A bunch of things about the FFE.
First and foremost lease a 2017. The car has 100 miles of range, is equipped with rapid charging (something you will be very happy you have), and is overall a better car. Lease that. Ignore all those incentives, you'll be far ahead with that car.
Now if you absolutely must have a car right now and can't wait. You have two options - lease a 2016 or buy a used FFE. DON'T BUY a 2016. The day you purchase that 2016 it will only be worth around $10,000. OK, I'm exaggerating a tiny amount, but you will be killed with depreciation if you want to get something different in a few years. You'll pay maybe $25,000 for the car, and at the end of your loan, you will be lucky to sell it for $8,000 - super lucky. And you will be upside down on your loan for a very long time (you owe more than the car is worth). Granted when you PURCHASE an EV, there is a $7,500 tax credit, and possibly a Texas rebate. When you Lease the car, you DON'T get that incentive. And it is possible our beloved president will repeal the $7,500 credit - you can't know what will happen this year, don't count on the credit.
Lease is incredibly simple. You rent the car for three years. At the end of three years, you either turn it in and walk away, or you pay the residual amount you agreed to and you own the car. Here's how it worked for me - at the end of three years, Ford put a value of like $18,000 on my car. If I wanted the car, I'd have to pay $18,000 for a 3 year old car. The problem, there are dozens of FFE's in the same shape, with about the same mileage, for $9,000. I'd be stupid to buy my car at lease end. Now if Ford put a value of $5,000 on the car, that would be a great deal. I would have purchased it. But they don't do that (your lease payments would be too high). So I turned the car in, paid $210 for a just over allowable dent (highly strange, they allow a lot of dents in normal wear and tear), and walked away.
The other option is to buy a used FFE. That is actually the smart move. Getting smarter every month. There are a ton of FFE's that came off lease on the market. Good clean California cars with low mileage can be found for around $9,000 - maybe less if you shop. There are a lot advertised for $12,000 because dealers took a gamble and bought the cars at auction for too much money. They are taking a bath.
So you could just plop down some cash for a good used car. As long as the title is clean, and the car came from California, you can buy with confidence. You'll likely need a new set of tires - almost nobody put new tires on the car during the 3 year lease - they didn't need to. The tires will be pretty worn on a used car. Count around $800 for the tires. It requires low rolling resistance tires, don't just buy random cheap tires.
The thing you also have to consider is the cost of adding a 240V charger. That might cost you anywhere from $500 to $3,000. Depending on your garage (attached, detached, electric service available in your house, and which charger you buy). You won't be able to keep up with your commute with 120V that comes with the car. You'll get around 3-4 miles per hour of charging on that connection. You'll end up running into a deficit over time.
Hope that helps you. So sorry to hear all the really bad information you got about the car. There aren't a lot of them out there, but it is by far the best commuter electric car around for a good price. I really love the car for commuting and around town driving.
