My gf wants me to spend $40k on an electric car [View all]
...tomorrow.
~~ UPDATE: we bought the car and then returned it. See comment 33.
This seems like a big hurry, but we've done enough research to verify that the car in question — a base-trim Ford Mach E — is clearly the best fit for us of the available models, and Ford seems to be doing well at getting on top of issues as they arise. I had been thinking about shopping for a used hybrid or something, and this is way more than I was imagining I would spend, but she is very particular about safety issues and would rule out 90% of other cars.
The thing is, there's nothing wrong with our old car — or rather, nothing wrong that wasn't wrong with it and its siblings as they left the factory. At 110k miles it doesn't look as nice as it once did but everything basically works like new. We (especially her) are just very tired of the discomfort of the old car — the harsh ride, the tight doorways, the struggles with visibility, the harsh ride, the limited practicality, the small back seats, and especially the harsh ride. These things were okay when we weren't senior citizens, but we are now, and she has a bum neck that hates speedbumps. The Mach E is certainly no land yacht, but it's heaven next to a decade old Mazda 3.
We do really like the car and it will clearly improve our quality of life, but suddenly being asked to cough up that much cash is a shock... and environmentally it'll probably take quite a while to come out ahead of the Mazda, which on road trips can actually get the rated 40 mpg.
Our plan, basically, is to see if we can make this Mach E last twenty years. Since they switched to LiFePO batteries, it's apparently possible for a dealer to pull out individual bad cells without replacing the whole pack, so maybe that's doable without an aging battery totalling the car.
My best friend is very doubtful of rushing into this. I just hope I'm not doing something kind of foolish in a cloud of blind infatuation, seduced by plush seat cushions. What do you think?
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