Virgin Territory

Okay, so I never thought I’d ever start a blog, but here I am, hoping to score a free L2 charger. Wish me luck.

This is real work… I’ve been sitting here for 15 minutes staring at a blank screen racking my brains for something, anything to write about that’s EV-related. My wife would be laughing her ass off if she knew why beads of sweat were forming on my temple. Fortunately she’s deep in conversation with her mother, talking about who’s going to win America’s Got Talent in a few hours. I’m rooting for that kick-butt Asian dude that dances with videos of himself, but I think the three tenors are going to get the million bucks. Chicks dig tenors, so like usual, my wife will have her way again. She always does, except when it comes to me picking cars for myself. So when I came home one night last January, telling her that I saw a Focus Electric in the HOV lane and that I had to get one, she just rolled her eyes with that “here we go again” expression on her face. “As long as I don’t have to go to the dealer with you,” she said. She hates car dealers. Which is fine with me, because when we went to a dealer together to lease a 2011 Toyota Sienna, she ruined my killer deal… I was working my butt off on a zero-out-of-pocket, low-payment lease, wearing the dealer down from their original $3500 out-of pocket (payment was not going to budge, I declared). After about an hour, the dealer still insisted on $2000 up front. “I have $2000!” my wife says. I shake my head. So in the end the dealer got what they wanted,  I got zero out of pocket (my pocket, at least), and my wife got a shiny new mothership. A win-win-win situation. Yet to this day I still carry with me a sense of defeat.

Leasing my Focus Electric was a much less painful ordeal. I called the dealer mid-week, let him know that I want a white one with leather, he said no problem. Let him know that I wanted zero out of pocket, 12k miles/year, and a lease payment based on a market rate discount (Edmunds said $1100 off MSRP was the going rate) plus all incentives. He said we’ll work it out.

So I finally saw him on Saturday, after he called me a few times during the week. Turns out he did a dealer trade to get my color, based on our phone conversation, and needed to make the deal. I felt sorry for him… what if I hated the way it drove?

When I got there, we made some small talk and learned a little about each other. “So you raced cars? You’re gonna love this!” he said, with confidence and enthusiasm. And he was right. Throughout the test drive, I felt like he was showing off his personal ride, egging me on to flirt with cornering limits and floor it past 70mph.  After the test drive I was ready to pay the corporate lease deal on the spot but I didn’t… I brought my homework with me (an Edmunds printout), said I want him to match the Edmunds discount and didn’t want to pay for the color (I wanted oxford white, and he traded for a platinum metallic – a $495 option). He came back with an offer that was several hundred less than what I asked, said that this dealer doesn’t like to dork around and just wants to cut to the chase.  A win-win situation.

Less than an hour later I was driving home on pure, sweet electricity. No regrets since.