Hi, all. New to these boards and first post here. Actually, it's my first post about any EV on any board! I am not an i owner yet, but will be after tonight (technically). My wife and I are going in to our local Mitsu dealer to purchase a new 2012 i SE in raspberry metallic. We are both very, very excited about this purchase as we have been looking at better MPG options for a while. We had decided to only look at hybrids as we assumed EVs were well out of our price range.
A few days ago, my wife found the i and started looking into it more. We liked the fact that we could afford an EV with all the discounts, incentives, and rebates that are being bandied about. Only problem was there were no vehicles available in our area, only waiting lists. We live in the far west suburbs of Chicago. We decided to postpone our search for a hybrid, add our names to the waiting list, and see what happens.
This morning, my wife found a couple dealers in far south Illinois with i-MiEVs in stock. We called our local dealer to see what they could do to bring one of them up here for us to purchase. After several emails and phone calls back and forth, we are set to sign paperwork on our new i tonight. Of course, we have to wait a couple days for it to be delivered before we are "true" i owners. But we are very excited to be getting an EV for a price actually lower than any of the hybrids we were looking at.
Our new i will be strictly for commuting. A typical commuting day goes something like this:
1. Drive 0.5 miles to drop off kids at grandparents.
2. Drive 3.5 miles to drop wife off at Metra train station (she works in the city).
3. Drive 12 miles to my work.
4. Drive 14.5 miles to pick up kids from grandparents after work.
5. Drive 0.5 miles home.
6. Drive 7 miles round-trip to pick wife up from train station.
So, at a minimum, we drive about 38 miles every day. Throw in a few miles for running errands during my lunch break and maybe a few more for running around in the evening, and I would probably peg our average daily driving at about 55 miles. So, it sounds like we will probably eek in just under the estimated 60-mile range on a full charge. I'm looking into options for possibly charging while at work, but I don't know that they have a charging station on site or even convenient access to a regular outlet.
I have a few questions I'm trying to answer regarding my soon-to-be new car:
1. The i-MiEV FAQs on Mitsu's site state that an inspection of your home's electrical capacity is required prior to purchase. Is this true? I don't know that we currently have an available 240V/40A dedicated outlet in our garage, but I have already contacted our contractor who just finished a lot of electrical work in our basement to come out and see what he needs to do to gives us the proper specs for the i. I assume, in the time between taking delivery of our new i and when our contractor installs the new outlet, that we can use the charger that comes with the i to plug into a regular outlet and keep it charged. I know the 3.3kW charger takes considerably longer to charge, but we can live with that until our dedicated charging station is installed.
2. Is it okay to plug the i in every night and charge using the 3.3 charger? My current plan is to simply plug the i in every night before settling down for the evening. That should give it a good solid 9-10 hours of uninterrupted charging.
3. We are buying our i sight unseen. And I don't just mean because we are having it delivered so we won't see OUR i until it arrives at the dealership. I mean, we have not test driven an i, at all, ever. We are simply going to these extremes because we really, REALLY wanted an EV. The i is the first EV we found that we could get in our price range. Plus, Mitsu's 0% 60-month financing ends today. So, we needed to hurry up and get the deal done tonight! We are relying strictly on all the rave reviews of the i as our comforting factor. I fully understand and expect that we will be giving up room and creature comforts in order to gain the high MPGs we've been craving. Like I said, this is strictly our commuting car. So, that is fine with us. We have a Toyota Sienna for those times we need more room and/or comfort. All that said, can anyone provide details on any issues, complaints, heads-up that we ABSOLUTELY need to be aware of when we take delivery of our i? I've been doing a lot of reading through different reviews and forums trying to get a better understanding of any problems i owners may be having. So far, there hasn't been anything that has scared me off yet. So, that is a good thing!
Anyway, sorry for a rather lengthy introductory post. Thanks for any information anyone can provide to us.
Robb
A few days ago, my wife found the i and started looking into it more. We liked the fact that we could afford an EV with all the discounts, incentives, and rebates that are being bandied about. Only problem was there were no vehicles available in our area, only waiting lists. We live in the far west suburbs of Chicago. We decided to postpone our search for a hybrid, add our names to the waiting list, and see what happens.
This morning, my wife found a couple dealers in far south Illinois with i-MiEVs in stock. We called our local dealer to see what they could do to bring one of them up here for us to purchase. After several emails and phone calls back and forth, we are set to sign paperwork on our new i tonight. Of course, we have to wait a couple days for it to be delivered before we are "true" i owners. But we are very excited to be getting an EV for a price actually lower than any of the hybrids we were looking at.
Our new i will be strictly for commuting. A typical commuting day goes something like this:
1. Drive 0.5 miles to drop off kids at grandparents.
2. Drive 3.5 miles to drop wife off at Metra train station (she works in the city).
3. Drive 12 miles to my work.
4. Drive 14.5 miles to pick up kids from grandparents after work.
5. Drive 0.5 miles home.
6. Drive 7 miles round-trip to pick wife up from train station.
So, at a minimum, we drive about 38 miles every day. Throw in a few miles for running errands during my lunch break and maybe a few more for running around in the evening, and I would probably peg our average daily driving at about 55 miles. So, it sounds like we will probably eek in just under the estimated 60-mile range on a full charge. I'm looking into options for possibly charging while at work, but I don't know that they have a charging station on site or even convenient access to a regular outlet.
I have a few questions I'm trying to answer regarding my soon-to-be new car:
1. The i-MiEV FAQs on Mitsu's site state that an inspection of your home's electrical capacity is required prior to purchase. Is this true? I don't know that we currently have an available 240V/40A dedicated outlet in our garage, but I have already contacted our contractor who just finished a lot of electrical work in our basement to come out and see what he needs to do to gives us the proper specs for the i. I assume, in the time between taking delivery of our new i and when our contractor installs the new outlet, that we can use the charger that comes with the i to plug into a regular outlet and keep it charged. I know the 3.3kW charger takes considerably longer to charge, but we can live with that until our dedicated charging station is installed.
2. Is it okay to plug the i in every night and charge using the 3.3 charger? My current plan is to simply plug the i in every night before settling down for the evening. That should give it a good solid 9-10 hours of uninterrupted charging.
3. We are buying our i sight unseen. And I don't just mean because we are having it delivered so we won't see OUR i until it arrives at the dealership. I mean, we have not test driven an i, at all, ever. We are simply going to these extremes because we really, REALLY wanted an EV. The i is the first EV we found that we could get in our price range. Plus, Mitsu's 0% 60-month financing ends today. So, we needed to hurry up and get the deal done tonight! We are relying strictly on all the rave reviews of the i as our comforting factor. I fully understand and expect that we will be giving up room and creature comforts in order to gain the high MPGs we've been craving. Like I said, this is strictly our commuting car. So, that is fine with us. We have a Toyota Sienna for those times we need more room and/or comfort. All that said, can anyone provide details on any issues, complaints, heads-up that we ABSOLUTELY need to be aware of when we take delivery of our i? I've been doing a lot of reading through different reviews and forums trying to get a better understanding of any problems i owners may be having. So far, there hasn't been anything that has scared me off yet. So, that is a good thing!
Anyway, sorry for a rather lengthy introductory post. Thanks for any information anyone can provide to us.
Robb