Hello from Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara Nissan checking in.

Anybody here from the 805?

Gordon Jenkins
Nissan Leaf Sales Leader
Santa Barbara Nissan

SBNissanLeaf said:

Santa Barbara Nissan checking in.

Anybody here from the 805?

Gordon Jenkins
Nissan Leaf Sales Leader
Santa Barbara Nissan

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I'm not from up that far, but it's nice to see a Nissan dealer checking in and taking an interest that goes beyond simply waiting for the customers to show up to get their cars. Welcome!

Thanks...I believe the SB area has one of the highest number of Prius owners per capita.
We signed up at least 80 Handraisers here at the dealership alone.

I am here to collect and share information.

SBNissanLeaf said:

Thanks...I believe the SB area has one of the highest number of Prius owners per capita.
We signed up at least 80 Handraisers here at the dealership alone.

I am here to collect and share information.

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Well, I'm still shopping for a preferred dealer, and SB is only 128 miles from here, so it wouldn't be beyond comprehension that we could maybe do business? Right now there seemS to be a dearth of dealers who have any REAL interest, so finding one who does is quite refreshing!

Well...lets share some info...k?

What Nissan has told me is that you have to order from a dealership within a specific geographic area depending upon the registration information.

MiniEV guy here in SB wants to order in SD to get it early, am told he can't.

Let's discuss

Oh...btw we have yet to sell a car over MSRP.

Welcome, SB Nissan!

Wow...just read your discussion over on the General forum. This all could get very interesting.

Personally...I have been involved in retailing vehicles over the Internets since 1998.
That experience began with BMW at Cutter Motors here in SB and a forum just like this.
I have held every position within a sales department and have been selling cars in
Santa Barbara since 1994.

Cool, I have been buying cars since the 1960's.
I was a late starter.

SBNissanLeaf said:

Personally...I have been involved in retailing vehicles over the Internets since 1998.
That experience began with BMW at Cutter Motors here in SB and a forum just like this.
I have held every position within a sales department and have been selling cars in
Santa Barbara since 1994.

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Wow - welcome & thanks.

Any information you can share on the priority & buying process going forward would be greatly appreciated here.

EVNow, I take it I am not to be party to the statement you have recently made here on another thread here.

Misinformation abounds everywhere. On the subject of priority...we are still awaiting the list of those who paid the registration.
We have yet to even consider the issue of prioritizing. Don't believe too much...yet.

SBNissanLeaf said:

Well...lets share some info...k?

What Nissan has told me is that you have to order from a dealership within a specific geographic area depending upon the registration information.

MiniEV guy here in SB wants to order in SD to get it early, am told he can't.

Let's discuss

Oh...btw we have yet to sell a car over MSRP.

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Welcome SB!
That guy in SB will NOT be able to order from SD since you have to be within a certain geographical area, just as you have been told.
Also, I was told by my dealer that Nissan owned dealerships aren't allowed to charge over MSRP. That's probably why you haven't ever sold any over MSRP.

SBNissanLeaf said:

EVNow, I take it I am not to be party to the statement you have recently made here on another thread here.

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I'm from WA - and had one bad experience with my closest dealer. The dealership gets very bad ratings everywhere I looked, anyway. The other two have been quick to respond to my enquiries.

We have yet to even consider the issue of prioritizing.

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Yes - I think the Leaf fans will be up in arms if this is not done fairly, so I hope, Nissan is careful about that. As the first (one of the, atleast) follower of NissanEV on Twitter - I hope I get some browny points :mrgreen:

Hello, Sb, from Santa Barbara! This forum is a great place to find info. The Media section has some videos and interviews of Mark Perry, the Nissan person in charge of rolling out the LEAF. He is as reliable a source as any. You Tube also has lots of videos of him while on the tour.

Yesterday, I met with the Leaf Specialist at one of the Nissan dealerships in my city. He was able to look up all the area people who had paid their reservation fee. I was near the top of list since I did it at around 3 pm on April 20. I told him about this forum and he connected to it while I was there. He was glad to see a place where interested customers could go for into. I took him some business cards I had made with the name of the forum and the URL for him to give people. By the time our 30 minute meeting was over, he said he was going to put in his own $99 reservation.

He also told me that the roll out of the LEAF is unlike anything he has seen with Nissan in the 12 years he has been with them. He believes the price will be the MRSP.

Glad to see you here. Be sure to come back. We have seemed to have lost Jessica from Nissan Headquarters in Tennessee.

Thank you all for the warm welcome. Indeed this is probably the BEST source currently for whats happening with the Leaf.
Since I started this thread, I'll just continue here.
So...rollout appears to be happening on vastly different time frames depending upon region.
Has anyone her mapped out how they are doing it? I guess we are going to be late here in Southern California.

Are there any other dealership-level Nissan people here?
I would like to know if Dealers have been given their lists here in our area.
The folks at the region say not yet?

btw...SB Nissan is a family owned dealership AND we don't jack the price over the MSRP.

Hi SB,
So when you late here in Southern California, do you mean "past December into January" late or something else? That's not good for buyers because of the tax credit...

SBNissanLeaf said:

Since I started this thread, I'll just continue here.

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It may be useful to move this thread to another forum once I complete the restructuring.

So...rollout appears to be happening on vastly different time frames depending upon region.
Has anyone her mapped out how they are doing it? I guess we are going to be late here in Southern California.

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This is not known. We have been speculating/assuming that all the initial Project EV areas will get a 1,000 or so Leafs in the beginning.

I would like to know if Dealers have been given their lists here in our area.

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When I last I spoke with one of the dealers, he had not got the list either (early this week).

"By Friday May 14th, 2010 - All EV Sales Leaders with email addresses in their NNAnet.com profile will receive an email including an Excel Spreadsheet attachment listing customer information for those reservation holders that wish to be contacted by them."

This is from a newsletter I just got from Nissan.

Gordon Jenkins
Santa Barbara Nissan
Nissan Leaf Sales Leader
[email protected]
(805) 967-1130

More:

"Sales will start in the following states:

- December 2010: Washington; Oregon; California; Arizona; Tennessee.

- January 2011: Texas; Hawaii.



All other states: Nissan will announce a wider national launch plan no later than June 30th, 2010. "

Randy said:

....That's not good for buyers because of the tax credit...

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Federal tax credit is good on the first 200,000 EV units Nissan builds, not based on an expiration date. OTOH, it does look like the EVSE tax credit WILL expire in December, unless extended.

BTW, I'm 0/2 on Nissan dealers in my area. I went to one in 90621 today and, though I couldn't hear what was going on, I could see everybody start laughing the moment the guy I initially talked to went into the sales manager's office and (presumably) brought the Leaf up in conversation. TBH, I felt like a bit like Rodney Dangerfield...getting no respect.

Hmmm....Well, If you show up on my spreadsheet, I will make absolutely sure you are the first first customer contacted. jk

Hang in there bud...It will get better.