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(that's February 3, 2008 for the uninitiated)

After 2 ½ months of waiting, my ZENN has finally arrived.  And, based on the limited experience so far – it was well worth the wait!

The car was delivered to me at 1530 on 2/2/08 by Ron Gompertz of Eco-Auto in Bozeman.  The “electric blue” 2.22LX had 49 miles on it when it arrived on Ron’s flatbed trailer.  This is a little higher than usual, but my car was driven all around Bozeman getting graphics and a motor swap before being delivered to me.

I drove it around the parking lot a bit before plugging it in for about an hour.  Initially the fuel gauge read only 2 bars, but after only an hour it had charged up to completely full.  On the way home – just under 3 miles – it dropped by only a single bar.

The car sure attracted a lot of attention on that initial drive home!  I saw quite a few heads snap around, and a couple of folks “paced” me while looking, trying to find out what this odd little car was.  I saw a number of approving smiles in the rear view mirror.

I was quite pleased with the performance of the car, too.  It accelerated quickly to 36 mph and rode quite smoothly.  The brakes required far less pressure than I remembered, as well.  This was something I had worried about, concerned that getting used to a hard-breaking ZENN would make me stand my other vehicles on their noses.  No worries on that account, however.  This ZENN’s brakes are great.

The steering is excellent as well.  Tight and responsive, it requires just the right amount of force.  At least to my way of thinking, that is. 

My commute is an easy one – 3 miles on the flats with a top speed of 40mph for only 1 mile.  On the initial commute, I found that I simply didn’t feel that I was going slow – I was just moving with traffic as usual.

After a full night of charging, it was back on the road for a quick shopping trip to the local health food store.  Again, the car performed well as my wife drove it to the store.  We parked it right in the front of the store and placed some brochures under the wiper blade.  One was taken immediately by another shopper, and one of the checkers asked for one as we were leaving.

By the time we got home, the last charge bar was blinking – after a total round trip of only 7 miles.  This is a pretty short distance, but the batteries are brand new and the outside temperature pretty low at only 19 degrees.  Interestingly, when getting home I immediately felt the forward batteries to find that they were cold to the touch even after a complete discharge.  Clearly, battery warmers are sorely needed.

I put the car back on charge for 2 hours before venturing out to the next store which was only 1 mile away.  I was surprised to find the charge gauge showing “full” after only 2 hours on charge, but there it was.

As soon as we arrived and parked, a guy in a Tahoe pulled up next to us and commented on the car, and asked how fast it went.  When I answered “35” he replied “that’s fast enough for around town”.  He left the store at the same time we did, and asked for one of the brochures on the car, opining that “we’ve got to do something about the fossil fuel problem”.  Then he asked to get into the car and look around.  He seemed to like what he saw.

The 2 mile round trip to the second store depleted only a single bar.

Another thing that this first shopping trip taught me is that there is actually quite a lot of cargo space in the ZENN.  2 20 pound bags of cat litter and 3 big canvas bags of groceries took up less than half the cargo space.  The shape of the cargo space allows for efficient storage.

One of the other things I noticed was that there is quite a bit of space behind the seats, before the floor rises to form the top of the rear battery compartment.  I wouldn’t be surprised to find it possible to place a row of another six batteries across this space – although perhaps a slightly smaller form factor.  This space seems useless for much else, so it might be something to consider.  Of course, that space would decrease if you are quite tall, but at 70”, I’m a very moderate sized guy.  It might work for me.  The ZENN has far more legroom than my old Ford Ranger, for example, so I don’t have to put the seat very far back.

After spending my first day with my ZENN, I was very happy with it.  And I was also very glad that my wife insisted on getting the LX version.  The upgraded interior gives the ZENN even more of a “real car” feel.  And, that “new car smell” is great, too!

After putting away the groceries, I went back to the garage to spend some time looking around the car while it was charging.  I discovered that the heater runs just fine while the car is plugged in, and warmed up the inside nicely.  I also found that, while plugged in, the instrument panel displays an enigmatic “3047” in the odometer field when the key is in the accessory position.  In the motor position, all is normal. 

Day 1 with my ZENN was, to my mind, an unqualified success!  The fit, finish, and performance were all better than I had hoped.  But, best of all, the car is just a hoot to drive!

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I’ve put about 40 miles on my ZENN in the past few days – and am enjoying it more each day!  I simply can’t express how much fun this car is to drive!  About the only difficulty I’ve encountered is that every errand takes quite a bit longer than usual.  That’s because I’m constantly being stopped by folks who want to know all about the ZENN! 

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As of today, I have had my new ZENN for exactly a week.  Ron Gompertz delivered it to me last Saturday (Thanks, Ron!!).  This week has been an important one for me as I had only one chance to test a (stock) ZENN before ordering mine.  Then, 2 ½ months went by until the factory could fill the order – indicating to me the good news that sales have been brisk!  I think I heard that the Ambassador Program had the effect of doubling the number of ZENNs in the US.

The fit, finish, and all the other niceties of the ZENN were impeccable.  My wife had insisted on the upgraded interior and, in retrospect, she was right.  Highly recommended.  I do wish two entry transmitters were included, instead of one, but I’m sure they can be ordered.  A couple of grocery shopping trips demonstrated that the cargo space is surprisingly large and efficient in shape.  I may have to add some plastic bins to prevent things from rolling around back there.  I even hauled a full case of 4 foot fluorescent bulbs in the passenger seat.

I had all kinds of little questions about the car, goofy little things like “will the headlights be bright enough?”, and “will the heater be good enough?”  All such questions have been resolved positively.  However, I am considering an auxiliary 117VAC interior heater just for the convenience of not having to leave the key in the ignition to get the on-board heater to run.

I had my ZENN modified with the Hi Performance Golf Cars 18hp AC motor and Curtis 1238 controller as soon as it was delivered to Bozeman.  The top speed of 36 mph easily allows me to blend in with traffic on my daily commute, and while scooting around Great Falls.  I’ve had lots of people give themselves whiplash trying to get a good look at the car – good news for the chiropractor who shares my office!  But absolutely nobody has acted impatient or ticked off.  In fact, I often find myself having to pass!  I’m tempted to remove the “slow vehicle” emblem on the rear hatch.

As others have pointed out, it’s all too easy to spin the tires with this motor – plenty of torque!  Acceleration is great.  Without trying, I’m often the first off the line at a stoplight.  At first blush, and admitting in advance that I don’t really know what I’m talking about, it seems to me that the 18 horse motor has plenty of power to perform well with an 8:1 replacement gearset and standard tires.  I plan on playing with the car as it is for a few weeks to months, then getting to work on the gearset replacement.  Given that 45mph is the top speed posted anywhere in this town, and  mostly it’s 30-35,  if I can boost the top speed to around 42mph (a 20% increase) – I’ll be perfectly content. The only bad thing about this situation is that it leaves me so little to tinker with!

The one quibble I have is with limited range – something I fully expect to rectify itself when the weather warms up and the Discover batteries get broken in (or when JC Whitney finally gets around to shipping my battery warming blankets!).  Even with the decreased range, however, it is more than sufficient for my commute.  It was about -5F when I drove the ZENN home last night.  After being on charge at the clinic for 2 hours, it usually registers completely topped off.  Last night, however, it started out two bars down.  Nonetheless, the car performed normally on the drive home and the charge gauge did not drop at all on the 3 mile drive, even at that temperature.

When I had my ZENN modified, I also had the mechanic wire in some AC extension cords going to the two battery compartments.  They come off the stock charging port, so only a single extension cord is needed to plug in.  These internal extension cords are intended to run the back-ordered battery warmers, but could easily be used for an internal AC heater as well.  JC Whitney has a couple of such heaters that are claimed to warm up the cabin well enough to melt snow and ice off the windshield in 15 minutes.

Wiring the heater extensions off the stock port has the disadvantage of making it a bit harder to turn off the battery warmers when they are not needed.  I hope to solve this problem by using a thermocouple switched AC socket to automatically disconnect the battery warmers when the temperature is above freezing.  These things are used to control heat tape applied to household or barn water pipes and are easy to find in cold climates.  For about $300 this system should be one reasonable solution to the cold battery problem encountered here in the best state for “medium speed vehicles”.  Perhaps it might be considered as a factory option?  (Ian Clifford – you heard it here first!!)

Ron from Eco Auto strongly recommended getting a set of snow tires for the car and, like already reported, I found them to be a significant improvement (but you won’t catch me drifting around turns, pulling the e-brake.  No guts, I’m afraid).  Again, highly recommended.

After driving the car for only a week, I’m convinced that these little cars are very viable second or third cars for those of us living in small-town America – and not just in the urban corridors and gated communities often suggested.  I think ZENN is missing an opportunity by not marketing to this niche, as well.  And, as other cold country ZENN Masters ™ have pointed out – these cars are not limited to Florida or Arizona and do just fine in the cold.  Judging from the overwhelming interest I’ve experienced, all this would seem to be born out.  All my brochures were gone in the first two days, and I couldn’t go ANYWHERE in the car without being stopped and asked all about it.  When I got the snow tires put on, every grease monkey in the shop stopped what he was doing and surrounded the ZENN.  I even had one prospective customer test drive my ZENN before making the 3 hour trip to Bozeman.

The verdict at one week?  With the sole exception of range – which is a temporary issue – my ZENN has exceeded my expectations and hopes in every area!  Now, for the gears….

Boilerplate went here.

Here, you will find a blog-type account of my experiences with my new ZENN.  Hopefully, it will help you to make the decision to buy one!