Malibu BBQ - 148 miles RT

110v Charger plugged into GFI Circuit, charging happily away.

Saturday we drove 74 miles to our Malibu friends house for BBQ.

Planning to overnight, I knew we could find a charger nearby but wanted to try the 110v cord that comes with the car.

Arriving at 3:00 pm with about 25% left of a Full charge we immediately plugged the car into a GFI circuit at the alley wall of the house and left it to charge.

Many others have written of problems with GFI circuits and report that they do not work,

we had NO SUCH problem, the car charged fine.

We had a wonderful afternoon and evening with our friends, went to bed, awoke, had breakfast, walked on the beach and checking the car at Noon found we had 90% charge.

Thinking we can surely drive the 74 miles home, we said goodbyes and started out.

Perhaps because it was Sunday and there was No Traffic we made great time.

Watching my Odometer, the Computer Estimate of miles remaining and calculating,

doing the math, because we were making such 'good time' I calculated we were going to be about 5 miles short on range!

Not wanting to walk 5 miles or wait for a tow truck, we called Long beach Mini which was right on the way, just off the freeway at Cherry Ave in Signal Hill. A quick look at the card in the glovebox for the number, call LB MINI, ask if "we can get a charge?" and the reply is "Not on Sunday, Service Dept is Closed, no charger."

We called again and asked for someone involved with the Mini E program and I was about to tell them we were coming anyway and they could find someone with the keys, when a new voice came on the line and said "OK, Ask for Junior!"

We arrived, a very nice young fellow met us at the door for us, I asked for Junior, He said "I'm Junior! Would you like some nice cold water?"

I told him we were looking for a half hour charge and he said "where are the keys?"

I gave them to him, he took the car.

We had a nice half hour rest looking at new Mini's and BMW's next door, had a nice talk with a Beemer salesman, 'Junior' came back with the car and we were on our way again with a 75% charge and two bottles of cold water.

Thank You Junior Mercado, as with most of the people from BMW and MINI we've met since joining this program, you couldn't have been nicer or more accommodating, Fine Job!

As it happened, the bottom line was we made it home with 25% remaining, thats exactly what we added in the half hour stop at Long Beach Mini. If we hadn't stopped at Long Beach Mini, we would have necessarily called 'The' truck or worse, had to start Walking as, due to the 'short' charge, we would have used ALL our range and had nothing left.

The Important Point of all this for other Mini E drivers is:

• The Dealer chargers are only actually available during normal business hours and NOT on Sunday.

• And don't take NO for an answer, ask for someone else who knows what you are talking about and realizes that we are all in this together and They Can Help.

Still loving this little Car!