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OP gets a new username and a used EV (Ford content)

7K views 59 replies 27 participants last post by  Nitroracer17 
#1 ·
Had to go to Indianapolis to get it, but I'm now the owner of this 2013 Ford Focus Electric:




It has 18,000 miles and wow does depreciation hit these cars hard. Got a great deal, with the cost out the door just edging into five figures. The car is wonderful to drive with all the silent torque to go along with great handling found in every Focus. My commute is about 15 miles round trip so I don't need to charge every day or rely on charging outside my house. Love the ambient lighting that can change color too.



I'm going to sell my Jetta soon. I'd grown tired of the poor fuel economy with the 5-cylinder (about 20 mpg), and having to shell out $700 to fix the sagging headliner didn't win it any favors in my book. Still, its in great shape so hopefully somebody else can enjoy it. On a different note, I had a surprisingly good experience with the dealer in Indy, Tom Wood Ford. No games, straightforward negotiation, and the car was as advertised. They also delivered the car to me so I didn't have to spend two days finding charging stations along I-70. :)
 
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#7 ·
:laugh:

wow what a freaking steal. I just did some looking ant $7500 gets you one of these, 3 years old and 1/5 the value of new. I'm thinking this would be perfect for my mom, she drives about 3k miles a YEAR. and doesn't drive more than 15 miles a day LOL.

Congrats OP, I'm half tempted to pick one up for work commute LOL.
I can specifically blame Tom Mutchler from Consumer Reports for this. He mentioned in a recent podcast how massive depreciation is for non-Tesla EVs. They make so much economic sense now that Ford Credit took the huge depreciation hit (it was a lease).
 
#4 ·
#6 ·
wow what a freaking steal. I just did some looking ant $7500 gets you one of these, 3 years old and 1/5 the value of new. I'm thinking this would be perfect for my mom, she drives about 3k miles a YEAR. and doesn't drive more than 15 miles a day LOL.

Congrats OP, I'm half tempted to pick one up for work commute LOL.
 
#20 ·
There are tons of used Leaves around here right now for cheap as well. I've driven one and couldn't see myself enjoying the rather mundane handling even though it is more practical. The other concern I had is battery fade. The Focus EV uses liquid heating/cooling for the packs for better longevity, whereas the Leaf just uses air cooling.

Congrats! Rare birds over here, but I see them from time to time.

Make sure you update the TCL EV registry:

http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?7196653-The-first-TCL-Electric-Vehicle-Registry!
Will do!

Hmmm. Must speak to @nater about lack of turboencabulator avatar.
Indeed; I've been busy automatically synchronizing cardinal grammeters. I need this.

 
#18 ·
Had to go to Indianapolis to get it, but I'm now the owner of this 2013 Ford Focus Electric:

[They also delivered the car to me so I didn't have to spend two days finding charging stations along I-70. :)
I'm glad about the second part. I had to google maps the distance from Indy to Columbus and was going to ask how many days it took you to get home. EV commuting is nice - enjoy.




But man, is that hatch space compromised. Much worse than the Leaf, IMO.
This is the #1 Reason I dropped the Focus EV from my list. While I applaud Ford for making it, it's painfully obvious that this platform wasn't designed with an EV in mind. That's the nice thing about the e-Golf, the car was designed with an EV version in mind. It has a unique floor pan, but all the interior features and cargo space are identical to regular Golfs.

I suspect the SE trim e-Golfs with the slow charger like mine will see similar depreciation when they come off lease in a couple of years.
 
#21 ·
Great purchase! I was actually noticing how affordable these have become in the used market a few months back - Definitely a lot of car for the money.

On a related note, I worked on the team responsible for setting up manufacturing for the drawn reciprocation dingle arm at my employer.... ;)

 
#30 ·
20,771 mile update:

So far this car has been amazing; still enjoy getting in and driving it every day. I had to do the "major" 20,000 mile service, and it set me back a pretty penny. The total came to a whopping $12.17 because I upgraded to the better Denso cabin air filter from RockAuto. It was a pretty easy DIY.



Otherwise, I've been to the dealer a couple of times to get various recall/field service action work done. They made an update to the software and added a new water ingress/corrosion protection shield for the lower battery connector, replaced the embedded modem, and replaced all four door latches. Everything was free, and they gave me a rental. Ford parts deliver was slow though, but I wasn't inconvenienced fortunately.

My nearly new Vredestein winter tires performed well when it was cold in December, but the winter wasn't doing much and tire sales were good. So last week I picked up a set of the Pirelli P7 All Season Plus to replace the mismatched Michelin/Dunlops that were on the car when I bought it. I probably could have kept driving on that old set, but I enjoy getting good tires. Also picked up a set of refurbished rims from the 2012 Focus Titanium. They're similar (if not identical) to what's available on the Fusion Hybrid/Energi and I like the design.

The Pirellis are fantastic; quiet, great handling, and low rolling resistance. I'd highly recommend it for anyone who wants a good daily tire.



Winter range has been as low as 48 miles when it got cold and I was blasting the heat, but now I'm back to the upper 60s. I've seen as high as 76 when the temps were in the 70s. Still don't have a Level 2 charger at home so preconditioning from 120v mostly uses battery. Efficiency has been ~320 wH/mile in the last few months, but now with warmer weather I've seen as good as 210. With my electric cost, I'm paying about $0.04/mile to drive, more than 50% cheaper than my Jetta at today's relatively cheap gas prices. :snowcool:
 
#31 ·
missed this on the first go around. awesome to see how little $ they cost out there.

however, i had to re-read multiple times on a website about the range, and was stunned that its rated for 76 miles?!?

columbus is a great city for electric cars, but sadly, w/ a range down in the 38's in winter like you mentioned, i couldnt even complete a round trip to work and back home. :(
 
#32 ·
The 2017 FFE that is just being released has a range of 115 miles, so even in cold weather that could work for you. Battery technology is progressing so fast that Mercedes just canceled their hydrogen fuel cell program to dedicate all resources towards EVs. Sooner or later, there will be something that fits almost everyone's driving.
 
#37 ·
It was with a bit of sadness that I sold my Jetta yesterday. Looking back to when I joined VWVortex, I didn't ever see myself becoming a former VW owner, but here we are. I've moved on and I'm really happy with the cars we do have now.

Since the Jetta was immaculate, I got a pretty good price for it, making the total outlay $4200 for the Focus including "trade". Hoping the new owners take decent care of it, but a teenager is going to be driving it sometimes so who knows.

 
#40 ·
Isn't it sad when you take really good care of a car, only to simply sell it off to someone who has absolutely no real appreciation of it? I see that there are no swirls in the paint, and the tires have dressing on them, but most people don't. I am often glad when certain people don't buy my cars, as I feel like they are not good enough to own them! 'For you, the price is $5000 higher.' :D

This sort of reminds me of a what my dad always used to tell me when he would see my working on my car - "You'll have the shiniest cars in the junkyard." Unfortunately, he was right a time or two. :facepalm:
 
#38 ·
Congrats on this car. I leased a 2013 FFE and loved driving it especially since my office had a charger I really never paid to charge it. The depreciation on these is ridiculous, I think my buyout was 22K and the value was around 10K when I turned mine in so their should be terrific deals on them.

My two complaints were the trunk space being a touch to small and the winter range which really drops off when it is below 0 degrees outside. I think sometimes I didn't even get 40 miles when it was in the negatives.

As a side note because of the torque the tires also had trouble gripping a lot although I think that could have been the tires.
 
#39 ·
I've gotten whiplash watching the values of the FFE on the used market over the last six months. When I bought, they had reached their nadir and you could find a number of 40-50k miles examples for ~$8000. Now they've gone back up and you can't find any under $10k. The EV market is still finding its footing for sure.

I lucked out with this winter being generally warm, the lowest I ever saw on the GOM was 48 miles. Plus my FFE lives in my attached garage at home and in a large parking garage during the day, so it doesn't see the extremes in temperature that it could.

As far as tires, I didn't care for the Michelin Energy Savers that were on the car, and I don't think the previous owner bothered to rotate them. Two were worn to ~5/32, one at 8/32 and one was a brand new mismatched Dunlop. So far the Pirelli's seem to match the low rolling resistance and handle really nicely. The torque still makes them spin if I'm on a wet stop line when I start.
 
#47 ·
1 year update! Still love the car and haven't had a single thing go wrong. Even MyFord Touch works fine. Just went over 24,000 miles now. Average efficiency since I started tracking it in March is 267 wh/mi. It goes well over 300 when using heat though.

One thing I've noticed is that the car seems to pull the wheel to one side or another when braking on some roads (especially if crowned). The friction brakes are fine, it only happens when using regen. So is this "reverse" torque steer? Is that a thing? :confused:
 
#49 ·
1 year update! Still love the car and haven't had a single thing go wrong. Even MyFord Touch works fine. Just went over 24,000 miles now. Average efficiency since I started tracking it in March is 267 wh/mi. It goes well over 300 when using heat though. One thing I've noticed is that the car seems to pull the wheel to one side or another when braking on some roads (especially if crowned). The friction brakes are fine, it only happens when using regen. So is this "reverse" torque steer? Is that a thing? :confused:
This is actually common for the focus in general. Under heavy braking in my '13 Titanium if the front tires make contact with any road imperfections the car will dive in that direction.
 
#48 · (Edited)
Wow I really need to check dates before I post. I didn't realize this was brought up because of an update. Glad you still love the car!

Had to go to Indianapolis to get it, but I'm now the owner of this 2013 Ford Focus Electric:

It has 18,000 miles and wow does depreciation hit these cars hard. Got a great deal, with the cost out the door just edging into five figures. The car is wonderful to drive with all the silent torque to go along with great handling found in every Focus. My commute is about 15 miles round trip so I don't need to charge every day or rely on charging outside my house. Love the ambient lighting that can change color too.
As a prior leaser of a 2013 congratulations I loved mine when I had it and yes they dropped in value quickly! I keep debating on getting a used one but need just a bit more range to make it worth while due to a new job.

Not surprising, since short range EVs have a fairly limited market.
Especially as the newer vehicles with more range come out at the same price point. This is why I leased mine in 2013.

What is the range on one of these?
When I had mine I got 70-85 miles during the summer and around 45-55 during the winter (0 degree temps with heat on)

Oh wow, what I have done... :)

Every time I walk past the Focus EV parked in the row of charging stations, immediately next to the improv theater where I perform, I think about getting one myself. (My wife's office has highly convenient EV parking, so it could be her commuter instead of our 18 mpg Durango Hemi.)

Lack of garage space, and the fact that it makes no financial sense for me to get another car, keeps me from doing it.

Tom
Well the electric cars are really cheap to run and just the savings on gas might pay for it. That was why I leased mine in 2013 I was spending over $300 a month just on gas the car lease was $260 and had zero maintenance cost. It is even cheaper if where you can charge is free like I was able to at my office.

That's an excellent deal. How did they compare to 2013 Nissan Leaf?

I like the Leaf more because of the Tech. (LED headlights & tail lights, solar-panel spoiler, 360 degree camera, and more)
Leaf tech is better but the Ford has a liquid temp controlled battery which should help for longevity.

Found a nice deal near me. (across the border)

https://seattle.craigslist.org/see/ctd/5871821950.html




But man, is that hatch space compromised. Much worse than the Leaf, IMO.
It is not made for Costco runs but I found that it can hold two suitcases which worked for getting to the airport parking lot.
 
#50 ·
Glad to hear that it is working out well. I'm hoping that 3 years from now, the current crop of 110-120 mile range EVs (newer Foci, Soul, Ioniq) are cheap to buy off-lease. That range would be PERFECT for our current use - enough to get me to the airport for business or to the Milford train station for class work in NYC.

Tom
 
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