Nissan Leaf Like - Dislike at 1,353 miles.

[arnon]

After driven this car almost a month, now at 1,353 miles...car is awesome in my opinion.

Picked up (orphan SL-e with few extra options) from 'Ray' at Campbell Nelson Nissan 6/19.
Back in to service department next day for 'faulty' tire presure sensor on right rear.
Installed Clippercreek LCS-25EV charging station by Puget Sound Solar 1,317 - no sales tax.
Went to Airport and nearby cities, drove the car to almost depleted, 4 miles left on the meter when got home.
Service Manager came out to the house with his Leaf mechanic to help program Home Link. Not successful.

Like:
$7,500 up front with lease then pay it off.
Great visibilty.
Headroom.
0 emission...absolutely no gas used.
Torque and fun to drive.
100 mile range is perfect for me. (150 will be even better)
Lock-unlock buttons on door handles.
Nav/bluetooth standard.
Cargo space.
Seated for 5 comfortably (Leaf range) with small child in the middle of back seat.


Dislike :
Cargo net too little...don't get one!
Different shade of blue on bumpers from the rest of the car.
Poor visability of rear view mirror...rear seat headrest removed then OK.
Car sit too high off the ground. Cornering is too much like an SUV.
Car too heavy.
HomeLink is useless.
No public charging docks.

I'm liking this car so much, I'm building carport for my NSX and keeping my Leaf in the garage.

 

[mwalsh]

HomeLink is useless.
No public charging docks.

Sorry you're having problems with the Homelink. It's one of my favorite features of the car. I just happen to have had 3 remotes I needed to replace (garage door at home, gate into our community, and gate into the lot at work) and 3 buttons on the Homelink. Didn't have problems programming any of the three.

Public charging is just a matter of time. Practically every day now, we're learning of new places popping up.

Oh, and the lack of color match between plastic and metal parts is annoying. I agree with you there. But it wasn't a deal killer for me. The positives far outweigh the small stuff.

 

[TonyWilliams]

The Homelink has been on virtually every car that I've had for the past ten years. All worked flawlessly.

I'll guess that the problem may be your garage door opener. Have you had other Homelink type devices before, or is this the first one (for this garage door setup)?

 

[ColumbiaRiverGorge]

Arnon, "I'm liking this car so much, I'm building carport for my NSX and keeping my Leaf in the garage." That is hilarious and too funny. I don't care much anymore about our Acura, except it will be our long distance traveler. I am very happy with the torque and handling of the LEAF. 350 miles so far...

 

[Stoaty]

Dislike :

Different shade of blue on bumpers from the rest of the car.

Sounds like you got one of the Pollen cars. Mine had this, Fontana Nissan alerted me and said it wasn't normal as they had delivered plenty of Leafs. I refused the car, Nissan USA came up with a non-Pollen car for me within a week. Bumpers on the Leaf I took delivery on are a perfect match (blue) with rest of the car.

 

[LEAFfan]

HomeLink is useless.
No public charging docks.

Sorry you're having problems with the Homelink. It's one of my favorite features of the car.
Public charging is just a matter of time. Practically every day now, we're learning of new places popping up.

+1!

 

[gascant]

Arnon, "I'm liking this car so much, I'm building carport for my NSX and keeping my Leaf in the garage." That is hilarious and too funny. I don't care much anymore about our Acura, except it will be our long distance traveler. I am very happy with the torque and handling of the LEAF. 350 miles so far...

I sold my 97 Acura Integra to a neighbor when I bought the Prius 3 years ago--Prius now gone after taking delivery of the LEAF two months ago but I'm thinking of buying the Acura back and doing an EV conversion on it

 

[rwherrick]

Service Manager came out to the house with his Leaf mechanic to help program Home Link. Not successful.

Dislikes:
HomeLink is useless.
.

Arnon,
Have you tried watching YouTube videos on programming Homelink? I tried following the instructions in the user manual, and concluded that they Homelink wouldn't work with my opener. It also didn't work with my wife's car when I tried many years ago, although I didn't invest as much time in solving the problem back then, or try what I did this time.
They offered two different ways of doing it: programming from the remote control OR programming with the learn button. In my case, I found it only worked if I programmed with the remote control AND the learn button. This is spelled out in YouTube videos, even it's a bit different than what they say to do in the manual. You should try again, and if that doesn't work, call the help number listed in the user manual. It's possible your equipment isn't compatible, but it's probably worth putting some more work in before you conclude that...

- Bob

 

[arnon]

I'm now at 1,425 miles
I will try program Homelink again next week. Service manager that came out tried program on his Nissan, still didn't work. Company that makes the opener said that I got dual-freqency opener, need training remote to program it??!? I called MB and Nissan, they never heard of such device.

As for color different on the bumpers...I checked three 'Leaf' shipments at my dealer when they came in. All Blue ones in June has same problem as mine. I'm getting use to it now

Today's rain makes me want to add one more 'dislike': can't crack windows to get rid of fogged up windshield without getting wet.
Went to Auto parts store they don't have Vent Visor/shade for Leaf yet. Called up Dealer(part dept) to see if Versa has same doors as Leaf. Guy didn't think so. Also asked him about suspension on Leaf VS Versa....sure like to drop a few inches & stiffen up using after market suspension.

Add to 'Like' : Love LEDs on the car.

 

[arnon]

Arnon, "I'm liking this car so much, I'm building carport for my NSX and keeping my Leaf in the garage." That is hilarious and too funny. I don't care much anymore about our Acura, except it will be our long distance traveler. I am very happy with the torque and handling of the LEAF. 350 miles so far...

I sold my 97 Acura Integra to a neighbor when I bought the Prius 3 years ago--Prius now gone after taking delivery of the LEAF two months ago but I'm thinking of buying the Acura back and doing an EV conversion on it

I'm thinking same thing with my NSX(car so light and I can drop more weight even more)...not sure about manual transmission will cost a lot more when convert or not. Please post your finding.

 

[Stoaty]

As for color different on the bumpers...I checked three 'Leaf' shipments at my dealer when they came in. All Blue ones in June has same problem as mine. I'm getting use to it now

That's very odd considering what Fontana Nissan told me (and they have delivered a lot of Leafs). Wonder if the bumpers were painted separately from the rest of the car for the June deliveries, and they had to use a different batch of paint due to the earthquake?

 

[DaveEV]

Bumpers very often look a bit different because of the flex agent that is added to to the paint which goes on urethane parts to keep it from cracking when it flexes.

 

[PhatBoyG]

Bumpers very often look a bit different because of the flex agent that is added to to the paint which goes on urethane parts to keep it from cracking when it flexes.

Spoken like a true GM representative.

I have had many cars over the years and most them were a perfect (if not near perfect) match in all lighting conditions. And they were all imports. Of course, some colors might be more difficult to match depending upon when they were painted but QC should catch that and introduce a fix in the paint mixture.

I would bet if they don't match now, they will by 2012. Realize we are getting the earliest cars off the line, Avis didn't buy 20,000 of the first run to update their rental fleet with the first cars off the line, absorbing any early minor issues that are changed out by the time the later units are produced.

 

[TimLee]

I'm now at 1,425 miles
I will try program Homelink again next week. Service manager that came out tried program on his Nissan, still didn't work. Company that makes the opener said that I got dual-freqency opener, need training remote to program it??!? I called MB and Nissan, they never heard of such device.

When was your garage door manufactured?
Most made in the last 10 years change the code frequently.
I've had a 2009 Altima for two years and also had trouble programming it back in 2009, so I hadn't been using Homelink.
But when I went back to the Nissan manual and the manual on the garage door opener, I was able to program the Homelink on both the Altima and the Leaf.
The problem I had was the labeling of the Learn button on the garage door opener.
On my Stanley unit it is labeled Remote, and there are other buttons labeled Learn that are associated with Learning the Open and Close positions of the garage door opener.
Programming Homelink is a two step process. You first program the Homelink using existing remote.
But the second step is you have to push the right button on the Garage Door opener to put it into the "Learn" mode to program it to recognize the programming of the new remote device, which in this case is the Homelink.
Have to push that button, and then you only have 30 seconds or so to activate the Homelink button two to three times for the Garage Door Opener to "Learn' the new remote device, in this case the Homelink.

 

[Pipcecil]

If you need a suggestion on help with your homelink, I may have an idea. My garage door programing didn't work with ANY of the instructions that were listed in the manual, this was the same for my wife's Audi TT. Here is what I did:

If you have "rolling code" which I am assuming you do (because if you don't just using your garage door opener to program is simple), the Nissan Leaf manual says to "program" your button with your garage door opener and then go and hit the button on the back of the garage door opener and further program your button. THIS DID NOT WORK FOR ME AT ALL!

Firstly, erase your homelink and reset it completely (you don't want anything set up in there to ruin it). Now do steps 6-8 in your manuel (page 2-57) ONLY. Don't try and use your remote first (steps 2-5). If you just hit your button on the back of your main garage door unit and then hit your homelink button 3 times or so, it may work. It worked for me, and I have never had problems. This was the only way I could get it to work. Doing the little remote and then the button (as the manual said to do) didn't work with me. So, you could be having the same situation I have.