You know how you've been staying up all night, sick with worry about the fate of all those unsold, unwanted Coda electric sedans? The ones nobody, nowhere wanted to buy, ever and forever? Those? Well, you can relax. The universe's most wildly optimistic company has bought them all, and thinks they can sell them to you.
These really are just leftover Codas. I found a Coda owner's manual in the glovebox of the show car:
The company is called Mullen, their logo is a little temple to the Bevel and Emboss Photoshop filter, and their optimism is a beautiful, soaring thing, unbridled by the cruel gravity of cruel reality. Those old unsold Codas have had most of their logos changed with new sticky-backed badges, their battery capacities increased slightly (affording a claimed range of 180 miles instead of 125), and what appears to be fuck all else.
It's so wrenching and sad that I don't even know what to think. Sure, the extra range is nice, but let's be brutally honest — Codas always had more range than a Leaf or a Fiat 500e, for example, but that still didn't make anyone want to buy them. Hell, only 117 were actually sold in California, because, fundamentally, the Coda was just a boring, undesirable car. Period.
There may be only about 50 actually complete Codas left and 100 drivetrain-free gliders. So, is the goal of Mullen just to sell off this remaining stock, or are they planning on actually building more of these rapidly aging boreboxes? And selling them for $39,000? I'm genuinely confused.
Plus, it doesn't help that their little banner on their website claims that the car is "all-new." Which it, of course, isn't. At all.
Mullen is also showing an electric sports car called a Mullen GT, which the lone Mullen representative claimed was capable of "200 MPH." Considering that the build quality of the Mullen GT they had on the floor looked just a few notches below Etsy's "chimp-crafted" category, I'm not sure I'd want to be anywhere near that thing even if it could hit 200 MPH.
Seriously, this thing is sub VW kit-car grade. Granted, the guy told me that the particular one they had at the show was just out of paint, and thats why things like the four screws that hold the hood on weren't there, and why the mirrors didn't match, and all that. But they're asking $150,000 for these things.
Sure, you can pick from an electric drivetrain or that GM 3.8L V6 that once powered a Park Avenue. And, they say it's carbon fiber (though in the wheel well sure looked like fiberglass, but maybe that is actually CF? I'm not really able to tell), so that's something, I guess. Still, $150K? I think I'd rather have the four best Bradley GTs in the world for that price, with lots of cash left over.
In a way, I feel bad because I sort of wish I could have some hope for these guys desperately trying to sell off these Codas. But I just can't seem to muster the ability to see this ending well. Sorry, you big kooks.