking for Season 3, Part 2 soon.

  1. As sometimes happens when I start getting obsessed with something, I had trouble sleeping after spending too much time watching car videos that night. Idiot. ↩︎

  2. Going from a Toyota 4Runner to Sienna, and Chevrolet Suburban to Tahoe. ↩︎

  3. I like it but have some issues with how it drives which makes me glad it is her’s and not my daily driver. ↩︎

  4. Actually most similar to the Q3 but still cousins ↩︎

  5. Without the insane power EVs offer, of course. ↩︎