I moved from Europe back to the US Midwest this spring. While I'm still getting my financial situation stabilized, I will at some point in the next year or so need to buy my own car (currently I am living with my parents and borrowing their cars as needed). Given the state of the world and gas prices, an electric car seems like a no-brainer to me. Less maintenance and with current gas prices I'd save money even if I could only charge at the stations in my neighborhood, much less if I install something simple at home. I'm an anxious driver and have incredibly little desire to drive long distances, so range is also not super important to me.

The problem I've found is that I'm not a "car person" and I'm not sure how to find and pick the right car for me. I figure we've got some car people here on Tildes who will have a better idea of the market and manufacturers involved.

My parameters:

• No Tesla. This is non-negotiable. I will buy an ICE vehicle before I get a Tesla.
• Nothing super luxury. I'm not made of money. I know there aren't any really cheap electric cars available that I'd dream of here in the States yet, but I want to stay as affordable as possible.
• I do not want anything bigger than a sedan. SUVs and crossovers make me nervous and I want to drive a small car.
  • A hatchback would actually be my preferred form factor, but I don't think there's many options of that size. The only one I've found upon searching is the Fiat 500e, which appeals to me for that reason.
  • ICE cars who appeal to me in terms of size and design include the MINI Cooper 2-door, the Volkswagen beetle, and the Kia soul.
• I'm not wed to getting a new car, but as an anxious driver (thus wanting a lot of the fancy modern safety features and alerts) and someone who isn't super knowledgeable about cars (thus not wanting to rely on my own ability to spot a dud before buying it), I'm leaning towards it. I'll take suggestions for used cars to look for, but keep in mind that since I'm in the Midwest, there may be a smaller pool of used EVs available for me to buy locally.

Specifically the 1st generation Leaf. I'm curious if this is a viable used car option. I know Nissan discontinued the platform and I heard rumblings that there wasnt much support / repair parts available from Nissan. Is this true? If it is true, is it a car that can be repaired easily yourself? Is there a community for 3rd party parts and new batteries?

Very sorry of this is in the wrong group (or if it doesn't fit on Tildes), feel free to move or remove it if needed!

Anyway, I'm planning to import a kei truck to the US. I think I've got an idea of most of what I need to do. I found Mitsui Co. Ltd. and they seem to have decent review and people say they're helpful, and I've read a bit about finding a customs broker to handle that part of things for me, but the thing I'm specifically wondering about is... what's the process of actually picking up the vehicle? I'd likely import to the Port of Galveston, and it looks like I either need a TWIC card or a TWIC escort. I wouldn't mind getting a TWIC card, but would my girlfriend need one too if she was going to drive me? Would she be able to just drop me off and I like... walk in? If she doesn't get one but I do? Otherwise, if we just go with an escort, does anyone know how much that sort of thing costs? Do I have to pre-plan it or can I just show up on the Port with all the paperwork and stuff I need and they'll have escorts ready that I can pay for?

I won't be surprised if this is moved to ~misc or something, I thought transport might be most appropriate since it's about EV's, but I'm probably wrong.

I made the jump to an EV this week (Ioniq 5), and for the first time, I'm charging away from home. My work has free level 2 chargers (via ChargePoint), but I can't for the life of me activate the charger by tapping my phone to the terminal, I have to activate it through the app.

When I tap my phone (Pixel 9 Pro), it seems to act like I'm tapping a credit card, I get an error screen:

Card rejected error
Card not supported

The only things I can find online are in response to iOS people who apparently have to add a virtual ChargePoint card to their wallet, but from what I've read, this isn't necessary on Android since the ChargePoint app can interface directly with the phone's NFC capabilities.

I'd appreciate any tips on where I may be going wrong.

Moments in your travels that took place during layovers, while waiting for your flights, checking in your baggage, etc.

The stories can be funny, sad, unexpected, interesting, etc.

Tell us what happened and what made it so memorable.

Ok so this is our wheelchair van, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to take it to the shop but I am hoping for an idea of what is going on.

We have a 2014 Dodge Grand Caravan with less than 45k miles that's been fully modified for wheelchair use. (This shouldn't impact much but it does mean the electric is a bit more complex). It has separate front and rear controls and separate driver passenger front controls for the HVAC. The rear works fine, but the front passenger stopped switching off of the heat maybe a year ago. I forgot about it because we don't drive the car often and since we don't have a front passenger seat in the vehicle, no one is right in front of those vents. The driver side and rear kept working fine.

In the past month, the front vents no longer have any air movement with the very small exception that occasionally when I switch the AC on there's a bit of a very short, light cold breeze. Even more rarely sometimes at highway speeds this breeze will continue longer.

No setting change this afaict, there's no defrost, no switching to a different temp or set of vents that makes the blower work.

I did check the fuses under the hood and they look fine, I haven't gone behind the glove box, in part because I suspect this is going to be out of my skill set.

Suggestions for what could be the cause? Again I know I'll need to get it to a mechanic just hoping to have knowledge going in.

So we had baseball-sized hail suddenly come through my city a few days ago, and everyone at my work got to watch our cars get destroyed from the front windows. I opened a claim immediately after the hail stopped and could go take pictures, but still haven't heard anything other than that an agent was assigned.

City-wide, body shops are already talking about having a year-long backlog and having to triage repairs that don't affect immediate drivability. I've heard people talk about them being totaled already. Rental cars are hard to come by, because they not only have huge demand but had damage as well. The county is petitioning FEMA, because houses were damaged as well.

I'm just in a depressive waiting state, where I don't know how things will start to play out yet, with my undrivable car sitting at the office with trash bags taped over it while I work from home. And my old backup car (almost 20 years old), which was slated for one of the stepdaughters to receive once she gets her license, also had extensive damage making it unsafe to drive. My fiancée's car survived, being on the other side of town at the time, but she has a very busy schedule to the next few weeks.

I had the realization that every car I've ever bought myself was just destroyed, and I get fairly attached.

The Civic Sport Touring (2017), I still owe about $4000 on and expected to pay off this year. It's thoroughly dented across the whole body, with a completely shattered (to the point it's opaque) windshield, broken mirror assemblies, 2/3 cameras are probably broken, a tail light is broken down to the LED board, and the moonroof assembly appears to be bent and sagging slightly, probably from the roof and side parts being bashed so heavily. Not sure how much water got in during the ensuing torrential downpour.

Realistically, it being to totaled seems likely, given the cost of many of the parts. Which means I'm going to be stuck buying new, because used ones are a relative rarity (I jumped to buy mine when it showed up in stock) and there's barely a price difference these days.

I'm curious if anyone else here has had experiences with that sort of thing or knows what to expect.