Purchased a new to me 2012 FFE with 14K Miles

[SteveMat]

So, I have 5 days to decide if I want to keep it. I was thinking of taking to the dealership and have them do a PPI of a sort and tell me the health of the battery. I do have a Bluetooth ODBII adapter so installed the ForScan app on my Surface and connected up. Problem is, I don't know really what I am looking at. So yesterday I did a full charge and drove 19.6 Miles, this morning, I plugged up and pulled these numbers. So %100-%62.87=%37.13. So takes 37% of the battery to go 19.6 Miles? What is a better way of determining the "health"/capacity of the battery?

Also, is BATTAGEBECM accurate, show 38 months even though car has build date of 11/2011. Was it replaced at some point or was an update applied 38 months ago that reset everything?

Love the car so far, primarily will be used by my upcoming kids to run around locally for the next couple years.

AVERTEMP(°C)
25

BATCURBECM(Amper)
0.82

BATTAGEBECM( )
38

BAT_CHA_DISPL(%)
66.50

BAT_PACK_VOLT(Volt)
337.63

H_BATT_CHAR(%)
62.87

TOTALDIST(km)
22622.0

 

[SteveMat]

So, in ForScan I found BAT_TO_EMPTY_ESTIM(kWh) and it is at 12.066.

I was going to go out and drive it down to almost empty just to see how many miles (has been mix of city and interstate so far with the AC on) and then look at BAT_TO_EMPTY_ESTIM(kWh)?

 

[jmueller065]

Note that all those estimates are just that: estimates. The displayed range-to-empty is what is commonly called the "guess o meter" and can drastically change based on your driving style/habits.

If you want to see how much battery is available you'll want to do a rundown test:

• Charge it to full
• Turn on the enhanced trip meter and reset one of the trips
• Open all the windows and turn the heat on hi
• leave it run like that until the battery is at 0%
• the trip meter will tell you how many kWh was consumed (if its around 17kWh or so you have a pretty good battery)

 

[SteveMat]

So, ran the battery down to a displayed 0%, ForScan showed H_BATT_CHAR %7.90 so guess that is the bottom buffer. Trip Meter for 60 miles showed 15.8 KWH. As mentioned this was with mostly interstate driving (~75% of it running the AC most of the time and some heat).

Did a full charge and ForScan shows BAT_TO_EMPTY_ESTIM 17.546 kWh and H_BATT_CHAR 89.12 % Hybrid Battery State of Charge and assume this is the top end buffer?

With all that said, seems the battery has the life should expect for 6 years old? Was going to take to the dealer to check out, are they going to tell me anything different (aka should bother)?

I can return car up to Monday so debating? Collective thoughts on how long the battery will be “decent”?

 

[carbuff]

So, ran the battery down to a displayed 0%, ForScan showed H_BATT_CHAR %7.90 so guess that is the bottom buffer. Trip Meter for 60 miles showed 15.8 KWH. As mentioned this was with mostly interstate driving (~75% of it running the AC most of the time and some heat).

Did a full charge and ForScan shows BAT_TO_EMPTY_ESTIM 17.546 kWh and H_BATT_CHAR 89.12 % Hybrid Battery State of Charge and assume this is the top end buffer?

With all that said, seems the battery has the life should expect for 6 years old? Was going to take to the dealer to check out, are they going to tell me anything different (aka should bother)?

I can return car up to Monday so debating? Collective thoughts on how long the battery will be “decent”?

I dont think battery degradation will be your big problem. It will be the first time you get a ssn out of warranty and Ford wants 2 grand to fix it. Or when your ac goes out and they want 1500 to fix it even though it is needed to cool the battery but its not covered. The 8 year coverage is very specific to what it covers.

 

[jmueller065]

I dont think battery degradation will be your big problem. It will be the first time you get a ssn out of warranty and Ford wants 2 grand to fix it. Or when your ac goes out and they want 1500 to fix it even though it is needed to cool the battery but its not covered. The 8 year coverage is very specific to what it covers.

That is if he gets a stop safely now. That is the big risk: There are quite a few people (well yeah ok what "hundreds" ! LOL) that had FFE's without an issue vs the few that had persistent problems. Will he be one of the hundreds or one of the few? That is the real risk.

I put about 30k and change miles on ours without any serious issues (it drained the 12V battery once..that was it).

14k miles is kind of low for a 2012 (the first model year of the FFE) not sure if that is a good or bad thing.

 

[SteveMat]

So, this did come from CarMax and they offered a 5 year / 75K mile warranty that covers everything but the battery for pretty inexpensive. Normally I’m not keen on these 3rd party warranties but figured the risk maybe worth it?

 

[jmueller065]

Depends..how much are you paying for the car?

 

[SteveMat]

13K, I’m east coast so supply is a little more limited

 

[carbuff]

So, this did come from CarMax and they offered a 5 year / 75K mile warranty that covers everything but the battery for pretty inexpensive. Normally I’m not keen on these 3rd party warranties but figured the risk maybe worth it?

If the 5 year coverage is that comprehensive then you cant go wrong. The problem is that these cars can only really be fixed by the dealer for anything electrical related. If the warranty is kinda generic it will list tons of stuff that is covered that does not apply to your car and may consider all the modules and computer stuff to be part of "the battery" I would look over that warranty carefully to make sure it covers things like the ac system and computer modules. As to jmueller's point, even the easily fixed problems that arent persistant, are still very expensive on this car out of warranty. Like $500 to apply a software update or even more to replace the modem as its not covered any more for free. Make sure all of the recall and customer satisfaction actions have been performed on this car. Not trying to be a Debbie Downer, just trying to help. And, yeah, how much is the car? LOL.

 

[carbuff]

13K, I’m east coast so supply is a little more limited

13k is high for that car. Mine was a 13 with 10k from the dealer as a CPO and it was less than that with tax included. But Im in NY and know what you mean about the limited supply. Also, I got mine a year ago and in that time electric cars have really exploded in popularity (outside of Cali) with the model 3s and Bolts becoming mainstream. Used electric prices are going up. Personally I wouldnt touch a used out of warranty ffe for over 8 grand, low mileage or not. But your warranty might make it worth it. Have you checked the facebook page? I think you will find more people posting about minor problems that require a trip to the dealership to fix, usually covered under warranty. but if out of warranty would be expensive. Sorry if I sound cynical, but after what I went through with ford I dont trust warranties and have a much greater understanding of just how different and complex these cars are from their ICE counterparts. Your carmax warranty might not have this understanding.

 

[scottt]

13K, I’m east coast so supply is a little more limited

13k is high for that car. Mine was a 13 with 10k from the dealer as a CPO and it was less than that with tax included. But Im in NY and know what you mean about the limited supply. Also, I got mine a year ago and in that time electric cars have really exploded in popularity (outside of Cali) with the model 3s and Bolts becoming mainstream. Used electric prices are going up. Personally I wouldnt touch a used out of warranty ffe for over 8 grand, low mileage or not. But your warranty might make it worth it. Have you checked the facebook page? I think you will find more people posting about minor problems that require a trip to the dealership to fix, usually covered under warranty. but if out of warranty would be expensive. Sorry if I sound cynical, but after what I went through with ford I dont trust warranties and have a much greater understanding of just how different and complex these cars are from their ICE counterparts. Your carmax warranty might not have this understanding.

13K for that car is WAY too high. My brand new one was just a bit more than that (after Federal tax incentive). I'd take it right back.

 

[SteveMat]

You got a new 2017 for 20K?

 

[triangles]

After all was said and done, tax credits, etc., I only paid somewhere about 16-17k for my '14 back in late '14. I'm on Ohio FYI.

 

[Fat Focus]

After tax, license, doc, fed tax credit, state cash rebate, and PGE rebate I got my 2018 with the extra optional white paint for $18,700.

 

[SteveMat]

Unfortunately in NC, there are no State or Utilities incentives.

Steve

 

[scottt]

Unfortunately in NC, there are no State or Utilities incentives.

Steve

My ordered from the factory 2015 was $15,389.99 after taxes, tags, stupid dealer processing fee, Ford rebates and Fed Tax incentive. I'm in VA, so no state incentives. $13k for a 6 year old FFE is WAYYYY too much.

 

[tinilk]

Unfortunately in NC, there are no State or Utilities incentives.

Steve

It doesn't matter what incentives you have in NC when buying a used FFE from another state. The price you pay should be discounted by whatever incentives the previous owner had when they bought the car. For $13k I would expect to get a 2016 in great condition with low miles and all the recalls and software updates performed.