TheMagster
Member
- Joined
- Sep 1, 2018
- Messages
- 23
Hi everyone! Excited new Leaf owners here, my wife and I just bought a Certified Pre-Owned 2015 Leaf SV with 25k miles and 12 bars for under $12k! Pretty good deal I think! For now we're charging primarily through Level 1 at home, and considering installing a Level 2.
When I went to activate Carwings, I was told that my Leaf didn't have a TCU, so that would be a $150 upgrade from a Nissan dealership. That's a flat cost, there's no monthly fees after that. I've also looked into Leaf Spy Pro with the Bluetooth ODDB dongle (wish I had known about that when shopping for the car!), that would cost about $30 total ($15 for the app, $15 for the dongle).
My question is, which is more useful? Or should I get both? I don't really mind the extra $180 of getting both, I just wanted to see if you think it is worth it or not.
A bit more about how we're using the car: I work from home, so I don't have a regular commute, which means that the car's built-in charging and climate control timers aren't very useful to me. My wife is a stay-at-home mom for our 1 year old daughter. We live in the country in Northwestern Oregon, USA (lots of hilly, curvy, 2 lane highways at 55 mph...not great for mileage). The primary use case for the Leaf will be trips to town and back for shopping, errands, seeing friends, etc. That's a 30 mile round trip, plus maybe 2-4 miles of in town driving. We'll do this something like 2-3 times per week (which is why Level 1 charging is generally fine for us). Once a month or so we'll take the Leaf on a longer road trip, and we'll make use of public Level 2 and Level 3 chargers for these trips.
While I'm brand new to it, I'm endeavoring to become a hypermiler, largely based on the advice I'm reading in the various hypermiling threads on these forums. My wife loves the challenge of planning our longer road trips such that we hit as many free charging stations as possible, and get the most out of every quick charge that we need (meaning that we would arrive at the quick charge station as close to an empty battery as possible). So we make a good team!
I'm interested in Carwings for the added functionality of checking the car's state of charge (SoC) remotely, and also for the option of turning on climate control 20 or 30 mins before we need to drive somewhere, to reduce the drain on the Lithium Ion (Li-ION) battery. I'm interested in Leaf Spy Pro for the extra nerdy goodness it provides about the car's battery....my understanding is that it provides more accurate data about the SoC and health of the battery and other car systems. However, the 30 ft range of Bluetooth isn't exactly remote, you have to be near the car for it to work. I'm also mildly concerned about the Bluetooth ODDB dongle draining the 12V battery since we aren't daily drivers (though the car will be plugged into Level 1 at home the vast majority of the time that it isn't in use, so this maintains the 12V battery as well as the Li-ION battery, correct?)
Alright, I think that's enough detail...so cast your votes...Carwings, Leaf Spy Pro, both, or neither?
Thank you!
When I went to activate Carwings, I was told that my Leaf didn't have a TCU, so that would be a $150 upgrade from a Nissan dealership. That's a flat cost, there's no monthly fees after that. I've also looked into Leaf Spy Pro with the Bluetooth ODDB dongle (wish I had known about that when shopping for the car!), that would cost about $30 total ($15 for the app, $15 for the dongle).
My question is, which is more useful? Or should I get both? I don't really mind the extra $180 of getting both, I just wanted to see if you think it is worth it or not.
A bit more about how we're using the car: I work from home, so I don't have a regular commute, which means that the car's built-in charging and climate control timers aren't very useful to me. My wife is a stay-at-home mom for our 1 year old daughter. We live in the country in Northwestern Oregon, USA (lots of hilly, curvy, 2 lane highways at 55 mph...not great for mileage). The primary use case for the Leaf will be trips to town and back for shopping, errands, seeing friends, etc. That's a 30 mile round trip, plus maybe 2-4 miles of in town driving. We'll do this something like 2-3 times per week (which is why Level 1 charging is generally fine for us). Once a month or so we'll take the Leaf on a longer road trip, and we'll make use of public Level 2 and Level 3 chargers for these trips.
While I'm brand new to it, I'm endeavoring to become a hypermiler, largely based on the advice I'm reading in the various hypermiling threads on these forums. My wife loves the challenge of planning our longer road trips such that we hit as many free charging stations as possible, and get the most out of every quick charge that we need (meaning that we would arrive at the quick charge station as close to an empty battery as possible). So we make a good team!
I'm interested in Carwings for the added functionality of checking the car's state of charge (SoC) remotely, and also for the option of turning on climate control 20 or 30 mins before we need to drive somewhere, to reduce the drain on the Lithium Ion (Li-ION) battery. I'm interested in Leaf Spy Pro for the extra nerdy goodness it provides about the car's battery....my understanding is that it provides more accurate data about the SoC and health of the battery and other car systems. However, the 30 ft range of Bluetooth isn't exactly remote, you have to be near the car for it to work. I'm also mildly concerned about the Bluetooth ODDB dongle draining the 12V battery since we aren't daily drivers (though the car will be plugged into Level 1 at home the vast majority of the time that it isn't in use, so this maintains the 12V battery as well as the Li-ION battery, correct?)
Alright, I think that's enough detail...so cast your votes...Carwings, Leaf Spy Pro, both, or neither?
Thank you!