Electric car e-Golf fever in Nor Cal

[JoulesThief]

I heard through the grapevine that Dirito Bros sold their last 3 e-golfs today... a Friday. Nothing left to sell for the weekend. Business is good, maybe folks are getting decent tax refunds?

6 months in with my e-Golf, still like it for what it does well, very very much. Perhaps by 2019, if VW comes out with a 200 mile range e-Passat, I can consider one again. Or just drive the wheels off of this one at 8000 miles a year.

 

[miimura]

Inventory is very thin. Cars.com only shows 20 e-Golf within 200 miles of San Francisco and 123 nationwide. If there will be 2017's with 30% more range this Summer, then VW USA is being smart not importing too many of the 2016's.

 

[JoulesThief]

Inventory is very thin. Cars.com only shows 20 e-Golf within 200 miles of San Francisco and 123 nationwide. If there will be 2017's with 30% more range this Summer, then VW USA is being smart not importing too many of the 2016's.

Even at Capitol and some of the other VW dealerships around San Jose?

 

[miimura]

Inventory is very thin. Cars.com only shows 20 e-Golf within 200 miles of San Francisco and 123 nationwide. If there will be 2017's with 30% more range this Summer, then VW USA is being smart not importing too many of the 2016's.

Even at Capitol and some of the other VW dealerships around San Jose?

Yes, Sunnyvale and Capitol, probably the highest volume e-Golf dealers, each showed two when I posted above.

 

[JoulesThief]

VW of Downtown L.A. and another dealership had 2 e-golfs in stock, most of the rest have only 1, or 0 in stock. Dealerships are really holding low inventories since VW did Dieselgate.

 

[RonDawg]

If you're using VW's site, be careful when it tells you there are "x" number available in your area. If you look closely, you'll find that number includes cars "in transit." That could mean anything from on the truck on its way to the dealership, to being on a ship out in the middle of the Atlantic.

 

[johnnylingo]

Sunnyvale definitely has the best inventory right now. Checked this morning and this is what I got:

2016 SEs: 1 in Stevens Creek, 1 in Sunnyvale, 1 in Hayward
2016 SEs w/ Fast Charger: 3 in Sunnyvale, 1 at Capitol, 1 in Hayward, 1 in Newark
2016 SELs: 2 in Sunnyvale
2015 LEs: 2 in Santa Cruz
2015 SELs: None

Surprised to see the most common colors on the 2016 inventory were Grey and Blue. Perhaps VW is finally matching supply with demand.

 

[JoulesThief]

Sunnyvale definitely has the best inventory right now. Checked this morning and this is what I got:

2016 SEs: 1 in Stevens Creek, 1 in Sunnyvale, 1 in Hayward
2016 SEs w/ Fast Charger: 3 in Sunnyvale, 1 at Capitol, 1 in Hayward, 1 in Newark
2016 SELs: 2 in Sunnyvale
2015 LEs: 2 in Santa Cruz
2015 SELs: None

Surprised to see the most common colors on the 2016 inventory were Grey and Blue. Perhaps VW is finally matching supply with demand.

Still no e-Golf for you?

 

[johnnylingo]

Still no e-Golf for you?

Not unless I can find a 6-18 month lease takeover. The shortest I've found so far has been 20 months.

 

[forbin404]

Still no e-Golf for you?

Not unless I can find a 6-18 month lease takeover. The shortest I've found so far has been 20 months.

If you are in CA, you won't.

Because if you sell the car early you need to return all the rebates.

 

[miimura]

Still no e-Golf for you?

Not unless I can find a 6-18 month lease takeover. The shortest I've found so far has been 20 months.

If you are in CA, you won't.

Because if you sell the car early you need to return all the rebates.

...prorated over 30 months for the time that you actually kept the car.

 

[RonDawg]

I wonder if the reason johnny can't find a "6-18 month" lease takeover on the eGolf is the fact that the eGolf was only released in November 2014 as a 2015 model. It seems like all of the lease deals I've seen are for 36 month leases, so someone who got theirs on Day One would still have 19 months left on such a lease. Combine that with the relatively low sales numbers (particularly at the beginning) and you can see why it's hard to find any lease takeovers. A quick check of Swap-a-Lease showed only one in the entire country, and that one is "swap pending."

 

[miimura]

Yes, I can understand the lack of lease takeovers but there are very low mile used cars available. I have to imagine that a 2016 SE with only 1,800 miles must have been leased by someone who didn't know what they were getting into and they were caught with an empty battery one too many times. There are quite a few low mileage e-Golfs available for $18,00 - $24,000 in Northern California.

 

[johnnylingo]

The rebates make buying used so complicated and sketchy, I'm avoiding it entirely. Just look at this absurdity:

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/pen/ctd/5534724823.html

someone who didn't know what they were getting into

That's the occams' razor theory. The alternate theory suggests they bought in December when pricing was favorable, took the $7500 credit and perhaps $2500 state rebate, then dumped it on an unsuspecting Hyundai dealer who didn't understand how EV rebates work. Or, perhaps said dealer did pay a fair price but is now hoping for an uninformed and/or desperate buyer.