jvierra said:I was an early adopter of the 2011 Nissan Leaf based on my strong convictions on global warning and the importance of green energy. I was fully aware of how crappy an 80 mile battery was, but I firmly believed that technology would improve over time and that a few years down the road I would be able to buy an upgraded battery to make my original investment worth it. While I have gotten 80K miles out of my leaf dealing with the constant issues with range (most people would not put up with the things I've done to get places in this car) and overall the car has been quite reliable - now that my range is down to 45-50 miles it's become far too limited to be useful for anything but the shortest around town trips. To say I have been incredibly disappointed in Nissan for complete lack of support for the buyers of their product, that would be a tremendous understatement.
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I was not a Tesla fan-boy until I owned one. That extra 15K you spend to get a much better, much longer range car, that the company actually will support you and keep giving you free improvements while the car sits overnight in your driveway? And you can reasonably use the car on a cross country trip. That's the best freaking 15K you will EVER spend. The M3 might be the last car I have to buy.
WOW... Us 2011 Leaf owners are a dying breed - along with the battery. Fortunately, my commute is just 12 miles round trip (I live in Los Angeles and we measure our commute in hours not miles :b), so I'm still driving mine and could probably drive it for a couple more years. I'm down to 7 bars with about 37 *actual* miles of range - for some reason it still wants to say that I've got 50 miles when I top it off.
Like you, I've been thinking of upgrading the battery, and, like you, I've realized that it's a crap deal. After reading this thread it's a big, fat NO WAY. So, that leaves buying a new Leaf - and... why would I do that??? They remodeled it to look like a regular car - so all of the charm is gone. And, if it's just a regular car, then Nissan is definitely not my brand.
So, just like you, I've been looking at Tesla Model 3, and I have ONLY heard great things about the car. It sounds like they have had some bumps in the road with customer service and getting the left hand to talk to the right hand - but maybe that's starting to get ironed out?? Anyway, what a sexy vehicle - and I'm looking forward to having a road-trip car again. I'd love to just bust out and drive it down to San Diego or San Francisco one day.
I'm so glad you're happy, because it sounds like I'm going down that road soon. Thanks for your post, and if all goes to plan, I may never need to visit this blog again.