Used FFE Thoughts

michics · Mar 10, 2022

Hello All,

New member here that is thinking about chasing down a nice low mileage 2017/2018 FFE from outside my area. I live in northern Illinois and best I can remember these were never sold in this area. My first concern is there any issues with these used EV's that I should be concerned with? And my 2nd concern is whether the Ford dealers in my area would even work on these since they likely will have little experience with this model? This would be first venture into ev's . Thanks

scottt · Mar 11, 2022

How much is it?

michics · Mar 11, 2022

In the $18k range.

campfamily · Mar 11, 2022

As a previous FFE owner....I'm not sure I'd buy a used FFE. Ford is not supporting these vehicles at all any more, as they have shifted to the MachE and the F-150 Lightning. You'll get marginal service while under warranty, and no service when the warranty expires.

I loved my FFE. It proved to me that a BEV would work for me, even one with a very limited range. It cost near nothing to own (I sold it for nearly what I paid for it, after all of the incentives I got when I bought it). But, I sold it before it went out of warranty, and before it had any significant miles or time on it that was leading to failures. The only failure I had was a dead 12V battery (covered under warranty), and a chewed wire caused by a rodent in my garage (fixed for $350).

If I were you, I'd consider a used Bolt. Will cost you a bit more, but I think the manufacturer support is still there for those.

Keith

triangles · Mar 11, 2022

They were indeed sold in northern Illinois. I live in Northern Ohio and bought mine from a dealer just across the border from you in Wisconsin. None of the Ohio / Michigan dealers wanted to sell me a FFE at a reasonable price in 2014. I actually found the dealer I got mine from on this forum.

They only made a bit over 9k in all the years of production so finding salvage parts will be difficult if something fails. Ford will not work on them. They only replace entire components. IE if a contactor fails in the battery they replace the whole battery instead of opening up the battery and replacing the contactor. So be prepared to work on your own car. Also there have been many battery failures caused by coolant leaks into the battery. As best as I can tell this is caused by cell swelling which happens to all batteries over time. A refurb battery is $13K+ from ford.

I love my FFE but it is a throw away car if you have a failure outside of warranty. If you cannot afford to throw away the car when the warranty expires, I would not buy one.

$18k seems a bit ridiculous, but then again the whole car market right now is insane! I paid less than that after all incentives and tax credits for my '14 brand new.

My warranty expires in November and I intend to keep it as long as I can. If my battery ever leaks coolant, I may try to engineer a new battery pack made from salvage EV batteries but I doubt that will ever happen because batteries are still too expensive.