$10k for a brand new i-MiEV?

Mitsubishi i-MiEV Forum

Help Support Mitsubishi i-MiEV Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Vike

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 10, 2012
Messages
402
Location
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Technically neither a review nor news, but this Yahoo! Autos blog post points out that the bizarre web of EV incentives can get our favorite lectro-bug durn close to $10k, and in a very very few cases even below.

https://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motoramic/the-last-new-car-you-can-buy-in-america-for--10-000--depends-on--you-151703677.html

Okay, not much lovin' on "the car with a name that makes you think of a sticky caps lock button", but it's not overly mean, and an interesting little tour through the hodge podge of credits, rebates, and special deals that affect EV purchases in different markets around the U.S.

Bottom line for me is that for a lot of people, the i-MiEV (if you can get one) is the best deal on four wheels.
 
Sure, if you can find one. The only ones local to me still retail for $30K as they haven't sold their 2012 still sitting on the lot years later, meanwhile, they won't bring in the 2014.

Meanwhile Smart ED sold out in Toronto in Aug/Sep due to $100/mo ($1800 down) lease.

Would be nice to have more competition at the low end of the range of EV's, only Smart and Mitsubishi sell for comparable price to gas cars.
 
SmartElectricDrive said:
Sure, if you can find one. The only ones local to me still retail for $30K as they haven't sold their 2012 still sitting on the lot years later, meanwhile, they won't bring in the 2014.
Where are there any 2012's still available? Mitsu gave an additional $10K discount to move those off the lots more than a year ago. Many folks on this forum got 'new' 2012's for $12K to $14K after the Fed credit then . . . . and they didn't LEASE them

Meanwhile Smart ED sold out in Toronto in Aug/Sep due to $100/mo ($1800 down) lease.
Can you really interchange 'Sold' and 'Lease' in the same sentence like they mean the same thing? One has nothing to do with the other, as many who leased iMiEV's for ZERO DOWN, $99 per month two years ago are now finding out. They must turn their cars in now and they can't afford to BUY them because the residual is so ridiculously high

Many factors drive the unsustainable lease rates which do not apply to actual sales. If you leased your Smart ED, I hope you'll be prepared to give it back at the end of the lease . . . .

Don
 
I bought my Smart ED for $19K taxes included. As you noted, I was not prepared to "hand back" my amazing car after the lease period.

As for the 2012 i-MiEV, it was still on the lot of my local dealer a few months ago...

Here in Toronto, prices for electric cars other than the Smart far exceed the US pricing of the identical car.

Even Tesla with it's "fair pricing" is far more expensive to lease than in the US, about double the monthly cost when I checked recently.
 
SmartElectricDrive said:
I bought my Smart ED for $19K taxes included.
Ah, but does that include the battery, or are you leasing that? ;)

To a broader point - the topic here was the impact of various state EV incentives on bottom-line i-MiEV prices around the U.S. The situation in other countries, even Canada (fond as we are of y'all), isn't really relevant to this specific post subject. The i-MiEV is the least expensive EV+battery you can buy in the U.S., which is why it was singled out in this article. Complaining about (or mocking?) overpriced hard to find i-MiEVs in the Great White North misses the point by more than a little.
 
Vike said:
SmartElectricDrive said:
I bought my Smart ED for $19K taxes included.
Ah, but does that include the battery, or are you leasing that? ;) .

BAP (battery assurance plus lease) was (/is?) not available in Canada .
I fully own my car, battery and the grin on my face every time I hammer the accelerator. ;-)
 
Vike said:
Complaining about (or mocking?) overpriced hard to find i-MiEVs in the Great White North misses the point by more than a little.

Ok, then how about the fact the Smart ED has vastly outsold the i-MiEV in 2014, by a wide margin, in the USA.
There is one reason : availability (or lack thereof for the i-MiEV).

These are two fantastic and inexpensive electric cars, love them both, but the fundamental problem is clear, build more of these cars, and people will buy them.

BMW outsold the Smart ED over the past 4 months to take "best of the rest" to the Leaf/Volt/Tesla. Sure, it's a different class of car, but straight out of the gate, BMW produced and made available larger numbers of units.

Thus, no mocking, just realism. Nothing to sell, then no one can buy.
 
2014 has a dealer incentive for month of Feb anyway, of $2,000.

after $7500 and $2500 in Mass it IS a $10k car !

So, how would one figure out what a Used 2012 would be ? Take the $2k off the price?
 
tigger19687 said:
So, how would one figure out what a Used 2012 would be ? Take the $2k off the price?

Just compare the market. There are eight used 2012's on Cars.com currently asking less than $10k.
 
According to Edmunds.com there is now a $2500 dealer incentive or something. Not sure if it is JUST for the 0% financing, but it goes to the dealer anyway. good till 3-31-15
Seems to work for all zip codes
_ Marketing Support
Lender Dealer Cash
Requirements and Restrictions: APR Dealer Cash is available towards retail purchases and may be combined with special APR available through MMCA. May not be combined with Dealer Deliver Cash. Accordingly, dealer cash incentives are taken into consideration when Edmunds determines the True Market Value® of a vehicle, as well as by the dealer when it sets its Edmunds.com Price Promise® offer. These incentives for the dealer are applied independently of any customer incentives the manufacturer may be offering directly to the consumer. Please note that dealer cash is payable to the dealer and not the consumer. Please note that dealer cash is payable to the dealer and not the consumer. Accordingly, dealer cash incentives are taken into consideration when Edmunds determines the True Market Value® of a vehicle, as well as by the dealer when it sets its Edmunds.com Price Promise® offer. These incentives for the dealer are applied independently of any customer incentives the manufacturer may be offering directly to the consumer.
Dealer Cash Start End
$2,500 03/03/2015 03/31/2015


There is one dealer about 40 miles from me that has one (wanted blue but he only has silver). I sent an email last month about the price of the car, not budging.
He emailed me "I just wanted to reach out to you to let you know that Mitsubishi has changed the rebates for the 2014 I-MiEV and they've been increased since last month. You can now buy our car for $20,140 plus taxes and fees. That's us selling the car for our cost and reducing the price another $3500 using the available dealer rebate. Deals don't get much better than this, and I can tell you that a 2016 is going to be significantly more, knowing that they never rebate new models."
listed price is $24,035, so he is telling me that they only have a $395 mark up ??
Highly doubt that, and the guy knows nothing about EV's.

I emailed him back and said that when he is willing to get it off the lot for $18k total price (no taxes) I will come right down and get it
:lol: :lol:

I am in no huge hurry (told him that) and with still 4 feet of snow on the ground I can certainly wait.
Not to mention that this Winter has made TONS of Frost Heaves that I have NEVER seen in all my 40+ years here !
So I don't mind waiting till the snow is gone and they fix all the pot holes and bumps ;)

We will see what happens and how many 2016's he gets on his lot
 
Back
Top