GEM CAR EVALUATION

This EV was provided to the Owner of ElectricCars.com for an extended period of time. Testing involved actually purchasing the GEM, delivery & common daily transportaion.

PURCHASE:

AUGUST 5, 2002
Making the move to Electric!

Even though I own ElectricCars.com I found myself faced with the same questions buyers everywhere consider:

Is it a safe car to drive on the roads in our city?
Will we be stuck in the middle of the road with dead batteries?
Isn't this just a fancy golf car?

My Wife loved the GEM car when she saw it at the LA EV Auto show several years ago. This car is perfect for us being that she works just 1.6 miles from our home, there is a shopping center is within 1/2 mile, and we have 2 other gas vehicles for longer distance trips.

Our GEM was on sale at Costco for $3995 which we felt was a steal! - California had offered a $2,000 rebate program to help EV's sell. (The actual price was $5,995 plus tax) Truthfully more than $5,000 would be too high of a price for this 2 passenger vehicle and I don't see how NEV's on the market over $10,000 will sell at all!

DELIVERY:

Our GEM Arrives! Delivery was made on schedule within the estimated 3-4 weeks

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I have been involved in auto sales since college and have seen the debuts of many incredible vehicles including Porsches, Ferraris, Acuras, but none compared with the attention this GEM got when it rolled off the truck on the street in front of our house!

As the instructions stated the first thing you want to do is plug the GEM into your wall outlet to fully charge it. Because our GEM was delivered at night we spent the evening answering questions from our neighbors in our garage.

Some common responses we are hearing are "How smart we were to get this car!" and "How cute, cool, new, revolutionary the GEM is". People agree this little car is a look at the future of the auto industry.

FIRST DAY:

By 7 am the next morning our GEM was ready to roll. We noticed the charger had a quiet sounding cooling fan while charging and when the car was fully charged the fan turned itself off.

The first day we drove up and down the streets of our neighborhood to get used to the car. This took about a minute! The GEM takes off from a full stop like a rocket! To make the GEM street legal there is a speed restriction governor on the accelerator that holds the speed at a safe 25 MPH, however because of its size you actually feel like you are going much faster... Truly, I own a Trans Am that burns rubber but this GEM is just as fun to drive!

The roads near our home are marked 40 MPH and up, so we are restricted to criss-cross the major intersections and use back streets - This gives you a new view of your neighborhood - We enjoyed taking things a little slower and zooming around the quiet backstreets. The reactions we got from people in passing cars was amazing. They ranged from amazement, shock, disbelief, wonder and even a few people who raced around corners to get a better view.

One thing we did notice which is unfortunate is that out of 200 people who see you driving in the GEM there seems to be one person who seems to think the GEM is a golf car that doesn't belong on the street - The first time this happened we didn't expect it - The person rode on our tail as if to make us pull over to get out of his way. We did pull over even though he was legally wrong by following so close. Being realistic we will anticipate some negative reactions and expect to be cutoff at intersections.

We stopped for lunch at a nearby pizza parlor and you would have thought Elvis had parked in the front parking space! The adults who stopped and walked around the car were as impressed as the children who were laughing and saying "Can we go for a ride?"

People actually walked over to our table to ask how they could buy one, how much it cost, etc. We didn't know this was going to be such a social ice breaker.

FIRST MONTH:

Overall rating Update Status EXCELLENT!!!

Our first 30 days driving the GEM have been perfect! The GEM operated Flawlessly being driven to and from my Wife's job.

However we could not anticipate the "social aspects" of driving a NEV in our area. People literally stop what they are doing to come ask us questions about the car.

Several of our single male friends have asked to borrow this car to cruise the beach areas in our town!

At first we felt we had to plug the GEM in every night but we are finding that one charge per week is plenty to keep the batteries above 50%. By far the largest decline in charge occurs when you are at 25 MPH for several miles. You can actually see the charge meter counting down 98,97,96,etc. Being that my Wife is an excellent planner I cannot conceive a time when she will "run out of volts".

I would recommend the GEM for anyone working within 5 miles of their home.
NOTE: Experts suggest charging the GEM after every use to keep the batteries at peak performance and greatly improve the life span of the cells.

ACCESSORIES:

HARD DOORS: After waiting 9 months for our hard doors to be delivered they arrived... The final price was $1,995 for these doors made of hard plastic with thin plastic windows.

But the first day we had trouble closing the right side door. The door handle snagged and we could not close the door at all without a fairly uncomfortable slam. And the driver side window would not fit into the slot at the top of the door... After a few attempts to close the window the window cracked.

Status Update EXCELLENT!!! GEM and our local Dodge dealer picked up the car and fixed the passenger side door. They put an order in for a replacement window for the driver side... We have made the recomendation that the plastic should be thicker to withstand "real world use" and the design of upper window clip be given another revision. I am predicting that over time these clips will break too.

Stay tuned to see how Dodge and GEM deal with correcting these doors.

FIRST 6 MONTHS:

Overall rating Update Status EXCELLENT!!!

Owning the GEM for the first 6 months has been "As Carefree as a Gas Powered Car!" Plugging the GEM in once a week is FAR BETTER than standing at a gas pump for 10 minutes!

We are starting to see GEMs all over town. We live in a beach community and notice them almost every weekend over near the harbor recreation areas. There have even been a couple on the street for sale. Almost like these are "Real Cars" now. Everyone's got a story about their "Friend or neighbor buying an electric and loving it"

There have been NO MAINTENENCE ISSUES. Everything still looks brand new. (We keep ours in the garage with the ecception of the 8 hours at my Wife's work).

Due to a "brutal Southern California Winter that brought almost 10 days of rain HA!" The GEM sat from Feb-April. We have ordered the NEW HARD SIDED DOORS and they have been hung up at the manufacturer due to design problems. ETA 2 more months.

Our 2002 TAX DEDUCTION was effortless and our CPA found the California incentives in his rule book in about 10 seconds!

YEAR ONE CONCLUSION:

Great car for short trips, Buy one! I can only imagine the EV's to come but until faster long range models become this affordable this is a great car for trips to your local store or work.

2 YEAR REPORT:

24 Months of Virtually Care Free Driving EXCELLENT!!!

PERFORMANCE: My Wife has truly enjoyed every ride to work! She says it is still fun to "zip around in a toy like a kid again". All the initial concerns about safety are no longer there. You just learn to let people pass you by. But, unlike the first couple months it seems like people know the car and treat her with respect.

MATINENANCE: BATTERY STRENGTH For a brief period of time this year we felt the batteries were not holding a charge like they did when they were new. We have just learned to open the car up and add DISTILLED WATER into the batteries at least once every 2-3 months. This takes no time and after a couple times it is easy.

APPEARENCE: PERFECT Surprisingly, our GEM still looks "factory fresh'. The paint is clean and all the components look as good as the day we got it. Our GEM sits in my wife's parking lot 9 hours 5 days a week howver it is kept in our garage at night.

ISSUES & CONCERNS:

"Change is Good" I don't know where they got that saying but there are definitely people who snicker and say rude things about our GEM. But these are the same people who make comments about Electric Cars in general.

We just laugh, or sometimes I'll ask them how we should spend the extra $300-400 we'll be saving on gas this year?

Safety Issues Driving the GEM gives you a sense of going fast. Probably because of the lack of doors protecting you from the wind or being able to see the ground as you move? This is no concern as you have so much fun after just a few minutes zooming around your neighborhood.

However, I am hearing many people are "physically removing" the on board "Governor" on the speed control. This was a legal requirement made by the US government to protect GEM passengers from flying out of the car or worse having the GEM tip over, lose control, etc.

Without the governor I hear these GEMS turn into electric race cars that go "50 miles per hour!"... Wo!

Being that I own ElectricCars.com I have mixed feelings about doing this. My official position is DO NOT remove the governor. But, to be totally honest this world would be a boring place if all the cars on the road drove like kids cars... Be an adult, be responsible and drive safe no matter what car you own. Some people are sharp enough to fly a Lear Jets, some people shouldn't be allowed to drive tricycles...

Driving Visibility Visual coverage in the driver's seat of the GEM is far beyond any car I've driven. The car comes with a backup "beep beep" alarm and this is just embarrassing... They should remove that feature. If you can't look over your shoulder you shouldn't be driving any car!

Night Driving The halogen headlights on the GEM are incredible! There are no concerns that we have encountered regarding forward visibility at night.

Street Safety One concern I do have about all electric cars applies to the GEM. When you are driving in the middle of the night on an quite residential street this car is so silent I am sure there will be thousands of injuries to pets and animals wondering the streets.

In our neighborhood there are several "dazed and confused" cats who for some reason love to lay down in the middle of the roads. Perhaps to feel the heat from the pavement... or maybe because they listen to Grundge Rock music... We've actually driven right up to these cats and they seem to look like they're about to be beamed up by extraterrestrial life forms!

Try to drive a little slower at night!

OBSERVATIONS:

"Chick Magnet" My friend owns a $250,000 Porsche. I have to say that our GEM attracts more females, nicer people and more attention than his "Quarter Million Dollar Chick Magnet"... Just a thought for our single members!

Malibu, California Driving down the Pacific Coast Hiway we saw a guy driving his GEM with 3 passengers right in the middle lane. (The speed limit is 45 so legally he was in violation)

Palm Springs, California People are saying they see these GEMs "Everywhere" in Pal Springs.

Phoenix, Arizona Apparently, the number one state in the USA for GEMs.

SERVICE UPDATE

AUGUST 2004

Overall the car has run great but after 2 1/2 years the batteries are going weak on us so we are looking at about $450 to buy fresh cells and there seems to be a grinding sound in the gears... we've contacted GEM and will see if these issues can be resolved.

SERVICE NEEDED 08/04 - Grinding noise heard when you let up off the accelorator. We called a GEM technician who came to our house. He was there for about 10 minutes and took it out for a test drive. His suggestion was that it is the "motor" and to "live with the noise, it was about $1,000 to replace the motor and it should drive like that for a long time". The service call cost us $135...

Our car only has 1,200 miles on it. The batteries are a dissppointment too. They are getting wearker and it is now necessary to charge the car after every drive. The service tech quoted us $1,100 to replace the batteries. This equals ONE DOLLAR PER MILE DRIVEN!

TWO YEAR CONCLUSION:

Hmm, we love Electric Cars but the GEM is not holding up to most vehicles you can buy in the $7,000 to $9,000 range. GEM tells us their new 2005 model is much better but we don't own one so all we can tell you is the 2001 was a dissappointment. If we had purchased a gas car that needed a new motor after 1,200 miles we would paint it yellow and put it on the front page of our website!

Chrysler is building a weak EV... Sure wish someone would get one of the stronger EV's on the market!

REPLACEMENT PARTS:

For those of you experiencing the same issues we thought we'd post some of the replacement parts. Please note specs change and as the terms of this website ways we do deem this info reylable but not guaranteed. Consult a trained technician for part updates and installation.

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Click here for Authorized So Cal Repair of GEMS. Talk to Darrell.