The Hunt for My Next Car
The last time I bought a new car was in 2004, three months after my daughter was born and I realized that a coupe was impractical for a family man. I kept that Honda Accord for 13 years and may have kept it longer but it developed a fatal engine problem.
I never intended to hold on to a car for that long, but I really wanted a Tesla and planned to wait for the Model 3. I even made a deposit to preorder one and received a Tesla t-shirt for my 40th birthday. However when it finally became available the cost of the car equipped the way I wanted it cost far more than the $35,000 price Elon had been touting. At that time I was going through a divorce and went with a super-practical used Prius instead.
So why am I considering a new car now, during a pandemic when I occasionally remind myself that I should probably go for a drive just to keep my car in good shape? The practical reasons are that my kids are getting older and the backseat of a Prius is becoming less comfortable for them, plus interest rates are incredibly low at the moment and they will probably rise after the pandemic ends. The impractical reason is that I just bought my daughter a car (along with her mother) and I’m jealous that hers is better than mine.
I have four criteria for my new car:
First, I want to go electric. All electric, not a hybrid or even a plug-in hybrid, because I think that charging sites are plentiful enough now that the range anxiety will be manageable. Electric is the future and gas cars will soon suffer the same fate as the dinosaurs that are used to power them.
Second, I want something that is fun to drive. After spending a few years driving a Prius, which I affectionately refer to as “The Gutless Wonder,” I’m ready to enjoy driving again.
Third, it needs to fit four adults comfortably, and five adults when necessary. The kids in my family range from 16 to 10 and they have made it clear that they much prefer riding in my partner’s Acura MDX.
Finally I’m a techie, so the car needs to have some neat tech features. CarPlay is available on nearly every new car these days, so that’s a minimum, but I’d also love a certain amount of self-driving capability and of course I’ve already written a post about my desire to use my phone as a car key.
The most obvious choice is to return to my original dream of owning a Tesla, though I’m more inclined to the Model Y at this point. My biggest hesitation with buying a Tesla is all of the reports I hear of their quality problems. JD Power ranks Tesla dead last in initial quality of all auto brands, and two of the YouTube review videos I watched ended with pointing out all of the Model Y’s manufacturing defects. Aside from that Tesla doesn’t offer CarPlay, has sold more than 200,000 vehicles and doesn’t qualify for a federal tax subsidy, and their CEO is a Covid-denying asshole (though an impressive visionary otherwise).
The car I ultimately chose is a Mustang Mach-E. It checks all of my boxes: it’s fully electric with 270 miles of range (in the AWD, extended range trim), it has 346 horsepower, it’s an SUV with a fair amount of space in the backseat, and it’s loaded with cool tech features. There is a massive center console touchscreen that supports CarPlay and some impressive (if not quite Tesla-level) self-driving features.
Most importantly it doesn’t require a key, the doors will unlock when a paired phone comes near (though it’s Bluetooth-based and doesn’t use Apple’s recently announced CarKey feature). If my phone dies I can unlock and drive the car with a passcode.
The Mach-E isn’t my only option; Chevrolet, Nissan, Volkswagen and Volvo will all offer fully electric SUVs, but most of them will not be available until “sometime” next year and/or don’t quite meet all of my criteria. There are also options from Porsche and Audi, but they are outside of my (already very stretched) budget.
The Mustang Mach-E will be available in late-2020, so hopefully I’ll get mine before the holidays. Thus far it hasn’t been made available to reviewers, so I may get cold feet, but that’s ok because my deposit is refundable.
Now I’m wondering if it’s still ok to wear my Tesla t-shirt.
