New Leaf Owner Checking In

Hello! Just bought my SV yesterday. Smiles everyone... SMILES!!

I kind of took a leap (.. or Leaf?) of faith and bought the car without a "home" charger yet. My apt complex owners have committed to installing them (paying for them too), and that's still in the works. In the mean time, I've got the trickle charge and there is a 240V charger down at the West Hollywood City Hall (just a couple of blocks away).

I'm completely free of gas!! Woo Hooo!!!! :lol: :lol:

-Dave

Transtead said:

Hello! Just bought my SV yesterday. Smiles everyone... SMILES!!

I kind of took a leap (.. or Leaf?) of faith and bought the car without a "home" charger yet. My apt complex owners have committed to installing them (paying for them too), and that's still in the works. In the mean time, I've got the trickle charge and there is a 240V charger down at the West Hollywood City Hall (just a couple of blocks away).

I'm completely free of gas!! Woo Hooo!!!! :lol: :lol:

-Dave

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congrats Dave!! ( i am Dave too!) granted trickle charging is slow, but i did it for 4 months when i got my LEAF and i could still manage 40-50 miles a day which actually worked well. on a heavy day of driving (during this time i actually did 135 miles in one day about a month after delivery) i would normally recharge to 60-70% which was ok since my normal driving only used 20-40% of the LEAF's range.

with another car, managing the charging time with the driving need was easy

Transtead said:

Hello! Just bought my SV yesterday. Smiles everyone... SMILES!!

I kind of took a leap (.. or Leaf?) of faith and bought the car without a "home" charger yet. My apt complex owners have committed to installing them (paying for them too), and that's still in the works. In the mean time, I've got the trickle charge and there is a 240V charger down at the West Hollywood City Hall (just a couple of blocks away).

I'm completely free of gas!! Woo Hooo!!!! :lol: :lol:

-Dave

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Welcome to the forum, and good for you.

Sonds to me that you are sitting pretty. Apartment complex going to install EVSE, assume L2, and an L2 a couple of blocks away. I hope the combination of your own L1 and the public L2 will suffice until the compex unis are ready - bet it does.

Bill

Hi and welcome. I too just bought my leaf a few days after you I am thinking of naming mine R2D2 because it is white and the insides have all the blue lights.

I do not have a charger installed yet either but in the process. It takes about 10 hours to charge to 80% but I am getting about 70 miles per charge. I usually get home around with around 30 miles to spare.

I hope you enjoy yours as much as I have mine.

Congrats on your LEAF. You'll find that not many people want to go back to gasoline after the EV experience.

Be sure and visit your local National Plug In Day celebration on Sept 23. I think there's one in Santa Monica.

Enjoy,

Tony

I've had my Leaf for six weeks and I love it.

1) I have found that trickle charge for me is absolutely fine. I drive about 25 miles a day and can go about 3 days without thinking about it. I plug it into the wall using my 110 "Brick" (notice I'm using "leafy" jargon now) when I get home after work and wake up to it being charged. No worries. To be honest, I haven't done any road trips to see what my range *really* is.

B) I've found that the XM subscription is pointless. I'm a little disappointed that the XM content doesn't hold a stick to what I have on my phone. For entertainment, I have Dog Catcher (podcast) and Pandora. For navigation, I have Google Maps and Waze. I think I would consider keeping XM if it had surface street traffic. The bummer is that there is a button labeled "XM" -- which won't mean anything in a little while. (how long is the trial subscription anyway?)

Thirdly) The hardest part of owning a leaf (IMHO) is when dirt gets on the paint -- I just HATE when that happens. When I go out to the beach too many times, I am FORCED to go wash it -- oh the pain of it all :lol: :lol:

XM has constant dropouts in my area so it sucks. i also use Pandora and Google NAV does have street level traffic. your XM is good for 6 months. periodically they will turn it on for a few weeks at at time. i always revisit it but it just doesnt have that value for me

Transtead said:

...Thirdly) The hardest part of owning a leaf (IMHO) is when dirt gets on the paint -- I just HATE when that happens. When I go out to the beach too many times, I am FORCED to go wash it -- oh the pain of it all :lol: :lol:

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Dirt? Try living on dirt roads in the snowbelt!

I try to wash it when it gets this bad but otherwise I don't bother. The car will be covered in dust or mud the next time I leave home, just like every other car I've had. As long as it gets me where I'm going, that's all I need.

dgpcolorado said:

Transtead said:

...Thirdly) The hardest part of owning a leaf (IMHO) is when dirt gets on the paint -- I just HATE when that happens. When I go out to the beach too many times, I am FORCED to go wash it -- oh the pain of it all :lol: :lol:

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Dirt? Try living on dirt roads in the snowbelt!

I try to wash it when it gets this bad but otherwise I don't bother. The car will be covered in dust or mud the next time I leave home, just like every other car I've had. As long as it gets me where I'm going, that's all I need.

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we dont get much snow but rain is just as bad. it only takes a week to get the bottom 3 feet of my LEAF looking just like that during "drizzle" season.

during Winter, i wash it once a month or when we are scheduled to get 2-3 dry days. problem is, its back to dirty within hours!

DaveinOlyWA said:

...during Winter, i wash it once a month or when we are scheduled to get 2-3 dry days. problem is, its back to dirty within hours!

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Yes! I once washed my car when out shopping and hit thunderstorms on the way home leaving it grime encrusted by the time I got home (I just left it outside for the free carwash from the sky). Even when I have it clean the dust accumulates and if a thundersprinkle comes by when I am parked outside the dust turns to spots. After awhile I just gave up trying to keep the car clean.

At least when it is dirty it looks like it belongs around here... My neighbors with (sometimes) clean cars are the ones who live on paved roads.

dgpcolorado said:

DaveinOlyWA said:

...during Winter, i wash it once a month or when we are scheduled to get 2-3 dry days. problem is, its back to dirty within hours!

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Yes! I once washed my car when out shopping and hit thunderstorms on the way home leaving it grime encrusted by the time I got home (I just left it outside for the free carwash from the sky). Even when I have it clean the dust accumulates and if a thundersprinkle comes by when I am parked outside the dust turns to spots. After awhile I just gave up trying to keep the car clean.

At least when it is dirty it looks like it belongs around here... My neighbors with (sometimes) clean cars are the ones who live on paved roads.

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ya and the worst part about the car getting dirty so fast on wet pavement is the fact that most of the dirt is from gas burning automobiles. they leak fluids that transfer to the road, get mixed with a little water and wah lah! its now on the side of your car!

Have you guys gone through a cold winter yet? How's the battery in the cold? (I'm orig. from Minnesota. From reading the specs, it looks like there would be days where my battery wouldn't last very long -- and it wouldn't charge)

Not real cold here but my range drops from mid to upper 80's to 70 or so. Pretty anxious to sew how she does this winter now that my pack its starting to lose capacity

Ask me again in 2 months unless we get another October Surprise (Oct '96, 8 inches of snow in 6 hours. City w/o power for 8 days due to down tree limbs and down power lines. Hard not to break when all the leaves are still on the tree).

Tom

Transtead said:

Have you guys gone through a cold winter yet? How's the battery in the cold? (I'm orig. from Minnesota. From reading the specs, it looks like there would be days where my battery wouldn't last very long -- and it wouldn't charge)

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Depends a lot on where and what conditions. In my case my garage never gets below freezing so my range in 20ºF weather was pretty decent on dry roads: 70-80 miles with 2500 foot elevation changes, speeds of 25-60 mph. As you might expect, range is a lot less if pushing through snow. I don't bother doing my long 65-70 mile trip in the LEAF if roads are snowpacked, that's what my Jeep is for.

People who park out in the cold or drive in extreme cold, such as jkirkebo in Norway who saw 0 temp bars (!) at times, will have significantly reduced range in winter. That would be similar to Minnesota I would think. By contrast I never got below four temp bars; although below zero temperatures happen here from time to time it is rare in the daytime and teens and twenties are more typical.

In moderately cold but often sunny climates, such as mine, I find that preheating the car while plugged-in and just using the steering wheel and seat heaters works fine for comfort. The cabin heater is a big power hog but the steering wheel and seat heaters take very little power. On the other hand, if the drive is only twenty or thirty miles, heat away and don't worry about it.

The LEAF actually works well in snow country. It just has somewhat reduced range and cabin heater use can knock the range down some more.

Transtead said:

Have you guys gone through a cold winter yet? How's the battery in the cold? (I'm orig. from Minnesota. From reading the specs, it looks like there would be days where my battery wouldn't last very long -- and it wouldn't charge)

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Looking forward to my first Nebraska winter with my LEAF... Its already been cooling down, my battery temp bars has been at 5 for the last few weeks!

I just signed my first ever lease. I joined the cult with a pearl white SL 10/13/12. My Saturn wasn't as collectible as I thought is my only complaint. I'll report back later.
Dana

Just a second Question. Is there any list of owners by state? I'm in Bradenton, Fl. between Sarasota and Tampa.

mrdcmills said:

Just a second Question. Is there any list of owners by state? I'm in Bradenton, Fl. between Sarasota and Tampa.

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No, though there is a very active Florida thread. The first thing you should do is go to your User Control Panel (from top right of any page), click Profile on the left, and fill in at least your location and delivery date.

Welcome aboard!

Ray

Hi all I just got SL this past weekend. Delivered with 11 miles on odometer but since put 50 miles driving around doing errands. Gas cost is averaging 4.85 per/gal so I'm happy about that.