16 Mar Tesla Model 3 Vs. Ford Fusion Energi

I drive a lot for my traditional work, well I used to anyway.  Back when the rumors began regarding Tesla planning to release an affordable sedan for their audience, I was all ears.  I was due for a new vehicle sometime soon anyway as my Altima had hit about 114k miles and I’d had some annoying experiences with it so I was ready to be done sooner than later but thought maybe I could ride out the 18 month timeline estimate of when these new mystery Tesla’s may be produced and delivered to customers.  As time went on, I got more and more antsy and began my car hunt for something different.  I had been saying for the last year or so that I’d had frustrations with my Altima that “my next car, I’m buying something I really want, something that I don’t feel like I’m giving anything up”.  I had a target number in my head of around $25k to buy a lightly used car that looked good, drove well, and hopefully was stacked with features.

Somewhere in the timeline of my vehicle search I wasn’t overly serious on buying something immediately, Tesla did indeed reveal their Model 3.  I dropped the $1,000 deposit that night to ensure I had one of the first orders and the best shot at getting one early on.  For any Tesla freaks out there like me my best guess I was somewhere around order number 60,000 and thus had a good shot at being an early receiver.  Anyone that was following the Model 3 storyline might recall they had an estimated delivery date and Tesla was and is notorious for not meeting deadlines, so I decided in the interim I might find something different to get me by while I waited for the kinks to shake out on Model 3 and then I’d sell whatever I was driving when my Model 3 became available  My hunt began for high fuel mileage cars, and I looked at all kinds of vehicles.   My plan of something being around $25k was still there, and I looked at a million options.  Eventually my frugality settled in and I realized I really didn’t want to spend that much, and I enjoyed the higher MPG I was getting from my Altima being in the low 30s since I drove so much for work.  Somehow or another I ended up searching for vehicle type and minimum fuel mileage of 35-40MPG and a Ford Fusion Energi popped up.  I had never seen one, but I liked the Fusion in general so I dove deeper into it.

This vehicle is a plug in hybrid meaning it gets about 20-24 miles of pure electric before it switches over to being a traditional hybrid.  Additionally you can control when you use your pure electric and switch to hybrid mode at will, which is what I do.  For example if I’m driving to go see 5 clients today, I’ll use the EV mode to drive me 3 miles to the freeway and then switch to gas when I hit 50MPH to preserve the EV and let the vehicle run on gas on the freeway, then when I begin to exit off the freeway I flip back to EV and use that while driving side roads to see my client.  I repeat that throughout the day and I end up averaging about 49MPG on this vehicle and that’s a pretty sweet deal! I could have bought a 2017 Used version of this vehicle for roughly $23k, with just 8-12k miles on it.  I ran a comparison to buying a traditional Fusion for about $15k used, ran fuel calculations, and the Energi model broke even pretty fast in comparison to the traditional Fusion.  I decided I was buying one and went out looking at a dealership, called my wife and told her I was ready to buy, she said to go have lunch and think about it.  I did and I came home empty handed.  She was surprised because usually when I make my mind up its made up.  That pesky frugal side was still there and over lunch I realized there were 7-10 of the exact same vehicle in different colors on that lot, which meant there are several others out there just like them that I could buy any time.

The next morning I woke up and still wanted one but wanted a deal on one and to find a better price point.  I looked and all I could find was the 2013 model which is the first year they made one and I wasn’t interested in that, as often the new style year 1 of anything can be littered with issues.  Also I was super picky and wanted white, preferably pearl white with tan interior.  I ran my search and again, nothing popped up.  Then I decided to widen my search range from 100 miles to 150 miles, boom.  I found my deal.  146 miles away in LaCrosse WI, I found a 2014 Pearl White Tri-Coat, Tan Interior Ford Fusion with just 14,250 miles on it and it was priced right at $17,400.  I found the exact vehicle I had wanted with crazy low miles for a 3 year old car, the original sticker price was something like $42k (thanks for driving off the depreciation for me bro), I just had to drive a bit for it.  It was Sunday so I found and  emailed the used car manager and they actually responded and said they’d call me Monday morning.

Keep in mind this was supposed to be my “hold me over” vehicle until I got my hands on the Tesla 18 months or so later depending on when they produced and where I was in line of first come first serve.  The used car manager did indeed call me in the morning and I peppered him with a million questions about the car, why they had it, etc.  It turns out their specific dealer was a Honda but they also specialized in EV and Hybrid vehicles and had a large percentage of their lot dedicated to used.  I asked him for the most high maintenance favor he was likely to receive but I told him in exchange I’d be the easiest transaction he has ever had from that point forward.  “Please have the car washed, hand dried, cleaned inside, then once it’s bone dry and the sun is up and bright today please spend 30 minutes inspecting every inch of the vehicle.  I want to know any ding, scratch, scuff, dirty spot, inside and out.  Anything that might turn me away from the vehicle because I have a 6 month old baby and wife that are going to drive 146 miles with me then I’m driving home with this car of yours. If we don’t buy it, you can imagine how furious my wife will be.”  I’ll never know whether he thought I was crazy or not, but he complied with my request, called me back later that morning and he said “Mitch, its like a brand new car with a few exceptions”.  He listed those exceptions and then reminded me it didn’t have a sun roof or a back up camera, cool with me.  We put a $500 deposit on it to hold it until later in the week, and then drove down to buy it, smooth, easy, all good transaction.

I really liked this car, a lot, and I still do to this day.  Spoiler alert, I cancelled the Tesla order.  I probably would have had one of the first quarter deliveries that Tesla did based on the features I was going to add.  The more I drove the vehicle, the more I realized I really liked it! It’s not a Tesla and never will be.  It’s not fast, its quite slow actually, but its quiet.  The interior is still very nice, I keep it clean, and the exterior is still sharp looking and clean cut.  The one sacrifice to the day I look at and wish I had was black rims in stead of the silver, in any case they look nice. I need new tires before winter and I just might come home with black wheels on it too after 3+ years of driving and loving this car.  So back to that frugal side of me, when I ran the numbers between the Energi and a Traditional Fusion the break even point was pretty fast so the Energi made sense, plus it helped usher me toward EV which I’d eventually be owning (so I thought) in a Tesla.  Well I also ran the numbers on the Tesla, and it never catches up or breaks even, I quit looking after 10 years because there is next to no chance I’d be driving it still at that point and would have sold and moved onto the next one.  Moral of the story, it was pure luxury, and I would really have to want that in order to light money on fire basically to buy it.  The more I drove the Energi around the more I liked the vehicle, and over that first year of ownership, I began driving less and less for work which mean the return on investment got worse and worse for the Tesla.  As stated above, I canceled the order and never thought about it again.

Even though I see Model 3s driving around all the time and I love how they look, I truly don’t have a FOMO or heart break on losing out on buying one.  Somewhere in that storyline above I remembered my frugality and my pursuit for FI.  If I owned that Tesla it would have tripled my monthly car payment, and I’d be tied to my job for a much longer timeline.  That didn’t sound like a fair trade of dollars for joy, and certainly not freedom.  I still drive the Fusion Energi and the battery life on it is quite impressive, I test it out a couple times a year to drive pure EV with no controls and it still gets close to 20 miles to the charge, I have 80k miles on it, and I intend to drive it for another 2 years.  If I’m being honest, I’m hoping 2 years from now there is a used Model 3 out there waiting for me, but chances are, I’ll spend $20k or less on the next vehicle again (maybe a 2018 Energi with low miles) as my income goes up, expenses stay the same, and thus I’m on my path to FI as a result.