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 automotive was “too good.” Let’s see if this bizarre little electrical automotive’s present worth (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 completely functioning automotive 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 true world earlier than we may even end our voting.
At this time’s 2012 Coda EV would possibly show a more durable promote than yesterday’s Volvo. It’s, in spite of everything, 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 automotive 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 might be wrung out of the electrics from established producers on the time.
The difficulty was, nonetheless, that the Coda arrived concurrently Tesla’s Mannequin S, and that automotive rewrote the e-book on what an EV might be. The Coda’s different main drawback was that it value almost $40K to purchase and provided supplies and construct high quality that make Russian bathroom paper appear luxurious by comparability. I do know; I test-drove one proper on the introduction, and it was fairly horrible.
Who, then, would possibly this oddball damaged EV be for? Effectively, most likely some YouTuber like Kyle Conner or the nationwide treasure in any other case often known as Robert Dunn.
Kyle purchased a moldering Coda final 12 months for the princely sum of 1 greenback, and Dunn of Ageing Wheels and Underneath Dunn fame has freaking 4 of them. What’s yet one more added to the heap? Additionally, Robert has performed battery work on a number of of his Codas—changing cells, load balancing, and so on.—so this automotive’s issues would most likely be a trifle for him.
For whoever grants this automotive a reprieve from the scrapper, the battery appears to be the one half that has gone significantly flawed. All the pieces else appears to be like full, and the automotive does seem to cost with out concern. Possibly much more amazingly, in keeping with the advert, it’s performed a considerable 62,000 miles.
That’s loads to do in any shitbox and is much more exceptional 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 perhaps 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 contemplate. That proudly denotes this automotive as quantity 3 of 500. Sadly, Coda by no means acquired to even that modest quantity as the corporate filed chapter in 2013, shutting down manufacturing after solely 117 automobiles have been constructed and offered. At this time, it’s little greater than a blip on the EV timeline and fodder for quirky YouTube content material. Might that be definitely worth the $4,000 the vendor is asking for this clean-title automotive? The vendor concocts a grand scheme to help that worth by claiming that an electrical utility rebate of the identical quantity would make this automotive’s value fall to only 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 automotive’s situation? Or, at that worth, is a no-sale a becoming coda for this EV?
You determine!
San Francisco Bay Space, California, Craigslist, or go right here if the advert disappears.
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