“Girlie”

Turkey Tracks: June 4, 2021

“Girlie”

She’s the future.

She’s an Amazon Queen—a muscle woman with heart and great technology.

She has PLENTY of power and hugs the road and curves in the most satisfying way. She has awd, too, which I need in winter for my hill and driveway.

I’ve had her a month now and have only used 1/4th of a tank of gas. I could have used even less, but was experimenting. She plugs into a 110 volt outlet in my garage. There is no need for a higher voltage connection. When in gas mode, she recharges the battery up to 80% of its power. So I also do not need to be tethered to the plug-in if I want to travel with her.

You may remember I had an “unintended acceleration” incident with the 2010 Subaru in early December 2020—and sold that car the next day—with the buyer promise that it would be used for “parts.” I was so, so lucky not to have been seriously hurt when that car went backwards, over a road, and into a deep ditch in about 3 seconds. Potential walkers on the road were lucky too. No one can stop an incident like this one by braking. And who can react to get the car into neutral when things happen so fast. Going into that ditch filled with water and ice was the best thing that could have happened. The car just sat there in the ditch, the engine roaring like a mad thing.

The subaru was John’s car, but I drove it most of the time as my 2012 Toyota Sienna minivan was purchased so I could pick up my sons’ families at the airport. I needed to be able to manage 6 passengers. When they visited, they used the minivan, and I used the Subaru.

I loved this car! It was fun to drive and great on the highway. But it felt way too big for me for everyday use.

To make a long story short, after the Subaru went away, I started researching and settled on the 2021 RAV4 plug-in hybrid—spurred on by son Bryan having bought the Kia Niro about 18 months ago, which is also a plug-in hybrid. He and Corinne love that car, but it does not have awd. The RAV4 2021 plug-in hybrid is new off the assembly line this year, so I had to wait some months for one to come into my local dealers showroom. I would have taken any color, but I’m so happy the color turned out to be “Bluprint.”

I got the best offer for the minivan via Edmunds online, to be honored by the South Portland, Maine, CarMax dealer once they inspected the car. They gave me the full price offered as the car was as I described it. And it was $4000+ more than the local dealer would give me, so worth the trip south with a friend following me.

With what I had from both cars, I cut the price of the RAV by half.

And now I have a new car that I won’t have to trade for many, many years. God Willing and the Creek Don’t Rise, as my dad used to say.

I write this story because the automobile industry is headed in this direction—which is a good thing. And I think people will be really happy with these electric/hybrid cars. I know the earth will be.