I picked up the MX-3 today. I took it through AirCare and it passed with flying colors. It seems kind of pointless, as I plan to rip out the ICE in a few months anyway. Oh well...The AirCare is good for two years so I won't have to worry about it for a while. I asked one of the guys there about EV conversions and with a blank look on his face he said something about calling ICBC (our provincial government run & owned car insurance/monopoly) to straighten it out. I don't have to worry about that for two years at least.
The car actually runs really well. 280,000 km on the odometer. I spend much of the evening fixing burned out exterior lights. It took 2 new headlights (both low beams/daytime running lights didn't work), 4-1157 bulbs, a small clearance lamp bulb and some sanding on some very rusty bulb sockets. It has been sitting in a grass field for a while. Maybe light bulbs don't like grass fields. I am kind of looking forward to testing out my hypermiling skills because this is the first manual transmissioned car I have owned since learning about this new-fangled thing known as hypermiling.
I also removed the driver's side front wheel and rear wheel and drum to check things out. Looks like the brakes were done recently. That's good news.
Here's some pictures:
Yes, that is in fact paint falling off the hood and zip ties holding the front bumper on. It is a $400 car, after all!
It turns out there is WAY more room behind the back seat than I ever would have imagined. Way more than a civic hatchback. Even way more than my wife's Toyota Matrix. Good news for battery storage!
I ordered one of these today:
http://www.amazon.com/Schumacher-SC-...6361551&sr=8-5
I don't have a proper charger to maintain all these batteries I am collecting. I am tentatively planning to eventually buy few more of these for my on board chargers, so I will test this one out before I do.