While we were fortunate to come away from Hurricane Helene unscathed as far as our house is concerned, one of our vehicles was a casualty. Ken’s 2014 Mercedes CLA suffered damage from a fallen tree limb. After our return from Ken’s birthday weeken in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, he had a State Farm adjuster examine the car and it was declared a total loss. Ken had been toying with the idea of purchasing a new car but was hesitant because it would mean another financial obligation. Helene forced his hand, however, and he purchased a 2024 Hyundai Ioniq 5 which he had been eyeing for a few months. https://www.hyundaiusa.com/us/en/inventory-search/vehicles-list?model=Ioniq%205&year=2024 The car is beautiful! He is leasing the Limited edition and it is packed full of features. It got me to thinking…should I take a serious look at getting a new car? My 2021 Toyota Camry with 76,000 miles has a Kelly Blue Book value of between $22,000 – $25,000. My payoff was $14,900. I started crunching the numbers and concluded that it might be a good time for me to get into something new as well! I looked at the Toyota Crown which is a striking hybrid vehicle, but the Car and Driver rating was 7/10. I’ve learned from experience that Car and Driver is the definitive source for car reviews so I kept looking. To my surprise, I took a look at the Hyundai Ioniq 6 which is an EV Coupe and I found it to be very attractive! https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a44268444/2023-hyundai-ioniq-6-ev-of-the-year/Additionally, car and driver had declared it EV of the year in 2023 (the Ioniq 5 was the previous winner). When I started crunching the numbers for the Limited version, it was clear I could lease an Ioniq 6 with a lower monthly payment than my Camry. After giving it some thought for the weekend, I decided to pull the trigger. As a preemptive measure, I took my Camry to Carmax for an appraisal. They valued it at $20,000 which was somewhat disappointing but still advantageous from an equity standpoint. I contacted Ken’s salesperson at the Hyundai dealership and let her know I wanted to take a look at the Ioniq 6. Ken went with me when I went to the dealership and the salesperson presented her sales manager’s numbers. Thankfully, my husband Ken is an excellent negotiator. He challenged the numbers because his vehicle was priced higher and with the amount he put down on a 3 year lease his monthly payment was lower. The sales manager explained that the mark-up percentage for the two vehicles were different which accounted for the variance. He was willing to tinker with the numbers and managed to get my monthly on a 3-year lease down to $395/mo. My Camry monthly was $535! That plus the fact that I would no longer be purchasing gasoline made this a win all the way around! After getting everything finalized I opted to add $5,000 worth of excessive wear coverage which brought my payment to $411. I love the car and its roominess. It’s also very quiet! The car has so many features that it feels like you need to take classes to learn what it’s capable of! Fortunately, the app and YouTube features plenty of informative videos. When we built our house, we at the foresight to add an outlet in the garage with the proper voltage for an EV charger. We never imagined we’d both go that route!