What dealers got the 2015 Leaf first? Who'll get 2016 first?

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GoldenDragon

Member
Joined
Sep 5, 2015
Messages
8
I'm anxious to get a 2016 Leaf so I thought I might keep in contact with one of the dealerships that got 2015 leafs first. Anything in the Los Angeles or Inland Empire area of California are of primary interest to me, but I'm sure others would be interested in dealers in other areas of the country.

I read on one thread here that Mossy Nissan of San Diego got the 2015 leaf early on. That's farther than I want to travel, but I might check on it anyway. Unfortunately Mossy consists of 7 locations so I'm not sure who to talk to... Being such a large dealer network it makes sense that at least one of their locations would be first for the 2016 leaf.
 
Fontana Nissan (where I bought my 2011 Leaf, as did a lot of other early adopters) is very pro-Leaf and would be a good place to check as they have sold a lot of Leafs.
 
Stoaty said:
Fontana Nissan (where I bought my 2011 Leaf, as did a lot of other early adopters) is very pro-Leaf and would be a good place to check as they have sold a lot of Leafs.

Fontana was the first place I tried because it's where another owner in the San Bernardino mountains got their Leaf. Unfortunately, they've been entirely unhelpful. I first emailed asking if they knew when the 2016 Leaf might be in stock and if there was a waiting list. I got a form letter reply from Steve asking me to come in and take a test drive. I replied again asking the same thing and got a phone call instead of an email... asking me to come in and take a test drive. Since then I've gotten two general marketing emails and another test drive phone call. I tried calling them myself (to avoid the unhelpful Steve) and the guy I spoke to (maybe Rich? He slurred his name) went and asked the on-site "leaf expert" (no name given) and came back to say the 2016 leaf would not even go into production until next year. So they're lying or ignorant since EVinsider.com says 2016 has been in production for a few months. Then he asked if I might want to come in to look at another car... *sigh* But at least he wasn't pushy about it when I said I was only interested in 2016 leaf.

One interesting thing about Fontana is they're selling a new 2015 leaf for $16k which is $10-15k lower than every other dealer I've looked at in the area. I'm not sure if that means they're big leaf supporters or they're trying to get rid of them as quickly as possible so they can sell more ICE... But according to plugshare.com, Fontana is the only dealer in the San Bernardino area to offer free charging and keep the L3 charger up and working most of the time, so that would seem to indicate they're Leaf friendly. They're also the only dealer to offer a $50 gift card just to come in and take a test drive. Why so desperate? I'd love to give them a sale if they were less interested in selling me whatever's on hand and more interested in selling me what I'm asking for.

EDIT: I was misremembering! Fontana's L3 charger has been down 4 months and still has no expected date of repair! It's also listed as requiring a chargepoint network fee rather than being free. Could Fontana have degenerated into another leaf-hating dealership? Sad...
 
The policy of not interacting with potential customers in any way except "test drives" seems to be something that is spreading through the dealer network. The idea behind it is almost certainly that high-pressure sales inflicted on semi-captive "prey" is the best way for them to make both more sales and higher-profit sales. Destination Nissan, where I leased my 2013, dropped me like a hot potato last week when I refused to come in or talk to a salesman on the phone, asking instead for a lease quote via email.

We'll see how long it takes them to figure out that there is a substantial segment of the market that will, when faced with these tactics, just go to another brand.
 
Valdemar said:
Funny thing about Fontana, they seem not to stock many Leafs lately. Right now they only have one 2015 S listed.

Well... Nissan IS trying to sell all the 2015s before releasing 2016 so having only one left at this point isn't too unusual I wouldn't think. It could mean they did a better than average job of selling their allotment. Most of the dealers I've browsed had 2-4 left. Some of the ones close to downtown LA had more like 12.

Also, Empire Nissan is the San Bernardino area dealer I was thinking of that still offers free L3 charging and keeps the charger mostly operational. On the other hand, their web site makes no mention of the Leaf, even in the scrolling list of car thumbnails. You can only find it in a pull down menu and they have two 2015s in stock for an undisclosed price.
 
GoldenDragon said:
Fontana was the first place I tried because it's where another owner in the San Bernardino mountains got their Leaf. Unfortunately, they've been entirely unhelpful. I first emailed asking if they knew when the 2016 Leaf might be in stock and if there was a waiting list. I got a form letter reply from Steve asking me to come in and take a test drive. I replied again asking the same thing and got a phone call instead of an email...
Sad to hear, but useful to have the updated info. Thanks for the feedback.
 
Try Danny or Joanna if they are still there. They were great with everything Leaf! If they are gone, it is likely a very different dealership now...
I got mine there from them and it was the best car buying experience I have ever had...

GoldenDragon said:
Fontana was the first place I tried because it's where another owner in the San Bernardino mountains got their Leaf. Unfortunately, they've been entirely unhelpful. I first emailed asking if they knew when the 2016 Leaf might be in stock and if there was a waiting list. I got a form letter reply from Steve asking me to come in and take a test drive. I replied again asking the same thing and got a phone call instead of an email... asking me to come in and take a test drive.
 
I don't know if he's still there, but if you don't mind traveling to South Orange County, you may want to look up Frank Consoli at Tustin Nissan. That's where I got my Leaf from. Frank is very knowledgeable about the Leaf.
 
TomT said:
Try Danny or Joanna if they are still there. They were great with everything Leaf! If they are gone, it is likely a very different dealership now...
I got mine there from them and it was the best car buying experience I have ever had...

Well, I sure hope I find a good salesperson soon cause this has been terrible so far. Wife and I walked into Imperio Nissan in Garden Grove because we were in the area, hoping if I went in in person they'd take me more seriously and maybe have some info. I ask when 2016 leaf will be available, and the guy says something like "Oh yeah, the new model with new body styling!" I give him a funny look as there is no new styling for the 2016 Leaf. Soon he seems to realize the car isn't out yet and suddenly he's trying to say there's no real difference between each model year other than the year number and wouldn't I like to look at the 2015 leaf? I say no, I need the 2016 leaf because it's got 25% more range and he's like oh sure, it has a little extra range but so what... *facepalm* And besides, the 2016 won't be out till sometime next year, he claims.

Finally he has us sit down so he can find the mythical "leaf expert" and ask if there's a pre-order list. Few minutes later, leaf expert is supposedly "at lunch" (at 5pm) but will be back in half an hour and this guy has this paper he wants to get our info down on. I tell him I've already got a dealership calling me with marketing because I gave them my info so I'd prefer not to give it again and that we'll just come back in half an hour. He keeps asking for my name and saying nobody's going to call me and after I refuse a couple times he says something like he's just trying to save me money and I'm costing him thousands of dollars (in a commission, I guess?) and he crumples up the paper and walks off after trying to give some sort of "friendly" goodbye. We were just like WTF? He never lost that air of fake friendliness but the message was still clear - we weren't prepared to buy a car from him on the spot so we weren't worth his time. Not like there were other customers lining up to talk to the guy either.

Bah. I've dealt with car salesmen twice before (Toyota and Hyundai) and while there's always been a bit of the air of sleaze, Nissan has been far worse so far.

TomT said:
I don't know of any Dealers that have free QC anymore...

Comment about Empire Nissan's charger says "Free QC!!!" as of 6 days ago, so they're still out there. I do find it disturbing that so many people were told they'd have free charging when they bought a year or two ago and now most dealerships are charging $9-$10. Nissan HQ really needs to reign in all the crap these dealerships are pulling or the 2016 is going to be a failure when it should be a wild success.
 
Nissan seems to have perfected the art of grasping EV failure from the jaws of EV success...

GoldenDragon said:
Nissan HQ really needs to reign in all the crap these dealerships are pulling or the 2016 is going to be a failure when it should be a wild success.
 
Well here's something - http://www.nissanusa.com/electric-cars/2016-leaf lets you sign up for email updates and claims you'll be the first to know about the 2016 leaf if you sign up. Too bad dealerships don't let you in on this secret.

Apparently I also missed out seeing the 2016 leaf and the Bolt prototype at a Los Angeles drive electric week event...
 
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