ILETRIC said:
I was all in.
Until we went to lease one. Leaf 2 is a dud, folks. Sorry to pour rain on this parade, but having been through Leaf 1, Spark, Kia Soul EV and Bolt, accounting for all that each of these vehicles' pluses and minuses entail, and having driven a cumulative total of about 210k e-miles, Leaf 2 is not doable.
Here is the worst part: you cant's sit and drive in the driver's seat. There is NO PLACE to put your right knee. It is squeezed by the very intruding, and might I say unnecessary center console wall you cannot negotiate. My 5 min drive was a true torture, rubbing against it and some sort of protrusion running along the top of it like a sick cherry on a bad pie.
For my test drive, I sat in the car for almost an hour and test drove for much of it. I had no issue with it but yours isn't the first time I heard the complaint about the intrusion on the '18 Leaf. Granted, it wasn't a common complaint but you aren't alone.
I had sat in the car a bunch at other '18 Leaf EVents, so my time in the driver's seat is probably about a bit over an hour.
ILETRIC said:
Second, the height difference between your left and right elbow rests is about 8 inches. It's like the middle of the car designers did not talk to the door designers. It makes you feel contorted. It's the craziest thing I've ever seen in a car. The left is too low and the right is too high, neither normal. You feel unbalanced.
I had no issue with this but I've had and rented many cars where it was "unbalanced".
ILETRIC said:
Here is the rest: I am a cruise control freak. Not everyone is, but I live by it. The CC buttons feel like prototypes, they are small, oddly shaped with sharp edges, and feel chintzy. Worse yet, they are poorly angled so that reaching the top "resume" button is unnatural. To make things worse, the "cancel" button, resting between the "set" and "resume," is so tall and convex-shaped, it is in the way of reaching "resume" without tripping on it. Nissan apparently does not think it is necessary to run their designs by ergonomics experts.
I had no issue with this even those I used ProPilot Assist. FWIW, it looks like Nissan has been adopted this steering wheel and CC design. 2017 Rogue's steering wheel and CC seems very much like '18 Leaf: http://nissannews.com/en-US/nissan/usa/presskits/us-2017-nissan-rogue-press-kit/photos/2017-nissan-rogue-sl-21. Rogue US sales for 2017 have done pretty well: http://nissannews.com/en-US/nissan/usa/releases/nissan-group-reports-december-and-2017-calendar-year-u-s-sales, up 22.3%. Nissan sold 403K Rogue in the US last year vs. 11K Leafs.
If this CC design is a big minus/issue, it sure doesn't seem reflected in Rogue sales.
Nissan has been all over the place in terms of CC button control design depending on the year range. It's quite different from my former 02 Maxima to my former 04 350Z to my mom's 07 Altima Hybrid. At least Leaf's isn't that far off from Altima.
ILETRIC said:
I've been telling car manufacturers that the most natural position for the CC buttons is at 4:30-5 o'clock recessed below steering wheel plain. None is listening.
Thru what means have you been telling them? CC design doesn't seem to be a very often discussed topic nor complaint on ANY car forum I've been on.. So, even if you went thru the proper channels, it's likely to not be a top complaint or one of the top sources of owner suggestions for improvement.
Arguably, I like Toyota's CC design best that's been common from around model year 1992 until now. It was found on '92 to '96 Camry (but NOT previous that ended w/model year 1991) and probably for a few generations more (+ on numerous others Toyotas and Lexuses). Gen 2 Prius (04 to 09 model year) thru Gen 4 (2016 to current) still seem to use it but for some cars (e.g. '18 Camry), they've shifted away from it.
Your Bolt and Spark EV has the CC buttons on the left side of the steering wheel. Seems common on GM cars, probably for historical reasons. GM cars in the past had the CC buttons, switches, etc. crammed onto the turn signal stalk.
ILETRIC said:
The display with the analog speed dial looks like they're not finished with it, it's just temporary, and we'll get it done maybe next year. I could hardly tell -- or see -- what speed I was traveling. It was unbelievable.
It is weird that they went analog but I already posted Nissan's claimed reason for going that way in another thread.
I also wasn't used to it since both my Leaf and Prius have digital speedos right in front of the driver and I currently have no cars w/dials. But, the cars you listed ALSO have digital speedos, so this is probably why you weren't used to it either.
You can switch the left display to show a digital speedo. However, I don't think you can have that up while using ProPilot Assist.
ILETRIC said:
Granted, I did not play with possible other configs, it there are any, or illumination. It looks real bad, period. Very bad. The Leaf 1 was much refined as compared to this bungled, perhaps thought as "retro" display,
I didn't find the rest of the display on the left LCD "unfinished". Seemed totally finished to me. It has a bit of a learning curve since it's nothing like Leaf's b&w display and nothing like previous Nissans I've had.
I could see some non-tech savvy people being confused by it as I'm shocked and annoyed at how little some people know/are willing to learn about how the simple small b&w display in '11 to '17 Leaf now and other Nissans w/similar systems. (e.g. they don't even know how to advance thru screens, that some can be reset along w/how)
What's in '18 Leaf left LCD and the UI is probably an order of magnitude more complex.
ILETRIC said:
Check Leaf 2 out and judge for yourselves.
I have.
I'll have to sit in an '18 vs. '17 Bolt to compare the front seats sometime. I unfortunately have insufficient seat time in either to really compare but I had no issue with either seat during my short test drives.