johnr
Well-known member
With nearly 3 years owning a LEAF as my daily driver, I feel it's time to express my true thoughts. The one thing that's great about the LEAF is its electric drivetrain: Simple, reliable, performs well. Also I like the UV-blocking windows and the quiet windshield wipers (features which are not exclusive to this car of course). But nearly everything else about it - most of the basic features of any car - were so poorly conceived in the LEAF it boggles the mind!
The fact it takes a tedious sequence of several button presses to turn on the vent without using A/C or heat
The heater takes several minutes to warm up and blows cold air in the mean time
The nag screen that comes on every time the car is started
The fact it goes to Neutral if you try to go into gear before it has finished booting up
It used to go into Neutral if you try to start it when plugged in - a real danger on an inclining driveway - but it doesn't seem to do this any more
The brake pedal goes klunk if you press it too soon after entering the car, or if you wait too long after entering
Regenerative braking is largely lost when on rougher pavement
The braking force is unpredictable - clearly the car adjusts braking pressure based on a variety of factors, taking over my responsibility as the driver
Unintended acceleration ramps up to maximum power from a stop when pressing the go pedal moderately in D, let go and press again and it returns to normal
The GPS is very slow in responding when entering in an address or editing a route
The GPS locks out when the car is in motion - so even my passenger cannot enter an address without me having to park the car
Navigating the nav screen is quite tedious and not at all intuitive - and this coming from someone who has lots of computer experience
The maps have many errors and show charging stations that don't exist - supposedly there's one at the edge of a farmer's field just out of town
The visibility is very poor - the side pillars totally block the street corners at intersections, so I have to do a side-to-side dance to peek around them to watch for pedestrians
The choice to use a push-button start-stop doesn't work so well for an EV in practice, for several reasons that I've experienced
The charging port door cannot be opened from outside
The car wobbles a lot in turns - clearly the suspension needs some major tuning
The range bars on the display are always 12 on a full charge, even as the battery ages, meaning that the number of miles in each bar diminishes so I can't rely on the accuracy of even the range bars
The car eats up tires in a hurry - probably because the tires struggle to maintain traction on each wobble of its wobbly suspension when going around turns
To view the status of the climate control you have to navigate through several screens on the center computer
When slowing gradually and then engaging in stop-and-go traffic, the brakes become super-sensitive resulting in the car lurching embarrassingly and dangerously
I don't like having regen on the accelerator pedal - it makes it difficult when I want to just coast
The sun visors are too small
The rear seat head rests are too large and impair visibility out the rear window
A couple of the window motors are already showing signs of wearing out
...and meanwhile, Nissan won't take any of these issues seriously. I took it to the dealer and the technicians verified some of these issues - but as it didn't generate any "codes" they explained it away as compromises Nissan had to make because it's a heavier vehicle - well I'm not buying that cop-out. It's great that they decided to make an electric car, but their implementation of the basic car stuff - not the high tech electric stuff, but just the basic simple car stuff! - they failed at miserably. This was my first Nissan, and I assure you I have learned my lesson and my next car will not be a Nissan!
The fact it takes a tedious sequence of several button presses to turn on the vent without using A/C or heat
The heater takes several minutes to warm up and blows cold air in the mean time
The nag screen that comes on every time the car is started
The fact it goes to Neutral if you try to go into gear before it has finished booting up
It used to go into Neutral if you try to start it when plugged in - a real danger on an inclining driveway - but it doesn't seem to do this any more
The brake pedal goes klunk if you press it too soon after entering the car, or if you wait too long after entering
Regenerative braking is largely lost when on rougher pavement
The braking force is unpredictable - clearly the car adjusts braking pressure based on a variety of factors, taking over my responsibility as the driver
Unintended acceleration ramps up to maximum power from a stop when pressing the go pedal moderately in D, let go and press again and it returns to normal
The GPS is very slow in responding when entering in an address or editing a route
The GPS locks out when the car is in motion - so even my passenger cannot enter an address without me having to park the car
Navigating the nav screen is quite tedious and not at all intuitive - and this coming from someone who has lots of computer experience
The maps have many errors and show charging stations that don't exist - supposedly there's one at the edge of a farmer's field just out of town
The visibility is very poor - the side pillars totally block the street corners at intersections, so I have to do a side-to-side dance to peek around them to watch for pedestrians
The choice to use a push-button start-stop doesn't work so well for an EV in practice, for several reasons that I've experienced
The charging port door cannot be opened from outside
The car wobbles a lot in turns - clearly the suspension needs some major tuning
The range bars on the display are always 12 on a full charge, even as the battery ages, meaning that the number of miles in each bar diminishes so I can't rely on the accuracy of even the range bars
The car eats up tires in a hurry - probably because the tires struggle to maintain traction on each wobble of its wobbly suspension when going around turns
To view the status of the climate control you have to navigate through several screens on the center computer
When slowing gradually and then engaging in stop-and-go traffic, the brakes become super-sensitive resulting in the car lurching embarrassingly and dangerously
I don't like having regen on the accelerator pedal - it makes it difficult when I want to just coast
The sun visors are too small
The rear seat head rests are too large and impair visibility out the rear window
A couple of the window motors are already showing signs of wearing out
...and meanwhile, Nissan won't take any of these issues seriously. I took it to the dealer and the technicians verified some of these issues - but as it didn't generate any "codes" they explained it away as compromises Nissan had to make because it's a heavier vehicle - well I'm not buying that cop-out. It's great that they decided to make an electric car, but their implementation of the basic car stuff - not the high tech electric stuff, but just the basic simple car stuff! - they failed at miserably. This was my first Nissan, and I assure you I have learned my lesson and my next car will not be a Nissan!
w/smaller rear head restraints. A product manager (IIRC) from Nissan HQ of TN came to speak at Nissan's Sunnyvale R&D office and made some claim about their current size (IIRC) due to regulations. IIRC, he was a product manager for the Leaf, GT-R and possibly the 370Z, as well.
