Marketing the USED 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.

Rocky49

Active member
Joined
Apr 1, 2014
Messages
39
Location
Northern Alberta, Canada
Ok Listers who are the customers for a used imiev?? How do you market one to get more than the 5 to 8 grand seen on this list. I am in Canada and in an area where they were not readily available and not sold. I had to import mine in from the USA as a new car with the tax credits previously stripped by enterprising US dealers.

Do I advertise to Collectors, Greenies, or Techies? or cheapskates like me. We bought an electric car because my wife was tired of maintenance bills, and gas bills. 4 and half years later she is retired and no longer doing the commuter grind each day and wants something with greater freedom of range. The car was an SE with all the options including the GPS, and high voltage DC charge port. We even have a set of spare winter wheels and tires. With 22000 miles it is low mileage and one driver car with no accidents or battle damage that lived in a garage at home and a parkade at work. There is nothing wrong with the car, it simply does not fit the mission profile in our house any longer. We worked through a series of hybrids and plugin hybrids to get to Mitzi, now she is no longer a useful engine in the fleet. The electric car infrastructure in our province in no more advanced today than it was 5 years ago. The only difference is I can charge at a few more dealers. Our government put no money into the charging system and there is almost no private enterprise charging out there to say, hang out the charging system will get better. We basically have charged at home each and twice at a Mitsu dealer. A friend has a public charging site, we use occasionally just to make sure it does not disappear altogether.

What have people done to successfully get more than scrap value? It seems the depreciation or devaluation on a 2012 imiev is worse than for an old chev Aveo or Sonic. Where is the best place to go for max dollars back or are you just turning them at dealers?? These cars went for almost 40 grand Canadian. Dealers here have no idea what the car is worth new or wholesale because they just were not sold in any kind of quantity.


Rocky near Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
 
I do agree they didn't hold their value well - We paid US $30K for our first one in May of 2012, an SE but with none of the options your car has and then 2 years later, we bought a fully loaded, like new SE Premium like yours for $8,700 when it came off lease . . . . and it only had 3,900 miles on it - An essentially brand new car just 2 years old for about 1/4th of the original sticker price

Selling a nice one for $5K these days isn't easy - Harder yet if it's a northern car which may have some rust from being driven in the winter. Harder yet if you don't have a nearby dealer for service. I think to get $7,500 you'd need to be really lucky finding a local buyer who really wants one and knows what it might cost to have one shipped in from afar. Getting more than $7.500 would take a miracle. Down here in the lower 48, many are advertising them for $5K and then selling them cheap to CarMax when they find no buyers

The way I look at it is they are worth more to me even if they didn't 'fit' into our needs that well any more - I'd keep it and use it where it does fit, even if it means owning 3 cars - This is coming from someone who currently owns 5

Don
 
I've been looking at used I-miev vehicles for a few months and came across your post. I'm in Saskatoon and would be interested in coming to Rocky to purchase your I-miev if you are interested in selling it to me. It is definitely not my intention to exploit the situation. I'm just thinking I may fit that "local buyer" description that Don refers to.

Since no price has been mentioned and technically you've only stated an intention to sell the vehicle eventually this post could be considered off topic. We could continue this conversation through private message if you are interested.
 
I'm in Red Deer. Recently bought my 12 with 30km on it out of Calgary. ES with QC but no Nav.

Paid $8k CAD down from an ask of $12,900

Black book in Canada is less than $6k CAD on a minty one. That being said, I felt I overpaid for the car. However I simply couldn't find any for sale on this side of the country and bought it anyway. At the end of the day I am happy with the car and would buy another, but it would need to be more like $5k CAD price.

The guy I bought mine from had it for sale for months and months.

Original owner paid $28k cad. Second owner paid $10k with 20,000km then sold to me for $8k with 30,000 km.

Lots out east, but they aren't really selling unless they are $7k or less. Again, some I see for sale have been listed for ~6 months or more.

So if you want to sell yours for $5k, I'll come and pick it up on the weekend ;)
 
Oh, I will buy your 2nd set of wheels and tires though.

Then you can get some cash that may not add much value to the price of the car as a whole.

And swap out my steering wheel and radio for yours too.
 
I see your ad and I have a couple of comments....


1 - if someone offers you anywhere near your asking price and you say no, send them my way, I'll sell mine in a blink and just go buy 2 or 3 more.


2 - I'm in Duncan bc right now. I have seen more EV's here in one day than my entire life previously. There is a used car dealer here that half his inventory is leaf's in the $16k price range. The guy has probably a dozen. The Nissan dealer has 2.

If you really want to get anywhere near that price, you will probably have to take the car to the coast.
 
OK MIEVers, here is the story. We sold the Mitzi the 2012 SE Premium plus and her charger, winter wheels and tires. It is all gone! She went in 2 weeks. She was advertised in Autotrader (regular ad), Kijiji, St. Albert Gazette (4 issues) and the Edmonton Journal (7 issues). One of the issues with I-Miev is nobody know what is, so I advertised it as Cheap All Electric Hatchback Car with AC, blue tooth, Nav 25,500 miles, and test drives welcome for $17,500. In total I had 10 inquiries by phone or e-mail.

This was after we tried trading her at various auto dealers in BC (Kamloops and Kelowna) and Edmonton, Alberta). We went to Mitsubishi dealers and were not welcomed as a trade on a Mirage or PHEV SUV. They basically said the IMIEV car was unsellable - one would use it as a service loaner for $7000, the local dealer said he would offer me $3300. VW Kamloops offered $7500. A couple of wholesalers called offering $8000 and $10,000 with plans to ship overseas.

I posted here about the low values and how to market the I-Miev. When I see used Nissan leafs going for 14 to 17 grand and used chevy sparks going for 17,500 Canadian, I was trying to figure out was wrong with the I-MIEV market. The I-Miev is a superior vehicle to both these cars, it is just a car that Mitsubishi never marketed the I-Miev properly anywhere in North America and definitely not in Alberta. I priced Mitzi who had 25,500 miles, Nav, level 3 charging, no accident or damage history, and one owner since new at $17,500. I sold it to the first guy who test drove it at $16,500 Canadian. My wife was thrilled that we got 5 times what the Local Mitsubishi dealer was offering. in fact when other brand dealers called the Mitsu dealers, they told me they were told the car was basically unsellable and they should not touch it. Talk about poisoning the waters for the brand. As the guy at the Chevy store said, "if they don't like the product, why would be able to sell it".

My wife said if a Mitsu goes from over $40 grand Canadian to $3300 in less than 7 model years, why would I buy another Mitsubishi product.

The family who bought the car said it was a mint car, and worth the money and they were surprised it was so CHEAP!!! It would do for them what way more expensive cars would do, eliminate the need for gas and maintenance for the husband's daily commute.

So Mitsubishi I-Miev owners don't sell your product short... By the way there 2 other private parties were in line to see it when it sold, so there are customers out there. I would have sold it to a guy from Saskatchewan for 10 grand rather than a guy who would give me 10 grand and ship it to Saudi Arabia and flip it.

In the meantime my wife bought a mint second hand 2016 Chevy Spark, while I look for a nest car. Chev Volt? C Max Energi? Kia Ioniq?
 
Thanks for sharing your story and notes on how this turned out. Your innovative approach worked great for selling this innovative vehicle and it looks like you had plenty of interested buyers.

Supply and demand is a basic economic force, and value is in the eye of the beholder. With a scarce and rare vehicle it is a matter of how much the buyer is willing to pay versus missing out on a chance to obtain one.

Also look at it from the other side--what if i wanted or needed to buy one right now, where would i find it and how much would i be willing to pay?
 
That's a great result - You found the 'right' buyer, got a record setting price (about $12,750 USD) and both parties are very happy . . . . and you taught us all something too!

Don
 
Wow, Rocky! That's quite a sale.
Despite the handful of charger issues, which have proven to be a simple replacement, I'd think that the reliability record for our cars should be a selling point. For infotainment purposes, take a look at the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid forums and look at the nightmares they've been experiencing. From chargers and inverters to transmissions and wait for it... vans catching on fire after as few as 750 miles on the clock. Those owners-as-guinea pigs are unfortunately proving that Chrysler deserves its reputation for poor reliability and service..

https://www.pacificaforums.com/foru...40171-my-2018-hybrid-limited-caught-fire.html
 
Back
Top