In Jay Leno’s Garage

Gregory Kaufman Mar 12th, 2009 Link

Fantastic. Thanks for sharing. Very cool.

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Andrew Zimmerman Mar 12th, 2009 Link

I thought the purpose of the MINI E field trial was to gather real world data on the car’s use as a daily driver Giving it to a celebrity with hundreds of other cars doesn’t seem to make much sense.

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DB Mar 12th, 2009 Link

@Andrew Zimmerman: I’m pretty sure this was a press car. Although I wouldn’t be surprised if is leasing one “just because”.

But you are right, wouldn’t make sense if he did.

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bee1000 Mar 12th, 2009 Link

It’s a demo car. It has dealer plates on it, and it seemed clear in the interview that it wasn’t Leno’s.

I wish the in-car parts of the video were better. I would have liked to hear it with the windows up to see how quiet it was, a side-by-side acceleration run against pretty much any car would have been nice, and a demonstration of the regenerative braking is a big oversight. I remember reading that Mini expected the regen to do the vast majority of the braking work, and we didn’t get a good idea of that from Jay.

That said, it’ll hold me over until Top Gear test drives one.

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JonPD Mar 12th, 2009 Link

Fun video, actually happy to see a review from somebody outside of Mini. Not a lot of new information but still find my self wishing this was going to be leased locally.

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greg Mar 12th, 2009 Link

Actually, it makes NO sense that Leno would have this in his garage. Leno likes FAST cars, not a glacier on wheels.

A JCW in Leno’s garage makes sense.

In general, this car makes no sense. But of course that doesn’t matter anymore.

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goat Mar 12th, 2009 Link

Very cool vid and glad BMW has put this car out there for field trial. I think the car seems a more-than-credible “first version” of all-electric propulsion for MINI and will be interesting to see the accounts of daily driving!

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Fred Mar 12th, 2009 Link

Collecting data is only one part of the experiment. Who better to generate publicity than a car aficionado who happens to be a congenial, well-known television personality? Nice, basic review/promo. Thanks.

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JonPD Mar 12th, 2009 Link

Actually Greg Leno does have a huge selection of cars that are not exactly fast. He also is a well known car nut so I would have to say makes sense if Mini tried to get one of these into his hands.

I also have to say it was a better video for the Mini E than anything Mini has done so a win/win.

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JonPD Mar 12th, 2009 Link

Add this technology and I think this car could be very viable.

http://www.autoweek.com/article/20090312/CARNEWS/903129987

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M. Dillon Mar 12th, 2009 Link

I liked the video. If there is anybody I would listen to,in regards to cars,IT would be Jay Leno…

…not a bunch of,”arm-chair car snobs”,who spend their time hating every other article on MotoringFile…

Also,in a bit of irony,I watched the,”Living With Ed”,show last night,and saw Jay and Ed talking about the Baker Electric Car(…did not know it was made for women in mind…lol).

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Dr Obnxs Mar 12th, 2009 Link

Makes perfect sense that one would end up in Lenos garage. Despite what some others think, there are lots who are interested in automotive technology that are very interested in electric vehicles. And Mini could pretty much gaurantee that if one did end up in Lenos garage (for an hour, a week or a year) that it would generate more PR than having it parked in some Garage in some suburb.

Pretty cool!

Matt

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C4 Mar 13th, 2009 Link

I think Leno owns/owned a MINI at some point in time? (R53 S)

Madonna is another huge MINI fan, FWTW.

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AUSmotive.com » Jay Leno talks about his MINI E Mar 15th, 2009 Link

[...] Jaylenosgarage.com via MotoringFile var addthis_pub = ”; var addthis_brand = ‘AUSmotive.com’;var addthis_language = ‘en’;var [...]

goat Mar 18th, 2009 Link

He also has a supercharged first-generation mazda miata… also not exactly “unobtainium” but it’s interesting, a great drive, and so it’s got a spot in his garage.

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