Best Of

Apparently, Nissan will extend leases a maximum of three months unless you have a new Nissan on order, so I could theoretically keep the Ariya until mid-March, 2026 instead of returning it this December. I'm assuming that I'd also get dinged for property tax in 2026 (if you "own" the vehicle at the beginning of the year, you owe tax for the full year), so that cancels out the benefit of getting three more months on a cheap lease.

Here's the thing, though. Assuming you always have the same number of cars, you'll always "own" one on January 1st. So, it's a wash. If it's an extra car you aren't replacing, that's another story.

Once, I turned in a leased Accord on December 30th, and we didn't pickup the new lease (also an Accord) until January 3rd. Skated on the personal property tax for a whole year.

I finally brought in the fuel log from the Sportage and uploaded it to my spreadsheet.

In the almost 9 months she's had the car, my stepdaughter is averaging about 30.5 MPG - far less than the EPA estimates. I suspect this is because a majority of her driving is done on the highway, which lessens the impact of the hybrid drivetrain.

And also - according to my wife, who rides shotgun with her - she has a lead foot. I've put every tank of gas into the car so far, and on the short drive home, I can get the in-car MPG meter to get up to 33-34 MPG, using EV mode exclusively in our housing development. Somehow, I suspect my stepdaughter isn't feathering the gas enough to enable EV mode a whole lot when not on the highway.

I'm putting 91 octane into it, and the most I've spent per gallon is $3.82, the least $2.94. A tank lasts approximately 3 weeks, so far, and she'll put just over 6000 miles on it in the first year.

I've been tracking the mileage of the Outback since I became the primary driver towards the end of 2019, and we're getting about 21 MPG since then. The worst tank was just under 18MPG; the best, a touch over 24.

Have a great weekend, everyone!