2009 Mini E Long-Term Road Tests Archives

Every time I've jumped behind the wheel of our 2009 Mini E I've rolled my eyes at the fact that the speedometer is located in the center and the battery charge display is behind the steering wheel. I mean, who looks at their "fuel gauge" more than their driving speed? I know, we all heard this before. But the thing is, don't laugh, I had no idea that you could change the digital display behind the wheel to show the speed, too. Until I looked on Mini forums and finally RTFM.

Yes, page 39 of the manual:

"To have the current speed shown in the upper display otherwise serving for the outside temperature display and clock.

1. Press the button in the turn indicator lever repeatedly until the current speed appears in the lower display.

2. Wait for the speed display to automatically move to the upper display.

The outside temperature then appears in the lower display."

OK, now I officially have nothing to complain about.

Caroline Pardilla, Deputy Managing Editor @ 4,641 miles

Categories: 2009 Mini E

Thanks to allenychung for this week's favorite caption. Here are the others that got our Volt.

Mobil Ohm (ergsum)
I don't drink but thanks for the offer. (caswalker)
We don't serve your kind here. (lowmilelude)
I'm just showing off (throwback)
Mini-E-Wan Kenobi, "These aren't the fuels you're looking for" (ergsum)
Checking current fuel prices. (ergsum)
The Mini-E was out of luck, no Charger or Accord to be found. (ergsum)
The Mini-E was out of luck. No Volts, either. (vt8919)
Jumpin' Jack Flash don't need no gas, gas, gas! (technetium99)
What to use Regular Coal power, Wind Plus, or Premium Nuclear? (hybris)
This is where normal cars are charged within less than 5 minutes (nomercy346)
Well, at least the picture is fuel for conversation. (eidolways)
Range Envy (subytrojan)
Donna DeRosa having a blond moment - proof that weekly bell ringing lowers IQ (bluepunk82)
Exxon, exxoff! (ergsum)
CASH only. You can't charge here. (bluepunk82)
RTFM! (subaru123)

What was your favorite?

Donna DeRosa, Managing Editor

And thanks for the song!

Categories: 2009 Mini E

Editor in Chief Scott Oldham sent me this photo of a confused Mini E.

We suggest: Pump Envy

What is your caption?

We'll post our favorite this afternoon.

Donna DeRosa, Managing Editor

P.S., check out the caption contest over at Straightline.

Categories: 2009 Mini E

Last night I got home late from a business dinner and in my haste to leave the day behind me I forgot to plug in our long-term 2009 Mini E. When I discovered my brain fart this morning I had no choice but to drive one of my personal environmentally friendly cars to work. I chose my 1955 V8-powered Chevrolet, which has absolutely zero emissions controls and burns premium to the tune of 11 miles per gallon.

And such is life living with an electric car.

Scott Oldham, Inside Line Editor in Chief @ 4,608 miles

Categories: 2009 Mini E

Hollywood isn't far from our Santa Monica digs, in fact it's so close you could drive to Hollywood and back to our office in our long-term Mini E on one charge. That's close.

And word from Hollywood is that pre-production has started on a sequel to The Italian Job from 2003, which of course was a remake of The Italian Job from 1969. Not surprising right, but here's the interesting part. This time the getaway cars are going to be electric Minis just like our long-termer.

Now I know Hollywood's elite like to paint themselves green hoping we don't notice their private jets, but this is ridiculous. In fact, my sources tell me that the short range of the Mini E will be part of the script. I'm told Charlize Theron's character (she has already signed onto the project) will address the need for the getaway route to be less than 60 miles or they'll get caught by the cops when the cars run out of electricity.

Plus, I hear the stunts being planned for the climatic car chase will be truly extreme, with several jumps, lots of e-brake spins and a Mini E racing and beating the bad guys who will be driving black Tesla Roadsters. It'll be the quietest car chase ever filmed.

Sounds crazy I know, but I couldn't make this stuff up. Could I?

Scott Oldham, Inside Line Editor in Chief 

Categories: 2009 Mini E

I have been driving by the above sign for years. It's at the intersection of Ocean Park Blvd. and 20th St. in Santa Monica about 2 miles from our office. This morning I was in our long-term Mini E, so I decided to search out the Electric Vehicle Charging Station and see what's up.

Another sign further up the road told me to turn right toward the Santa Monica Airport and the old sight of the Museum of Flying, which is now an Audi design studio. But when I got there, the parking attendant told me that that the charging station was no longer there. "They took that out about 8 years ago," he said.

I looked anyway. I drove up and down the street, which is called Donald Douglas Loop, and through all of the parking lots. I saw no evidence of an Electric Vehicle Charging Station.

When I got to the office I looked online. According to www.santa-monica.org there are 18 such charging stations in Santa Monica (list is included on the next page of this post), including two (2 inductive, 1 conductive) at the Santa Monica Airport Administration Building at 3223 Donald Douglas Loop S.

So either I missed it (hard to believe but possible) or the signage on Ocean Park Blvd. and the website are hopelessly out of date.

I'll check out some of the others soon and let you know what happens.

Continue reading 2009 Mini E: The Great EV Charging Station Search.

Categories: 2009 Mini E

As previously mentioned  in other Mini E posts, the brake regeneration really slows down the car when the throttle is lifted. My commute from and to work last night and this morning, I played a little game. It's similar to another game I play when I ride a motorcycle on my seven-mile commute, where I try to never take my feet off the pegs. In the Mini E, I tried to never touch the brake pedal. As it turns out, it's easier than I thought, since the brake regeneration can bring the Mini E to a complete stop. When I was done, I ended up touching the brake pedal only three times for each commute. Impressive, when you consider L.A.'s notorious traffic and "special" drivers. Even more impressive is that the only reasons I had to hit the brakes was because I was on a slight incline and the Mini would roll forward or backwards. OK, it's not the most exciting game - nothing like racing Photo Editor Niebuhr online in Forza 3 - but it helps to make the commute seem less oppressive.

Mark Takahashi, Associate Editor @ 4,450 miles

Categories: 2009 Mini E

Back on Januray 16, I posted that we'd brought our broken 2009 Mini E to Nick Alexander Mini for a fixin'.

We got frequent-enough updates along the way, mostly consisting of, "We heard back from the Mini E people (they have to ship them out for major repairs.), they're not done yet. Need that rental car yet?"

And then on Friday, Jan 22, they called right around 4 to tell me the car was back, charged and ready for pick up. The problem? That warning light, as explained in the manual, was for an emissions related concern. Our car having no emissions, this warning was confusing for everyone. They cleared that out and made sure the software was up to date and returned it.

Being that the dealer in in downtown Los Angeles and we're in Santa Monica, we decided not to pick it up during rush hour on a Friday. When we got the car yesterday it was still clean and freshly charged.

It also must be noted that our experience this time was greatly different than the first service at Nick Alexander. The employees were polite, attentive and knowledgeable. It went extremely well.

Days out of service: 8
Cost of repair: $0.00
Mike Magrath, Vehicle Testing Assistant @ 4,439 miles

Categories: 2009 Mini E

As you know, the Mini E lease project has been a fact-finding mission for BMW. The company recently polled 57 of the 450 Mini E users and collected data from their online logbooks. We're about halfway through our time with electric Mini #116 and our findings are pretty much the same.

Here are the results of the project as BMW sees it.

A full charge usually results in a range of 70-100 miles and this is sufficient for most driver's needs on a daily basis. Charging at home usually provides enough energy for a driver's daily needs. Most people prefer to have an additional charging station outside their homes with their place of work being the most practical as they spend most of their hours there. Shopping centers and stadiums were also mentioned as places they would like to recharge when not at home.

People like driving the Mini E. They get used to the regenerative braking and enjoy developing driving techniques that give them added range. The Mini E is a fun car to drive and people don't feel they sacrifice any "real car" feel by driving an electric vehicle.

On the complaint list was what you would expect. Lack of storage space and the inability to carry four passengers has been as issue. This is usually the reason people leave the Mini E at home and choose to drive another car, rather than a fear of not having enough range.

There was no mention in this poll that many of the East Coast drivers experienced a significant drop in range and some could not even start their vehicles in the cold, snowy weather. But BMW did say its next field trial will be the BMW ActiveE. It will have a more compact lithium-ion battery pack and will feature a liquid heating and cooling system to help provide a more consistent driving range. It is also developing a smartphone app that drivers can use to check the range of their battery and even start heating or cooling the interior of the car, which will allow the battery to function within an optimal temperature range. The test BMW ActiveE will be available in 2011.

Our Mini E has been in service now over a week and I find that I miss it. It suits my driving needs about 75% of the time. I also like that I don't have to go to the gas station. I can plug it in at home and work. I enjoy driving it. It's like a fun little go-cart. And I also enjoy nuancing the accelerator pedal to gain extra range.

As you can see from the participants who comment on this blog, when their Mini Es are away at the shop, they miss them, too.

Donna DeRosa, Managing Editor

Categories: 2009 Mini E

That's all we saw. Just a quick flash of red instead of the normal Mini. Sometimes it went away. Other times it didn't.

So we did what anyone would do with a car under warranty: We called the dealer. Yep, the dealer. The same one who gave us the run-around last time. Well, not much has changed. I called to tell them I had a strange warning light calling for service. They said, "We have to contact you for the scheduled service." I said, "I don't think this is normal maintenance. Looks more like a problem to me." they said, "Again, we call you for service appointments." I said, "I'm bringing it in Thursday." and then I hung up.

So I brought it in Thursday (yesterday) morning and then....

 Follow the jump for details and a fun guessing game with absolutely no prize for the winner!

Continue reading 2009 Mini E: Broken.

Categories: 2009 Mini E

Thanks to tomm250 for this week's favorite caption/poem. 'Tis poetical, as Shakespeare would say. And he's also a Mini E driver, yay!

Here are the others that made good with the colorforms:

ergsum:
Nice sunny day
Scenic road
Take me for a speedy race
My sexy Mini Cooper
Open up & go full thrill
Whipped thru corners we zip
Rocked by incredible tunes
Super ride
Great motoring!

dougtheeng:
Your mooning rocked my face.

dougtheeng:
checkered flag, mini logo, flames, lighnting bolt?

vwthing1:
Let's make sexy in my [mini logo]

charlesb:
Mini Cooper rocked
Thru windy corner thrill ride
A full moon road race

vt8919:
MY MOON IS WINDY!
MY MOTOR IS MINI.

mnorm1:
Windy tunes thru a full moon whipped my &!S in a Mini

vt8919:
[Mini Logo] [Mini car] [flame] [Lightning Bolt] [checkered flag] !?

vt8919:
THE MOON IS FULL. LET'S TAKE A SPEEDY TRIP, SEXY!

vwthing1:
open your zip & make moon

subaru123:
Sexy Cooper, let's take the ride.
Let's take the corner super speedy,
Thrill me & Go!

charlesb:
Incredible trip to race the moon
Full zip up a windy road.
Great, full face by a corner.
Rocked by a Mini & the moon

estreka:
My Mini Cooper
Let's take a scenic road trip
We make motoring

What was your favorite?

Donna DeRosa, Managing Editor

Categories: 2009 Mini E

Let's try something a little more challenging this week.

One of the items in our Mini E goodie bag was a pageful of window poetry. They are individual words you can peel off and stick on the window, similar to refrigerator poetry magnets. They stick on like colorforms. So, I put them all over the passenger window of the Mini E.

This week your caption can only use the words you see on the window.

For example:

Thrill Me, Mini!
Take a corner
Make my day sunny
Motor me to the moon.

Here are two enlargable pictures of the words. Hopefully, you can read all of them despite the glare.

Have fun.

We'll post our favorite this afternoon.

Don't forget to check out the caption contest on the Straightline blog.

Donna DeRosa, Managing Editor

Categories: 2009 Mini E

Here are some vintage car ads from the early part of the twentieth century. These are all from the teens.

As you can see, car manufacturers marketed electric cars toward women. They were stylish, didn't smell, and could get up a hill, just like our Mini E.

More pictures after the jump...

Donna DeRosa, Managing Editor

Continue reading 2009 Mini E: Predecessors.

Categories: 2009 Mini E

The Mini E's special home charging unit glows as it tops up the battery.

I charged the 2009 Mini E at home for the first time and it wasn't as much of a hassle as I had feared.

I backed the Mini E up to my garage and flipped it over to 120 volts on the dashboard. I unsnaked the special charging cord and plugged it in. Then I went inside and went to bed. As the electrons flowed, I snored.

Continue reading 2009 Mini E: Beats Going to the Pump.

Categories: 2009 Mini E

Around the office, when the other editors discuss the 2009 Mini E, I often hear something like this, "When you're on the highway going at a steady speed the charge needle drops like a rock." 

This was in my mind as I left the office today under full charge, the range showing 88 miles to empty. Amazingly, traffic was still moving so I cruised the freeway at a steady 70 mph. When I reached my house, 31 miles later, I had a range of 72 miles. So I covered 31 miles but the range was only reduced by 16 miles.

I'm not sure what uses the battery quickly but I'm guessing that, like an internal combustion engine, repeated accelerations are costly to the power source. Similarly, my smooth cruise produced a higher than expected fuel efficiency.  

Regardless, the Mini's on the charger tonight -- just to be safe.

Categories: 2009 Mini E