2/22/25 Love/Hate Relationship with My Mach-E

Let me start by saying that I absolutely love this car. My electric Mach-E is hands down the coolest car I’ve ever owned. It practically drives itself, and everything is automated—even the high beams come on automatically when no one’s around at night. But… I also hate this car.

I hate that anytime I go more than an hour away from home, I have to charge it. That means even a trip to Topeka to see my son requires a charging stop. It’s not for long—maybe 15 minutes—but it’s still a hassle. Sometimes, I wish I could just pull into a gas station and fill up in five minutes. But that’s not my reality anymore.

When I drive to St. Louis, I have to stop and charge in Boonville. Then, once I’m in St. Louis, I have to charge almost every day if I’m moving around town.

Now, granted, charging at home is easy and cheap. I’ve figured out that I drive this car for about two cents per mile—maybe three cents in the winter. Compare that to a gas-powered car, which probably costs around eleven cents per mile. So for city driving, it’s a steal. But highway driving? Not so much.

In St. Louis, I end up spending more on charging than I ever did on gas because fast chargers cost $0.56 per kWh, compared to the $0.12 per kWh I pay at home. That’s part of why traveling to St. Louis feels like such a pain.

Another frustration with these fast chargers? They’ll get me to 80% charge in 30 minutes, but getting to 100% takes another whole hour. Why? I have no idea—but it is what it is.

I do love this car, but honestly, it would make a great second car. Having an ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicle for travel would be nice. But the truth is, I’m a homebody—I probably won’t be traveling much anymore anyway.

One of the best things about this car? No oil changes. Practically no maintenance besides tire rotations and brakes. But when it comes time for new tires, I’ll likely need to buy fiveand rotate through them since my car is all-wheel drive. I recently learned that all the tires need to have the same tread wear—so having a spare in the rotation makes sense. It’s an interesting factoid… but also an expensive one. And because this car is so heavy, I’ll have to replace tires more often.

Am I keeping this car? Absolutely. It may be a hassle, but I’m going to make it work—because I love it. One of these days, I’ll make a list of all the amazing features it has, because honestly? This car drives better than I do. And I’m humble enough to admit that!