Please help with this lease quote and other questions

[socaluser]

Hello,

I've been lurking for a bit and almost no experience with EVs in general much less the Leaf! Took the family to try our a 2016 S with QC. Told the dealer we were just looking and not interested in walking out with a car today but as expected, they threw an offer at me. I told them that I can get a VPP quote through my work. They offered $227/month with 0 down ("better than VPP") for a 36-month lease. This seemed like a decent deal, although not as good as a few of the posts that I've read here, but we stuck to our guns and didn't do it.

A few questions:

1. Nissan's rebates seem to expire on 08/31. I was thinking that with the 2017 Leaf coming out, the deals would only get better? Any reason not to expect similar rebates to be present after 08/31?

2. Salesman mentioned the 2017 Leaf would be coming out 'early next year' with some certainty. Any thoughts on that?

3. Nissan's website has a link for a lease deal for a 2016 S for $199. This doesn't include the QC and the QC is quoted as an $1700ish purchase option. Have people found that this translates to about a $30/month increase in the monthly payment for a 36-month lease?

4. It was a pretty warm day and the Leaf we test drove was a black car. But it sure seemed like the A/C was kinda spotty. In fact, it seemed like several times the A/C was pretty ineffective when we were stopped at a light and decent when we were accelerating. The car only had a minimal charge left (in fact, the salesman had to charge it for 10 min to get it up to about "9 miles left" before the test drive); so could this affect the poor A/C performance?

Thanks for any input!

 

[Firetruck41]

S trim level has 24kwH batt w 5yr 60k battery capacity warranty, SV and SL have 30kwH battery (25% more capacity/range) and an 8yr/100k mi batt capacity warranty. Warranty especially, might figure in, if you plan to purchase at end of lease.

Release of the 2017 Leaf is all speculation and rumor. You can bet there will be a multi page thread on here before the first salesman even knows it is coming. As always, if the salesman's lips are moving, chances are he is lying.

When in ECO mode the HVAC power consumption is limited, IIRC. That could have been your problem during the test drive. My Leaf seems to do OK on the 90+ deg days, but we only seem to have 10-15 of those each year.

 

[LeftieBiker]

It always helps to tell us where you live! Not your address, your city. The Leaf S is not well suited to climates with real, substantially long, Winters, because the resistance-only heater (the other models have a heatpump as well), combined with the 24kwh pack, makes for short range (as in as little as 50% of the range with no climate control) in cold temps. If you have a separate Winter wardrobe, look at an SV. The base SV with no options can often be had for little more than an S with QC - and the SV has a QC port anyway. If you don't run the heat much, and don't need remote access to the car via CarWings or whatever it's called now, the S is a good EV for people who need 50-60 miles of range instead of 80-100.

 

[socaluser]

Thanks for the replies. I should have mentioned in my earlier post that we live in Southern California relatively close to the coast, so not too many hot days. Interesting about the ECO mode, I figured there was something, but the salesman wasn't exactly the most informed (the first salesman didn't even know how to open the charging ports).

My round trip commute is about 25 miles, plus I have L2 charging at work so I think the S is a good fit. This would be a second commuter car. I'll have to price out a SV to see how much more it is.

About the Nissan incentives/rebates, have there been significant rebates in the last few months or is the current rebate by far the best one? I'm wondering if I should chance the incentives being extended past 08/31.

 

[LeftieBiker]

Nissan seems to have a policy of not talking about rebates, and of changing them often. According to their salescreatures, every month offers the best deals. ;-)