Warranty on Bianco's battery after 95k miles.

[clovi]

After check the post from “Psyflyjohn” about the battery change on his IMIEV, drove my 2012 IMIEV Bianco to the dealer on 01/21/2019.
For months, the car was showing the turtle light with full/half/low charge, like the post I just saw from “Graveaxis”. On my car, wasn’t necessary drive at 50/60/70 MPH. I have pics driving at 42 MPH, but I saw it at 38 MPH.
This past winter, the thing got a bit worse.
On my now 15 miles commute, predominantly flat, I need to drive on a highway, which the limit is 65 MPH, or a state road (50 MPH limit) which is possible to overtake.
So, imagine be at the left lane, trying to overtake and the turtle light shows. The speed you are expecting is not there!! Don’t need to say anything else. Nothing happens, but…
The Renn Kirby Mitsubishi dealer in Frederick MD., was as always, very nice. I told them to, “please fix the problem with the turtle light”. My other 2012 IMIEV ( Vino- 43 K miles) , which I bought also new with them, does not have the same problem. They gave me an ICE Mitsu Eclipse Cross as a loaner, and kept Bianco with them.
During that week, they told me that Mitsu ask them to do some tests. They did not guess “it is the AC/DC converter” or anything else. No answer on what was going on.
On the 2nd. week, they called me. They told me that the problem was with the battery, and they didn’t have an answer if that was a warranty or not.
On the 3rd week, Mitsu told them that were the battery pack, but the problem was related to “normal ware”. There is no warranty and I need to pay, at least, $300.00 for the tests ($190.00 after discounts, which I did not ask for).
The Service Manager at Renn Kirby was nice, to the point that he told me that he was “fighting” for me on this case and would call Mitsu on the next day again. The reason was very simple. I told him that I don’t need another battery, but want to fix the turtle light, which became impossible to drive the car safely! So, how to fix? Answer from him: “With another battery!!!” OK! Well, I told,” The battery has 10 years/100.000 miles warranty. If there is a warranty, why do I need to pay for a new battery?”
OK, next day another call, and : “Clovis, I try to explain but as you told me, they are running in circles with us: How to fix? New battery! Who need to pay? You! But there is a warranty!!! And on, and on, and on.
He told me to call Mitsu directly and talk with them. Spoke with some “Technical professional”, which handles these kinds of cases. Same answer. Same circles, which does not make any sense!
Drove the Eclipse back to the Renn Kirby. They needed and I understood. Now I have no car. Only my Wilier HY bicycle to commute, but it is winter still!!! Now, my daughter with the Volt goes to college, my wife with the other IMIEV (Vino) needs to work, and I have the Wilier!!! OK. I was a cyclist on the past, but is cold!!! Some Days fine, others...
My wife drove me sometimes to work and picked me up later on the evening, when she could. Other days, I left my daughter at the university, which is 30 miles from home, than commute with the Volt (another 20 miles), than back to the university to pick her up, etc… Thanks Volt, you have a back up plan!!!
Called Mitsu again. Bianco still at Renn Kirby!! Told the “Tech professional” that “The reason for the problem, regards to Renn Kirby was the battery. The battery still in warranty, as far as I can see on the manual and if you are not willing to replace, the next call will be made by my lawyer!”
Week later, called the service manager at Renn Kirby. I told him what I told them. He told me to wait a bit. He called Mitsu.
After 30 minutes, same day, he called me back asking me if I was seated. I did, “OK, I’ll”. He told me Mitsu revised the case and the battery would be replaced under warranty!
So, car is there still, got the loaner Eclipse Cross again. Called Mitsu yesterday . The battery will be here, from Japan, in a month.
So, it was obvious that the problem was the battery. There is no enough energy from the battery to the motor to move the car as fast as I needed. It was simple, and regards to the manual, there is 10 year/100.000 miles warrant, wherever comes first.
Renn Kirby is awesome, everyone there. I want to believe that the “Tech Professional” I mentioned before wasn’t living his best days. Mitsu was awesome also and complied with their policies and word ! I just played the patience game, like “Psyflyjohn”. Renn Kirby and Mitsu hooked me! Thinking on the PHEV on the near future!!!
Graveaxis. Could you solve your problem? Probably you need to find another dealer!?
Hope this post help others.

Cheers,

 

[jray3]

Wow, congrats Clovi, but I'm disappointed to hear of such a runaround when Mitsubishi was presented with a straightforward technical problem. What sort of price on the replacement battery did they quote you for a non-warranty replacement?
I'm hoping that the month wait is due to ocean freight and not that Mitsu keeps no inventory of spare battery packs.
So do you get to keep the loaner Eclipse Cross during the month of waiting?

 

[clovi]

Wow, congrats Clovi, but I'm disappointed to hear of such a runaround when Mitsubishi was presented with a straightforward technical problem. What sort of price on the replacement battery did they quote you for a non-warranty replacement?
I'm hoping that the month wait is due to ocean freight and not that Mitsu keeps no inventory of spare battery packs.
So do you get to keep the loaner Eclipse Cross during the month of waiting?

Thanks jray3!
It is straight forward, but as I told, "I want to believe that the “Tech Professional” I mentioned before wasn’t living his best days. Mitsu was awesome also and complied with their policies and word !".
I didn't ask exactly, but as far as the Service Manager told me, around 8K.
Yes, here in US, probably we have the minimum. This is coming from Japan. I asked if this battery is the LV50N or newer, but didn't have an answer yet , either from Mitsu or Renn Kirby.
Yes, I have the loaner Eclipse Cross. Renn Kirby is doing a great job.
Cheers,

 

[iwatson]

Mitsu was awesome also and complied with their policies and word !".

I read this post with great interest. I had a hard time understanding what I was reading, which is usually not the case for me. Usually I have very good comprehension.

I detect a grammatical style that is a little unusual. If I were hearing your testimony instead of reading text, I assume you might speak with an accent that I am unfamiliar with, which might make comprehension difficult. Please understand, this is just my impression.

On the one hand you seem to be praising Mitsubishi for making good on the warranty of 10 years/100,000 miles. But on the other hand you describe that they tried every way possible to get out of it, and place the burden of repair on you. Only when you departed from being kind and gracious, and threatened them with legal action did they seem to decide that you were important to them. Unless I am totally misunderstanding your post, I doubt if I could offer such kind praise for them as you did. The story sounds as if the local dealership was trying to resolve your issue properly but were being prevented from making good on the battery warranty by Mitsubishi.

Please tell me that I am missing something, that I am just having a hard time understanding you?

Mitsubishi took a chance when they brought their battery electric vehicle to these shores. And their customers took a chance by purchasing these vehicles. I'm sure it's costly for Mitsubishi to continue to service such a small segment of it's clientele, but these are the customers who have taken the greatest risk, and have placed their greatest faith in Mitsubishi's battery warranty. Those that purchased new have already taken an enormous depreciation hit on these vehicles. So it is only proper that Mitsubishi fulfill their obligation to these early adopters. At some point Mitsubishi may put a new BEV product on the market and their commitment to these customers will give new customers the assurance they need to buy these products.

The two that I own are fabulous vehicles. In many ways (but not all) they are superior to other plug-in vehicles that I have owned or driven. Their only achilles heel is their short range. For people looking for a used i-miev you should know that they have many other attributes that make them fun and functional. It is my hope that they will give many more years of excellent service, even though these vehicles are no longer available new.

Someone explain that I have got this all wrong, that I misunderstood, and I will gladly erase or delete my reply?

 

[clovi]

Please tell me that I am missing something, that I am just having a hard time understanding you?

Hi "iwatson".
I'm not a writer. I'm a Physical Educator.
My apologies if you did not understand my text.
Many things happened between 01/21/2019 and now. I just tried to explain as best I could.
We are not perfect. That's not the goal here, I think.

On this phrase you wrote ( "Please tell me that I am missing something, that I am just having a hard time understanding you?"), I also found some grammatical issues. But this is OK. One more time, this is not the goal.

You can't misjudge a company (Mitsu) because ONE employee. As I wrote, I think was not his best day! I know how to forgive. Soonest the case got slightly higher on the company, they honored their policies and word.
I drove the loaner car for the first 3 weeks, paid out by Mitsu or Renn Kirby, I don't care.
Didn't have a loaner car for the next 3. After their approval, I asked for the car loaner car again. "Here it is!!!". I've been driving it since, paid out by Mitsu or Renn Kirby, I don't care!!

This is called service.

They, some how, are doing what needs to be done. Period.
As you do, I have 2 IMIEVS. Awesome cars which save me a lot of money. No issues, no problems.
When something happened, BINGO!!! They stand behind their word!!
Better, as far as I know, than some other car companies .
I have absolutely nothing to complain about Mitsubishi or Renn Kirby.
Just wrote this post to help others, like Graveaxis.

Cheers,

 

[iwatson]

I can see from your response that I was mistaken about what you said.

You are saying that the problem was with the local service writer who was having "a bad day", but everything got resolved and Mitsubishi honored their warranty.

I have taken a moment to amend my previous reply and soften my stance on the matter.

Like you, I congratulate Mitsubishi and it's dealer for working to resolve this issue for you.

Thanks Clovi, for taking the time to help me understand.

 

[Don]

Mitsu (the company) has been very good to me also. Like several of us here, we have two of the cars, driven daily. Unfortunately, about a year after we bought the first one, our local dealer folded up and went out of business. The next closest dealer in Mobile Alabama does not service EV's. That left us with either New Orleans or Pensacola Florida when we needed warranty service

The first recall for the vacuum pump was done by our local dealer before they closed and the next 2 recalls were done in Pensacola. Similar to Clovi's story, it took some talking and getting to the right person before Mitsu agreed to pick up the tab to have the cars trucked to Pensacola and back to get the work done. The first time, a local towing company picked them up early in the morning, drove them to the dealer and waited 3 or 4 hours for the work to be done and then trucked them back to us the same day. The second time, the dealer kept the cars overnight and we didn't get them back until late the second day

Both times, the dealer's service manager was VERY helpful in getting our 'situation' to the office of someone at Mitsu who was high up enough to authorize payment to get the cars transported there. Our dealer is Pete Moore Mitsubishi and I highly recommend them to anyone needing any sort of service

Our two cars have each had one set of tires and one set of windshield wipers so far in 7 years of ownership - That's about as maintenance free as anything with 4 wheels could be . . . . wish I could say the same for my Kubota diesel garden tractor! For me, the only negatives to owning these cars is that Mitsu doesn't have many dealers and not all of them work on electric cars . . . . but then, the same can be said for Chevrolet. The 4 closest dealers to us do not sell or service Volts or Bolts and I have to go more than 50 miles to a dealer in a small town if I need anything that I can't do myself. Luckily so far, the Volt has been as problem-free as the iMiEV's

I do wish Mitsu had stood behind these little cars 10X more than they did. Very little advertising, dealers who work on them are far and few between and getting to the *right* person at Mitsu when you have a problem requires a dealer who is willing to go the extra mile for you and I'm sure not everyone has one of those. Great cars and we hope we're still driving them both 10 years from now

Don

 

[JoeS]

Clovis, thank you for taking the time to recount your experience. Glad to see that your perseverance is paying off and that Mitsubishi is finally going to take care of your technical issue, the bonus being a new battery.

From Clovi's description, my impression is that the "Technical Professional" at Mitsubishi was the one stonewalling and that the local dealer was providing very good service. In any case, after some inconvenience to Clovi, things are on their way...

I find it interesting that Mitsubishi no longer stocks spare battery packs in the US. When they do finally ship it to the dealer it comes with handling equipment as well for the dealer to perform the swap.

A few years ago I had a battery lose a cell, which Mitsubishi replaced expeditiously and with no hassle at all.

With the experience Mitsu gained with the i-MiEV, as well as their electric racecar experience (e.g., Pike's Peak hillclimb) I hope that corporate knowledge will continue into producing another nice small BEV as a result of their teaming arrangements with Nissan and others.

Meanwhile, the Achille's Heel of the i-MiEV is not its low battery capacity (which we knew going in), but the OBC/dc-dc whose failure and subsequent replacement cost which will probably (sadly) result in premature i-MiEV scrappage. Now that we have some history, the i-MiEV battery wear-out mileage looks to be around 100,000 miles, which also doesn't bode well for i-MiEV longevity. I don't know if a business case can be made (but I hope it can) for a third party to a) repair OBC/dc-dc, and b) upgrade/repair battery packs.

So far, most of us have have had a great and completely troublefree experience with our wonderful little workhorse.

 

[clovi]

Just to let you know, on 07/15 (week ago) I drove the loaner Mitsu Eclipse to Renn Kirby Mitsu (Frederick, MD, USA) to pick up my IMIEV.
The car was ready with a brand new battery, which was replaced under warranty. The car was there since 01/21/19. After this long wait, finally he car was ready.
I would like to thanks Renn Kirby Mitsu for the excellent service and loaner car.
The car has now almost 95K miles, and is running pretty well. After a full charge on the next day, the range indicator showed up 93 miles. I'm back now on my regular 80"ish" % charge avery day!
Yes, it is a long process. Mitsu does not have batteries in US.
After the battery arrived at Renn Kirby they need more time to wait for some kind of "airbag battery lifter" ( which took another two weeks) , etc, etc...
After ask which cells are on the new pack, the answer was "the latest. The one they are using on the 2019 models worldwide ".
If someone is having problems like what I've had, don't give up. Go to your dealer, call Mitsu in California, be patient!

Cheers,