After about two years on the waiting list, they finally began delivering Leafs in Georgia! I got my 2012 red SL on Dec. 10, 2011, from Stone Mountain Nissan. My dealer, Tim Berry, was very helpful and attentive before the day. But he was on vacation that day, and his stand-in clearly was not the Leaf expert at the dealership. As he fumbled with the dashboard trying to get me 'registered', it said "NO DISK". He panicked and started looking for the 'initialization disk' in the glove box, trunk, Tim's office, and everywhere. Needless to say, he never found it because there is no such thing! As he was turning the place upside down, I just read my Carwings instructions that I had printed out and registered myself!
My Leaf was the third they had delivered, and was in the showroom with a huge bow on it (which I was hoping to keep, but it was not included
(see photo below)).
They pushed back the delivery from the original "sometime in November" to "week of December 16". So I was delighted when Tim called on the 8th to say it was there and charging and I could get it the next day! Woohoo!! But wait...I need to get money out of savings to pay for it. I was not quite ready. I had them fedex me an official Credit Union check for $40k. It did not show up until 10am Saturday morning. I needed to deposit it in my checking account. Thankfully, the B of A is open until 1 on Saturdays. Unfortunately, they informed me, there was no way the check would clear until Monday.
I was SO hoping to get the Leaf that day. So I asked, "Well, could you just cash the check?" In theory, yes, they said, but they did not have that kind of cash on hand at this small branch office. I had them call around and Midtown Atlanta had the $$. When I went there with my check to cash, the nice teller asked "How you doin'?" as all Atlantans would do. I said, "Very nervous. I want to get a new car today and it is up to you to make it happen." Although it did take three people to cash the check and a zillion forms of ID, they did it no problem. They wanted me to come by with the Leaf so they could see an electric car, when I got it. They had a machine that can count through 4 bundles of 100 one hundred dollar bills in about a minute. As I walked out with a bookbag full of cash, I felt kinda like I had just robbed a bank
My time at the dealer seemed to take all afternoon (it takes much longer to count 400 bills by hand), and as my wife followed me home, we were both blinded by the setting sun--not ideal driving conditions. We took surface streets the whole way, a 40 min drive, plus a much needed stop at Starbucks.
After two weeks of driving it, I can say that I absolutely LOVE it. It is so fun to drive. Today I did my first trickle charge at Georgia Tech (where I work). Usually, my 10 mile round trip commute uses about 1-2 hours on my Level 2 EVSE a night.
Me and my new 2012 Cayenne pepper red Nissan Leaf.
