I have received an Email from Tech Admin to post my experience with the iMiev. We sold it around 3 years ago to a new owner who lived in the Isle of Wight. He bought it for his Daughter as a run about.
We owned the car, an early 2009 pre sales model, for around 5 years with zero problems apart from the usual items such as tyres and wiper blades. It passed it's MOT, no fails, every year and proved completely reliable. The only job I had to do was re-wire the mains lead to the Type 1 connector as the cable had snapped. It was a curly lead so was under tension if you needed to stretch it.
With it being a 2009 model, it caused confusion with insurers as they never had that year on their database as it wasn't officially sold in the UK until 2010
My Wife used it every day to commute to work (a run of 2 miles) so it only needed charging every 2 to 3 weeks. I occasionally went to work in it, a return trip of 30 miles and I really liked driving it. I remember in winter, condensation on the windows could be a problem which meant either the aircon or the heater being on to demist which cut the range down a bit. I maxed it out at 80 mph on the A1 one morning just to see what it would do, but gently driving around 50-60mph suited it better. I remember going down one long hill on the way home (on max regen) and ending up with 2 Km more range. The speedo and odometer read mph but the range in Km. I think because it was a pre- sales evaluation car, they hadn't converted that part of the dash info
It proved a very good load carrier with the seats folded down as we moved house, using the car to ferry many items across town.
A very good and cheap introduction to EV motoring for anybody not needing to travel long distances. We now have a Vauxhall Ampera which is a plug in Hybrid which again has proved a reliable car for the last 6 years. We are trading this in next year for another EV.
We owned the car, an early 2009 pre sales model, for around 5 years with zero problems apart from the usual items such as tyres and wiper blades. It passed it's MOT, no fails, every year and proved completely reliable. The only job I had to do was re-wire the mains lead to the Type 1 connector as the cable had snapped. It was a curly lead so was under tension if you needed to stretch it.
With it being a 2009 model, it caused confusion with insurers as they never had that year on their database as it wasn't officially sold in the UK until 2010
My Wife used it every day to commute to work (a run of 2 miles) so it only needed charging every 2 to 3 weeks. I occasionally went to work in it, a return trip of 30 miles and I really liked driving it. I remember in winter, condensation on the windows could be a problem which meant either the aircon or the heater being on to demist which cut the range down a bit. I maxed it out at 80 mph on the A1 one morning just to see what it would do, but gently driving around 50-60mph suited it better. I remember going down one long hill on the way home (on max regen) and ending up with 2 Km more range. The speedo and odometer read mph but the range in Km. I think because it was a pre- sales evaluation car, they hadn't converted that part of the dash info
It proved a very good load carrier with the seats folded down as we moved house, using the car to ferry many items across town.
A very good and cheap introduction to EV motoring for anybody not needing to travel long distances. We now have a Vauxhall Ampera which is a plug in Hybrid which again has proved a reliable car for the last 6 years. We are trading this in next year for another EV.