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zephod

Member
Joined
Sep 19, 2017
Messages
10
Location
Berkeley, CA
Hello!

Just wanted to introduce myself and to express my gratitude for all the active members here.

About 9 months ago, I picked up a used 2012 black ES with the quick-charge port. This thing is brilliant! 50 cu. ft. of storage in a car about the size of a Fiat 500. Room for 4 adults. Efficient. A kick to drive. I even like the way it looks.

I've wanted an electric car since the mid 90s. I even bought a Porsche 914 to convert to electric, but I never followed through, mostly due to the cost - around $20K. I also fell in love with the Porsche with the 2 liter gas engine so it was hard to bring myself to gut the car. I seriously looked at the GM EV-1 when it came out but wasn't crazy about the idea of leasing, especially when I had to install a charger that was a permanent item. After that, EVs took a back seat in my life until I read a recent article about how inexpensive used EVs are. I started looking at used Fiat 500e and Smart Fortwo EVs. Both cars are fun to drive and there are tons of them available in my area for a decent price.

Then I ran across some reviews of the i-Miev, most of which were negative pointing out things like skinny front tires, the plastic interior, and the short range. I tried to look beyond the superficial criticisms and, along with the info from this site. I realized that this was the EV for me. I wanted something with room to carry stuff. Range wasn't a huge deal for me as I live in an area where I don't have to drive far to get to the places I need to go. The quick charge port was also a plus as there is a decent network of charging stations where I live in the San Francisco bay area. Ah, but finding an i-Miev with a fast charge port was the tricky part. There weren't many available and the ones that were seemed to be in the midwest or in Washington state.

Eventually I found what I was looking for at a Mitsubishi dealer in Salinas, CA. The price was right and the dealer was willing to transport the car to a Mitsubishi shop in Hayward which was 25 miles from my home. The car needed some recall work done so they took care of it in Hayward. I took a BART train to the shop and drove my new-to-me i-Miev home.

Along with the car, I bought a charging station, but haven't installed it yet. The 110v charger works fine for my needs.
 
Welcome to the forum! Glad you found us and better yet that you found *the* car for you

It baffles me why so many reviewers are so negative about the car. I'm guessing they just didn't live with it for long enough to really appreciate all it brings to the table. I can't imagine giving up our cars, or what would replace them. After 6 years, I haven't found anything that COULD replace them

Don
 
Thanks Don... Yeah, so many negative reviews really didn't help sales on this car, I'm sure. There were a few positive ones which pointed out the virtues of the i-Miev, which certainly gave me some motivation to look into it.

It's great to hear that you're still driving yours after 6 years.
 
zephod, welcome to the forum and it's nice to have another i-MiEV owner in the Bay Area.

I think that i-MiEV in Salinas had been on-again and off-again at the dealership for quite a while, with the salespeople not really wanting to sell it because they were having too much fun driving it themselves...

With the quick charge port you'll be pleasantly surprised at how useful the car becomes for medium trips across the entire Bay Area. I've done Grass Valley to the East and Monterey to the South, but CHAdeMO is now readily available all the way to Lake Tahoe, which could be an interesting excursion. By now you've undoubtedly obtained your ChargePoint, EVgo, and Blink cards. EVgo recently made a dramatic improvement in their rate structure and it is almost worthwhile signing up for their $10/month plan as you get that back each month when you use their stations. Check out Drive the ARC

The early reviews of the i-MiEV were atrociously ignorant, a prime example being Consumer Reports. See this for a rebuttal:
http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=1286
I've been considering doing an update to that writeup based on owning three i-MiEVs and having driven over 100K i-MiEV miles in the last six years.

You might consider updating your profile to show your location - it's always fun seeing perspectives from all over the world.
http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=3196

Once again, welcome to the forum and if you're ever in the southern end of the SF Peninsula, feel free to let me know and drop in for a chat.
 
Thanks JoeS. Yes, I bought the "Salinas i-MIEV". It was being used as the daily driver by the wife of one of the sales reps. It appeared that she used it to run errands and to take her kids to school. The car had two white stripes which made me think of a skunk so I asked them to remove the stripes. Later, I removed the "all electric" sticker on the side.

It had a little over 20K miles on it and I was a little leary of its condition, but they were motivated to sell and they were using it on a regular basis so it wasn't sitting around in some dark corner of the shop.

When I got it home, I tested it with EvBatMon and it showed 40ah capacity. Still, with a lead foot around town I've been getting 66 miles on the range meter at full charge pretty consistently. On 40 mile trips with a 80/20 mix of hilly, freeway/surface street driving, I usually have 6-7 bars left. I can live with that. Plus there are still a few years left on the battery warranty.

Thanks for the links... I'll check them out! I also have those accounts you mentioned, though I've only used the ChargePoint account so far. Seems they have chargers where I need them.
 
Don said:
Welcome to the forum! Glad you found us and better yet that you found *the* car for you

It baffles me why so many reviewers are so negative about the car. I'm guessing they just didn't live with it for long enough to really appreciate all it brings to the table. I can't imagine giving up our cars, or what would replace them. After 6 years, I haven't found anything that COULD replace them

Don

I too am baffled by the negative reviews. This is the coolest nicest best driving most fun car I've ever driven. And I love the room in the back and so does my dog otto. Plus it has a leather steering wheel and is warm in the morning! I don't know what else I would ever want! I hate extra gismos anyway. I thought about putting some good reviews out there but that would just drive up the cost of the used cars. I think its cool that if you do your research and read thru the negative stuff and find this forum that you get a reward for it. Kind of draws the same kind of people here.
 
Forgot to mention that I added the AUX port using the info on myimiev.com, and while doing that, I discovered the USB port which I also added later. Thanks All!
 
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