Gasoline

Gasoline

Of course I purchased the Mustang Mache. I stepped out of nostalgia and into the future of an electric car. It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be considering my past—I’ve seen the men of gifted hands. I’ve seen these men reshaping metal, raising metal into new forms, heating, stretching and plenishing old rusted and rotted car panels into shinning new classics. I was one of those men with an appetite for gasoline and racing. I loved cars—I still do. I enjoyed all aspects of cars enthusiastically reshaping performance and style all for the sake of turning heads. The passion for the past when it comes to the cars of these men doesn’t make sense to me anymore but nostalgia hangs onto to you like the comfort of a mother, but these old classics or even new cars for that matter just aren’t practical so I let the lack of practicality lead me into the future.

Nostalgia hasn’t completely left my blood. I still tinker. I still build custom cars. In fact, I have two classic mustangs. One has been an ongoing build with custom suspension and a lowered body and added performance to the engine. The other is just waiting for me to decide what to do with it. Both cars in the immediate future will continue to run on Gasoline.

My transition was rather sudden; the initial motive of my decision was the high cost of gasoline, and it wasn’t long before I received some confrontation at a stop light. A black Dodge Ram pickup pulls up beside me. Lifted with big tires and a loud exhaust and of course it had a Hemi in it. Three ratty looking red necks probably half baked on booze yelled profanities through the windows with the usual finger gestures, trying hard to out do the obnoxious sound to the pickup truck. I set my car for the Unbridled mode to unleash its full potential. When the light turned green, I let them have a bit of a lead the punched the peddle and showed those hammerheads what my 0-60 mph in 3.3 seconds could do. Nothing pisses a Ram owner off more then getting his ass handed to him, especially from and electric car. The all-wheel drive in this instance is unbeatable.

I’ve owned my Mache for two years now and feel right at home in it. I commute 150 kilometers daily—six days a week. At the time of this story, I just clicked over 100,105 kilometers. Reflecting on my previous internal combustion engine I was driving a ¾ ton Ford F150 with a hefty 400 horsepower. My yearly fuel cost and usual maintenance was $15,000.00 per year. Despite the power this pickup was getting reasonably good fuel economy. In Ontario, Canada where I live the cost of electricity is inexpensive. My commuting cost clock in at about $1500.00 per year with the electric car. A huge savings and so far, there has been no routine maintenance other than five jugs of windshield washer.

Everyone who knows me considers me a gearhead and with all the negativity around the electric cars, all their responses where,

“You’d be the last person I would have guessed to buy an electric car.”

And it’s true, for a while I thought that way. In the beginning I was intrigued by the new technology, then started falling down the rabbit holes of hatred. Nobody wants to give up what they love, Gasoline. They all complain about the high cost of gasoline and now have something to do about that and all rebel against. I explain it to them like this,

“Now is the best time to own an electric car. Why? Because electricity is affordable and isn’t riddled with the high road taxes that we pay here in Ontario and throughout Canada.

When this makes sense to them, their comeback is,

“Electric cars are too expensive”.

And I counter with,

“Yes, they are pricey, but I eliminated my expense—the high cost for fuel and turned into an asset which allowed me to afford the payments of a new car. I’m not buying expensive gasoline.”

If you can pay for the car outright you will almost be driving for free if you can home charge.  In the grand scheme of things, it is not that much money to have a home charger installed. And then there’s range anxiety. This is my favorite excuse mainly because most people drive around on empty or more commonly known a “e”.

There are many reason to purchase and electric car if you really think about it and don’t let yourself get influenced by outside sources, noise, and clickbait.