Our New 2018 Leaf SV

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efigueroa

Member
Joined
Mar 13, 2018
Messages
6
Hello All,
So we began our EV journey back in 2016 when we did our first lease (Always purchased) on a new 2015 Leaf S for my wife. We really loved this car but our 2 year lease was going to be up next month. Obviously our plan was to move into a new 2018 Leaf when available. Finally they began to arrive at our local dealerships and decided to go take a first look and ended up leasing a new one that day. So we were interested in another S, but the dealer did not have one on hand and said that most dealers were probably not going to order an S since there was only a $1000 difference between the S and SV (didn't research but that's what the dealer said.) so we worked a deal on an SV. Not sure if we got a good deal or not, definitely did not get a deal like we did on our 2015 ($0 down, 2yr at $277 a month), we left with a 2018 SV with a sticker price of $35,250, with a lease of $850 down, $350 a month for 36 mths. It worked for us so we agreed.

I am sure there are posts already about initial thoughts, but figured I would post ours.
First, it seems like they build this one off the same frame as the older model, as the floor design is the same which was good news for us as we could reuse our old Nissan All Weather mats we had used in our 2015 (Exact match). The windows look the same, as well as the curve of the roof and antenna is in the same spot. If you look at many of the buttons, they are identical, the shift nob looks the same, door handles look identical, etc. I kind of hoped for a totally new ride, but it is what it is, we do love the look. I think it looks way better than the older model. In cleaning our old Leaf and having it side by side to the new one we could see the similarities.

Good news, the old floor mats work, so if you are like us and had bought all weather mats, you can use them in the new one.
Bad News, apparently the SL is the only model that comes with the cargo cover in the trunk. We did not notice this until we were taking delivery on the car. Had we noticed sooner we would have requested they add it during our negotiations. We had to order one and it has a list price of $260 plus depending on the dealer. We were able to get our dealer to offer it at $170 our the door, but we will likely have to wait almost a month or more to get it as they are coming from the assembly plan. Part # is 799105SA1A
Also my wife noticed that this SV did not come with the steering wheel warmer like our old S had. Kind of disappointed in that too, as she really liked that feature. So far thats all we have noticed, have not had much time to drive it yet. So in the next couple of days we'll get more familiar with it and see if we find any other missing options our S had. Really thought that we would get all we had with the S when we moved up to the SV, but I guess not.

Elliott
Austin, TX
 
Congrats and thanks for the info on the Floor Mats. I was surprised that they weren't standard on the car. Now that I know that older models fit perfectly I can save a few bucks.
 
Congrats! We're looking at EV #5 (3 have been Leafs) and I'm seeing 2017 Premier Bolts comparable in price to the 18 Leafs (SV/SL). Grant it stock on the Leaf is poor and their are no incentives yet, but really looking at the Bolt due to the bigger battery, reputable BMS and aggressive discounting to clear out the 17's.
 
Br4hm4, to clarify our 2018 came with the exact cloth mats our 2015 did but when we bought our 2015 we purchased the all weather rubber floor mats from Nissan that are similar to weathertech mats. Those are the ones we moved over. However if you new 2018 does not include the cloth mats the older ones fit and are identical.
 
The steering wheel heater is part of a $1100 cold weather package that would also have included a heat pump on the SV. So in effect you got an upgraded S. That dealer did you a real disservice by not telling you about that. Apparently Nissan dealers are just trying to unload the stock they get, any way they can.
 
Phatcat73 said:
Congrats! We're looking at EV #5 (3 have been Leafs) and I'm seeing 2017 Premier Bolts comparable in price to the 18 Leafs (SV/SL). Grant it stock on the Leaf is poor and their are no incentives yet, but really looking at the Bolt due to the bigger battery, reputable BMS and aggressive discounting to clear out the 17's.

I was initially going to buy the 17 Bolt. However dealerships in the area are not dropping the prices on them. There was almost a $6k price difference between the Bolt Premier vs the 18 LEAF with Tech package. Honestly after going back and forth on the 2...the LEAF won out due to price for what you get. Add to that being able to get the$5k Colorado state tax incentive at the point of sale, it made the LEAF the clear winner.
 
efigueroa said:
Br4hm4, to clarify our 2018 came with the exact cloth mats our 2015 did but when we bought our 2015 we purchased the all weather rubber floor mats from Nissan that are similar to weathertech mats. Those are the ones we moved over. However if you new 2018 does not include the cloth mats the older ones fit and are identical.

That is what I figured. I decided to go with some 3rd party all weather floor mats that should be here in a few days from amazon. They were cheaper than the weathertechs and the ones that Nissan offers.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XCHDPXW/ref=twister_B077NSD37M?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
 
LeftieBiker said:
With aftermarket mats especially, make sure you cut the mat away under the accelerator pedal.
I'm sure they must have fixed it by now??? but my expensive Weathertech mats(purchased through the dealer in '14) had a very nasty habit of catching the brake pedal, which resulted in the brake pedal being slightly depressed a couple times, resulting in excessive heat from the brake pedals :x
I called WeatherTech and advised them of the issue but whoever I talked to didn't seem too interested, which shocked me as IMO this was a SERIOUS design flaw. Shortly after that I took my box cutter and cut a couple inch piece of plastic off my new mats where they were catching on the brake pedal, never a problem since :cool:
 
I caved and did an impulse buy while stopping for a free charge on this past Saturday. Yeah, I got a blue SV.

Anyway, the weathertech driver's side mat fit very well, but the passenger side is a little bit off. Not enough for me to hand it over to the dealer or put it on eBay though. I also took the cargo carrier from the rear. It fit, but to perfectly. The only thing I did not take was the cover in the hatch, because it was a different shape. If I had given this more thought I would have taken off my trailer hitch, and my upgraded horn, but that is the way life is.

Because it was not planned, the original front mats, the trickle charger and the manual were at home. I may add the juicebox to the "for sale" list, but i need some feedback on the cable that comes with the car first.
 
LeftieBiker said:
The steering wheel heater is part of a $1100 cold weather package that would also have included a heat pump on the SV. So in effect you got an upgraded S. That dealer did you a real disservice by not telling you about that. Apparently Nissan dealers are just trying to unload the stock they get, any way they can.
Yeah sucks for us, it was a bit of an impulse buy too, we had just gone in to see them as they were new in the area. We were a bit worried that if we did not jump on it then we might not have one available when our lease would end. So we just went with it and got a price we could live with. At least this time around my wife got a color she liked, we had a a black one before and black is hard to keep clean. Got a gun metal gray this time.
 
While QCing at the Nissan dealer in VanNuys, CA yesterday, noticed that nine 2018 Leafs just arrived, none the day before. There were seven
SVs, one S, and one SL ($39K +). The 2018 is a great looking EV car. Would consider a 2018, but my '13 with 61K and 50 Ahrs (-2 bars) still
has more utility for me. But the key question, prior to another Leaf, is how well this next gen Leaf 's battery holds up!
 
Funny enough, we were on our way to turn in our 2015 for the lease end, and the dealer called us and told us our recently ordered Cargo Cover for our new 2018 had arrived. They thought it was going to take a month or more and only took a couple of days. As others have mentioned, I too bumped my head on it the third time I got into the trunk with it installed. Gotta watch out. On another note, we were able to order our gift from reserving the Leaf last year. We chose the free GoPro as we already have Apple watches and no need for a Nest set up. It was painless to request although the whole promo was a bit of a mess. No one at any of the dealerships we had visited prior to the release and up until the cars began to arrive knew about the promo for the free gifts. Anyhow it, worked for us after calling the Leaf concierge number and provided our reservation ID, they activated a login and the rest was simple.
 
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