Potential UK Buyer Questions

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Paul

New member
Joined
Jul 24, 2015
Messages
3
I'm new to the forum, and looking to buy a IMiev, one is for sale near to me, however despite being very knowledgeable with cars, I'm at a loss as what I need to look at with an electric car?
Sure, I can look for damage, loose connections, but what should I be looking at to ensure I'm not being ripped off, what can I check? How do I determine the condition of motor and batteries?
What's the lifespan of the components, how expensive is a set of batteries?
The car in question is a 2010 with only 9000 miles.
Thanks in advance for any info!
Paul
Forgot to add, I'm in the Uk, and wanting to use the car for work, aprox 3 miles away and local shopping/ town trips of 15 mile range.
 
Paul, you might first peruse this subforum for discussions regarding what to look for in used i-MiEVs. For example Buying a Used i-MiEV

To answer some of your questions: I would start off fully charging the the battery pack and ensuring that it fully charges (the fuel gauge goes all the way up to the top) - the Range Remaining display (based on how the car was driven the preceding 15 miles) will give you an inkling as to its potential range.

The distances you describe are trivial and a complete non-issue for you as the car will easily meet these needs.

With a five-year-old car I would focus on the car's mechanicals as I would not anticipate any issues with the electrical components.

As far as the cost of a new battery pack - inasmuch as so far I haven't heard of anyone paying for a replacement, we don't know.

(BTW, I changed the title of your post to more-easily identify the topic)
 
Thanks joeS
Yes, the distances are negligible, I can even charge for free at work :D
These cars are still quite a rare sight on the roads in the UK, and the garage selling this one are not associated with the Mitsubishi garage, and a worry for me is the asking price, its listed as £5999, I asked if he would take my Hyundai i10 in part ex, and he replied that he just
Wants a quick sale, and would accept £4000 cash?
All this is over the Internet, as I can't get to the garage for another week to view the car.
I'm paranoid he's wanting rid of it for reasons unknown to me ( we tend to consider all car dealers in the uk are out to stitch you up :D ) hence my questions about what to look at. I can inspect and find any number of mechanical faults with ease, but worry about the car running out of charge/ not accepting a full charge/ or performance failings, I just wouldn't know what to check or look for.
I'm expecting to view the car, and it to be fully charged, hence hiding any potential fault there may be, drive home, and then discover it won't fully charge, or has a limit of 25 miles!!!
As I say, I'm getting paranoid, I haven't even viewed the car yet, but its just the £2000 instant price drop thats frightening me!
Do you look a gift horse in the mouth?
 
Paul, in the US used-car salespeople have a similar reputation...

Look at it from the dealer's perspective: he's stuck with a vehicle he knows nothing about and has not had any nibbles (perhaps for a long time?) and simply wants to get rid of it.

A month ago I purchased a fully-loaded i-MiEV in superb condition from a Ford dealer who had taken it in trade and didn't know what he had or what to do with it.

In the US, buyers looking at an unknown vehicle will often turn to automotive and consumer organization reviews of the car - in the case of the i-MiEV, clueless reviewers have done the car a terrible disservice, further reducing its attraction.

Even a brief test drive should uncover any issues with the electric drive system, with any internal failures showing up on the dashboard's display.

As some of us have discovered, a problem with the battery will manifest itself as the inability to fully charge, with a commensurately-low Range Remaining display. With only 9000 miles on this car, I would not expect any significant battery degradation, especially in your climate (current indications are that battery life is shortened by prolonged exposure to really serious temperature extremes). The car's Battery Management System keeps us from doing dumb things to the car.

Whereabouts in the UK are you (you might update your profile to include that}? Perhaps one of our UK owners is close enough to be able to assist you?
 
Thanks JoeS,
I'm in Liverpool.
Another problem I'm having, I've responded to an advert on Ebay, I received an out of hours reply, saying the guy is out of the office till 3rd August, and leaving another email for his business partner if its anything important.
However, I've received a reply from a third party, saying the car has been reduced from £5990 to £4000 for quick sale, and asking for a deposit to secure the deal via PayPal.
I asked a few questions, which he failed to answer, and he then says, the car is in great, and is reduced to £5000 ( a £1000 increase since the last email!) saying he wants a deposit via PayPal to secure? All very strange?
I've sent an email to the original guys partner and await a reply, but it seems like some sort of scam by a third party ( paranoia sneaking in again :D )
Cheers for the replies.
Paul
 
Paul, I think you are right to be wary. Just take your time, go have a look at the car and be sure to drive it and maybe even get it up to speed on a motorway. I wouldn't put any money on the table until after you've checked out the car.

Best if you contact the dealer beforehand and make an appointment and ask them to be sure to plug the car in so it is fully charged by the time you get there. If you get to the car and it isn't fully charged, be sure to note the Range Remaining number as well as the number of bars on the fuel gauge (there are 16 bars maximum) as that is also a rough indicator, but I wouldn't put too much stock into this as during 'demonstrations' people tend to be leadfooted and the number is usually artificially low. After driving it around, and if it wasn't fully charged beforehand, I would simply ask them to plug the car in because you need verify that it will fully fully charge before making them an offer.

You might do some homework and see if the battery is still covered by warranty, just in case.

The Range Remaining (RR) number is one of the screens on the right-side gauge - the pushbutton toggles through a whole bunch of different displays and RR one is the one with an arrow underneath the number.
 
Hello

im thinking of buying a seconhand imiev in the uk, ive seen a 2010 model with low mileage but the dealer is telling me its an import from japan and apparently the range is less than uk model, wondering what range should, show when fully charged, can people tell me what yours says when fully charged please?

Also does anybody know if all imievs support rapid charging by the Chamedo fast charging the dealer im dealing with doeant seam to know much about this car at all. Wondering what else i should look for when buying used Imiev ??
 
Thinking id buying a used 2010 imiev wondering what range should be displayed when battery is fully charged and wondering how i get to see this on dashboard where is the toggle button located please.. ?

Also can anybody confirm if all mievs have home charging and Chamedo style charging or is it just from a certain year please ?
 
I think buying an early Japanese import imiev is pretty risky, especially if the dealer you are buying from doesn't know much about the car.
I believe early imievs won't charge from a modern J1772 connector, though they may have ChaDeMo.
And there have been Japanese models with smaller battery packs - I have seen reference to a 10.5KWh model on wikipedia, whereas the 'standard' capacity is 16KWh.
I drive a Peugeot iOn in the UK, which is almost identical to an imiev, and at the moment my range remaining display shows 70-75 miles when fully charged. Bear in mind that this number is not only derived from the charge of the battery, but also your recent driving habits.
It might be worth you looking into Peugeot iOns & Citroen C-Zeros as well as the imiev - they have been around a few years, so the secondhand market should have a few floating around.
 
BradfordUK said:
...Wondering what else i should look for when buying used Imiev ??
Hello BradfordUK and welcome to the forum. Glad to see you trying to do your homework before purchasing an EV.

As you see, I have merged your similar posts into this one thread, and I see that MisterBleepy has nicely answered your query. For further information on buying a used i-MiEV, you might peruse this subforum and perhaps visit a few specific threads, such as this one http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2435. On later i-MiEV models, as you toggle through the right-hand display using the pushbutton, the Range Remaining display is the one with a left-pointing arrow underneath the numeric. It will display either miles or km, depending on how the instrument panel is configured (and you can also change that with the pushbutton).

As a general rule, used-car salespeople know next-to-nothing about the i-MiEV and its variants, so I would take anything they say with a grain of salt.
 
Hello

ive just found this forum and are just trying to get as much info as possible before potentially buying an imiev, just wondering which home charging company / solution people would recommend in the UK please.?

Thanks
 
When I got my Peugeot, I used an outdoor 13 amp socket, and the charging cable that came with my car - actually a black box with a cable coming out of either end, with a 13A plug on one end, and a J1772 connector on the other that plugs in to the charging port on the rear drivers side corner. This uses about 2.4KW of power, and is the slowest method of charging. An overnight charge will completely charge the car from empty to full. I keep this charging lead in the car at all times.

I applied to a company called Chargemaster to have a home charger fitted (for free, funded by a government grant - I'm not sure if this is still available), and now that's how I charge at home. It uses about 3.3KW of power, and charges a little faster than the 13A plug method. It is more convenient as I can just unwind the lead on the charging unit and plug it straight into the car.

My Peugeot also has a rapid charge port on the passenger side rear corner - this is for ChaDeMo charging, and can charge the car from empty to 80% full in around 15 minutes (I think these can use up to 50KW of power). Another 15 minutes will I think get the charge from 80% to 100%. I have only done this a couple of times, as where I live this type of charger is rare, and all of my regular trips are well within the range of the car. Ecotricity have a lot of these chargers installed at motorway service staions, but I believe reliability can be an issue. They have a map here: http://www.ecotricity.co.uk/for-the-road/our-electric-highway .
 
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