Why Won't Anyone Notice My Electric Car???

I think the mini electric car is fascinating and adorable.  If I saw it on the road, I would certainly notice the plug graphics and want to pull alongside it at a red light and ask about it.  I truly would.  Why won't anyone notice it??  I even passed two other minis today (the gas kind) and they didn't seem to notice.  I get more questions when I walk my labradoodle.  Even when parked in the Whole Foods parking lot, a place where I imagine there are other people who are interested in organic food, alternative power sources and buying green, there were no questions and no looks.  Today I could at least forgive people for not noticing my car, since there was something else quite unusual and beautiful to see in NY:  the sun.  Ah, well.  And here is a picture of the trunk, just so you can see that, unless you are John and Kate plus 8, there is plenty of room for a couple of bags of groceries.

Milo in the Mini

I decided to use this photo of our labradoodle, Milo, in #237, as part of my blog header.  They are both so darn cute.  Milo looks slightly upset because I told him he can't have the car tonight.

Slipping into neutral??

okay, this has happened a couple of times already and it happened again today... I was pulling the car into the garage, very slowly.  I had driven it for about 30 minutes, got home, turned it off, ran into the house, came back out and turned it on again to pull it into the garage to charge.  While doing so, the car slipped out of D into N.  What gives???  Had to do the reboot to get it into D again.  Has this happened to anyone else?  Plus, we had more torrential showers today and I had more dread about driving through deep puddles.  That actually didn't cause any problems, even though there was plenty of water everywhere.  Had more dread with the charging cable and all the dampness in the garage, but all was fine.  Wow, this has not been the month in New York to develop a fear of water.  

Living with the Mini-e: Planning Ahead

So I have discovered that until the more powerful charging cable comes along, I need to really plan in advance (not the way I usually operate), since it takes over a day to fully charge on the 110 volt cable.  That means one day of use, one day of rest.  Also, arriving at home now means plugging in before I go into the house.   Yesterday during charging, one of my fuses kept tripping in the house.  I turned off every light, didn't use the washing machine or the A/C (a good thing to do anyway, if you can) and it still kept tripping.  On the brighter side, it is so much fun to drive that my husband and I both reach for the keys when we are taking it together!

first charge with the 120 volt cable

My wallbox charging station was installed weeks ago, but apparently Mini has been having a problem getting the charging cable that attaches to the box.  That cable will fully charge the car in only two or three hours (so I'm told) but since there has been a hitch getting the cable out to people, I will be using the 120 volt cable that comes with the car (takes almost a day to fully charge the car! but plugs into any grounded electrical outlet).  We drove #237 into Manhattan and back last night (about a 50 mile round trip) and the driving was great.  Parked in the Village and waited for someone (anyone!) to notice the car.  Only saw one guy pointing towards it and talking to his friend, presumably he knew it was electric.  I have a need for people to notice the car.  What's up with that?  Anyhow, got home late and didn't want to start messing around with the cable and the manual, so waited until today to charge her up.  

#237 comes home on June 16,2009

So I am participating in the Mini-e field trial... 1 of 500 people chosen to test drive the mini electric car for a year.  The prospect of having a plug-in Mini Cooper was ridiculously tantalizing. I decided to keep a blog for the year to document my experience with the car.  The story starts here, with #237's arrival at home.