Woops — Gasmobile Buyer’s Remorse Not Fun

Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!

A sure sign of a superior technology—realizing that you screwed up when you went and bought its competitor. Not many electric car buyers go back, but for the ones that do, well, buyer’s remorse is waiting for them. After switching to an Apple computer, I can’t imagine ever going back to one of its “competitors.” At least, not as long as I spend all day working online. Similarly, after driving several electric cars, I can’t imagine ever owning a gasmobile again. That would be so depressing, unsatisfying, and bothersome! I think many of you know what I’m talking about, but maybe not as much as the guy in this story below. Via Planetsave:

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—electric cars are much nicer to drive, and they’re also much more convenient (despite common misperceptions. Imagine never having to go to a gas station again. Imagine charging your car while you sit on the couch and chill out, while you sleep, or while you work. Not many electric car drivers switch back to gasmobiles after going electric. In fact, many of them find themselves preferring their electric car so much (even more than much more expensive & “luxurious” gasmobiles) that they end up getting a second electric car and ditching gasmobiles altogether.

However, sometimes drivers do go back. The result? Buyer’s remorse. Here’s a recent comment about this on the GM-Volt.com forum:

Was charging my Volt at a Chevy dealership and was talking to a senior salesman. Apparently he had a Volt for a few years and traded it in for CTS in recent months, he missed the Volt the first time he went to the gas station… 

I asked him if he wanted to go Cadillac why not the ELR? He said it was not yet out and did not anticipate the unpleasantness of going back to gas. He had serious buyers remorse… He wished he waited for the ELR…

Once you go electric, driving a ICE car is like driving a stream engine — dirty and expensive to run and maintain.

Reminds me of ‘Anthony’s Song’ by Billy Joel — “oh he’s trading in his Chevy for a Cadillac-ac-ac”

Yep, electric cars are superior. Once you’ve had your “iPad moment” and gone electric, you really won’t be happy if you go back. But don’t let that stop you from jumping into the future!

See more electric car commercials and reviews: 28 Electrified Vehicles, 47 Electrified Vehicle Videos (Commercials, Reviews, Etc.)


Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.

CleanTechnica Holiday Wish Book

Holiday Wish Book Cover

Click to download.


Our Latest EVObsession Video


I don't like paywalls. You don't like paywalls. Who likes paywalls? Here at CleanTechnica, we implemented a limited paywall for a while, but it always felt wrong — and it was always tough to decide what we should put behind there. In theory, your most exclusive and best content goes behind a paywall. But then fewer people read it!! So, we've decided to completely nix paywalls here at CleanTechnica. But...
 
Like other media companies, we need reader support! If you support us, please chip in a bit monthly to help our team write, edit, and publish 15 cleantech stories a day!
 
Thank you!

Advertisement
 
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.

Zachary Shahan

Zach is tryin' to help society help itself one word at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director, chief editor, and CEO. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, and Curaçao. Zach has long-term investments in Tesla [TSLA], NIO [NIO], Xpeng [XPEV], Ford [F], ChargePoint [CHPT], Amazon [AMZN], Piedmont Lithium [PLL], Lithium Americas [LAC], Albemarle Corporation [ALB], Nouveau Monde Graphite [NMGRF], Talon Metals [TLOFF], Arclight Clean Transition Corp [ACTC], and Starbucks [SBUX]. But he does not offer (explicitly or implicitly) investment advice of any sort.

Zachary Shahan has 7130 posts and counting. See all posts by Zachary Shahan

10 thoughts on “Woops — Gasmobile Buyer’s Remorse Not Fun

  • This is article makes a statement based on only ONE datapoint. That is not considered a good way to do research.

      • Clearly this is all your fault for not making it clear that this was not intended to be an in-depth statistical analysis of buyers’ attitudes.

        Heh, just kidding.

  • Apple products are poorly engineered, overpriced crap. Don’t sully the good name of electric cars with such a comparison.

    • Man, I will never switch back. That’s what I thought for many years. Now that I’ve switched, I can’t believe it took me so long. But guess it depends on how you use them.

    • LOL. yeah, my Mac Book Pro is engineered exceptionally well, unlike the cheapo cloner windows garbage. No comparison. Please do price out a Windows machine with the same specs as a MacBook…you will be very suprised. Sure you can buy a crap cheapo low spec windows machine for a couple hundred bucks, but it will be no where near the specs of a MacBook.

      Then you have the OS…OSX is light years ahead of the absurdly overpriced Windows. It is extremely painful to use Windows after using OSX.

      • Extremely painful. Makes me cringe. And not because of some sort of “self-imagine” thing, purely usability.

      • I’ve on purpose done precisely that in order to prove to my friends that Apple products are somewhat overpriced for what you get.
        I’ve used Apple products and they are nice. But you can get essentially the same thing or better for the same or less money. Non-Apple products tend to be more customizable, upgradeable, and aesthetically, some of them look better too (Black).

        If you’re willing to put up with heavier weight and shorter battery life (which I am), you can get some incredibly capable gaming laptops for less than Ultrabooks like the Macbook Pro or the Asus Zenbook.

        As far as Mac OSX and Windows 8, I do prefer the Mac because of the simplistic layout, but Windows 8 is also fast and gets the job done.

  • The above videos are good especially the last one about the kid sneaking out his dad’s BMW i3 because it’s quiet. I’m all for EVs but they are all fugly. The Nissan Leaf is the worst. It looks like a modern Pacer. Nissan’s cars are all bad looking, though. Their trucks are bearable. The Tesla Model S is OK bit it looks too much like a Jaguar. My next car will be an EV. I hope by then there are more choices with better designs.

    -Cheers.

    • What’s wrong with looking like some of the most beautiful cars ever built? If you’re going to be inspired by a design, look at the best. The Model S is classically gorgeous, just like the Jags. We don’t want different for different’s sake because different is almost always perceived as ugly

Comments are closed.