[ghaff]

>I absolutely did not consider minivans or SUVs, and for one really big reason

Minivans and SUVs are also handy if you do outdoor activities involving a lot of gear--including boats, etc. that go on the roof. A number of paddling friends I know actually consider minivans more practical than SUVs for this purpose.

Of course, said activities also often involve going to places where electric cars aren't practical--even if they didn't have gull-wing doors that preclude roofracks.

That said, I also have a small second vehicle. But then I paid $18K for it in 1998 or so and it's still going strong at 170K miles. (Honda Del Sol.)

[Grishnakh]

Putting a boat on the roof of a vehicle is dumb: it really kills your fuel efficiency. You can get a small trailer to put the boat on instead, and then you can get a small car with a trailer hitch to pull it (if the boat is light enough to put on the roof of a minivan, it's probably a kayak and weighs very little), which means you don't need a big, ugly, gas-guzzling minivan or SUV at all. Any small car can pull a 500-pound utility trailer.

[ghaff]

To each his own. I do know people who use trailers for sea kayaks and it can be quite a pain getting into tight quarters. So putting boats on the roof may be dumb but it's what 98% of the people I know with boats do.

[FireBeyond]

Let's face it - most _garages_ these day preclude gull wing doors.