Looks like the fires from last week are blowing in our direction.
Took the dogs out and it's a bit gritty in the eyes and throat though air quality sensors seemed to show ok readings. Be careful if you're sensitive to air quality while out and about.
Wanted to share our once in a decade car buying experience with you all and just so if anyone else is in the market in the area that they can do some comparison shopping without having to give out their information.
Background: we're a 2 person household who buys cars and holds them for as long as it makes sense. Last car we purchased was a 2014 Ford Focus hatch and we're looking to see what was available in the EV market to upgrade to. Our home produces excess solar so we knew we wanted an EV. I couldn't find a decently supported conversion platform so sadly it was time to say goodbye to my hatch + my partner doesn't drive stick so in case of an emergency, blah, blah, insert another excuse reason for us to get a new car.
Experience: we were dreading having to give our information and dealing with the flood so we limited it to the dealerships who were offering the lowest "price" in a 150 mile radius. Most exchanges were text exchanges, some calls. Walked them through the whole scenario: "Mainly taking a look at used but could be compelled to come up for the '27 Bolt if price + financing panned out". Doing some research shows that things are slowing down and inventory is sitting; lots of '27 Bolts in lots (not all the colors are available, and base trims are not as many as the 1k bump models but we're basic peeps and heated seats for a car that is in a garage in socal seems a dubious need for us). ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Sidenote: what is up with the 1 (ONE!!) seat only getting the power option in the 1k package. What about my hustle as a passenger prince? I don't deserve this experience? I am just relegated to a basic, manual slide? Ridiculous!
Cars we considered:
Financing options:
Local Dealerships dealt with (the most basic of the basic models):
Decision: we ended up haggling with Santa Ana to bring down their accessories to $500 since Garden Grove wasn't charging for that. I would prefer to not have to go further unless needed, and if they couldn't do that then we were willing to head a city over for the sale.
We seriously considered Carlsbad at first contact but in the end I don't know what their thinking is trying to get people with a low "price" then surprising them with 4.4k of 'accessories'. They had the most inventory and colors to choose from but at the end of the day, I am not going to deal with you if this is how you're still trying to do things in 2026. They called to beat the 29.7 offer by offering 29.5 OTD but I couldn't exactly trust them or be bothered when I can get extra racket charges "clear coat protection" every 6 months a few miles down.
Ultimately, in the OC, I could recommend Garden Grove and Santa Ana for working with us to get the sale. Santa Ana just lucked out being a bit closer to us & knocking down their ridiculous accessory charges. Carlsbad still baffles me with their shenanigans.
Gripes: I really thought that advertising laws no longer allowed for this bait and switch but it was freaking everywhere. Do we need to put in a ballot measure for everyday citizens to get a portion of the fines imposed so we can stamp this shit out? NYC does this with their idling car laws, wonder if we could do the same here.
Happy to join the fellow Bolt owners club. Looking forward to integrating charging and monitoring of the vehicle into Home Assistant. We will see how much this onstar business is feature or headache.