For those of you who aren’t aware, I bought a 2015 Fiat 500e to replace my dying 2008 Subaru Forester last year. It wasn’t what I would call a great EV, but it was cheap, it did the job despite cold weather really sapping the range, and it was also cheap. Plus, it was the perfect shade of blue to make my NC State–obsessed grandfather roll over in his grave. Good. When I last checked in, the car was admittedly far from perfect, especially for a fairly rural area. I mean, I bought a decade-old compliance EV based on a European city car that only offered 87 miles of range when new and charged at a maximum of 6.6 kW. Even when I bought the car, I knew it would be a challenge.
Still, it was more fun to drive than you might expect, and even if it could be annoying not having much range, there’s always something fun about using a vehicle in a way it was never meant to be driven. Others also loved my little Chapel Hill–blue clown car, too, and since I didn’t necessarily need to drive it every day, I’d occasionally let others borrow it. I mainly moved back to the area I grew up in for more convenient access to doctors and hospitals, but my family still lives in the area, and I like not having to get on a plane to see my niece and nephews.
So when my dad’s car needed to spend some time at the shop, I didn’t think twice about letting him borrow the Fiat. You can’t control what other drivers do, though, and sadly, that’s how it ended up with the modifications you see in the photo above. Everyone involved is fine, and a lot of head-on collisions are far worse, but oof. That’s not going to buff out easily or cheaply.
Curing my blues
Even if it wasn’t totaled, it was still going to take a while to get my car back. And if it was totaled, better to get a head start finding that new car I was going to have to buy. After driving one in such a good color, the other 500es I found felt too boring. I found some BMW i3s with range extenders that looked like good options, but then, just for fun, I checked Fiat’s website to see what it would cost to lease a new 500e. Effectively double the range, way faster charging, and a pretty good red? It wouldn’t have been the worst idea in the world.
As you can probably guess from the photo above, the lease offer wasn’t merely good. It was so cheap that before I knew it I was headed up to South Carolina to spend a few hours with the fine folks at Benson Alfa Romeo, hand over shockingly little money and drive home a brand new Fiat 500e to replace my old 500e. A poorly timed required software update, new TSB and the Georgia title software causing problems meant I didn’t get to actually drive it home on Saturday, but they’ll be dropping it off today.
Does it feel a little like giving up to upgrade to the new version and basically take all the challenge out of owning a short-range EV in a rural area? Yeah, it does. Future updates won’t be nearly as interesting, and I’m sorry about that. I also can’t emphasize enough how much I love the blue on my old car. Even if it’s an ultra-cheap lease, it’s also so weird for something so new to be mine for the next three years. I don’t usually get to have nice things. On the other hand, I’ll actually be able to visit friends in Atlanta or drive to the airport without stopping to charge — or just borrowing my girlfriend’s car — and that’s a win for everyone involved. Plus, it’s not like a 149-mile range is that long, so I should still get an interesting post or two out of it.
And red is a real color, even if it isn’t nearly as good as my old car’s blue. Go Pack?
