From June 2009 to June 2010 I had the privilege of Driving an All Electric MIMI E for a year, it was a great experience, and got me hooked on electric cars. I've since moved on to other electric cars which I will blog about.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Switching into Neutral

Well I finally had my first serious problem with the MINI E, the dreaded switching into Neutral problem, that other MINI E owners have reported. I was almost home after a 80 mile drive and came to a stop at a light on a steep hill. There was a VERY Big Truck behind me and when the light changed to green and I hit the gas nothing happened for a second then I started rolling backwards. I quickly hit the break and noticed the front panel had a big N on it while the stick selector was in D for drive. Realizing what was going on from other posts by MINI E owners that had already experienced this problem, I quickly shifted into part and hit the on/off button to turn off the car, all the while keeping my foot firmly on the brake and dreading the coming of horns blowing behind me. Once I was sure the car was off, I hit the on/off button again, the car booted up normally and I was able to shift into drive and get moving all before a single horn blew.
Not that bad of an experiance it could have been a lot worse, if I'd been unable to get the car started again, that would have been a very bad hill to be stuck on, no side pull off and a long long long way down to the bottom.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

3000 miles

#304 had its 3000 mile service, was fairly uneventful. drove in and dropped off my car, I work nearby so I didnt need a loaner just a ride to work.
I mentioned that I've been noticing a bad smell in it I think it has something to do with all the air that gets pushed through the cabin while its charging. I also asked about the side decals we had been promised, but the service rep didnt seem to know anything about that, he wasnt the MINI E specialist (unfortunately I never got to meet him) but said he'd ask about it.
They finish the same day, no problems to report and the car was smelling much better, they even washed it ( hope they remembered not to wash the under carriage ).