Leaf-Curious in Dallas

[mkjayakumar]

Since you live in the Plano/Allen area you are welcome to stop by at my place to look at my Clippercreek EVSE installation.

Even with some of the shortcomings you mentioned on the lease, I still believe the current lease offers on a 2013 Leaf are pretty good. I helped a friend of mine get on a 24 month lease yesterday from Autonation for $295/month with zero down, 15k miles a year, T&T included and no disposition fee. This is an SV with LED lights and QC charger package. The other offers were $270/month for an SV with no LED lights or QC, and $250/month for a base 'S'.

My 24 month lease-return inspection is scheduled next monday and I will know if they are going to rip me off on bogus extra wear & tear that will make the whole leasing thing a losing proposition or not.

 

[dfwJim]

So for now I'm going to continue driving my 140k gasoline car which needs struts and a timing belt but otherwise seems to be running fine. But I'm going to watch what happens to Leaf prices as more off-lease Leafs hit the market, and I'm going to watch how the battery situation evolves...do the batteries continue losing 10%-20% capacity per year in TX? Do they level off? Do we get a buy-a-replacement-battery option? That's what I'll be watching for.

Well crud. I ran the numbers and determined the cheapest course of action is to continue driving my old car, and the next-cheapest is to trade up to a late-model version of the same car.

But I may be talking myself into a 2-year Leaf lease, if the deals that mkjayakumar report are what I could get, knowing that although it's pretty cheap transportation it's still at a premium compared to what I've done the past 6-12 years. I want to drive quietly and more efficiently, and I want to let work pay for half my commute fuel.

And I took my gas car to the shop Monday and found out that my struts are fine and my engine doesn't have a timing belt, but I had to get the upper control arms replaced and some other work done, so it should be set for maintenance for a couple of years, especially if it gets demoted to long-range backup car.

 

[Pipcecil]

sometimes is hard to get the leaf comparable for price alone. It really is quite dependent on the price of gas and, especially, how much you drive. For myself, driving 20k per year puts me into the "I am saving a ton of money" category. 4.5k miles per year is a very small number and would be difficult to justify, by cost only, the leaf.

 

[Graycenphil]

It is practically always cheaper to continue driving your old car.

That said, it is really easy to rationalize buying a new one, once you decide that's what you want to do.

 

[Pipcecil]

It is practically always cheaper to continue driving your old car.

That said, it is really easy to rationalize buying a new one, once you decide that's what you want to do.

Its always cheaper since you don't have a car payment, but it could be more costly depending on how reliable the car is or if something major breaks down exceeding the value of the car. Its a game of cat and mouse - at what point do you cut your losses and say - this car will just be too expensive to upkeep and maintain...

 

[dfwJim]

Stefan, I am 6'2" and very heavy, and in my brief test-drive I found that the Leaf fits me about like a Prius in the driver's seat--well enough, but of course not as roomy as a full-size--but there is no way even a child's legs would fit between the back seat and the back of the driver's seat while I'm driving.

When I wrote that I was referring to a Gen 2 Prius. I test-drove a Gen 3 2012 Prius today and hate what they've done with the center console. It hits my knee awkwardly, giving me less room, but seems smooth enough to drive. The Leaf is actually a better fit for my long legs.

I also test drove a 2012 Sonata Hybrid, and that center console also hits my knee funny, and it digs in while I'm driving. The gasoline Sonatas have the same interior.

I also sat in a 2012 Ford Fusion and hated more or less everything about the interior. Its console rubs my calf so that I'm sure my muscle would get sore using the accelerator (I've had that problem in other cars before) and the seat just doesn't seem right.

I might be ok fit-wise with a Gen 3 Prius, but they aren't depreciating much, so buying a used one doesn't seem to drop the TCO/year much if at all.

I find it ironic that the Leaf is the most comfortable of my candidate cars. I did not expect that.

 

[dfwJim]

Today I bought a 2010 Prius with 45k miles from a "no haggle" dealership chain. I figure on putting 100k more miles on it over the next 6-8 years and then deciding what's next.

For total cost of ownership the Leaf was competitive, but for a 1-person household the range limit was a little scary, and keeping my gas car as a backup car would have driven up the total cost.

Even though a new Leaf lease is quite attractive, there are still too many things I don't like about leasing, and although Nissan appears to be confident enough in the life span of the traction battery, I have enough doubt that buying used seems to be too risky. I remember when the Prius was new there was a lot of fear about the battery that hasn't come to fruition. Perhaps capacity loss on the Leafs will level off and provide a life closer to what Nissan projects even in Texas, but I'll watch that play out from behind the wheel of my Prius.

What was most interesting to me was to analyze my driving habits and find that the Leaf actually would have been adequate for a vast majority of my needs and cost much less for "fuel" even if I didn't use free work charging. I wanted to give it a try, but I couldn't quite feel good enough to make it happen.

Thanks to everyone on the forum for the information, and happy Leaf driving!

 

[Pipcecil]

It is hard to make a total jump like that, especially as an only car. Its a completely different model than what we are used to. If you asked me when I first purchased my leaf if I could live on it and it alone I would be extremely hesitatant. I could probably do it today. The DC fast charging is a big help in this spread out metroplex and knowing that I really do rarely make trips beyond the metroplex (i.e. needing a car rental) would support that decision.

But congrats on your prius. Enjoy it and hopefully when that car runs down EVs will be even better and more inticing!

 

[mkjayakumar]

Jim,

Congrats on your Prius. I agree that is hard to justify the Leaf as the only car in the garage.

 

[Sheerluckholmes]

Making decisions for ones self is exactly that... what works for you as an individual. I looked at my driving habits for the past eight years. In that time I have not driven any distances that could have not been made by a Leaf in one charge cycle. Just one trip out of town. Just one. If I had been driving an electric vehicle such as a Leaf for those eight years, the savings would have paid for a rental car to make that one trip, or a plane ticket or even rented a lemo and still had mega bucks left over. So getting a Leaf for me is a no brainer. But that is my personal situation.

Each other individual just needs to look at their driving record and make the best choice for them self.

 

[Pipcecil]

I looked at my driving habits for the past eight years. In that time I have not driven any distances that could have not been made by a Leaf in one charge cycle.

It took me an evaluation like that to realize the shorter range of an EV was fine. In fact it took my WORK to convince me (or at least start to). We do a significant amount of traffic modeling for the region for various things (future plans, roadway projects, air quality, etc.). This model has been tweeked since the late 70's or early 80's when we started using it and was backchecked against driver data, trip data, driver surveys & diaries, and traffic counts.

The conclusion and the base calcuation that is built into every model run is that 75% of all trips are work based trips (to and from). That is a significant amount of someone's driving. Once I realize how much I really just go to and from work, the Leaf made more sense