I probably spent the summer mulling over the idea of leasing either a Volt or a Leaf or buying a used Prius. I kept shopping E-bay for used Priuses, and I was shocked that an 8 year old Prius with 170,000 miles would go for $8,000.
I read a few stories about folks picking up Volts on lease for two years for less than $200 a month. Research showed that these folks had HUGE down payments from their GM MasterCards, and I was never able to find a truly "good" deal. Plus, I have an aversion to GM because of the bailouts.
Then I read about the state of Georgia's $5,000 Leaf tax credit. You get it whether you buy or lease as long as the capitalized cost (for a lease) is at least $25,000 (otherwise, it's 20% of the cap cost). So I started shopping. Wanted a deal as close to $5,000 for a two year lease as I could get.
I ended up going with Regal Nissan in Roswell, GA (north of Atlanta). There are 19 Nissan dealers in the Metro Atlanta area, and I think I talked with folks at 12 of them. I was simply amazed at the number of Internet sales folks who would NOT deal through e-mail or phone. So many of them wouldn't even give me a price unless I came in to talk to them.
I had two dealers who were both good to work with (Capitol City Nissan was the other). In the end Regal beat Capitol City by over $600. Capitol City had said it'd beat any deal, and I really liked the sales guy, but when I said I had a deal that was better than his (at the time, it was only $400 better), he wanted me to bring in a signed sales order. I wasn't going through that trouble.
Headed to Regal on Friday afternoon with my older son in tow. The place was hopping and two Leafs were delivered while I waited. They had 12 Leaves on the lot. I think 6 were blue, and I decided I just didn't like that color. There was one Brilliant Silver, one white, and one black, and the rest were red. I liked the white, but it showed a lot of dirt, and the silver seemed to the best at hiding the dirt.
Sales guy was delivering a Murano, so he let my son and me take the Leaf for a spin (30 minutes) by ourselves. It was fun to play with everything WITHOUT the sales guy in the back seat saying "turn right."
I got to talk to the Sales Manager, who is a Leaf owner and shared his very good experience with the EV Project. In the end, I was out the door in a 2012 SL with floor mats and wheel locks (not that I wanted the wheel locks, but they tossed them in) for cap cost of $27,311. With my 24 month lease, I am out of pocket $6600, not including insurance and whatever my electricity costs increase. There was a "bonus" as the numbers I had been quoted didn't initially include the first month lease payment in my down payment, but then they had included it in the paperwork. So that was a surprise, and the deal, in effect, was $260 better than I had planned.
Delivery was very efficient, and the car was charged to 80%. 26 miles on the odometer at delivery...66 miles after coming back from church this morning. We could have waited for a full charge, but I didn't want to hang out there for another hour or so. Sales guy took care of linking my phone to the car and showing me how to download my phone book. I've never had Bluetooth, so that was a treat.
I installed a new outlet in my garage right next to it for charging. I tried using the outlet in the ceiling that the garage door opener is plugged into, but the weight of the brick pulled the plug out (caught it before it hit anything). Charged it to full yesterday (took 8 hours). Can't wait to get the Blink charger, but I have a full electrical panel with one sub panel already in the attic. I am hoping they can make it work.
I had tried to trade my 1989 Toyota pickup, but they only offered me $500 for it. As as an aside, I just sold the truck this morning for $1100 cash! And that was with front end damage, no working AC, no working radio, an oil leak, and 190,000 miles!
Anyway, sorry for the long post :roll: . We're happy with the car so far, and the heated seats and steering wheel have been a hit. Both of our other cars have heated seats, but neither has a heated steering wheel.
I was planning to try to take the Leaf to visit my aunt in Fayetteville tomorrow, but it's 44 miles away, and I am afraid I don't quite have the driving skills to get 88 miles on a full battery charge just yet. Also - there are NO quick charge stations in GA, and there are no level 2 chargers by my aunt's house, so I think I'll take my 04 Expedition just to be safe.
I live in Nashville and bought from Downtown Nashville Nissan. The lease deals was just too good to pass up. I'll sign up for the EVProject shortly to get my free Blink charger installed at my house. 
