Despite "rationally" ruling it out .. got an MiEV this week

about two weeks ago I gave a detailed rational analysis here about why we were NOT going to buy an EV in the foreseeable future.


Well, despite all the analysis of reasons we just got one.

In part just because we went back drove it again and loved it, and substantially because we got an offer we couldn't refuse. As mentioned in another post of mine dealers were offering to pass through their $10,000 dealer incentive. Got white with blue trim SE.... can't wait till it's delivered. So much for my left brain Vulcan/Spock-StarTreck type analysis. (Although the low price does make for a sooner break even point.) About $22500 total out the door, plus $385 'cause we have to have it trucked from 300 miles away.

Now, much to all my neighbors annoyance, I will be praying to see seven dollars per gallon prices at the pump.
( In truth we already do pay OVER $10 per gallon in the USA , if you count the many subtlety hidden subsidies for oil we pay through our taxes. But don't get me started as I fear that would be off topic here.)

So I'll be back.

At such price it is a no brainier. Don't worry, even Spock is able to choose an "irrational" explanation once eliminating all other options

As to the price of fuel, I can not comment on local US prices, but do expect the baril to fall to 50USD in about a year or so.

acensor said:

So I'll be back.

Click to expand...

I hope so, I am about to pull a trigger on a raspberry SE for my wife, Yes driving a paid for Focus wagon makes more sense but since she wants to drive the Leaf and me drive the wagon.

I just love the quite ride of an electric car.

I am 250 miles away from the dealer so we might have to fix or iMiEV's our self.

Matt

Our ICE, 13 year old Volkswagen Station Wagon (Golf Variant 105 horsepowers) Wanted to see the garage again, second time in a week. That was 8 month ago. This time there was road repair and we had to pass a Mitsu dealer and our i-Miev was waiting in front.

Walking home we got inside and asked about a ride. Even when the dealer told us it was ... no way, much too expensive and I could not tell any good reason why we should. Except back home Karin told me why we should.

May be it was our buddhist monk telling us (the laymen and laywomen) go home and do as many funny things as come to your mind. To the monks and nuns he had a different exercise

We knew something unexpected would result. Usually unexpected things do happen when you act funny but the result was far from what we expected..

No surprise, we own an electric car. Little surprise, most of the time we go wherever we want. More of a surprise we sold the ICE because it was far too expensive to keep and renting a car whenever you need one is far cheaper than owning one. Plus you get a new, modern, cleaned and tested car.

Still you need the will to test who is stronger a brick wall or your head. Statistix of the survivors say it is always the head who is stronger

Definitely, the quiet drive of a EV is a big plus for me. One day people will use this as a reason for converting to ELectric.

I am always impressed when I hear how far away some US forum members are from Mitsubishi dealers! I mean 250 miles is practically the diagonal of Switzerland ! I perfectly realize that population density in some areas can be very low but such distance makes me wonder if Mitsubishi has so little penetration into US market or rather very few dealers support the iMiev ?

I sure wish they were giving $10,000 incentives when I bought mine. I got about $1200 off MSRP, I think. Thought I did great at the time.

Congrats!

I doubt you'll ever regret the purchase

What part of Southern Oregon are you from? I was stationed near Coos Bay for a couple of years way back when

Don

Don said:

Congrats!

I doubt you'll ever regret the purchase

What part of Southern Oregon are you from? I was stationed near Coos Bay for a couple of years way back when

Don

Click to expand...

Hi Don,
We're in Ashland Oregon ... south central 19 miles north of the California border, just north of the Siskiyou mountains that make a climate divide between us and California. Weather here is quite different (lots more sun) than Coos Bay or Seattle or Portland.

My wife is, sadly, having some regrets (a bit of buyer's remorse) hopefully temporary:
The seat is not quite as comfortable as she rembers from our drive in the dealer demo car.
The ride a little stiffer (car just arrived yesterday so I'll check if service department over inflated the tires.) She (and I) expected our SE sound system to include bluetooth and the USB jack (apparently that's an exta option) So no way to use our phone, MP3 player, or ipad, through the sound system. And an odd quirk -- the dealer's demo SE had a feature we liked in that when you flopped down the rear seats the headrests flopped down do you didn't have to remove them to clear the backs of the front seats. Ours has stiff mounted headrests that have to be removed when you flop the backseats down.

I'm dissappointed at no bluetooth, but even if I'd known that I still would've grabbed this car at this price rather than pay the $2000 more for the SE with the premium option pack that apparently would've included bluetooth. Still love it. Handles great, tickled at the short turning radius. Get a kick out of how much of an attention getter it is. And feel good about voting with my dollars for something better than ICE for transport. But if wife decides she needs us to get another new car :roll: to feel complete (a bit of desire of something subtle and somewhat subjective like more of a "luxury feel") that may have me thinking "maybe we'd have been better off with the Leaf despite its very significantly higher upfront cost and other pros-and-cons." We'll see.

Alex
P.S., Apologies in advance if I elsewhere her post some questions that seem like cross-posting to other threads here. For example I may post one trying to figure out if despite our lack of bluetooth and apparently no USB input some way to get our music through the SE's sound system (other than burning audio CDs.)


Alex

The USB plug can be added for around $125 and a (very) little elbow grease.

http://www.mitsupartsworld.com/mitsubishi-i-miev-accessories-interior/263-mitsubishi-i-miev-usb-audio-cable-kit-accessories-shop.html

Bluetooth, however, is a different story. The only inexpensive way to add it is to add the double-DIN radio console piece and a third-party radio with Bluetooth. The good things about this are that you have infinite flexibility with whatever double-DIN radio you put in your car, and that it costs WAY less than $2000.

See this post for more info:
http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=509

Having the headrests flip back/forward would be nice, but it doesn't take THAT much effort to pull them off. You may want to consider whether you want to just leave them off for ease of use.

aarond12 said:

The USB plug can be added for around $125 and a (very) little elbow grease.

http://www.mitsupartsworld.com/mitsubishi-i-miev-accessories-interior/263-mitsubishi-i-miev-usb-audio-cable-kit-accessories-shop.html.

See this post for more info:
http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=509.....

Click to expand...

Much thanks. The USB accessory sound like just the right thing, and astonishingly it's an official MiEV part.

Gotta' laugh though about this: When I went to the Mitsu link you gave for the USB plug and clicked on their link for instructions for parts sold on that site it took me to -
-- http://mitsupartsworld.wordpress.com/ --
which is totally blank. Like a third world building site where sign and a gate was put up, but nothing ever built. :roll:

Alex, congratulations on getting such a great deal on a new iMiEV, especially when compared to what your Medford Mitsu dealer was asking!

The rear seat headrests are truly intrusive IMO, and I keep them off unless I'm carrying someone back there; actually, I keep the rear seats down all the time and only put them up if we have the rare rear passenger. Furthermore, I go one step further and remove the passenger-seat headrest as well until someone actually sits there. It takes just a couple of seconds to install/remove the headrests.

Until I get around to installing the USB cable, I simply use a small FM transmitter for my iPod - others have complained about the sound quality but mine sounds just fine, recognizing that digitally-compressed MP3 is already reduced/altered fidelity.

Seats are comfortable (don't allow yourself to be influenced by 'reviews'), especially since the longest you will ever sit in one at one time is an hour. Yes, the ride is bumpier with higher tire pressure (I run mine at 60psi), and perhaps the only time you might want to raise yours above mfg. spec (36psi) is when you're taking a longer trip and need a bit more range. The relatively-short wheelbase of the iMiEV also contributes to the perception of ride 'strangeness'.

Once your wife starts driving the iMiEV, you won't see it again - mine loves ours! Many of us asked ourselves what did we get ourselves into? when we first bought the iMiEV, but that quickly vaporized and now the ICE vehicles are gathering cobwebs and choking on stale gasoline.

Have fun!

JoeS said:

, I simply use a small FM transmitter for my iPod ...

Click to expand...

Thanks Joe!

I have an iPad, not an iPod.

Know if that FM transmitter idea works with iPads?

Alex

acensor said:

JoeS said:

, I simply use a small FM transmitter for my iPod ...

Click to expand...

Thanks Joe!

I have an iPad, not an iPod.

Know if that FM transmitter idea works with iPads?

Alex

Click to expand...

A couple of points should be clarified here:

- Be careful with that USB port and be clear on what it does. It's not a generic audio-in, but exactly what it says - a USB connection. It works with either an iOS device or MSC (mass storage control, which could be anything from an Android device to a USB thumb drive), but either way appears to treat the connected device as a directory hierarchy of music files. You navigate through the radio's control interface, which isn't particularly intuitive but is reasonably well documented in the owner's manual. Biggest caveat is that you must press the CD button to toggle between CD and USB devices.

- There's nothing fancy about the FM transmitter solution. Using one of those, you control everything through your player interface, and the FM xmitter plugs into the 12v outlet and the device's headphone jack. Fancier ones support Bluetooth, and act like any Bluetooth headset/speaker. It really doesn't matter if you're using Android, iOS (iPad, iPod Touch, iPhone), or an old Walkman cassette player, for anything with a headphone jack it's all the same (should be the same for Bluetooth, but that gets into fancier pairing exercises - and of course that wouldn't work with your Walkman ). You tune your FM radio to the station being output by the xmitter (a good one should let you set whatever frequency you want, important if you're in a well-served area with few open slots) and you're good to go, with your portable device now using your car's radio for its speakers.

And btw, congrats on being one of the lucky few to snag this amazing deal. I've mentioned it to a number of folks, a few of whom would be really good EV candidates, but unless you've been researching all this for a while it's kind of hard to appreciate how out of the box awesome a value this represents.

Trust me, the headrests are worse in a Prius. Can't see a darn thing back there.