The vendor of in the present day’s Good Value or No Cube Coda claims the corporate that constructed it went bankrupt as a result of the automobile was “too good.” Let’s see if this bizarre little electrical automobile’s present value (see what I did there?) gained’t break the financial institution.
Excessive mileage or not—and 207K is fairly excessive—asking simply $2,999 for a totally functioning automobile like yesterday’s 2004 Volvo XC70 will win you some kudos. In our Volvo’s case, that meant a stellar 88 % Good Value win and an obvious sale in the actual world earlier than we may even end our voting.
At present’s 2012 Coda EV may show a tougher promote than yesterday’s Volvo. It’s, in any case, a grand costlier and comes from an organization that not exists and that virtually nobody has ever heard of. To make issues worse, the 31kWh Lifepo4 battery that provides the automobile its go has misplaced a few of its cells, limiting the vary to round 25 to 30 miles.
When new, and with all its Energizer Bunnies drumming away, the Coda may do a claimed 100 miles on a cost. That’s not dangerous for a commuter and a bit higher than the 85 or so miles that could possibly be wrung out of the electrics from established producers on the time.
The difficulty was, nevertheless, that the Coda arrived similtaneously Tesla’s Mannequin S, and that automobile rewrote the ebook on what an EV could possibly be. The Coda’s different main downside was that it value almost $40K to purchase and provided supplies and construct high quality that make Russian rest room paper appear luxurious by comparability. I do know; I test-drove one proper on the introduction, and it was fairly horrible.
Who, then, may this oddball damaged EV be for? Nicely, most likely some YouTuber like Kyle Conner or the nationwide treasure in any other case generally known as Robert Dunn.
Kyle purchased a moldering Coda final yr for the princely sum of 1 greenback, and Dunn of Getting older Wheels and Underneath Dunn fame has freaking 4 of them. What’s yet one more added to the heap? Additionally, Robert has accomplished battery work on a number of of his Codas—changing cells, load balancing, and many others.—so this automobile’s issues would most likely be a trifle for him.
For whoever grants this automobile a reprieve from the scrapper, the battery appears to be the one half that has gone critically improper. All the pieces else seems to be full, and the automobile does seem to cost with out challenge. Possibly much more amazingly, in accordance with the advert, it’s accomplished a considerable 62,000 miles.
That’s lots to do in any shitbox and is much more outstanding when you think about the Coda’s mediocre efficiency and horrible recharge time. These have a 6.6 kW onboard charger, which requires six hours of downtime to fill even its meager 31 kW battery. Because it runs off of family 220, that may be dealt with whereas the proprietor sleeps or is possibly out partying. I’m not one to evaluate how somebody spends their late nights.
There’s additionally the now-laughable notoriety of the plaque in entrance of the shifter knob to think about. That proudly denotes this automobile as quantity 3 of 500. Sadly, Coda by no means obtained to even that modest quantity as the corporate filed chapter in 2013, shutting down manufacturing after solely 117 automobiles had been constructed and bought. At present, it’s little greater than a blip on the EV timeline and fodder for quirky YouTube content material. May that be definitely worth the $4,000 the vendor is asking for this clean-title automobile? The vendor concocts a grand scheme to assist that value by claiming that an electrical utility rebate of the identical quantity would make this automobile’s value fall to simply that of the registration. We’ll take that with a grain of lithium.
What’s your tackle the Coda saga and that $4K asking? Does that appear honest, contemplating the automobile’s situation? Or, at that value, is a no-sale a becoming coda for this EV?
You resolve!
San Francisco Bay Space, California, Craigslist, or go right here if the advert disappears.
Assist me out with NPOND. Hit me up at [email protected] and ship me a fixed-price tip. Keep in mind to incorporate your Kinja deal with.
