I'm losing faith in Mitsubishi.

We bought our I-Miev a couple of months ago. It was near freezing when we bought it and it never occurred to us to test the air conditioner. 3 weeks ago we had a hot day & turned on the AC. It didn't work. I phoned the dealer, did some over the phone testing and it was determined it needed to go in for repair. The dealer is just out of range. They offered to tow it, but I suggested that if it could be repaired in one day I'd drive it and if I didn't quite make the trip we'd tow it from there. The mechanic was confident it could be fixed in one day: "If need be I'll rob parts from a car in stock & replace them." It was a week before I had the time to drive it, but during that week I heard that Mitsubishi stopped selling them, except for 3,000 miles from me. I called.... the mechanic didn't even know they had none on the lot nor that they were not going to be getting any. So, they towed it. The shop was good about keeping me informed. "We need a special oil. There is none in the USA". So, it took a week to get some. Once they had that oil they could diagnose the AC. They talked with Japan & were told "Replace the compressor". They told the dealer it would be 30 to 40 days to get one. He told them that was unacceptable and he'd call back the next day to order one with next day shipping. Now it get's interesting, and frustrating. It was on the third day that I got a call from the district manager. I was expecting him to tell me they had the compressor and it would be a few more days to get it installed, but, no, he told me it hadn't been ordered yet! I was shocked and amazed. He explained that it could not be ordered because they had no part number as none have ever been needed. I told him that I have dealt with international things and the paperwork can follow the part.... that he only needed one thing: a human in Japan that wants him to have the compressor. I said he still had plenty of time today (yesterday) to make it happen. He said he'd see and call me on Monday, but he doubted it would occur until they got a part number generated. ARGHHHHH!!! I've been without it for 17 days now and it's occurring to me that this could happen with any part.... what if we need a diode or a capacitor? What if it's out of warranty? Will we be looking at months of waiting and stupid expensive parts? I guess I'm disappointed that they've stopped selling them and this fiasco is making me leery. *sigh*

With so few i-MiEV's having been sold in the U.S., I'm afraid that we'll all be facing delays getting expensive parts in the future. So far, at least, the good news seems to be that these are very reliable cars that don't break very often.

It seems to me that your Mitsubishi dealer is being unreasonable keeping your car for so long while waiting for parts, especially since your car is drivable without the A/C. At the very least, you should have been offered a loaner car.

The dealer has been as good as he can be....they offered to pay for a rental, and also the gas that it uses. I don't need the wheels though. Come Monday if they can see it will be some time, they will in fact return it so I can have it while we wait for parts. Silly..... they refuse to pay me $100 a month....my cost of taxes & insurance, but they are willing to pay $30 a day for a rental, and/ or $560 to tow it back & forth. It's $275 each time they tow it.

Hi,
when ordering our iMiEV i the planning stages, I thought about spare parts and what would happen if say the front got damaged.

I asked the dealer here in NZ for a quote and availablity of the main parts I asked for. The front screen is the windscreen. I think he meant compresser not condenser as I had asked about the aircon unit as a whole. he replied back :

I have the first few issues advised as per below:-



Parts costs / availability:

Air con condenser $590 plus gst

Radiator $946 plus gst

Front screen $716 plus gst

Fan motor $297 plus gst



All except the final item are currently in stock and we carry a wide range of spare parts. Everything is available x Japan by air freight which is usually within 10 days of order.

.
The parts numbers would proberbly the same here as in the USA for items like the compressor. Likewise, I would expect the unit to be a standard item not a one off so if you can get a parts book, and a maker, then you can contact them directly.

We had a problem here in NZ with our Adventra, needed a new radiator, none available in NZ, only one available in Australia. Mentioned the problem to a friend who suggested a local garage, who said does it look like this and sent me a faxed page of radiator types, as the car came out with different versions for different motors, and I pointed out the right one, and it was delivered in two days.

To be fair, it was a Taiwanese version, but the even the dealership said that the original Aussie ones were made not very well so I think the Taiwanese one is likely to be better made.

Hope that helps.

frxdy, I hope you can get it fixed soon - I just hope their diagnosis is correct and it's not some trivial issue - difficult to believe that a brand-new car doesn't have a working aircon - first time I think on this forum. There are a negligible number of issues of any sort reported with these iMiEVs, one of the more common being the dealer failing to properly install a radio fuse.

frxdy said:

... but during that week I heard that Mitsubishi stopped selling them, except for 3,000 miles from me....

Click to expand...

Sorry, I missed that - what exactly did you hear and from whom, as I wasn't aware of Mitsubishi actually stopping selling iMiEVs.

I read it on here.....then followed up with an Internet search. As of the 2013 model year the USA I-Miev will only be available in California and Hawaii. I'm in Maine!

On this Forum someone had speculated about the 2013 iMiEV. As far as I know, the only 2013 model on the North American continent has been Canadian. To this date, no 2014 model year iMiEV has been announced. I, for one, really hope that Mitsubishi does not abandon the iMiEV for the US market.

frxdy said:

I read it on here.....then followed up with an Internet search. As of the 2013 model year the USA I-Miev will only be available in California and Hawaii.

Click to expand...

There is only one Mitsubishi dealer in Hawaii who sells the i-MiEV, and most of his 2012 models have languished on his lot unsold until the recent steep price discounts. At the end of December, 2012, I got a good price on a very early SE that had been manufactured in 2011 prior to the MSRP increase and that had sat on his lot for over a year unsold.

So the demand for the i-MiEV in Hawaii hasn't been very robust even though it is an ideal car for Honolulu residents in many respects. Hawaii's EV purchase rebate ran out of funds over a year ago and hasn't been renewed which has hurt demand. So unless Mitsubishi drops the price on the 2013 U.S. i-MiEV considerably unlike the 2013 Canadian model whose price was increased (!), I would be very surprised if Hawaii is included in the few states in which a 2013 i-MiEV would be sold, assuming that a 2013 i-MiEV is sold anywhere in the U.S.

Even with the yen weakening with respect to the dollar, I doubt that Mitsubishi could lower the i-MiEV price enough to generate sufficient demand and to make a profit or even break even. There have been too many very negative reviews of the i-MiEV in the U.S., and the competition from other E.V.'s has increased considerably, both of which make selling an essentially unchanged 2013 U.S. i-MiEV very challenging.

We got the I-Miev back! Yippeee! And.... it's fixed! Well.... I haven't tried the AC yet as it got returned at sundown last night, but I'm sure they wouldn't pay to return it unless it was right.

My faith is restored. I spoke with the regional rep last Friday. I expressed to him I thought the new AC compressor could be here in the USA quickly if desired. On Monday I got a call saying it would be 7 or 8 days to get the compressor. Oddly, the next day I got a call saying the compressor had come in, the mechanics jumped on it and the job was done. I'm so happy to get my little friend back. Even though we only had it a short time before this problem was discovered we sure missed it.