After 16 quite happy and reliable years with a Subaru, it got to the stage where I decided I had to get something newer before something broke leaving me stranded and with a big repair bill.
I went for an Outlander PHEV, which would do my 30 mile daily commute on electric for about £1 on economy 7, but would still be able to do long distance day trips with the other half, our 3 teenagers and luggage, as well as doing my job, of doing occasional long distance journeys to deliver and install a load of computer and network equipment to the other end of the country.
When I worked out how much cheaper it was running an EV, we sold our ageing Honda Civic that the other half used, and replaced it with a Kia Soul EV, which she loves driving, and I love how cheap it is to run.
Then I had a funny moment in the Tesla shop on the last day of the 1% finance deal, so the Outlander has now gone, and I have a Model X. The monthly HP payments are a bit painful, but the running costs (so far) have been only very slightly more than bugger all.
One of the reasons that I bought a Tesla is because of the 8 year/unlimited mileage warranty on the battery, drive motors and associated electronics in the power train that make the car go. At the time of purchase, I thought 5 miles/50,000 miles warranty on “everything else” sounded quite good as well. Now that I’m at 16 months and 33,000 miles, I do think it would have been nice if it was more than 50,000 miles. But from what I’ve seen online of others with the odd broken seat at 100,000 miles, or the odd door handle that has been replaced when cars are out of warranty, it doesn’t concern me yet.
From your history, I guess you lease cars for a year or two, then hand them back? So you pay a monthly fee and anything else is the maker or leasing company problem. I am “old fashioned” and prefer the idea of “ownership” so I guess the warranty should matter more to me. My current “plan” is to keep the car until it is about 7 years old because that will be my 60th birthday, at which point, I might want to downsize to something smaller and more sensilble, like a Tesla Model Y?
I have had a go in a BMW i3, I thought it was quite nice, but from what I’ve seen online, I don’t think I would want to own one that is out of warranty.