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TobyGadd

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 18, 2018
Messages
96
Location
Fort Collins, Colorado
I'm about to purchase a used i. 2012 ES, with quick charging and cold-weather package, only ~11,000 miles. $7500. Seems like a good deal.

A couple of questions for the experienced owners:
1. I'm going to bring Canion and a OBDLink MX with me to check for error codes, battery health, etc. Any suggestions on specific things to pay attention to, or procedures that would help me detect issues?
2. Should I consider the CarMax extended warranty? After reading through the threads on this site, the i seems like a very reliable car, so I'm thinking that it's probably unnecessary. Would anyone here buy it?
3. Is there anything that I should check with kicking the tires?

Thanks to everyone for making this forum what it is. Lots of amazing contributors here!
 
TobyGadd, welcome to the forum. Whereabouts are you located?

We have a number of threads regarding purchasing a used i-MiEV, this being one -

http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2435

You might also peruse the Buying/Leasing the i-MiEV subforum.

To answer your questions -

1. Best use for CaniOn (be sure to have the latest software version) is to check the battery capacity. For a car with this low mileage I would expect the number to be somewhere around 40Ah. Battery cell voltage readings should all be quite close to each other (within 0.1v), especially if the car is at a high state of charge. CaniOn does not read out error codes, but if there is nothing adverse showing on the dashboard then I wouldn't expect any issues.

2. The car is extremely reliable, but any problems with the electronics, drive system, or HVAC are liable to be very expensive to repair. Be sure to cycle the HVAC and check for any extraneous noise as there have been a few failures of the mounting bracket for the air conditioning compressor. I have no experience with extended warranties - perhaps someone else can comment?

3. Make sure that the Remote and the portable Mitsubishi L1 (120vac) EVSE (charging station) are included. If there is no Remote and if they don't want to budge on the price, then I would insist that they include a Remote as part of the deal. (A replacement Remote can run >$800!). I would also be sure to plug the car in and make sure that it starts charging and let it do that for a few minutes. If possible, also try out the CHAdeMO DCQC - verify the CHAdeMO port by opening the port on the car's left rear by pulling the lever located on the floor under the driver's seat left side. For that price I would expect the tires to be in good shape (they're expensive).

For myself and the two used i-MiEVs I purchased, I simply drove them around the block and didn't even check the battery pack, figuring that it is still under warranty.

Good luck to you!
 
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