But What About When The Bolt Arrives, You Ask?
Someone made a request for me to give the details on how I ended up leasing 5 different vehicles since last December without taking a huge bath financially. Well, now is the time to tell that story! A year ago, I owned only a 2012 Volt along with a leased 2013 C-Max Energi. I leased the C-Max for 2 years, and it was fine for what it was (mini CUV-ish car that could haul 5), but I found that the electric range was simply lacking. The fact that EV performance did not match its ICE performance was another downside. Plus it wasn鈥檛 exactly a looker, though exterior design is not that high on my priority list鈥?just can鈥檛 be Prius or Leaf ugly. Too many times I found myself babying the C-Max so that I didn鈥檛 burn any gas on my 17 mile commute鈥specially in the winter. That is simply no fun!
I ended up deciding to just turn in the C-Max and walk away. My driveway during simpler times. 1 year gap to the Bolt for the least amount of money possible? 2,500 rebate being offered by GM. 12/month after all incentives! I decided that I could suck up driving a Cruze until the Bolt landed. 85/month (the higher payment is due to Maryland charging FULL sales tax on a lease, and not just the monthly payment like most other states. I almost ended up walking out on the deal (supposedly they made a "math error"), but eventually signed it. 54/month, so that tells you how ridiculous a deal it was. So I had my cheap bridge to the Bolt parked in my driveway, so how did I end up leasing ANOTHER 4 cars, you ask? You can sell leased cars鈥?and sell them for a profit? No way, I thought. Cruze!), so I had my Cruze appraised. 3,700 more than I owed on the Cruze, so I said, 鈥淗ell yes, list it!
鈥?Obviously, no one bought the Cruze in the 30 days it was listed (the company that rhymes with Creepy offered me waaaaaay too much for my Cruze. 3,700 check, and that was the end of my short-lived Cruze lease. I barely put 200 miles on it all said and told. Bye-bye Cruze, I barely knew you. Of course, selling the Cruze would leave me with only 1 car, and I still needed 2, so what did I do? Lease another dirt cheap Cruze, of course! 700 Costco card which explains the difference. 2, I found out that GM had slashed the price of a Spark EV lease to its lowest ever price point! 500 Bosch L2 charging unit with a Spark EV purchase/lease. 150 a month for 36 months. 2 for more 鈥渞hymes with Creepy鈥?profit in order to get rid of that lease. However, that did not go according to plan.
Welcome to the family, Green Machine. Though it was more like a short-term guest. 2 for. Uhoh, now I was stuck with 3 cars in the driveway when I only needed 2. What鈥檚 a guy to do? I contacted the dealer I leased the Spark EV from, and asked what they could give me for my Cruze. 1,600 in the hole. Not too good. I then asked about trading in the Cruze and leasing a 2017 Volt LT. 800 in the hole. 2,300 check in the mail from MD soon. I still had 3 cars in the driveway! The Spark EV had almost 2,000 miles on it by now, so I hatched this new plan of trying to trade it in for ANOTHER Spark EV, since that was the cheapest car I could lease. 500 Bosch L2 unit in addition to any new deal. So I again asked the same dealer about swapping my Lime Green Spark EV for a Salsa Red one.
He must have thought I was crazy, but helped me anyways since I was giving the guy a steady stream of purchases to pad his sales count. 800 negative equity rolled in!). 1. I had officially gone mad flipping cars! Adios Green Machine, hello Red Bandit! 500 Bosch L2 EVSE), I ended up listing that Spark on EBay. I was hoping to break even on the transaction so that I could reduce my driveway to just 2 cars. 15,400, and a few hours before the auction expired, a person in Florida bid and won the auction! 15,250, I had basically broken even on the sale of the Spark EV. 2 was on its way to its new owner in Florida. I was back down to a 2012 Volt and 2017 Volt in the driveway. The Red Bandit heads out the revolving door of cars that is my driveway. So that brings me to today, where I am on the verge of having my Bolt EV delivered to me. But what about when the Bolt arrives, you ask? I鈥檒l once again have 3 cars in the driveway! I am in the process of finding a person in MD to take over my 2017 Volt lease, and it should be out of my hands by late January. Once my 鈥?7 Volt is transferred, that should bring an end to the lease flipping chapter of my life.
