Something I love about the Autopian community is the depth of tales, wit, and knowledge. From heroic car ownership stories to solid banter to semi-obscure pricelist shenanigans, the hivemind truly has it all.
Earlier today, Matt posed the question “Is there a used EV you’d consider?”, along with “How cheap would it have to be?” You all provided some great answers, but if there’s one that sticks out, it’s one made by MrBrown89:
My leased Equinox EV is supposed to be returned by the end of December of this year. A lot of them will be hitting the market by then, I was hoping to negotiate with GM financial but they are probably going to try to stick with the inflated residual value. I will probably buy another used one since it will be cheaper or tell my spouse go buy the same car we just returned if the dealership keeps it lol
I did something similar with my Volt that got “totaled”, someone bought it out from Copart, fixed the minor damage and put it for sale. Insurance gave me a good check, the car was way less listed for sale, and I even had the nerve to insure it back with the same insurance haha
Cue the galaxy brain meme template. Taking an insurance payout on a totalled car, finding it for sale after being fixed, still pocketing some of the payout, and then re-insuring it with the same insurer? Sure, there might be a resale value hit, but if you’re the type of person to run a car until it’s condemned, that’s basically turning lemons into free money.
I want to extend a warm welcome to Dave Larkman, 25-year Lotus engineering veteran, semi-pro drifter, sports bike enthusiast, and taillight collector. His article on saving 22,000 pounds of aluminum is absolutely fascinating, and it’s not terribly surprising to see commenters asking questions about engineering. Michael Henry asked “What is your defination of a bolt vs a screw?” Well, Rad Barchetta was swift, chiming in with:
A bolt is when your date leaves you at the door. A screw is when she doesn’t.
I’m here all week.
Badum-tss. Moving onto new cars, it’s great that the Chevrolet Bolt is available with Super Cruise, but given the required prerequisites of three additional option packages, my word, is it ever expensive. It’s also far from the only case of having to load on a bunch of stuff you don’t need to get the one thing you really want. Autonerdery called out another example of this, which is even more eyebrow-furrowing.
This reminds me of the Polestar 2, where, if you wanted an interior in a color other than black, you had to pony up a total of (IIRC) $8,000 in options. We were considering an i4 a few years ago, and a few folks pointed out how much cheaper the 2 was…but that price advantage went completely out the window if you couldn’t live with the coal bin interior, which I’d really have hated.
For $8,000, I’d almost rather have an upholstery shop deck a Polestar 2 out in soft corinthian leather. I mean, how much could that really cost, a couple grand? I suppose if you’re feeling brave, you could have a crack at re-dying the upholstery, which ought to carry a mere triple-digit price tag depending on how much and what sort of dye you need.
Anyway, that’s all from me today. Have a wonderful evening, folks.
Top graphic image: Chevrolet
They totaled my 18 Volt which wasn’t that bad, but because it was impossible to find some of the parts it was offered at above what I could buy a similar one here in my market. It was still under warranty and they took all that into consideration. I loved that car and would have bought it back, but it was the last week of the EV credit and I ended up just going and getting a new MachE, Which I love!!
In my ongoing game of does the sentence / paragraph (especially if it ends with a colon) immediately preceeding the video that shows David pointing apply to him in any way, apparently the MrBrown89’s answer to the question “Is there a used EV you’d consider?” is David Tracy.
It takes a light tap basically anywhere on a Volt to total one. How do I know? I’ve had two of them totaled WHILE PARKED. Absolutely infuriating.
Funny you say that, I was side swiped by a semi in mine and insurance repaired it. I had heard horror stories of them getting totaled but mine has soldiered on.
Yeah mine wasn’t bad and they just said- High Bluebook for you! bought a MachE with what they gave me, would have bought a new Volt if they had one. I had a Gen1 and they totaled out my 18 gen2.
I did something similar when they wanted to total my Corvette. They quoted an inflated repair cost and a low-ball market value to hit the threshold and I called them on it. Turns out, in my state if you buy the car back from insurance and fix it yourself, it doesn’t even get a branded title. So I did that and came out $1500 ahead because a local body shop was able to fix it thousands cheaper than they claimed it would cost.
Same in my state with the titles. My daily beater ’99 Corolla got totaled in a minor fender bender last fall. I took the insurance company’s $1700, hammered the left front fender so it didn’t rub the tire anymore, and went back to daily driving it. I should have gotten it aligned, as it pulled a little after that, but I never bothered. Sold it back in June for $2000, to the first person who showed up with cash. It took 4 hours from listing it, to watching it drive away.
I didn’t believe them when they told me the title wouldn’t be branded. I think I called 3 different places to confirm. 😉
I didn’t do that much leg work, but I had the title physically in hand and never turned it over, so…
Now, does that Corolla have a clean Car Fax now? Probably not. But in the price point of that car, it didn’t matter.
Yeah, I don’t plan to ever sell this car so I don’t care about the CarFax. I actually considered buying it back even if the title would have been branded just because it was the exact car I wanted and it’s not easy to find one spec’d like this (yeah, I know every Corvette owner says that 😀 ).
If you love it, that’s all that matters!
I swear the Autopian has 99% of Volt owners as regular readers.
Related: Insurance attempted to total my Volt 4 months after I bought it in 2024. We had a bad storm, and some of my asphalt shingles blew off the roof and scratched it. Some of the scratches are noticeable, but most not so. However, since every panel had at least a bit of paint damage, insurace estimated the repairs to be around $12,000. I disputed the total, as I would lose my excellent CARB state emissions warranty.
I was successful, insurance cut me a check for the damage, which I promptly pocketed. Now I have a slightly scratched Volt that was essentially free, that has a 15 year 150,000 warranty. AND because electricity is so incredibly cheap in my state (7 cents/kwh) it costs nearly nothing to drive.
What other site would have us?
Oh, and 12 grand for repainting the car? That seems nuts.
Fancy pants 3 stage metallic is expensive I guess. I agree, considering a huge amount of the scratches could easily be taken care of with a buffing wheel, but I’m not going to complain about the end result! I did find it pretty morally disgusting that the company was willing to scrap (or more likely re-sell) a mechanically perfect car because of scratches though
I’ve definitely been eyeing getting a hail damaged EV instead of a new one given the discounts which make sense from a labor standpoint, but also feel silly.
My Impreza was almost totaled 6 months after I got it from a hail-nado we got caught in on the interstate in KS. Took it to the dent and ding place first where after impressing them with the amount of damage, they said they couldn’t help me. Took a month in the body shop (they replaced the roof, tailgate, hood, and almost the entire passenger side) before we got it back.
multiple Volt owner- this really is an orphan enthusiast car now- so naturally we all end up here…..
Katzkin Leather seats for a big truck are like 2K fully customized or maybe 700 if you want a single color, Surely they have them for the polestars when that price delta is occurring? Maybe not though, I don’t know if those things sold in any volume or not?
When I was car shopping in 2014, the Nissan Micra had just hit the Canadian market. If I wanted AC on the base S, I also had to take the automatic, otherwise I had to step up to the midrange SV. Accounting for financing, it was about the same to get the Mazda2 I liked more anyhow, which I might not have done if I could have gotten a Micra S with 5-speed and AC.
Thanks, Thomas!
My excitement when I found the car on sale on FB Marketplace, they even kept the 3D Max Spider floor mats I purchased, thats how I knew it was my car. I never told the used car dealer that the car was mine.
Finding a PHEV in the market under $10K that I knew the service history, priceless. Thanks for the award lol
A vocho in your avatar and a Volt in your garage. I knew you were a man of culture.
“So… do you have any of the service records?”
Doing my regular BMW wagon searching online today, I discovered that there are two BMW i5 M60 Tourings for sale in Australia that have under 5000km at them for around 50% of the price of a new one.
Now that’s depreciation.
From my limited experience with leather bike saddles and a vintage-looking saddle storage cylinder, if it’s black, there’s not a lot you can do with it. You can dye darker, but not lighter. Maybe you could get it to a dark gray? I have painted natural/light brown color leathers red and turquoise after stripping the original finish, so you could probably use leather paint, but I imagine it wouldn’t be durable enough on the thin, more supple leather in a car and I think you’d definitely have to spray it to get consistent results. Then again, with the processing and coatings they tend to put on it to try to make it as durable as good vinyl, but mostly succeeding in just feeling and smelling like it, you might need something stronger than what I’ve used to get off the original finish before refinishing, then I guess you’d want to put whatever kind of sealer they use back over it to restore some resiliency. Eh, I’d just get it redone. I’ve been thinking about that with my GR86 since I bought it (including covering a lot of the plastics with vinyl), but I’m indecisive, I have more important things to do, and I’d rather invest that money. Still, I found a place making custom seat covers for $1500 or so for the set (replacement covers, not the kind that slip over the stock covers). The rest I could manage myself as long as I could match the stuff they use. They don’t do velour, though.
I have two issues with black/dark leather/upholstery. First, just adds to the furnace effect in summer. Two, my dog has a white coat and sheds.
Third, it magnifies every tiny dust particle. Fourth, it causes extremely annoying windshield reflections.
A Polestar 2 with velour seats would be badass
When I reupholstered the leather low-back buckets in my ’95 Miata M, I only found one company doing those replacement covers with the un-confidence inspiring name “Ridies”. I bit the bullet and decided to give them a try. I was pleasantly surprised at the leather quality and the fact that there’s absolutely no vinyl involved in the construction whatsoever. Five years later they still look great (tan leather) and still smell good.
I have a sneaking suspicion that any dyed seats would end up making your clothing have plenty of that color as well.
People’s suggestions to just reupholster (if seat covers don’t do it for you) sounds like a better outcome.
IME with not car leather, the dye does transfer to some degree for a little while, so I think you’d have to seal it with something in a car. I’m sure the pros know what to do, but yeah, it probably makes more sense to change it out (and maybe keep the originals for sale time where they’ll look brand new).
The velour comment was (half) a joke. I’d actually prefer a good quality vinyl to leather (especially where I want some unnatural color), but I’m not against leather, either. That place I saw also had an (obviously) unmemorable name as I can’t remember it, though I found them through offsite recommendations by what appeared to be legit customers and I’m sure I could hunt them down again if I wanted to. I checked out Ridies, but they didn’t have anything for my car. Good to hear someone having good luck with any of these cover companies as it’s really tough to gauge from a company website.
I guess the other option would be trying to find a crash damaged car that had the interior you want, swapping it in, and trying to sell the black interior.
Except that the problem here is that most cars don’t come with different color interiors and are very limited if they do (black or some kind of off white or brown) and only cover a few surfaces, maybe little more than the seats. Unless you’re talking older cars, those uncommon optional colors would be made more difficult by having to find one that wasn’t damaged in said crash—a modern car being totaled is likely to have serious damage and maybe some biohazard. Where I am, the only junk yards left that I know of are warehouse breakers that sell individual parts rather than pick-and-pulls, so it wouldn’t even likely be that cheap as you’d have to buy each part separately from an itemized and individually priced inventory. Custom interior allows you to pick almost anything single or combination of colors and to cover surfaces that were never factory covered, like I’d do my outboard dash vents and the rear panels that are just black plastic.