Pricing references like KBB work by aggregating reports on lots of transactions, which averages out all the special circumstances. With a total base of less than 1000 very new cars in the U.S., there are just too few sales of used i-MiEVs to support that kind of aggregation/averaging. There may never be enough to smooth out the noise and friction of individual circumstance. It's just too "thin" a market, so "fair price" may remain a matter of anecdote and conjecture.
I'm currently planning on driving my i-MiEV into the ground unless eventually some retro-EV geek wants it enough to make it worth my while to sell, making its resale value kind of a theoretical question. For a variety of reasons, the car has failed badly in the marketplace, and the price rise of the 2013 Canadian model (ominously, Mitsubishi U.S. still only lists the 2012) would suggest that Mitsu has no intention of acting to remedy that. The only part of this that really concerns me is the potential cost of a major accident - what if the insurance company consults its crystal ball and says my $30k car has been "totaled" at $14k? (God forbid misfortune should befall any of us, but if anyone does wind up needing to discuss valuation with an insurer, that would be a helpful thing to share here). That prospect alone (with its impact on sales) might bring the NA-spec i-MiEV to the end of its road sooner rather than later.
I love the car and I'm glad I snagged one, but I am not counting on it becoming a valued collectors' item after it leaves the scene.
