I just bought an iMIEV

[bennelson]

I just bought a Mitsubishi iMIEV electric car.

I got it in south-west Chicago and drove it home, through the first snowstorm of the season, using CHAdeMO public quick-charging to my house 40 miles west of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Here's the full write-up:
iMIEV Cross-Country Snow-storm Road Trip





It was pretty cold, but totally do-able, thanks to the power of Quick-Charges and Coffee!

2012 Model Year Mitsubishi iMIEV - all electric
62 Mile range.
$6,995
30,000 miles (This is really high for these cars. Many have 8-15K miles on them.)
CHAdeMO Quick Charge Port
Alloy Rims
Fancy Stereo and Backup Camera

[Daox]

Great story Ben! I just finished reading it. Its always an adventure with you haha.

I can't tell you how many times I thought of going down there to buy from the same dealer. They've had a few all summer.

[gone-ot]

There *IS* something (positive) to be said for "standardized" power charging stations!

[vskid3]

Nice story! How much longer would you say the drive was versus a gas car? Any mods planned?

[markweatherill]

Nice to read through that. It's 'nay-sayers' and not 'neigh-sayers' though

...but do you still have the flood-damaged one?

[MetroMPG]

Woohoo! That was a lot of excitement for 140 a mile journey.

Did you pump the tires up before you left? If not, add that to your "things I did wrong" list

...but do you still have the flood-damaged one?

Yes, I'm also interested to know how this story might intersect with the salvage one.

[bennelson]

Yes, I still have the flood damaged salvaged one.

I have a friend looking at buying a salvaged (crashed) iMIEV. If he does, we'll use some of the parts from my salvage car to fix the one he gets.

Otherwise, at least for right now, I have really cheap insurance on the iMIEV. If I get in a fender bender, I don't need the insurance company to fix it. I have spare fenders on the other car....

Nope, I didn't pump up the tires on the car before leaving.

The drive was SLOWER than with a gas car, because of the speeds I was driving, my route, and charging. Mile-wise, it was the same, or possibly even a little less distance.

As for mods, the car only has a heated driver seat. I would like to add an aftermarket seat heater to the passenger seat.

Some sort of a system of thermal mass would be interesting as well to improve winter heating, especially getting that heat from the wall.

[MetroMPG]

Well, congrats on the car. I know the iMiev doesn't get a lot of love in the EV world, but I like it. I even think they look cool, in a dorky sort of way.

[darcane]

Congrats on the "new" car!

Clearly you bought it because of my glowing review of jray3's i-MiEV:
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ive-32876.html

:P

I am curious if it has any quirks with driving in the snow. I've always preferred RWD for driving in snow, and this video makes it look like it would be a hoot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2Tt3bmy9mE

[Daox]

Did your imiev come with the charge control / hvac remote Ben? It seems this is a frequently lost item when these cars change hands as its separate from the key fob.