MyTH
Member
- Joined
- May 30, 2021
- Threads
- 2
- Messages
- 20
- Reaction score
- 48
- Location
- Boston Area
- Vehicles
- MME, Bolt EUV, Model Y, Lightning
- Thread starter
- #1
As early EV adopters, my wife and I were excited to reserve and order a Mach-E in 2020 and take delivery of one of the very first 2021 models to arrive at the local dealer. That vehicle was always a favorite and gave us several years of great service. But all good things must come to an end; this is the story of the end and a new beginning.
Did you ever wonder what happens when a 5.7 inch ground clearance meets a 6 inch rock? Read on...
Early one Saturday morning, a rock sat near the middle of a narrow country road, just around a blind turn, apparently having rolled down the adjacent hillside. There was no time to stop, but this wasn't a very big rock -- looked like it could be easily straddled. BOOM! Um, maybe not.
Despite the loud noise and being momentarily lifted up, the car continued to drive normally, not only that day but for several months and several thousand more miles. We had forgotten all about the rock by the time a warning appeared: Stop safely now. It happened on a busy road in Connecticut, over 100 miles from home, while we were stopped at a red light.
Stop safely now? Well, we were already stopped. When the light turned green, the car wouldn't move. The hazard flashers worked, but many people honked and gave us dirty looks. AAA said they could have a tow truck there in 90 minutes. Ford's emergency roadside assistance said they would take 2 hours and warned us it wasn't covered by warranty and would be expensive. That was a long time to sit blocking traffic, but eventually, after turning the vehicle off for 5 minutes, it started and drove normally. We cancelled the tow truck and drove straight to the nearest Ford dealer, who said they were busy but could look at it in a couple of days.
Really? No emergency help available? Hours for a tow truck, days for a mechanic? Um, OK. We decided to limp carefully onward, staying in the right lane, expecting the car to stop at any moment, and actually made it the whole way home without further incident. The local Ford dealer scanned the fault codes and said they knew what was wrong, something about a High Voltage Battery connector. When the part they ordered came in a few days later, they put the vehicle up on a lift and called us with some grim news: there was frame damage. Had we been in an accident? No, the car just shut itself down while waiting at a traffic light.
OK, how much is the repair going to cost? I was expecting a few hundred dollars but braced for something major like $1000. When they got back to us with an estimate, it was more bad news: the part of the frame that connects between the left and right front wheels had a hole in it and needed to be replaced, costing at least $6000. Wow, a hole in the frame? How could that be?
It got worse. There was also impact damage to both the front and rear drive motors, and the front one was leaking oil. Oh, and there were some small dents in the housing of the main High Voltage Battery -- no way to tell if there was meaningful damage, but the battery really should be replaced, just in case, adding at least $29,000 for the part, plus installation labor. All told, the repairs to a Mach-E that still looked new and drove fine were going to be about $40k, twice the vehicle's book value.
Bummer. We filed an insurance claim and set about finding our next EV. After a bunch of online research and test driving many great alternatives from Audi, Acura, Genesis, Porsche, BMW, and others, we ended up back at the Ford dealer for a new 2025 Mach-E. It's black, just like the old one, with the same plate number even. Now we have ventilated seats and a heat pump. The frunk is smaller, and the gearshift is in the wrong place, but we still like the car as much as ever, barely noticing it's a different car.
Kudos to Ford for building a vehicle that still stands up well against the mounting (and significantly more expensive) competition, 4 years later, with only minor design tweaks. Would we buy it again? Why, yes. Yes, we would. I do wish there were a better answer for possible battery damage than replacing the entire $30k battery pack. I'm also pretty annoyed at Ford's disallowing any sort of transfer or credit for our prepaid 3-year BlueCruise subscription on the totaled vehicle, but that's a separate thread.
Did you ever wonder what happens when a 5.7 inch ground clearance meets a 6 inch rock? Read on...
Early one Saturday morning, a rock sat near the middle of a narrow country road, just around a blind turn, apparently having rolled down the adjacent hillside. There was no time to stop, but this wasn't a very big rock -- looked like it could be easily straddled. BOOM! Um, maybe not.
Despite the loud noise and being momentarily lifted up, the car continued to drive normally, not only that day but for several months and several thousand more miles. We had forgotten all about the rock by the time a warning appeared: Stop safely now. It happened on a busy road in Connecticut, over 100 miles from home, while we were stopped at a red light.
Stop safely now? Well, we were already stopped. When the light turned green, the car wouldn't move. The hazard flashers worked, but many people honked and gave us dirty looks. AAA said they could have a tow truck there in 90 minutes. Ford's emergency roadside assistance said they would take 2 hours and warned us it wasn't covered by warranty and would be expensive. That was a long time to sit blocking traffic, but eventually, after turning the vehicle off for 5 minutes, it started and drove normally. We cancelled the tow truck and drove straight to the nearest Ford dealer, who said they were busy but could look at it in a couple of days.
Really? No emergency help available? Hours for a tow truck, days for a mechanic? Um, OK. We decided to limp carefully onward, staying in the right lane, expecting the car to stop at any moment, and actually made it the whole way home without further incident. The local Ford dealer scanned the fault codes and said they knew what was wrong, something about a High Voltage Battery connector. When the part they ordered came in a few days later, they put the vehicle up on a lift and called us with some grim news: there was frame damage. Had we been in an accident? No, the car just shut itself down while waiting at a traffic light.
OK, how much is the repair going to cost? I was expecting a few hundred dollars but braced for something major like $1000. When they got back to us with an estimate, it was more bad news: the part of the frame that connects between the left and right front wheels had a hole in it and needed to be replaced, costing at least $6000. Wow, a hole in the frame? How could that be?
It got worse. There was also impact damage to both the front and rear drive motors, and the front one was leaking oil. Oh, and there were some small dents in the housing of the main High Voltage Battery -- no way to tell if there was meaningful damage, but the battery really should be replaced, just in case, adding at least $29,000 for the part, plus installation labor. All told, the repairs to a Mach-E that still looked new and drove fine were going to be about $40k, twice the vehicle's book value.
Bummer. We filed an insurance claim and set about finding our next EV. After a bunch of online research and test driving many great alternatives from Audi, Acura, Genesis, Porsche, BMW, and others, we ended up back at the Ford dealer for a new 2025 Mach-E. It's black, just like the old one, with the same plate number even. Now we have ventilated seats and a heat pump. The frunk is smaller, and the gearshift is in the wrong place, but we still like the car as much as ever, barely noticing it's a different car.
Kudos to Ford for building a vehicle that still stands up well against the mounting (and significantly more expensive) competition, 4 years later, with only minor design tweaks. Would we buy it again? Why, yes. Yes, we would. I do wish there were a better answer for possible battery damage than replacing the entire $30k battery pack. I'm also pretty annoyed at Ford's disallowing any sort of transfer or credit for our prepaid 3-year BlueCruise subscription on the totaled vehicle, but that's a separate thread.
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