andrewknight
New member
I am now a proud owner of a Nissan Leaf! I never thought I would own an electric car, lease a car, or buy a new car. With all that said I drove off the lot today and here is my story. My wife and I are expecting our first child in January. I currently drive a 2008 BMW 335i coupe while she drives a 2004 Subaru Impreza wagon. The plan was I was going to trade/sell my BMW as we needed 4 doors and she was going to get a used X3/RDX/XC60/Q5 crossover while I would drive her Subaru for a few years. We started test driving some cars this week but had not settled on anything yet.
I had heard about the Leaf deals but had never considered it until this week. My thinking was I would rather drive the Leaf than the Impreza and if the state of Georgia is willing to basically pay me for the privilege I said to my wife let's do it! I tried to figure out how to get VPP but my company does not qualify. I have lots of friends who work at companies on the list but I did not feel comfortable asking them to co-sign as I know what my response would be if somebody asked me.
After seeing positive comments on Autonation Nissan in Lithia Springs my wife and I headed that way as it is only 6 miles from us. When we got there this morning they had a lot of Leafs on the lot even though they said they sold 13 just yesterday! We found a base S with the charger package in black and took it for a quick test drive. I was VERY impressed and was immediately sold! I had never driven an electric car but I loved how smooth it was.
I knew that people were getting $259 (non VPP) without the charger package so that was my target. First offer was $279 with no charger package and $279 down. I decided that I wanted the quick charger so they came back with $279 with charger and $279 down, third and final offer was $279 with charger and $0 down. I now see that it looks like some got $275/$0 so nice job on that! We then decided to have them appraise the Impreza for a trade and they gave me $3,500 which was a good offer for a 10 year old Subaru. So that brought my total lease payment down to $131 a month! Factor in the $150 a month I currently spend on gas and the math looks like: $6,696 payments + $395 turn in fee - $5000 GA tax credit - ~$2,400 in gas savings = $-391. Not as good as VPP but still a nice deal!
If you're on the fence about the quick charger we drove to a friend's house in Marietta tonight and stopped at the supercharger at Marietta Nissan on Cobb Parkway. This thing is awesome! We charged from 20% to 80% in 20 minutes. As they install more of these the convenience of doing this is a huge plus. They have them close to 75/400/85 so traveling north you should be able extend the range using these stops.
For at home charging I am going to use the trickle charger for a few weeks and see how I do. My commute is 35 miles round trip to Buckhead so I think I should be good. I also have a bunch of L2's around work that I could stop in at lunch if I needed some extra juice to get me home.
If you are interested in buying one PM me first and I can refer you to the dealer and we can split the $150 referral bonus
Andrew
I had heard about the Leaf deals but had never considered it until this week. My thinking was I would rather drive the Leaf than the Impreza and if the state of Georgia is willing to basically pay me for the privilege I said to my wife let's do it! I tried to figure out how to get VPP but my company does not qualify. I have lots of friends who work at companies on the list but I did not feel comfortable asking them to co-sign as I know what my response would be if somebody asked me.
After seeing positive comments on Autonation Nissan in Lithia Springs my wife and I headed that way as it is only 6 miles from us. When we got there this morning they had a lot of Leafs on the lot even though they said they sold 13 just yesterday! We found a base S with the charger package in black and took it for a quick test drive. I was VERY impressed and was immediately sold! I had never driven an electric car but I loved how smooth it was.
I knew that people were getting $259 (non VPP) without the charger package so that was my target. First offer was $279 with no charger package and $279 down. I decided that I wanted the quick charger so they came back with $279 with charger and $279 down, third and final offer was $279 with charger and $0 down. I now see that it looks like some got $275/$0 so nice job on that! We then decided to have them appraise the Impreza for a trade and they gave me $3,500 which was a good offer for a 10 year old Subaru. So that brought my total lease payment down to $131 a month! Factor in the $150 a month I currently spend on gas and the math looks like: $6,696 payments + $395 turn in fee - $5000 GA tax credit - ~$2,400 in gas savings = $-391. Not as good as VPP but still a nice deal!
If you're on the fence about the quick charger we drove to a friend's house in Marietta tonight and stopped at the supercharger at Marietta Nissan on Cobb Parkway. This thing is awesome! We charged from 20% to 80% in 20 minutes. As they install more of these the convenience of doing this is a huge plus. They have them close to 75/400/85 so traveling north you should be able extend the range using these stops.
For at home charging I am going to use the trickle charger for a few weeks and see how I do. My commute is 35 miles round trip to Buckhead so I think I should be good. I also have a bunch of L2's around work that I could stop in at lunch if I needed some extra juice to get me home.
If you are interested in buying one PM me first and I can refer you to the dealer and we can split the $150 referral bonus
Andrew
