Genesis:

After the Zap car burned down we started looking for something that would really work in the really real world.
All the noise getting generated at the time was surrounding the Nissan LEAF, *This* at last sounded like the be-all to end-all of pure electric vehicles. I read everything, subscribed to mailing lists, even acted as a volunteer talking head when the LEAF World Tour came to Portland.
I was *SO* stoked!
And then it finally showed up. We came. We saw. We did the math.  -aaand even after state and federal incentives it was almost $30K. That's too bloody expensive!
Especially if you've just bought a house. Talk about extinguishing your buying power...
Sure they're down around $24K now, but that was then.

Right in the middle of that, the Mitsubishi MiEV was announced. Read all the early noise and reviews. Waited, waited... The first two finally showed up in Oregon. Went down to Eugene. We were the second potential customers to test drive the first unit they got in and...
That's too bloody expensive!  Despite supposedly being 'much' less than the LEAF when it came out this one priced out to almost $28K AFTER incentives. Bummer.
Granted there was supposedly a cheaper (ES) model that would have worked out closer to $22K (after) but that was still kinda high for what it could do (which matched our needs almost exactly).
Anyway, I couldn't -quite- talk myself into going after one. And, there was still the house$$...

Fast-forward a year, during which I was mostly ignoring the problem.
An amazing thing happened. Mitsubishi USA turned out to be complete idiots. Various bits of internal infighting and other high quality product management had yielded a total of 588 vehicle sales for the entire year ending Dec.2012. That's for the entire nation. Woo Hoo: Fire Sale!
Only somehow Oregon seemed to get left out of the early version(s) of the Great MiEV Dealer Incentives Sale. After a flurry of interest, I went back to ignoring the problem. However, an even bigger announcement ($10K Off!) finally came to my attention in May. Yes I know, some people had jumped on this before I awoke to what was going on. Negotiations began. Results? well, that's another post...