Friday, June 26, 2009

This isn't what I signed up for: 130~140 MINI E giveaway


So none of the Pioneers care that nearly 3rd of the MINI E fleet is going to cities, utilities, law enforcement, businesses (non-profit and for-profit) at $10/month? I'm not being petty here - this isn't the MINI Cooper Pioneering spirit I signed up for. On Nov 2008, the application process stated 500 Pioneers, all paying $850 per month to gauge viability of an EV.

I can live w/ 50 going to Berlin and 10 going to NYC (announced in January).

I cannot tolerate the recent fire sale of MINI Es in both coasts. By my account, we're up to 130~140 MINIs at $10 per month. I'm going to use my week off away from the MINI E to decide what to do next.

4 comments:

  1. Hi I'm Robert from TwistyBlitz. I have just added your blog to my website.
    If interested go here... http://www.twistyblitz.com/

    I am doing a 4 part MINI E post from my interviews with 3 west coast lessees at my blog and will be offering tshirts and badges at my online store this week.

    Hope you will stop by, RB

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  2. they reduced the lease for the Berlin Minis from 600 Euros to 400 last month,
    makes total sense to me,
    taking into consideration the experimental aspect of the car and the whole operation.
    Normally, european cars in the US are 25-30% cheaper than in Europe, not with the Mini E
    many questions
    cheers
    A>

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  3. Ed, I think I'm going to put this topic on my blog, if you don't mind.

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  4. Anton - thanks for that info. MINI USA clearly didn't do their homework. The project manager was blaming Germany for not giving enough resources - I don't buy that excuse and shame on them for dropping the ball. If the MINI Es were priced right ($500 per month? $600?), I bet there would have been far fewer Pioneers dropping out and a lot less Es headed to the "fleet use". And I hear the fleet MINI Es are mostly sitting around - nice job...

    ReplyDelete