So I love my leases and hunting lease deals but unfortunately my commute doesn’t really work for leasing. I do about 20,000 miles yearly so I can supplement things with a fun, cheap lease but I need a reliable, financed, preferably cheap EV I can put miles on and take advantage of free charging at work. For the past two years my Bolt EV LT was the perfect answer to that but with the EV credit sunsetting I figured that it might be a good decision to get something a little bigger, more comfortable and better equipped, yet still relatively cheap. Enter the Chevrolet Equinox EV. Surprisingly these low optioned cheapo units are kinda hard to find at the moment, as well as get discounts on but overall I think I did ok on it. I was paying $255 a month on my Bolt and I was looking to be at that payment for the Equinox in order to justify the upgrade. Ended up at $271.52 a month with $275 at signing for 72 months at 0.9% APR, just trade equity being the only other cash down ($3,652). Car is a nicely equipped stripper model with all weather mats, charge cord and the Tesla NACS adapter, which was a pleasant surprise. All in all I’m pretty happy with it, it’s nothing earth shattering but it’s a nice looking car with better safety features that I can pass down to my son in a few years with a lot fewer miles on it than the Bolt would have had.
MSRP: $35,940
Sales Price: $31,374 before taxes or rebates
Rebates: $7,500 EV Credit (RIP), $1,500 Charge Up NJ, $1,000 Lease Loyalty, $1,250 Costco Executive, $850 Supplier
Trade in: 2023 Bolt EV LT with ~31,500 Miles on it. $15,000 offer, $11,348 Payoff so $3,652.00 in equity applied as down payment
NJ Tire Fee: $7.50
NJ Sales Tax: $1,165.60 @ 6.625%
NJ EV 4 year Registration: $1,451.50
Doc Fee: $1,295.00 ( I was really surprised at this but I was also surprised at almost 13% off a car that just hit the lot that is currently selling almost as soon as they get them so I just let it go. These are hard to find and there was a guy literally trying to test drive it as I was taking delivery lmao)
Calculator isn’t exact, not totally sure what the discrepancy is but it’s close. Hopefully this is helpful to anyone who might want to purchase one of these if they can’t or don’t want to lease, or maybe when it comes to discount possibilities on the cheapo trims.
