May Deliveries! Or... May(be)?

[daniel]

... you will not regret a single second of the wait.

Easy for you to say, Dave. You got your car about when it was promised. I'm very happy for you. It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. But I'm very concerned about what may have happened to my car during the two months (so far!) it's been sitting in Long Beach. The "repairs" probably performed in a hurry by under-paid and under-trained kids, the aging of the batteries, the exposure to weather, elements, vermin, and even possibly vandalism. Not to mention anger at the way I've been jerked around, pushed later and later in delivery time while people who ordered five months after me get their cars, which were built after the problems were discovered, and therefore corrected before assembly, and the constant stream of lies and empty promises. This car (if I ever get it) will NEVER be as enjoyable, after this, as it would have been if they had told me at the start that I'd get it in September of 2011.

 

[jwatte]

the issues of reservations, port prep, accessory availability and installation, delivery, and dealer behavior are all with third-party vendors

It's been about 2 weeks since I got the "Week of May 16th, pollen problem, delivered no later than the end of May" phone call so I decided to see if CS had any update.

See, none of my problems are with the third parties. My dealer (Brendan at Boardwalk Nissan) has been great, AFAICT!

However, if I reserve on 4/21, and order on 12/1, and still don't have a VIN or "week of" date, and HIOJim reserves later, orders later, and has had a VIN and a delivery call for a while now, that's not the dealer's problem. That's Nissan's problem. That's the main problem that people are actually upset about, and that's why my initial impression of Nissan as a forward-thinking company is now giving way to being pretty sure I'll buy my NEXT electrical car from someone else. Previously, I've dealt with Volvo and Volkswagen, and they have been good; I'll repeat business there. They will have electric cars soon, too. I will probably not be back to Nissan at that point.

 

[LEAFfan]

Previously, I've dealt with Volvo and Volkswagen, and they have been good; I'll repeat business there. They will have electric cars soon, too. I will probably not be back to Nissan at that point.

I don't know about Volvo, but VW's Golf e-Motion is scheduled for 2014. So since 'soon' is a relative term, I guess 2014 can be interpreted to mean 'soon'.

 

[jwatte]

Previously, I've dealt with Volvo and Volkswagen, and they have been good; I'll repeat business there. They will have electric cars soon, too. I will probably not be back to Nissan at that point.

I don't know about Volvo, but VW's Golf e-Motion is scheduled for 2014. So since 'soon' is a relative term, I guess 2014 can be interpreted to mean 'soon'.

Hopefully, my Leaf, whenever it arrives, will last longer than 2014

(I'm talking about my NEXT vehicle -- successful business is generally about long-term customer relations, not about a series of one-shot deals.)

Volvo's looking at an electric C30: http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=volvo+electric+car
Also, Volkswagen group are the people behind the next possible battery technology: http://green.autoblog.com/2010/10/27/converted-audi-a2-claims-new-electric-vehicle-distance-record-3/
But, more importantly, both companies have treated me well when I've done business with them.

 

[gbshaun]

But trust me: Nissan has people monitoring this forum.

This is kinda hard to believe as, if they cared so much to actually monitor it, surely they'd see the REALLY bad cases where there are problems, such as Daniel's, and make a couple of calls to put those right, even if they are not going to correct their delivery-order snafu.

 

[ElectricVehicle]

I got THE CALL today around 1pm. I'll report officially when I get the keys in my hot little (ok, big) hands. Tomorrow is still MAY!

 

[LEAFfan]

But trust me: Nissan has people monitoring this forum.

This is kinda hard to believe as, if they cared so much to actually monitor it, surely they'd see the REALLY bad cases where there are problems, such as Daniel's, and make a couple of calls to put those right, even if they are not going to correct their delivery-order snafu.

Common sense would say that is true about the 'bad' cases, but unless one complains loudly and long enough, and high enough, they will not do anything. Yes, they are reading the forum and have been for some time. They have also seen the 'spreadsheet'. This is a fact whether you believe it or not.

 

[BlueSL]

Yes, they are reading the forum and have been for some time. They have also seen the 'spreadsheet'. This is a fact whether you believe it or not.

Of course they are. This is why keeping the spreadsheet updated is so important (and why the 30 or so un-updated entries just below the red entries drive me nuts). When the spreadsheet loses touch with delivery realities, customers will have lost their best tool in keeping Nissan honest. Yes, it is possible to see through the noise on the spreadsheet and learn a thing or two, but it is getting harder all the time as the un-updated lines pile up.

BTW, my dealer has a demo car, too. I did not ask how they came by it (orphan, or whatever). But it had no sticker on it, was in the showroom, and they were letting people sit in it, so I assume it was not for sale or delivery and was instead an actual demo vehicle.

 

[JimLovewell]

1) Wow! I cannot believe my Leaf arrived Friday, 05/27/2011!

I was planning to email CS on Tuesday, 06/01, to ask why their “estimated delivery” date is so meaningless. Now I can’t. I will have to be a happy Leaf owner instead!

2) My wife and I have put over 100 miles on it in two days. :mrgreen:

3) I put in a second meter in and I calculate it cost to drive:
Standard American car: $4.00 per gallon, 20 miles/gal.,
Economy car: $4.00 per gallon, 28 to 32 miles/gal.,
Prius hybrid car: $4.00 per gallon, 43 to 50 miles/gal.
Leaf electric car: $1.44 per gallon equivalent ($0.06 per KWattHr. for 24 KWattHr), 75 to 85 miles/Gal. Equv.

So, the bottom line is the electric car will get 210 to 235 miles on $4.00 of electricity (if you have a second meter).

4) It wasn’t cheap to install a second meter. My second meter cost $3710.00 for the electrical contractor, $500 for the city permit, $250.00 for PG&Es 2nd meter fee and two days off work. My calculations show I will save $1500.00 per year buying electricity during “off peak” on a 2nd meter versus having only 1 meter. That gives an ROI of 3 years (not so great). :?:

 

[ElectricVehicle]

Wow. It's real. Hard to believe.

There's a new blue LEAF sitting in my driveway, 100% charged. I can walk up to it, push the door button and it unlocks for me. The magic! The power! The happiness! (Well, having the LEAF key FOB in my pocket helps the magic! )

I took delivery of my LEAF this morning, 5/29/2011. It's great! It was worth the wait! I had to concentrate on driving so I could get home without incident, there are way too many cool things on this car that I want to learn about and use. Did my first BlueTooth handsfree call ever using the car today, accessed it in CarWINGS, told it to charge, trained the car to open my garage door using the HomeLink button on the mirror. Loaded up some music on USB and played it in the car. The software for that isn't very sophisticated as others have pointed out, but still a big step up from the 6 CD changer in my 2002 Prius. Explained the LEAF in the first impromptu encounter. A family walking by my house from the nearby park spotted my LEAF and asked about it. I had their 5 year old daughter unplug and plug the charge connector into the car. Daddy was asking me questions. I asked her who wins the wrestling matches - her or her little brother. So far, she's still winning.

A new LEAF! THANK YOU Nissan, Nissan CS for helping to get my delayed order sooner and Wilson Bui of Premier Nissan of San Jose for being among the tops in Nissan dealers in knowledge about the LEAF, straight up, ethical dealings in the transaction and all the little things. The shop cleaned the car, but as they drove it into the showroom, it was raining. So there's Wilson, personally scrubbing all the rain drops off of my LEAF! Just one of many ways Wilson has always been going the extra mile for me!

Thanks also to the My Nissan LEAF forums for all the information that's helped me in ordering the car, identifying delivery delays, THE SPREADSHEET, and all the things I'm going to learn from the forums as I transition from expectant parent to the raising and feeding (charging) of a new LEAF! To everyone else still waiting, your LEAF is coming eventually and may your wait be short!

Thanks!

 

[DaveEV]

That gives an ROI of 3 years (not so great).

ROI of 3 years is AMAZING. Over 10 years - that's like a 13% (simple annualized ROI) return on your investment - where else are you going to get that kind of returns on $4500?

 

[lemketron]

4) It wasn’t cheap to install a second meter. My second meter cost $3710.00 for the electrical contractor, $500 for the city permit, $250.00 for PG&Es 2nd meter fee and two days off work. My calculations show I will save $1500.00 per year buying electricity during “off peak” on a 2nd meter versus having only 1 meter. That gives an ROI of 3 years (not so great). :?:

Wouldn't that money have been better spent adding PV (solar) to your home and switching to E-6 instead of E-9b? Or is it not possible/practical to add solar?

 

[nissanvirgin]

Congrats, EV! Glad to hear the car lives up to expectations... after a long wait, high expectations can become harder to fulfill. For all your experience and effort, sounds like Nissan ought to hire you as a consultant.

By the way, why do you need to install a second meter to use off-peak rates? Does it mean the regular meter doesn't get charged off-peak rates for off-peak usage, and you need a special meter just for that?

Happy e-motoring!

 

[ElectricVehicle]

Congrats, EV! Glad to hear the car lives up to expectations... after a long wait, high expectations can become harder to fulfill. For all your experience and effort, sounds like Nissan ought to hire you as a consultant.

By the way, why do you need to install a second meter to use off-peak rates? Does it mean the regular meter doesn't get charged off-peak rates for off-peak usage, and you need a special meter just for that?

Happy e-motoring!

PG&E's E-9 rate has two options:

One of the advantages of the separate meter to counter it's increased installation costs is that you now have a baseline for each meter, so you can use more electricity before getting hit with the tiered over baseline surcharges, that in the highest tier are almost $0.50/kWh.

http://www.pge.com/myhome/environment/whatyoucando/electricdrivevehicles/rateoptions/

E-9A: This option provides a single meter; one baseline amount is shared by both the home and PEV. If PEV charging will not significantly increase daily energy use or current energy use is mostly during non-peak hours, this may be the better rate option.

E-9B: This option provides two meters—one for the home, which remains on the current residential rate (E-1, E-6 or E-7), and a second meter for the PEV on the E-9B rate. Therefore, the customer has two baselines. If PEV charging significantly impacts your daily energy usage or current energy use is mostly during peak hours, this may be the better rate option.

This option requires a second electrical panel and customers also will incur a $250 fee for the second meter. Although the E-9B rate option generally produces a lower monthly electric bill because of the second baseline for your PEV, the monthly savings may not justify the upfront costs of having an electrician install the second electrical panel.
Existing Residential RatesE-1: This option provides a single meter and is a flat rate. This means that energy costs are the same during all hours. The E-1 rates are higher than the E-9 rates except during peak hours. Peak hours on the E-9 rate are only during the summer schedule (May 1 – October 31), Monday – Friday from 2 p.m. – 9 p.m.

E-6: This option provides a single meter and is a time-of-use rate. This rate is similar to the E-9A rate. The E-6 rates are higher across all time-of-use periods and the hours for peak, partial peak and off-peak are different. This rate option may be more ideal for solar customers who prefer the Time-of-Use periods.

E-7: This option is no longer available for customers; however, existing customers on E-7 may elect to stay on E-7. The E-7 rate is generally more ideal than the E-9 rates for solar customers.

 

[JimLovewell]

4) It wasn’t cheap to install a second meter. My second meter cost $3710.00 for the electrical contractor, $500 for the city permit, $250.00 for PG&Es 2nd meter fee and two days off work. My calculations show I will save $1500.00 per year buying electricity during “off peak” on a 2nd meter versus having only 1 meter. That gives an ROI of 3 years (not so great). :?:

Wouldn't that money have been better spent adding PV (solar) to your home and switching to E-6 instead of E-9b? Or is it not possible/practical to add solar?

I am thinking next April 2012 for solar only because my big purchase for the year was the Leaf.

What I also want to investigate is can I buy into a private renewable energy cooperative and get some kind of energy credit towards my bill, KWatt for KWatt. If not I was hoping a California representative might want to sponsor a bill to requiring PG%E and others to allow cooperative investors to trade KWatts consumed for KWatts produced.

Jim

 

[petfans]

Despite dashboard showing an updated estimated delivery date of 6/8 just yesterday, a representative from ****** Hills Nissan called to inform that my Leaf (VIN#3339) arrived at the dealership this morning. Since the car has to be charged up and gone through dealer inspection before it can be picked up, I took advantage of the holiday and spent three hours finishing up the paperwork. My wife and I will pick it up tomorrow evening. We are excited indeed. Hopefully, we can obtain the white HOV sticker before the end of June when the current yellow HOV sticker on our Prius expires.

 

[BrendanDolan]

But trust me: Nissan has people monitoring this forum.

This is kinda hard to believe as, if they cared so much to actually monitor it, surely they'd see the REALLY bad cases where there are problems, such as Daniel's, and make a couple of calls to put those right, even if they are not going to correct their delivery-order snafu.

They lurk like crazy. Nissan CS agents see what's said about them, Nissan USA from time to time tells me to be quiet on the forums, and when a lot of the information about discounting was spreading like wildfire and Nissan said it wasn't actually occurring, I pointed them here. Trust me, they are all over it like white on rice, but, as is my experience with other OEM's and forums (Lotus surfing LotusTalk, VW NA surfing VWVortex) is that they don't get involved.

I tried (unsuccessfully sadly) to get jobs with both Lotus and VW to be their forum liaison a few years ago, and honestly, in a few years, I think a position like that in a company will be mandatory. Social media isn't just a Facebook page and a Twitter account. :lol:

 

[gascant]

Wow. It's real. Hard to believe.

There's a new blue LEAF sitting in my driveway, 100% charged. I can walk up to it, push the door button and it unlocks for me. The magic! The power! The happiness! (Well, having the LEAF key FOB in my pocket helps the magic! )

CONGRATULATIONS EV!! It's been quite a long wait, but I'm sure that you will find, even after two days, that you love the car. Every time I drive it (over the past 18 days) I marvel at it.
I hope it's everything you imagined it would be.

 

[Stoaty]

They lurk like crazy. Nissan CS agents see what's said about them, Nissan USA from time to time tells me to be quiet on the forums, and when a lot of the information about discounting was spreading like wildfire and Nissan said it wasn't actually occurring, I pointed them here. Trust me, they are all over it like white on rice, but, as is my experience with other OEM's and forums (Lotus surfing LotusTalk, VW NA surfing VWVortex) is that they don't get involved.

The problem with Nissan isn't that they don't get involved with issues on the forum--it's that they don't get involved when the customer calls "customer service". They make promises they can't keep and give out information which at best can be characterized as grossly inaccurate. They can't or won't get information about why a car is still sitting in Long Beach 2 months after it got there. I have been fairly patient until recently, but after the last couple of weeks am really growing disgusted with Nissan. While I intend to take delivery of my Leaf, the next time I am ready to buy a car Nissan will have to have a car that is clearly better than the competitors to get my business. If Toyota or Honda or someone else has a car that is even close to what Nissan is offering, I will go with them.

 

[QueenBee]

The problem with Nissan isn't that they don't get involved with issues on the forum--it's that they don't get involved when the customer calls "customer service". They make promises they can't keep and give out information which at best can be characterized as grossly inaccurate. They can't or won't get information about why a car is still sitting in Long Beach 2 months after it got there. I have been fairly patient until recently, but after the last couple of weeks am really growing disgusted with Nissan. While I intend to take delivery of my Leaf, the next time I am ready to buy a car Nissan will have to have a car that is clearly better than the competitors to get my business. If Toyota or Honda or someone else has a car that is even close to what Nissan is offering, I will go with them.

This sums up my thoughts exactly, except I think my feelings of Nissan may end being recovered when I actually get my Leaf

It's odd to me that Nissan USA doesn't have a way to contact an executive customer service department directly. I may have been directed to one after speaking with an outsourced supervisor at Leaf customer service but didn't get a call today as promised, hopefully just because of the long weekend but we'll see. I also don't understand why Nissan corporate isn't reaching out to these affected customers directly.