benk016
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Ben
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2020
- Threads
- 37
- Messages
- 3,013
- Reaction score
- 4,671
- Location
- Tulsa, Oklahoma
- Vehicles
- 2021 Mustang Mach-E GT
- Thread starter
- #1
Well, I can't believe it, but I have a Mach E in the garage! Might as well start from the beginning.
I've been wanting an EV for a while. And really the only one that I would have considered for a long time was a Tesla. However the price, and looks of it didn't appeal to me. So I've just been watching and waiting. Then, the Mach E was announced. It had the looks I liked, and on paper, it had everything I wanted in a car. However, at that time I was going through a divorce, and dealing with all that. And then Covid hit so I didn't really look into it. Then about 6 months ago, I decided to go for it. I really liked the Grabber Blue color, and since it was late into orders, the First Edition wasn't an option, So I decided to reserve a GT. Ever since then I've watched almost every video on YouTube about the Mach E, checked this forum many times a day. And just overall been excited for the car.
A few weeks ago, someone on here posted that a dealer about 2 hours from me had a demo unit in and I made an appointment to test drive. Then 2 days later a dealer 20 minutes from my house got one so I went and drove that one with some friends. As soon as I sat in it, I loved it. Then we started the drive and I knew I made the right choice. After the test drive, the dealer told me they actually had one more dealer stock slot available and were going to order the next week. I went home and thought about it. Ultimately I decided to wait because I wanted the Grabber Blue. But then the next day someone else posted on here a link to an ebay listing for a Grabber Blue First Edition. It looked awesome. Then I realized that dealer was only 4 hours from my house. They were asking 5k over MSRP, but ebay had the option to make an offer. I made an offer of 1k over MSRP, thinking they'd never accept it. Well first thing the next morning I had a notification they accepted the offer. I couldn't believe it, but it was true. I setup everything with the dealer over the phone and planned to go get it that Friday.
That is until I got diagnosed with Covid the next day. I had about 3 days of feeling like crap, and had to put off picking up my car. That was a long quarantine waiting, especially once I started feeling better.
But, I was released from quarantine, and made the appointment to go pick up the car Friday morning. I drove the 4 hours up there Thursday night. In the middle of all this, we have been going through the cold spell that the rest of the country has been. When I got to Salina Kansas, the temp overnight was 1F. with a windchill of -19F. So I knew it might be a fun adventure going home in that temp, in my first ever real EV drive. Just from this forum, I knew to expect pretty degraded range. Sure enough when I got to the vehicle Friday morning, It was charged to 100% but had 140 mile range. We did do a master reset and EV trip reset, and that put it up to 160 mile range. I did the paperwork, and went on my way back to the Tulsa area.
The drive home was pretty uneventful. I stopped to charge 3 times. The first two stops at EA stations were not good. The fastest charge I could get out of them was 36kw. What was supposed to be 30-40 minute stops, ended up being 1 to 1.5 hour stops. However, at every stop, I had several people pull up to take pictures, ask questions, or just drive by slowly with everyone in the car staring at it. That is definitely a crazy feeling to have. I've never really had that with any other car before. In total I had 9 people actually walk up and take pictures or ask about it. And many more that would just stop in their car for a minute and look and then go on.
My 3rd and final charging stop was at a Non-Electirify Amercia station. These are stations that are all over Oklahoma, and i'm guessing were put in with the VW grant money. The company is called Francis Energy. I pulled up to this station and plugged in and immediately got 48kw, and it just kept climbing until it hit 91kw at its peak. This was a big relief to see it actually charging somewhat quick. And it makes me think that maybe EA is the actual issue with some of the charging problems we've been having. 2 EA stations, where I tried all the connectors and couldn't get over 36kw. But then going to a Non-EA station immediately got me 91kw, with the same weather conditions.
Saturday I got my ChargePoint Home Flex put in, and was able to charge the car to 100% overnight. The app estimates it cost $6.50 for that charge. It was at around 40% when I plugged it in. The chargepoint worked great, I definitely recommend it. I did hardwire it, so I am able to do the full 48amp charging.
Today, we have been told we were going to get up to 15-20 inches of snow. So when I woke up and it was snowing but wasn't a whole lot out, I decided to go take it for a drive and see how it drives in snow. This car drives so well in the snow. There were a few places I tried to get it to slide around and it just wouldn't. I did get to do an almost donut in a parking lot, which was a lot of fun! This car is just amazing to drive, in any condition.
I'm still learning more and more about it, but so far, I don't regret purchasing this one bit. If anyone has any questions post em below and I'll answer it all!
One thing I did do was remove the divider in the frunk as soon as I got it home. With it in there, It just looks useless. With it out, it seems huge, and is going to be much more usable.
I've been wanting an EV for a while. And really the only one that I would have considered for a long time was a Tesla. However the price, and looks of it didn't appeal to me. So I've just been watching and waiting. Then, the Mach E was announced. It had the looks I liked, and on paper, it had everything I wanted in a car. However, at that time I was going through a divorce, and dealing with all that. And then Covid hit so I didn't really look into it. Then about 6 months ago, I decided to go for it. I really liked the Grabber Blue color, and since it was late into orders, the First Edition wasn't an option, So I decided to reserve a GT. Ever since then I've watched almost every video on YouTube about the Mach E, checked this forum many times a day. And just overall been excited for the car.
A few weeks ago, someone on here posted that a dealer about 2 hours from me had a demo unit in and I made an appointment to test drive. Then 2 days later a dealer 20 minutes from my house got one so I went and drove that one with some friends. As soon as I sat in it, I loved it. Then we started the drive and I knew I made the right choice. After the test drive, the dealer told me they actually had one more dealer stock slot available and were going to order the next week. I went home and thought about it. Ultimately I decided to wait because I wanted the Grabber Blue. But then the next day someone else posted on here a link to an ebay listing for a Grabber Blue First Edition. It looked awesome. Then I realized that dealer was only 4 hours from my house. They were asking 5k over MSRP, but ebay had the option to make an offer. I made an offer of 1k over MSRP, thinking they'd never accept it. Well first thing the next morning I had a notification they accepted the offer. I couldn't believe it, but it was true. I setup everything with the dealer over the phone and planned to go get it that Friday.
That is until I got diagnosed with Covid the next day. I had about 3 days of feeling like crap, and had to put off picking up my car. That was a long quarantine waiting, especially once I started feeling better.
But, I was released from quarantine, and made the appointment to go pick up the car Friday morning. I drove the 4 hours up there Thursday night. In the middle of all this, we have been going through the cold spell that the rest of the country has been. When I got to Salina Kansas, the temp overnight was 1F. with a windchill of -19F. So I knew it might be a fun adventure going home in that temp, in my first ever real EV drive. Just from this forum, I knew to expect pretty degraded range. Sure enough when I got to the vehicle Friday morning, It was charged to 100% but had 140 mile range. We did do a master reset and EV trip reset, and that put it up to 160 mile range. I did the paperwork, and went on my way back to the Tulsa area.
The drive home was pretty uneventful. I stopped to charge 3 times. The first two stops at EA stations were not good. The fastest charge I could get out of them was 36kw. What was supposed to be 30-40 minute stops, ended up being 1 to 1.5 hour stops. However, at every stop, I had several people pull up to take pictures, ask questions, or just drive by slowly with everyone in the car staring at it. That is definitely a crazy feeling to have. I've never really had that with any other car before. In total I had 9 people actually walk up and take pictures or ask about it. And many more that would just stop in their car for a minute and look and then go on.
My 3rd and final charging stop was at a Non-Electirify Amercia station. These are stations that are all over Oklahoma, and i'm guessing were put in with the VW grant money. The company is called Francis Energy. I pulled up to this station and plugged in and immediately got 48kw, and it just kept climbing until it hit 91kw at its peak. This was a big relief to see it actually charging somewhat quick. And it makes me think that maybe EA is the actual issue with some of the charging problems we've been having. 2 EA stations, where I tried all the connectors and couldn't get over 36kw. But then going to a Non-EA station immediately got me 91kw, with the same weather conditions.
Saturday I got my ChargePoint Home Flex put in, and was able to charge the car to 100% overnight. The app estimates it cost $6.50 for that charge. It was at around 40% when I plugged it in. The chargepoint worked great, I definitely recommend it. I did hardwire it, so I am able to do the full 48amp charging.
Today, we have been told we were going to get up to 15-20 inches of snow. So when I woke up and it was snowing but wasn't a whole lot out, I decided to go take it for a drive and see how it drives in snow. This car drives so well in the snow. There were a few places I tried to get it to slide around and it just wouldn't. I did get to do an almost donut in a parking lot, which was a lot of fun! This car is just amazing to drive, in any condition.
I'm still learning more and more about it, but so far, I don't regret purchasing this one bit. If anyone has any questions post em below and I'll answer it all!
One thing I did do was remove the divider in the frunk as soon as I got it home. With it in there, It just looks useless. With it out, it seems huge, and is going to be much more usable.