Purchase, and then some

Once we finally figured out the ramifications of the Ten Thousand Dollar 'Dealer Incentives' program, and, a quick look through the oh-so-diminished $coffers$, we went out looking for a car to buy. Considerable searching and calling later: as far as I can tell, there were three units left in the state.  None of them are the ES version that I wanted, and none of them have CHAdeMO high current charging, that would have been nice, but not essential.
The one in Eugene is a White with Blue SE with all the premium options -except- the potentially useful charger. *AND* it has eight thousand miles on it!  They've been using it as a 'parts hauler' and they STILL want $36K for it. (after dealer incentives 26K). Yuck. No way.

A Portland dealer, Gladstone Mitsubishi has two SE base models for $32K. That's more like it. One is Silver and one is White with the blue accents. We give them a call and get things set up for the next day. They're gonna have to give it a full charge because it's 77 miles away. Right at the very limits of the car's range.
So we get up there and Barry the lead salesman  (with the super whiz-bang EV certification) who is really a nice guy, insists that we test-drive it. I'm not keen since chewing ANY of the range sounds like a bad idea, but we'll have it on charge for an hour+ during 'paperwork' so off we go for two miles. Woo. Funny, it drives JUST like an MiEV. We got the White/Blue. Pretty spiffy.
OK so paperwork was more like two hours and that was probably enough charge time. Around $22K  @ 3%ish before federal tax credit fussing. Not so bad. About $14K total after taxes.

Having carefully plotted a route to mimimize high speed driving we finally leave the dealer about an hour before sunset. Within ten miles I think I'm in trouble. The seat heater won't turn off. Pops on every 5 mi. or so. Help help!! it's eating my range! Calling the dealer doesn't help. Turns out the switch is hidden by a tag on the keys that has flopped down and stuck to the dash. We don't figure it out until we're down in Salem.  A smart person would have signed up for the BLink and AeroVironment charger networks before leaving. I'm not so smart.
Even on local roads at 25mph we're gonna be short on charge. Having to turn the headlights on isn't helping. Fortunately my sister's place is just outside Albany. We hit 'Turtle Mode' (very low charge warning) about a mile from their place and stop off for a couple hours of very slow charging using the stock EVSE cord.
A funny thing happens. One of their vehicles is dying, so they decide they're gonna get an MiEV too. We know the silver one is still on the lot just having come from there, and we have the EV sale's guy's cell number. While we're charging, the next MiEV sale in Oregon gets arranged. These are the first people we've showed it to and suddenly they're buying one. Wonder if this is gonna be a regular event. ...I imagine *not* since there aren't any more units available in Oregon ...
The following day we drive them up to the dealership and wait while everything gets arranged and then shadow them back home using the same route as the previous voyage.
Edit: Since we also work together there are now frequently Two MiEV's in our parking lot. Work even provides charging! Interesting how things turn out.

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...

Previous Attempts

Beginning with my first DIY electric bicycle project (12 mi.@ 18MPH) back in the '80's there have been a number of attempts to electrify our transportation stable.  'Stable' isn't quite the right word for some of them...  ;-)   First one:
http://www.evalbum.com/190
It's still hanging out on Mike's EV-Album and still running around N.C. as far as I know. It ran me to work for most of 8 years. Pretty good!

The second attempt was a screaming deal, it just didn't actually work very well.
The story: http://the-redmenace.blogspot.com/
and it's beginnings: http://the-redmenace.blogspot.com/2009/01/in-beginning.html

Not a whole lot positive to say about the R1. I learned a lot (of what not to do) It never did really prove very useful. The story is amusing in retrospect and I did get about half my money back out of it in the end, so it coulda been worse.

The third go'round was actually useful transportation for awhile.
It came to an exciting end though as you can see: http://lefantomeblanc.blogspot.com/

Those blogs have plenty of details if you're interested. There's also been a 2000 Honda Insight that got 72 MPG over the ten years I had it (and is still going strong for my neighbor) and a 2010 Insight that we leased while waiting for Honda to get it's electric car shit together (which I still don't think has happened.)
My S.O. has a 2010 3rd gen.Prius which works rather well, but obviously I prefer 'pure' electrics...