What would GRM do? What car to buy?

Need help with deciding what to get, please.

I have a great 2016 Mazda6 four-door FWD stick-shift w 60K miles. Fine car, no longer meets my needs. Drive ~5K local and ~3K road trip miles annually.

I want a mid-size SUV with AWD for camping, carrying two bikes, some dirt roads (no actual off-roading), auto trans (not CVT), 250+hp, good comfort, and, most important - great headlights and driving aids. Asian, no Euro, and bright color (no grays). Something I can sleep in with a mattress/platform.

My original plan was a nice gas SUV for 3-5 years before getting a then-current EV. Reality complicates things.

A loaded Kia Sorrento or Rav4 is fifty grand - shocking, but real. $12K in Federal and Colorado Tax Credits make a Tesla Model Y Long Range just ~$42K. (Kia EV6 and Hyundai Ioniq5 get manufacturer discounts, not tax credits, but same price.)

If a state of the art cool EV is $42K, it's tough to spend 20% more, especially on an appliance SUV. But EV technology and infrastructure will be 3x better in a few years. Will a current EV be a no-value dinosaur in four years?

So, what to do:
1. Get the EV I like best. (Haven't decided which.)
2. Get the $50K 2024 fancy gas SUV and hope it doesn't depreciate too much before selling it in 3-5 years for a current EV.
3. Get a 2020ish high-trim gas SUV with lots of driver aids, hopefully ~$25K, and upgrade to the EV sooner, maybe 1-4 years.

And leasing is a ripoff, right?

(Hybrids seem a complex and expensive way to save a gallon of gas per day, but I'm open to suggestions.)

Kinda odd to talk here about a car where I'll hopefully never open the hood, but there's a whole lot of wisdom here on a whole lot of topics. Thanks for sharing your thoughts...

It would all come down to available EV charging infrastructure for me. Can you charge an EV where you live? And would there be any EV charging infrastructure close enough to your travel/camping destinations?

If you do decide to pursue an EV, recent price drops for new models have also reduced the value of used models. So you may not have to fork over $40-50k if you're willing to consider a used EV. And the right used EV can still be eligible for a $4k federal tax credit.

The Honda Passport (not the Pilot) comes to mind if you want a big 2 row vehicle with lots of storage capacity. Its AWD system is better off road than most cause it has torque vectoring and it also can tow 5000 lbs. Also fits your horsepower requirement and should be reliable.

Do the math. Take your average gas price in your area from GasBuddy from the last year and extrapolate it out a few years. Add fuel costs for your mileage and realistic fuel economy, taxes insurance, obvious maintenance and repairs, and plan on a realist ownership period. Then use an EV, use the efficiency rated from owners and the cost per kWh in your area from your electric bill, taxes insurance, and obvious maintenance and repairs.

Mine was obvious, but I drive a lot. My used Bolt was worth way more than $4K more than a used Mazda 3 hatch in long term expenses. if you compare ages, a new car will last X years longer than a used car by the number of years the used one has already lived.

If it's for fun, well buy what you like. If it's for commuting, think like an accountant.

#3 is what I would do in your situation 

The only way you're getting a $50k Sorento is top level with literally every option. All the driver assist features you want are available from the EX trim on up, and that starts at $37k, $39k if you have to have the panoramic sunroof. 

Recently road-tripped in a friends loaded Sorento hybrid. Driving aids are fantastic, comfy and nice to drive. Not a lot of suspension travel (at least coming from my Subaru). Eh passing power. Eh fuel economy. It's big inside. 
 

Friends also have a new Cayenne base. They generally prefer the Kia. I wouldn't call them driving enthusiasts though. 
 

but $50k is a lot. My boss is a huge Tesla fan and loves his model Y. I generally don't like the way Teslas ride but in terms of dollars that's probably a better move. 

#1, and a Kia EV6 is a good idea (do watch out for remote data logging in the factory systems though). It will depreciate harder than the others, but it won't be a no-value dinosaur in 4 years, it will be a pretty fresh EV and if Toyota's most optimistic predictions are correct, next-gen battery tech would've been on the market for 2 years at most. Remember that better EVs could make old ICE vehicles take just as much of a depreciation hit as older EVs would.

Look up leasehackerz and see what the deals are for CO. I know you said Asian so Acura has deals.. but German EV suv discounts are BIG right now -- and that is before federal tax incentives (bigger in CO).

Combined they can make leasing for a couple years quite cheap compared with financing. If you like a nice new car and you know it's gonna crater in value.. might as well lease. 

We bought a 2022 Hyundai Tucson Hybrid for $30k. 21k miles, hybrid, and the top trim (limited). You can find Kia's in red for the same price etc. most Hyundais are gray, and it took about 2 months to find a Hyundai with a black interior.

Gas mileage is about 37-42 in the city stop and go, and cruising at 80 it's around 30mpg. At 55 im sure you can get the 36mpg advertised. It has great acceleration and most important it doesn't have any auto stop so the ac stays running at red lights. Has great driver aids, and that's from someone who thought I didn't want any.

Lease/finance/cash is all up to your needs, but think of a lease as a long-term rental.  You're paying for more than the expected depreciation of the car over the term of the lease.  They'll give you an end-of-term buyout price at the start which is a total guess.  No one knows what that car will be worth when you're done with your lease, so it might be a fair price, or it could be wildly inflated.  You're also stuck with mileage limits, you can't modify the car, and when you take it back, you'll be charged for condition - dents, stains on the seats, etc.

Finance can be a better deal, but I really don't like the idea of paying interest on a vehicle.  There is almost never a scenario in which you'll end up ahead of the game.  Where financing really wins is if you have a nest egg somewhere that is accruing interest at a rate higher than your interest rate on the vehicle.  In that case, it makes sense to not bust into the nest egg to buy the car outright.  But if you're financing simply because you don't have enough money to pay cash (which is not a judgement in any way), it's nearly always a big loser.  In fact, it's one of the big reasons I got into auto repair in the first place.  I didn't want to finance my first car just because I was broke, so I bought a 66 Bonneville for $300 and put about $400 into making it a driver.

Paying cash is sometimes a winner because the depreciation is often less of a hit than interest on a loan, but that curve usually works in your favor the older the car gets.  That's why I have a 94, a 97, and an 06.  The chances of them losing their value is pretty slim because they're already at rock bottom.  I understand that's not what you want, but I think one of the worst scenarios (financially) is buying new.  You're buying something that could be a wonderful bet, or could be an absolute lemon.  Waiting 3-4 years for someone else to be the guinnea pig will let the intarwebs fill up with the real scoop.  Just think if you were one of the poor saps who bought a new Ram with the 3.0L diesel only to have a broken rod add a block ventilation hole just outside of warranty, or if you bought a new first-gen New Beetle in the 90s only to find out that your AC will never work right and the dashboard was going to disintegrate into a sticky paste in three months.

Just my opinion, but I always buy used for that reason.  But as far as finance/lease/cash, that is a very individual choice and can be variable based on your specific needs and uses.

In reply to OHSCrifle :

I have never leased a car but that hackr site has some good deals in the overall world of new car spending. Some of those EV rates are tempting and surprisingly less than the gas counterparts. 

What does the bike hauling look like in your imagination? Price wise the EV options look good but they have considerably less cargo space than the ICE options, and in the case of the tesla it's in a shape that's much less useful for hauling large items.